rect means of promoting and protecting an industry which has secured and added an untold amount to the total wealth and resources of the country. I cannot leave this subject without a brief comment upon the social events themselves which I have been describing-events unexampled, I think, in the history of any other people. The whole conduct of the miners, their voluntary adoption, in the absence of all municipal law, of regulations so just, wise, and equitable that neither the State nor the national government has attempted to improve them, exhibits in the most striking manner those qualities which lie at the basis of the American character. So long as these qualities last, so long as American citizens, individually or collected into communities, possess and act upon these conservative tendencies, the liberties, safety, and perpetuity of the nation rest upon a certain and immovable foundation.

In addition to the provision concerning mining claims, Mr. Field was also the author of many other measures of the greatest importance to the State, which was then just commencing its wonderful course of development. As most of these enactments relate to the internal affairs of California, and have been confined in their operation to that commonwealth, I shall merely enumerate them, with such brief description as will serve to indicate their purpose and character. Being a member of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Field's work naturally related, in the main, to the administration of justice. Among the most important of these measures, planned and drawn up by him, was a bill concerning the Judiciary of the State. This act was general, dealing with the whole judicial system, and requiring great labor in its preparation. It completely reorganized the judiciary, and defined and allotted the jurisdiction, power, and duties of all the grades of courts and judicial officers. An act passed in the subsequent session of 1853, revising and amending in its details the original statute of 1851, was also drawn up by Mr. Field, although he was not then a member of the Legislature. The system then

planned and established in 1851, and improved in 1853, and again in 1862, to conform to the constitutional amendments of the previous year, was substantially adopted in the codes of 1872, and continued in operation until it was displaced by the revolutionary changes made in the new constitution of 1879-80. In connection with this legislation affecting the judiciary, Mr. Field also drafted and procured the passage of an act concerning county sheriffs, defining all their official functions and duties; an act concerning county recorders, creating the entire system of registry which has since remained substantially unaltered; and an act concerning attorneys and counsellors at law, by which their duties were declared and their rights were protected against arbitrary proceedings by hostile judges.

He also prepared and introduced two separate bills to regulate the civil and criminal practice. These acts were based upon the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Code of Criminal Procedure proposed by the New York commissioners, but they contained a great number of changes and additions made necessary by the provisions of the California constitution, and by the peculiar social condition and habits of the people. They were by no means bare copies taken from the New York Codes, since Mr. Field altered and reconstructed more than three hundred sections and added over one hundred new sections. The two measures were generally designated as the Civil and the Criminal Practice Acts. They were subsequently adopted by the other States and Territories west of the Rocky Mountains. They continued with occasional amendments in force in California until the present system of more elaborate codes was substituted for them in 1872; and even this change was more in name than in substance, since all their provisions substantially reappear in some one of these codes.

In the Civil Practice Act he incorporated the provision above mentioned respecting mining claims. He also incorporated into it another provision, which has become a permanent feature of the legislative policy of California,

and has proved of inestimable benefit to its populationthe provision exempting certain articles of property of judgment debtors from seizure and sale upon execution. Some exemption has long been found in the statutebooks of every State, but it has ordinarily been small in amount and value, restricted to householders, and extending only to a few articles of absolute necessity for the existence of a family-such as a little kitchen and bed-room furniture, bedding, clothing, and a few other similar articles. Mr. Field justly thought that the scheme of exemption should, especially in a new State, be planned after another policy, a policy of generosity as well as of strict justice, believing that even the strictest justice and the claims of creditors would be better subserved thereby. The fundamental principle of the plan proposed by him was, that every person, in addition to those articles necessary for individual preservation, such as clothing, reasonable household furniture and effects, and the like, should be secured in the possession and use of those things by which, as necessary means and instruments, he pursues his profession, trade, business, or calling, whatever it may be, and acquires the ability of paying the demands of his creditors. This law, therefore, exempts, not only household furniture and the like, but the implements, wagons, and teams of a farmer, the tools of a mechanic, the instruments of a surveyor, surgeon, and dentist, the professional library of a lawyer and a physician, the articles used by the miner, the laborer, etc. In this connection it should also be stated, that, though not its author, Mr. Field was a most strenuous supporter of the Homestead Bill, which finally passed after a severe struggle. At that time there was no exemption whatever of personal property in California, and none equally extensive to be found in the previous legislation of any State of the Union. It is understood by those who are familiar with Judge Field, that he looks back with greater satisfaction upon the exemption system which he thus created than upon any other of his legislative work.

It lifted a heavy load from debtors, enabled them to pursue their callings with freedom, and instead of defeating the ends of justice by preventing the collection of debts, it has actually operated in favor of creditors, by securing the means whereby debts can be paid.

Mr. Field also drew a bill creating the Counties of Nevada and Klamath. As there was much complaint at the boundary lines of several counties in the State, various bills for their correction had been presented. These being referred to him, he reported a general bill revising and amending the bill of the previous year, dividing the entire State into counties, and establishing the seats of justice in them, in which the provisions for the new counties were incorporated; and the bill passed. He also drew the charters of Marysville, Nevada, and Monterey; and the bill regulating divorces and defining the causes for which marriages may be annulled and absolute divorces granted.

The foregoing summary shows an enormous and, I venture to say, an altogether unprecedented amount of legislative work, conceived, prepared, perfected, and accomplished by one man in a single session of only a few months in duration. The influence of this legislation upon the people and the material prosperity of California has been simply immeasurable; but it has not been cohfined to the limits of a single State; it has extended over the entire Pacific Slope, and especially through all the mining regions.

II.— His work as a Member of the California Supreme Court.

The direct effects of Judge Field's work on the State Bench, various and important as it was, have, of course, been confined to the State of California; and it is little to say that he has contributed more than any other of the judges to settle the jurisprudence of that State upon a broad and scientific basis of justice and equity.

As a student of the California law, I venture the opinion that wherever the present codes have departed from the

rules laid down by him in his decisions, or in statutes of which he was the author, it will be found that the change has been for the worse-that it has produced inconvenience and sometimes injustice.

The indirect effects of his work have extended throughout the whole country, in two distinct forms: First. Many particular conclusions arrived at by the Court through his influence, and embodied in positive rules for the State of California, and, in some instances, incorporated into its statutory legislation, have been borrowed by the Courts and Legislatures of other commonwealths; and thus, while directly constructing the law for one State, he has actually performed the same labor for other States of the Union. Secondly. The general doctrines which he as a judge, or the Court under his lead, has discussed, expounded, and declared in judicial opinions, have exerted a powerful influence in aiding the decisions of other tribunals and in shaping the development of legal and equitable principles in other parts of the United States.

In the examination which I shall now make of his work in the State Supreme Court, I shall not attempt to describe in detail any causes in the decision of which he took a part, nor to quote from his legal opinions, nor to narrate the legal controversies which he aided in adjusting, nor even to discuss the legal principles and doctrines which he determined. The most important of these causes, opinions, controversies, and doctrines may be found, set forth at sufficient length and fully explained, in the printed volume to which this sketch is designed as an introduction. It would be a useless expenditure of time and labor for me to recapitulate in a condensed form the matters of fact which are there more elaborately displayed. For this account in all its completeness of detail I simply refer to that section of the volume which deals with his labors while a judge of the Supreme Court of California. The single purpose of this second division will be to portray his character as a judge; to describe the gen