which he incorporated provisions rendering it impossible for any judge to disbar an attorney in an arbitrary manner without notice of the charges against him, and giving him an opportunity to be heard upon them; of the act concerning county recorders, in which the present system of keeping the records of conveyances was adopted; and of the act concerning county sheriffs, in which their duties in the execution of process and in keeping prisoners were declared and defined. STEPHEN J. FIELD AS A JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA. In 1857 Mr. Field was elected Judge of the Supreme Court of California for six years, commencing January 1st, 1858. There were two candidates besides himself before the people for the position, and 93,000 votes were polled. He received a majority of 36,000 over each of his opponents, and 17,000 over them both together.* In September, 1857, the Chief Justice of the Court, Hugh L. Murray, died, and one of the associate judges was appointed to fill the vacancy. This left the balance of the associate judge's term of service, which extended to the following January, unoccupied, and Mr. Field was appointed by the governor of the State-a political opponent-to fill it. He accepted the appointment, and took his seat on the bench October 13th, 1857. He held the office of associate judge until the resignation of Chief Justice Terry in September, 1859, when he became Chief Justice. In 1863 Mr. Field was appointed by President Lincoln an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The appointment was made upon the unanimous recommendation of the congressional delegation of the Pacific Coast, then consisting of four Senators and four Members of the House, of whom five were Democrats and three Republicans; all of them were Union men. His commission was dated March 10th, 1863, but as he desired, prior to leaving the State bench, to dispose of the cases which had been argued before him, he did not take the oath of office until the 20th of May following. He sent in his resignation to the governor to take effect on that day. Judge Joseph G. Baldwin, who had been his associate on the bench for three years, hearing of the resignation, gave expression to his estimate of Mr. Field's judicial career in the following communication to the Sacramento Union, which appeared in that paper May 6th, 1863. Judge Baldwin was himself distinguished alike for his legal and literary attainments, and was warmly attached to his friend. JUDGE FIELD. "The resignation by Judge Field of the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, to take effect on the 20th instant, has been announced. By this event the State has been deprived of the ablest jurist who ever presided over her courts. Judge Field came to California from New York in 1849, and settled in Marysville. He immediately commenced the practice of law, and rose at once to a high position at the local bar, and upon the organization of the Supreme Court soon commanded a place in the first class of the counsel practicing in that forum. For many years, and until his promotion to the bench, his practice was as extensive, and probably as renumerative, as that of any lawyer in the State. He served one or two sessions in the Legislature, and the State is indebted to him for very many of the laws which constitute the body of her legislation.* In 1857 he was nominated for Judge of the Supreme Court for a full term, and in October of the same year was appointed by Govenor Johnson to fill the unexpired term of Justice Heydenfeldt, resigned. He immediately entered upon the office, and has continued. ever since to discharge its duties. Recently, as the reader knows, he was appointed by the unanimous request of our delegation in Congress, to a seat upon the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, and was confirmed, without opposition, by the Senate. "Like most men who have risen to distinction in the United States, Judge Field commenced his career without the advantages of wealth, and he prosecuted it without the factitious aids of family influence or patronage. He had the advantage, however--which served him better than wealth or family influence of an accomplished education, and careful study and mental discipline. He brought to the practice of his profession a mind stored with professional learning, and embellished with rare scholarly attainments. He was distinguished at the bar for his fidelity to his clients, for untiring industry, great care and accuracy in the preparation of his cases, uncommon legal acumen, and extraordinary solidity of judgment. As an adviser, no man had more the confidence of his clients, for he trusted nothing to chance or accident when certainty could be attained, and felt his way cautiously to his conclusions, which, once reached, rested upon sure foundations, and to which he clung with remarkable pertinacity. Judges soon learned to repose confidence in his opinions, and he always gave them the strongest proofs of the weight justly due to his conclusions. "When he came to the bench, from various unavoidable causes the calendar was crowded with cases involving immense interests, the most important questions, and various and pecular litigation. California was then, as now, in the *He was in the Legislature only one session. development of her multiform physical resources. The judges were as much pioneers of law as the people of settlement. To be sure something had been done, but much had yet to be accomplished; and something, too, had to be undone of that which had been done in the feverish and anomalous period that had preceded. It is safe to say that, even in the experience of new countries hastily settled by heterogeneous crowds of strangers from all countries, no such example of legal or judicial difficulties was ever before presented as has been illustrated in the history of California. There was no general or common source of jurisprudence. Law was to be administered almost without a standard. There was the civil law, as adulterated or modified by Mexican provincialisms, usages, and habitudes, for a great part of the litigation; and there was the common law for another part, but what that was was to be decided from the conflicting decisions of any number of courts in America and England, and the various and diverse considerations of policy arising from local and other facts. And then, contracts made elsewhere, and some of them in semi-civilized countries, had to be interpreted here. Besides all which may be added that large and important interests peculiar to this State existed-mines, ditches, etc.-for which the courts were compelled to frame the law, and make a system out of what was little better than chaos. 66 When, in addition, it is considered that an unprecedented number of contracts, and an amount of business without parallel, had been made and done in hot haste, with the utmost carelessness; that legislation was accomplished in the same way, and presented the crudest and most incongruous materials for construction; that the whole scheme and organization of the government, and the relation of the departments to each other, had to be adjusted by judicial construction-it may well be conceived what task even the ablest jurist would take upon himself when he assumed this office. It is no small compliment to say that Judge Field entered upon the duties |