.
ETIAM. TRANSMARINAS. APVD. GENTES.
AUCTORITATEM. CONSECVTA. SUNT. TESTANTVR.
MEMORIA. DILIGENTIA. ACVMINE. DOCTRINA.
NECNON. FIDE. ET. BENEVOLENTIA. SINGVLARI.
A. FORO. VBI. QVOAD. VIXIT. INGENII. LAVDE.
CREVIT.
IMMATVRA. MORTE. ABREPTO.
H: L: S: E
NATVS. A.D. MDCCCIX. OBIT. IDIBVS. DEC. A.D.
MDCCCXLV.

Thus died, and thus was honoured in his, alas! premature death, John
William Smith: leaving behind him a name of unsullied purity, and a
permanent reputation, among a body of men noted for their severe
discrimination in estimating character. He practised his profession in
the spirit of a GENTLEMAN, disdaining all those vulgar and degrading
expedients now too often resorted to, for the purpose of securing
success at the bar. He waited, and prepared for, _his opportunity_ with
modest patience, and fortitude, and indomitable industry and energy. He
possessed an intellect of uncommon power, consummately disciplined, and
capable of easily mastering any thing to which its energies were
directed. Having devoted himself to jurisprudence, he obtained a
marvellously rapid mastery, both theoretically and practically, over its
greatest difficulties, leaving behind him writings which have
contributed equally to facilitate the study and the practice of the law,
in an enlightened spirit. Had Providence been pleased to prolong his
life, the voice of the profession would, within a very few years, have
called for his elevation to the judicial bench, and he would have proved
one of its brightest ornaments. Nor did he sink the scholar in the
lawyer, but cherished to the last those varied, elegant, refined, and
refining tastes and pursuits, which, having acquired him early
academical distinction, rendered in after life his intercourse always
delightful to the most accomplished and gifted of his friends and
acquaintance, and supplied him with a never-failing source of
intellectual recreation. Above all, his conduct was uniformly
characterised by truth and honour, by generosity and munificence, hid
from nearly all but the objects of it; and by a profound reverence for
religion, and a sincere faith in that Christianity whose consolations he
experienced in the trying time of sickness and death, and which could
alone afford him a well-founded hope of eternal peace and happiness.

_Inner Temple, 8th January, 1847._

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