written by the Rev. John H. Morrison, and will well repay
perusal. Judge Smith was an early and warm friend of Judge
Webster, and this friendship descended to the son, and glowed
in his breast with fervor till he went to his grave. Although
dividing with Mr. Mason the best of the business of Portsmouth,
and indeed of all the eastern portion of the State, Mr.
Webster's practice was mostly on the circuit. He followed the
Superior Court through the principal counties of the state, and
was retained in nearly every important cause. It is mentioned
by Mr. March, as a somewhat singular fact in his professional
life, that, with the exception of the occasions on which he has
been associated with the Attorney-General of the United States
for the time being, he has hardly appeared ten times as junior
counsel. Within the sphere in which he was placed, he may be
said to have risen at once to the head of his profession; not,
however, like Erskine and some other celebrated British
lawyers, by one and the same bound, at once to fame and
fortune. The American bar holds forth no such golden prizes,
certainly not in the smaller states. Mr. Webster's practice in
New Hampshire, though probably as good as that of any of his
contemporaries, was never lucrative. Clients were not very
rich, nor the concerns litigated such as would carry heavy
fees. Although exclusively devoted to his profession, it
afforded him no more than a bare livelihood. But the time for
which he practised at the New Hampshire bar was probably not
lost with reference to his future professional and political
eminence. His own standard of legal attainment was high. He was
associated with professional brethren fully competent to put
his powers to their best proof, and to prevent him from
settling down in early life into an easy routine of ordinary
professional practice. It was no disadvantage under these
circumstances (except in reference to immediate pecuniary
benefit), to enjoy some portion of that leisure for general
reading, which is almost wholly denied to the lawyer of
commanding talents, who steps immediately into full practice in
a large city."

The memoir, which extends through nine chapters, comprising a survey of
the intellectual and political life of Mr. Webster, down to the last
yea