earth.

* * * * *

EARLY CONNECTICUT

[Speech of David Dudley Field at a complimentary dinner given by the
Saturday Night Club to the judges of the Supreme Court, New York City,
April 5, 1890. Clark Bell, President of the Club, said in the course
of his introductory remarks: "It is our grand good fortune to have
with us to-night the Nestor of the American bar, who was born in
Connecticut, and whose useful life has covered nearly all the years of
our present century. His eye has seen much that is far in the past,
and beside that love and affection he bears to his birthplace are the
reminiscences of the men conspicuous in the judicial annals of his
native State, who have been upon the stage of action during the
eventful years of the present century. When we shall have separated,
when this banquet shall be but a memory and a reminiscence, that which
will give us most pleasure, the reminiscence we shall prize among the
highest, will be that of the presence of the Hon. David Dudley Field,
whose illustrious name I will connect with the toast--'Reminiscences
of the Bench and Bar of Connecticut'"]

MR. PRESIDENT:--When you did me the honor to invite me to this
banquet, I was quick to accept the invitation, because I expected to
meet the judges of my native State, of which I bear so pleasant a
remembrance. I find, however, representatives from other seats of
justice come to greet the judges of Connecticut. You have here a judge
from the Dominion of Canada, over which shines the mild light of
Arcturus, and on the other side a representative from Texas where glows,
not the Lone Star of other days, but the bright constellation of the
Southern Cross. You have judges from the neighboring State of New
Jersey, from the further State of Pennsylvania, and from Delaware, about
which I may use the language of John Quincy Adams, speaking of Rhode
Island: "She is to be measured, not by the smallness of her stature, but
by the loftiness of her principles." All these eminent judges are here
to join in the salutation to the judges of Connecticut, and to them
therefore our attention is to be chiefly directed.

I am old enough to remember the judges of Connecticut when they sat
under the authority of the Colonial charter, that charter which was
hidden in the famous oak of Hartford to escape seizure by an emissary of
the King of England. I was present at the trial in Haddam,