The New York Court of Appeals.
or the profundity of the reasoning, or the breadth of the learning." Something of his taste in literature may be gleaned from the following : — "I am fond of lamb; especially of that which (or who) is written with a capital (L), and the Ch1istian name of Charles before it. The es says of Elia are my recourse when the spirits
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droop and the heart grows sad, as is too often the case in the latter years. 'The Con valescent ' is a favorite with me. I have read it often, and now read it again on receiving your letter." In April, 1882, he wrote : — "There are some of my opinions in the 85th New York Reports and the halo with which I went below the horizon in the 86th, Cutting v. Cutting. In parenthe sis, a halo is no halo unless it is somewhat misty and vaporous, so I am not assumptions in using the word." His heart yearned CHARLES A. to the last for his old place on the bench. On the 17th of May he wrote: — "I was in Albany for two hours the other day, regretful that the judges had left. I wished to see them in their silks. I did see their fine new room. How can they help but write ornate opinions?" Is not this a beautiful picture which the jurist and statesman has unconsciously drawn of his own wisdom, learning, stead fastness, tenderness, and sportiveness? It is amusing to know that he thought himself lazy! He was naturally conserva tive, — did not believe in codes, nor in al-
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lowing remarriage to the guilty party after divorce. I have fallen heir to Judge Folger's legal scrap-book and commonplace book, — an ex tensive and very curious collection, mainly consisting in manuscript slips, sometimes three or four deep, written without erasure or blots, in a strong, peculiar, and legible hand, and all accurately indexed. It was principally formed while he was on the bench. It was the source of many of his allusions in corre spondence with me, and I find in it two unfinished articles for the " Albany Law Journal," — one on "Names," and the other on convicts earning a deduction from their term of sentence for good be havior. It constitutes a striking evidence of the learning, research, patience, and order of the lamented chief. Some of his finest opinions which I can recall are in Lange v. Benedict, 73 N. Y. 12, RAPALLO on the liability of a judge to respond in damages for an illegal sentence within his jurisdiction; the Brooklyn Bridge Case, 76 N. Y. 475; People v. Fields, 58 N. Y. 491, on the capacity of the State to maintain an action under our statutes to recover money of which the city of New York had been defrauded; Coster v. Mayor, etc., 43 N. Y. 399, on remoteness of damage. Judge Folger was an eminently distin guished-looking man, above the middle height, of a massive mould, dark of com plexion, his jaw firm and square, his fore head powerful and dignified, his beautiful