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them apply the same principles throughout in its own valuation and adjustment.

I have examined the same question and am of opinion, that every one of these adjustments is erroneous. I have also read all the English and American authorities on the subject; and they appear to me irreconcileable. My opinion, after the best consideration which I have been able to give the case, is,

1. That, as to the general average, the same sum is to be paid by the underwriters, that was in fact contributed by the ship, cargo, and freight respectively, so that the owner shall neither gain nor lose by that event.

2. That the per centage of the partial loss is to be ascertained by the quantity of the damage; and that the underwriters are to pay the same proportion or per centage of the prime cost, or, what in valued policies is the same thing, of the value agreed on in the policy, so that the adjustment on my principles would stand thus:

1. General average. The underwriters on ship are to pay $500 on freight,

300

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Prime cost or valuation, $33,000 at 16 per ct. $5,280. So that the underwriters on the cargo are to pay,

General average,
Partial loss,

4,200

5,280

$9,480

In order to apportion the general average on the different contributory interests, it may be necessary to ascertain the per centage. But it is the absolute sum paid by each interest, and not a per centage applied to the original prime cost or valuation, that is payable by the underwriters.

Upon the adjustment thus made the owner neither gains nor loses any thing. He is simply reimbursed his actual loss. But

by the other adjustments he sometimes gains and sometimes loses a portion.

1820.

S.

ART. V.-LEGAL EDUCATION.

President Quincy's Address on the occasion of the Dedication of Dane Law College.1

WE assemble on an occasion of no common interest to our University and to our country. One of the great branches of public education is expanding, in this seminary, under happy auspices. An unexampled impulse has been given to the study of the law, by the recent foundation of a well-endowed Professorship. The success of the institution created wants, which its founder has supplied in a spirit of generosity, second only to that which characterized its origin.

For an appropriate building, including sufficient accommodations for a library, offices for the Professors and Librarian, and halls for lectures and courts, we are chiefly indebted to his bounty.

On taking possession of it, for the first time, it has been thought proper and useful to express the feelings and thoughts which are natural to the occasion. This task, assigned to me as an official duty, from many considerations I would willingly have avoided, but regarding my relation to this University, I have not deemed myself authorized to decline.

The mind turns, instinctively, to the individual, whose name and virtues are inseparably connected with this institution. But our benefactor lives. How shall the due tribute of gratitude be paid? To the general ear the voice of panegyric is ever harsh, until it be returned by the echoes of the tomb. Long, long may it be, ere the note of our benefactor's praise be thus softened!

1 This address has been printed for private distribution, but the copies so distributed will not probably reach many of our distant subscribers: for this reason, and on account of the importance of its subject, and the character of the address itself, and for the purpose of preserving it in a more perma nent form than that of a pamphlet, it is introduced into the Jurist.

When, however, the relations of a founder to his institution are the subjects of discourse, it is an indispensable duty to bring, at least, into brief notice, those circumstances which reflect honor on the one, and are auspicious to the destinies of the other.

Such, in relation to our founder, is the fact, that the purpose of his thought was completed in his life-time. He left nothing to contingency. He chose, in this respect, to be the executor of his own will, the overseer of his own endowment. We this day experience the benefits of this wise forecast. An institution, which would have lingered, and might comparatively have failed, if it had been left to posthumous chances, has been enlarged, and endued with a new vitality, by its yet living author.

In this aspect, it cannot be improper also to remark, that the bounty, which has thus enriched us, proceeded from no overflowing excess in the fountain. If the possessions of our benefactor ever deserved the name of wealth,' it was with reference, not to their absolute greatness, but to their relative proportions to simple habits and chastened wants. They were the gradual and silent accumulation of a long life, devoted to professional labor, to an honorable prudence, to a wise frugality, and a just economy;-seeking not proud riches, but such as it might get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.' Now wealth, acquired by such means, is ever the last to be expected to burst forth suddenly, in great streams, for enriching the community. Those, who thus accumulate, necessarily realize, more strongly than others, the cost of acquisition. Toil, and pain, and difficulty are associated, in their minds, with every portion of the accumulated mass; to which such men consequently attach themselves, for the most part, with a proverbial tenacity.

To have escaped these natural influences is honorable to our benefactor. It also reflects an appropriate honor on the profession to which his life has been devoted, and by which his wealth has been acquired.

It is of the nature of the profession of the law, when pursued by congenial minds and in accordance with its inherent spirit, to elevate and liberalize the social principle. Those, who attain eminence in that profession, necessarily take deep and wide views of the principles of human conduct, and are introduced to an intimate acquaintance with the greater, as well as the lesser

relations and interests of individuals and societies; and this not through cloistered contemplation, but by living, practical observation of the motives of men, of the objects they pursue, and of the uses of those objects. Hence result, naturally, a juster estimate of the real value of those things, which men most ardently seek and most highly appreciate, and more elevated apprehensions concerning the proportions of their worth. Hence, also, it is, that the men of that profession are ever found in the front rank of those who devote themselves to the interests of the age and of society; evidenced, not indeed often by great pecuniary benefactions (the mere labors of that profession seldom raising any one above a mediocrity of fortune), but by noble exertions and personal sacrifices, in support of the great principles on which human liberty and the rights of property depend. The history of the times antecedent to the American revolution, of those during which that struggle was pending, of those during the forming of the federal constitution, and of those occupied subsequently in defence of it, down to the present day, constitutes one line of successive monuments of the labors, the sacrifices, and self-devotion of the men of that profession to the best interests of their country.

Another fact, naturally of great interest, among the circumstances of this foundation, is, that the wealth, by which it has been laid, was solely the product of professional talent and labor. It now does, and in all time to come will, present to the mind a great lawyer, nobly paying out of the fruits of his profession that debt, which every great lawyer feels that he owes to it; and will for ever stand an enduring monument of professional merit and success.

It was not necessary, in order to preserve the name of Nathan Dane, and transmit it with honor to posterity, that it should be associated with this great design and useful endowment. An undeviating course of faithful and strenuous labors, during a long life, had secured to him a reputation for skill, fidelity, and wisdom, in all the various social relations, private and public, which few had equalled, and still fewer excelled. His name was already associated intimately with the learning, talent, and virtue of the period in which he has been called to act. Inde

pendent of this foundation, the fabric of his character had been long raised, and, by enduring materials, cemented with the history and prosperity of his country.

Nor is it among the least of the honors and fortunate circumstances of this institution, that its founder was himself thus among the high examples of the moral and intellectual elevation of that profession, of which he has now constituted himself the patron. Does any ingenuous youth glow with the desire to be useful and distinguished in the great field upon which he has cast the lot of his life? Is he willing to devote himself to its cultivation with an ardor, which no labor can daunt, and a zeal, which no slowness of incoming rewards can quench? Does he give his nights to study, and his days to professional pursuits and exercises? And does he wish to learn what are the honors and rewards, which are consequent on a life faithful to the duties of the profession on which he has entered? Let him learn the history, let him inform himself concerning the present enviable intellectual state of the founder of this institution. He will find, that respect, happiness, and success have been the continual companions of his path. He will see him, now in his eightieth year, when the labors of the court have necessarily ceased, still intensely occupied with those of the study. The attractions of the public assembly, or of the bar, indeed, no longer influence him, but the ardor of intellectual exercise, the love of employment, the intense search after truth, still cheer and gladden his day; and continue to render useful and brilliant the last rays of his glory, as they descend towards the horizon.

The occasion naturally invites us to speak of the law as a science; of its utility as a study; of its dignity as a profession; and of the particular nature and objects of the several Professorships established for that study in this seminary. All these topics, however, were laboriously analyzed and eloquently urged, by the present head of the Law School, in his Inaugural Discourse, with a power of talent and a weight of professional character, which have left nothing in those fields to be gleaned or desired.

It cannot, however, but be appropriate, at this time, to speak of the science of the law, in respect of its connexion with this University; to reflect on the proportion, which the present foundations in this branch bear to the importance of the objects em

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