ADDRESSES ON RETIREMENT OF HON.‘SAMUEL TREAT. vii
ices to the public and to the profession in the domain of patent and commercial
law, In patent cases his decisions for years have commanded as great, if not
greater, consideration at the hands of the profession as those of any other msi
prius judge on the federal bench; while in the department of commercial law
he has been conspicuous in moulding its principles and enlarging its scope to
meet the necessities of trade and theconditions of the time.
And now, after nearly 38 years spent in the continuous discharge of laborious
duties such as have been this morning only partially described, be retires from
the bench to engage in less arduous, and, it is to be hoped, in more congenial,
labors,. His professional brethren in commemoration of the event, and in
recognition of his great services and the healthful influence he has had on the
jurisprudence of the country, tender this portrait as an ornament to the court-
room wherein he has so long presided. The gift, gentlemen, is gratefully ac-
cepted. I know that I but echo the thought of my predecessor on this bench,
and of yourselves and of all good citizens, when I express the wish that his _
portrait may here long remain; that these walls may stand through years to
come;- and that a long succession of lawyers and judges may here be heard in
vindication of right and justice;
Judge THAYER’s speech of acceptance was followed by an address by
Judge BREWER, who spoke as follows: ‘
GENTLEMEN or THE BAR: This is an hour of death and birth. We bury
the dead, and we baptize the new born. The Persians have a pleasant way,
on the birth of a babe, of saying.: "Oh, little one, you come into life with a
cry, while those around you are smiling. So live that when you go out you
may go out with a smile, while those around you cry." We say good night
to Judge TREAT with tears. We say good morning to Judge THAYER with
smiles. While we say good-night to Judge TREAT, and know that his official
lifeis dead, yet the highest form of Christian faith atlirms that when we lay
down these bodies of ours, these garments of flesh, the real and the true life
still goes on, and goes on forever. And so, while the oiiicial body of Judge
TREAT is dead to-clay, the life that he has lived in this city and in this court
will never die. When I think of him coming to this city in early years; when
I think of all that he has done to affect the legislation of this city and this
growing commonwealth; of all that he has done to give tone and character `
to the judicial and political life of this city and state;`when I think of the in-
fluence which he has exerted, which has been so well referred to by the gentle-
men who have preceded me, in the various departments of law, in building
up that magnificent structure of federal jurisprudence, which obtains through-
out thelength and breadth of this land to-day, (and in respect to whose
growth and perfection he may well say, with the Roman of old, "Omuia oid:}
et quorum magna pc¢rs_fu1J,"')—-when I bring all these to mind, I feel that he
may well say with Tennyson: .
" Men may come, and men may go
But I go on forever." ·
We rejoice to see this_ painted representation of Judge TREAT adorn these
walls; we rejoice to meet in this·‘magnilicent`building, erected as a temple of
justice; but, gentlemen of the bar, long after that picture will have grown
dim and faded, and these walls have fallen to the ground, the name and the
influence of Judge TREAT will go on through the jurisprudence of this land.
and will go on till time shall be no more.
Three times ten years have passed since he was sworn into oflice, as my
Brother THAYER has this day been sworn in. If I might trespass upon your
time, and if there were not others far more competent to speak, I could picture
the changes that have come during all those years. But I leave that to other
tongues. Nor will I, among the many virtues which have been referred to,
and others which might be mentioned which have characterized Judge TREAT