[1] These sketches were in the main dictated to a short-hand
writer at the request of Mr. Theodore H. Hittell, of San
Francisco.

[2] The letter is printed at the end of this narrative at
page 135.




THE CAREER OF JUDGE FIELD ON THE SUPREME BENCH OF CALIFORNIA, BY JUDGE
JOSEPH G. BALDWIN, HIS ASSOCIATE FOR THREE YEARS.


[_From the Sacramento Union, of May 6, 1863._]

"The resignation by Judge Field of the office of Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of California, to take effect on the 20th
instant, has been announced. By this event the State has
been deprived of the ablest jurist who ever presided over her
courts. Judge Field came to California from New York in
1849, and settled in Marysville. He immediately commenced the
practice of law and rose at once to a high position at the
local bar, and upon the organization of the Supreme Court soon
commanded a place in the first class of the counsel practicing
in that forum. For many years, and until his promotion to
the bench, his practice was as extensive, and probably as
remunerative, as that of any lawyer in the State. He served
one or two sessions in the Legislature, and the State is
indebted to him for very many of the laws which constitute the