costs.[5] Thus ended, what has always appeared to me a very absurd, and
as the event proved, expensive experiment, on the part of the
plaintiffs. Only one of them now carries on the business, and is a
gentleman of such high respectability, and also liberality in his
dealings with the profession, that I feel satisfied he had really very
little part in this most unsatisfactory proceeding. Mr. Smith's right
to continue his selections from the Reports, for the purpose of
annotation, having been thus established, and the excellence and
importance of his labours conspicuously made known (had that, indeed,
been necessary) to the entire profession, he at once proceeded with, and
in due time completed the remaining portion of the second volume; and
for the sake of legal science, it is to be lamented that there this
admirable work ended. Mr. Smith felt no exultation at the defeat of this
most thoughtless and unjustifiable attack upon him, nor evinced any
pleasure in the friendly congratulations showered upon him. His
sensitive mind had, indeed, been thoroughly shocked by the imputation
which had been sought to be fixed upon him; and the only feeling on the
subject which he ever expressed to me, or appeared to entertain, was one
of calm indignation. I must say that in this I think he was abundantly
justified. He repeatedly told me that he should never write another
book, for "that he had had quite enough of it." As it happened, he never
did; nor do I think that he would ever have done so, even had his career
not been cut short by death. Whenever works of solid interest and
importance in general literature appeared, Mr. Smith was very eager to
peruse them, and seldom failed in doing so. I recollect him one day
borrowing from me the first volume of Mr. Hallam's, "Introduction to the
Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries," which was
published alone early in 1837. He read it with great interest, and
reviewed it very ably in this Magazine--his only contribution to its
pages, in the No. for May, 1837.