Professor Rowell is still in the prime of vigorous life, as appears from the excellent portrait preceding this sketch. In personal presence he is as manly and noble as he is refined, humane, and generous in the structure of his mind. And whether in social companionship with his friends, in the public assembly of his fellow-citizens, or in the abodes of threatening death or friendless poverty, he is always recognizable among the highest types of enlightened mankind and the truest of American citizenship.

NATHANIEL BENNETT.

BY THE EDITOR

THIS HIS gentleman is one of the oldest practitioners at the San Francisco bar. For nearly twenty years, with the exception of the time when he occupied a seat upon the Supreme Bench of California, and the further period of nearly five years passed in two visits to the Eastern States, he has been actively engaged in the practice of law in the metropolis of the Pacific.

Judge Bennett is of regular old Puritan stock. His father and mother were born and married in Fairfield county, Connecticut, where their ancestors had resided for several generations. A short time after their marriage, his parents removed to Caatskill, then a village just beginning to flourish in the State of New York, and where his father engaged in the mercantile business for some years. The latter afterwards moved to Clinton, Oneida county, at which place Hamilton College had then lately been established. His object in moving to Clinton was to embrace the better opportunities which offered for the education of his children.

Two of his sons, older brothers of Nathaniel, graduated at Hamilton College. One of them was for many years chief judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Erie county, New York. The other was also a lawyer, and practiced his profession in New York city, in partnership with Hugh Maxwell, Esq., at that time District Attorney of the city. This brother died when quite a young man.

Nathaniel Bennett was born at Clinton, Oneida county, New York, on the 27th day of June, 1818. When he was three or four years old his father purchased several tracts of land of considerable extent, in Erie county. On one of these tracts he settled as a farmer, moving his family thither from Clinton. Nathaniel passed his early boyhood on this farm, and in his twelfth year was sent to Buffalo to a military school, then lately established by the celebrated Captain Partridge, who had been for more than twelve years principal of West Point Academy.

Nathaniel was at school at Buffalo for over two years. The pupils of this school were daily subjected to regular military drill and exercise, after the fashion at West Point. From Buffalo, young Bennett was sent to the Academy at Canandaigua, under the direction of Mr. Howe, where he continued his studies for about a year. One of his schoolmates at Canandaigua was Stephen A. Douglas, who then gave no indication of his subsequent renown. After leaving the Academy, young Bennett was sent to Hamilton College, where he remained one year; at the end of that time he entered Yale College.

Mr. Bennett read law at Buffalo, New York. He was admitted to practice as an attorney in 1840, and as a counselor in 1843. He practiced at Buffalo from 1840 until the fall of 1842, in partnership with Eli Cook, a brother of Elisha Cook, Esq., of San Francisco. He then determined, as his health was somewhat impaired, to make a tour through the Southern States. In 1838–9, he had traveled through Ohio, and visited many parts of Indiana and Kentucky, but had beheld no spot for which he was willing to exchange his own home-Buffalo. Up to the time of his starting upon his second and longer journey, Mr. Bennett had always been an ardent Democrat, and a great admirer of the South and southern institutions. radical change was soon to come over his feelings. He passed, on horseback, through the States of Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisana, to New Orleans, where he spent the winter of 1842-3. In the following spring, he started upon his return trip. He rode, on horseback, through eastern Louisiana, through Mississippi, Georgia,

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Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, to Buffalo. In referring to this tour, Judge Bennett has stated that it wrought a great change in his views concerning southern institutions, country, and people.

Upon his return home, Mr. Bennett applied himself closely to the study and practice of his profession. When the political organization known as "Barnburners" first arose, under the leadership of Silas Wright, Benjamin F. Butler, Joseph White, John Van Buren, and others, Mr. Bennett embraced the principles of the new party with enthusiasm. He was a member of the celebrated Barnburners' convention which met at Buffalo in the summer of 1848. In addition to the men just named above, Charles Francis Adams, Charles Sedgwick, Alvin Stewart, of Utica, and James W. Nye, now U. S. Senator of Nevada, were delegates to the convention; and a great many others, among whom were some of the most noted men of the Democratic party, who had determined to sever their connection with the latter organization, if it continued in the course which it was pursuing. The convention nominated Martin Van Buren for the presidency. The result of the election is known. Silas Wright, truly a great man, did not live to see the triumph of his principles. Although wedded to political tenets repugnant to a very large majority of his fellow-citizens, and dying in the effort to engraft his views upon hostile public sentiment, millions of devoted friends and magnanimous foes lamented his death, and the flag of his country drooped in melancholy appreciation of the national loss. Judge Bennett is one of those whose hearts were cast down by the tidings of his death, and who have labored patiently and quietly for the vindication of his political principles, and the establishment of a great national party, whose controlling purpose should be the fulfilment of his prophecies and the execution of his high designs.

From 1843 to the summer of 1848, Mr. Bennett was exclusively engaged in practicing law. His success was very, considerable. By long and continued labor, and the sacrifice of personal comforts and enjoyments, he had