PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUPREME COURT, HAD UPON THE DEATH OF CHIEF JUSTICE MURRAY. SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, OCTOBER 5TH, 1857. PRESENT-DAVID S. TERRY, C. J., AND PETER H. BURNETT, J.

On the opening of the Court, W. T. Wallace, Esq., Attorney General of the State, arose and said:

May it please your Honors :

Since your last adjournment, it has pleased an all-wise Providence to remove from our midst the Hon. Hugh C. Murray, the late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California. Arriving upon our shores a youth, unknown and unheralded, unaided by any of the fortuitous circumstances which sometimes lend success to men, he commenced his high career; but he was not even then unnoticed. One who heard his first effort here as a lawyer, has often in other years related to me the deep interest which his eloquence threw around the first cause which he argued upon these shores. After his arrival in this State, Judge Murray did not long remain at the bar. It was early discovered that he was fitted for a loftier position. He was first elected one of the Judges of the Superior Court of the city of San Francisco. In that position his great abilities as a jurist were so signally displayed, that in accordance with the general wish of the bar, at the earliest opportunity which offered, he was transferred to the bench of the Supreme Court, in which position, having been twice elected by the people of the State, he continued until death put a period to his usefulness. He was gifted by nature with an intellect capable of grasping the mightiest subjects; he had a mind which passed with ease through the meshes in which ingenuity or sophistry had interwoven a cause to the controlling point; and he was possessed of an analysis under the magic operation of which the most intricate legal problems were solved as if by intuition. At the early age of thirty-two years, it is not to be denied that his position was in the front rank of the jurists of our country. In view of so much accomplished while he was yet in the morning of life, who could tell what he might have effected for his country, and himself, when years and experience had fully matured his great powers? But he is gone! Glassy and dim now is the eye that we have seen here so often lit up with the flash of genius and intelligence. That generous and kind heart is stilled forever. That noble form, which we have so long seen presiding over the judicial destinies of a great State, has passed away, and of the loved and honored and gifted departed, nothing is left but the bright page in the judicial history of the State which his genius adorned, and the memory of the man, most fondly cherished by those who knew him best. He had no negatives in his nature. He never

shunned responsibility, and never turned aside in his pathway to avoid consequences; and, like all men of such strongly marked and positive character, he had bitter enemies and devoted friends. But friends and generous foes alike, gathering around his early tomb, pronounce his untimely death the greatest calamity that has yet befallen the fortunes of our young commonwealth.

I move, your Honors, that the resolutions of the Sacramento Bar, which I have the honor now to read and present, may be entered upon the minutes of the Court; and that this Court do now adjourn, as a mark of respect to the memory of the lamented deceased.

In response to the motion of the Attorney General, Chief Justice Terry said :

The death of the Hon. Hugh C. Murray, who for five years past has occupied, with distinguished ability, the position of Chief Justice of this Court, has filled us with unfeigned regret.

Called early in life to an important position in the Judiciary of a new State, he was eminently fitted for the discharge of the onerous and responsible duties of the post. His quick perception, sound judgment, and vigorous intellect, enabled him to master with ease the most difficult questions; and the possession of great moral courage prevented his being swayed or influenced, in the conscientious discharge of his official duties, by any considerations of policy or regard for personal popularity. He has left his mark in the history of our young State, whose judicial reports, bearing the impress of his genius, will remain a lasting monument to his memory. As a judge, he was just, impartial, and fearless. As a man, he was remarkable for the possession of social qualities which won, in a peculiar degree, upon the confidence and affection of his associates. He was frank, candid, and ingenuous, almost to a fault; generous to prodigality, and firm and faithful in his friendship. We deplore his early death, as an irreparable loss to the State; and, cordially approving the resolutions you have just read, order that the proceedings of to-day be entered on the minutes of the Court, and as a mark of respect for the memory of our late distinguished brother, order that the Court stand adjourned until Monday next.

HENRY M. GRAY.

BY WILLIAM Y. WELLS

HE name of Dr. Gray, surrounded by endearing recollections, has for twenty years been cherished as a household word in San Francisco, where, in the relationship of friend and benefactor, his good deeds are enshrined in unnumbered hearts. He was born in New York, in 1821. His father, the Rev. William Gray, a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman, removed to Seneca Falls, N. Y., soon after the birth of this son, who passed his boyhood there. He was graduated in 1842 at Geneva Medical College, having previously studied at Almyra with Dr. Boynton, his private preceptor. He went thence to New York, commenced the practice of his profession, and was soon known for the brightness and thoroughness of his intellectual acquirements, rendered the more effective by a pleasing frankness of manner which drew about him the best influences. As Visiting Physician at the New York Dispensary, in Centre Street, he gave a certain number of hours daily to gratuitous practice among the poor, and by some of them his assiduous attentions are still gratefully acknowledged.

With an assured and enviable social position, and the certainty of speedy eminence as a physician, his love of adventure could not resist the excitement of the California gold discovery; and closing his office in New York, he organized a party of ten congenial spirits-college mates, friends and associates-who purchased the bark Hope, and sailed in July, 1849, for California, he acting as