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Judge OLIN, of the judiciary of the Dis
trict of Columbia, has signified by letter to
the Attorney General, his desire to retire
from the judgeship which he holds, provided
he can avail himself of the benefits of the
statute retiring judges of United States
Courts, under prescribed conditions, on full
pay during the remainder of their lives. The
question for the Attorney General to decide
is, whether a judge of the Supreme Court
of the District of Columbia is to be re-
garded as a judge of a United States court,
Judge OLIN having fulfilled all other re-
quirements of the law, and the opinion is
almost unanimous among lawyers, that the
Attorney General must decide affirmatively.
This prospective vacancy has already oc-
casioned some stir among public men, and
the Washington correspondent of the Balti-
more American says:
"As the jurisprudence of this District, is in
many respects analogous to that of Maryland,
it seems that there ought to be, at least one
Maryland lawyer on the bench."
In this we concur. Primarily the essen-
tial qualifications for such an appoint-
ment are, obviously, a familiarity with the
jurisprudence and the practice of the court
for which the appointment is to be made,com-
bined, of course, with such other qualities of
mind and character which cannot be shad-
owed by a doubt. Lastly, upon the question
of patronage belonging to a State, Maryland
has recently strengthened its claims to favor-
able consideration.
In mentioning the name of a Maryland
lawyer for this appointment, we write without
any assurance whatever that the gentleman
mentioned is either desirous or willing that
his name should be used in this connection,
or whether we may not offend his sense of
propriety by public mention in this manner.
We should regret this, but at the same time
are impelled by a sense of duty in subserving
the public good at the risk of slight personal
disquietude, he believing that we are at all
times called upon for suggestions against
which personal preference ought to be of sec-
ondary consideration,and that the elevation of
better men, purer men, wiser men, truer men
to public place, ought to be always, an in-
spiring motive.
Hon. FRANCIS MILLER has been a citizen
of this district for very many years of a
life still young in its prime and vigor, and
filled with promises of increasing useful-
ness. For much of this' period, alternating
only when patriotism brought him into the
political arena, in which he has figured,
never as a politician, but always influenced
by the higher aims of statesmanship, he has
clung with signal devotion to the study and
pursuits of the law.
It is in this pursuit that we find him at
this writing, exceptionally well equipped by
a long practice of his profession in the
courts of the District of Columbia, and now
the Assistant District Attorney there, for the
judgeship which may soon become vacant,
and we respectfully commend to the consid-
eration of the President the name of Mr.
MILLER, in the firm conviction of his super-
lative merits and peculiar fitness.
LIBERTY.
[John Hay's Contribution to False Leaves.]
What man is there so bold that he should say?
"Thus and thus only would I have the sea?"
For whether lying calm and beautiful
Clasping the earth in love, and throwing back
The smile of heaven from waves of amethyst;
Or whether, freshened by the busy winds,
It bears the trade and navies of the world
To ends of use or stern activity;
Or whether, lashed by tempests, it gives way
To elemental fury, howls and roars
At all its rocky barriers, in wild lust
Of ruin drinks the blood of living things,
And strews its wrecks o'er leagues of desolate
shore:
Always it is the sea, and men bow down
Before its vast and varied majesty.
And so in vain will timorous men essay
To set the metes and bounds of Liberty,
For Freedom is its own eternal law;
It makes its own conditions, and in storm
Or calm alike fulfills the unerring Will;
Let us not then despise it when it lies
Still as a sleeping lion, while a swarm
Of gnat-like evils hover round its head;
Nor doubt it when in mad, disjointed times
It shakes the torch of terror, and its cry
Shrills o'er the quaking earth, and in the flame
Of riot and war we see its awful form
Rise by the scaffold, where the crimson ax
Rings down its grooves the knell of shuddering
kings.
For always in thine eyes, O Liberty!
Shines that high light whereby the world is
saved,
And, tho' thou slay us, we will trust in thee!"
"REVERENCE for what is above us," says
Goethe, "belongs to natural religion every-
where and is its universal basis. Reverence
for what is around us, respect for the rights
of our equals, comes with civilization, and is
the religion of educated men everywhere.
But reverence for what is below us is the
highest attainment of man. For, to be able
to look not only with tolerance, but respect
on the mean, the base, the criminal, the pro-
judiced, the intolerant, the cold-hearted, and
to believe that there is good in them and that
God loves them, is the loftiest height ever
reached by man."
TRUE GENIUS.--Alexander Hamilton
once said to an intimate friend: "Men
give me some credit for genius. All the
genius I have lies just in this: When I
have a subject in hand, I study it pro-
foundly. Day and night it is before me.
I explore it in all its bearings. My mind
becomes pervaded with it. Then the ef-
fort which I make the people are pleased
to call the fruit of genius. It is the
fruit of labor and thought."