1867 and after 183

any changes or corrections; and he said in jest, but
with truth, that he could have written all the
opinions of the court for an increased salary. He,
too, is thought to have suffered the defects of his
strength in some cases, to have become a contender
at too early a stage in the judicial process, some-
times to have overborne the law and facts, and,
in his accustomed facility, to have poured out and
left expressions which a little anxiety would have
led him to modify or omit. But if he had these
defects they were the defects of a judge of extra-
ordinary powers. Judge McSherry could be pro-
found as well as quick, even if he did not invari-
ably take time to bring all his abilities into play.

Judge Robinson, who was Chief Judge from
1893 to his death in 1896, has also been placed by
some of his contemporaries among the judges in
the front rank of the Maryland judiciary. He was
a man of strong, independent spirit and at the bar
he had gained a lucrative practice even in his
thirties. Forthright and blunt in spirit and speech,
too, he yet left behind him a recollection of kind-
liness and fine courtesy. He was a man of a wide
range of interests, and—to some extent, doubtless,
by virtue of that possession—had a ready sense of
relative values in his work, and sifted quickly
through non-essentials, without falling into the
habit of haste. In his practice of writing his
opinions in such succinct form he sacrificed dis-
play of his reasoning while at the same time
he submitted his conclusions all the more
clearly to criticism. An example of much dis-
cussion in a little space, three and half pages,
may be seen in his opinion in Williams v. Johnson,