nd certainly disdained all ornament; but his
efforts, whether addressed to one tribunal or the other, were marked by
a degree of clearness, directness, and force not easy to be equalled.
There were no courts of equity, as a separate and distinct jurisdiction,
in New Hampshire, during his residence in that State. Yet the equity
treatises and equity reports were all in his library, not "wisely ranged
for show," but for constant and daily consultation; because he saw that
the common law itself was growing every day more and more liberal, that
equity principles were constantly forcing themselves into its
administration and within its rules; that the subjects of litigation in
the courts were constantly becoming, more and more, such as escaped from
the technicalities and the trammels of the common law, and offered
themselves for discussion and decision on the broader principles of
general jurisprudence. Mr. Mason, like other accomplished lawyers, and
more than most, admired the searching scrutiny and the high morality of
a court of equity; and felt the instruction and edification resulting
from the perusal of the judgments of Lord Hardwicke, Lord Eldon, and Sir
William Grant, as well as of those of great names in our own country,
not now among the living.

Among his early associates in New Hampshire, there were many
distinguished men. Of those now dead were Mr. West, Mr. Gordon, Edward
St. Loe Livermore, Peleg Sprague, William K. Atkinson, George Sullivan,
Thomas W. Thompson, and Amos Kent; the last of these having been always
a particular personal friend. All of these gentlemen in their day held
high and respectable stations, and were eminent as lawyers of probity
and character.

Another contemporary and friend of Mr. Mason was Mr. Timothy Bigelow, a
lawyer of reputation, a man of probity and honor, attractive by his
conversation, and highly agreeable in his social intercourse. Mr.
Bigelow, we all know, was of this State, in which he filled high offices
with great credit; but, as a counsellor and advocate, he was constant in
his attendance on the New Hampshire courts. Having known Mr. Bigelow
from my early youth, I have pleasure in recalling the mutual regard and
friendship which I know to have subsisted between him and the subject of
these remarks. I ought not to omit Mr. Wilson and Mr. Betton, in
mentioning Mr. Mason's contemporaries at the bar. They were near his own
age, and both well known as lawyers and public men.