d and comprehensive views of the counsel." The question
was on the doctrine of Covenant; and I am told by learned counsel who
have examined Mr. Tazewell's notes in the case, that this was, in their
opinion, the greatest forensic display ever made in this country.

I recall an anecdote which was current at the time, and which shows the
effect of Tazewell's argument on the court. Roane, one of the judges
whose reputation has been held almost sacred in Virginia, was not
prejudiced in favor of Tazewell, in consequence of old political feuds;
but he was so transported by his argument that he could hardly think or
speak of anything else during the day. It is said that, on the day of
the argument, Roane had invited a party to dine with him, and after the
adjournment of the court went to his study at home, where he appeared
moody and abstracted. Meantime his company had arrived, and, as the
Judge still lingered in his office, his wife went to him and informed
him that the company was waiting; but all she could get from him were
such broken sentences as these: "Yes, the first man that ever argued a
law case," "the greatest of all our lawyers," "beyond all comparison our
first lawyer;" while she, abandoning him to his reveries, led the guests
to the table.

An incident which shows the character of Tazewell in an amiable point of
view deserves a passing allusion. When he had retired for some time from
general practice in our courts, he was induced to argue in the Superior
Court in Portsmouth a memorable case of insurance in which he had been
consulted; and, for the benefit of the junior members of the bar, he
discussed all the difficult and leading points of the case at full
length, and with all his ability, and made an impression upon the court,
and upon the bar, which was gratefully and delightfully remembered.

The Cochineal case, rather from the rumors growing out of it, than from
the case itself, which, however, embodied some important doctrines of
the law of prize, and a large sum of money, deserves a passing allusion.
The name of the case is the Santissima Trinidad, and the St. Andre,
which was argued in the Supreme Court of the United States in 1822, on
an appeal from the Circuit Court of Virginia, and is reported in seventh
Wheaton (283-355). This was a libel filed by the Consul of Spain in the
District Court of Virginia, in April, 1817, against 89 bales of
cochineal, two bales of jalap, and one box of Vanilla, originall