ase of
the American Insurance Company against Bryan; his admirable statement of
the reasons on which rests the law of prescription, or right established
by usage, in the case of Post against Pearsall; his exposition of the
extent of the right which in this country the owners of land on the
borders of rivers and navigable streams have in the bed of the river, in
Kempshall's case--a masterly opinion, in which the whole Court concurred.
I might also mention the great case of Alice Lispenard, in which he
considered the degree of mental capacity requisite to make a will, a case
involving a vast amount of property in this city, decided by his opinion.
There is also the case of Smith against Acker, relating to the taint of
fraud in mortgages of personal property, in which he carried the Court
with him against the Chancellor and overturned all the previous decisions.
Not less important is his elaborate, learned and exhaustive opinion in the
case of Thompson against the People, decided by a single vote and by his
opinion,--in which he examined the true nature of franchises conferred on
individuals in this country by the sovereign power, the right to construct
bridges over navigable streams, and the proper operation of the writ of
_quo warranto_. These opinions of Verplanck form an important part of the
legal literature of our State. If he had made the law his special pursuit,
and been placed on the bench of one of our higher tribunals, there is no
degree of judicial eminence to which he might not have aspired. The
Standing Committee of the Diocese of New York, of which he was a member,
in their resolutions expressive of sorrow for his death, spoke of him as
one whose judicial wisdom and familiarity with the principles and practice
of the law, made his counsels of the highest value.

In 1844, after, I doubt not, some years of previous study, appeared the
first number of Verplanck's edition of Shakespeare, issued by Harper &
Brothers. The numbers appeared from time to time till 1847, when the work
was completed. He made some corrections of the text but never rashly; he
selected the notes of other commentators with care; he added some
excellent ones of his own, and wrote admirable critical and historical
prefaces to the different plays. This edition has always seemed to me the
very one for which the general reader has occasion.

Almost ever since the American Revolution a Board of Regents of the
University of the State of New York