CONTENTS III.—The Rights of Ships. An Address before V.-Christopher Columbus. An Address be- fore the U. S. Catholic Historical So- ciety at Carnegie Hall, October 11, VI.-Louis Kossuth. Address at Cooper Union, Memorial Address at the Meeting of the Bar, New York, XI.-France. Address in Reply to the Toast, "The President of the French Repub- lic," at Dinner to Whitelaw Reid, April XII. France. Address to the French Delegates on Presentation of Statue of "Liberty XVI. The Church and the Bar. An Address before the Catholic Union, 1873. fore the Catholic Union, 1873 Τ' INTRODUCTORY NOTE HE addresses and articles here brought together comprise but the recoverable fragments of the record of a life singularly broad and useful. Taken up mainly with the work of a profession which vouchsafes little leisure, the life of a lawyer rarely leaves any surviving residuum other than the latent influence born of every effort to make good the reign of law, order, and justice. However broad his sympathies, however alive his realization of the manifold fields in which there is good work to be done, it is rare for the lawyer who does not virtually abandon his profession, to leave any other record of his usefulness than the evanescent memory of an advocate's labors, -"brief as lightning in the collied night." Mr. Coudert's intellectual activity and the wide reach of his sympathies were such that neither the science of the law nor the active exercise of its profession, deeply as they engrossed his attention, could suffice to absorb the individual or to monopolize his heart and brain. From his college days to the last hours of his life, his spirit moved, "without haste, without rest" through the orbit of all human interests, throwing out its illuminating sparks and diffusing its cordial warmth upon every endeavor and aspiration within its ken. Frederic René Coudert was born in the city of New York on the 1st of March, 1832, and continued a resident of the city and identified with its interests until his death. He received his early education in the school established by his father, Charles Coudert, an officer of the Imperial Guard, who found it necessary to exile himself from his native country owing to political prosecutions after the Restoration. This training, under his father's able and watchful supervision, was such that at the early age of fourteen he was ready for entrance to Columbia College, from which he graduated in 1850 at the age of eighteen. Many years later, in a public discussion, he had occasion to say that there were a few things upon which he was sensitive: the one was the land of his fathers; and the other, the bark of Peter. Evidence of his devotion to these was never wanting. It began during his college career: When one of the professors, on the occasion of the Revolution of 1848, indulged in harsh strictures with reference to French achievements, the young scholar, whose knowledge of history was already sound and broad, was stung into a retort, which was cut short by an admonition that no discussion of "politics" was allowable. It was shown again by the selection and treatment of the subject for his graduation oration— a review of the "Isms" of the day. While he pursued his studies at Columbia, he gave lessons to a large class of boys in Spanish and in French, and at times even his evenings were given to the tuition of adults. On leaving college, he took up the study of law in the office of Edward Curtis, at that time one of the leaders of the New York Bar, a prominent Whig, the friend and intimate of Webster, and at one time a member of Congress and Collector of the Port. While pursuing his law studies, the young man wrote and translated for the daily and weekly press. At that time the leading sporting journal was Porter's Spirit of the Times, under the editorship of that ripe scholar and genial gentleman William T. Porter. This publication united literary skill, polish, wit, and urbanity with its records and discussions of sport, and it was mainly to its columns that the contributions of the young law student found their way. Always a great reader and a close student, his preparation for the Bar was thorough; immediately upon his admission, he entered upon the practice of the law, and from the modest beginnings with which every earnest member of the profession is content, his success, his influence, and his reputation grew steadily and continuously until his pen and his voice were stilled and his mission ended. At no time did he confine his study and research, nor his active labors and co-operation, to purely professional subjects. His clear discernment early taught him that the greatest masters of their professions are those who, not content with its technical training, find in every field of knowledge and in all channels of life experience and acquirements to strengthen and to elevate the vocation which, without such aids, tends to narrow its influence and lose its power. To this intellectual appreciation was added the moral conviction that no man's obligations to his fellows are discharged by even the most assiduous devotion to the exigencies of his profession, and that duty has many other calls upon him. Very early in his professional career, he lectured in aid of struggling churches, choosing such congenial subjects as Edmund Burke, with whose great concep |