OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES, 1882-3. PRESIDENT, JAMES BARRETT, Rutland. VICE PRESIDENTS, GEORGE W. HARMAN, Bennington. JOHN L. EDWARDS, Newport. ROSWELL FARNHAM, Bradford. Secretary, CLARENCE H. PITKIN, Montpelier. WILLIAM P. DILLINGHAM, Waterbury. WARREN C. FRENCH, Woodstock. COMMITTEE ON ADMISSIONS. FREDERICK E. WOODBRIDGE, Addison county. L. L. LAWRENCE, Chittenden county. JOEL C. BAKER, Rutland county. STEPHEN C. SHURTLEFF, Washington county. JAMES J. WILSON, Windsor county. COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT. O. E. BUTTERFIELD, Wilmington. HEMAN S. ROYCE, St. Albans. WILLIAM W. GROUT, Barton. COMMITTEE ON JURISPRUDENCE AND LAW REFORM. ALDACE F. WALKER, Rutland. WILLIAM G. SHAW, Burlington. JOHN YOUNG, Newport. COMMITTEE ON LEGAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY H. G. EDSON, St. Albans. GEORGE W. HARMAN, Bennington. P. REDFIELD KENDALL, Rutland. SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS. The annual meeting was begun on the evening of October 24, and finally adjourned November 8. The president, Daniel Roberts, delivered an address; Kittredge Haskins read a paper in commemoration of Charles N. Davenport; and Roswell Farnham, pursuant to appointment made at the last annual meeting, presented a memoir of D. Allen Rogers. The president presented a memorial pamphlet on Abraham B. Gardner, and stated that he had expected a paper on the late chief judge, John Pierpoint, but those to whom he had applied had not found time to prepare one. Hoyt H. Wheeler read a paper on the early jurisdiction and jurisprudence of the territory now Vermont, and George W. Harman one on John Burnam. Officers were elected and committees appointed for the ensuing year. George W. Harman, nominated for president, declined to serve if elected, and James Barrett was nominated in his stead and elected. The report of the treasurer was read and accepted, by which it appeared that the assets of the association were $417.73. The amendment to article II of the constitution, proposed at the last annual meeting, was adopted, and that article amended to read as printed in this pamphlet. The committee appointed to take into consideration the rules regulating admissions to the bar reported submitting proposed rules. The association accepted and adopted the report and recommended the proposed rules to the supreme court for adoption. The committee ap pointed to prepare a revision of the rules regulating the practice in chancery reported, submitting a revision. The report was accepted and adopted, and the revision recommended to the supreme court for adoption. The following resolution was adopted: Resolved, That Edward J. Phelps, Frederick E. Woodbridge and Roswell Farnham be a committee of this association for the purpose of procuring and erecting a monument to the memory of our late Chief Justice Pierpoint; and that they be authorized to procure the necessary funds for this purpose by contributions through the members of the bar of this state. The secretary, by resolution made a standing order for future annual meetings unless otherwise directed, was instructed to have printed in pamphlet form five hundred copies of the constitution, a list of members, officers and committees, a summary of proceedings, the address of the president and the papers read, and to furnish each member with one such copy, and dispose of remaining copies as the managers might direct. ADDRESS OF DANIEL ROBERTS, PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. Gentlemen of the Vermont Bar Association: It seems not inappropriate to the occasion and to the task imposed upon your president by the constitution, that I should refer to some parts of the past history of the association, and particularly to the incidents of the year since our last meeting. And first in duty and tender interest I mention the names of those of our registered or honorary members, who, since our last annual meeting, have passed to the upper bar, and make no answer to call of crier here, however solemnly made or oft repeated :—John Pierpoint, our venerable and beloved chief justice, who died full of years and of honors in the twenty-fifth year of his service on the bench, January 7, 1882;—Abraham B. Gardner, of Bennington, who, after thirty-eight years of professional life, in which he made his strong common sense and a native and practical judicial judgment answer the ends of much reading and technical learning, died on the 23d day of November, 1881, greatly mourned by the people among whom he had so long lived, and whom he had so long served to their profit ;— Charles N. Davenport, of Brattleboro, who loved the study and work of his profession so well, and who brought to its service uncommon learning, discrimination, zeal and power of debate, and worked his life up, in his twenty-eight years of service, on the 12th day of April, 1882. These, with perhaps others, I leave to their surviving brethren for fuller commemorative notice. The rules of practice in county courts, originally proposed by the committee on jurisprudence and law reform at the annual meeting of 1879, were afterwards, with some modifications suggested by a committee of revision, adopted by the association, and submitted for adoption by the several county courts. They have been adopted, substantially as recommended, in the following named counties, to wit: Bennington, Rutland, Chittenden, Franklin, Lamoille, Caledonia, Washington, Windsor and Windham. The special committee appointed at the annual meeting of 1880, to prepare a revision of rules regulating practice in the court of chancery, prepared a revision, and caused copies in print to be circulated for suggestion and criticism. These have not as yet undergone the examination of the committee on jurisprudence and law reform, as required by our constitution. A reform in the rules is needed, and the effort of the special committee to bring them into a general conformity with the rules in equity of the circuit courts of the United States seems judicious. It seems to your speaker appropriate enough to the requirements of this occasion that he should make mention of some of the changes in legislation and the administration of the law which have, for the most part, occurred during the half century which has elapsed since his first admission to the bar of this state, and to note the progress therein towards a broader, more liberal and humane standard of justice tempered with equity, |