They all unite in this estimate of Judge Webb.
There is no doubt that if he had been willing he would long ago have been made Judge of the Circuit Court, and then if the seat on the Supreme Court of the United States held by Mr.Justice Gray of the New England Circuit had become vacant, I suppose he would have been called from the Circuit Bench to that Court by almost universal consent.
Three persons, Child, Lane and Short, all very distinguished scholars in after life, took their place at the head of the class in the beginning.

Two of them held the same place when they graduated.

Short was outstripped by Edwin Moses Bigelow, who is now living, a lawyer, in Boston.

He entered college from the country not so well fitted when he entered as most of the class.

But he made his way by an indefatigable diligence until he graduated with great distinction, the third scholar, going a little above Short.
Child was a man of great genius.