Major James Garland, now Judge of the Hustings Court of Lynchburg, himself a great lawyer and statesman, about the time I went to the bar of Nelson county, said in a conversation with me: "I was a member of the Legislature that elected Thompson. But for the course of the Senator from Augusta and Rockbridge, your father would have succeeded in the election of John Howe Peyton, than whom there is no greater lawyer in the Commonwealth." Mr. Frazier has so well described him as a common law lawyer and the most eminent prosecutor that Virginia has ever had, that I forbear to say anything further with reference to that matter. That is a part of the history of the jurisprudence of this State. I will add, that I have seen his Coke Littleton, (studied by him as a student of law) with the marginal pages filled with annotations and references, indicating the application and devotion he felt for his profession. I am told that he had a grim way of preventing such as had not the ability from entering into the profession of the law. In his library there was a rare old edition of Littleton on Tenures. He considered this book as the basis of the laws of real property in England, and he thought that it should be first read without Coke's Commentary. When a young man desired to study law under him, whom he knew to have no capacity to succeed, he placed this work in his hands, asking him to read it again and again, and strive to understand it without recourse to the Commentary, and return for examination after a fortnight's or three weeks' perusal, of such part as he had mastered. It rarely happened that the young man did not hand him back the book, at the end of a short time, announcing his purpose of seeking a livelihood in some other field. Thus he was instrumental in keeping some from the profession, who, by entering into the law, would have derived no profit to themselves, nor reflect credit upon the profession. And on the other hand, when he discovered merit in a young man, no one was more prompt, active and generous in encouraging it.