With his brethren of the bar Mr. Paine has always held the friendliest relations, and he has enjoyed their highest esteem.  To none, even the humblest of his fellow advocates, has he ever manifested any of the haughtiness of a Pinkney, or any of that ruggedness and asperity which gained for the morose and sullen Thurlow the nickname of the tiger.  Amid the fiercest janglings and hottest contentions of the bar, he has never forgotten that courtesy which should mark the collision, not less than the friendly intercourse, of cultivated and polished minds.  His victories, won easily by argumentative ability, tact, and intellectual keenness, unaided by passion, have strikingly contrasted with the costly victories of advocates less self-restrained.  Though naturally witty and quick at retort, he has never used the weapon in a way to wound the feelings of an adversary.  In examining and cross-examining witnesses, he has assumed their veracity, whenever it has been possible to do so; and though he has had the eye of a lynx and the scent of a hound for prevarication in all its forms, yet he has never sought by browbeating and other arts of the pettifogger, to confuse, baffle, and bewilder a witness, or involve him in self-contradiction.  Adopting a quiet, gentle, and straightforward, though full and careful examination, winning the good-will of the witness, and inspiring confidence in the questioner, Mr. Paine has been far more successful in extracting the truth, even from reluctant lips, than the most artful legal bully.  He knows that the manoeuvres and devices which are best adapted to confuse an honest witness, are just what the dishonest one is best prepared for.  It was not for all the blustering violence of the tempest, that the traveler would lay aside his cloak.  The result was brought about by the mild and genial warmth of the sun.

Few advocates have had more success with juries than the subject of this sketch.  The secret of this success has been, not more the admirable lucidity and cogency of his addresses, than the confidence and trust with which his reputation for fairness and truthfulness, and his evident abhorrence of exaggeration, have inspired his hearers.  Another explanation is, that he has avoided that rock on which so many advocates wreck their cases,—­prolixity.  Knowing that, as Sir James Scarlett once said, when a lawyer exceeds a certain length of time, he is always doing mischief to his client,—­that, if he drives into the heads of the jury unimportant matter, he drives out matter more important that he had previously lodged there,—­Mr. Paine has taken care to press home the leading points of his case, giving slight attention to the others.

That Mr. Paine has been animated in the pursuit of his profession by higher motives than those which fire the zeal of the mere “hired master of tongue-fence,” is shown by the comparative smallness of his fees, especially in cases exacting great labor.  Great as has been his success in winning verdicts, and sound as have been his opinions, it is doubtful whether there is another lawyer living of equal eminence, whose charges for legal service have been so uniformly moderate.