R. G. H. KEAN.

Robert Garlick Hill Kean died at his residence, in Lynchburg, on Monday morning, June 13, 1898, in the seventieth year of his age.

A life of great usefulness, marked throughout by the closest touch with the dictates of truth and honor, adorned by uncommon intellectual powers, which were enriched by legal and scholarly attainments of the highest order and graced by a simplicity and devotedness in its personal and religious aspects, cannot but be profitable to contemplate.

Mr. Kean was born in Caroline county, Virginia, October 7, 1828. He was the son of John Vaughan Kean and Caroline Hill. His grandfather (Andrew Kean) was a distinguished physician in his day, and was offered by Mr. Jefferson the first chair in the medical department of the University of Virginia. His father was one of the first students of the University, and was its first librarian. He was present at the semi-centennial of the University, and on that occasion had the pleasure of seeing his son preside as its rector. His mother was the daughter of Humphrey Hill, of Mount Airy, Caroline county. She possessed many personal attractions and rare traits of mind and heart, and her son inherited from her some of his most sterling virtues. When a young lady visiting at the University at the time the rotunda was being built, she laughingly said that her name should be associated with Mr. Jefferson's, whereupon she mounted the scaffold and placed in position the centre brick which formed the keystone of the arch at the entrance-an act prophetic of the connection of the name of her own distinguished son with that of the University and its illustrious founder. His mother died in his infancy, leaving two children-Dr. Launcelot Minor Kean, who died in early manhood, and the subject of this sketch.

Mr. Kean's early life was passed with his aunt, Miss Elizabeth G. Hill, who subsequently spent her declining years as a member of his family, receiving at his hands a full recompense for the maternal care which she had bestowed upon him. He was prepared for college at the Episcopal High School, under the charge of Rev. (afterwards General) William N. Pendleton, and at Concord Academy, under the charge of Frederick Coleman, justly regarded as one of the greatest instructors of his day. His reputation as a scholar dates from his early boyhood. He never relaxed in his love for the classics, and during his last illness, when the raving of delirium was stayed for a moment, he repeated in Latin his favorite hymn, "Lead, Kindly Light." In 1848 he entered the University of Virginia, and there took successively the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Bachelor of Law. No student ever left the University more distinguished for scholarship than he. He was the orator of the Jefferson Literary Society at the close of the session of 1851-52, and the following letter, which bears the signature of a distinguished ex-president of this Association, who is present with us, will be of interest in showing the manner in which he acquitted himself on that occasion:

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, October 12, 1852.

R. G. H. Kean, Esq:

Dear Sir, The Jefferson Society, through the undersigned, return their sincere thanks for your very able and appropriate address delivered before them on the night of the 28th of June, and respectfully request a copy of the same for publication.

Permit us, in making known to you this request of our Society, in which we most heartily concur, to express the sincere hope that it may meet your favorable consideration.

With sentiments of the warmest regard, we are, dear sir, your sincere friends,

JAMES WM. MORGAN,

CHAS. MINOR BLACKFORD, Committee.

J. A. LATANE.

After completing his course of studies at the University he settled in Lynchburg in the fall of 1853, and began the practice of law. Such was his reputation for scholarly and professional attainments that soon after coming to the Bar he received a proposition from a well-known publisher of that day to undertake the preparation of a new edition of Tucker's Commentaries. The suggestion seems to have excited in him a desire to enter the field of authorship. Had he put that purpose into execution the literature of the profession would have been enriched by the contributions of his trained and vigorous mind. Before determining the question he naturally turned for advice to his friend and preceptor, the venerated John B. Minor. I am sure what Mr. Minor might say cannot be without interest to an assemblage of Virginia lawyers. In a long letter in reply, dated January 13, 1855, full of tenderness and sympathy, he said:

"Your anxious forecastings for the future and your teeming prospects of authorship engage my warm sympathy, while I cannot forbear a smile at the rueful eagerness with which you anticipate an exchequer deficiency a year in advance. It is very natural, but I am convinced a most superfluous solicitude. With your willingness and ability to subserve the interest of litigants, so frankly acknowledged by your brother lawyers and so openly proclaimed by the judges, speedy and eminent success is in the ordinary course of human affairs. So don't make yourself unhappy.

“I think you do excellently to direct your attention to authorcraft. There is no title in the law on which you might not write a better book than ninety-nine in one hundred which issue from our own and the English press. You have selected, as it strikes me, one of the most difficult tasks which you could assume, and yet I am confident of your ability, with industry and zeal, to accomplish it; but I fear it would require time, labor, and thought greater than you conceive, and that its sale would be too limited to yield much, if any, pecuniary compensation. Such a work as you propose, executed as you could execute it, would be to the practitioner and to the student all that you anticipate; but its cost could scarcely be less than fifteen dollars, and the pur