“ He graduated at the university of Vermont in 1848 and at the Harvard Law School in 1850, and in the latter year was admitted to the bar in New York city. There he became associated in practice with William Kent, the son of the great chancellor, an edition of whose Commentaries he assisted in editing. Eaton early became interested in municipal and civil service reform. He was conspicuous in the fight against Tweed and his followers, by one of whom he was assaulted; he required a long period of rest, and went to Europe, where he studied the workings of the civil service in various countries. ”