WEST VIRGINIA: Good moral character and Eng- Diplomas are not recognized. All must pass lish education.

All are examined in open court by a committee of the bar; but applicant must have studied three years in the office of a practicing attorney, though not more than two of these years may be spent in attendance at a law school chartered by any State of the United States.

Must have resided in State six months, be of It appears that all are subject to examination by age, and a person of honest demeanor.

Must be a citizen of the United States, have resided in State one year, have a good moral character [and 21 years of age].

Must be a citizen, one year a resident of the county, have a good moral character.

the supreme court of appeals on common law, equity. commercial law and practice, and the code of Virginia, but the diploma of a law school duly incorporated by one of the United States "is considered.'

The supreme court by two of its judges satisfies itself that the applicant has sufficient general learning [but an attorney of the State must certify that applicant has studied law for two years previous to his application and that he believes him to be a person of sufficient legal knowledge and ability to discharge the duties of an attor ney and counselor at law, laws 1897].

All applicants are now (1897) examined by the law faculty of the University of West Virginia for the supreme court.

Must be a resident of the State and be of good Graduates of the law department of the Univer moral character.

Must be a citizen, of age, of good moral character, and learned in the law, all of which must be passed upon by the standing committee on admission of each court. An examination is made into the private character and unprofessional literary attainments of appli

cant.

sity of Wisconsin are admitted on their diplo mas; others are examined by State board of examiners, if they have studied law at least two years prior to the examination.

(See preceding column.)

II. THE PREPARATION OF THE PROFESSOR.

Those who teach in schools of medicine and law may be divided into two classes. One class, experts in the thing, sell their knowledge and endeavor to impart their skill; another class, expert in imparting the knowledge of the thing and in placing the students in the way of acquiring skill, sell their own expertness in approaching the untutored mind and devote themselves to teaching and practical study. Possibly the latter class is not very large in America, nor in Great Britain, nor in Paris. But the universities of Edinburg and the faculty of medicine of Paris have long since lost their supremacy as centers of medical education, and the Inns of Court at London and the Sorbonne at Paris are not now regarded as the great central influence for the common law of England or the civil law of Rome. The legal lights of Bentham, Austin, Pollock, Auson, Holland, of Oxford or Cambridge, and of Holmes of Massachusetts have supplanted those of Coke, Blackstone, and the Yearbooks, and those of Savigny, Ihring, and Puchta, those of Pothier. Thus medicine and law are not now generally regarded as necessarily mere trades, and "sharp lawyers” are no more liked by the legal profession than long bills are liked by the physician's patient. With insuperable perseverance the national associations of law and medicine have been laboring to shake their respective professions free of disreputable or undesirable elements which would not be found therein were Justinian's legal precepts more carefully observed: Honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere. While the great professional bodies in America are slowly making the learned professions learned by arousing public interest in the matter and overcoming popular prejudice against the formation of a class of highly respectable if not highly skilled physicians and judges drawn from among the people themselves, the democracy of France, through its organ, the Government of that Republic, has been very solicitous to introduce the best methods of professional instruction in its higher education, and it is from the German university that the cue has been taken.

One of the most valuable and distinctive features of the German university is the "privat-docent," whose function in a university is to recommend himself by teaching some special branch that is too new and untested to be regularly introduced into official university instruction, but may be too important to be ignored by the conservatism of the regular official body of instructors. Thus as the common law is supposed to be a body of never-changing dicta, though in practice it is ever changing by the interpretation of the judges whose ideas are colored by those of the times, so the management of the German universities has premeditatedly introduced an agency that, by insidiously supplanting the contents of the encyclopedia of the truth taught at any given time, never allows the university to grow antiquated. As the privat docent is assured of nothing but what the value of his instruction and his energy can secure, he is less conservative than the fellow of the English university, who is at least assured of his fellowship and the emoluments therefrom arising.

By the act of November 5, 1877, this "privat docentism" was introduced into France under the name of "maitre de conferences," with this difference, however, the master of conferences is an official appointee, paid by the Government, which the privat docent is not; the maître is a part of the university hierarchy, while the docent is a free lance, tolerated, even patronized and subsidized, but still on sufferance.1 The ideas of those who made this great change in higher education in France are recounted in the circular letter of advice of the French minister of public instruction, March 18, 1878, a part of which is here translated:

Mr. RECTOR: Article 1 of the 5th of November, 1877, established two distinct groups of maîtres de conferences. You are aware, Mr. Rector, each of our faculties-in spite of the late great increase in 'L' education nouvelle, p. 31 et seq., Monsieur Breal, in his Excursions Pédagogiques, does not think that the State ought to pay the large number of maîtres de conferences that are required in order to leave no lacunæ in the university programme. He would nationalize for France the real docent as found in Germany, merely changing his name into French, "docteur libre;" that is, in English, "independent professor or teacher," doctor in its old university sense meaning "a teacher."

2 France is a university divided into seventeen academies. Over each academy is a rector who has charge of educational interests within that academy. It must be understood that "Université de France" covers all French territory, and that academies are educational counties in this educational State or the Université de France.

the personnel-has chairs whose duties are too large to be performed by one professor, however great his diligence and his talent. Moreover, it happens sometimes that a professor has preferences for particu. lar parts of his subject and is inclined to dwell on certain topics of his course to the detriment of the others, thus leaving the student on some occasions without other assistance than his books. It is to overcome this inconvenience that maitres de conferences have been attached to chairs. They are to develop the matters that the professor has merely touched upon (n'aura fait qu' indiquer) or to repeat difficult parts, using the best texts when the matter is literary (dans les lettres), or in conducting experiments calculated to show results and their causes when the matter is in the domain of science. The second group of maitre de conferences has quite another character. The personnel of the faculties of sciences and letters was created in 1808, it seems, especially in view of the necessities of exam. inations, and not long ago there were faculties with only four professors. Even now many are represented by five members, a ridiculously inadequate number, especially if one considers the variety of routes that new methods of criticism and experimentation have opened up during the last fifty years. Without pretending to afford the profusion of courses that are offered in other countries, the Government desires to enlarge the too narrow field of work to which our faculties have been confined and to permit the student to move more freely in the way his individual aptitudes propel him-indeed, to fortify those aptitudes by offering means of more extended research and comparisons. Viewing the question from this standpoint, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate have placed at my disposal the necessary sum to provide for 70 maîtres de conferences, which are to be placed by the side of the regular chairs, being, as it were, probationary chairs (chaires en experience). They are not dependent upon a professor; their teaching belongs to themselves; but they are connected with the other chairs by an obligation upon which I insist, which is to adapt their lessons to the special work of the faculty and to the advancement of the student.

The maitres, whose functions are thus described, are appointed for the faculties of letters and sciences. In the faculties of law, medicine, and pharmacy those who perform the duties of the maîtres are called "agrégés” and are appointed on the result of a competitive examination, and hold the place for nine years if not previously permanently appointed as a professor. The old system of "suppleants" to the chairs has been suppressed, the place of the supplementary professor being filled by the agrégé [as a chargé de cours], who may be transferred from one faculty to another at the will of the minister of public instruction. The supplement was appointed for life and was a permanent fixture in the faculty to which he was attached. But all this is laid down in full detail in the laws which follow; in Note A several differences between the American and French university in executive matters are discussed.

THE POSITION OF THE PROFESSOR.

Before entering upon the regulations governing the appointment of the agrégés and the examination of candidates for degrees in each faculty, it is convenient to give title 5 of the decree of December 28, 1885, relative to the organization of the faculties of the schools of superior instruction. This title refers entirely to the professors who occupy chairs-"professeurs titulaires":

ART. 32. Instruction is given in the faculties and in the higher schools of pharmacy by titular professors, assistant professors (adjoint), chargés de cours, and maîtres de conferences [the titular professors being permanently located, the others not].

ART. 33. The titular professors are appointed according to the form prescribed by the decrees of March 9, 1852, August 22, 1854, and February 27, 1880. [They are appointed by the minister.] The request for a transfer from one chair to another in the same faculty is submitted to the consideration of the council of the faculty and to the permanent section of the highor council of public instruction. Thus, also, is the request for transference from one faculty to another submitted to the councils of the faculties interested and to the permanent section of the higher council of public instruction. The appointment to new chairs is made directly by the minister.

ART. 34. No titular professor shall be displaced from office for an equivalent position unless consented to by the permanent section of the higher council of public instruction after he has been heard. ART. 35. The titular professors may obtain leave of absence, renewable for five consecutive years at the most, on account of sickness or a temporary public mission foreign to public instruction. They receive, in the first case, half of their pay, and in the second case, when the service in which they are employed does not lead to a pension, 100 francs, the pay for inactivity [traitement d'inactivité]. The titular professors may, with the consent of the council of the faculty or school, be excused from the duty of examination, losing, however, a fourth of their pay. This privilege may only be granted when the work of the faculty will not suffer, but may it not be granted to a number that are more than onesixth of the titular professors.

Statistiques de l'enseiguement superiéur, 1878-88, p. 95

ART. 36. The suppléances are suppressed. When the leave granted to the titular professors requires it a course or conference is provided, renewable each year, to fill the laguna. [Formerly the "sup. pleant" took the chair of the absentee.]

ART. 37. Whenever a chair becomes vacant by death, expulsion, retirement on a pension, or by revocation, until the appointment of a new titular professor the lacuna in the instruction is filled by means of a course or conference renewable each year.

ART. 38. The claims of the applicants for chargé de cours and of maitre de conferences are sub. mitted to the consideration of the consulting committee of public instruction [ministry of public instruction at Paris, first section]. In the faculties of law and medicine the courses and conferences are confided to the agrégés.

ART. 39. The titular professors are not required to retire on a pension until they are 70 years of age, except they ask it or are unable to perform their duties. They may remain in service beyond their seventieth year detached (hors cadre) with the consent of the permanent section of the higher council of public instruction.

SALARY OF THE PROFESSOR.

Previous to 1876 the professors were paid a regular salary of from $800 to $1,200, which was increased by their fees as examiners. By the decree of January 14, 1876, these examination fees to the profit of the professor were abolished and a fixed salary paid instead-$1,200 to $2,200 for the professors in the faculties of law and letters, of $1,200 to $2,000 in the faculties of medicine and sciences. The professors were classed as professors at Paris, and professors-outside-of-Paris. The practical working of the new order of things was unsatisfactory, for it only "sowed division among colleagues who had passed the same examinations, lowered the dignity of the professors, and introduced into the faculties habits of solicitation deeply to be regretted." In 1881 a new classification was made, the professors of the several faculties of the country outside of Paris were placed in one of four classes, called first, second, third, and fourth class respectively, and the professors of the Paris faculties placed in one of two classes, called first and second class respectively. The following table will show the change in salary made by the law of 1881 and the variation in the number of titular professors. It will also bring out the difference, so far as the absolute amount received is concerned, of being a professor at Paris and a Government professor in another part of France: