desire to find the law in the shape that they know will be familiar to the examiners, will doubtless be enough to prevent a too sudden change or a detriment to the interests of publishers.

But every teacher of law who is really in earnest in his work will find that he can construct for himself a far better text-book than any he will find at the bookseller's. Nor will it be necessary to expend for this purpose any large part of that wearisome labor which now goes to the construction of a treatise for practicing lawyers. There will be in place of this a call for active thought and study on his own part; but it will be in the very line suggested by his daily work as instructor, and of immediate benefit to himself even more than his class. Let him begin by constructing the briefest possible outline of the topic he is about to teach, embracing its relations to the law as a system, a careful definition of all its leading terms, and a statement of its principal rules, so arranged as to show the connection of each with the principle from which it is derived. As for the matter which fills the bulk of our present treatises, the application of these principles and rules to varying states of fact, and the mass of references to the cases decided, they will be mere surplusage, and surplusage vitiates in teaching law if it does not anywhere else. Not that cases should be excluded from his teaching; on the contrary, they should form the main authorities from which it is all derived, and the class should be constantly referred to them and constantly trained in their use. If an instructor finds that he can dispense with the manual or outline and give his students that clear and systematic knowledge of a topic which they need to comprehend it by the use of cases alone, we have no criticism to make upon his method; we only think that he will find it slower and more laborious to himself than the construction of a proper manual, to which will, of course, be added in daily work a large mass of explanation and complementary teaching, such as if given alone would constitute a lecture. It will not be difficult for him to distinguish the matter that should fill these lectures from that which belongs in the manual. The latter should be that which every student or lawyer must know, without having to go to the books for it after it is once learned; the lecture should be intended simply to enlarge the student's comprehension of the principles thus learned and to make him familiar with their application in actual life. But no effort should be made to impress this matter upon his memory as distinct from his understanding.

The mode of studying particular topics or branches of law presupposes, in our view, an accurate general knowledge of the system, both in its history and in its present theory, to which objects at least half the course should be devoted. We believe that if this plan is carried out nearly all that our present courses contain of what is called "practical law" will be easily mastered in half the time now given it, and in a more scientific form; that is, one better adapted to the actual

needs of the practitioner. Thus, without adding a day to the length of the present course (be it two years or three), that instruction in elementary law and in the history of our own law, which it is the first object of this report to recommend, will constitute a clear addition to the student's acquisitions, and he will leave the law school doubly prepared for the actual work of the profession.

The reform of legal education in England.

[Appendix to preceding Report.]

In England recént history discloses determined and well-directed efforts on the part of both branches of the legal profession to elevate the standard of general and technical acquirement for admission to practice, and to maintain the character and rank of the profession as a learned profession in fact, and not merely in name or conventional theory.

The general subject of legal education in England appears to have been first systematically dealt with by the great "Society of attorneys, solicitors, proctors, and others, not being barristers practicing in the courts of law and equity of the United Kingdom," otherwise known as "The Incorporated Law Society," whose existing charters were granted in 1845 and 1872.

Up to the year 1833 it would seem there were no means by which an articled clerk could acquire a knowledge of the law, except what he was able to learn in his master's office. In that year the Incorporated Law Society instituted lectures in the different branches of the common law, equity, and conveyancing, which have been continued to the pres ent time.

Until 1836 no formal examination was required to be passed by persons seeking admission to practice as attorneys or solicitors at the termination of their articles. In that year rules of court were made by the judges, under which persons applying for admission as attorneys were required to pass an examination before a certain number of members of the Council of the Law Society; and in 1837 the Master of the Rolls made a similar order for the examination in equity of solicitors.

In 1813 the act of 6 and 7 Viet., Cap 73, formally empowered the judges to make regulations for the conduct of these examinations, and provided for the punishment of unqualified persons encroaching on the profession.

In August, 1846, a select committee of the House of Commons, appointed in the previous April, to inquire into the state of legal education, made its report, which extended over 400 folio pages.

This report recommended that a stringent preliminary examination should be required in general knowledge previous to apprenticeship, and that such examination should embrace, in addition to the so-called commercial education, a competent knowledge of, at least, Latin, geog raphy, history, the elements of arithmetic and ethics, and one or more of the modern languages.

In 1854, the Incorporated Law Society, with the view of carrying the recommendations of the parliamentary committee into effect, took steps toward the establishment of a preliminary examination in general knowledge.

The Society succeeded in securing the passage of the act of 23 and 24 Vict., Cap 127, under which an examination in general knowledge, prior to entering into articles of clerkship, was expressly authorized to be held.

As observed in the interesting introduction to the "Supplement to the Calendar and Law Directory of the Incorporated Law Society" for 1891, "The Society felt that, as solicitors have to advise clients in all ranks of society, from the highest to the lowest, on all sorts of questions, some of them of the most difficult and delicate nature, it was ob vious that their efficiency and usefulness would be much increased if their general, as well as legal, attainments were such as to command respect and attention. It would also be for the benefit of the public at Farge that solicitors should not only possess professional skill but also those advantages which science, literature, and languages are calculated to confer. The Society, therefore, strongly urged the establishment of an examination in science, literature, and the classics."

Up to 1860 only the final examination was required to be passed, but under an act of Parliament of that year an intermediate examination was held, as well as the preliminary examination.

In 1879 the honors examination was instituted for solicitors.

The Solicitors' Act of 1877 (40 and 41 Vict., Cap 25) placed the entire practical control of the preliminary, intermediate, and final examinations in the hands of the Incorporated Law Society, which thus acquired by right that which it had before enjoyed only by the favor of the judges.

A few facts may be stated with regard to these several compulsory examinations prescribed by law for persons seeking to become solicitors. 1. It is necessary for a candidate to pass the preliminary examination. before he has the right to enter into articles of clerkship, unless he is a graduate of a university, a barrister at law, or has successfully passed one of the designated examinations at certain specified universities. which exempt from the examination, or has obtained from the Lord Chief Justice or the Master of the Roll a dispensing order.

The subjects for preliminary examination are:

(1) Writing from dictation.

(2) Writing a short English composition.

(3) a The first four rules of arithmetic, simple and compound; the rule of three, and decimal and vulgar fractions. b Algebra, up to and including simple equations, and the first four books of Euclid.

(4) Geography of Europe and the history of England.

(5) Latin, elementary.

(6) Any two languages, to be selected by the candidate out of the following six: (1) Latin, (2) Greek, (3) French, (4) German, (5) Spanish, (6) Italian.

The candidate is not obliged to take up algebra or Euclid, but if he clects to do so, he may take up these with one of the six languages.

The examinations are conducted by an examination committee of the Incorporated Law Society assisted by paid examiners, and it is necessary only to glance over the specimens of questions set for the preliminary examinations during 1890-'91, as published in the supplement to the Law Society's calendar, above referred to, to perceive that the candidate who successfully passes such an examination must be a person of good education and very considerable acquirements.

If the committee are satisfied as to the proficiency and fitness of a candidate at a preliminary examination, they certify the fact to the Council of the Law Society in the form of a report of the result of such examination, and the Council may thereupon resolve that a certificate, signed by the president of the Society, shall be delivered to the candidate. After this certificate has been obtained, articles can be entered into at any time. A solicitor can not have more than two articled clerks at the same time. This is for the purpose, apparently, of limiting the number of solicitors.

2. After an articled clerk has served half the time of service required under his articles, he must undergo the intermediate examination in such elementary works as may be selected by the Council of the Law Society. One of the standard works for many years has been Stephen's Commentaries on the Law of England.

Four intermediate examinations are held in each year, one in each of the months of January, April, June, and November, in the hall of the Law Society. If a candidate fails to pass an intermediate examination within twelve months after his half term of service, his final examination is postponed for a fixed period.

3. The next step is to pass the final examination to which articled clerks are subject, in the following topics:

(1) The principles of the law of real and personal property, and conveyancing.

(2) The principles of law and procedure in matters usually determined or administered in the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice. (3) The principles of law and procedure in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice; the law and practice of bankruptcy.

(4) The law and practice of probate and divorce; the law and prac tice of admiralty; criminal law and practice; proceedings before jus.. tices of the peace.

4. The subjects for the honors examination are the same, only the questions are more difficult.

Three courses of lectures on common law, equity, and conveyancing are delivered annually at the Society's hall, in London; and, in connection with these lectures, classes are conducted and examinations held under the superintendence of the instructors.

It is stated that the example set by the body of solicitors of establishing an efficient system of examination and lectures led to the adop tion of like measures by the four great Inns of Courts, "the noblest nurseries of humanity and liberty in the kingdom."

The committee has received from England copies of the consolidated regulations of the several Societies of Lincoln's Inn, the Middle Temple, the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn, as to the admission, education, and examination of students, the calling of students to the bar, and the taking out of certificates to practice under the bar, for 1892, and other documents showing the courses of study and examinations prescribed by the Council of Legal Education of the Inns of Courts, which may be printed with this report for the information of the association.

The council of legal education consists of twenty benchers, five from each inn of court, and to this body is intrusted the power and duty of superintending the education and examination of students for the purpose of being called to the bar, or of practicing under the bar.

The general rule is that persons seeking to be admitted as students in an inn of court must, before such admission, satisfactorily pass an examination in the following subjects: (a) The English language; (b) the Latin language; (c) English history.

No student can be called to the bar unless he shall, to the satisfaction of the council of legal education, have passed a public examination for the purpose of ascertaining his fitness to be called to the bar.

An examination in Roman law, and in prescribed heads of the English law, is obligatory for call to the bar; but the council may accept as an equivalent for examination in Roman law: (a) A degree granted by a university for which the qualifying examination included Roman law; (b) a certificate that any student has passed any such examination, though he may not have taken the degree for which such examination qualifies him; and (c) the testamur of the public examiners for the degree of civil law at Oxford that the student has passed the necessary examination for the degree of bachelor of civil law: Provided, That the Council is satisfied that the student, before he obtained his degree, or obtained such certificate or testamur, passed a sufficient examination in Roman law.

The general subjects for instruction and examination, under the direction of the council of legal education, are: