Newcastle-up-on Tyne. Newcastle board of legal studies.

Nottingham. University College and Nottingham and Midland board of legal studies. Sheffield. University of Sheffield and Yorkshire, board of legal studies, degrees. Shrewsbury. Shropshire Law Society, University of Wales.

Swansea. University College, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Neith board of legal studies, degrees.

Of these 15 centers, 10 are connected with local universities and 7 are degree courses.

The scope of the course of study will be dealt with in connection with the local schools.

CORRESPONDENCE COURSES.

Correspondence courses are also offered by the society for the benefit of articled clerks who are not convenient to a local center. A correspondence tutor is employed. In 1913 65 students were thus instructed, the fees being £8 10s. for the finals. The correspondence study is not advocated except for those students who reside a distance from a local center. With the growth of center school, the importance of the correspondence study will decrease.

ORGANIZATION OF LEGAL EDUCATION.1

As preliminary to admission to the rank of solicitor, the candidate must be articled or apprenticed to a solicitor in active practice, the period of the apprenticeship ranging from three to five years, according to the amount of previous education. Holders of the A. B. degree from Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Durham, London, and Queen's College, Ireland; the LL. B., LL. D., A. B., or A. M. from the Scottish universities, and "utter" barristers, serve three years. Barristers of five years' standing are not required to enter into articles, but need only pass the final examination. By action of the Master of the Rolls and the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor, students who have had one year of study in an approved law school before entering into articles are required to serve but four years. All others must serve five years.

THE BARRISTERS.

The barristers are members of the inns of court of the various law inns. Only the four principal ones survive. They are Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Middle Temple, and the Inner Temple. Each inn has the right to call its members to the bar, but for the sake of uniformity in requirements and for the purposes of instruction, the

1 The laws relating to solicitors and legal education of the same now in force are to be found in 6 and 7 Vict., ch. 73, 1843; 7 and 8 Vict., ch. 86, 1844; 23 and 24 Vict., ch. 127; 33 and 34 Vict., ch. 28; 36 and 37 Vict., ch. 81, 1873; 36 and 37 Vict., ch. 66, 1873; 37 and 38 Vict., ch. 66, 1874; 38 and 39 Vict., ch. 77, 1875; 40 and 41 Vict., ch. 25, 1877.

"Council of legal education," composed of representatives of the several inns, has been established. Unlike the law society, the right of the inns to call to the bar is not based upon legislative sanction but upon immemorial usage. The origin of the inns themselves is shrouded in obscurity, although their existence in form is traceable as far back as the thirteenth century, when, with the establishment of the court of common pleas at Westminister, by a clause of Magna Charta, there resulted the congregation in London of lawyers and their apprentices who resided together in hostels or inns. To the four principal inns which still survive were attached subsidiary inns, 10 or more in number, called the inns of chancery. It was customary for apprentices or students to begin their readings in one of the inns of chancery, transferring after two years to one of the four inns. The usual period of apprenticeship during the early period was seven years. The apprentice resided in the inn, attended lectures or readings, copied pleadings and participated in the moots and botes presided over by the benchers or governors of the inn. It was in the inns that the English law was first scholastically taught, and to this fact Prof. Maitland attributes the escape of the English law from the fate that overwhelmed the native law of Germany and Scotland at the hands of the all-conquering Roman law.

Outside of the inns no opportunity for the study of the common law was found until a comparatively late period. The first lectures of any scope at the universities were given in 1758, when William Blackstone began his career at Oxford. All writers agree as to the vitality and activity of the inns in teaching in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The corporate life of the inns constantly declined from the sixteenth century, until by 1845 the benchers had ceased to concern themselves with teaching, and the requirements for the bar became purely formal. In 1852, as a result of agitation, the council of legal education was formed, being made up of 20 benchers, 5 from each inn. The council has drawn up the "Consolidated Regulations" governing admission of students to the inns and calls to the bar.

The council has created a board of legal studies consisting of members of the council and the teaching staff, the latter consisting of seven readers and four assistant readers. This board directs the education and examination of students, and the law school of the inns is conducted under the supervision of this board, the administrative work being performed by the director of legal studies, who is also a reader or professor. Classes are held in the halls of the inns, each inn taking turns in providing lecture rooms. The work of the year is done in four educational terms of from three to four weeks each. Residence in the inns is not required, but the student is com

pelled to "keep terms"-that is, by dining in the inn of which he is a member. Members who are also members of the principal English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh universities keep terms by dining in their inn any three days in each term. Twelve terms must be kept before the student is eligible to a call to the bar. In some instances the keeping of term may be modified, but not to exceed two terms. Students not members of a university as above must dine six days in each term. Solicitors of not less than five years' standing need not keep terms, but must pass the final examinations. Each student pays £5, which entitles him to attend classes while he is a student. The fees are much less than in the school of the law

society.

The expenses of the school are met from a common fund maintained by the inns. All fees are paid into this fund, and each inn contributes a minimum sum of $1,800. Deficits are met by the inns in proportion to the number of students.

Attendance on the lectures is not required, although an effort is made to induce attendance by making the examinations cover the work of the lecture room. Although 1,639 were registered in the inns in 1913, the average class attendance in the most popular classes, those in English law, was only 100. The custom of not attending lectures prevails in nonprofessional schools both in England and on the Continent, preparation for the examinations being made by private study or under tutors. This practice is in striking contrast to the practice in American colleges and universities generally, where attendance on the lectures is required as prerequisite to the examination.

OTHER LAW SCHOOLS.

Faculties in law exist in the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, London, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool. In the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol; University College of South Wales, Cardiff; and University College, Nottingham, courses in law are offered, but no faculties of law have been organized. Courses in law are also provided at various provincial centers, under the patronage of the law society.

In Scotland, faculties of law exist in the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. Some instruction in law is given at Dundee and St. Andrews, but there is no law faculty.

There are two types of university organization, represented on the one hand by Oxford, Cambridge, and London, and on the other by the Scotch universities and the modern city universities, of which Manchester is a type.

The organization of Cambridge is typical of the first class. The university is composed of a number of distinct colleges, each with its

93317°-15--2

own teaching staff, buildings, officers, and property, all united together in a larger body corporate having its own distinct organization and officers, with teaching staff and property. This latter body, known as the University of Cambridge, is alone entitled to confer degrees. The university employs a staff of law teachers, and nearly every college maintains one or more law teachers. In many instances the same man holds a position on the university staff as well as on that of the college. Twenty men are employed by the colleges and university in the work of legal instruction. Each college looks after the administrative details of the students on its rolls. The work of the various colleges and the university in law is correlated through a special board made up of representatives of the university and the colleges. A chairman selected for each year corresponds to the dean of an American school.

The organization at Oxford is similar to Cambridge, the work being coordinated by an administrative board composed of the university staff and certain elected members. The faculty of law contains 4 professorships, 4 readerships, 1 lectureship, and 10 or more tutors. In the newer universities, with the exception of the University of London, which in many respects is more like Oxford and Cambridge, the organization is similar to that in American universities, with faculties of law, medicine, etc., each faculty being presided over by a dean. This form of organization obtains also in the Scottish universities.

PRELIMINARY EDUCATION.

The Law Society.-A preliminary examination is required of all students before entering into articles. To this rule there are numerous exemptions, as follows: Holders of A. B. or LL. B. degrees of the principal English universities of England and Ireland; or of A. B., LL. B., LL. D., of Scotland; and students who have passed the public or intermediate or matriculation examinations in the principal universities need serve but four years under articles. The preliminary examination of the society is given four times a year in about 20 cities and towns and covers the following topics: (a) Writing from dictation; (b) writing short English composition; (c) arithmetic, algebra to simple equations, elementary geometry, Euclid, Bks. I to IV; (d) geography of Europe; (e) history of England; (f) Latin; (g) any two of the following languages-Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, Italian. (May take geometry or algebra and two languages, or both and one language.) This examination represents in content about the equivalent of the first two years in the better American high schools.

THE INNS OF COURT.

An applicant for admission to the inns must not be a solicitor or attorney, a parliamentary agent, a notary public, receiver under bankruptcy, clerk to accountant, engineer, or surveyor, and must not be engaged in trade or be an undischarged bankrupt. A certificate of moral character is also required.

All applicants, with certain exceptions, must pass a preliminary examination. Students are exempt from this examination who have passed a public examination at any British university.

The topics for examination are English, Latin, and legal history. This examination is less extensive in scope than that prescribed by the law society. The law society requires mathematics and makes Latin optional, while the council of legal education omits the former and requires the latter. The examination itself is quite elementary, more so than that of the law society, representing somewhat less than the equivalent of the first year in the classical course of a good American high school. Most of the applicants come from the universities or the great public schools like Rugby; so in practice the scope of this examination is of no particular importance.

ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE.

General entrance examinations are not held by the universities either at Oxford or Cambridge, admission being in the control of the several colleges, but at both institutions general examinations are given to candidates for a degree, whether for the arts degree or degrees in law. At Oxford this first university examination is known as "responsions," the corresponding examination at Cambridge being the so-called "previous examination." In both of these examinations stress is laid on the Greek and Latin classics. In addition to these topics in the previous examination at Cambridge, papers are set in Paley's evidences, elementary logic, chemistry, geometry, arithmetic, elementary algebra, and an English essay is required. If the student is a candidate for the law tripos, he must pass in one of the three following additional subjects: Mechanics, French, German. In the responsions examination an additional subject selected by the candidate from the following list may be offered: (1) Greek or Latin historical or philosophical authors; (2) French, German, or Italian historical or philosophical authors; (3) Bacon's Novum Organum; (4) Elements of Logic. The Universities of London, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and Liverpool hold a matriculation examination. That at London embraces English, elementary mathematics, Latin or elementary mechanics, physics, botany, chemistry. One other subject must be selected from an established list. The Universities of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield