hydrogen, and other invisible elements, before they have any knowledge of such bodies as commonly present themselves to the senses. And, accordingly, some teachers of chemistry obviate, in a great degree, this objection, by adopting the analytical instead of the synthetical mode of procedure, when they are first introducing the subject to beginners; i. e. instead of synthetically enumerating the elementary substances, proceeding next to the simplest combination of these-and concluding with those more complex substances which are of the most common occurrence, they begin by analysing these last, and resolving them step by step into their primitive elements; thus at once presenting the subject in an interesting point of view, and clearly setting forth the object of it. The synthetical form of teaching is indeed sufficiently interesting to one who has made considerable progress in any study; and being more concise, regular, and systematic, is the form in which our knowledge naturally arranges itself in the mind, and is retained by the memory: but the analytical is the more interesting, easy, and natural introduction; as being the form in which the first invention or discovery of any kind of system must originally have taken place." * The author begs to refer his readers to the chapters hereafter appropriated to the development of these principles, in their application to the study of the law; and, in the mean time, pauses to address the adventurous, but perhaps hesitating, student, in the inspiriting words of the poet 66 quæ timido quoque possent addere mentem : * Elements of Logic, pp. 15-17, (3rd edit.) † Hor. Epist. lib. ii. ep. 2, 36, 38. SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE CONCERNING THE EDUCATION FOR THE BAR IN ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE, AND AMERICA. I. It may have been gathered from the foregoing pages, that no preliminary course of study, or examination into legal proficiency, is required from candidates for admission to the ENGLISH Bar. Such is the case also with the IRISH Bar. They are not bound to attend any lectures at either of the Universities or elsewhere. Whether this might advantageously be ordered otherwise, is a difficult question. Some persons of judgment and experience are of opinion, that an examination into the fitness, in respect of legal knowledge, of law students, is as requisite as are the examinations prescribed to candidates for admission into holy orders, and into the medical profession. Without expressing any opinion as to the expediency of adopting such a course, we content ourselves with saying, that numerous practical difficulties will suggest themselves to all experienced lawyers. II. Advocates in SCOTLAND (of whom there are numerically between 400 and 500, but not more than 100 actually engaged in practice) are not required to follow any course of preliminary study, but must undergo certain probationary trials. In order to be admitted a member of the Faculty, the applicant for admission presents a petition to the Court, stating his wish to become an advocate, and intimating his readiness to undergo a trial of his skill. This application is referred by the Court to the Dean of the Faculty; who remits the applicant to the private examiners, (being a certain number of the members of the body appointed annually by the Dean to discharge that duty) to make trial of his fitness. The candidate then appears before these examiners, and on satisfying them that he is twenty years of age, and that he has paid the usual fees, he is taken on trial, and examined as to his skill in the Civil or Roman E law. He is expected to be familiar with the four books of the Institutes of Justinian, in which he is examined in English, and also to be able to translate a passage in the Pandects, ad aperturam libri. This is called the private examination in civil law. If he give satisfaction to the examiners, they subscribe an attestation to that effect, and he must then allow a complete year to elapse; after which he is in like manner examined as to his skill in the law of Scotland. Having passed that trial he prepares a Latin thesis on a title in the Pandects, which he defends publicly before the Faculty. The form to which this ceremony has dwindled, is thus gone through. The candidate selects three of his friends, members of the Bar, to act as his public examiners, and provides each of them with an apparent objection to one of the three Annexa, as they are called, or propositions appended to the end of his thesis. These objections are accordingly stated by the examiners, and answered by the candidate, who supports each annexum by a reference to some passage in the "Corpus Juris." A ballot-box then goes round among the members of Faculty present, including the examiners and the Dean of Faculty, or his deputy, who occupies the chair. The candidate is then admitted; puts on his gown; and then appears before the Court, where the oath de fideli administratione is administered to him; and he also swears to abjure the Pretender. An advocate thus admitted is entitled to plead in every Court in Scotland, civil, ecclesiastical, or criminal, superior or inferior, unless when debarred by special statute (as in the Small Debts Act); and also before the House of Lords in Scotch Appeals. Advocates are answerable for their official conduct to the Court of Session. The fees of admission, stamp, &c., amount to about 3007. Unlike students for the Bar, the apprentices of Writers to the Signet (i. e., the highest class of solicitors) are obliged to attend, in addition to several preparatory classes in the University of Edinburgh, four courses of law; in the three classes of civil law, Scotch law, and conveyancing.— "As the profession of an advocate is esteemed," says the Encyclopædia Britannica, "the genteelest in Scotland, many gentlemen of fortune become members of the Faculty without any intention of practising at the Bar. This circumstance greatly increases their number, and gives dignity to the profession." The author is able to confirm this statement from his own personal observation. Its Bar is an honour to Scotland, in respect of the superior accomplishments, the professional acquirements, and the high tone of gentlemanly feeling, which characterise its members. The Writers to the Signet-it may be added- -are also a highly educated and superior class of men, often belonging to the best families in Scotland. They perform certain official duties of importance, and are not, it is believed, ineligible even for the Bench. III. The law student in FRANCE, before being admitted to the rank of Advocate, is required to go through a three years' course of study at the Law Schools at Paris (Ecoles du Droit), where there are professors of Civil Law, Commercial Law, the Law of Procedure, and of Roman Law; which last, however, appears to be no longer a necessary basis of instruction. "As to the study of the law of the state (la loi de l'état)," observes M. Berville, in the "Profession d'Avocat," "which regulates the duties of citizens towards society, which guarantees their rights, which determines the organisation and competency of the social powers-apparently it has not been considered worth while to have a professor for them. You will not hear a word of them in your four years of study*." The course of study may be prolonged according to the discretion of the Conseil de Discipline, which consists of a select body of the most eminent advocates. The following somewhat stringent oath is administered to the young French advocate: "Je jure d'être fidèle au Roi et d'obéir à la Charte constitutionnelle, de ne rien dire ou publier, comme défenseur ou conseil, de contraire aux lois, aux réglemens, aux bonnes mœurs, à la sûreté de l'Etat et à la paix publique, et de ne jamais m'écarter du respect dû aux tribunaux et aux autorités publiques." English and Irish Counsel, also, on being called to the Bar, are required to take oaths-those of Allegiance and Supremacy; which are administered twice,-in the first instance, on the evening of being called, before the assembled Benchers in their Parliament chamber; and on the ensuing morning before one of the Judges at Westminster, in open court. The oath administered to Roman Catholic Barristers is that prescribed by statute 10 Geo. IV., c. 7, s. 2.-The oath taken by the French Advocates certainly appears calculated to occasion embarrassment to one who wishes conscientiously to observe it upon all occasions. It is believed that there have been instances of such difficulty being experienced --and that the extent of freedom of speech and of action allowed to one who had taken this oath, has been very recently the subject of serious discussion in France. IV. In AMERICA the division of advocates into attornies and counsel * Profession d'Avocat, pp. 370-1, by M. Dupin aîné, and others, Paris, 1832. has been adopted from the prevailing usage in England, and the two degrees are kept strictly separate in the Supreme Court of the United States. In all the other courts, however, of the United States, as well as in the courts of New York and the other States, the same person can be admitted to the two degrees of attorney and counsel, and exercise the powers of both *. To our English notions few things can appear more objectionable and unseemly than this confusion of incompatible characters, qualifications, and duties.-The author is, unfortunately, not able, before this work goes to press, to ascertain whether any previous course of study, or any examination, is requisite in America, before gentlemen are admitted to practise at the Bar. He believes that such is not the case. In Harvard University, however, there is a Law SCHOOL, which confers academical degrees upon its successful students; and it is believed that many of the students for the Bar attend this school. Professor Story (one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, whose elaborate, comprehensive, and accurate legal publications have justly earned him a high reputation in this country), in the character of Dane Professor of Law in the University, equally shares the active labours of education with Mr. Greenleaf, the "Royall" Professor of Law; the latter gentleman having the immediate direction and superintendence of the Law School. He is the author of an excellent treatise on the "Law of Evidence," of an elementary character, which is being prepared for the use of English students and practitioners, by an able member of the English Bar. The outline of the course of legal education, together with the works recommended to students, under the sanction of such able and experienced teachers, extracted from a sort of university calendar, for Harvard University, published for the year 1843-4, will be found in the Appendix to this work, and is worthy of being referred to and considered by the student. We cannot quit the subject of the administration of the law in America, without noticing one surprising and almost incredible absurdity perpetrated by several of the State constitutions: we mean that which compels the retirement of a judge, at a certain fixed age—without the least regard to his physical, moral, and intellectual fitness to continue in the office !-Nay, in spite of his being in the full maturity and plenitude of his powers, the Constitution of New York actually compels the retirement of a judge on attaining his SIXTIETH year! And what has been the result? The loss of incomparably the ablest judge hitherto produced in America-Mr. Chancellor Kent, several years ago—and who Kent's Commentaries on American Law, pp. 306-7, 4th edition. |