undeniable than the fact, that vast pains were originally taken to fit law students for the profession they entered to learn, which pains are, or at least were until the last year or two, wholly abandoned. Much that was useful ought to be restored; and we would especially point to the following entry in Dugdale's Origines Juridicales, which ought to be engraved over the Hall door of each Inn:

"In 6 Eliz. (2 Maii) there was an order made that none should be called to the Bar, or received as an Utter Barrister in this society, before he had been first called and examined by the whole Bench, as by a former order, made 5 Nov., 3 & 4 Ph. & M., was provided. And in 42 Eliz. it was also ordered that special regard should be taken of such as shall be called to the Bar and Bench for their learning."

In those days the Inns formed a Law University, and there was at least some ordeal of fitness for the profession before men were allowed to practise it.

It appears that if the standard of legal education is ever to be raised in this country, and if there shall be a system of instruction at all, it can alone be done by the means so judiciously proposed in this Report. To carry it out by any other means than by and through the instrumentality of the Inns of Court themselves would have been abortive and improper. No extraneous body, not even the parliament itself, has any right to interfere, or on any pretence to dictate to the Masters of the Bench in each Inn the terms on which they shall call to the Bar. Any attempt to invade their privileges would have been resolutely repudiated, and have failed in doing any thing but creating offence. We must say that this evil has been studiously and successfully avoided. The House of Commons possesses very useful means of eliciting evidence, and it is obviously competent for them to examine into a subject of so much interest to the public as the improvement of the administration of the law, which is certainly involved in the education of lawyers. It is also proper and beneficial that useful knowledge possessed by the legislature should be published. The legislature has done so. It has added suggestions, derived, not however from its own crude wisdom, inapt to legal inquiries, but from the experience and profound thought of practised lawyers high in professional reputation. Very presumptuous would have been the proposal of parliament to the bar that it should remodel its economy, were not that proposal in effect the emanation of legal minds inspired by a wholesome and generous desire to advance the utility of the profession and raise the powers of advocacy.

out.

It is surely desirable that the plan proposed should be carried It is to the benchers we must look for the furtherance of this great work, and right glad are we to find that the legal education recommended is such as will have practical development as a qualification for the bar,-that it is no abstract scheme of general instruction, providing the means and leaving the realization of them to the voluntary disposition of the student. It is recommended that the examination shall be a practical ordeal of professional competency.

The course suggested by Mr. Starkie for effecting these objects in his evidence appears to us very sensible and judicious, and must from such a man have every possible weight and influence:

"115. Assuming that it was proposed to establish a good course of legal instruction in the Inns of Court, what is the course you would suggest to the committee as most advisable?—I think that it ought to go at all events to this extent: the giving of lectures, and I think examination would be desirable; I mean, with respect to the call to the bar. I think also that lectures, followed or accompanied by an examination of the pupil himself, would be much more beneficial as a means of instruction than simply lectures; because when lectures are given merely you do not gauge the understandings of the dif ferent students who hear you. Some may not understand; others may understand a little, and therefore require explanation; while others understand well. Now, if questions are asked, that gives the party lecturing an opportunity of knowing how far his pupils go with him, and where explanation is necessary; which of course cannot be done where lectures are merely delivered. Therefore, I should think, as a course of instruction, that examination was a valuable addition to the mere giving of lectures. Then there are other steps which are worthy of consideration, which are these: that, if there was no particular temptation to read and to excel, even the delivery of such lectures and such examinations might not be of great effect; but, in order to give fuller effect, it would be desirable that there should be examinations with a view to classification and prizes, and then you rise higher and higher. And it would be a question whether it might not be desirable that the different societies, the Inns of Court, should unite for that purpose and constitute a university, as the different colleges constitute a university.

"116. Would you require, as a condition to his being called to the bar, that every candidate should have passed through that course of instruction at the different Inns of Court?-I think either that should be done, or he should undergo an examination, in order to determine upon his competency.

"117. One or the other?-One or the other.

"118. Or perhaps both? Or perhaps both."

We attach much importance to rendering these examinations

compulsory upon all who wish to be called to the bar; otherwise the door is still open to all that which it is desirable to exclude and discourage.

Mr. Starkie thinks the degrees given would have their influence on the solicitors in the selection of counsel. He is asked,

"147. Do you think that pre-eminence in those examinations would carry with it any weight in public opinion in the practical working of the courts?-Yes, I think it would in public opinion; but, at the same time, it is to be recollected that those who have the immediate patronage are the solicitors; I believe them to be a very honourable body of men, and I believe that they would pay attention to those honours in selecting those whom they employed as juniors; at the same time many of them have demands upon them in the way of connexions and relations.

"148. But, cæteris paribus, you think solicitors would recognise the merits of those who distinguished themselves in this way?-I think they would; and even now, in the profession, it is always to be reckoned a circumstance much in favour of a young man at the bar, if he has distinguished himself at the university. I think it would be still further considered so if he had distinguished himself, not merely as a classical scholar or as a mathematician, but as a lawyer."

We look upon this as a very subordinate motive. The great merit of the plan is, that it would raise the educational standard of the profession and improve our lawyers. This is the only legitimate object.

Lord Brougham, who gave much valuable evidence before the committee, doubts as to the power of the benchers to compel examination.

"3801. Is it proposed to have a public examination previously to admission to the bar?-None of the Inns of Court have gone the length of saying that there must be a public examination to qualify. They consider that a very difficult and delicate matter. They doubt whether, without the help of the legislature, they would have the right to do it. A person, as the law now stands, upon being entered

at one of the Inns of Court, has an inchoate right to be called to the bar; and if the Inns of Court were to prescribe, as a condition precedent of obtaining the exercise of that right, the attending any class, or, much more, answering questions satisfactorily at any examination, we conceive that we should be immediately attacked in a court of law, because it would be said that we have no right to close the doors.

"3802. Could it not be made conditional upon entering the Inns of Court, that the student should bind himself to submit to such examination ?-It might be made so; but all the subjects of the king have a right to enter at the Inns of Court, and that inchoate right would be interfered with. It would be just removing the difficulty

a step farther, and bringing it on at an earlier stage. It would be preventing a person from becoming a member of any of the Inns of Court; and I have grave doubt whether the Inns of Court have the power of imposing any such condition; indeed I have very little doubt that they have not. It is to be observed, that an unfit person acquires no benefit, from his call to the bar; he only becomes capable of practising, if he can obtain clients."

That there is no absolute right to enter or be called is admitted by Lord Brougham's use of the term "inchoate right," which he applies to the right to enter. This right, at one at least of the inns, is dependent on an examination. Therefore an "inchoate right" is a right determined by the result of an examination, according to Lord Brougham's own application of the term. The inchoate right to be called would therefore be nowise interfered with even if it exist (?), by rendering its enjoyment contingent upon a similar event at the completion of the student's studies. It has however been amply shown that the right was long possessed and exercised by the Inns of Court. Why then may it not be restored? We heartily trust it will, for we know nothing else that can in any effective degree raise the bar.

We have merely broached this great question. We shall resume it in our next number.

ART. IV. ON THE CONNEXION BETWEEN THE LAWS OF REAL PROPERTY AND AGRARIAN DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.

I far thquestial condition of a people may be originated or

is a question of some difficulty and of great interest, how

influenced by laws affecting private property laws which restrain or affect the tenure, the power of alienation or the line of descent. It may be doubted, whether the form of government even has so much influence upon the spirit and pursuits of a nation as this class of laws: which, though possessing only an indirect action, may in effect entirely divert the spirit of the government from its original direction. Thus a republic, where the law of primogeniture obtains, will not be so republican as a monarchy where the children succeed equally to the possessions of their father and while the one, swerving from its original equality, progresses towards despotism, or at least towards a strict aristocracy, the other, equally diverging from the path it at first pursued, progresses rapidly by the diminution and dispersion of wealth towards the principles and forms of a democracy. On the other hand we often find, where the natural bias of a nation is adverse to existing laws, that those laws, or the repugnant parts of them, are gradually repealed and smoothed away: and, instead of the spirit of the law moulding and altering the spirit of the people, the law is itself compelled to undergo modifications and mould itself to their will. The laws of property and the spirit of the nation must be in conformity with each other. If the constitution will not permit the requisite changes, a revolution must ensue. This is the simple rationale of most of the revolutions which have convulsed the world.

Instances of the former changes, where the existing laws have effected a change in the spirit of the government, may be seen in the Italian republics of the middle ages on the one hand, and on the other in modern France, where the tendency is decidedly democratic. The same gradual change towards democratic feeling is observable in many parts of modern Germany, where however public opinion is not permitted the facility of expression allowed in France, or in this country. Instances of the latter changes, where modification of the law has been found a necessary deference to the spirit of the people, may be perceived in the successive infringements on the old common-law feudal notions in England-such as (not to multiply examples) the rule that all conveyances of land must be im