were performed, lectures read, and degrees conferred in this faculty, as in other branches of science; and many nations on the continent, just then beginning to recover from the convulsions consequent upon the overthrow of the Roman empire, and settling by degrees into peaceable forms of government, adopted the civil law, (being the best written system then extant,) as the basis of their several constitutions; blending and interweaving it among their own feodal customs, in some places with a more extensive, in others a more confined authority.(z)

Nor was it long before the prevailing mode of the times reached England. For Theobald, a Normon abbot, being elected to the see of Canterbury, (a) and extremely addicted to this new study brought over with him in his retinue many learned proficients therein; and, among the rest, Roger, sirnamed Vacarius, whom he placed in the university of Oxford, (b) to teach it to the people of this country. But it did not meet with the same easy reception in England, where a mild and rational system of laws had been long established, as it did upon the continent; and though the monkish clergy, devoted to the will of a foreign primate, received it with eagerness and zeal, yet the laity, who were more interested to preserve the old constitution, and had already severely felt the effect of many Norman innovations, continued wedded to the use of the

common law, King Stephen immediately *published a proclamation, (c) [*19]

forbidding the study of laws, then newly imported from Italy, which was treated by the monks (d) as a piece of impiety; and, though it might prevent the introduction of the civil law process into our courts of justice, yet did not hinder the clergy from reading and teaching it in their own schools and monasteries.

From this time the nation seems to have been divided into two parties, the bishops and clergy, many of them foreigners, who applied themselves wholly to the study of the civil and canon laws, which now came to be inseparably interwoven with each other; and the nobility and laity, who adhered with equal pertenacity to the old common law; both of them reciprocally jealous of what they were unacquainted with, and neither of them, perhaps, allowing the opposite system that real merit which is abundantly to be found in each. (5) This appears, on the one hand, from the spleen with which the monastic writers (e) speak of our municipal laws upon all occasions; and, on the other, from the firm temper which the nobility showed at the famous parliament of Merton, when the prelates endeavoured to procure an act to declare all bastards legitimate in case the parents intermarried at any time afterwards; alleging this only reason, because holy church (that is, the canon law,) declared such children legitimate; but "all the earls and barons (says the parliament roll) (f) with one voice answered that they would not change the laws of England, which had hitherto been used and approved." And we find the same jealousy prevailing above a century afterwards, (g) when the nobility declared with a kind of prophetic spirit, "that the realm of England hath never been, unto this hour, neither by the consent of our Lord the king and the lords of parliament shall it ever be, *ruled or governed by the civil law." (h) And of this temper between the clergy and laity many more instances might be given. [*20]

While things were in this situation, the clergy, finding it impossible to root out the municipal law, began to withdraw themselves by degrees from the tem

(z) Domat's Treatise of Laws, c. 13. § 9. Epistol. Innocent IV. in M. Paris ad A. D. 1254.
(b) Gervas. Dorobern. Act. Pontif. Cantuar. col. 1665.

(a) A. D. 1138.
(c) Rog. Bacon citat. per Selden in Fletam. 7. 6. in Fortesc. c. 33. and 8 Rep. Pref.
(d) Joan Sarisburiens. Polycrat. 8. 22

(e) Idem ibid. 5. 16. Polydor Virgil. Hist. l. 9. (f) Stat. Merton. 20. Hen. III. c. 9. Et omnes comites et barones una voce responderunt, quod nolunt ieġe▾ Anglia mutare, quæ hucusque usitatæ sunt et approbatæ. (g) 11 Ric. II. (h) Selden, Jan. Anglor, 1. 2 § 43. in Fortesc. c. 33.

(5) [Though the civil law, in matters of contract and the general commerce of life, may be founded in principles of natural and universal justice, yet the arbitrary and despotic maxims, which recommended it as a favorite to the pope and the Romish clergy, rendered it deservedly odious to the people of England.]

VOL. I.-2.

9

poral courts; and, to that end, very early in the reign of King Henry the Third, episcopal constitutions were published, (i) forbidding all ecclesiastics to appear as advocates in foro sæculari: nor did they long continue to act as judges there, not caring to take the oath of office which was then found necessary to be administered, that they should in all things determine according to the law and custom of this realm, (k) though they still kept possession of the high office of chancellor, an office then of little juridical power; and afterwards, as its business increased by degrees, they modelled the process of the court at their own discretion.

But wherever they retired, and wherever their authority extended, they carried with them the same zeal to introduce the rules of the civil, in exclusion of the municipal law. This appears in a particular manner from the spiritual courts of all denominations, from the chancellor's courts in both our universities, and from the high court of chancery before mentioned; in all of which the proceedings are to this day in a course much conformed to the civil law: for which no tolerable reason can be assigned, unless that these courts were all under the immediate direction of the popish ecclesiastics, among whom it was a point of religion to exclude the municipal law; Pope Innocent the Fourth having forbidden (1) the very reading of it by the clergy, because its decisions were not founded on the imperial constitutions, but merely on the customs of the laity. And if it be considered that our universities began about that period to receive their present form of scholastic discipline; that they were then, and continued to *be till the time of the reformation, entirely under the influ[*21] ence of the Popish clergy; (Sir John Mason, the first protestant, being also the first lay, Chancellor of Oxford;) this will lead us to perceive the reason why the study of the Roman laws was in those days of bigotry (m) pursued with such alacrity in these seats of learning; and why the common law was entirely despised, and esteemed little better than heretical.

And, since the reformation, many causes have conspired to prevent its becoming a part of academical education. As, first, long usage and established custom; which, as in everything else, so especially in the forms of scholastic exercise, have justly great weight and authority. Secondly, the real intrinsic merit of the civil law, considered upon the footing of reason and not of obligation, which was well known to the instructors of our youth; and their total ignorance of the merit of the common law, though its equal, at least, and perhaps an improvement on the other. But the principal reason of all, that has hindered the introduction of this branch of learning, is, that the study of the common law, being banished from hence in the times of popery, has fallen into a quite different channel, and has hitherto been wholly cultivated in another place. But, as the long usage and established custom of ignorance of the laws of the land begin now to be thought unreasonable, and as by these means the merit of those laws will probably be more generally known, we may [*22] hope that the method of studying them will soon revert to its ancient course, and the foundations at least of that science will be laid in the two universities, without being exclusively confined to the channel which it fell into at the times I have just been describing.

For, being then entirely abandoned by the clergy, a few stragglers excepted, the study and practice of it devolved of course into the hands of laymen who

Wilkins, vol. 1 p. 574, 599.
(7) M. Paris, A. D. 1254.

(1) Spelman, Concil. A. D. 1217. (k) Selden, in Fletam. 9. 3. (m) There cannot be a stronger instance of the absurd and superstitious veneration that was paid to these laws, than that the most learned writers of the times thought they could not form a perfect character. even of the Blessed Virgin, without making her a civilian and a canonist; which Albertus Magnus, the renowned Dominican Doctor of the thirteenth century, thus proves in his Summa de laudibus christifera virginis (dirinum magis quam humanum opus) qu. 23. § 5. “Item quod jura civilia, et legis, et decreta, scivit in summo probatur hoc modo: sapientia advocati manifestatur in tribus; unum, quod obtineat omnia contra judicem justum et sapientem; secundo quod contra adversarium astutum et sagacem; tertio, quod in causa desperata; sed beatissima virgo, contra judicem sapientissimum. Dominum; contra adversarium callidissimum dyabolum ; in causa nostra desperata; sententiam optatam obtinuit." To which an eminent Franciscan, two centuries afterwards. Bernardinus de Busti (Mariale, part. 4, serm. 9.) very gravely subjoins this note: "Nec videtur incongruum mulieres habere peritiam juris. Legitur enim de uxore Joannis Andrew glossatoris, quod tantam peritiam in utroque jure habuit, ut publice in scholis legere ausa sit."

entertained upon their parts a most hearty aversion to the civil law, (n) and made no scruple to profess their contempt, nay even their ignorance (o) of it, in the most public manner. But still as the balance of learning was greatly on the side of the clergy, and as the common law was no longer taught, as formerly, in any part of the kingdom, it must have been subjected to many inconveniences, and perhaps would have been gradually lost and overrun by the civil, (a suspicion well justified from the frequent transcripts of Justinian to be met with in Bracton and Fleta,) had it not been for a peculiar incident, which happened at a very critical time, and contributed greatly to its support.

The incident which I mean was the fixing the court of common pleas, the grand tribunal for disputes of property, to be held in one certain spot; that the seat of ordinary justice might be permanent and notorious to all the nation. Formerly that, in conjunction with all the other superior* courts, was [ *23 ] held before the king's capital justiciary of England, in the aula regis, or such of his palaces wherein his royal person resided; and removed, with his household, from one end of the kingdom to the other. This was found to occasion great inconvenience to the suitors; to remedy which it was made an article of the great charter of liberties, both that of King John and King Henry the Third, (p) that "common pleas should no longer follow the king's court, but be held in some certain place:" in consequence of which they have ever since been held (a few necessary removals in times of the plague excepted) in the palace of Westminster only. This brought together the professors of the municipal law, who before were dispersed about the kingdom, and formed them into an aggregate body; whereby a society was established of persons, who, (as Spelman (q) observes,) addicting themselves wholly to the study of the laws of the land, and no longer considering it as a mere subordinate science for the amusement of leisure hours, soon raised those laws to that pitch of perfection, which they suddenly attained under the auspices of our English Justinian, King Edward the first.

In consequence of this lucky assemblage, they naturally fell into a kind of collegiate order, and, being excluded from Oxford and Cambridge, found it necessary to establish a new university of their own. This they did by purchasing at various times certain houses (now called the inns of court (6) and of

(n) Fortesc. de Laud. LL. c. 25.

(0) This remarkably appeared in the case of the Abbot of Torun, M 22, Edw. III. 24. who had caused a certain prior to be summoned to answer at Avignon for erecting an oratory contra inhibitionem novi operis ; by which words Mr. Selden, (in Flet. 8. 5.) very justly understands to be meant the title de novi operis nuntiatione both in the civil and canon laws, (Ff. 39. I. C. 8. 11. and Decretal not Extrav. 5. 32.) whereby the erection of any new buildings in prejudice of more ancient ones was prohibited. But Skipwith, the king's serjeant, and afterwards chief baron of the Exchequer, declares them to be flat nonsense; "in ceux parolx, contra inhibitionem novi operis, ny ad pas entendment; and Justice Scardelow mends the matter but little by informing him, that they signify a restitution in their law for which reason he very sagely resolves to pay no sort of regard to them. Ceo n'est que un restitution en lour ley, per que a ceo n'avomus regard, fc," (p) C. 11. (9) Glossar. 331.

(6) The inns of court are four in number, and are called Lincoln's Inn, Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. The first and last were named from noble families, and the others were so called from the Knights Templar, who established themselves here in the twelfth century, and called their house the New Temple. After the dissolution of that order, the Temple was granted by King Edward the Third to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, by whom it was soon after leased to professors of the common law, and continued to be so leased until the appropriation of the property of religious houses by the crown in the reign of Henry the Eighth. The inns of court are not corporations, but voluntary societies; and mandamus will not lie to compel them to admit a member to the degree of barrister. Rex v. Gray's Inn, Doug. 353; Rex v. Lincoln's Inn, 4 B. and C. 855; Rex v. Barnard's Inn, 5 A. and E. 17. There are attached to them seven inns of chancery; Clifford's, Clement's and Lyon's belonging to the Inner Temple, New Inn to the Middle Temple, Thavies' to Lincoln's Inn, and Barnard's and Stable's to Gray's Inn. Formerly there were also Furnival's and the Strand inns, which have ceased to exist.

Each of the inns of court is governed by its own benchers, who fill all vacancies in their order, usually from the Queen's Counsel, though any barrister is eligible. The benchers of each inn exercise the power of calling to the bar the members of their own inn, and also of disbarring any they have called, whenever they see sufficient reason. All advocates reach the bar through one of these inns. To" keep a term " in any of them, one must dine in the common hall at least three times. Some of these dinners are grand occasions, in which the

chancery) between the city of Westminster, the place of holding the king's courts, and the city of London; for advantage of ready access to the one, and plenty of provisions in the other. (r) Here exercises were performed, lectures read, and degrees were at length conferred in the common law, as at other universities in the canon and civil. The degrees were those of barristers (first styled apprentices, (8) from apprendre, to *learn) who answered to our bache[*24] lors; as the state and degree of a serjeant, (t) servientis ad legem, did to that of doctor.

(8) Apprentices or barristers seem to have been first appointed by an ordinance of King Edward the first in parlament, in the 20th year of his reign. (Spelm. Gloss. 37. Dugdale, Orig. Jurid. 55.) (t) The first mention which I have met with in our law books of serjeants or countors, is in the statute of Westm. 1. 3 Edw. I. c. 29, and in Horn's Mirror. c. 1. § 10. c. 2. § 5. c. 3. § 1. in the same reign. But M.Paris, in his life of John II. Abbot of St. Alban's, which he wrote in 1255, 39 Henry III, speaks of advocates at the common law, or countors. (quos banci narratores vulgariter appellamus.)-as of an order of men well known. And we have an example of the antiquity of the coit in the same author's History of England, A. D. 1259, in the case of one William de Bussy; who, being called to account for his great knavery and mal-practices, claimed the benefit of his orders or clergy, which till then remained an entire secret; and to that end volutligamenta coifæ suæ solvere, ut palam monstraret se tonsuram habere clericalem ; sed non est permissus.——— Sait teles vero eum arripiens, non per coifa ligamina sed per guttur eum apprehendens, traxit ad carcerem. Hence Sir H. Spelman conjectures (Glossar. 335,) that coils were introduced to hide the tonsure of such renegade clerks as were still tempted to remain in the secular courts in the quality of advocates or judges, notwithstanding their prohibition by canon.

judges and leading lawyers participate. The inns of chancery are only used as chambers. The following authorities are referred to for further information: Dugdale's Origines Juridicales; Herbert's Antiquities of the Inns of Court and of Chancery; Pearce's History of the Inns of Court, and Ireland's Inns of Court, illustrated. Mr. Jefferson in his "Book of Lawyers," has some pleasant information on the same subject.

Doctors' Commons is the college of the civilians in London, and takes its name from the fact that the doctors of the civil law practicing in London diet and lodge there in a collegiate manner, and common together.

For a long time until recently, systematic instruction in the law was discontinued in the inns of court. A curriculum of legal education is however now established by general regulations, and we present here a synoposis of it as given by Messrs. Broom and Hadley.

I. As to the admission of students. Every person, not otherwise disqualified, who has passed a public examination at any of the universities within the British dominions, may be admitted as a student at any inn of court, for the purpose of being called to the bar, or of practicing under the bar, without passing any preliminary examination. But every other person so applying to be admitted is required before admission to pass an examination in the following subjects, viz; The English language; the Latin language, and English history. The benchers of any inn have power however to relax or dispense with this regulation, in whole or in part, in any case in which they may think that special circumstances justify a departure from it.

II. As to keeping terms.-Students of the inns of court, being at the same time members of any of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, London, Durham, the Queen's University in Ireland, St. Andrew's, Aberdeen, Glasgow, or Edinburgh, can keep terms by dining in the halls of their respective societies any three days in each term; and students, who are not at the same time members of any of the said universities, may do so by dining in the halls of their respective societies any six days in each term.

III. As to calling to the bar.-Every student must have attained the age of twenty-one years before being called to the bar, and must have kept twelve terms before being so called, unless any term or terms shall have been dispensed with as hereinafter mentioned. Further, no student is eligible to be called to the bar who has not attended during one whole year the lectures and private classes of two of the readers, unless he has been a pupil during one whole year, or periods equal to one whole year, in the chambers of some barrister, certified special pleader, conveyancer or draftsman in equity, or two or more of such persons, or has satisfactorily passed a general examination.

Calls to the bar take place during term and on the same day by the several societies, namely, on the sixteenth day of each term, unless such day happen to be Sunday, and in such case on the Monday after.

IV. As to certificates to practice under the bar.-No student of any inn of court is allowed to apply for or take out any certificate to practice, either directly or indirectly, as a special pleader, or conveyance, or draftsman in equity, without the special permission of the benchers of the society of which he is a student, and no such permission will be granted until the student applying has kept twelve terms. Such permission is granted for one year only from the date thereof, but may be renewed annually.

No student can obtain any such certificate unless he shall have attended such lectures and classes, or passed such an examination, or been such pupil, as would be necessary to entitle him to be called to the bar.

The crown seems to have soon taken under its protection this infant seminary of common law; and, the more effectually to foster and cherish it, King Henry the Third, in the nineteenth year of his reign, issued out an order directed to the mayor and sheriffs of London, commanding that no regent of

V. As to the lectures and examinations.-These are under the special superintendence of "The Council of Legal Education," consisting of eight benchers, of whom two are nominated by each of the inns of court, and of whom four are a quorum.

The council has power to grant dispensations to students, who may have been prevented by any reasonable cause from complying with the regulations as to attendance at lectures and classes; and all arrangements touching the number of public lectures to be delivered by, the readers, and the hours and extent of private classes, are with the council.

For the purpose of education the legal year is considered as divided into three terms, one commencing on the 1st of November and ending on the 22d of December; the second commencing on the 11th of January and ending on the 30th of March, and the third commencing on the 15th of April and ending on the 31st of July, subject to a deduction of the days intervening between the end of Easter and the beginning of Trinity Term.

For the purpose of affording to the students the means of obtaining instruction and guidance in their legal studies, six readers are appointed, viz.: 1. A reader on jurisprudence and civil and international law; 2. A reader on the law of real property; 3. A reader on the common law; 4. A reader on equity; 5. A reader on constitutional law and legal history, and 6. A reader on Hindu and Mahomedan law, and on the laws in force in British India.

The duties of these readers principally consists in the delivery of lectures in each educational term; of the formation of classes of students, for the purpose of giving instruction in a more detailed and personal form than can be supplied by general lectures; and of affording to students, generally, advice and directions for the conduct of their professional studies.

The readers also assist in conducting the general examinations held twice a year, for the examination of all such students as may be desirous of being examined previously to being called to the bar.

As an inducement to students to propose themselves for such an examination, studentships and exhibitions have been founded of fifty guineas per annum each, and twenty-five guineas per annum each, respectively, to continue for a period of three years. One such studentship is conferred on the most distinguished student at each general examination, and one such exhibition is conferred on the student who obtains the second position; and, further, the examiners select and certify the names of three other students who have passed the next best examinations, and the inns of court to which such students as aforesaid belong may, if desired, dispense with any terms, not exceeding two, that may remain to be kept by such students previously to their being called to the bar. Pass certificates for a call to the bar are also awarded at these. examinations; the examiners, however, are not obliged to confer or grant any studentship, exhibition, or certificate, unless they are of opinion that the examination of the students has been such as entitles them thereto.

At every call to the bar those students who have passed a general examination, and either obtained at such examination a studentship, an exhibition, or a certificate of honor, take rank in seniority over all other students who may be called on the same day.

The examination is by printed and oral questions on books and subjects specified in a programme previously issued. Besides the above general examinations, there are, in the month of July, in each year, voluntary examinations of the students upon the subjects of the several courses of lectures, but no student is entitled to go in for examination on any of such subjects, unless he has obtained a certificate from the reader that he has duly attended his lectures and classes upon the subject on which he offers himself for examination. These voluntary examinations are conducted by barristers (not being readers) nominated for that purpose by the Council: of Legal Education.

No attorney at law, solicitor, writer to the signet, or writer of the Scotch courts, proctor, notary public, clerk in chancery, parliamentary agent, or agent in court, clerk to any justice of the peace, clerk to any barrister, conveyancer, special pleader, equity draftsman, clerk of the peace, or clerk of or to any officer in any court, is admissible as a student at any inn of court for the purpose of being called to the bar, or of practicing under the bar, until such person shall have ceased to act or practice in any of the said capacities.

Until recently instruction in the law in the United States has been given for the most part in the offices of practicing lawyers. The Litchfield Law School was established in 1784, and was continued about fifty years, attaining much celebrity. Mr. (afterwards Judge) Reeve, of Connecticut, was at first the sole instructor, but Judge Gould was afterwards associated with him, and under them many leading lawyers and statesmen of the country received their legal training. The Harvard Law School was next in point of time, being established in 1817. Law schools are now numerous, and the proportion of students in the law who receive instruction in them increases every year. Most of them confer the degree of Bachelor of Laws, which, however, is not an admission to the bar. The rules of admission are different in the different States, and are establ shed either by statute or by rule of court. In some of the States a diploma from the law school entitles the student to admission on motion, without