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a iiam i iat sm 
 
 THE 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESSES, &c. 
 
 DELIVERKO AT THK OPKM.N'C! Of THJ 
 
 LAW SCHOOL 
 
 IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 Dalhousie University, 
 
 Halifax, Nova Scotia, 
 At the beginning of the First Term in 1883, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE HON. A. G. ARCHIBALD. C. M. G , Q. C, Ll B., &c. 
 
 AND 
 
 R. C. WELDON, A. M., Ph.D., &c 
 
 HALIFAX : 
 
 NOVA SCOTIA PRINTING COMPANY. 
 
 1884. 
 
 / 
 
/^ 
 
 i/y t 
 
 /] 
 
Ci' 
 
 THE LAW 3CH00L 
 
 IS UNDER OBLIGATION TO 
 
 THE HON. SIR WILLIAM YOUNG, Kt, Ll.D. 
 Ex-Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, 
 
 FOR THE FUNDS TO ENABLE THEM TO PUBLISH AND CIRCULATE 
 
 THIS PAMPHLET. 
 
FACULTY. 
 
 RICHARD C. AVELDOX, A. M., Vn.JX, 
 
 I)EAN OF Facultt ; 
 Profesm' of ConstHutional ami Internationa! Laic. 
 
 BENJAMIN RUSSELL, A. M., 
 
 Profe.vsor of Contracts. 
 
 HON. J. S. D. THOMPSON, 
 
 Supreme Court of Nova Scotia ; 
 Lecturer on Procedure and Eridence. 
 
 HON. S. L. SHANNON, Q. C, 1). C. L., 
 
 Lecturer on Peal Projierf/j and Cronea. 
 
 JAMES THOMSON, Q. C, 
 
 Lecturer on Conveyancing. 
 
 WALLACE GRAHAM, R A., Q. C, 
 
 L^'.clurer on Conuncrrial Law. 
 
 ROBERT SEDGEWICK, B. A , Q. C, 
 
 Lecturer on Equity Jurisprudence.. 
 J(JHN Y. PAYZANT, A. M., 
 Lecturer on Torts. 
 
 J. T. BULMER, 
 
 Librarian. 
 
ADVANTAGES OF STUrY AT A LAW SCHOOL. 
 
 On this subject no attempt will be made to address the more 
 advanced members of the legal profession — even for the pur- 
 pose of soliciting their assistance and patronai^e. To them the 
 recollections of student days— of labor wasted in [profitless paths, 
 o''time lost in doing nothing, for the want of direction what to 
 do, and of the laborious acquisition in after life, of the know- 
 ledge which experience, and perha[)s adversity, have alone made 
 known the value, — must appeal more earnestly t!)an the voice 
 of this little circular can. To the younger class of lawyers who 
 read the literature of their profession— even to those who have 
 not had the advantages of studying at a law school, nothing need 
 be said, for they know that both in Great Britain and America 
 the system of oral instruction for law students is being vigor- 
 ously extended, and is insisted upon wherever the views of the 
 legal brotherhood are uttered — whether in its lecture halls, its 
 conventions or its periodicals. 
 
 To those who are about entering on student life, however, 
 and to those who have just entered on it, a few words of explan- 
 ation may be presented as to the advantages which a law 
 school has to offer them. 
 
 In the first place, all that can be said, and it is a vast deal, 
 in favor of studying any science or art, in company with othf r 
 students, and under the direction of professors, may be said 
 in favour of pursuing legal knowledge in the same way. 
 But much more can be said of the advantages of so 
 studying legal science. Law is so vast a subject that it 
 would be hard to say of any man — living or dead— that he is or 
 was its master — although many have been masters of the art oi 
 acquiring a knowledge of it, and of administering its principles. 
 Consider its history, of which the student must learn something ; 
 
8 
 
 how extensive, bow remote the beginning ; how various the coun- 
 tries through vvliich the hncs must be traced — how intricate when 
 followed down, into its relationship with all the principlcn of 
 modern legislation and jurisprudence. Consider the vast 
 territorial range of its empire — the common law still forming 
 the sinple for the whole English speaking race, and finding daily 
 exposition in the courts and publications of more ihan a 
 hundred millions of people. Consider the variety of its subdivi- 
 sions, so numerous that it is considered no di^-grace to the mo.?t 
 eminent of the profession to have it said of them that of some 
 branches of law they know nothing. The lawyer who, amidst 
 the labors of his practice, can tind time to make his ofilce- 
 students even acquainted with the boundaries of this e.xpunse, 
 will have done well — even it he has not been able to direct their 
 subsequent wanderings. 
 
 In the study of such a science how essential is it that the 
 learner shall know How to Icatu. This he cannot know by 
 private, or office study. The literature is too narrow for him in 
 a private library — far too wide for him in a public coDectiou, 
 without a guide. The distractions which, in the office, call the 
 thoughts aside defeat the most assiduous desire, and, worst o' all, 
 there is the distress of having learned with dif^culty and hope- 
 fulness n.any things which are found afterwards to be valueless, or 
 nearly so. The law-school provides a system, by apportioning 
 certain hours to study, and requiring that they shall be well 
 spent; it secures the attention by excluding, duririg the hours of 
 lecture and recitation, all other things than those which relate to 
 the subject in hand, it shows the student where bis labor will be 
 profitably spent, teaches him the relations between the various 
 branches of legal literature, stimulates his energy by the sight 
 and competition of those who are to be his rivails in after years,, 
 and expounds to him by the "living voice," which is easier 
 and more encouraging than the "living page." The )avv-schoo'l 
 gives the voice and page together. 
 
 In shewing the student What to learn, another advantage 
 consists. Those branches of law are chosen which arc consid- 
 ered either essential, or the most likely to be useful. They are 
 divided among a number of professors, so that each, during the 
 

 
 term, may lecture on a specialty and the student, instead of 
 having to rely on one preceptor, engrossed with business, has 
 the advantage of multiplied instructors who are themselves as 
 fully incited to study, by the exercises of the school, as the 
 students are. The difficulties, which, in reading the treatise, or 
 the decided case, in private study, have to be passed by unnoticed, 
 unless laborious digressions are made in collr era! research, 
 are transferred to the desk of the teacher, and his study and 
 experience are enlisted in the student's aid. 
 
 This much, and it is no little, can be fairly claimed for law- 
 school teaching, but the case is not fully stated yet. This much 
 is true and just of law-schools in all countries, when properly 
 conducted, but more has to be said in favor of such institutions in 
 the Dominion of Canada, and especially in the Maritime 
 Provinces. Our profession studies the common law of England, 
 with occasional reference to American and Colonial authorities 
 for the exposition and illu^ ' . .on of it.s doctrines, but, when we 
 leave that base, we have a legal system as distinct from that of 
 any other country as the legal system of Massachusetts is 
 distinct from that of England. Even in considering the com- 
 mon law, we have to reject all, (and there is not a little,) that is 
 inapplicable to our condition. In the lines on which we diverge 
 from the law of England the American law is of little assistance 
 to us, and we are at a greater disadvantage than the profession in 
 almost any other important state, because we have very few 
 publications on our distinctive system — no reliable publicationa 
 indeed which are anything more than Canadian supplements of 
 English books. We need not stay to account for this, but the 
 numerical limit of our population, narrowing the field for the 
 enterprize of the author, vvould probably account chiefly for the 
 fact if reasons had to be sought. Be that as it may, in the 
 absence of such publications it is to the living teacher that the 
 student must look for guidance in those branches of the law in 
 which our system departs from that of England, and in which 
 the consequences of the departure have to be critically analyzed 
 and compared. With the legal literature which England and 
 America possess, if in those countries instruction by the 
 methods of the school is considered essential to the proper 
 
10 
 
 training of the lawyer who is to be ready for his Work, and sure 
 of his handicraft, how much more essential is it in a country 
 where so much that we have to learn is still "unwritten law." 
 
 The Halifax Law School does not claim to have realized the 
 ideal which the reader may have pictured to himself from these 
 references to the advantages of such schools in general, bu( 
 these advantages may be claimed for its methods cf instruction, 
 at least in some humble degree, as compared with other modes 
 of preparation for the law, and the ideal of its founders and 
 professors may, after all, not be very far from attainment— the 
 ideal of a school which will be a practical help to many young 
 men who desire to fit themselves well for the practice of the 
 law—? school which will make legal studies more agreeable and 
 legal practitioners more efficient. 
 
THE LIBRARY. 
 
 The enterprise of the founders of the school is no where 
 more apparent than in the efforts they have put forth to secure 
 a library. From the very inception of the school, the faculty 
 were well aware, that its success depended quite as much on the 
 collection of law books they could get together, as on the 
 reputation and teaching ability of the faculty. Accordingly 
 they have spared no pains or expense consistent with their 
 circumstances, to give the student access to a library containing 
 I the leading reports, treatises, and statutes. At the opening of 
 ■ the second term in November next, they expect to meet the 
 school with a collection of some 5000 volumes. The most that 
 can be said of it is, that it contains the leading works required 
 by students, but is only the nucleus of the collection which the 
 (faculty hope to put together with all possible speed, a collection 
 so complete as to enable those having access to it, to verify all 
 the authorities cited in the reports and treatises, and so ample, 
 as to furnish the means of studying, not only the jurisprudence 
 of Canada, but other countries as well. When it is remembered 
 'that the entire body of law which governs and regulates society, 
 is contained in printed books, the importance of the library 
 cannot well be over estimated. 
 
 i In the provinces of the Dominion and Newfoundland, there 
 have been printed of works of a legal character since 175 1-2, the 
 date of the introduction of printing, at least 4,000 volumes. 
 This estimate takes no account of the ephemera of jurisprudence, 
 'the civil and criminal trials, reviews of cases, arguments, opinions, 
 iessays on law reform, and tracts, and pamphlets, on every 
 •variety of subject relating to law literature, and numbering at 
 'least 10,000 titles. Of these works not one quarter are to be 
 found in any library in Canada. Nevertheless they are 
 
12 
 
 invaluable to the student who attempts to study the growth 
 and development of our legal institutions No man can aftord 
 to ignore the experience of those who have preceded him, and 
 the man who expects to enlarge the bounds of knowledge, must 
 do it by beginning where others leave off. Every pamphlet of 
 a legal or political character has its appropriate and fitting place 
 among the forces which have helped to mould our institutions. 
 They should all be in a law library, and no collection is worthy 
 of the name, which fails to open to the student the chambers, 
 closets and garrets containing so much of the knowledge vital to 
 a just judgment of the growth of our legal and political 
 institutions. 
 
 So far, I have only referred to the publications of our own 
 country, but when we turn our eyes toward the general 
 literature of the law, its immenr.e magnitude is well calculated to 
 awe even those who read nothing but the binder's titles. A 
 complete collection of the law reports would contain at least 
 5,550 volumes apportioned as follows ; English, 1,500 volumes ; 
 Irish, 200 ; Scotch, 300 ; Canadian, 250 ; Australia and other 
 Colonies, 200 ; American, 3,000. The periodical law literature 
 of the last hundred years is contained in not less than 1,000 
 volumes, and this estimate includes only the best of it, exclusive 
 of more than one edition, and all in our own language. Of 
 treatises and digests an average library should contain at least 
 3,000 volumes. To this add 1,000 volumes of codes, statutes, 
 &c., and 2,000 volumes relating to the Roman law, and the 
 various continental systems founded thereon, and we have a 
 total of 11,550 volumes, worth about $75,000. To keep up the 
 collection in the current law publications, we need to provide 
 for the purchase, of at least 100 volumes of reports, 100 treatises 
 and 50 periodicals, costing about $1,500 each year. 
 
 It will be noticed that the above estimate puts out of all 
 consideration works on collateral and kindred subjects, to those 
 taught in the school. A good law library should have quite as 
 many books on these subjects as on juridical questions. 
 
 It is easy to sketch the wants of the school ; but this does 
 not solve the practical question, how are those books to be 
 obtained, and the funds necessary to the support of the library ? 
 
13 
 
 I am of the opinion that the difficulties over these and similar 
 questions are more imaginary than real, and that there are funds 
 and books in abundance for those who deserve them, and who 
 put themselves within the old and everlasting conditions of 
 growth. If we would receive we must ask, and we must always 
 keep before us an ideal far above human effort. If ten volumes 
 are given us to-day, let us not forget that it doubles our 
 obligations to try and get twenty to-morrow from somebody 
 else. As will be seen from the list of donations, during the first 
 year of the school, over 3,000 volumes have been contributed, 
 chiefly by members of the profession. There are in the 
 Maritime Provinces as many more volumes, which should be on 
 our shelves, and which may be had for the asking. Of the legal 
 works printed in Canada, Newfoundland, and the other colonies 
 of North America, it is not too much to hope that the greater 
 number of them will be contributed to the University by friends, 
 authors, publishers, &c. Already the school has obtained many 
 works by exchanging the publications of our own country 
 for sets and works published abroad. The extent to which the 
 library may be increased by exchanges, is only limited by the 
 time and industry of the librarian. There is another source 
 still open to us from which much may be expected, which, so 
 far, for want of time we have not been able to open up. There 
 are Nova Scotians filling positions of honor and profit in every 
 country under the sun ; and if one residing in New York, George 
 IMunro, Esq., could found the school, why have we not a right 
 to expect assistance in books from others residing there and 
 elsewhere? In time the library from this source alone, may 
 become the portrait gallery of the living, and the noble memorial 
 hall of the dead. We have a right to hope that apart from the 
 collections which can be made by the librarian and faculty, large 
 contributions will be made to the library by those having the 
 means. Already the gifts to the school from poor men represent 
 a devotion, a self denial, a self sacrifice, calculated to inspire wide- 
 spread emulation. Are there not members of the profession who 
 will feel constrained by a devout love to their calling, by generous 
 care for the honor of it, and by position and acquirements, to bestow 
 on the profession such a library as we require.^ The powers of our 
 
I 
 
 14) 
 
 life are too frail, and its day too short to enable us to complete 
 any career so as to be worthy of remembrance, if it fail to 
 acknowledge the claims of those who shall succeed us. A well 
 filled alcove in a library is a better monument than stone or 
 marble, and the man who founds a library has a better claim to 
 the remembrance and gratitude of posterity, than the founder of 
 a dynasty. Bodley, Sloane, Bates, Smithson and Peabody, are 
 the names which will not die, and when the names of the kings 
 and queens of this century, are as forgotten as the twelve Caesars 
 of Suetonius, the founders of libraries will be remembered and 
 cherished. An inherent vitality belongs to them, reproducing 
 their image in descendants for all time to come. 
 
 J. T. BULMER, 
 
 Librarian, 
 
GIFTS TO LIBRARY, 
 
 The following donations were made to the library in 1883-4, 
 and it is hoped that the contributions this year will be on a 
 larger scale and from all parts of the Dominion. The school 
 desires and will receive the united support of the legal 
 profession. 
 
 Sir William Ydiing, S200 ; Hon. Mr. Justico Thompson, Hon. S. L. Shannon, 
 Wallace (inihiim, g. C, Kobcit Sedgewick, C^. C, Prof. R. Weldoii, H. McI). 
 Honry, (,^. C , I). Jl Wo.idworth, Esq., Prof. B. Russell, Prof. J. (i. McGregor, 
 J. J. Stewart, Esq., Hon. Robt. Boak, John Y. Payz.-uit, A. M., and W. J. Stairs, 
 E«q., §100 each ; T. A. Ritchie, E.sci., .^50 ; A. K. Mackinlay, Esq., and James Scott, 
 Esq., §2.5 ettch ; and R. W. Eraser, Esq., g!20 
 
 The following is an imperfect list of the books contributed to 
 the library during the same period. It is earnestly hoped that 
 there are many old libraries in Canada, belonging to the 
 descendents of lawyers who were prominent in their day, which 
 will be given the school. To the members of the legal 
 profession everywhere we appeal for books. Read this list and 
 look over your library for what you can t.pare the school. Every 
 man in the profession can help us without injuring himself. 
 Kindly write on the circular enclosed herewith, yjur contribu- 
 tions, and mail to the librarian. 
 
 Akins, T. B., D C. L , 14 vols. ; Allison, J. P., Sackville, 1 vol. ; Almon, Hon. 
 W. J., M. 1)., 12 vols. ; lot of Blue Books ; Archibald, Sheriff, 1(i vols. ; Barnes, H. 
 W. ; 13 vols. ; Bligh, H. H. q. C , Antigonish, 2 vols. ; J5oak, H. W. C, 3 vols. : 
 Borden, R. L.. 1 vol. ; Botsford, Hon. A. E., Sackville, X. B., l.'.O vols. ; Bulmer, 
 J. T., l.")(j vols. ; Commissioners of the Provincial Library, 25 vols. ; Customs Depart- 
 ment, Halifax, per Hon. Williani Ross, 17() vols. ; Do., per H. Withers, 42 vols. • 
 Diily, M. B., M. P., 121 vols. ; Davidson. J. R.,r, vols. ; DesBarres, Hon. W. F.,' 
 212 vols. ; DesBarres, L. W., 8 vols. ; Dickie, Hon. R. B., Amherst, 200 vols. ; Eaton. 
 B. H., Q. C, 19 vols. ; Ervin, John, 10 vols. ; Evan.s, Mrs. William, Four Mile 
 House, 11 vols. ; Ferguson, Hon. Donald, Charlottetown, P. E. I., 1 vol. ; Fielding, 
 Hon. W. S., 12 vols. ; Fogo, Hon. James, Q. C , Pictou, 1.5 vols. ; Forrest, Rev. J. 
 ■i vols. ; Foster, Foster k Mills, 2 vols. ; Fo.x, J. F., 107 vols, j Frame, Elizabeth, 
 
16 
 
 Slml)pnaciuU>N 2 v,.ls. ; Fullcrt..n, W. M., .^inherst, 3 voIh. ; ("lovernmont of Nova 
 Scotia, ttti vols. ; Halifax C. Muiiioipiility of, l.or H. W. WisweH, -11 vols. ; Ilainiig- 
 toii, Hon. IX L., Dorcliester, 10 vols.; Hamnf,'ton, C. S., (^ C, 1 vol. ; llonry, 
 Hugh Mel)., (^ C, 02 vols. ; Hill, P. C, jr , 14 vols.; Hol.art, IX K., Aiiu'.ican 
 Consul, Wiii.lsor, 2i> vols. ; >[o\vo, William, (^ C, 84 vols. ; Howo, Syd.n.haiii, ;J 
 vols. ; lot of Pamphlets; Htint, J. Johnston, d vols. ; Johnston, His H.mor J. W., 
 Dartmouth, lol vols. ; Kenny, Sir Kilwanl, 140 ols. ; King, T-:. D., '.». C •'« vols. ; 
 Knapp, Chailos, Dorchester, 12 V(^ls. ; Matheson, D., Pietou, 14 vols. ; MacCoy, W. 
 v., Q. C, *) voK ; McDonald, Hon. Chief Justice, 2 vols. ; McDonald, Alox., 12 
 vols. ; McHetfey, heirs of tho Hon. llichard, Windso-, 14:5 vols. ; McKay, John, 
 Gay's River H7 vols. ; McKenzie, (1. A., Dartuiouth, 1 vol. ; Maclean, Dr. D., Sliu- 
 benacadie, '.) vols. ; MeLelhin, W. VV., 2 vols. ; McNah, Wm., 1 vol. ; McSweeney, 
 W. P.. 12 vols. ; Menger, John, 25 vols. ; Mills, W. A., 1 vol, ; Milner, Christopher, 
 Sackville, r, vols. ; Moore, Henry, Shnhenacadio, 21 vols. ; Mor.se, Charles, Liverpool, 
 2 vols. ; Motion, Robert, sr> vols. ; Murray, Rev. Robert, 12 vols. ; Dulton, A. E., 
 Dorchester, 2 vols. ; Ouseloy, J. W., 31 vols. ; Parker, F. G., Shubcnacadie, 1!) vols. ; 
 20 Pami>hlets ; Parsons, .1., 57 vols. ; Payzant, J. Y., 20 vols. ; Peck, J. B., Dor- 
 chester, 3 vols. ; Penny, Mrs., Cay's River, i vol. ; I'owell, A. A., Sackville, 8 vols. ; 
 Power, Hon. L. (J., 1 vol. ; Pryor, Henry, (^ C, D. C. L., 144 vols. ; Ratehford, 
 C. E., Amherst, 2 vols. ; Rigby, Hon. S. C., 27 vols. ; Ritchie, Hon. J. W., 12 vols. ; 
 Ritchie, (ieorge, LL.li., 3 vols. ; Russell, B., IXirtmouth, (> vols. ; Sedgewiok, liobt., 
 Q. C.,27 vols. ; Shannon, Hon. S. L., ^l C, 49 vols. ; Smith. Hon. H, W., GO vols. ; 
 Soule >S: Bugbee, lioston, 2 vol«. ; Stewart, J. J., vols. ; Stewart, D. B., Ottawa, 1 
 vol. ; State of Wisconsin, 1 vol. ; State of Pennyslvania, 2 vols. ; State of Vermont, 
 1 vol. ; State of Illinois, 1 vol. ; State .>f Nebraska, 1 vol ; State of Kentucky, 1 vol. ; 
 State of Wyoming, 3 vols. ; Stated of Missouri, 2 vols. ; State of Dakota, 1 vol. ; State 
 of Michigan, 1 vol. ; State of Alabama, 1 vol. ; State of Indiana, 1 vol ; State of 
 Montana. 2 vols. ; State of New York, 4 vols. ; State of Now Me.xico, 1 vol. ; State of 
 Arizona, 1 vol. ; Sutherland, W. D., 3 vols. ; Thomi)son, Hon. J. S. D., 72 vols. ; 
 Thomson, James, Q. C.,1 vol ; Thome, J. H., 8 vols.; Tremaino, F. J., 9 vols.; 
 Wallace, T. J., 11 vols, and lot of Pamphlets ; Wells, W. W., 13orchester, 12 vols. ; 
 White, Hon. A. J., 12 vols. ; Whitman, Alfred, 7 vols. ; Wylde, J. J., 8 vols. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered by HON. A. G. ARCHIBALD, Q. C, C. M. G., &c., on the 
 30tli day of October, A. D. 1883, on the occasion of the Open- 
 ing of a Law School in connection with Dalhousie College, 
 Halifax, Nova Scotia. 
 
 We are met this evening on an occasion of great interest. 
 A branch of collegiate education, not hitherto attempted in 
 this Province, is about to be opened. 
 
 The munificence of one of Nova Scotia's worthiest sons, has 
 enabled the Governors of Dalhousie to add the subject of law to 
 the curriculum of studies that maybe pursued at the University. 
 Leading lawyers among us, including Judges on the Bench, 
 have seconded the effort. In a spirit of devotion and self-sacri- 
 fice (engaged as they are in the onerous duties that devolve on 
 Bench and Bar) they have undertaken to contribute to the 
 efficiency of the School. They recognize the principle which 
 Bacon lays down in such cases when he says: "I hold every 
 man a debtor to his profession — from the which, as men of 
 course do seek to secure countenance, and profit, so ought they 
 of duty to endeavor themselves by way of amends, to be a Jielp 
 and ornament thereunto." 
 
 There is one point, however, on which the Faculty have erred, 
 if I may be permitted the use of such an expression. They 
 should, for an inaugural address, have secured the services of a 
 gentleman, better fitted than I can pretend to be, for the dis- 
 charge of that duty. They have, among themselves, men who 
 could have done justice to the subject. If, though not till after 
 more than one remonstrance, I have yielded to the wishes of the 
 Faculty, it is not because I do not feel that the service will suf- 
 fer by the inefficiency of its execution, but because I acknow- 
 ledge in Bacon's phrase, the debt I owe my professioii and 
 must not when called upon shrink from the endeavor to be a 
 *'help," however little I may hope to be "an ornament thereunto." 
 
IS 
 
 In the history of education it is surprising that the science 
 of law should ever have been thought unworthy of a chair in a 
 University. "It is a science," soys one of its ablest expounders, 
 "which distinguishes the criterions of right and wrong, which 
 tca(.hes to establish the one, and to prev'cnt, punish, or redress 
 the other; which employs in its theory, the noblest faculties of 
 the soul, and exerts, in its practice, the cardinal virtues of the 
 heart ; a science which is universal in its use and extent, ac- 
 commodated to each individual, yet comprehending the whole 
 community," 
 
 The same eminent writer says in another passage : "I think 
 it an undeniable position that a competent knowledge of the 
 Ir.vvs of that society in which we live is the proper accomplish- 
 ment of every gentlemen and scholar, a highly useful, I had 
 almost said, essential part of liberal and polite education. And 
 in this I am warranted by the example of ancient Rome, where, 
 as Cicero informs us, the very boys were obliged to learn the 
 twelve tables by heart, as a ' carmen necessarium' or indispen- 
 sable lesson, to imprint on their tender minds an early know- 
 ledge of the laws and constitution of their country." Yet what 
 aid do the collegiate institutions of this Province hold forth to 
 our youth who ci«jsire to have some knowledge of the Law and 
 Constitution under which they live .^ None whatever — and, as 
 for that class of young men who are entering upon the study of 
 the law as a profession, happy are they, if they serve their time 
 with a Master who has leisure and inclination to help them over 
 the initial difficulties of the study. Without such aid — and we 
 fear, the number of pupils who receive it, is very limited, a 
 student must be content with making slow progress in the rudi- 
 ments of his profession, or else he must attain his knowledge at 
 an expense of time, of effort and of energy, which, if incurred in 
 any other pursuit, would justly be considered wasteful and ex- 
 travagant. 
 
 Sir Edward Coke, in his quaint way, gives what he considers 
 as a proper apportionment of the day for a law student. 
 
 Six hours to sleep, to law's grave study six. 
 Four spend in prayer, the rest on nature fix. 
 
19 
 
 But as from year to year, from generation to generation, 
 there is an accumulation of the materials which have to be stu- 
 died, there is reason to fear that this apportionment may not be 
 strictly observed — and that as time rolls on, a tendency may 
 grow to enlarge the time allotted for woik, and abridge that as- 
 signed for prayer. 
 
 Sir William Jo.ies makes a somewhat different division of the 
 day. Referring to the couplet of Cuke, which we have quoted, 
 he says, " rather 
 
 Six hours to law — to soothing slumber seven, 
 Ten to the world, and M to heaven." 
 
 In his opinion the spirit of devotion should not prevail dur- 
 ing four hours only, to the exclusion of the rest of the day. 
 It should hover over every hour of the twenty-four. 
 
 There is no question that the religious element should enter 
 largely into the composition of a lawyer's mind, but, if we may 
 rely on the facts of history, we have reason to fear that, at all 
 events, in the times preceding ours, lawyers have not given due 
 heed to the precepts of either of these sages. Be that as it may 
 they do not, as a body, seem to have derived from their religious 
 exercises all the benefit which so much devotion should have in- 
 sured. 
 
 Of the work to be done, in the orthodox six hours a-day, sanc- 
 tioned by the authority, alike of Coke and of Jones, the student 
 will be able to form a better judgtnent after having his mind 
 turned for a iew minutes to the various Branches of jurispru- 
 dence which constitute the municipal law of England — the basis 
 of our own — and to the various sources from which it is derived. 
 
 First of all then we have the "Common Law," which Black- 
 stone describes as "that admirable system of maxim.s and unwrit- 
 ten customs, which is known by the name of the commoti law, as 
 extending its authority universally over the zvhole Realm!' 
 
 Some of the doctrines of the common law have undoubtedly 
 such an origin — Blackstone indeed traces a few of such back 
 to very early ages. But in the confusion arising from the various 
 invasions and conquests of England, beginning with that of the 
 Romans and ending with that of the Normans, intercalated as 
 
20 
 
 these were with other invasions and conquests by Picts, Jutes, 
 Anglo-Saxons and Danes, and the internecine quarrels on Eng- 
 lish soil, between the latter races, it is difficult to suppose that 
 there was in early days any very considerable body of customs 
 which prevailed unilormly over the whole of a country whose 
 population was made up of materials so heterogeneous. Some 
 customs and some rules, connected with matters of daily necessi- 
 ty there certainly were, which chrystallizcd into that form, but 
 the phrase 'the common law,' is understood to comprehend 
 much more than these. The idea underlaying the expression — 
 the idea in the mind of Counsel when addressing the Bench — 
 and in the mind of the Bench when addressed by Counsel, is 
 that there is in existence and has been from time immemorial a 
 vast body of maxims and doctrines, having the force of law 
 which will meet and apply to any and every case that can come 
 before the court. The English law is, or rather has been, full 
 of Fictions, and this is one of the boldest of them. In v. iC early 
 history of England, Fiction was the hand-maid of Justice. By 
 Fiction only could law, which, in its nature, is fixed and stable, 
 be made to keep pace with society, which in its nature, is 
 changeable and progressive. 
 
 Many of these Fictions, from that of the Common Recover- 
 ies of the Sixteenth Century, with the mythical Common Vouch- 
 ees, down to the well remembered John Doe and Richard Roe, 
 of thirty years ago, have in their days served useful purposes. 
 They enabled the courts to free themselves from the shackles 
 of doctrines that had fallen behind the times — and in certain 
 cases to administer justice by a side wind, when they could not 
 do it directly. By and by, however, when Law, through the 
 aid of Fiction and of another auxiliary to be mentioned presently 
 had made great progress, the Legislature stepped in and 
 swept away a huge heap of make-believes, and enabled the courts 
 to do directly, what formerly they could do only by pretences 
 and subterfuges. The courts applied to such judicial inventions 
 the maxim that Tn fictione juris semper existit equitas.' They 
 permitted the use of them only when they subserved the objects 
 of Justice. But even this permission implied, that the law, as it 
 stood, was wrong or imperfect — that to administer it in that 
 
 ill 
 
21 
 
 form, would work injustice — that to avoid this, it was proper as 
 13room puts it, in his Maxims, "to make an assumption that a 
 thing was true which was not true, or which was as probably 
 false as true." 
 
 A considerable part of what has been called the common 
 law, had its origin not in universal customs, nor in ancient statutes, 
 nor in any other recognized source of law, but was really and 
 truly the creation of the Judges ; as much so as if power had 
 been expressly conferred on them to make law, where there was 
 none, or to settle it where it was doubtful. Sir James Mackintosh 
 says, that "the Law ot England has been chiefly formed out of 
 the simple principles of natural justice, by a lung series of 
 judicial decisions." 
 
 He might have added that in some of those decisions, we will 
 not say in any great proportion of them, the judge, in early days, 
 was governed by principles derived neither from immemorial cus- 
 tom, nor tradition, nor ancient practice, nor natural justice,nor any 
 other authority of indigenous growth, but from a code which he 
 ignored and aflected to despise. The Judges and Parliaments 
 of those days, alike resisted the adoption of foreign laws. 
 "Nolumus leges Angliae mutari," was the motto of the liarons 
 assmbled at Merton,and the Courts affected to share the feelings 
 of the Senate, If, therefor, they appropriated from a foreign 
 code any doctrines and principles which, however sound in 
 themselves, had not yet found their way into English jurispru- 
 dence, it was necessary to suppose that they derived them from 
 that vast mythical collection of maxims and unwritten customs 
 to which Blackstone refers. The Clergy of the day were striving 
 to introduce the Civil Law into England, and this course of 
 the Judges rcco iciled the opponents of the Clergy to doctrines 
 and principles which they would not have tolerated if there 
 source had been known. 
 
 Good service was done to the English law by the work of 
 Bracton. "Do consuetudinibus et legibus Anglicanis," composed 
 about the middle of the thirteenth century, almost at the very 
 time that the Barons assembled at Merton were making their 
 celebrated declaration. This work is itself an illustration of the 
 extei t to which English Law has been moulded by the hand of 
 
22 
 
 fiction. It is not necessary to go the Icngtl. of Sir IIcMiry 
 Maine, who, in spcakiiij; of this work, (and there should be no 
 better autliority) says of it. 
 
 "Tliat an ICiigHsh lawyer of the time of Henry III. should 
 have been able to put off on his countrymen as a compendium of 
 English law, a treatise of which the entire form, and a third of the 
 contents were directly borrowed from the Corpus Juris, and that 
 he should have ventured on this experiment in a country where 
 the systematic study of the Roman law was formally proscribed, 
 will always be among the most hopeless enigmas of English 
 Jurisprudence." 
 
 And yet this work, owing much, as undoubtedly it did, to a 
 code that had iio force in England, the study of which was 
 actually prohibited, was treated as a repository of ancient 
 customs and met with the most marked favour. Great numbers 
 of manuscript copies were made and scattered over the realm. 
 Manv of these arc still in existence, There are eight of them 
 in the Book Department of the liritish Museum at this moment. 
 
 Two centuries however had still to elapse before the inven- 
 tion of printing, and still another before this book was to be put in 
 type. In that form it has become a recognized exponent of the 
 Common Law, and on it, largely, are based the subsequent 
 systematic treatises on English Law. 
 
 The Common Law can hardly, therefore, be said to be, as 
 the theory was, a code in existence from time immemorial, not 
 written indeed, but locked up in the breast of Judges, who 
 let out from time to time so nujcis of it as was necessary for the 
 adjudication of the particular cases before them. 
 
 By their law-making power, the Judges not only created law 
 when there was none, but sometimes by the aid of their fictions, 
 they found out a way indirectly, to repeal acts of Parliament, passed 
 in the most solemn form. The fiction threw a decent veil over 
 the usurpation, and probably was treated as fact by the rude and 
 illiterate men to whom the functions of legislation in early times 
 belonged. By-and-by. when the general scheme of municipal 
 law had acquired some degree of completeness, the necessity for 
 judge-made law, grew less and less urgent, while on the other 
 hand the improvement and progress of society rendered it no 
 
 ii.i 
 
23 
 
 lonp;cr necessary that the functions of the legislature slicnikl be 
 exercised by any body but itself. 
 
 While on this subject permit me to say, that there is some- 
 thing in the principles which govern our judicial decisions adverse 
 to the creation of a symmetrical system of law. With us the 
 judgment on a case before the Court ilcpends upon the special 
 circumstances of the individual case. A judge must be under- 
 stood . • deciding only the points in controversy in that case. 
 To thv...!. ilone the arguments of the counsel are to be directed. 
 On them alone the decision of the judge is authoritative. If he 
 goes further, and gives an oi)inion beyond what the case requires, 
 this is an 'obiter dictum ' without authority and is called in 
 question whenever a case arises which really involves the point 
 to which the 'obiter dictum' referred. So far as this concerns 
 the question directly in controv'ersy, the decision of the judge 
 establishes the law and is considered binding in subsequent 
 cases. 
 
 In the old Roman system, a case when decided by the judge 
 was settled for ever, but it affected only the litigants themselves. 
 It was not quoted as an authority to govern future cases. The 
 law remained the same after the decision that it was before. 
 The bench therefor, though it decided cases, did not make law. 
 But what to our minds seems an anomaly, is that in a parallel 
 stage of legal developement, the function of creating nmch of the 
 law, which with us was exercised by the Bench, with them fell to 
 private members of the Bar. 
 
 In our Province we all know that every young gentleman who 
 studies law hopes to be at least Chief Justice. If he were study- 
 ing '.1 England, he would not be content with any position under 
 that of Lord Chancellor. In like manner a Roman lawyer had 
 his pet object of ambition, and that was to become Praetor, when, 
 for a year at least,he would exercise the highest judicial functions, 
 and be the fountam at once of equity and law. 
 
 In preparing himself for this, the highest post to which he 
 could aspire, he devoted himself assiduously to the study of his 
 profession. He was also engaged in daily practice as an advo- 
 cate and juris-consult. 
 
 In this way a lawyer of eminent ability, acquired a distinction 
 
24 
 
 so marked that his opinion was to a large extent louked upon a^ 
 law, and certainly came in time to be the source and origin of much 
 that was law. In dealing with cases submitted to him, he was 
 not obliged to confine himself to the points raised by the partic- 
 ular facts, but he rounded off his opinion by a view of the prin- 
 ciples which he considered to underlay the class of cases of 
 which this was one. In this manner the 'Responsa prudentum' 
 which is the only thing in the Roman system analagous to our 
 case law, gave to that code a character of symmetry and 
 harmony which we look for in vain under the English system. 
 
 Legal writers and commentators in those days addressed 
 themselves, not to the cases decided by the Praetors, but to the 
 opinions thus given, and drew their deductions from, and made 
 their comments upon, the doctrines of these eminent juris-con- 
 sults. The result is that the Roman law furnishes a set of 
 principles applicable to cases, while the English system gives us 
 cases from which principles are to be deduced. The one 
 system furnishes the essence and spirit of law, the cthc^r the raw 
 materials from which the essence and spirit are to be distilled. The 
 Roman law with its digests and institutes and commentaries, is 
 voluminous enough, but the books in which it is contained bear 
 no proportion in number to those which embalm for us, the 
 cases that have given occupation tc our courts for six centuries. 
 The volumes of reports at the time of Sir Edmund Coke was 
 counted by hundreds. Now they may be counted by thousands. 
 
 When we consider the slow and fragmentary vvy in which 
 our case law has been built up, by a long series of iudicil decisions, 
 extending from the earliest times to the present day, touching 
 almost every point that can be riised before a court, covering no 
 entire principle or branch of the law, but dealing with each case 
 as it arose, and then only with so much of the case as was neces- 
 sary to dispose of the particular controversy, it is not a matter of 
 wonder that the system should be somewhat irregular and un- 
 symmetrical. 
 
 Imagine any material structure, erected upon no settled plan, 
 begun in a remote age, put up bit by bit, here a little and there a 
 little, a wing at one time, a porch at another, here a tower, and 
 there a steeple, a roof raised a story in one part, and lowered a 
 
 I L 
 
story in another; the materials of brick, of wood, of stone by 
 turns, and built by workmen of every century. From such a 
 mode of building we would not expect a very harmonious whole. 
 Yet such a structure is the law of England, and, considering the 
 way in which it has been erected, it is perfectly marvellous that 
 the fabric should challenge as it does the admiration of the world. 
 There has been in England no greater law reformer than Jeremy 
 Bentham. He is probably the severest critic of British law, which 
 England has produced. In referring to the points of which we 
 have been speaking, he says of the English Law : "Confused, 
 indeterminate, inadequate, ill adapted and inconsistent, as to a 
 vast extent the provision or no provision would be found to be, 
 that has been made by it for the various cases that have 
 happened to present themselves for decision, yet, in the character 
 of a repository for such cases, it affords for the manufactory of 
 real Law, a stock o^ mater'als which is beyond all price. 
 Traverse the whole concinent of Europe, ransack all the Libraries 
 belonging to all the jurisprudential systems of the several political 
 states, add the contents together, you v.'ould not be able to com- 
 pose a collection of cases equal in variety, in amplitude, in clearness 
 of statement, in a word, on all points taken together, in construc- 
 tiveness, to that which may be seen to be afforded by the collec- 
 tion of English Reports of adjudged cases." 
 
 The splendid eulogium at the close of this estimate, is an 
 ample set off to the censure, not altogether justifiable, with 
 which it is introduced and derives much of its value from the 
 known hostility with which the writer viewed many parts of the 
 English system. 
 
 But whatever its origin, a. J whatever its faults, the system 
 is destined to exercise an enormous influence over human affairs. 
 It is true the continent of Europe, and liic north part of the 
 Island of Great Britain are largely governed by Roman Law. 
 But England and almost every Country in which England has 
 planted her flag, has its legal system based on the principles of 
 English Law. Throughout the United States, with their fifty 
 million of inhabitants — in this Dominion from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific — in Africa — in Australia and Austral Asia — in 
 the Islands of the Pacific — in the West Indies and India itself, 
 
26 
 
 the English system is either the Basis of the Law or is largely 
 adopted in its administration. Of the two systems it may be 
 said with truth, that English Law of indigenous growth, and 
 Roman Law, between them govern the legal relations of the 
 whole civilized world. 
 
 I need not d' ell on the vast body of the Law of England, 
 which consists of legislative enactments. These are contained 
 in ,.ome where about one hundred and fifty volumes, with an 
 average of perhaps five hundred pages to a volume. 
 
 But there is another branch of the municipal Law of England 
 which cannot be passed over so rapidly. This lies side by side 
 with the common Law, but it is founded on distinct principles, 
 and claims incidentally to supersede the common Law by virtue 
 of a superior sanctity inherent in those principles. It differs 
 from fictions, inasmuch as its interference with the civil law is 
 open and avowed. There were certain mischiefs in connection 
 with the administration of the common Law which, we have 
 seen, were cured by the judges themselves. There were other 
 mischiefs which either they could not reach or were not disposed 
 to reach by their fictions. Yet the law as they administered it, 
 was in some cases a violation of those principles of right and 
 wrong, which God has implanted in the breast of every man. 
 These mischiefs required a remedy, and it was found in the 
 doctrines of Equity. These derive their force neither from 
 ancient customs, nor legislative enactments, nor from any other 
 external source. They depend upon their intrinsic vigor as a 
 system of ethics, which would not allow the Law to be used as 
 a cloak for fraud or deception. These principles were assumed 
 to flow from the conscience of the sovereign. He commit"tcd 
 the administration of them, to his Chancellor, who in olden times 
 was generally a cleric. By degrees the doctrines of Equity, 
 were moulded by a succession of judges, until they became as 
 fixed and certain as those of the common Law. The decisions 
 of the Court, in cases where equity is involved, are recorded in 
 a vast body of Chancery Reports, which swell the books of 
 reference to which a Lawyer has occasion to resort, by some 
 hundreds of additional volumes. 
 
 There is still another large branch of the municipal law, 
 
27 
 
 being that formerly aflministcrcd by the Fcclesiastical Courts, 
 and yet another containing the Principles of IVTaritime and Inter- 
 national Law. On all these branches the Student must have 
 some information ; so that it is clear he has before him no idle 
 life, if he expects to attain a high standing in his profession. 
 
 Now when a student makes an effort to inform himself how 
 he is to commence the work before him, he naturally looks for 
 advice to the men who have themselves acquired distinction in 
 the profession. Suppose he takes up the fascinating book which 
 Lord Campbell has written of the Lives of his brother Chancel- 
 lors. He will find in the biography of Lord Eldon the advice 
 given by a sage of the Law to a person just entering upon the 
 study ot it. Lord Campbell says, " When I was commencing 
 my legal curriculum, I was told this anecdote. A young 
 stuu nt asked Sir Vicary Cbbs how he should learn his profcs- 
 s. " Sir Vicary. 'Read Coke upon Littleton.' Student. 'I 
 have read Coke on Littleton.' Sir Vicary. 'Read Coke upon 
 Littleton over again.' Student. 'I have read it twice over.' 
 Sir Vicary. 'Thrice.' Student. 'Yes thrice.' Sir Vicary. 
 'You may now sit down and make an abstract of it." 
 
 Sir Vicary's student life began over a century ago — and we 
 are not much surprised at finding him express an opinion that 
 had then been prevalent for nearly two hundred years, and was 
 regarded almost as a legal maxim. But we may wonder at the 
 emphatic confirmation of that opinion given by Lord Campbell, 
 who studied la'- about the beginning of this century and who 
 committed his opinion to writing not more than forty years ago. 
 He says. 'If my opinion is of any value, I heartly join in the 
 same advice. The Book contains much that is obsolete, and much 
 that is altered by statutable enactments, but no man can thor- 
 oughly understand the law as it now stands, without being fami- 
 liar with the writings of Lord Coke, nor is he by any means 
 so dry and forbidding as is generally supposed. He is certainly 
 unmethodical, but he is singularly perspicuous. He fixes the 
 attention — his quaintness is often most amusing and he excites 
 our admiration by the inexhaustable stores of erudition which 
 without any effort he seems spontaneously to pour forth — Thus 
 were our genuine lawyers formed. Lord Eldon read Coke up- 
 
28 
 
 on Littleton, once, twice, thrice, and made an abstract of the 
 whole work as a useful exercise, obeying the wise injunction. 
 
 "Legerc Multuni non Multa." 
 
 We must receive this utterance with respect, because it pro- 
 ceeds from a man of the highest rank in his profession. But 
 will it be considered presumptuous to say that it does not carry 
 conviction. 
 
 There is truth in the statement that familiarity with the 
 work in question is of great service to a lawyer. But the point 
 of Lord Campbell's anecdote is, not the value of the kr.ovvledge 
 to be attained from the work, but the mode and especially the 
 time.in which the Book should be read. The student should begin 
 with it, should read it over and over again, and then abstract it, 
 and all this before attempting any other Book. He admits that 
 a great deal of it is obsolete, a great deal more not now law. Yet 
 the student is to burden his memory with a huge amount of 
 legal rubbish. He is for the time to believe that to be law, 
 which is not law, and which he is afterwards to unlearn. He is 
 by and by to jettison half the cargo he has taken on board, 
 and still later on, to find that much remains that should have 
 been thrown overboard before — and he is to begin his study 
 without the slightest acquaintance with the technical terms 
 which stare him in the iace the moment he opens the Book. 
 This mode of studying law seems to me on a par with that 
 adopted for the dead languages in some schools, where Greek is 
 learned from a grammar compiled in Latin. The pupil has to 
 learn a language of which he knows nothing by the aid of 
 another of which he knows almost as little. This is not exactly 
 on the principle of the Dictionary which was said to define "Ignota 
 per Ignotiora" but it comes pretty near to it. 
 
 It seems to me that a law student who without any prepar- 
 ation for the difficulties of the work, without any knowledge of 
 the technical language in which it is written, takes up Coke on 
 Littleton to study it, is groping in darkness almost Cimmer- 
 ian. There may be some men who can do this and yet not be- 
 come disgusted with the study, where the threshold is made so 
 repulsive. Sir Vicary Gibbs may have done it. He does not 
 indeed say that he did. All that we learn is, that he advised a 
 
29 
 
 student to do it. Lord Campbell may have done it. He does 
 not say that he did. He merely advises others to do it. The 
 only thing he asserts as a matter of fact is, that Lord Eldon 
 actually did it. This may be true. Lord Eldon did many things 
 which no ordinary man could do. He could drink two bottles of 
 strong Newcastle Port, and goon immediately to deliver a Judg- 
 men'; covering the most abstruse and complicated points in a 
 Case in Equity — expressing himself with perfect clearness and 
 precision. What would have muddled an ordinary brain and si- 
 lenced an ordinary tongue,' only seemed to clear Lord Eldon's in- 
 tellect and smooth the flow of his graceful oratory. One who, as a 
 judge, could do what it is believed no other judge ever did, or was 
 able to do, or would have cared to do, or to be thought able to 
 do, might, as a student, have succeeded in many things which an 
 ordinary person should not be advised to attempt. 
 
 But we are not so much surprised at this course of study 
 being recommended by English Lawyers, particularly the older 
 class of them, as we are to find 'heir opinions concurred in by 
 eminent members of the profession on this side of the water. 
 As late as the year 1850, one of these gentlemen, who held a 
 high position at the American Bar, delivers himself in this wise, 
 on the subject we are now discussing. 
 
 'Old authorities no longer divide with .id wine, the rever- 
 ence of either Seniors or Juniors. Most of the old Law Books 
 that used to be thought as good a foundation for their part of 
 the truth as the prophets and apostles are for the whole truth, 
 are taken away, I rather think, from the bottom of the building 
 and thrown into the ground. The Littleton, upon whom Coke 
 sits, or seems to sit, to the end of things, as Carlyle says, has 
 fewer than of old to sit with him, for long hours to alleviate the 
 incumbrance. 
 
 For the most part, as I am told, the incumbent and the suc- 
 cumbent lie together in the dust, which uppermost not many 
 care to know. 
 
 "Almost any law-book that is more than 21 years of age, like 
 a single lady who has attained that climacteric, is said to be too 
 old for much devotion. Indexes, Digests, and Treatises, which 
 supply thoughts without cultivating the power of thinking, and 
 
30 
 
 are renewed with notes and commentaries 'dc die in diem' to 
 spare the fatigue of research are supj^oscd to be the most conven- 
 ient society for student as well as practitioner. Such are the 
 rumors which float upon the air. "All old things are passed 
 away, all things are become new." A great truth in its one 
 sense, when first spoken and always, is now thought to be true 
 in all senses, and renewable Irom year to year for ever." 
 
 The man who gave utterance to these opinions was himself 
 an eminent lawyer of Pennsylvania. Side by side with his State, 
 there were, as side by side with our Province there are, some 
 forty civilized States and Provinces, deriving their law from an 
 English source. Each of these States and Provinces has its separ* 
 ate judicial Tribunals, with reports of the cases adjudicated before 
 them. These Communities were placed in circumstances simi- 
 lar to his own, as they are to ours. It might therefore well be 
 supposed that the questions brought before the Courts in all 
 these countries, must bear a close similitude to each other. The 
 Reports of cases in one country, if not authoritative in another, 
 would at all events through the arguments used by Counsel and the 
 decisions of Judges, throw much light on the points of controversy. 
 It would become necessary, therefore, for the legal practitioner 
 on this side of the water, not only to study the decisions of the 
 English Courts, which up to a certain date are authoritative in 
 every State and Province, but in addition he would have occas- 
 ionally to refer to these Reports, which are comprised in some 
 thousands of volumes. One cannot therefore, but be surprised 
 at the sneers in which the orator indulges at the aid offered by 
 Indexes, Digests, Treatises and Notes. What indeed under such 
 circumstances could be more hopeless than to attempt by per- 
 sonal research of the Reports themselves, to find the cases which 
 may be applicable to a particular controversy .'' A lawyer might 
 have at his finger ends all that is to be found in Coke upon 
 Littleton, and still, if applied to on any question, which, in nine 
 cases out of ten, comes before a Court of Law with us or in the 
 United States he would be as helpless as a child. 
 
 In the Case of the Bar in a New Country, there are many 
 additional reasons why the course of legal study should differ 
 from that which would be proper in England. 
 
3t 
 
 There the Profession is divided in various ways. First of 
 all, there are two great Branches of the Profession. Lawyers 
 are divided according as they prepare the written papers and 
 proceedings — or as they address the Court. The first-class are 
 Attorneys, Solicitors, or Proctors. The latter, Barristers or 
 Advocates, taking the title according to the Courts in which 
 they respectively practice. Then again each of these classes is 
 sub-divided into sections which devote themselves to a particu- 
 lar portion of the business belonging to the class. Thus con- 
 fining themselves within a limited range, they acquire peculiar 
 skill in the conduct of cases coming within the sphere of ac- 
 tivity which they select. They seldom, if ever, travel beyond 
 that sphere. With us, and in all countries situate like ours, the 
 case is entirely different. Here practically all members of the 
 profession are Attornies, Solicitors, Proctors, Barristers, and 
 Advocates. They must be prepared to appear in every Court — 
 to be concerned in every case. They must know something of 
 Law, and something of Equity. They must have some acquain- 
 tance with the law of Nations, and some with the law of 
 Divorce. They must be ready to draft a bill in Equity, or a 
 Libel in the Admiralty, alternately with a Declaration in a 
 Civil Cause, or an Indictment in a Criminal one. In fact the 
 business of a Lawyer in a New Country, requires great versa- 
 tility of talent, great readiness of resource. It requires a gen- 
 eral information about everything, which is hardly consistent 
 with very profound information about anything. Consequent- 
 ly there is less reason for, or rather, there is more reason for 
 not, pursuing the special course of study recommended by the 
 eminent authorities we have quoted. The special knowledge 
 which might in this way be acquired, like the Greek and Latin, 
 which are supposed by some people to be 'Education,' has a 
 value in the one case, as it has in the other, but if the time 
 spent in acquiring it, had been devoted to objects that would 
 better prepare the student for the work of life, the world would 
 be the better of the student, and the student better fitted for 
 the world. 
 
 In such a state of things, Indexes, and Digests, Treatises 
 and Notes, are of inestimable value. Books written within 
 
32 
 
 v:;! 
 
 twenty-one years, which give the law to a late date, are a thousand 
 times more useful than the Entries and Year Books, and Littleton 
 with Coke on his back, whose desertion by the profession, our 
 American friend so eloquently bewails. In point of fact, it is to 
 these that our Lawyer is indebted for the time to think. Had 
 he, in each case in which he is engaged, to search for himself, 
 in the Reports, for Cases in point, he would waste recklessly the 
 time which should be employed in thinking. If he is to exercise 
 any thought at all, he will owe it to the time which these aids 
 enable him to save. 
 
 There is another point of difference between an old and a 
 new Country that must not be lost sight of. 
 
 In England the young men who propose to devote themselves 
 to the higher walks of the profession, as a rule, begin after having 
 received a good Collegiate Education, and when they enter upon 
 the study of law, have arrived at the age of manhood. They 
 can devote to the new persuit a trained and mature intellect. 
 They are not disheartened by the necessity of giving attention, 
 at the same time, to other studies. It is easy to see how much 
 this affects the course of study, which it is possible to pursue. 
 What would be practicable in England, is impossible here. The 
 time may come, when our circumstances will permit a longer 
 course of study, before commencing the active work of l-'C. It 
 has not yet come. 
 
 In the cases of the great Lawyers to whom we have had 
 occasion to refer, it is worth our while enquiring how far they 
 come within the limits of our distinction. 
 
 Sir Vicary Gibbs spent his youth at Eton, and his early 
 manhood at Kings College, Cambridge, where he became a 
 fellow. He was called to the Bar after this long educational 
 period at the mature age of thirty one. 
 
 Lord Eldon was sent to Oxford when sixteen years old, and 
 remained there till after he came of age. He obtained a fellow- 
 ship at that university, which however he lost by running away 
 with and marrying a coal fitter's daughter. He was twenty-five 
 years old when admitted to the Bar. 
 
 Lord Campbell spent eight years of his early life at the 
 
* 
 
 33 
 
 University of St. Andrews, and had reached his twenty seventh 
 year at the time of his admission to the Bar. 
 
 In eveiy one of these cases, the Collegiate Course was com- 
 pleted before the professional course was commenced. In each 
 the Student was of mature years, and entered on his special 
 studies with the advantage of an intellect thoroughly trained, 
 and a mind instructed by other studies. 
 
 At the age when the youngest of these great lawyers was 
 admitted to the Bar, our men who devote themselves to the law, 
 are as a rule actively engaged in professional business, supporting 
 themselves from its proceeds. I do not say that it would not be 
 far better, for them and for us — I believe it would — that they 
 should study longer and begin later, liut what can we do.^ We 
 must adapt ourselves to our circumstances and do as we can, not 
 as we would. 
 
 We might carry our argument '\ little further, and ask whether 
 in the changed condition of society, and the enormous growth 
 of personal property and of litigation depending on contract, 
 there is any ground forgiving such preeminence to the study of 
 the Tenure of Real Estate. But we have already occupied too 
 much of your time, with this branch of the subject. 
 
 Instead of devoting to the study of Coke such primary and ex- 
 clusive attention, we think it much better for the student to take 
 for his early reading some treatise which gives the best general 
 idea of the whole system of municipal Law. Having thus 
 acquired the outlines of the science, and having in his mind a 
 map of the whole, he can fill up th2 interior as time and 
 occasion permit. Since the appearance of Blackstone's Com- 
 mentaries about one hundred and twenty years ago, this work 
 has been an early companion of the Law student. Some of its 
 law, as Campbell says of most of Coke's, has become obsolete or 
 been repealed, but the work is an admirable one for the student 
 to begin with. Sir William Jones has pronounced it to be "the 
 most beautiful outline that was ever given of any science." 
 
 An eloquent clergyman has spoken of it in these glowing 
 words : 
 
 'Nothing can exceed the luminous arrangement, the vast 
 comprehension and (we may venture to add from the best 
 
 I 
 
34 
 
 authorities) the legal accuracy, of this wonderful performance^ 
 which in style and composition is distinguished by an unaffected 
 grace, a majestic simplicity, which can only be eclipsed by the 
 splendour of its higher qualities.' 
 
 The author of this eloquent enconium was an admirable 
 judge of the grace and beauty of the style — he could fairly esti- 
 mate the skill, exhibited in the plan of the composition, but^ not 
 being himself of the profession, he docs not venture, of his own 
 knowledge, to speak ot its legal accuracy. Of that he judges, as- 
 he says himself, on the authority of others. 
 
 In that respect the opinion of a professional critic of our 
 day is much more moderate, and probably in some respects 
 more correct : 
 
 •It may,' says the writer we refer to, 'be noticed that the 
 great work of Blackstone marks an era in the developement of 
 legal ideas in England. It was not merely the first, as it still 
 remains the only adequate attempt to expound the leading prin- 
 ciples of the whole body of law, but it was distinctly inspired by 
 a rationalizing method. Blackstone tried, not only to express 
 but to illustrate, legal rules, and had a keen sense of the value 
 of historical illustrations. He worked, of course with the 
 materials at his command. His manner and his work are 
 obnoxious alike to the modern jurist and the modern historian. 
 He is accused by the one, of perverting history, by the other of 
 confusing the law. But his scheme is a great advance on any- 
 thing that has been attempted before, and if his work has been 
 prolific in popular fallacies, at events it enriched English 
 literature by a conspectus of che law, in v^rhich the logical 
 connexion of its principles 'inter se,' and its relation to historical 
 facts were distinctly, if erroneously, recognized." The praise 
 bestowed on this great work every one who has studied it, will 
 recognize as well deserved, while there may be .some foundation 
 for a portion of the adverse criticism which is blended with the 
 praise. 
 
 With the choice between Coke on Littleton on the one hand, 
 and Blackstone on the other, there can be no hesitation. It is 
 the choice between a common place book, in which the author 
 notes down, without system or method, everything that occurs 
 
 IL 
 
35 
 
 to him, relative or irrelative to the text on which he is comment- 
 ing; a choice between that and a systematic treatise, in which 
 every branch of the law is assigned its fitting place. 
 
 The work has gone through a great many editions, lias been 
 overloaded with notes, and reduced by excisions. But in our 
 judgment the book in its original form without note or C(jmment, 
 is a most admirable introduction to legal studies. With Black- 
 stone's scheme of law once fairly impressed on the mind by a 
 careful perusal, the student on a second and subsequent readings 
 will appreciate, and benefit by, notes which in the first instance 
 would only have perplexed him. 
 
 It is worth while to note the origin of this great work. 
 Blackstone was educated at Oxford, of which he became a 
 Fellow. Afterwards he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar. 
 He practised his profession for some years, when it occurred to 
 him that he would supply a want that had always existed at his 
 Alma Mater, at which no course of lectures on the Law and 
 Constitution of England had been established. With all her 
 splendid equipment in every branch of science and Iterature, 
 there was no chair for common law. Accordingly he organized 
 a course of lectures, which were highly successful. They were 
 repeated from year to year, till by and by they were collected 
 and published as Blackstone's Commentaries. Convinced of 
 the value of this course of lectures, Mr. Viner, a private 
 gentleman, a lawyer by profession, determined, as he says in 
 his will, to dedicate the bulk of his property " to the benefit of 
 posterity and the perpetual service of his country," and gave 
 the sum of ;i{^ 12,000 sterling, to endow a chair and establish 
 fellowships, to give permanence to the course. If England can 
 boast of the munificence of its Viner, and of the disposal he made 
 of his wealth, we have equal reason to be proud of our Munro. 
 The names of both will descend to posterity inscribed on the 
 same scroll of honor. 
 
 The experiment at Oxford owed its success in the first 
 instance to the eminent talents of the Lecturer. But there was 
 then, and there is now, much in the conditions of life in England; 
 much in what we have already referred to, in the distinctions 
 which prevail there between different branches of the profession ; 
 
1 
 
 1 
 
 ; ,1 
 
 i I 
 
 1 I 
 
 i: 
 
 86 
 
 much in the time of life at which young men there are in the 
 habit of commencing their legal studies ; and stM! something 
 more in the situation of country towns like Oxford and Cambridge, 
 (University towns though they be,) adverse to the success of 
 such an enterprise. In England everything connected vith law 
 clusters in and about London. There are situate the Inns of 
 Court, hallowed by the traditions of five centuries, through one 
 or other of which every English Barrister has had to pass on 
 his way to the profession. There all the business of the higher 
 Courts is conducted, except only the trial of issues in country 
 causes. There sat the full benches of the High Courts. There 
 the Lord Chancellor and the various subordinates and func- 
 tionaries under him, discharged their judicial duties. There sat 
 the High Court of Admiralty, and there also the Court for the 
 Probate of Wills, and of Marriage and Divorce. These Courts, 
 to be sure, now form but one, but all the business which they 
 did as separate Courts is now done by the Supreme Court which 
 takes their place, and it is done in London. There sat, and there 
 sits now, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to hear 
 appeals from every quarter of the globe in which there is a 
 colony or country subordinate to the crown of England, — 
 appeals in which questions arise and are disposed of; now on 
 laws which were passed but yesterday, now upon Codes which 
 were in full force when our ancestors were wandering savages 
 in the wilds of Britain. There too sits, while Parliament meets, 
 the great tribunal of appeal, the last resort in litigation in causes 
 arising within the realm. Before these Courts appear day by 
 day, the ablest counsel the bar of England can furnish discussing 
 every conceivable point of law and equity. The law student in 
 London has the aid of the splendid libraries of the Inns of Court. 
 He has the opportunity of daily attendance on the Courts of the 
 branch of the profession he proposes to follow. He may listen 
 to the arguments of the most able and astute lawyers the world 
 can produce. He has thus access to a school of law which 
 dwarfs anything else that can be set up beside it. Whether, 
 therefore, in England a chair of common law is successful or 
 not, in London or out of it, no argument, drawn from its want of 
 success there, has any bearing on the question of its success in a 
 
 If 
 
37 
 
 new country. On our side of the Atlantic we find these schools 
 affiliated to almost every leading University, and working with 
 marked success. Their influence for good is felt far and wide 
 over the countries in which they have been established, We 
 ourselves have been obliged, practically, to recognize their great 
 value, and to contribute our mite towards their success. Some 
 of our law students, disgusted with '■he absence of any course of 
 legal instruction in our colleges, or out of them, and unwilling 
 to enter their profession without the advantages which these 
 schools afford, have resor.ed to the neighbouring Union, and 
 from the law lectures of Harvard, or some other school of law 
 in the United States, have learned to form a higher and a 
 broader view of their profession than they could evi^r h^ve 
 attained from the uninstructive routine of a law office in Nova 
 Scotia. By listening to lectures which explain the principles 
 underlaying all law, the student comes, in the language of 
 Littleton, "to understand and apprehend the arguments and 
 reasons of the law, &c., for by the arguments and reasons of the 
 law, a man more sooner shall come to the certainty and 
 knowledge of the law." 
 
 "Lex plus landatur quando ratione probatur." 
 
 Such discourses open up to him entirely new views of the 
 field over which his studies are to range. They help him 
 to trace law backwards to its first germs in the family group, to 
 follow it as the family developes into a community, and the 
 family usages into customary law, or into a code or some other 
 written form — to learn to distinguish between the essential and 
 the accidental, between what is common to all law, and what is 
 peculiar to one system or to one country. With a mind thus 
 prepared he can approach the study of our municipal law with 
 great advantage — and it must be his own fault, if, when he comes 
 to enter upon the active duties of his profession, he finds himself 
 eclipsed by men who have won distinction without having 
 enjoyed the advantages that have fallen to his lot. 
 
 Beyond and above all things, a lawyer should cultivate a 
 high sense of personal honor — next to that, he should feel to be 
 dear to him, the honor of his profession. He should thus, 
 
 1 
 
38 
 
 first for his own sake, secondly for theirs, shrink from any 
 act or proceeding, either as attorney or in the higher sphere of 
 barrister, which could compromise or sully his own reputation, 
 and through it, that of ihe profession. He is not engaged in a 
 trade. It is the lowest view of his profession to consider it as a 
 business to make money by. There is no more oespicable 
 creature on the face of the earth than the lawyer whose whole 
 soul is absorbed in Bills of Costs— who uses the opportunities 
 his profession affords for no higher purpose than to exact fees — 
 to mulct somebody — no matter whether client or antagonist — 
 in Bills of Costs. Some acts done by lawyers through tricks 
 and quirks of the law, Tfar be it from me to say that any Nova 
 Scotia lawyer has ever done the like,) whereby they succeed in 
 robbing an innocent man of his money, deserve to be placed on 
 a par with acts of piracy. The men who do these things may 
 be in — but they cannot be of — the profession. Still it is by such 
 men as these that a noble profession is degraded. It is the fact 
 that men of the kind exist in some countries, that accounts 
 for, if it does not justify, such sneers as that of Addison when 
 he tells the anecdote of a king sending to a neighboring prince 
 for 30,000 swino, and receiving a reply that the swine could not 
 be spared, but he had 30,000 lawyers who v.-ere quite at his 
 service. 
 
 It is only of late years that we have had the courage to place 
 in the avenues to the profession, the slightest impediment to pre- 
 vent any from entering that chose to do so. Now we require some 
 educational and moral tests. A youth is no longer allowed to 
 enter upon his pupilage without being called upon to show that 
 he has some qualifications for the profession. It is to be hoped 
 that as time goes on, the preliminary examination will become 
 more and more strict, and that when the student shall have had 
 the opportunities which the school of law will afford, the final 
 examination will also be conducted with increased vigor. There 
 will then be no excuse on the part of the examiners, for not 
 exhibiting towards the profession and the public, some of that 
 pity and sympathy which they are sure to feel for the individual. 
 
 The education which the school will afford, will not of course 
 make a lawyer, any more than an ordinary education at college 
 
 1 . m 
 
 I- H 
 
 1 
 
39 
 
 will make a scholar. But it will afford an admirable prepara- 
 tion for legal pursuits. As regards all education, it may be said 
 in the language of Gibbon, that " every man who rises above 
 the common level, receives two educations, the first from his 
 instructors — the second, the most personal and important, from 
 himself." 
 
 If this be so as regards ordinary education, it is still more 
 so in respect to Law. One of the oldest of legal maxims 
 declares the " Lucubrationes viginti annorum" necessary to 
 the making of a thorough lawyer. If the emphatic saying of 
 Carlyle, " that our school hours are all the days and nights of 
 our existence," be applicable to ordinary education, it is espe- 
 cially so to the Law — where life is a continuous study. Every 
 case is a lesson ; every search required in the exigencies of daily 
 work, widens and broadens and deepens our acquaintance with 
 a science of almost boundless width, and breadth, and depth. 
 
 In a new country like ours, lawyers exercise a large influence. 
 They naturally take a leading part in the local business of every 
 comm.unity. Their habits of ready speech, their acquaintance 
 with the forms of deliberative assemblies, make them an author- 
 ity at those meetings which every community in a free country 
 has occasion to hold. It is of the highest importance, therefore, 
 that they should possess a character for candor, for public spirit, 
 for honor and integrity, in the communities in which they re'-ide. 
 With such qualities they can be most useful in their several 
 spheres — as useful as withe it them they would be mischievous 
 and dangerous. Every well-wisher of his country, therefore, 
 will welcome any effort to raise the character and standing of 
 the profession. We hail this enterprise as having for its aim an 
 object so important. We trust that it will have an effect, not 
 only on the lawyers as a class, but, throu^^h them, on the com- 
 munities in which they dwell. We hope that the effect will be 
 such as to justify the expectations which have led the munificent 
 founder of the chair of law, to add this to his other splendid 
 benefactions to Dalhousie, for which our people can never be 
 sufficiently grateful. 
 
M 
 
 4 
 
 I ! 
 
 I i 
 
 h 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered by R. C. Weldon, A.M., PI1.D., Dean of the Law Faculty, at 
 the convocation of the University, on the 30th day of October, 
 A. D. 1883. 
 
 Having been appointed by the authorities of this University 
 to deliver an address at the opening of the present session, I 
 have chosen to spend the time given me to-day in speaking to 
 you of law schools past and present, and of the needs and aims 
 of our newly-founded law school. 
 
 Upon this college platform, in this city, and at this day, it is 
 surely not necessary to work out a detailed augument in fa' or 
 of professional education. The case for professional schools has 
 been stated more than once in this city carefully, and by men 
 whose hearts were in their words. Better still, in divinity and 
 medicine, schools have been flourishing in Halifax for some 
 years. In the upper provinces of Canada, in divinity, medicine, 
 and law, schools have been established and are prospeiing, some 
 of them greatly. Up to this year, we of the maritime provinces 
 have made no serious efforts to establish a law school of our 
 own ; but now, through the munificence of Mr. Munro and the 
 co-operation of the bench and bar of this province, a law school 
 has been founded in this city, in connection with Dalhousie 
 College. 
 
 For many years, the best lawyers in our provinces have 
 deplored the imperfect opportunities open to their students for 
 the acquisition of a knowledge of the law. In our larger towns, 
 where numbers of law students are congregated together, what 
 with the help they render each other in their clubs, their access 
 to good libraries, their opportunities of visiting the courts, the 
 difficulties of unguided study arc not so great ; but to the stud- 
 ent in the small country town, without books, without any help 
 from discussions with fellow students, with little guidance from 
 
llll 
 
 I I 
 
 42 
 
 the barrister with whom the student is articled, with the most 
 unsuitable books in his hand, with rare chances of looking into 
 a court of justice, nothing can be conceived more discourag- 
 ing than the four lean and dismal years of articled clerkship. 
 The human mind soon adapts itself to its surroundings, and the 
 law student, failing to get any insight, and to fee! the keen and 
 ennobling delights of intellectual mastery, soon looks for his 
 rewards elsewhere, and comes to regards his profession as one 
 half monopoly and the other half jugglery, and to believe 
 that his occupation is mainly a contrivance for extorting fees 
 from somebody, it matters little whom. To such a student at 
 the beginning of his studies, a regular curriculum of law study, 
 with the most suitable books for students recommended and an 
 orderly exposition of the leading piinciples of law given by 
 living teachers, must afford stimulus and guidance. Our 
 students in times past have felt the need of such helps Let 
 one run his eye over the law school calendars and notice the 
 numbers of young men from the provinces, yearly going to 
 Boston, Cambridge, Ann Arbor and New York, for their legal 
 education, and it will at once occur to him that the age and 
 wealth and intellectual activities of our own country are great 
 enough to minister to those wants, which lead so many of our 
 cleverest young men into an involuntary exile. There are these 
 who scout these new departures and point to the distinguished 
 judges of our province, living and dead, who have won their 
 proud eminence without these helps in their student days. No 
 one disputes that very conspicuous success is three-fourths a 
 matter of natural endowment and only one-fourth a matter of 
 training. Still we have the strongest testimony in our favor 
 trom these very men — self made men as they are called — who 
 look back with regret upon their own student years as but 
 poorly spent — and take care that their own children in choosing 
 their father's profession shall be equipped with the best training 
 of the schools. 
 
 The founding of a school for the study of the common law 
 of England is by no means a new departure. It is but a revival 
 of an institution almost as old as the law itself. Shortly after 
 the courts were fixed permanently at Westminster, the inns of 
 
43 
 
 court were established in that town, to do for the students of 
 the law substantially what the illustrious foundations on the 
 Isis and Cam were doing lor the men in arts and divinity. The 
 inns of court were born in that great struggle between the 
 Enfrlish common law and the Roman law which illustrates so 
 well the stubborn individuality and self-reliance and insular 
 pride of the English people. Professor Vacarius, an accom- 
 plished civil'an, was expounding to the young Englishman at 
 Oxford during Stephen's reign, the institutes of Justinian ; but 
 this Italian's seductive eulogies of the symmetry and logical 
 completeness of his favorite study were answered by the vigor- 
 ous and prompt endeavors of the English lawyers to gather 
 around them the English law students and teach these the 
 ancient laws of England — handed down from the Anglo-Sa.xon 
 kings — laws which were the embodiment of Anglo-Saxon notions 
 of common sense and justice. The inns of court were instituted 
 in accordance with an order of Edward I., in 1292, dire tg 
 that students apt and eager should be brought from tl ^^ro- 
 vinces and placed in proximity to the courts of law. Curious 
 notices of these schools at different times have come down to us. 
 Fortescue, in the second century of their existence, says, "The 
 students apply themselves diligently to the study of the law. 
 Upon festival days they study history. Here everything good 
 and virtuous is to be learned. All vice is discouraged and 
 banished. Knights, Barons, and the greatest nobility place 
 their sons there, not so much to make law their study, much less 
 to live by the profession, but to form their manners and to 
 preserve them from the contagion of vice. Amongst the 
 students there is a constant harmony, the greatest friendship 
 and a general freedom of discussion. In number thev are more 
 than 2,000." 
 
 It is obvious from the great number, that in these schools 
 terms were kept by the great mass of the sons of the nobility, 
 after leaving Oxford and Cambridge. The law in those days 
 was not a jealous mistress. Fortescue assures us that in the 
 inns, the law students were taught to dance, sing, play in 
 masques and revels and generally to get skill in all those accom- 
 plishments that become the well-born. We, four hundred years 
 
I"! 
 
 ! I 
 
 44 
 
 later, cannot offer so wide and pleasant a curriculum. It may 
 be remembered that Justice Shallow studied at one of these 
 inns. By his own telling he must have cut mad pranks there in 
 his day. Late in life, he delighted to assure his friends that the 
 folk of the inns "will talk of mad Shallow vet." It is true that 
 Shallow's memories fit in very badly with the old chancellor's 
 account just quoted, but Shallow was at Clements' inn two 
 reigns before "De Laudibus" was written and things may have 
 mended in the interval, besides, Falstaff thinks Shallow was one 
 of those old men "given to the vice of lying." One hundred 
 years later and we have a minute account of the degrees and 
 ranks among the members of the inns. The youngest lawyers 
 are called mootemen. Mootemen of eight years standing may 
 become utter-barristers. Benchers are chosen from utter-bar- 
 risters of twelve years standing — of which benchers, one reads 
 yearly in the summer vacation to instruct the students, and is 
 called a single reader. A single reader of nine years standing 
 may be called to read in the Lent vacation and is called a 
 double reader. From double readers the king chooses ser- 
 geants, judges, and the Solicitor and Attorney-General. "All 
 these together," says Coke, "do form the most famous university 
 for law that is in the whole world. In these houses, the read- 
 ings and other exerci.ses therein continually used are most 
 excellent and behoofful for attaining to the knowledge of the laws." 
 The manner of these readings in Elizabeth's reign is minutely 
 described by Stow. "The benchers appoint the eldest utter- 
 barrister to read amongst them openly in the hall of which he 
 hath notice two terms before. The first day he chooseth some- 
 statute, whereupon he grounds his whole reading for that 
 vacation. He reciteth certain doubts and questions which 
 he hath devised upon that statute ; after which another 
 barrister doth labor to prove the reader's opinion to be against 
 law. Afterwards the sergeants and judges to declare their 
 opinions, and this exercise doth continue three to four hours 
 daily." The great popularity of these readings was not due 
 entirely to the learning and logic of the reader — for "during the 
 time of reading, the reader keeps a constant and splendid table, 
 insomuch that it hath cost ;!^r,ooo for even three days' feasts." 
 
45 
 
 When the immediate purpose of the founding of the inns of 
 court had been accomplished, and the champions of the civil 
 law had carried their codes and institutes and digests away with 
 them back across the channel, then these schools lapsed into 
 that intellectual torpor that benumbed all the universities of 
 Europe in that day. During our own times earnest efforts have 
 been made to restore the inns of court to their old position, that 
 of a law university for England. Vigorous preliminary and final 
 examinations have been instituted. Lectures in common law, 
 equity, real property, international law, Roman law, constitutional 
 law and history, have been established, which the students are 
 compelled to attend. More radical changes are still being urged 
 by the advocates of legal training in England, and no doubt 
 these changes will be made when once the more urgent legal 
 reforms now pressing are disposed of. 
 
 On the continent of Europe professional training in law is 
 given by the law faculties of the universities. In the greatest, 
 although the youngest of these magnificent foundations, the 
 university of Berlin, the professors of jurisprudence have held 
 from the outstart very high rank. The university itself was 
 born in the early years of this century, when Germany, smart- 
 ing under the humiliation of the French conquest, came to see 
 that her only possible chances of recovering power lay in an 
 appeal to intellectual and spiritual forces. ^60,000 a year were 
 voted by Prussia to establish the university, and this, says 
 Fichte, "was the highest regard for science and thought ever 
 afforded by a state, for it was given during a period o^the direst 
 oppression and under the greatest financial difficulties ; and it 
 was not a matter of display or of elegance that was sought for 
 but a means of giving health and vigor to the nation." 
 
 A foremost place was given to jurisprudence on the new 
 foundation, for none knew better than those famous founders 
 that a profound study of law is one of the most conservative 
 elements in the life of a state. Carl von Savigny was named to 
 the king as the man in all Germany best fitted to direct the 
 study of jurisprudence. Much of interest in legal education in 
 Germany centres around Savigny. He was born in 1779 at 
 Fr.-nkfort on the Maine. At 16 he entered the University of 
 
f 
 
 di' 
 
 
 1 
 
 J : 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 J 
 
 i !■ 1. 
 ! 
 
 ' '''I 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 ; 1 
 
 46 
 
 Marburfc ; at twenty-one he took the doctor's degree ; at 
 twenty-four he declined a chair of law at Meidelberg ; at 
 twenty-nine he was professor of Roman law at Landshut ; and 
 at 31 he was called away to Berlin to aid in building up a united 
 Germany. Once established in Berlin, Savigny's labors as 
 teacher and author were more successful than ever. One of his 
 first cares was to establish a juridical college in connection with 
 the faculty. The juridical college, the spruch collegium as it 
 is called, is a unique institution, being the instrument by which 
 the continental universities have so considerably influenced the 
 administration of justice. It is made up of the law professors. 
 It has no jurisdiction, but the courts are authorized to communi- 
 cate to it the documents and pleadings in any cause, and are 
 bound to accept and promulgate its decision. In some States 
 this reference to the law faculty is made by the courts at their 
 own option, in others by the desire of the parties to the suit. 
 Savigny saw in this institution a means of aiding legal education, 
 as well as an organ by which scientific law might influence 
 practice. It was a great aim of Savigny's life to bridge the gulf 
 between theoretical and practical law. He did establish a 
 spruch collegium of so much celebrity, that cases were remitted 
 to it from several States, and in sixteen years the college 
 published one hundred and thirty-eight reports of its decisions. 
 
 During the last one hundred years Savigny's is the greatest 
 name among European lawyers ; and the best years of his 
 brilliant and useiul life were spent in teaching law to his 
 countrymen. A university degree is the portal through which 
 young Germans enter into the higher sorts of law practice, and 
 as the universities are equipped with full law faculties — there 
 are in Germany abundant guarantees for the thoroughness of 
 the legal training of the young lawyer. 
 
 In the United States of America the law school is of 
 comparatively recent growth ; its origin is due to the zeal 
 of a distinguished judge. Judge Reeves of Litchfield, regretting 
 the wasted hours of his own student life, and believing that in 
 the ample leisure of those days there was an opportunity for the 
 study of general principles of law, such as could not be found 
 when business came pouring in upon the practitioner — believing 
 
47 
 
 too that a study of general principles alone could give that 
 width of horizon and due sense of proportion which mark the 
 highest type of lawyer, decided to gather about him the young 
 lawyers and law students of his own town, and give them formal 
 instruction in law. By the use of lectures, by reading texts books 
 together, discussing pertinent cases, exacting written theses, 
 and frequent examinations, he may be said to have founded the 
 first law school in America. The great American law teacher 
 however, is Joseph Story, of Harvard. He gave the American 
 law school its fame, he convinced the American lawyers of its 
 usefulness. At first the struggle of the law schools lor life was 
 a hard one. The old practitioners of New England and New 
 York felt that they had done pretty well in the world without 
 law schools and were inclined to laugh at Harvard's new move 
 in 1827 — when by the help of Nathan Dane, Story's chair was 
 endowed. A word, in passing, about the greatest legal luminary 
 of the new world. Story was born in 1779 — the same year as 
 his illustrious friend Savigny. At nineteen he graduated at 
 Harvard, at twenty-six he was elected to the legislature of the 
 State of Mass., at twenty-eight to Congress, at thirty-one he was 
 appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which 
 seat he held until his death, thirty-five years later. At fifty he 
 became Dane Professor of law in Harvard, and this chair he 
 filled also until his death. He is, by universal consent, the 
 greatest American judge. In constitutional law he stood beside 
 Chief Justice Marshall, in int „'rnational law he was without a 
 peer. In erudition, quickness and judgment, he surpassed all 
 other judges of his time. American legal authorship owes its 
 recognition beyond the Atlantic to his books. He holds a 
 unique position among the great names in law. He was a great 
 judge and a great jurist. In England and her colonies, the jurist 
 is an unknown species of lawyer, but in Germany, France, and 
 Belgium the jurists mould the courts, not the courts the jurists. 
 The judges in these countries do not hold the first rank in law ; 
 they belong to the civil service, and are not recruited from the 
 ablest members of the bar. They do not pretend, as do our 
 judges, to give opinions by which "their decisions are fitted 
 into a symmetrical system of law and by which the precedent of 
 
 i 
 
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 li'i 
 \4 
 
 48 
 
 to-day subordinates itself to the past and dominates the future." 
 This work is left to the jurists. The courts barely register 
 decisions. By jurists and not by judges a common law is built 
 up. The rank in England held by Hardwicke, Mansfield, Stowell 
 and Westbiiry, is in Germany held not by judges but by Savigny, 
 Mittermaier and liluntschli. 
 
 As a jurist, Story took even rank with his greatest contem- 
 poraries in Europe. After the great work of Savigny, no work in 
 the old world or the new upon the conflict of laws, is so author- 
 itative throughout the courts of Christendom as Story's. But his 
 judgments and books combined did less for American law than 
 his i6 years teaching at Harvard. His students came from all 
 parts of the union. They were not more instructed by his great 
 learning than ennobled by the transparent purity and loftiness 
 of his aims. He delighted in his profession. She was never in 
 his mind to be the hand-maiden of chicanery. He was never 
 tired of exhorting his students to abjure everything- unworthy in 
 their subsequent practice. His pupils became the ornaments 
 of the bench and bar in many cities. One of his favorite pupils 
 was Sumner, the last great American senator. When Story 
 went to Harvard, although for some years the college had had a 
 Royal professor of Law, there was not one law student, and a 
 wheelbarrow would carry all the books. When he died there were 
 150 law students and 6000 law books. Story's teachings gave a 
 great impulse to thorough law study. Massachusetts does not 
 rank among the most populous States of the Union, but she has 
 the oldest and most celebrated law school in America. Her bar 
 and bench have a remarkable pre-eminence. Of no other 
 State in the Union are the judgments so often cited in foreign 
 countries. The Massachusetts judgments are very often quoted 
 by the English judges, and with the greatest deference. The 
 Massachusetts reports among American reports are of the high- 
 est value, and this singular pre-eminence in law of that small 
 b'Jt ancient commonwealth is due to the altogether exceptional 
 training the Massachusetts bar has received at Cambridge. 
 Since Story's death many law schools have been established. 
 To-day there are in the United States 48 schools with 229 in- 
 structors, 3,134 students and 88,712 books ; or roughly speaking, 
 
49 
 
 one school to every million of people, with 5 instructors, 66 
 students and 1800 books. Throughout the whole country the 
 cleverest young men enter the profession of law via the law 
 school. 
 
 In Canada, I believe, there is not one law school with en- 
 dowed chairs and adequate libraries. Do we not need them ? 
 Can we any longer do without them ^ Let us come now to the 
 necessity felt by a student of the English law of having 
 more guidance than he is able to get from the barrister with 
 whom he is articled, and the books he finds about him. The 
 body of the English law is infinite. The statutory law runs back 
 to the days of Henry III., through unnumbered acts of the En- 
 glish parliament. Besides there are the Provincial Acts, and 
 latterly the Dominion Statutes. The unwritten law is to be 
 looked for in cases that are like the leaves of the trees for number. 
 A man cannot come to know the names of the books in which 
 the cases are to be found. The most busy men after long lives 
 can only get to know fairly well but small parts of the great body 
 of the law. In a single year the law presses are issuing books 
 enough to make a small library. A young man sent to learn 
 the existing law from this immense mass of material needs the 
 most careful guidance. No one barrister, busy with office work, 
 can find time to do for his student half that he is capable of do- 
 ing, and no one barrister can find leisure enough to acquire that 
 minute acquaintance with all parts of the law that will make 
 himself alone an adequate guide and instructor. The work to be 
 done is so immense, that we must combine and specialize. They 
 recognize this in England, and as we have shown, are rebuilding 
 their ancient university. The difficulties of the young Canadian 
 student of law, are immensely greater than those of the young 
 English student. First of all the young Englishmen who seek 
 admission to the bar, carry to their law studies a much more 
 thorough intellectual training. More than eighty-five per cent, 
 of those admitted to the English bar during the last four years 
 have been university graduates. Less than 2$ per cent, of those 
 admitted to the bar in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick during 
 the same have been college graduates. Furthermore, the 
 English universities provide lectures in Roman law, constitution- 
 
■1 
 
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 50 
 
 al and international law, so that students who conter.j ^ite sub- 
 sequent law studies have in college a fine opportunity for the 
 study of these general and historical subjects. In this country 
 the colleges make little or no provision of this sort. We em- 
 phasize the difference in the degree of fitness for study between 
 the two classes of students in order to ground an argument for 
 the general attendance upon a law school here. In these Prov- 
 inces, where so many untrained men go up for examination in 
 law, there is an imperative necessity for something like 
 University drill and guidance. 
 
 We said a moment ago that, great as were the difficulties of 
 unguided study to an English student of law, those of a Cana- 
 dian were greater. In England they have text books embodying 
 the latest statutes and judgments. We have practically no home 
 books, we rely upon the English books, which our experienced 
 lawyers have to handle with much caution. Our colonial legis- 
 latures do not undertake to keep pace with the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment, wherefore it happens that the English law of to-day — as 
 we find it embodied in the latest and best books — differs greatly 
 from our own. Our law students are apt to be misled by these 
 books, which contain much that is not law in the colonies and 
 omit much that is law. Life is so short and earl) impressions 
 are so enduring, that it is a misfortune for a student to start 
 with a radical misconception of the law. The Canadian books 
 upon 1 J few and most of them bad. If the anticipations 
 
 of •^^ v^rs of the Dominion had been fulfilled, and the laws 
 
 xinglish speaking people had been made uniform, we 
 \. (id have a legal constituency large enough to warrant our 
 ablest lawyers in devoting their ripest years to authorship. 
 
 Being thus conscious of the want of a law school to train the 
 young men of our provinces, an obligation rests upon those who 
 are responsible for the intellectual oversight of the people to 
 supply this want. It is unwise to drive out of the country the 
 best men of any profession and compel them to secure their 
 .intellectual outfit abroad. The great expense incident to such 
 study will debar all but the most fortunate from seeking such 
 privileges and even these may purchase their privileges at the 
 grave price of alienating their affection from the land of their 
 
 i^ 
 
I 
 
 birth. Almost all that these students ^n\n could be gained as 
 well by foreign travel subsequent to the completion of their 
 studies, provided that well equijiped schools with accomplishcil 
 specialists were available at home. To build up in this city of 
 Halifax a university with faculties of arts, medicine, applied 
 science and law, strong in libraries, laboratories, museums and 
 apparatus, with subjects so specialized that the professors may 
 come to know what is known in their departments, a university 
 that shall attract students in considerable numbers from all the 
 Maritime Provinces that shall influence the intellectual life of 
 Canada as Harvard and Yale have influenced the intellec- 
 tual life of New England ; this seems to be a legitimate 
 ambition to any generous spirits who v/ish their country well. 
 No more eligible sight for a great university can be found in 
 Canada. The light, of course, should come from the east. What 
 more delightful city than this, wrapped round on all sides by the 
 sea, in which to spend one's student days .-' No city in Canada 
 offer., greater facilities for the founding of a law school. Here 
 are occasional sittings of the Exchequer Court, frequent sittings 
 of the Admiralty Court, regular sittings of the Supreme Court 
 in banc diud 3.\. nisi piiNS, of the County Court, and the local 
 courts, some or other of which are in almost daily session — by 
 visiting which the observant student :an karn a great deal. 
 The inducements which we can hold out to ^jrovincial students 
 to pursue their law studies here, rather than in the United 
 States, are that the principles oi law taught are those recognized 
 in our own courts, that the statutes quoted are the imperial and 
 colonial statutes, which govern us ; that the cases cited in illus- 
 tration are authoritative in our own courts. 
 
 Our attempt to found a law school has had the singular good 
 fortune to win the favor of the bench and bar at the outstart. We 
 have met with the greatest kindness in all quarters. From this 
 City, from all parts of this province, and from New Brunswick, 
 valuable books and cordial messages of sympathy and approval 
 have come to us. The pressing need of the school is for books, 
 and these books, from some quarter or other we must have. 
 Some books we have already secured through the bounty of our 
 
 , 
 
' / 
 
 friends. Mere we must obtain ; and to this our best efforts 
 during the coming months will be directed. 
 
 A lew words as to our course of study and we have done. 
 In devoting some part of our time to the subject of international 
 low, we are but abreast of the best schools of law at home and 
 abroad. It is true that in our present relations to England, we 
 are not called on to assume the responsibilities, nor are we 
 permiited to enjoy the rights of independent sovereignty. At 
 present therefor, the rules of public international law have but a 
 limited application to us. But almost nowhere in the empire is 
 there so constant a demand for the rules of private internaticMal 
 law. The laws of six English provinces of Canada in respect 
 of property and civil rights are different. The laws of Quebec 
 belong to a distinct system of jurisprudence. Along our south- 
 ern boundary are many commonwealths, with systems ol law 
 diff'ering from our own and from each other. Into the new 
 provinces of the North West immigrants are carrying the laws 
 of half the states of Europe. There must therefore be in Canada 
 a constant conflict of laws ; and a constant invocation of the rules 
 of private international law will be necessary, to determine inter 
 alia the validity of wills, the distribution of intestate estates, 
 the competency of divorce, the legality of marriage, the capacity 
 of persons to contract. 
 
 As to the value of the study of public international law, let 
 me quote from a famous admiralty judge : — 
 
 "There is yet another study, which may well engage the 
 attention of our lawyers. I mean the study of the law of nations. 
 This is at all times the duty and ought to be the pride of all 
 who aspire to be statesmen, and as many of our lawyers become 
 legislators it seems to be the study to which of all others, they 
 .should seriously devote themselves. Independent of these con- 
 siderations, there is nothing that can give so high a finish, so 
 brilliant an orname' t or so extensive an instruction as this 
 pursuit to a professional education. What, indeed, can tend 
 more to exalt and purify the mind, than speculations upon the 
 origin and extent of moral obligations, upon the great truth and 
 dictates of natural law, upon the immutable principles that 
 regulate right and wrong in social and private life ; and upon 
 
53 
 
 the just applications of these to the intercourse and duties and 
 contentions of independent nations ?" 
 
 In the course of our studies in this school we shall trace the 
 law of nations from its origin in \\\q jtis gentium of the Romans, 
 see it incorporating provisions from famous sea codes, from the 
 code of the Hanseatic league and tl •' Consolato del Mare, see 
 it declared by admiralty judges, and developed by Grotius and 
 the great jurists who followed him. We shall find it in former 
 times speaking with a low and unheeded voice, but in these 
 latter days with a voice of august majesty, defending the weak, 
 rebuking the strong, putting down the mighty from their seats 
 and exalting them of low degree, dismantling fleets, disbanding 
 armies ; in minor matters appealing to that comity, which is the 
 very perfume of international politeness, and in graver matters 
 to the nations' sense of honor and justice, enforcing its appeals 
 by the terrible sanctions of war. If the day comes when Canada 
 may take her place among sovereign states, then she will choose 
 her embassadors and secretaries of legation from those men 
 who, in their youth, pursued wide and liberal courses of study, 
 who thus early have familiarized themselves with the languages, 
 literatures and history of Europe, and with the general principles 
 of public law. 
 
 We mean to devote some study to the co "istitutional law ot 
 England and to the growth of that law during the eighteen 
 hundred years since Tacit'is saw and sketched our German 
 ancestors in their old homes by the North Sea. That England 
 has lived so long and grown so steadily, that she has drawn to 
 her breasts from so many lands whole colonies of fugitives from 
 despotism — all this is due to her firm, just, mild laws, and the 
 firmness, justice and clemency of her laws are due to her 
 admirable polUical constitution. England's continental neigh- 
 bours have paid her the singular compliment of borrowing her 
 most famous political institutions such as Jury Trial and the 
 House of Commons, with a belief that these have a magical 
 efficacy. When Cavour dreamed of a United Italy, he came to 
 England and dwelt there four years to study the constitution. 
 Bunsen thought Prussia must learn the art of popular govern- 
 ment from England, whose House of Commons had been in 
 
1 
 
 Pill 
 
 ) '1! 
 
 1 
 
 54) 
 
 uninterrupted life for 6oo years. Guizot felt that France must 
 borrow from England much of the machinery of rejirescntative 
 government, and to that end he made a study of the English 
 constitution, more thorough than most English historians have 
 made. 
 
 The experiment of transplanting unaltered to the continent, 
 institutions, found to be well adapted to England, must prove 
 disai^pointing. Still no truer compliment could be paid to the 
 English system. Surely, if the statesmen of Europe have 
 thought the English constitution worthy of the profoundest 
 study, it behoves us, living under the English flag, to acquaint 
 ourselves with the secret of its power. In drawing up our 
 curriculum we have not forgotten the duty which every univer- 
 sity owes to the state, the duty which Aristotle saw and 
 emphasized so long ago — of teaching the young men the science 
 of government. In our free government we all have political 
 duties, some higher, some humbler, and these duties will be best 
 performed by those who have given them most thought. We 
 may fairly hope that some of our students will, in their riper 
 years, be called upon to discharge public duties. We aim to 
 help these to act with fidelity and wisdom. The treatment of 
 constitutional questions differs so much fi-oni the treatment of 
 stiictly legal questions; it demands so much more historical 
 knowledge and breadth of judgment, that the mental habits 
 acquired by constitutional studies are found to be a wholesome 
 complement to the habits acquired by the study of mere prece- 
 dents. Time will not permit us to dwell upon the value of the 
 study of constitu ional history. We can only know well what 
 we have by knowing from what antl though what intermediate 
 forms it came. In the study of the growth of English institu- 
 tions, the English lawyer must always take pride ; for in the 
 d^ys of E. 'and's peril the English lawyers have been the 
 saviours of their nation. From the days of Cerdic, the Saxon, 
 until now, the darkest days for England were those before the 
 commonwealth, and amidst the shadows cast by the imminent 
 dangers of that time, the heroic figures of the great English 
 lawyers loom up and assume the stature of the demigods of old. 
 Interesting as these historical and general subjects are, in 
 
55 
 
 this law school as elsewhere, by far the greatest part of our time 
 and thought must be given to more useful and practical studies 
 — to the study of the common law of England. 
 
 To praise the English common law •' is wasteful and ridiculous 
 excess." No one needs to praise it. No one needs to praise 
 the Parthenon, or the Venus de Milo, or the Sistine Madonna, 
 or the symphony in C minor, or King Lear. England is one of 
 many great nations, The English literature is one of many rich 
 and beautiful literatures, but the English law is one of two great 
 systems of jurisprudence. This wonderful fact says more than 
 a hundred eulogies. So much of the best brain, and blood of 
 the brightest men of the cleverest race in Europe has gone to 
 build up the common law of England, that it behoves us all in 
 our studies to come with the reverence of children and sit at 
 the feet of these statesmen, lawyers and judges, who through so 
 many generations have been formulating this law. We know 
 how arduously these men wrought for u with what fortitude they 
 suffered, with what calm faith they did their duty in their time, 
 leaving their fame to the wise years that were to come, and we 
 cannot study their works without feeling, 
 
 " Our hearts run o'er, 
 With silent worship of these great of old, 
 These dead but sceptred sovereigns 
 Who still rule our spirit from their urns." 
 
"I! 
 
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 1 ,1 'I 
 
THE AMERICAN LAW REVIEW. 
 
 Among law periodicals, the above Review unquestionably 
 takes the foremost place. For many years it was published in 
 Boston by the well known firm of Little, Brown & Co., but in 
 1883 it was consolidated with the Southern Law Review, and 
 since that date has been published in St. Louis. It was predicted 
 by some that it would not sustain its reputation out of Boston, 
 but the very contrary is the case, and it is now a more appropriate 
 and fitting representative of all that is best in an ideal law 
 periodical, than at any period in its previous history. It contains 
 articles on live, legal topics, by the best writers ; full and 
 accurate digests of all reported cases, as published by the legal 
 magazines and journals in advance of reports ; notes on current 
 topics of professional interest ; reliable book reviews and notices 
 and references to all changes in law and legislation. No pains 
 or expense has hitherto been spared to make the Review worth 
 ten times the price of it to every earnest lawyer in the land. 
 To the practicing lawyer it is invaluable as it enables him to 
 make his brief bristle with points, while to the lawyer of 
 scholarly instincts it is indispensable. It is now in its 
 eighteenth year, published bi-monthly, terms five dollars per 
 year, and we have no hesitation in recommending it to the profes- 
 sion as worthy of their confidence and support, and we only 
 hope that this notice may help to give it the circulation in the 
 Dominion and Newfoundland which it so justly deserves. 
 
 Address — Review Publishing Company, 
 
 210 and 212 Pine Street, St. Louis, 
 
 Missouri, U. S. 
 
ni 
 
 (ill 
 
 UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT REPORTS. 
 
 1 ^K 
 
 1: 
 
 I' i 
 
 I 
 
 As yet it is not generally known in Canada and Newfoundland 
 that a revolution has taken place in the publication of law reports, 
 and that a struggling country lawyer can now obtain the most 
 valuable of the American reports for one dollar per volume. 
 How this came about and to whom the profession are indebted 
 for this great boon we will briefly narrate. In 1882 a company 
 called "The Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company" 
 began publishing at Newark, Wayne County, New York, the 
 Supreme Court Reports of the United States, at the astonishingly 
 low price of one dollar per volume. As they were unknown 
 alike to the profession and the law-book selling trade, it was 
 but natural to suppose that the managers of the company were 
 inexperienced or visionary, and that in a few months they would 
 use up their capital and end like all wild-cat adventures, in 
 insolvency. But, contrary to the expectations of their friends 
 and patrons, the legal profession and the hopes of their enemies, 
 the law-book publishers, the company kept right on, after the 
 time they were expected to die, publishing volume after volume, 
 and at the present time of writing have brought out some 
 eighty volumes in twenty books. Without doubt, in a few 
 months the company will complete the most valuable series of 
 the American reports, — the only complete, uniform, uncondensed 
 edition extant. But the cheapness of the edition is not by any 
 means its most atttactive feature, and the editorial additions 
 alone are worth the price of the Reports. However, to those 
 features we will refer more particularly hereafter. 
 
 The unexpected success of the venture in the Supreme Court 
 Reports of the United States induced the company to under- 
 take an edition of the earlier reports of the New York Common 
 Law Series, in 80 volumes, beginning in 1794 and coming down 
 to 1847. Of this series they have published about 60 volumes, 
 
59 
 
 and in a few months will complete the set. These reports are 
 more often cited in the United States than the reports of any 
 other State. They contain the decisions of the most eminent 
 American Jurists ; embrace the widest range of commercial 
 subjects arising in a state of the largest and most varied com- 
 mercial interest, and are noted for their exhaustive discussion 
 and treatment of the fundamental principles of the Common 
 Law. Of course it was to be expected that the new enter- 
 prise would receive the most determined opposition from 
 the law-book publishers. Accordingly, the publishers who 
 owned old plates and reporters copyright, at once announced 
 that they would print cheap editions and sell them at a dollar a 
 volume, thus hoping to undcr-sell the Co-operative Company, 
 and crush them out in the genuine old way in which monopoly 
 crushes out young enterprise. But there was just this to 
 prevent that : the new edition was far superior in every way to 
 that from the old plates, and where the publishers of the old 
 edition could sell one set of their books, the Co-operative Com- 
 pany could sell ten, thus proving that the legal profession took 
 in the situation and made no mistake in the bestowal of their 
 patronage. Their editorial additions embrace: — 
 
 1st. — Tables of cases reported placed together in consecutive 
 order at the beginning of the book. 
 
 2nd. — At the beginning of each book a table of all cases, 
 statutes and constitutions cited by the court in the opinions 
 embraced. 
 
 3rd. — Subject or catch v/ords to head-notes, serving the 
 same purpose, to save time, as the head-notes themselves. 
 
 4th. — A classified table of citations at the foot of each case, 
 giving references to subsequent cases wherein such cases had 
 been cited by Federal or State Courts. 
 
 (We call especial attention to these " citations.'' Practical 
 experience shows them to be the most useful notes which can be 
 added to a series of old reports; their number and length being 
 determined by the estimation in which the cases are held in 
 subsequent opinions.) 
 
 5th. — More extended foot-notes to the more important or 
 
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 60 
 
 generally useful cases, with references to not only federal, but 
 State and English Reports. 
 
 6th. — A consolidated general index at the end of each book. 
 
 Old reports with these additions are, for obvious reasons, 
 even more valuable to the practitioner in every day work, than 
 current reports. 
 
 It will thus be seen that not only have they revolutionized 
 prices, but they have added so many time and labor saving 
 features to their work, that their publications are the most 
 complete and perfect known to the profession. Every lawyer 
 who speaks the English language, or is any way connected in 
 the administration of Justice in the British Empire or the Uniced 
 States, is interested in the success of this company. If the best 
 of the United Stages reports can be published at that price, 
 why cannot the same be done with the reports of the Privy 
 Council, House of Lords, in fact all the reports. The success 
 of this company means an extension of the blessings of 
 cheap law books to every man in the profession. No more 
 healthful influence could be exerted on the legal learning and 
 general jurisprudence of Canada, than a wide diffusion of the 
 reports of the Supreme Court of the United States and New 
 York. 
 
 For a limited time both sets may be obtained for $i per volume, 
 or ;^i.25 for the U. S. Supreme Court reports if ordered separate. 
 Freight and duty paid by the purchaser. The books are 
 delivered as far as printed, at one time, and the remainder are 
 delivered at the rate of about five a month. Sets of these 
 reports as far as printed, may be seen in the Law School library 
 at Halifax, in St. John, Fredericton, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, 
 Toronto and Winnipeg. 
 
 Address — 
 
 The Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company, 
 Newark, Wayne County, 
 
 New York, U. S. 
 
DALHOUSIE LAW SCHOOL. 
 
 MATRICULATION. 
 
 Articled clerks and graduates and undergraduates of any 
 College or University recognized will be admitted as students of 
 the first year without examination. In New Brui^'^^wick and 
 Nova Scotia the time of articled clerkship is shorter by a year to 
 graduates of the School. 
 
 EXPENSES. 
 
 Owing to the large endowments possessed by the School, 
 the Governors are enabled to make the tuition fees so low as to 
 give the greatest possible encouragement to legal education : — 
 
 Books $ 20.00 
 
 Tuition Fees 3000 
 
 Board for 25 weeks 100.00 
 
 1^150.00 
 
 Students, by forming clubs, can obtain board at a much 
 lower rate than four dollars per week, and the amount to be 
 expended on books is entirely within their discretion. Students 
 have taken the course and paid all expenses for one hundred 
 dollars, but it is advisable to come prepared with the larger 
 amount. 
 
 SCHOLARSHIPS, PRIZES, &c. 
 
 Four prizes are given for proficiency in the subjects taught, 
 and it is the aim of the Governors to secure several Scholarships 
 for the next year. 
 
 THE LAW LIBRARY. 
 
 The Law Library contains a fine selection of the works, 
 reports, statutes, &c., needed by students. During the past year 
 
If 
 
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 lit 
 
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 C2 
 
 3,000 volumes have been procured, and it is the aim of the 
 Faculty to make it the most complete in Canada. It is open to 
 students from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m., and there is always a 
 competent instructor in the Library to assist students. 
 
 MOOT COURTS. 
 
 Moot Courts are held fortnightly, — one for the students of 
 the first year, and the other for the students of the second and 
 third years. They are presided over by a member of the 
 Faculty, a practising barrister, or a Judge of the Supreme Court. 
 It is the aim ot the School to make practical as well as theor- 
 etical lawyers. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 No seat will be assigned to a student, and no recognition 
 given to him in the University, until he has registered his name 
 and purchased his class tickets. The registration of Students 
 and the issue of class tickets will be made on Monday, 27th 
 October, at 3 p. m., in the Library of the Law School. 
 
 Address—' 
 
 R. C. WELDON, 
 
 Dean, Halifax, N. S. 
 
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DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY, 
 
 Halifax, N. S. 
 
 FACULTY OF ARTS. 
 
 This University was founded in 1821, "for the education of 
 youth in the higher branches of science and hterature." 
 
 The Faculty of Arts consists of ten Professors and two 
 Tutors. Instruction is provided in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 
 French, German, English Language and Literature, History, 
 Political Economy, P^thics, Logic and Psychology, Metaphysics, 
 Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Mineralogy and Botany. 
 Laboratory training is provided iu Chemistry, in Physics and in 
 Microscopic research. 
 
 Besides Medals and Prizes in the various subjects of study, 
 the University offers ^10,000 annually in Exhibitions and 
 Bursaries, thus providing 60 students with the means of gaining 
 a University education. These Exhibitions and Bursaries are 
 awarded by competitive examination to students entering the 
 first and third years of the Arts course. The Exhibitions are of 
 the value of ^200 a year ; the Bursaries of the value of ^150 a 
 year. The University is able to offer the above through the 
 munificence of George Munro, Esq, of New York. 
 
 Calendars and all desired information may be obtained on 
 application to the Principal.