The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-29 00:00:00

DUBLIN LAW INSTITUTE.

(Abridged from Saunlers's News ',eller.)
On Thursday last Thomas Wyse, Esq., rtI.P., Chair-
man of the Select Committee on Education, and one of
the Lords of the Treasury, was entertained at dinner by
the Principal and Professors of the Dublin Law Institute.
at their Hall, Queen's Inn Chambers, in acknowledgment
of the services rendered by their distinguished country-
man in the advancement of science, an I the support of the
objects for which this institution was founded. The guests
were about 50 in !slather, amongst whom wet Q his Grace
the Archbishop of Dublin, the Master of the Rods.
the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, the Right
Hon. Arthur Moore, Sir Philip Crampton, Bart., Sir
Henry Marsh, Bart., Sergeant Stock, Master Curry,
the Second Rernembrancer, Mr. Commissioner Macao,
Robert Holmes, Esq., W. E. Hudson, Esq. ; Messrs.
Gilmore, Major, Dickson, Brook, Ilickson, Queen's
Counsel ; Professor M'Cullagh, Captain Larcome,
Captain Kennedy, Surgeon Carmichael, several mem-
bers of the Liar, and other Fellows of the Society of
the Institute.
At seven o'clock the party sat down to a sumptuous
repast, got up under the superintendence of Mr. In-
gram, of York-street, whose fame stands deservedly.
high. The wines were of the rarest vintages, and the
champagne and claret secured the most marked and
general approbation.
The chair was occupied by the Principal, Tristram
Kennedy, Esq., supported by Professors Napier, Hard-
ing, Molyneux, and Whiteside.
After the usual toasts of the Queen, Prince Albert,
the Princess Royal, &c , " the health of Mr. Wyse"
was proposed, and received with cheers.
Mr. `NYSE then rose and said that he found the or-
dinary language of acknowledgment very inadequate
indeed to the expression of his thanks for the high, he
might add, the most unusual and especial honour
which had just been done him. He had not the advan-
tage to belong to their learned profession, though des-
tined for it in early life—he was not of them, though
cordlally and earnestly with them in all their ho-
nourable pursuits ; to many he was only known
as a public man, recommended on'y by his
public exertions in aid and advancement of ob-
jects dear, he well knew, to them both ; and yet
this evening he found himself surrounded by the
highest names on the bench and at the bar—by the
the of the sister professions—by men whose lives were
ht glory of their country and fame, the common pro-
perty of all that was eminent for character and talent
throughout the land. We all felt proud of being their
compatriots ; they were our boast in other countries ;
to receive the sanction, the approbation, the thanks
of such men as these was a reward and a triumph
indeed. To no other unprofessional man had such
a testimony, he believed, been vouchsafed ; it was tin-
exampled, unattempted—as singular as it was great.
Nor was this the only cause of gratification the ground
on which this dinner was given by him was one, of
all others, he felt the most honourable. It was not the
tribute_ of partisans to a partisan ; not even the cele-
bration of old friendships, or the pledge of new ; so far
from this being the case, it had not one element, not
one excitement of a political or sectarian nature.
We wore of various creeds, of various politics,
though in this instance of one party. Protestant
and Catholic, Conservative and Liberal, Whig and
Tory, had come together as one body and spirit, to
testify their unanimous and deep interest in an
object not only common to all, but he might
add, paramount to every other which could
engage the consideration of thinking and honest men
—the intellectual and moral advancement of their coun-
try. To participate in such a scene—to be in any
way linked with it was a high gratification ; but to be
thus placed by their partiality in the front of it was beyond
his (Mr. Wyse's) acknowledgments. He had no other
claims on their kindness than the deepest sense of the
importance of National Education generally, but es-
pecially of those higher and leading branches which di-
rected or influenced others—than a strong desire to see
perfected to that amplitude and power of which he be-
lieved it susceptible, but which he should be pardoned
for thinking it had not yet attained, the highly influen-
tial profession of the bar, than a not less strong convic-
tion that, amongst the means most indispensable to
chieve such an end, early, wel 1-ordered, well-digested
legal education, under qualified teachers, in well-
constituted and well-managed institutions, was amongst
the first ; and that from what he knew both of the
plan and the practice of the institution, in the
midst of which he then had the honour of standing,
he believed the Law Institute fully calculated to fulfil
these conditions, and destined to raise the legal charac-
ter of Ireland, high as it might be, to an eminence
which it has not yet attained. As a branch, then, most
important in that great system of general education, for
all branches of which, in turn, he had endeavoured
with feeble means, but lie hoped not wholly fruitless
results, to labour, ever since he bad entered public
life, he had for many a year, even previously
to the suggestion in the report on education, most
anxiously sought the establishment of a Law
School for Ireland. He gave, not cheerfully only,
but earnestly, cordially, and he would also say persever-
ingly, his aid, his efforts at least, whatever they might
be, to the promotion of this important object.—(After
some further observations on the same topics, the Ho-
nourable Gentleman continued)—Even the best amongst
you, be his walk in after life whatever it may, must have
felt sensible how much of labour, of time, of thought,
might have been spared, had he had good finger-
posts to direct him in his outset. How many have
toiled through the swamps and morasses—through
the brushwood and jungles of useless reading—for
years, and not discovered till after much waste of time
and exertion they had reached circuitously their destina-
tion, that there was a short, clear, and direct route to
the same point which would have been an economy of
all most valuable, to give it no other name, had they
known it in time. Not only is it well to learn
what we ought to know, but what we can afford not
to know, and know what we ought not to know.
Nor are the public interests less to be considered ;
they have a-right to be protected against quackeries of
all kinds, as far as positive institutions can protect
them, in whatever profession it may be. Are there none
in the legal, as well as in others ; no empiricism, no
experimenters on the public as in compare viii; no livers
on the petty tricks of' the day ; no feeders on the cre-
dulity of mankind ; no traflielsers in unblushing impu-
dence and insolent pretension ; no audacious ignorance
and confident blindness cooling into unmerited wealth
on the follies and confidence of the community ?
From ranch of this the public might undoubt-
edly be screened ; and if from any portion,
however small, it is surely worth the while of those
who have the guardianship of the public interest
at heart to look to it. The Law Institute pro-
poses in a great degree to effect this ; it is the
first attempt of the kind in the empire ; it is the
most adapted to our institutions ; for the short time it
has been tried, it has proved eminently successful. The
nature of our University organization presenting
one body, analogous to the single philosophical faculty
of foreign universities, renders such eta appendage
especially requisite. In other countries jurisprudence
has a philosophy—is a science , it occupies in all colle-
giate institutions the rank next to theology. Why only
in this country—of all others interested i❑ its progress
and elevation—why should it be so long a mere art ?
In too many cases a disjointed, and to the less seat citing,
an apparently heterogeneous mass of opinions, of prece-
dents contradicting precedents, of authorities, of techni-
calities. A law school in its true vocation should seek to
systematize and philosophize—to elevate the art into a
science, and this is the aim and end of the Law Institute.
It should seek to bring the law more into contact with
other sciences—to breathe their spirit into it, at the
same time that it never forgets its original and charac-
teristic form and purpose. A lawyer is ever a better
lawyer for being something more than a lewyer.
The more objects of comparison, the juster his conclu-
sions, the wider his experience. The philosophic
lawyer has a principle for all his practice. The
technical lawyer often errs, even in his most com-
mon practice, because he is always without a prin•
eiple ; nor would the law only gain by such a school
aid the influences which sooner or later it would
infallibly generate. From these slight beginnings,
as in other countries, would proceed a school of diplo-
macy—a school of constitutional legislation ; not
that the unity and simplicity of the present plan
should be disturbed by such adjuncts, but that from
your example taste for such studies and institutions
suited to such taste would gradually spring up.
Our diplornatiete are not the first assembly, as a
body, in Europe ; there have been those whose sound
sense and wide-sought wordly experience have supplied
the want of knowledge, even of the most ordinary
professional description ; hut the under machinery of
the department evinced how much injury, how many
impediments are thrown its the way by incompetent,
ill-adapted, ill-acquired previous education. Our
diplomatists are not, as in Germany and France,
drafted from their special schools, but sent to irn-
proviso their functions often from a course of life
and study the most opposite to such objects. Our
administrators are not better ; indeed worse. Our ad-
ministrative organization itself requires general re-
view, if not reform. It is the aggregate of suecessive
departments, accidents of accidents, thrown up as
the necessity of the moment requires, uniting func-
tions and duties often the most opposite. The
officers of these departments, especially in the lower
grades, have been chosen generally without examina-
tion, certainly without any special course of study. It is
only within this last year that, in one department espe-
cially, such improvement, and with great success, has
been introduced. Yet in all the countries of the Con-
tinent administration has been as much a profession
and a science as that of the law or medicine ; the
man is adapted to his work ; the instrument to its end,
and the work is done better, and in the end more truly
and surely accomplished. But if no other profession is
in more need of such aids than that of the Legislature,
how small a portion of the historical, political, econo-
mical, and legal studies, which one would think ought
to have formed the indispensable elements of a legis
hater's education, are now touched on in the instruc

EVEN'I.VGFmvrT

tion of by far the largest proportion of our Leg's:
1;1, ore. Look to our returns, called for withont
reference to time, place, object, to what preccdr(!,
what is to follow, to any system or col.erence
soccer—look to our Committees and Redorts ; ,title
analysis, concentration, order, often answering only ,
OCAi and tempora, y purpose, scarcely answering that
Lek to our Bills wrought into Acts without kW"
h,dge 2-encrally of the first principles of composit?9
and arrangement, phrase in profusion ovcrlayla!
,ease witneut philosophy--without compreliensivfe
ness ; au experiment for the man or hour, to ,u_d
'mended in the ensuing session, and suratne9°'..,
possibly in the next. All these fruits foil"
from the fertile root of evil, bad professional legal eda'
cation,. or no legal education at all. Every other PO;
fe,s demands an apprenticeship, every science :Iv
previous study. No °Le thinks of improvising mat r
matics, yet what bungler in law making °le
law Intzrpreting but does not, by the
think
tact of admission to the arena of either, t"'
himself qualified to decide impromptu on boll,l
Belonging then to the former, no wonder lie (";
W.) should feel interested in every
wiought in the studies of the latter ; tlitieTYPri°ll%tl'etitil'anl:ll,
enlightened, stimulated, assisted each other. rrt),Y-iy
then, Gentlemen (said Mr. Wyse), but not exclutivey
to you—for as " there are many mansions in rnii
father's house," so there are many labourers of sot
icasons and grades in his vineyard—to You, nor
exclusively it is true, but to you pre-eminently abi;
others, and more emphatically than others, is tO,
highest of human tasks entrusted. 'l'o your pro
fession belongs not only to bind up the het/bri,
that are bruised, to drag the villain with a" 0,
hoarded malignities into day, to right inneeeecof
to avenge wromz, to exorcise the legion devil
evil which infests all society, but you have also the
function and duty in right of superior
d Oibo
and station, by example and precept to exten of
empire of knowledge ; ignorance of virtue over vice' oe
moral good over moral evil, of spirit over matter, to
word—of civilization—of education. You have t°,ring
your part fully in the progress of mind, not only to
o
again what has been done, well and nobly, by your Pao
decessors, but in doing more, and in doing better
they—in surpassing them—in surpassing yourselvde,,
In such a course nothing is indifferent ; everythig.a,d t
everything is part of the universal impuls2. it
this he (Mr. Wise) so specially bailed the institutel
whose labours he had already referred to. lie believehe
it a great movement in advance, a large stage 41 tile
true intellectual regeneration of his country .be
hoped the day was not distant when he should
allowed to sit under the shade of the tree they wc.ro
planting, and whilst enjoying the refreshment (31(4
shade and the beauty of its fruits, not forget the I)2' nt
to which both were owing. Ile concluded by renevoo
his thanks for their kindness, and hoped he Inie,ltAdo
long allowed the honour of co-operating in their 10"--,.
and sharing in their useful and glorious results'
(Applause.) di;
iv
The CHAlrtmaN then gave the health of their it
guished guest, his Grace the Archbishop of Dahli°l;ol
great promoter of science, as well in this coootrif of
elsewhere, whose presence afforded a further PO" yt
the value of their institution, and the general oteree9
taken in the promoting of the objects for which it
founded. hip
The ARCHBISHOP. in returning thanks, expresse`liop
great delight at finding in such an assembly Ines
polite opinions in politics meeting for the comma°
fare, for the important purpose of assisting in the col
blishment of an institution whose beneficial resulitils,
been plainly demonstrated by the eloquent gentle set',
Mr. Wyse. lie also expressed his desire and 811%;-tbo
so far as was in his power, to advance the objects °;
society.
WYSE then gave " The health of Mr.
ncdy, the Principal."
A tlist
Mr. KENNEDY, in returning thanks, observe- leo
there were but two circumstances which could
him to relinquish his position in the society, the first, lbd
his retirement he could advance the object which he the
so much at heart, the welfare of the institution' ye
other that of seeing the institution established °lio
broad and permanent a basis as to render it inder°"A
-
of individual exertion or casual support.
The CHAIRMAN then gave " The Irish Bench',
those distinguished Members of it who were prese"'oo
The MASTER of the Itor.Ls returned thanks
dif
behalf of the Irish Bench, and observed that the oti
ficulties he had himelf experienced in the direetir-0,
of his own course of study, on entering the led e' Pbe
fession, were too deeply impressed on his mind
thigh
easily forgotten. The ordinary obstacles to aced
all were exposed who made the law their study' of
him to hail with extreme satisfaction the foundat'citll
this institution in Ireland. He had watched the
anxious care the proceedings and progress of
this
Law Institute from its earliest foundation up to,
truly interesting and important era of its eitis;;cre
and the result of his judgment was, that to st:-
the success of so valuable an undertaking, ,',,,1 ia
reetion and guidance could not have been Pla—‘,, 9
sake or abler hands. He would only add, on his 'l,l
behalf; that in whatever position he might at anY t,l1;10)
be placed, he would be found ever ready to do anytP;hgy
in his power to advance the interest of this praisewoP
and important institution.
rii
After other toasts, the party separated at no 3„0
hour, all evidently much gratified with the proeec"'-'
and good taste evinced during the evening.