The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-10 00:00:00

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JULY 10, 1847.

LEGAL EDUCATION REFORM.

The report prepared by the House of Common's Public
Committee (of last session) on Legal Education, has only
just appeared, accompanied by voluminous evidence, &c.
Appeuded are extracts from its concluding pages, pre •
seating some of tLe principal recommendations of the
Committee

" 1. That the present state of legal education in Eng-
land and Ireland, in reference to the classes professien l
and unprofessional concerned, to the extent and nature
of the studies pursued, the time employed, and tle
facility with which instruction may be obtained, is ex-
tremely' unsaisfactory and incomplete, and exhibits
striking contrast and itueriority to such education, pro
vided as it is with ample means and a judicious syst,in
for their application, at present in operQtion in all tt.e
more civilised states of Europe and America.

2. That is shows, in a striking clegrce,in our pul)lic
institutions. In none of our collegiate cstabli,hmenls,
serving as places cf preliminary study to our Uni-
versities, are any legal courses, however elementary,
pursued. There is no course sufficiently extensiv,,
available, or accessible, for the general student, sti:l
less for the professional. The Tuns of Court have
long since, in England, discontinued their lectures
and readings ; in Ireland they do not appear
to have been ever gives. Exercises altogether nominal
have been substituted; and these, with a certain number
of attendances, or presumed attendances, or dinners, are
the only conditions at present insisted on for admission.
to the bar. No better provision has been made by the
public for the instruction of the solicitor. No profes-
sional education of any extent, or at all adequate to the
end in view, is provided for the practitioner in the Eccle-
siastical Courts, the diplomatist, or the administrative
professions which, on the Continent, have attracted the
greatest attention, and for the education of whose mem-
bers such ample means have been contributed by the
State.

" 3. That it may therefore be asserted, as a general
fact to which there are very few exceptions, that the
student, professional and unprofessional, is left almost
solely to his own individual exertion, industry, and op-
portunities, and that no legal education, worthy of tilt.
name, of a public nature, is at this moment to be bad in
this country.
"4. That it does not appear to us that this state of
things is defensible, much less desirable. We bestow
great care on the education ‘‘f the theologian an
physician ; nor has your Committee received any evi-
dence which would -lead them to exclude from the
operation of such a principle the education of a barrister
or solicitor.

"5. That this conviction is not less strong when we
come to a careful consideration of the results of the
present want of legal education as they affect the
student and society. He is called on to act as
magistrate, legislator, administrator, with insuffici- n:
knowledge, crude ideas, and false views. The
professional man suffers still more. The barrister
has to obtain his knowledge by practice only, and
must, more or less, however it may be useful as an instru-
ment in acquiring immediate wealth, feel, when called to
a higher sphere of usefulness and duty in his profession,
that technicalities will not supply the want of the spirit
and wisdom which would regulate their use. The soli-
citor comes ill entitled, through want of the qualities
which sound and careful education can best give, to that
confidence and reliance which the very delicate and
complicated nature of his duties demand. The Minister
cr Consul abroad has experience only to guide hioi, and
in the many international questions which may arise,
looks principally to precedent for guidance and support.
" 6. That amongst other consequences of this want of
scientific legal education, we are altogether deprived of a
most important class, the legists or jurists of the continent;
men who, unembarrassed by the small practical interests
of their profession, are enabled to apply themselves ex-
clusively to law as to a science, and to claim by their
writings and decisions the reverence of their profession,
not in one country only, but in all where such laws are
administered.
"7. That we do not ascribe these defects to indivi-
duals, but to our peculiar system and practice. The legal
education of the Continent is conducted almost exclu-
sively in the universities, and the universities are regu-
lated on a totally different system fr...m ours. In our
universities, not only is the general student uninitiated
in such studies, but even it he were disposed to attend
them, his ambition is stimulated by higher rewards
in other branches, and byi the exclusive and alisprhing
cultivation of, especially, the matkedaticarand classical
divisions of his course. 416
"8. That your Committee have nor, however, come
to the conclusion that this state of things does not admit
of correction; on the contrary, they have received during
their course of inquiry, very direct and unqastionable
proofs bf all classes, professional and unprofessional,
not only from the necessity, bat also of the facility of re-
form. Already commencements, with uo small degree
of success, have been made. Thy period thus appears
to have fully arrived when larger, wider, and moo (-
systematic co-operation may be demanded and expe cte-t,
and when suggestions from the Legislature will not to-
disregarded by the public, but especially by professional
bodies.

" 9. That a system of legal education, to be of generAl
advantage, must comprehend and meet the wants no
only of the pmfessional„ but also of the unprolessional
student.

" 10. That legal education for the general unpro-
fessional student can scarcely be commenced on any ex
tended scale, earlier than the period of university educa.
tion. It is deemed advisable, however, with a view el
general or non-professional, rather than of professional
education, that chaTs of law, &c., should comprise
amongst their courses, besides the general principles and
elements of jurisprudence (the base and introduction to
all legal study, and the natural sequel to history, mental
and moral philosophy), courses also of constitutional law,
comparative c9nstitutional law, political and commercial
geography, statistics, anti political economy.
" 11. That an outline of the history and progress of
law, with the elements of jurisprudence, from approved
text books, might very advantageously form a portion of
the under-graduate's course in the English and Irish
universities, in continuation and illustration of the
elements of history and mental and moral philosophy:
and should the present course of academical studies be
so extensive as to preclude such addition (which may he
doubted), such portions thereof as are of comparatively
minor importance might be suppressed, so as to allow
the proposed law studies to be substituted.
" 12. That in order to give effiAency to such change,
two examinations should be admitted, the one of the
character usually required to qualify for degrees of arts,
the other such as is required for honours.
" 13. That with a view of making similar provision
for the more advanced students, especially such as pro.
pose to devote themselves to the legal or even clerical
profession, it appears essential that greater efficiency
should be given to the existing chairs; and in propor-
tion as the study shall be more cultivated, greater ex-
tension to the courses and a greater number of chairs to
each department. To realise this, it will be necessary
that greater advantages should be attached to the law
degrees, and a greater amount of study and knowledge
be demanded for their acquisition. Connected with the
chairs of civil law, might be instituted chairs of inter-
national law and colonial law, for such as might find it
necessary or advantageous to attend them; and with the
ohair of English law, and subsidiary to it, chairs of con-
stitutional, comparative constitutional, and municipal
law, might successively be established, for the conveni-
ence and instruction especially of such general students
as might wish to prosecute their studies in the univer-
sities tarther than the proposed elementary legal course
of the under-graduate.

.._ 14. That to render these lectures of benefit, your
Committee are strongly impressed with the importance
of accompanying all lectures with as much of private
instruction and questioning as may be practicable, but
especially with periodical examinations& which may thus
afford tests not merely of a given amount of knowledge,
but, to a great degree, of assiduity and perseverance in
acquiring and retaining it.
15. That it appears from evidence before your
Committee, that the professional student could scarcely
acquire, even with these additions, that special and
thoroughly professional education necessary for pro-
fessional success at an university. In other words, a
college of law seems not less important to the lawyer
than a college of surgery or medicine to the surgeon or
physician.
~ 16. That this institution is to be sought rather in
the application, if possible, of old establishmerht h
tahne
the erection of new ones, from the guarantee w c c
former give of order, efficiency, and permanengi aL 1
that such institutions ate, to a great degree, to. be met
bolt countries. Nu ,
with in the ' Inns of Court' in
violent or inappropriate .innovatiotn is attempted
to.. to be
forced upon them. They
'ressorand only their own
to this application resume anew the
ancient statutes and practices, and
original objects of their institution.
give effect
a special of the
.the or
Inns of CTehuartt, toto
the or professional
it
tn
tßis country should co-operate appears much more advisable that the
providing for its own usthat of *
asslatteuewveddeerceinootlflsi:negeanacs'sehries of lectures on alle ; and
depart-
mentsin-
itb
of civil and English law, thatshould'great
rather fur-
nish each its quota to the general course, in that depart
went which is most congenial to • its constitution; and to
admit indiscriminately, on payment of the same fees, di
students of the inns of court
without distinction. The four no matter of what inn,
inns would thus form. for
all purposes of instruction
or, in other word , a sort. of aggregate of col-
leges,s, a species of ' Law University.'
Ireland, The ' King's Inn' in adopting the same course,
but forming one
body,
would, like its university, be at
the same • time college and university.
" 18. That in order to give full effect to these lectures.
it appears to be advisable that entrance into the inns of
court, like entrance into an university, should be pre- '
ceded by an examination by way of matriculation, to
which should be considered equivalent a degree in arts,
but especially if the changes above recommended were
carried into effect in the universities, a degree in law.
The lectures should be accompanied with questioning
and examination daily, and with an examination os
greater length and minuteness at the termination of each
course. Finally, bet. re applying for admission to the
bar, the student should be required to pass a probationary
or qualifying examination, and permitted to go through
an additional one for honours, the notice and record of
which, after each examination, should be kept.and pub-
lished. It has been doubted how far the benchera would