The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-05-30
THE NEWS AND OBSERVER TUESDAY MORNING. MAY so 1892

tice and the Associate Justices of the
Supreme Court, that he is of upright
moral character, and possesses sutn-
Gent learning in the law
1t is matter worthy the considcra-
ton of bar association and the court
whether an apprenticeship of three years
as an incentive to post license study
should not be required for admission to
the Supreme Court Bar. The rule re-
Gently adopted by the Supreme Court
requiring examinations to be in writing
receives the approval Of all who desire
to see thorough preparation essential to
admission to the bar.
The standard which you will set for
your professional aim and ambition will
depend very much upon the conception
which you have of the science of Juris-
prudence and its relation to the well be-
ing of the State. | have seen no more
just. philosophical or elegant setting
forth of this subject than that of Sir
James Mcintosh, says he:
| There is in my opinion in the whole
compass of human affairs so noble Il
spectacle than that which is displayed
in the progress of jurisprudence, where
we may contemplate the cautions and
Iunwearied eXertions of wise men
| through long course of ages, with
| drawing every case as it arises from
| the dangerous power Of discretion and
Subjecting it to inHeXible rules; extend
| ing the domain of justice and reason,
gradually contracting within the mar
rowest possible limits the domain Of
brute force and arbitrary will Ed
mund Burhe says: THE science of jpr-
Iisprudence is the pride of the human
intellect, .......... it is the collected
reason of ages, combining the principles
of original justice with the infinite
variety of human concerns" The late
Mr. Legaree of South Carolina, proba-
bly, the first civilian of his age, in this
country. speaking of the conception
which the Romans had of Civil Law,
says: They looked upon law as the
recorded morality of Il nation. Il rule OF
social duty. no less than of civil conduct.
of which the great OBJECT is not only
security i'll the possession and certainty
in the transmission of property, but the
consecretation, if we may so express it.,
Of good faith, of integrity, of loyalty,
the impreSsing upon mems minds by en-
forcing, in all their commerce with each
other the Canctity OF obligations, the
setting the seal of the public will and
understanding, the unanimous assent
of whole society upon the principles Of
Il refined equity and enlarged benevo-
lence reduced to practice in the daily
concerns of life, with the provision, the
consistency and the uniformity of an eX-
act science"
Entering upon the study and practice
of this noble science with such cOnccp.
Ition of its beauty and dignity, becoming
its loyal votaries serving it as the jeal-
GUS mistress which she is, you may with
confidence aspire to the highest position
and greatest usefulness in public and
private, enjoy the confidence and re-
spect Of your fellow citizens and make
for yourselves by patience, industry and
economy an income sufficient to that
most happy and desirable condition of
life. plain living and high thinking"
Eoch individual must select that meth
od of study most congenial and best
suited to him. 1t is essential, however to
recognize and keep ever in mind the fact
the law and legal forms and principles
are the outgrowth of political, industrial
and social conditions and of conceptions
of natural Justice and equity. Their
That to reach them you must study with
diligence the history of those nations
and people whence our Jurisprudence
comes to us.
To a superficial observer and thinker
the law has but little of sympathy and
harmony. To such it is Il system of
quirks and bubbles, but to those who
will bestow study upon it. who viii
seek to know its history and its reasons
which constitute its life it becomes in
the language of Rufus Choate "A body
of digested rules, processes and forms,
bequeathed by what is for us the old
and past time, not of one age but CT all
ages, a vast and multifarious aggregate
some of which you may trace above
the pyramids, beyond the flood. the in
spired wisdom of the primeval east some
to the yet scarcely historical era of
rythagoraS, SOlan and Socrates: more
of it to the robust and practical sense
and justice Of Rome, the law giver of
the nations. all of it to some epoch, some
of it to every epoch of the past of which
history keeps the date" Sir William
Jones says of it: 1.-The great system of
Jurisprudence like that of the universe
consist of many subordinate systems all
of which are connected by nice links and
beautiful dependencies"
Jurisprudence both civil and criminal
is so interviewer with, responsive to and