passing a second examination he becomes an Anwalt, or public attorney, and is entitled to practice in the Amtsgericht, and Landgericht.

In England a high standard of qualifications has been established. Since 1877 the entire practical control of the examination and admission of solicitors has been in the hands of the Incorporated Law Society, which has created a paid Board of Examiners. One who intends to apply for admission as a solicitor must be "apprenticed" or "articled" as a clerk to a practicing solicitor for a period of five years, unless he has taken an academic degree, in which case the time is reduced to three years. If he is without such a degree he must pass a preliminary examination for the purpose of ascertaining whether his general education is sufficient to warrant his entering on the study of law. The examination is in English History, the English and Latin languages, and in any two languages which he may select from the following: Greek, Italian, Spanish, French and German. He is subsequently required to pass an intermediate and a final examination. These examinations are upon the law and are searching and severe. The examination of would-be barristers is in the hands of the Council of Legal Education, and the conditions are equally exacting.

In the United States, in many of the states, an examination for admission to the bar has been little more than perfunctory. In some states the standard is much lower than in former years, while in others it is being rapidly advanced. But in the earliest years of our history the candidate for admission to the bar does not seem to have been subjected to any very trying ordeal, if we may rely on the accounts which have come down to us as to the manner in which young men were admitted into the profession in Massachusetts one hundred years ago. We are informed that a student about to enter the study of law began by offering his services to some established practitioner, paying him a fee of one hundred dollars.

After two years of study he would be accompanied into court by his preceptor, who would ask the court's permission to present a young man for the oath of an attorney, at the same time vouching for his morals and learning. The court then asked the bar if they consented, and on their bowing their assent, the oath was administered and the new attorney introduced to the bar. The whole company would then adjourn to the tavern to celebrate the event. It was in that day the usual way of introducing the neophyte "into the full communion of the brethern," for them all to indulge in a kind of "alco holic christening." John Adams in describing his admission to the bar, says, after the oath was administered, "I shook hands with the bar, and received their congratulations, and invited them over to Stone's to drink some punch, where the most of us resorted and had a very cheerful chat."

You are aware that the verdict of the best informed of our profession is in favor of education by means of law schools. The American Bar Association is on record to that effect. Law students, however, are not required by law to obtain their education in the law schools, as medical students are compelled to obtain theirs in schools of medicine. It is a fact shown by the reports of the commissioner of education that the lawyers of the Union do not obtain their professional training from their professional schools to any such extent as do the physicians or the clergymen. His last report shows that in 1884 there were in the law schools of the United States 2,686 students, in the divinity schools 5,144, in the medical colleges of the "regulars " 10,600 and in the homoeopathic schools 1,267. But it is a matter upon which we may congratulate ourselves, that of those in attendance on the professional schools, the number holding degrees in art or science according to a previous report of the commissioner was in medicine 7.9 per cent, in law 24.1 per cent, in theology 26.4 Of the college graduates 9.2 per cent

become doctors of medicine, 19.7 per cent become lawyers, and 21 per cent ministers. The fact remains, however, that the young men who go into the professions in this country do not bring to their studies as thorough intellectual training and as wide a culture as is the case in England, where more than 85 per cent of those admitted to the bar in recent years have been university graduates.

In this country there have been conflicting theories as to the course to be pursued as respects admission to the bar. One theory would reduce the practice of the law to a mere private matter, treating the lawyer as a tradesman, rather than as an officer of the law. It fills the profession with an unlimited number "of ignorant shysters and tricksters, facile defenders of the criminal classes, adroit demagogues of village politics, impudent apologists of grog shop and gambling morality."

The other theory would elevate the practice of the law to the dignity which pertains to a department of the government, considering the lawyer as a minister of justice and an officer of the court. It would close the doors of the profession against all who are devoid of character and of learning, by insisting on a high standard of legal attainments.

Those who hold the latter theory may well consider whether the end desired cannot be best subserved by restricting to the court of last resort the right to admit to the bar, and by providing for a paid Board of Examiners, whose duty it shall be to make an honest and thorough examination of the candidates. This plan has been adopted in some of the states and has been attended with excellent results. For reasons not necessary here to dwell upon, the matter cannot be well attended to in the lower courts, however excellent the intentions of the judges in such courts may be.

ADMISSION OF WOMEN.

It is only within a short time that women have been

admitted to the bar. The time is within the recollection of all of you when a woman lawyer was unknown to the country. But the sentiment of our time is that woman shall be free to pursue any respectable calling she may elect to follow. She has accordingly found her way into the medical profession, and in many of the states into the legal profession. No woman has, however, been ordained to the ministry in any of the orthodox denominations.

Herbert Spencer, in his Principles of Sociology, maintains that in the United States women have reached a higher status in the social structure than they have reached in any other country of the world. This country has certainly been in advance of England in recognizing the right of women to enter the learned professions of law and medicine.

The first medical degree conferred on a woman in the United States was granted to an English woman in 1849 by a medical college then located at Geneva in the State of New York. And woman gained recognition in the medical profession in this country, before similar recognition was accorded to her in England. But in 1876 the British Parliament passed an act authorizing the registration of women as medical practitioners.

The first legal degree conferred on a woman in English-speaking lands was conferred by this University in 1872. The first woman to be admitted to the bar in this country was admitted in Iowa in 1869. In England no woman has as yet been called to the bar. But in this country women are allowed to practice in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. They are also allowed to practice in the District of Columbia, and in the territories of Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

According to the census of 1880 the number of women who had been admitted to the bar in the United

States was 75. In some of the states their admission has been secured by special legislation giving them the right to practice law, while in others the courts have admitted them without such special legislation.

It of course remains for the future to demonstrate their fitness and capacity for the practice of the law. The day has passed for questioning their capacity to know the law. But one may understand the science of the law and at the same time be unfitted for its practice. One may possess the legal knowledge of a Bentham or an Austin, and fail as utterly as did they in the attempt to practice the profession.

In Italy, during the fourteenth century, numerous women are said to have become well versed in the law. Gazzadina was made a Doctor of Laws, and given the professorship of Jurisprudence in the University of Bologna, the most famous of all the Italian Universities. At Paris, in 1777, Maria Pelligrina Amoretti was given the Doctorate and crowned with laurel in the presence of an enthusiastic assembly. Her writings may still be read in a book entitled "De Jure Dotium apud Romanos." Madamoiselle de Legardière wrote a treatise which Guizot refers to as being "the most instructive now extant upon ancient French law." Many women were graduated in law at Bologna, Pavia, Padua, and Ferrara.

IS THE PROFESSION OVER-CROWDED?

We hear much about the over-crowded condition of the legal profession. Not only in this country but in England the cry of alarm has been raised, and the question is asked how are all the young lawyers to live. The young lawyer and the over-crowded condition of the profession seem to have been the subject of a good deal of solicitude for a long time. When John Adams, as long ago as 1757, was contemplating entering on the study of law, he was warned against so doing and informed that "the county of Suffolk and town of Boston, were full of lawyers.” Edmund