very slight attendance indeed, sometimes only as many as three or four; the last at tendance was eight." (Testimony of Mr., afterward Justice, Keating, before the Inns of Court Commission, p. 144.) The very limited attendance at University College has often been mentioned as a proof of the difficulty of obtaining general atten tion to improved methods of legal education. "Like the band But another fact in the same connection has That in the Grecian games had strife, generally been overlooked; that at the same And passed from eager hand to hand The onward dancing torch of life." 1 time another course of lectures of a more The feelings with which Austin regarded practical character, delivered in the same his choice students, those whose minds were institution, was largely attended, and un fully open to his own, are clearly shown in doubtedly had a very considerable immediate the memoranda (printed by his wife) of his influence. This was the course of Mr. An requests to them after his first lecture. " I drew Amos (afterward a member of the therefore entreat you, as the greatest favor Supreme Council of India), who was pro you can do me, to demand explanations and fessor in the University College for four or ply me with objections. Can bear castiga- five years, and had an attendance all the tion without flinching, coming from a friendly time of fifty to one hundred and fifty hearers, hand. In short, my requests are that you lecturing an hour every day in the week, ex will ply me with questions, and that you will cept while absent on circuit and during the long vacations. His success also encouraged attend regularly." (Preface, p. 7.) But unhappily there was no endowment for a great number of other lecturers in King's the chair of Jurisprudence, and the thrifty College, the Law Institute, etc. Mr. Amos managers of the University required it to be had also private classes in his chambers, self-supporting. If the lamp of science does which were very fully attended. A full ac not require gross material oil, costing money count of his success may be found in his in the market, the lamp of life does; and in testimony before the Select Committee of 1832 Mr. Austin had to bring his lectures the House of Commons, on legal education (Rep. of August 25, 1846, beginning at p. 94, to a close, and resign his chair in the Univer sity, for the want of a paying attendance. In Ques. 1232. Upon Austin's contemporary November, 1833, however, he was appointed course, see Ques. 1254; upon the method pursued by Amos, Ques. 1258), where he to deliver lectures upon the general princi ples of Jurisprudence and International Law, states that he found the lectures that related in the Hall of the Inner Temple. Here to the practice of the law were most attrac there was no difficulty about support. He tive. Austin " had but a very small number received ten guineas (about fifty dollars) for who attended upon his lectures; they were very intelligent men, but a small number of each lecture, as did Mr. Starkie, who lec them" (Ans. to 1254.) The comparative tured on the Principles of the Law as admin istered in the Superior Courts. But this effect produced by the two courses upon the experiment was even briefer than the other. improvement of legal education in England The lectures were discontinued in January, would be an interesting topic for speculation. Much might be said on both sides. It may 1835, "in consequence of the slight attend ance of members. They were reduced to a be well, in the interests of legal science, to hold as high as possible the standard of ju 1 Et (juasi cursores vitse lampada tradunt — Lucretius, ridical study, when we are discussing the II. 79.
to be, the exercise of creative thought, by those to whom the rare gift of genius has been intrusted, the second place at least may be claimed for the act by which the grand ideas which are the world's choicest treasures, are handed on to the best minds of a new generation, eager to seize and carry them forward,
