Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/98

88 worn by barristers when attending the courts, consisting of a stuff-gown, exchanged for one of silk when the wearer has attained the rank of queen s counsel, both classes also having wigs dating in pattern and material from the 18th century. Those who practise below the bar as pleaders or conveyancers are under tlie necessity of taking out a cer tificate, which is granted for one year only, but is renew able, and is subject to a small payment. This certificate is issued by the benchers of the Inn of Court of which the practitioner is a member, and is given to those only who are qualified to be called to the bar. During the reign of Edward III. the Inns of Court and Chancery, based on the collegiate principle, prospered under the supervision and protection of the crown. In 1381 Wat Tyler invaded the Temple, and in the succeed ing century (1450) Jack Cade meditated pulling down the Inns of Court and killing the lawyers. It would appear, moreover, that the inmates of the inns were themselves at times disorderly and in conflict with the citizens. Fortescue (circa 1464) describing these societies thus speaks of them: " There belong to the law ten lesser inns, which are called the Inns of Chancery, in each of which there are one hundred students at least, and in some a far greater number, though not constantly residing. After the students have made some progress here they are admitted to the Inns of Court. Of these there are four, in the least frequented of which there are about two hundred students. The discipline is excellent, and the mode of study well adapted for proficiency." This curriculum had probably existed for two centuries before Fortescue wrote, and continued to be enforced certainly down to the time of Sir Thomas More (1498) and of Chief Justice Dyer (1537), and yet later to that of Sir Edward Coke (1571). From this time, however, the attorneys were gradually closing the doors of the Inns of Chancery against students for the bar; and these preparatory schools of law, once the stepping stones to the Inns of Court (who directed their studies), have long since severed their relations with the bar and with legal education, and are now of no account whatever in connexion with the law, their members being chiefly, though not entirely, solicitors meeting solely for convivial purposes. By the time of Sir Matthew Hale (1G29) the custom for law students to be first entered to an Inn of Chancery before being admitted to an Inn of Court had become obsolete, and thenceforth the Inns of Chancery have been entirely abandoned to the attorneys. Stow in his Survey succinctly points out the course of reading enforced at the end of the 16th century. He says that the Inns of Court were replenished partly by students coming from the Inns of Chancery, who went thither from the univer sities and sometimes immediately from grammar schools ; and, having spent some time in studying the first elements of the law, and having performed the exercises called " bolts," " moots," and " putting of cases," they proceeded to be admitted to, and become students in, one of the Inns of Court. Here continuing for the space of seven years or thereabouts, they frequented readings and other learned exercises, whereby, growing ripe in the knowledge of -the laws, they were, by the general consent either of the benchers or of the readers (who down to 1664 enjoyed a special privilege in this respect), called to the degree of barrister, and so enabled to practise in chambers and at the bar. There is thus abundant evidence that ample provision for legal study was formerly made, and that this continued with more or less vigour down to nearly the commencement of the 18th century. A languor similar to that which affected the church and the universities then gradually supervened, until the fulfilment of the merest forms sufficed to confer the dignity of advocate and pleader. This was maintained until recent years, when (from 1845) the necessity for suitable training of j oung men aspiring to forensic honours has again become recognized, and steps have been taken for reviving and extending the ancient discipline and course of study, bringing them into harmony with modern ideas and requirements. In the present day the four Inns of Court have combined in framing and enforcing regulations having for their end a preliminary or matriculation examination prior to admission to an inn, the keeping of terms, the attendance at lectures and private classes, and finally an examination preparatory to the call to the bar, which, as at the universities, is divided into an honour and a simple pass examination, the former carrying with it certain studentships of some pecuniary value and certificates of honour. Tli3 scope of the examinations is tolerably wide, and includes juris prudence (with international law, public and private), the Roman civil law, constitutional law and legal history, common law, equity, the law of real and personal property, and criminal law. These studies, and the examinations consequent upon them, are superintended and controlled by a council of legal education consisting of twenty benchers nominated in equal numbers by each inn, and by a per manent committee of education and examination consisting of eight members, appointed by and taken from the council itself. A body of examiners has been likewise constituted, whose payment, together with the attendant expenses of the council, is provided for by annual contributions, in certain fixed proportions, made by the four inns. The arrangements in force would appear, however, to be regarded as tentative only, several attempts having been made to carry out a more systematic scheme of education, to be developed eventually into a regular legal university. The assistance of the legislature to this end has even been sought, but as yet without result, in the shape of a statutory enactment. The fees payable at the different inns vary from 136, 11s. lOd. at Gray s Inn to 154, Is. 3d. at the Middle Temple. These sums cover all expenses from admission to an inn to the call to the bar, but the addition of tutorial and other expenses may augment the cost of a barrister s legal education to 400 or 500. The period of study prior to call has now become limited to twelve terms, equivalent to about three years. In the case ot solicitors, however, the regulations have been altered in 1881 so as to enable them to be called after the lapse of one year. It has been seen that the studies pursued in ancient times were conducted by means of "readings," "moots," and " bolts/ The readings were from the very first deemed of vital importance, and were delivered in the halls with much ceremony ; they were frequently regarded as authori ties and cited as such at Westminster in argument. Some statute or section of a statute was selected for analysis and explanation, and its relation to the common law pointed out. Many of these readings, dating back to Edward I., are extant, and well illustrate the importance of the subjects and the exhaustive and learned manner in which they were treated by the able, experienced men upon whom this duty was cast. The function of " reader " involved the holder in very weighty expenses, chiefly by reason of the profuse hospitality dispensed, a constant and splendid table being kept during the three weeks and three days over which the readings extended, to which were invited the nobility, judges, bishops, the officers of state, and sometimes the king himself. In 1688 the readers were paid 200 for their reading, but by that time the office had become a sinecure. In the present day the readership is purely honorary and without duties. The privilege formerly assumed by the reader of calling to the bar was taken away in 1664 by an order of the lord chancellor and the judges. Moots were exercises of the nature of formal argu-