$134,000, facing upon the Green, or public square. By arrangement with the county authorities that floor was planned with special reference to such use. The rooms are large, high, and well-lighted, and in most respects satisfactory, though it is not unlikely that the further expansion of the school will before long necessitate a change. But the present situation has been and still is very fortunate and appropriate. On the lower floors the County Court of Common Pleas and the Superior Court are almost continually in session, where all the important civil causes in the county are tried. The Supreme Court of Errors holds two terms each year in the rooms usually occupied by the Superior Court. In addition to these courts, in another portion of the same building are held two terms of the Superior Court and more frequent sessions of the Court of Common Pleas for the trial of criminal causes. It was in this building that the famous Hayden and Malley murder cases were tried. These exceptional opportunities for observing the actual conduct of trials of all kinds are of very great practical importance. The students take a keen interest in some of the trials and arguments, especially when their own instructors are engaged as counsel.
The school owes its present library also largely to the personal efforts of the present Faculty. Until about the year 1845 it is probable that the students were principally dependent upon the library of Judge Hitchcock, which they used freely. Upon his death it was purchased for the use of the school by the proceeds of a subscription and an appropriation from the college funds. This, with several hundred books from Judge Daggett's library and some additions by purchase, made a fair collection which was well maintained until about the time of Governor Bissell's death. From that date few books were bought until 1869, when some of the leading sets were filled up by the liberality of Hon. William Walter Phelps, of New Jersey, and soon afterwards, through the efforts of Professor Wayland, a subscription of $20,000 was raised. This was applied to the purchase of the necessary reports and books, in the selection and arrangement of which much is due to Professor Platt's aid. Since that time Hon. James E. English, of New Haven, has generously given a permanent fund of $10,000 for its maintenance. Owing to these and other private contributions, the library is now well equipped, containing all the English and American Reports and standard treatises and periodicals, also a large and valuable collection of books for reference in the study of both American and English constitutional and political history and of Roman Law; in all, about nine thousand volumes. The library of the County Bar Association on the floor below that occupied by the school contains a complete set of standard English and American legal treatises. The two libraries are used in common by the students and the members of the association, and are managed in conjunction with each other so that there may be as little duplication as possible,—an arrangement which is mutually advantageous. The books are directly accessible to the students without the intervention of the Librarian, but cannot be taken from the rooms except for use in court. The libraries of the University are also open to members of the school.
With this outline of the history of the school and general view of its Faculty and equipment, a discussion of its organization and methods will be better understood. The requirements for admission to the undergraduate course are the exhibition of a degree from some collegiate institution or of a certificate that the student has passed a "Regents' Examination for Law Students" in New York, or, if the applicant can show neither degree nor certificate, he must pass an examination upon the outlines of English and American history and the text of the Constitution of the United States. Admission to the second year by those who have not been through the first is granted upon
