Faculty, either for prizes for graduating the ses, or for printing theses of special merit, or for both such purposes. The way in which the income is to be applied is determined each year upon the presentation of the theses. Provision is made for the instruction of law students in elocution and oratory. All or any of the university courses in these subjects are open to members of the school who may elect to take the work. Students who have received the full course of instruction, performed all regular exer cises, and passed the regular examinations, are admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Laws. And those admitted to advanced standing are entitled to all the privileges of the class of which they become members. When a per son has been connected with the school for a period not entitling him to graduation, he may, on application to the authorities, re ceive, instead of a diploma, an official certifi cate, showing the length of time that he has been in attendance, and the degree of his attainments. The school was first opened for the ad mission of students Sept. 23, 1887. The writer will perhaps be pardoned for insert ing in this connection the following quo tation from the Report of the President of the University for the academic year 18871888, in so far as it refers to the School of Law : — "Among the changes of the year one of the most noteworthy has been the opening of the School of Law. The members of the Board of Trustees will recollect that it was with some so licitude that the first definite steps were taken looking toward the establishment of this school. It is but just, at the end of the first year of instruction, to say that our most sanguine ex pectations have been most fully realized. The school opened with an enrolment of fifty-five stu dents, eleven of whom, having previously studied law for a considerable length of time, were ad mitted, on examination, to the senior class. Of these, nine have been successful in passing the examinations at the end of the year for gradua tion. The school entered, at the very beginning
of its existence, upon a vigorous career, and at once showed all the energy of full maturity. In some of its peculiarities the school diners from those established elsewhere in the country. The amount of class instruction per week during the past year has amounted to about fifteen hours, or three lectures or recitations per working day. This is nearly fifty per cent more than is customary, and it is believed is a somewhat greater amount than is given in any of the other schools. The stu dents, moreover, have had unusual facilities for practice in the drawing up of legal papers and the presenting of causes in court. Every member of the senior class has taken active part in the trial of as many as six causes in the course of the year, each cause having been argued before a court con sisting of Professors Hutchins, Collins, and Burdick. The proceedings of these trials have been conducted with all the care that would be neces sary before one of the State courts; and the final opinions of the court have been written out by one of the judges and left on file in the Law Library for consultation by members of the class. This fea ture of the school is so unusual, and brings to the students so unusual an experience, that it is in this connection worthy of special mention. By this method every student, before graduation, has an experience which he might be unable to gain dur ing several years of practice at the bar. The courses given by the non-resident lecturers have been an invaluable feature of the work of this year. They have stimulated the members of the classes, have given valuable opportunity for ob serving methods of legal investigation and thought pursued by men actively engaged in the courts, and have brought the students into personal contact with several prominent members of the American bar. On all of these courses the students have been regularly examined, and in this way the work of the non-resident lecturers has been closely incor porated into the requirements of the school. In not a few of the law schools of the country the work exacted is somewhat less in amount than is required of university students in other branches of instruction. I am of the opinion, however, that during the past year the most laborious class of students connected with the university has been connected with the School of Law. From every point of view we have reason to congratulate our selves upon the harmony with which the members of the Faculty have worked together, upon the dili
