time being should be, and be considered as two) as Governors or Benchers, and also to appoint a Librarian and Treasurer. The third section of the Act provided "that it should and might be lawful for the said Practitioners, or as many as could be called together (whereof His Majesty's Attorney and Solicitor-General should be two), to assemble at the Town of Newark, in the County of Lincoln, on the 17th July then next ensuing the passing of the Act, for the purpose of passing and adopting such rules and regulations as might be necessary for the immediate establishment of the said Society and its future welfare; and such rules and regulations as should then and there be adopted should be openly read and entered in a book, to be for that purpose provided, and having received the approba tion of the said Judges as visitors as afore said should be, and be considered to be, the binding constitution of the Law Society, and binding upon all its members." Power was given to the Society to add rules from time to time. Every person then practising at the bar was authorized to take one pupil or clerk for the purpose of instructing him in the knowledge of the law; and then the fifth section of the Act provided " that no person other than the then present Practitioners and those hereafter mentioned shall be permitted to practise at the Bar of His Majesty's Courts in the Province, unless such person shall have been previously entered of and admitted into the said Society as a student of the Laws, and shall have been standing on the books of the Society for and during the space of five years, and shall have conformed himself to the rules and regulations of the Society, and shall have been duly called and admitted to the practice of the Law as a Barrister ac cording to the constitution and establishment thereof." This legislation practically placed the good name and fame of the bar, its education, and future welfare in the hands of the members of the bar themselves. To them was in
trusted the securing to the Province and the profession a learned and honorable body to assist in the administration of justice and in the maintenance of the Constitution. Nor were the members of the bar slow to avail themselves of the privileges accorded to them and the Trust imposed on them by the Act of Parliament. On the 17th July, 1797, named in the Act, at a meeting of the Law Society in the town of Newark — present : John White, Attor ney-General, Robert D. Gray, Solicitor-Gen eral, Angus Macdonell, James Clarke, Nicholas Hagpuerman, Christopher Robinson, Allan McLean, William D. Powell, Alexander Stuart, and Bartholomew Beardsley, — it was resolved " that the two Crown Officers be nominated Benchers of the Law Society, to gether with the four senior Barristers; and that the Benchers, according to seniority, take upon themselves the treasurership of the said Society annually." This resolution was signed and approved by J. Elmsley, Chief-Justice; William Dummer Powell, Judge; and H. Alcock, Judge. At this meeting other rules were made, and at other meetings of the Society still other rules, down to 59 Geo. III., a.d. 18 18, — in all, seventeen rules. In this latter year, in Hil ary Term, was passed the following rule : "Whereas the present state of this Province affords the means of obtaining that educa tion which is necessary to the liberal study and practice of the profession of the Law, and which will secure to the Province a learned and honorable body to assist their fellow subjects as occasion may require, and to support and maintain the constitution of the Province; which valuable objects the Law Society of Upper Canada was expressly formed to secure : It is resolved by the So ciety that after this term all persons pro posing themselves to the Society for their approbation previous to their admission upon their books, shall be required to give a written translation, in the presence of the Benchers of the Society, of a portion of one of Cicero's Orations, or perform such other
