Osgoode Hall, found themselves only occasionally enabled to make use of it.". The county of Wentworth and the practitioners of the city of Hamilton are entitled to the credit of establishing the first county law association. This association was organized in the year 1879, not then, however, as an incorporated society. The first county incorporated association was the Law Association of the County of York, established under cover of the Revised Statutes of Ontario, Cap. 168. the act entitled "An Act respecting Library Institutions and Me chanics' Institutes." This act enabled any number of persons not less than ten, having subscribed or holding together not less than one hundred dollars in money or money's worth, for the use of their intended institution, to make and sign a declaration of their intention to establish a library association or a mechanics' in stitute, or both, at some time and place to be named in such declaration. More than eighty members of the Bar practicing in Toronto and the county of York made the declaration according to the act, and to carry out the require ments of the act declared : 1 . That the corporate name of the Association should be " The County of York Law Association." 2. Its purpose should be the formation and support of a law library for the use of its members, to be kept and maintained in the Court House in the city of Toronto, and to promote the general interests of the profession, and good feeling and harmony among its members. The constitution then goes on to declare that the amount of money subscribed by the eighty members was in all the sum of Si 035, that the shares should be five dollars each, and each member to be entitled to one share for every five dollars in cash, and ten dollars for each ten dollars' worth of books. The declaration provided for the continuance of the Asso ciation; an annual meeting of members for purposes prescribed in the act; and appointed the following nine trustees for managing the affairs of the Associa tion until such time as their successors should be ap pointed by annual meeting. The following barristers were appointed the first nine trustees of the Associa tion: Britton Bath Osier, Q.C., James Kirkpatrick Kerr, Q.C., George Fergusson Shepley, Edward Douglas Armour, George Tate Blackstock, William Lount, QC, Walter Barwick, Charles Henry Ritchie, QC, Thomas Jaffray Robertson. Britton Bath Osier, one of the most prominent members of the Bar of Toronto, was the first president of the As sociation and was succeeded by James Fitzp1trick Kerr, Q.C., and then Christopher Robinson, QC, who, by his advocacy of the British claims in the
Behring Sea Arbitration, has established for himself a European reputation. This Association, with its sister Association of Hamilton, and indeed with the co-operation of the other county law associations, twenty of which have been organized in Ontario, have done great service to the law and to the profession by suggesting re forms and improvements which have met with the approbation of the judges and crystallized into rules of court and legislative enactments. It is sufficient to quote from only two association reports to show the effectuality of the work of the As sociation, i. e., the report of the Hamilton Associa tion of 1888, and of the County of York Association of the same year. In the report of the Hamilton Association it is said, "Owing to the action of law associations throughout the province, and more par ticularly those of York, Middlesex and Wentworth, there is every reason to hope that a complete fusion of the courts, with a uniform and consolidated practice, may result from what at first promised to be but a collection of all known existing rules." The report goes on to say, " The committee consisting of Messrs. Martin, Q.C., McKelcan, Q.C., and Teetzel, having given much valuable time to this question and the report of the joint Committee on Legislation from the county law associations, dated 19th Nov. 1887, shows how fully the suggestions made by this Association in the report dated 4th March, 1887, have been carried into effect. The report of the Committee on Legislation also bears good testi mony to the value and influence of the associations throughout the country, which is flattering to this, the oldest association in the province." The County of York Law Association in their re port of 1888 say, "At the last annual meeting a res olution was passed directing the Board to take means to bring about a meeting of the delegates of the various county law associations in the province for the purpose of discussing matters of general interest to the profession, and immediately after the meeting correspondence was opened with the view of bringing about such a conference. Before, however, the details of this arrangement had been completed, the draft of the proposed Revised Rules were laid before the Committee on Legislation, and this draft con tained so many features requiring careful consideration that the Committee on Legislation of the Hamilton Association was invited to meet with our committee and take up the consideration of the draft Rules. This committee met and was subsequently enlarged by inviting all the other law associations in the prov ince to send representatives to the meetings. Most of the other associations were represented at the subsequent meetings of the committee; and ultimately a report was made setting forth the suggestions of the
