Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 1.djvu/44

 been accomplished by the selection of fully reported cases, the giving out of testimony in parts to those acting as witnesses, and the requiring the counsel to work up the case entirely from the testimony procured from the witnesses, without previous knowledge of the case from the report.

One is struck with the value in many ways of such trials, provided they are not undertaken too frequently. The student of law, from the nature of his work, is barred from that varied intercourse with men, that personal element, we may call it, which renders the practice so fascinating, and any plan which makes it possible for the student to introduce something of this into his work is to be commended. Aside, too, from the excellent practice afforded to those who take part, such trials may be made a means of familiarizing those who witness them with the actual court practice of English and American courts. One other point suggests itself. The Law School has hitherto furnished nothing to attract the college students within its walls, and kindle an interest among them in the study of the profession which so many of them adopt. Does not this year’s experience show that these trials are adapted to serve just that purpose?

There is one weakness in the trials as now conducted which it would be well for those to remedy who have it in hand next year. As yet no way has been found in which to make the cross-examinations a complete success. The counsel ought, in some way, to be given a broader knowledge of the case, which might serve as a basis for cross-examination.

the comparative merits of a third year at the school, and a third year in a lawyer’s office, are so often discussed, the following extract from President Eliot’s last report may be of interest both to graduates and under-graduates: “It is good evidence of the value of the full three years’ course that, for several summers past, the school has been unable to fill all the places in lawyers’ offices which have been offered it for its third-year students, just graduating. There have been more places offered, with salaries sufficient to live on, than there were graduates to take them.”

Author:Christopher Columbus Langdell, in his last report, says, in regard to the Harvard Law School Association, “That the Association has already rendered a very valuable service to the school there can be no doubt; and, if its influence has not already been felt in increasing the number of students in the school, it is doubtless because sufficient time has not yet elapsed to enable it to make itself felt in that way. The gentlemen who conceived and started this enterprise, and who have spared neither time nor labor in carrying it out, are entitled to the lasting gratitude of every one who has the welfare of the school at heart.”

may not be generally known that a chair of international law will eventually be established as a regular professorship in the school. A sum of about $50,000 has been left for this purpose, subject only to the life estate of the testator’s sister. At her death, then, the corporation