Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 10.djvu/450

424 424 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. cation, and not for professional purposes, are in the main unjustly- excluded. Even a solicitor who wishes to take the lectures with a view to becoming a barrister was excluded, as not a member of any Inn of Court. In considering the education of the solicitors, we must briefly trace the history of the incorporated Law Society already men- tioned. It is a great association of solicitors for mutual benefit, incorporated in 183 1. In 1836 they began to examine candidates for admission as solicitors. This power to examine and admit was in the judges, but they used the society to aid them. In 1877, however, by act of Parliament, power was given the society to examine for itself, and now, with the assistance of a Master of the Supreme Court, it has entire control. If the society refuses a cer- tificate to any candidate, he may appeal to the Master of the Rolls. There are four examinations. First, a preliminary one in general knowledge, including Latin and two foreign languages. These are held at various points about the country, and are substantially equivalent to an entrance examination, or *' little go," at the Uni- versities, — rather more than equal was the testimony. Various university degrees exempt the candidate from this preliminary. Secondly, there is an intermediate examination in an assigned part of Stephen's Commentaries. Thirdly, a final examination as a test of practical skill, not from books, but upon law generally. Fourthly, on the day but one after the finals, examinations for honors are held, which are entirely voluntary. Roughly speaking, about two thirds of the applicants pass the preliminary and the rest are postponed; about four fifths pass the intermediate; as Mr. Pen- nington, the president of the society, testified, '* an articled clerk, with any reasonable amount of attention, ought to be able to pass that examination." And the finals, which are the most important, are passed again by about two thirds of those who come up to them, so that, of a given lot starting together, only about one third get through and win the certificates for admission in course. Up to October, 1 891, the society maintained a system of lectures and classes for students going up for their finals. The attendance on these declined so far that at last there were only thirteen subscribers for this course, and it was abandoned at the time mentioned. It was found that the students preferred privately to hire and depend upon tutors or coaches who gave private instruction, and the society concluded to furnish as near as might be the same form