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Bar are graduates or were students. A number of them hold or have held high judi cial positions in the State and Territorial courts, several of them reaching the rank of Chief-Justices and Chancellors. The men who have been active in political reform in New York have been trained here, includ ing Seth Low and Theodore Roosevelt. The same remark may be made of the better element in New York political life. The prominent offices are held by these students, including such positions as that of the Mayor, Corporation Counsel, City Chamberlain, etc. As prosecuting officers they have been highly efficient and successful. In the City Councils they have been unflinchingly op posed to corruption, sometimes standing almost alone in their efforts to prevent it. Some of them have exhibited remarkable talents in the management of great public enterprises. Diplomacy has had through them fit expression. They have borne their part well in high executive and legislative positions, frequently having in the latter that commanding influence which springs from knowledge, ability, and purity of pur pose. Their arguments before courts ex hibit in numerous instances thoroughness, breadth of research, and strength of reason ing, deserving and receiving high compli ments from judges who know what good argumentation is. A single fact shows their general spirit in connection with membership of the Bar Association of the City of New York. There is perhaps no institution of this kind in this country which is more meritorious and suc cessful. It originated with the leading mem bers of the bar. None can join it except such as pass the ordeal of a careful inquiry by a thoroughly well-selected committee on admissions, — an inquiry into the training, ability, and character of the candidates. An

admirable library containing upwards of thirty thousand volumes, many of them rare and of great value, bespeaks the energy and intelligence of the Society. Of this asso ciation of picked men, having on its rolls nine hundred and fifty members, a majority (477) consists of graduates or former stu dents of this Law School. This is a preg nant fact, showing their earnestness in broad and comprehensive study. With many of them, membership is won with the first scanty savings made in the outset of their professional life. So much and more has been achieved by these young men in the face of an active and relentless competition from lawyers crowding into this city from all parts of the United States. Nor is the success of the graduates confined to the city of New York. Similar results might be cited from various parts of the country. The managers of the Law School have reason to think that they have not spent their strength in vain. They look forward with some solicitude to their new departure. Will the three years' course be sustained by the community? It is believed that it will be." The time seems ripe for it. The signs of success are flattering, particularly in the fact that the number of students re mains constant, notwithstanding the an nouncement of a longer curriculum of study. Such institutions have no governmental support here to uphold them, as on the con tinent of Europe. Attendance is in the face of easier methods tolerated by the State. If the proposed course be successful, it will be another instance of the willingness of the American people to submit to sacrifices and to practise self-denial in the hope of attaining a higher education. It casts a serious responsibility upon the Board of Instruction here to see that the hope turns out to be well grounded.