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sonal worth; when the contest between lawyers was as to which had given sound legal advice or the contrary; and when in the trial of causes, the battle was one of intellect, between educated minds, in which the law, its rules, its principles, and their proper application were analyzed and dissected with all the skill and experience of scientific and expert surgeons? In these days when lawyers are remu nerated for their services and are entitled thereto, is not the fact an additional reason for making a thorough education in all branches of the science an essential for admission to the profession? As has been said above, to the so-called " Legal Reformers " the distinctions between remedies at law and in equity are extremely undesirable; and for the very reason that Equity and Equity Jurispru dence, in the first place, occupied but a limited place in their studies. To them light has been withheld, or at least its rays have not been cast in their direc tion; and hence they cannot see that Equity is one of the most important, and at the same time one of the most attractive branches in the study of the law. In fact, none can be a sound, much less an accom plished lawyer, who has not given it a prominent place in his studies. Equity jurisprudence is recog nized in the Federal Constitution, and in many of the States of the Union. What though in some of the States there are no separate courts of Chancery; what though in some of them equity powers are con ferred upon the common-law courts; what though in others the distinction between legal and equitable forms of action does not exist, but a general form of civil action is the rule, — in every State judges and leg islatures have found it necessary to resort to equitable remedies and to make provision for them from time to time. And why? In the language of Lord Chan cellor Ellesmere in the famous Earl of Oxford's case, and reported in White and Tudor's Leading Cases in Equity, p. 643 et seq., because "as a right at law cannot die, neither can Chancery die. . . . Equity speaks as the law of God speaks. . . . The cause why there is a Chancery is, for that men's actions are so divers and infinite, that it is impossible to make any general law which may aptly meet with every particular act and not fail in some circum stances; " and therefore, it is the office of the chan cellor " to correct men's consciences for frauds, breaches of trusts, wrongs and oppressions, of what nature soever they be, and to soften and mollify the extremity of the law, which is called summum jus." In other words, equity steps in where the law, because of its being unable to provide for un foreseen and constantly arising circumstances, has provided no remedy; and hence, as the Lord Chan cellor above quoted says: "As a right at law cannot die, neither can Chancery [or Equity] die;" and consequently the study of Equity, Equitable Juris

diction and Remedies is an essential to a thorough legal education. Are these " Legal Reformers" aware that the practice of the English High Court of Chancery forms the basis of the equity practice of the Courts of the United States? In their haste to " simplify " the forms of action and rules of prac tice, they are unable to perceive that it is not in the power of man to frame laws to meet every possible emergency or newly arising state of circumstances; and that by doing away with equity or forbidding a resort to its methods, right would be too frequently left unprotected, and justice fail of being adminis tered. Such men have not the same consciousness which every day presses itself upon the mind of the lawyer who having devoted years of careful study to his profession feels that he is yet, even after years of practice and experience, a student who can gain knowledge from his text-books. They claim to be "progressive; " but such progress as they would initiate could only lead to placing the legal profes sion under the control of the ignorant, and culminat ing in making pleading in a court of justice a farce and the law anything else than a protector of the rights of the people. What is wanted is a higher standard of education at the American Bar; men of ability, — men especially trained, and whose studies have gone beyond the statutes of their own State, and who have gathered knowledge from standard legal text-books of English authorship as well as those of their own country, well knowing that therein are contained some of the most brilliant of arguments and the most valuable of precedents. In the lan guage of Lord Coke (Co. Litt. 9 a) : " There is no knowledge, case, or point in law, seeme it of never so little account, but will stand our student in stead at one time or other, and therefore in reading nothing pretermitted."

In our March number we shall publish an ad mirable full-page portrait of Lord Eldon, and in the April number an excellent picture (full-page) of Mr. A. C. Freeman, the well-known legal writer, and editor of the " American Decisions."

LEGAL ANTIQUITIES. When the Papal See was transferred to Avignon, in the reign of Philip the Fair, many of the Ital ian jurists accompanied the court and established themselves there. Being in point of learning and legal dexterity superior to the French lawyers of