Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 03.pdf/558

 Legal Education. lawyers by making admissions to the bar easier and the choice of that profession less considerate than under the older methods. . . . "... We find that there are almost twice as many theological students in a given year, and four times as many medical students as there are (in the schools) of students of law. There cannot be any great disproportion like this in the number of stu dents at any given time, when the professions themselves are so nearly equal in numbers. By the census of 1880, the last of which the returns are now accessible to us, the total number of lawyers in the country was given as 64,137 (75 of them being females), while the clergymen numbered 64,698 (of whom 165 were women), and the physicians of all schools 85,671 (including 2,432 women).1 "It is a fair inference, therefore, that there will be about the same degree of equality in number among the annual aspirants to the three great pro fessions. The medical schools, no doubt, have nearly all of those who study that profession, for in most States the diploma is a prerequisite to a license to practise. This points directly to a number of law students not appearing in the tables, substan tially like that derived from the former calculation. Instruction in the schools of the ministry is gratu itous, and there are in most of them funds that give the student considerable aid in defraying his other expenses. Even when this is considered, it cannot entirely account for the fact that there are twice as many students in the theological schools of the country as in those of law, except we allow for a number of law students not in the schools at least approximate to that reached by the other methods. But it does suggest a thought of which our profession cannot be proud. The discrepancy in the number in schools is due to the inducements already mentioned as offered to students of theol ogy. These may be traced, of course, to their endowments and the other forms of Christian liber ality toward them. Whence came these? May they not be acccounted for mainly by the profound conviction of the Christian ministry as a profes sional body that their success as ministers, and that of the great churches they represent, is largely dependent on their thorough preparation for their life-work in the schools, — that this schooling for their chosen work is in the interest not of the student alone, but in that of the whole profession 1 Compendium of Census of 1880, tables ciii, civ., pp. 1368, 1378.

5i9

and the entire community? Is not this as true of the bar as of either of the other professions? Can any intelligent lawyer believe that in a popular government like ours the State may properly ex clude ignorance and incompetence from preying on the bodies of citizens, but must allow them free scope to prey upon their estates, to intro duce quarrel and disorder in their social as well as business relations, and even to make the State itself the object of their spoil? Or have the American Bar, as a body, less interest in the welfare of the community, less pride in the char acter of their own body than their clerical or medical brethren? If not, why are they the only one of the three ancient professions that has neither invoked public law nor private benevo lence against the evils of insufficient professional training?" A large part of the report is taken up with the consideration of foreign methods of legal education and the lessons to be derived from them. We pass over this part more willingly, because it is confessedly incomplete, and its full consideration is reserved to next year, owing to the number of important countries from which no reply has yet been received to the inquiries of the Committee. "With respect to modern legal education in foreign countries, the Committee had the good fortune to obtain the assistance of Hon. William T. Harris, Commissioner of Education, and the large means of obtaining information from abroad at his command. Dr. Harris obligingly sent to all the foreign countries with which the Bureau was in communication a list of questions prepared by the Committee, a copy of which will be found in the Appendix to this Report, covering not only the details of legal education, as there conducted, but also the organization and administration of the schools, with a great variety of particular facts, which in the opinion of the Committee might be of service in comparing these systems with our own. To these questions, which were sent early in March of this year, both in English and French versions, a great number of replies have already been received, and others are constantly arriving at the Bureau of Education. Many of them con tain full and detailed information in regard to the institutions to which they relate, and some