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 London Legal Letter.

'39

LONDON LEGAL LETTER. London, Feb. I, 1899.

SO

many inquiries have been made within the past year or two as to how admission may be obtained by Americans to the English bar, that I may be serving some Green Bag readers if in a line or two I allude to the subject. Heretofore the English bar has been open to all comers, and the same requirements have been de manded of every applicant, whether he be home-born or a foreigner. It was first nec essary that he should pass an examination in Latin, English history, and literature, unless he could show a certificate from one of the universities of England, Scotland, or Ireland, in which case this condition was waived. Having passed this step, he ap plied for admission as a student to some one of the Inns of Court, of which there are now four surviving, viz., the Middle Temple, the Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn. No question as to nationality was raised or will, it is understood, be hereafter raised at this stage. It is only necessary that the can didate file with the authorities of the inn he proposes to join a certificate of good moral character signed by two barristers, members of the inn of five years' standing, and that he pay to the treasurer certain fees and sub scriptions which amount to about £140, or say $700. Having joined his inn, the stu dent must then, if he desires to be called, keep twelve terms, and as there are four terms a year, this makes a course of three years. If he so desires he may attend lectures by good men on almost every subject connected with the law, and without extra charge; or he may, if he pleases, "cut" these lectures and work by him self, or with " coaches " and " crammers." But whatever else he does, or elects to omit to do, he must eat three dinners a term, if he is a graduate of certain of the universities of the kingdom, or, if he

has not this advantage, he must eat six dinners. These dinners are eaten in the grand hall of the inn and the students must appear in students' gowns, and the barristers in their robes. The ceremonies in connection with this function are most interesting, and the company thus assembled is of a remarkably unique character. Mingled together at the same tables and in the same messes, are pa trician Englishmen, pushing South Africans, negroes from the West Indies and the Gold Coast, turbaned Brahmans, Hindoos and Mohammedans, regardless for the time being of their diet and their caste; Siamese, Chinamen and Japanese, and representatives of all the English colonies from Canada to Australia and New Zealand. Some are beardless boys, undergraduates of Oxford and Cambridge, and some are men of mid dle age, while not a few are those of mature years. A small percentage have no inten tion of being called to the bar, but regard membership in the inn, with the privilege it gives of residential chambers and of library and gardens, as something solely to be de sired. Others go through the course to educate themselves to be county magistrates and to discharge the duties of landed pro prietors. More of the foreigners remain to attempt to get work in this country, but the moment they are called, hurry back to the courts of their respective countries to reap the special advantage a call to the English bar will give them. After six terms have been kept the student may go in for an examination in the civil law; and if he is successful, he may, a year later, submit himself for the final or pass examination. This is a "stiff" one, lasting for two or three days and being both written and oral. It covers a wide field of jurisprudence, from contracts and evidence to constitutional and ecclesias