Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 16.pdf/480

 Rh the adverse decisions of the Courts below. These principles underlie our whole Ameri can system. Without them we should not have been a Nation, but a chaos of individ uals- Mr. Everett tells us that what gave to La Fayette his spotless fame was "the liv ing love of liberty protected by law." What has given to this country its greatness is its well-ordered freedom, protected and secured by the Union; Liberty secure, Union equal. Xo individual or citizen of one State may have privileges secured to him by law, superior to the privileges of others. On the other hand, every citizen is secured by law in the acquisition of property and in the enjoyment of his personal rights. So long as American Courts respect the principles thus established, and America combines public freedom with individual se curity, so long shall a grateful people cherish the memory of the expounder of the Consti tution, the farmer boy of Salisbury, the elo quent, far-seeing law-giver and lawyer, Daniel Webster. IN an excellent article entitled "English History and the Study of English Law," in the Michigan Law Review for May, Professor Arthur Lyon Cross, of the University of Michigan, asks "If something cannot be done to make the lawyer more of a scholar within his own field, to broaden his outlook, to interest him in the historic development of the system which he is studying for practical purposes, and to make more evident to him its relationship to the systems of other ages and countries, and to kindred branches of learning." This, he believes, can be done by "the study of history and the use of the historical method in the study of law." It has been the purpose of this article (he says) to urge upon the student of law and the practitioner that history may be of use and interest to him. History, we have insisted, is not a mere congeries of dates and facts. hut an inclusive record of all human thought and rctivity. While there is, properly speak ing, no such thing as ecclesiastical, economic, legal, or political history, there are ecclesi

431

astical, economic, legal, or political aspects of history, each of which may be studied by itself, or in its relation to the whole. From either or both standpoints the historical study of the law should appeal to every stud ent of the profession. It may help him to understand much in his ordinary practice that would otherwise seem vague and inex plicable, it will certainly give him that broad outlook which distinguishes the educated man from the skilled craftsman, and, finally, what in itself should be a sufficient reward, it will tell him the strange and fascinating story of how the law which he knows emerged from the shadowy regions of the past, and perhaps inspire him to do his part to dispel the gloom which still envelops many stages of the progress. G "Legal Education in Italy" H. St. John-Mildmay, Barrister at the Court of Appeal at Milan, says, in TJic Law Magasine and Rci'icw for May : The study of the law in Italy enjoys a fol lowing larger by far than that of any other branch of the liberal professions. Neverthe less, the actual number of practising lawyers is, comparatively speaking, small; the ex planation of this apparently paradoxical proposition lying in the fact that, whereas a great number of students embark on an ele mentary course of legal studies, few care to persevere in them after having taken their Laurea, of first degree. This is obtained after a course of four years at one of the universities. A compre hensive knowledge of the laws of the coun try has always been held by the upper classes in Italy to be the correct complement of a polite education, while the possession of the coveted title of Doctor Juris, by which the baccalaureate is designated, is a useful and often an indispensable qualification for ad mission to either the Civil or Municipal Ser vice. It is, moreover, considered a necessary equipment towards a number of other pro fessions, among which politics and journal ism take the foremost rank. . . At the end of the fourth year, when all the