LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

West Coast Times, Issue 3890, 26 September 1881, Page 3

LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Legal education does not appear to be on a very satisfactory footing in the United States. The other day the graduates of one of the New York schools of law were admitted to the Bar by the Supreme Court on the strength of their diplomas, while tho.se on the Columbia College, with which the celebrated teacher, Professor Dwyth, is connected, were rejected. The diploma does not appear to testify to anything beyond the attendance of the student at lectures, and the rejected graduates, as it happened, had actually attended more lectures than their successful rivals. The decision of the Court, however, is stated to be strictly in accordance with the complex statute law bearing on the case. Admission to legal practice is a matter of State regulation, and there is accordingly the usual diversity of rule. There is a good deal to be said for the simple plan of allowing every citizen to be a lawyer ; but if that is departed from, the examination system, which appeal's to be as unpopular in America as it is in this country is really the only sound alternative. There is undeniable force in the remark made by President Davis in giving the decision of the Bench, that if young men ask the Court for a certificate of fitness for professional work they ought to submit to the only ordeal by which, however imperfectly, such fitness can be tested.— Pall Mall Gazette.

It is stated that Mr Holloway, the proprietor of certain patent medicines, is the "Mr Thomas " who lately paid £20 000 for rour works of Stanfieldj Landseer, and Millais in London .

At Dean Stanley's funeral there were wreaths and^ crosses from the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Beatrice, the DucheßS of Edinburgh and Prince Leopold, likewise wreaths from the French Protestants and Americans.