THE FUNCTIONS OF A UNIVERSITY 229 



Dismissing the Faculty of Theology, therefore, as out of 

 our power, as well as beyond our wishes, let us turn to the 

 remaining two learned professions. University College, I 

 believe, was the first place in England where a systematic 

 legal education could be obtained. Our chairs of Roman 

 Law, Constitutional Law, and Jurisprudence were the first 

 to be established in England, although such chairs had 

 for long been known on the Continent and in Scotland. 

 ' Imitation is the sincerest flattery ' ; and in the fulness of 

 time, the Inns of Court started a school of their own. 

 Our classes, which used to be crowded, dwindled, and our 

 law-school is certainly not our strongest feature. I am 

 not sufficiently acquainted with English legal education 

 to pronounce an opinion as to whether methods of train- 

 ing as they at present exist in England are the most 

 effective : I have heard rumours that they are not. That 

 must be left to specialists to decide. But arguing from 

 the experience of another faculty, in which the apprentice- 

 ship system once existed, and which has changed that 

 system with a view to reform, and judging, too, from 

 experience abroad and in Scotland, I venture to think 

 that some improvement in legal education is possible. If 

 that opinion is correct, it is surely not too much to hope 

 that the claims of University College may be considered 

 as having made the first attempt to systematise legal 

 education in England. 



The Faculty of Medicine has existed in a flourishing state 

 since the inception of University College. Not long after 

 the College was built, the old Hospital buildings, were 

 erected. One of my predecessors, on a similar occasion to 

 this, has given you an entrancing account of the early 

 history of this side of the College, and has discoursed on 

 the eminent men who filled the chairs in the Medical 

 Faculty. Here young men whose intention it is to enter 

 the medical profession are trained ; they now receive five 



