THE PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 361 



law, on both sides of the channel, is undoubtedly, as Mr. Freeman 

 used to emphasize, for European history in general, "from its first 

 glimmerings to our own day, one unbroken drama." We must 

 sedulously propagate this view of it. " I am ashamed," said Emerson, 

 "to see what a- shallow village tale our so-called history is." We 

 must do all we can, for the aspiring and worthy student, to remove 

 from our history that quality of a village tale which the technicalities 

 of professional practice tend to emphasize. It is useless to argue, 

 in opposition, that the student fit for these things will always have 

 the French and German languages at his command, and that therefore 

 a translation is unnecessary. The fact remains that a large propor- 

 tion of them have not, and that the exorbitant demands of other parts 

 of their legal education usually prevent them from undertaking 

 these languages merely for the sake of legal history. Besides, the 

 study of that history to-day needs special encouragement; we ought 

 to remove all the actual obstacles, even if we think that they ought 

 not to have been obstacles. The translations ought to include at 

 least Brunner and Heusler on Germanic law, Esmein on French 

 criminal procedure, Brissaud on French civil law (when the work is 

 finished), Fertile on Italian legal history, and Goldschmidt on the 

 history of commercial law. It is lamentable to think of those works 

 being locked up from the mature students of this generation. The 

 committee's task w r ould be in four parts : (a) to fix upon the works to 

 be translated and to secure the authors' consent; (6) to discover 

 among the younger men those whose accomplishments and tastes 

 would fit them for the labor of translation; (c) to secure from the 

 universities and other libraries a sufficient number of subscriptions 

 to induce a publisher to undertake the series; (d) to adopt a uniform 

 vocabulary for the translation of certain common technical words, 

 and to keep a general supervision over the process of the translation. 1 

 (3) In the third place, the study of legal history should be made 

 compulsory in law schools. The great fact of experience under the 

 elective system in law schools is that with the multiplication and 

 expansion of topics the subjects of history and jurisprudence are 

 crowded out of the usual voluntary selection. The temptation of 

 the practical, as it looms up directly ahead in the profession, is too 

 great for the student. As between particular advanced topics of 

 law such as mortgages, commercial paper, and the like no one 

 of these seems to deserve greater claims than any other; it is rather 

 a question of discipline undergone than of information acquired. 

 But against any one or all of these, legal history does have a claim. 

 Since the student ignores that claim, it should be vindicated in his 

 behalf and regardless of his choice. History, says Montaigne, is 



1 Since the above was written, the Association of American Law Schools, in 

 August, 1905, has appointed a committee to consider these needs. 



