35 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Mr. Epiror, 
- you can find room in your Magazine, 
now and then, for feme firi¢tures on 
the modern mode of ftudying-the law, I 
fhal! occafionally trouble you with a let- 
ter on that fubject. It is a fingular cir- 
cumfance, that what is generally allow- 
ed to be fo fevere anddry a ftudy, fhould 
have lefs time and attentien befowed 
on the artainment of it, than the com- 
moneft and eafieft trade. Is it, that, ter- 
ried with the barren and forbidding 
garb it firft afflumes,the ftudent fies with 
cifgufl frem its apparently inexplicable 
mazes, and feeks, in diffipation_ and 
amufement, for that recreation which 
the law itfelf, to a mind well trained to 
it, can with fuch eafe afford > or is it not 
rather from a deficiency in the made of 
education of thofe young men who are 
tefilined for the bar ?—The latter idea 
ems to me the moft reafonable, which 
owever, I will not at prefent difcuis ; 
é 
é 
inpaplp tis tt 
Fetter. What I propote now to conf- 
der, is the education, almoft univerfally 
adopted, for fitting a perfon for the bar. 
A bey is fent toa fchecl, where he ac- 
quires fome Hatin, lefs Greek. and a 
tmattering of bad French; with thete 
Gualifications, he 1s fent, when about 
f#ixteen years of 2ge, to one of .our.uni- 
“erfities, without one notion of the Jaw 
tn his head ; and in all probability, with- 
eut having ever had oneslaw book put 
snto his hands. When arrived there, 
what is the improvement he makes? is 
@ quéftion that naturally arifes, and may 
as eafily be anfwered—he learns to fhoor, 
ro hurt, to ride with vracefulnefs and 
éaie, and to be a &x-bottie man, the 
highe praife a man can arrive at in col- 
ge. But ot what ule will thefe elegant 
accemphi{hments prove towards the at- 
tainment of the law? This is, indeed, 
a guetiion not fo eafy to be folved as the 
cormer: though, if we may judge from 
ve train in whieh the advocates of a 
college education fpeak, no father fhould 
regard it as a ferious objeétion to his 
placing his fon there;—it may, perhaps, 
Be here ‘objected to me, that there is a 
common law profefior appointed at the 
univerfiry, and that itis the fault of the 
young men themfclves, if they do not 
a.tend his lectures; admitting this, and 
receiving, for the prefent, the expediency 
of juffering tuch attendance to be merely 
optional 5 L will only atk, what is to be 
gained by the moft_affiduous attention te 
Stridinres on the Study of the Law. 
eaving that to. be the fubjeét of another time, twelve exercifes. 
-evyer, he may compound for, at twenty 
{June, 
thefe le€tures ? Without a previous ac- 
quaintence even with the firft elements 
of the icience, they are plunged intoa 
labyrinth of law enveloped with myftery 
and technical expreflions, out of which 
the lecturer himfelf is fcarce able to ex- 
tricate them, without giving opinions on 
cafes, which would puzzle a Mansfield 
ora Law, with all the dogmatifm of a 
collegian, and in many cafes, with fcarce 
the legal knowledge of an attorney’s 
clerk. Having been two years at col- 
lege, our ftudent comes to town, with 
his ‘head not overburthened with law, or 
his pockets with money—takeschambers, 
and is entered of an Ind of Court, the 
middle Temple for inftance. His courfe 
here 1s too ludicrous to.dwell long upon ; 
and is fuch a burlefque, that to perfons 
unacquainted with the fubjeé, it will 
appear incredible :—two things only are 
required of him, thefe are—rft, to dine 
three days in each term in the hall, for 
two years ;—2d, to perform, in that 
Thefe, how- 
fhillings a piece ; indecd, he. is obliged 
to compound for eight, as it has been the 
cuftom, for many years paff, not to per-- 
form more than four. The way this is 
done; is but little known; I fhall, rhere- 
fore, give a f€etch of it. -A queftion is 
propofed in writing, by the under-trea- 
furer, which is argwed before him, by 
four fiudents ; two of whom are to af- 
pe) 
>) 
foe, 
takes an eftate tail ;” his opponent, with 
thc fame preamble, forms a dire&ily op- 
pofite conclufion; the thitd profeffes 
himfelf as entirely of the fame opinion 
with the learned gentleman who {poke 
firft ; and the fourth coincide’ in opinion 
with the fecond. Thus, after eating 
twenty-four dinners, and argwng four 
cafes, he is, if he pleafes, called to the - 
bar; but before that period, he is gene- 
rally placed with a fpecial pleader, or 
equity draftfnan, and praétices for him- 
{elf for fome time in thofe departments, 
previous to his becoming a counfel learn- 
ed in the law. Special pleading, and the 
utility of attending a {pecial pleader, 
fhall form the ground work of my fe- 
cond letter, and in the mean while, I 
remain, your’s, &c. 
A Mrppie TEMPLAR. 
London, Fune 9, 3797- 
For 
