SMITH'S COMPENDIUM OF COMMERCIAL LAW. 1 vol. 8vo. 1834.

For an account of this work, see ante, pp. 349-351. CHITTY'S GENERAL PRACTICE OF THE LAW. See ante, pp. 366-7.

The above works may be purchased for about fifty pounds, and will form the basis of an excellent library. But the REPORTS !-That is a fearful matter. It will cost 607. 14s. for a set, in boards, of the King's Bench Reports, from 1785; and 401. for those of the Common Pleas; to say nothing of the Exchequer, Nisi Prius, Chancery, and Bankruptcy Reports! And then these Reports must be kept up—a yearly burthen! Unless, therefore, the young practitioner can devote, in the first instance, 1507. or 2007. to the purchase of his law library, he must be content for a while, as well he may, with the very able digests of the Common Law and Equity Reports by Messrs. Harrison and Chitty; and if any case should require particular examination, he can never be at a loss for the loan of a volume or number of the Reports. The other older Reports, such as Levinz, Croke, Burrows, Salkeld, Strange, Cowper, Coke, Wilson, Raymond, &c., he may often meet with at a reasonable price. There is, however, one new series of Reports, which it is very desirable, in the present state of practice, that he should take in

*It will be of course understood, in saying this, that only one work on the same subject, is meant to be included in the above estimate.

Mr. Dowling's Practice Reports. They are published very soon after each term, and consequently enable the practitioner to become acquainted with each decision, almost as soon as made.

The increasing voluminousness and expensiveness of the Reports are a source of constant and vehement complaint. The author is not, however, among those who murmur at the bulk of the modern Reports, except in some few instances; considering of how very great importance it is that those cases which are to be our guides for future emergencies, should be as perfect and as ample as possible. Who is not delighted at discovering in the Reports a full statement of the pleadings and evidence of a case which thereby affords him a clew to find his way out of the perplexities of the one he is considering;-which is so decisive, both in point of reasoning and decision, as to satisfy the most captious and bigoted? How much litigation might have been spared, had the grounds of particular decisions been more distinctly stated!--It is true that there is a fearful disparity in point of size between Strange, or Douglas, or Cowper, and Barnewell and Alderson, Cresswell, Adolphus, Bingham, and their contemporaries-between Peere Williams and Vesey, jun. ; but it should, at the same time, be remembered, that the transactions which now lead to litigation, especially those of a commercial kind, are themselves of a very complicated, novel, and difficult character, and

not susceptible of the compression of former times. It should also be borne in mind that the Reports of the present day are published, not as heretofore, often after a very considerable interval, during which important particulars were forgotten,-but almost immediately after each term, while the reporter's recollection of facts and arguments is fresh, and the law is in an extremely unsettled state. The competition existing between the reporters is doubtless, also a reason why each inserts more than he otherwise would, for fear of being accused of meagreness and imperfection. No one can read our current Reports without acknowledging the very great learning and ability with which they are prepared. Were they thrice as numerous as they are, a good Digest would always enable one readily to find what one wanted; and if we tremble for our successors, on contemplating the prodigious accumulations of a few years-say twenty or thirty-with which they will be overwhelmed, we may be relieved by the assurance that a whole series of Reports, if of inconvenient bulk, may,-having assisted in establishing the law on such a sure and solid basis as will exclude the necessity for such copious Reports as are now requisite, while new principles are in a process of rapid development,- be easily and advantageously abridged, perhaps by authority, and so brought into a reasonable

compass.

497

CHAPTER XV.

METHOD OF ENTERING AN INN OF COURT, AND KEEPING TERMS.

THE following brief and accurate account of the present method of entering the four inns of court -the Inner and Middle Temple, Lincoln's-Inn, and Gray's-Inn-has been abstracted from the Sixth Report of the Common Law Commissioners, delivered the 13th March, 1834. It is expected that considerable alterations will be effected in the economy of these inns, in consequence of the recommendations of the commissioners, the chief of which will be here noticed in the form of notes. Such other information will be added to the existing practice, as the author has been able to collect; and it may be stated that the undertreasurers of the respective inns are always ready to afford full information on these points.

"With respect to the regulations and practice now in force in the different inns of court, relative to the subjects referred to us under the present inquiry, we find them to be as follows:

I. AS TO THE ADMISSION OF STUDENTS *.

The following rules appear to have been adopted by all the four societies:

Before any person can be admitted a member, he must furnish a statement in writing, describing his

The following interesting observations upon the origin of the power of the inns of Court to call to the bar, are contained in the introductory part of the Report :—

"The four inns of court, the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, severally enjoy the privilege of conferring the rank of barrister at law, a rank which constitutes an indispensable qualification for practice in the superior courts.

"No other means of obtaining that rank exist, but that of becoming inrolled as a student in one or other of these inns, and afterwards applying to its principal officers (or benchers) for a call to the bar. "The origin of this privilege of the inns of court appears to be involved in considerable obscurity.

"It was observed by Lord Mansfield, in the case of The King v. Gray's Inn, Doug. 354, that the original institution of the inns of court nowhere precisely appears; but it is certain that they are not corporations, and have no charter from the crown. They are voluntary societies, which, for ages, have submitted to government analogous to that of other seminaries of learning; but all the power they have concerning the admission to the bar is delegated to them from the judges; and in every instance their conduct is subject to their control as visitors.

"In support of these positions, a variety of passages are cited from Dugdale's Origines Juridicales, which clearly show that, in former times, the judges and the benchers made regulations to be observed by the inns of court, not only respecting the admission to the bar, but generally regarding the conduct of the members of the inn, and the admission of students.

Many instances will be found in the appendix of such orders, sometimes made by advice of the privy council and judges, and sometimes by the judges only, and sometimes by the benchers, by