The St. Louis Law School.

through the special efforts of President Eliot, at a cost of $2,000; and from year to year additions have been made, through gifts of books and donations of money, till now, in 1889, the library contains upwards of fiftyseven hundred volumes. From its inception a high standard was established for the St. Louis Law School. Its founders were determined that the stu dents who obtained

its degree of LL.B. should earn it; and that those who went forth from its doors to practise their pro fession should first pass an examination whose severity should be a voucher of their fitness to enter upon the practice thorough ly grounded in the principles of jurispru dence. Two points were kept specially in view, —-practicality and fairness. For the first, they arranged that the body of in structors should be men not only distin guished for their knowledge of the law, but actively engaged in its daily practice, that the students might have the benefit of the experience as well as the learning of their instructors. For the second, in order that every student examined might have the ad vantage of passing his examination strictly on his merits, and without prejudice of any kind, a board of examiners was chosen from the members of the bar outside of the in structors, who should prepare the papers for examination and grade them, without ac quaintance with the students, and without knowing even the names of those exam ined. The standard established by the

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Faculty at the beginning has never been lowered, but rather increased. Class examinations are held each term by the professors, and the severe examinations for the degree, conducted in writing, and usually lasting for six days, constitute a test rarely equalled, and certainly not sur passed, by any law school in the country. They prove the fitness of every one who has passed them to prac tise law in any court. The Legislature of Missouri, recognizing this fact, enacted a statute in 1874, which is still in force, per mitting any graduate of the school to be en rolled as a member of the bar in any court in the State, upon pres entation of his diplo ma; and the United States Courts have, by comity, extended the same privilege. No lawyer familiar with the lax methods which long obtained in exam inations for admission to the bar, by standing committees selected for that purpose, will fail to appreciate the contrast. Nor has this strictness of examination been without its influence outside of the school, in raising the standard of excellence and improving the methods in vogue. Under a recent statute of Missouri, exam inations for admission to the bar, formerly in the hands of committees and held in pri vate, are now conducted by the judges, in open court, in the presence of the bar and of spectators; and in St. Louis at least, where the Circuit judges sit in general term for this purpose, candidates for the bar receive careful and often rigid exami