Street Railway, which was met by the defendant finally filing a supersedeas bond.

The case was again tried in the Circuit Court and judgment for $2,750 was rendered for plaintiff, which judgment the defendant reviewed in the Supreme Court, where it was affirmed and paid.

In the foregoing litigation the plaintiff would receive about sixty-five dollars, as attorneys' fees.

On the other hand, consider the speculative case. As it is now many of the lawyers prosecuting negligence cases expect to get half if they win, nothing if they lose. Juries know this and double their verdicts that the plaintiff's recovery may be substantial, after the lawyer is paid.

If instead of this method, the full sum of the verdict went to the plaintiff and the attorney fee in addition was taxed under the supervision of the court, would not the cause of justice be better served? On the other hand security for costs should be required, in proper cases, by the court, or a showing of reasonable cause.

Every one should have the right to prosecute a just cause, or maintain a just defense, and the one who stands in the way should be compelled to pay indemnifying costs.

In my judgment it will lessen litigation of the unworthy sort, and encourage the prosecution and defense of worthy litigation. In the language of Thomas Jefferson,

"Justice should be administered with an even hand and by rule, what is done for one must be done for every one in equal degree."

ADMISSION TO THE BAR IN MICHIGAN.

PROF. JEROME C. KNOWLTON, of Ann Arbor.

We are not for the moment concerned with admission to the Bar in foreign countries. This has been fully discussed before other associations; so has the subject of admission to the Bar in the several states of the Union and the subject of uniformity in this respect has been urged before the American Bar Association. We shall discuss conditions as we find them in Michigan and neighboring states.

We ask consideration of three questions:

First: What should be required of a student at law applying for admission to the bar of this state

Second: Should the fact that the applicant is a graduate of any school of law in this or any other state give him any advantages before our State Board of Examiners; or entitle him to any presumptions over students who may have studied in a law office or elsewhere?

Third: What conditions should govern the admission of attorneys from other states to general practice before the courts of Michigan?

Character Qualifications. Everywhere an applicant for admission to the bar is required to produce some evidence as to his moral qualifications. Why? Is it because of the popular distrust of practitioners at the bar, or because the profession is one of confidence and trust and every applicant should show that he is worthy of it? We hope the latter consideration is the prevailing one. The bar allows no presumptions in the applicant's favor. The burden of proof is upon him.

Usually, the endorsement of the student's application by two or more reputable attorneys of the court is sufficient evidence of the fact of character. We know how easily these endorsements are obtained, and that they are sometimes signed by men who ought to give assurances in their own behalf. Graduates from the University of Michigan and from the Detroit College of Law are admitted without this assurance.

In previous years some members of this Association have criticised the faculty of the law department of the University for graduating men without due inquiry into their moral qualifications; and an echo of that criticism is in the report of your committee on legal education and admission to the bar. It is said by your committee, "The means prescribed by statute and the rules of the board to

ascertain the moral character of applicants are not perfect, and no doubt should be changed in the interest of more reliable information, but they seem to be far superior to the test in this regard, applied upon the entrance of a student to a law school. In fact it is believed but very little attention is given to this matter in law schools. Not that it follows because there is rivalry between practically all law schools, and in the natural eagerness to secure large numbers of students, that teachers shut their eyes to the moral delinquencies of applicants or refuse to inquire lest they may be compelled to exclude them; but in the very nature of the case the tests as to character cannot be as fair in a law school as those that should be applied by a Board of Examiners." To this statement we take decided exception.

At the law department of the University of Michigan no student is admitted unless he brings to the dean of the department satisfactory evidence of his moral character and the evidence insisted upon is as competent and complete as that required by any board of examiners. A person applying for admission to the department as a student is generally required to bring credentials from some high school or other school of learning which of itself contains a recommendation of the applicant for admission. This ought to be some assurance as to character. True it is that men are now and then admitted to the department who during their course show a lack of right mindedness. If this fact is discovered the student is disciplined. Every year students are excluded from the department for some moral delinquency.

Again; from the very nature of the case the faculty has exceptional opportunities of learning the moral characteristics of the students. Daily contact with them for two or three years affords this. Whatever may be said of the value of a diploma from a high school or college it ought to be and generally is prima facie evidence of good character and quite as satisfactory as that insisted upon by any board of examiners.

Occasionally graduates of colleges have gone wrong and later have been imprisoned and some have been hung for crime, but you should remember that a diploma from a school or college speaks for the present and cannot be a guaranty of good conduct in the future.

We defer further consideration of character qualifications of the applicant. The subject comes up in another connection.

Preliminary Education. The qualifications of an applicant for admission to the bar in matters of general education are of primary importance. The requirements on this subject in the several states are quite indefinite and quite varied. Before considering what these qualifications are we may discuss for a moment the larger question. How much ought one to know before commencing the study of law?

Should any liberal culture whatever be insisted upon as a condition precedent to a study of the science of jurisprudence? Until a few years ago an education, most elementary in character, was thought to be sufficient. In fact none whatever was insisted upon. At the present time several of the leading law schools of the country decline to receive a student as a candidate for a degree in law until he has first obtained an A. B. degree from some approved college. Four years of collegiate training must precede his law study. At many other institutions in the west of equal importance a college course of from one to two years is required, and next year, 1912, a student entering the law department of the University of Michigan as a candidate for a degree must have spent at least one year in an approved college. Persons engaged in educational work have taken this step in advance, after careful consideration.

To the student at law a knowledge of men and things; of history, literature, science and the arts, is of high importance, but of greater value to him is the mental training and discipline that comes only from years of study in acquiring this knowledge. Facts and figures he may forget, but he approaches the study of perplexing questions arising with a muscular mind, and he will have need for it in the study of law.

We have said that the requirements for admission to the bar in matters of general education are decidedly varied in our neighboring states. In New York before the applicant can enter upon this study he must have studied from one to three years the subjects of English, Mathematics, Latin, Science and History. This is the minimum requirement in general education.

In Pennsylvania a student contemplating admission to the bar must register as a student at law and before he is allowed to register he must pass a preliminary examination in English language and literature, in the history of England and the United States, in mathematics through quadratics and plane geometry and in Latin, including several books of Cesar's Commentaries, several books of the Aeneid and the orations of Cicero against Cataline. After having passed this preliminary examination he must study law for a period of three years before appearing for final examination for admission to the bar. These are in general the requirements for admisison to practice before the supreme court of the state, but conditions in Pennsylvania are somewhat unusual. Admissions to the supreme court did not prior to 1909 operate for admission to the superior or common pleas courts of the state. In that year the legislature enacted that an attorney's admission to the bar of the supreme court should admit him to practice in all courts of the commonwealth. Many of the profession regarded this law as unconstitutional and some courts have refused to recognize it. We are not aware that its validity has been passed upon. It is enough to say, however, that in the matter of general education