so learned in the law that she used to lecture to her father's students for him, and so beautiful that she had to sit behind a screen lest they should ponder her face more than her instruction, still, every little while, one hears of some woman whose determination, acuteness, and technical knowledge have brought her off first-best in some legal battle, even against the most desperate odds. Such a case is that of the celebrated Mrs. Gaines, now in such honourable possession of her immense property; and if women without a regular legal training can so well help themselves, it is probable that they could with that training help each other. I have known the daughters of lawyers who seemed to me fitted for nothing but the law themselves, and as every co-operative housekeeping association must have a lawyer to keep it from getting into trouble, I think, though no doubt every one will laugh at the suggestion, that its members might do worse than employ one of their own sex in that capacity.[1] When, too, women prepare measures for recommendation to the State legislatures or to Congress, they might present as sorry a figure as the legislators do, unless some of them understood the subject enough to judge of the actual working of old statutes, and of the probable working of new ones. Who will instruct women in the law, however, I cannot guess, for if it has been such a struggle for a few of them to gain a medical education, when the care of the sick is so naturally a feminine occupation, what would it be in the case of this profession,—the immemorial prerogative of men?[2]
- ↑ I understand it to be now not uncommon in large firms for one of the partners either to be a lawyer, or to study law as a necessary part of the preparation for a business cai'eer ; and this, not only in order to save the expense of lawyer's fees to the company, but also because great sums are often lost for want of due legal knowledge beforehand.
- ↑ Since writing the above, I see by the papers that a young lady has been admitted as a student into the Law School of Washington College, St. Louis.
