It is a very pleasant feature of the Law School work, that strong friendships spring up among the students, following them in later life. Their intercourse leads to con stant discussion of legal questions, developing . frequently differences of legal opinion which are finally referred to the professor in charge of their work. It is noteworthy that this was, of old, the method of the barristers who met in or near Westminster Hall and put questions to one another.1 Moreover, partnerships in business grow out of this friendship, as well as other important legal connections. There is a fine spirit of mental activity prevailing, sometimes leading to excess of intellectual labor and requiring suitable checks from older friends. If a professor's life and work are under any circumstances agreeable and self-satisfying, it is under those which prevail at Columbia, where with most of the stu dents no stimulus is needed, where the spirit of inquiry is eager and satisfied only with replies resting upon reason, and where the courtesy and forbearance of students are sincere and admirable. A majority of them are college graduates. Many of them were marked men in their undergraduate courses. These set a high standard of work for their fellows who have not had equal literary ad vantages. Upwards of fifty literary colleges are represented, with varying types of under graduate education. The opportunities offered at Columbia for training in the principles of political science and of International and Constitutional Law 1 Reference is here made to a passage from the opinion of June, J., found in the Year Book of 7 Henry VI. pi. 20. He says : " One day, while passing between Westminster and Charing Cross, I put a case to the late Justice Hankford (whom may God assoilzie), and before he would answer, he put a question back to me, whether, if he should convey to me provided that he should have forever the profits of the land, he or I would in law have the profits, and I replied that I would have them, for the deed should be construed more to the advantage of the grantee than of the grantor; in other words, the conveyance would be good and the proviso void. Whereupon Hankford said that my inquiry resembled that case, and that his opinion was the same as mine." This little glimpse of these bar risters, both afterwards judges, " talking law " between Westminster and Charing Cross, is certainly instructive.
should now be stated. In the year 1876 Prof. John W. Burgess became Professor of this class of subjects, both in the School of Arts and in the Law School. The Trustees of the College displayed an enlightened in terest in this branch of education, until it was raised to the rank of a department by itself. It was proper that this should be the case, since a quite considerable number of students desired to confine their attention to the ordinary branches of municipal law, — "the bread and butter studies." Arrange ments were thus readily made for them, while those who desired a wider range of study had full opportunity accorded to them. Moreover, there was a class of students who desired only to study political science and other hranches closely associated with it. At the present time any law student may, at his option, study any one or more of the topics assigned to that department without further tuition fee, and may matriculate as a candidate for a degree therein on payment of the nominal fee of $5. The professors in this department were trained in the best European universities. Several of them are graduates of this Law School. The regular' course of education in the Law School has hitherto occupied two years. In the spring of 1888 the Trustees decided to have a three years' course. Actual at tendance (except in the case of those who were students when this statute was passed) will be compulsory for this whole period, as a prerequisite to a candidacy for the degree of Bachelor of Laws. The first class to which this rule will be applicable entered on the first Monday of October, 1888. The third year's course will, accordingly, not go into actual operation until the fall of 1890. The specific topics to be assigned to the third year are not yet determined upon, though un der discussion. So much as this has been de cided, that there will be in the third year two Elective Courses, — one in topics of private law, and the other in branches of public law, including Constitutional and International Law. The result is that a student can then
