2CO HARVARD LAW REVIEW. In some States of the Union the profession has had to struggle with a popular delusion that no general or professional education should be required of any one before his admission to the bar. There is, probably, no State in which the examination for ad- mission to the bar is more thorough to-day than it is in New Hamp- shire. In a letter, however, which Mr. Chief Justice Carpenter, of that State, has been kind enough to write to me upon the subject of admission to the bar, he recites the fact that from 1842 to 1872 it was provided by Statute as follows: ^^ Any citizen of the age of twenty-one years, of good moral character, on application to the Supreme Court, shall be admitted to practise as an attorney."
- ' The result of this system," writes the Chief Justice, " was to
introduce into the bar many persons ignorant of elemental legal principles, uninstructed in professional duty, and wholly un- worthy of their trust. Many such persons have been removed from office by the Court, for unprofessional conduct, due, in a majority of cases, to ignorance of their duty, rather than to a wilful misdoing." It was not until 1878 that the Supreme Court of New Hampshire adopted the system of examinations, which has prevailed to the present time, and which, in its important features, is the same as that which, since January, 1895, has existed in New York. It is accordingly with great pleasure that I am permitted to quote Mr. Chief Justice Carpenter on the effect of the change. He writes: "The effect of the system has been highly salutary. The expectation of the Court in adopting the system has been fully realized. The professional standing of the younger members of the bar, of those admitted since 1878, as a class, is vastly higher than was that of the young men admitted before that time. As a necessary consequence," the Chief Justice continues, " the bar, as a whole, is constantly increasing in strength and influence and in the confidence of the public. The system operates to the great satisfaction of the bar, and now, I think, to that of the people generally, some of whom were, at first, disposed to condemn it, and sought to abolish it by legislative action." The conditions that prevailed in New York before the passage of the act under which the present Board was appointed ; the object which the Legislature had in view in passing the act ; the work which the Board has done, and the results which thus far have been obtained, are the topics to which this paper will be devoted.
