420 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. of dissatisfaction, in 1832, and certain private persons formed a society, got property in Chancery Lane, and obtained a charter as "The Council of the Incorporated Law Society." The new asso- ciation estabUshed lectures and classes for the more adequate education of law students desirous of becoming solicitors. This excited the emulation of the Inns of Court, which had charge of the education of the higher branch of the profession, and they, with reviving zeal, appointed professors and readers in certain topics for the would-be barristers. " Up to that time I suppose no education at all was required?" said Lord Cowper, the chairman of the commission. " None what- ever," replied Mr. Crackanthorpe. "There was no sort of lectures which could be attended, and at which the attendance could be certified ; in point of fact all that was required was that a man should be a respectable person, pay his fees, and express a wish that he should be called to the bar." Mr. Anstie : " That would be to what date ? " Mr. Crackanthorpe replied : " The first compulsory examination was not till 1859, and that was only a preliminary compulsory examination for admission to an Inn of Court. The first compulsory final examination for call to the bar was not till 1872." It should be remarked that no Inn can call a person to the bar until he has been a member of that society five years, except that certain degrees from the greater English and Irish Universi- ties shorten the period, and there are certain exceptions as to solicitors. Sergeant Robbins, in his published reminiscences called " The Bench and Bar," says he entered the Middle Temple as a student in 1833, and the examination lasted about a minute and a half, and consisted of one or two questions in Latin or general litera- ture, put in the perfunctory style in which one asks a passing acquaintance after his health. Writing in 18^, he says he never knew any applicant plucked on this examination. He says, after paying ;£ioo fees and giving security for keeping the rules of the Inn, you had merely to keep twelve terms ; that a term was three or four weeks, and in the middle was what was called grand week. To keep the term you must dine once in grand week and once in each half week at the Inn. Students literally were required merely to eat their way to the bar. Each Inn acted separately in matters of legal education until a Parliamentary committee investigated this in 1846, and reported
