for a call to the Bar are, first, entrance as a member of an Inn of Court. No attorney can enter till he has ceased to be on the roll of attorneys for a full year preceding his application. Except in the case of exemptions granted to University students, a preliminary examination of an elementary character must be passed. The Student must, during twelve terms (of which there are four in each year), attend in the Hall of his Inn during the dinner hour, unless one or two terms are remitted in consideration of the student's passing an exceptionally good examination. Finally, every student must pass an examination in Roman Law (Justinian's Institutes and the History of Roman Law) and English Common Law, Equity, and Real Property Law.

This compulsory examination can be passed at any time after the student has kept four terms. Studentships of £100, for one or two years, are awarded for excellence in Roman Law (Institutes, Digest, and History), Jurisprudence, and International Law. Public lectures are delivered on all the subjects of the examinations by Professors in the Halls of the several Inns; and instruction is given to private classes by tutors or by the professors. Attendance at all these lectures, public and private, is quite voluntary; and the public lectures are open to others than students, on payment of a moderate fee. The conduct of the examinations, the selection of the lectures, and the arrangement of the scheme of instruction, are undertaken by a joint representative committee of the Inns of Court, called the "Council of Legal Education."

The functions of attorneys and solicitors (of which, strictly speaking, attorneys are officers of Common-Law Courts, and solicitors officers of Courts of Equity, though the terms are used interchangeably), are (1) to inform such persons as may apply to them as to the nature of their rights and duties, and to obtain for their clients from counsel such opinions on special points of law as they do not feel competent to advise upon without such help; (2) to do a number of legal acts of the simpler sort, such as preparing wills, leases, contracts of sale, mortgages, and the like; (3) to conduct litigation on behalf of their clients, to appear for them in the Courts in which it is permitted, or (if necessary) to employ and instruct counsel for this purpose; (4) to do a number of acts on behalf of their clients, in which the presence and direct interposition of the clients are either onerous, disagreeable, or impossible.

The mode of "admission" of attorneys is regulated by statute.

which gives power to the Judges to make the detailed arrangements. The examinations (preliminary, intermediate, and final) are conducted by the "Incorporated Law Society," an important institution, arising out of a voluntary association of members of this branch of the profession, for the protection of its interests, and vested with the duties now under consideration, by order of the Judges. Every applicant for admission must have served articles of clerkship in an attorney's office for a prescribed time. The leading statute on the subject is 6 and 7 Vict., c. 73, and the last one is 23 and 24 Vict., c. 127.

Of the members of the Bar, some are from time to time appointed to be "Queen's Counsel." This is an ancient and honourable distinction, without important consequences to the public. A Queen's Counsel cannot be employed in any cause against the Crown without special licence. It is the custom for Queen's Counsel always to "lead" in cases-that is, never to be a junior counsel in a case unless the senior is a Queen's Counsel of higher standing, and to receive double the amount of fees accorded to an ordinary barrister. The ancient class of Serjeants" is on the verge of disappearance, through the operation of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act.

66

There are two movements now on foot which demand notice. One is for providing a joint system of education for both branches of the profession; the other is for abolishing the formal distinction itself between the two branches. These movements are in themselves quite independent, though those who favour the latter generally favour the former likewise.

APPENDIX F

BANK OF ENGLAND AND JOINT-STOCK BANKS. THE reader is recommended to study Mr. Walter Bagehot's "Lombard Street" in reference to the whole topic of the actual relation of the Government to the Bank of England. Nothing could be at once more simple, lucid, and exhaustive than the whole of this treatise.

The description, in the text, of the meaning and policy of the Bank Charter Act of 1844 may be supplemented by the following extract from Sir Robert Peel's speech on introducing the Bill. [The extract is given from the work on the "Money Market" mentioned in Appendix D.]

66 "It is proposed that the Bank of England shall continue in possession of its present privileges—that it shall retain the exclusive right of issue within a district of which sixty-five miles from London as a centre is the radius. The private banks within that district which now actually issue notes will of course be permitted to continue their issues to the amount of the average of the last two years. Two departments of the Bank will be constituted-one for the issue of notes, the other for the ordinary business of banking. The bullion now in the possession of the Bank will be transferred to the Issue Department. The issue of notes will be restricted to an issue of £14,000,000 upon securities, the remainder being issued upon bullion, and governed in amount by the fluctuations in the stock of bullion.

"If there be under certain defined circumstances an increase in the issue of securities, it can only take place with the knowledge and consent of the Government, and the profit derivable from such issues will belong to the public. Bankers now actually enjoying the privilege of issue will be allowed to continue their issues, provided the maximum in the case of each bank does not exceed the average of a certain prescribed period, A weekly publication of issue will be required from every bank of issue; the names of shareholders and partners will be published. No new bank of issue can be formed, and no jointstock company for banking purposes can be established, except after application to the Government, and compliance with various regulations which will be hereafter submitted to the consideration of Parliament."

The following extracts from the "Money Market” are also apposite, as showing the relations, past and present, of Government to the Joint-Stock Banks :—

"An Act of Parliament was passed in 1708 providing that, during the continuance of the Bank Charter, no other corporation or partnership, consisting of more than six persons, should 'borrow, owe, or take up any sum or sums of money on their bills or notes, payable on demand, or at a less time than six

1 Afterwards altered to twelve weeks

months from the borrowing thereof;' and this monopoly continued in England for more than a century. It may be here mentioned that the Charter of the Bank of England had no reference to Scotland, which at the time it was granted was a separate kingdom: hence, as the wealth of Scotland increased, joint-stock banks were formed, and now conduct the whole of the banking business of that portion of the United Kingdom.

"But the time at length came when this monopoly was to be swept away. After the terrible commercial catastrophe of 1825, when seventy banks, principally country banks, failed within the short period of six weeks, it was found that the trade of the country was suffering great inconvenience from the dearth of banking facilities, and it became necessary for the Government to press upon the Bank of England the propriety of establishing branches of its own body in different parts of the country, and of giving up its exclusive privilege as the sole joint-stock bank, except within a certain distance (which was afterwards fixed at 65 miles) from the metropolis. The directors were at first unwilling to establish branches, but they ultimately acceded to both the propositions of the Government, and several Acts of Parliament were passed carrying them into effect.

"It was in virtue of these Acts that the first joint-stock banks were established in England, and, as there was no restriction to the contrary, they issued notes of £5 and upwards.

"In the year 1833, when an Act was passed renewing the Charter of the Bank of England, provision was made permitting joint-stock banks to be established in London and within 65 miles thereof, on condition that they did not issue notes payable on demand. Under this Act the London and Westminster Bank, the London Joint-Stock Bank, and the Union Bank of London were established; and the present splendid position and world-wide reputation of these three institutions, whose united liabilities exceed £68,000,000, or nearly four times the amount of the private deposits of the Bank of England, afford a standing proof, if one were required, of the folly and indeed criminality of such monopolies as that of the joint-stock banking business formerly enjoyed by the Bank of England.”

APPENDIX G.

PRIVILEGE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN RESPECT OF JURISDICTION IN CASES OF DISPUTED ELECTIONS. (See p. 36.)

A DEBATE took place in the House of Commons on Tuesday, February 9th, on the question of issuing a new writ for Stroud, the sitting member for which was declared not duly elected, the judge saying in the last paragraph of a long report: "I have no reason to believe that corrupt practices have extensively prevailed at the election to which the petition relates." Mr. Disraeli's speech on the occasion, which seemed to express the general mind of the House, may be cited to illustrate the extent to which the House of Commons may, by assenting to the Act for appointing Judges to try cases of disputed elections, be held to have surrendered their traditional jurisdiction in this respect.

"Mr. DISRAELI.—My hon. friend who has just addressed us stated that he would try to put the question before the House in its true light. I will endeavour also to put the question before the House in its true light, and the light in which I view it is that if this motion is carried it amounts to an abrogation of the Election Petition Act of 1868. In that Act there were certain powers given to the Judges which the House of Commons waived, after ample discussion, after great thought, and with a due sense of the sacrifices they were making. If we were now to announce that because the decision of a Judge acting under such authority does not please us, we are to come to a decision contrary to that which according to the provisions of the law has been made public, I can only look upon it that if this motion were carried the authority of that Act would be entirely superseded. I am not prepared, however, to supersede or abrogate that Act. I believe that it has worked well for the country and for the House of Commons. It is possible that in some of its details it may be improved—and that is a point on which it is unnecessary to enlarge-but the general spirit of that Act is good, and it will be well for the House of Commons always to support it. The hon. baronet, who always addresses us in a spirit of gay wisdom (a laugh), has thought fit to denounce precedents. Precedents