school in 1893 compelled its enlargement and partial reconstruction, and again its practical demolition and the construction of a much more commodious and convenient building in 1898. The school took possession of its new home, which is in some respects, the finest building on the Campus, and the one best adapted to its use, in October 1898. The cost of the reconstruction of 1893 was $30,000, and of 1898 $65,000.

First,

Internally the school has changed, perhaps, even more than externally. Reference is now made to the Faculty, terms of admission, terms of graduation, and methods of instruction. These topics will be briefly considered. however, it should be remarked, that the ideal of the school has never essentially changed. This has always been professional rather than academic. The department was designed, so the original announcement ran, to give a course of instruction that should fit young gentlemen for practice of the law in any part of the country, embracing the several branches of Constitutional, International, Maritime, Commercial and Criminal Law, Medical Jurisprudence and the Jurisprudence of the United States, together with such instruction in Common Law and Equity Pleading, Evidence and Partnership, as could lay a substantial foundation for practice in all departments of the Law. Since this description was written the instruction has greatly widened and greatly deepened; but it is as applicable to the work of to-day as respects the end in view, as it was to the work of forty years ago. Of course the application Of course the application of the principle is much wider. The present head of the school has said: "The primary object of the Law School should, of course, be the training of young men for active work at the Bar; but the school that has simply the practice in view fails in one important particular. The Law School of to-day should teach and should encourage the study of Law in its larger sense."

In 1866 the fourth Professorship was created and named for the Hon. Richard Fletcher of Boston, who had given his library to the University. It was filled for two years by that distinguished lawyer, Ashley Pond, Esq., who then found its longer retention incompatible

Mr.

with his professional business and so resigned it. He was succeeded by Charles A. Kent, also well known at the Bar and in public life. Kent discharged the duties of the Professorship eighteen years, resigning it in 1886. The fifth Professorship took its name from President Tappan, the Tappan Professorship, and was held for the first four years, 1879-1883, by Hon. Alpheus Felch, who dying at a great age in 1896, had not only held at different times many of the great offices of the state, besides seeing national service, but had also been recognized as one of the greatest citizens of the state.

Mr. Walker resigned his chair in 1876, although he subsequently gave one or two courses of lectures. Judge Cooley resigned in 1884, but afterwards lectured not unfrequently on special subjects. Judge Campbell resigned in 1885. Judge Cooley succeeded Judge Campbell as Dean in 1871. Since that time the succession of the Deans has been Charles A. Kent, 1883, Henry Wade Rogers, 1885, Jerome C. Knowlton, 1890, Harry B. Hutchins, 1895.

As the school grew, and its internal economy changed, a much larger proportion of the teaching staff must necessarily reside in Ann Arbor. "While the resident Faculty has been largely increased in numbers in order to meet the demands of changed methods and additional requirements," the present Dean explains in a published article, "it is still the policy of the department and properly so, I think, to retain upon its staff representative men from active professional life." The reason that the Dean assigns for this opinion is the obvious practical reason and need not be formally quoted. It was twenty-four years before the school had a Professor who devoted himself wholly to the work of the Department, and a large majority of the Faculty have always been practising lawyers.

In all 39 men have served the Law Department as instructors in different capacities; or, rather, that is the number of names found in the annual catalogues and calendars. The roll is one that reflects great credit upon the University as well as upon the legal profession. Some of the most distinguished judges,

that it now contains something more than 15,000 volumes, and that the library room is admirably fitted and the books well chosen to meet the wants of the hundreds of students and of the Professors who comprise the school.

In the beginning the only requisites for admission were that the candidate should be eighteen years of age, and should sustain a good moral character, the latter fact to be duly authenticated by a certificate. No previous course of reading in the Law was required, but was rather discouraged. Still the early classes

given in the form of lectures. There were six series of lectures, three each term, and the two groups of series alternated so as to allow students to enter the school at either term. It was also announced that the work was so laid out that students could enter profitably at any time, and that one term was as suitable as the other. As a result of this arrangement, which was made to economize time, the Junior and Senior classes took all their lectures together. There was little quizzing, and such as there was the Professors did at the beginning

or end of the lecture period, which was two hours in length. Two distinct lectures on separate subjects were given in each period, separated, however, by a short breathing space. Only the Seniors were quizzed, but they were quizzed on the Junior as well as the Senior subjects. Ten lectures and as many quizzes were given each week. The moot court, presided over by the Professors who lectured for the day, was a weekly exercise. The students also organized and conducted club courts, with such assistance from the Professors as they needed. At the end of the course an oral examination was held, and such students as passed this ordeal and presented an acceptable. thesis received the degree of LL.B. This degree was given also to students who had taken one year of equivalent study in a lawyer's office and one year in the school, as well as to lawyers who had practised law one year under an approved license and then taken one term of study in the school.

The foregoing arrangements stood unchanged in all their essential features for almost twenty years.

the end method, order, system, must, in large measure, take the place that was first held by genius and enthusiasm. So it was at Ann Arbor.

The first intimation of the coming change is met with in 1877 when it was announced that students would henceforth be expected to be well grounded in at least a good English education, and be capable of making use of the English language with accuracy and propriety. This meant an entrance examination; but it is

A feebler organization and a looser administration could hardly have held the school together. Indeed, if the mark of a school is to be found in organization and administration, then this was hardly a school at all; but if such mark is to be found in the ability of teachers, the value of the instruction given, and the enthusiasm of students, it was a school of a high order. In a word, it was the Professors and the conditions, not organization, administration, and discipline, that made the school what it was.

But obviously enough such a regimen as this cannot endure indefinitely. Faculties will change and conditions will alter, and in

not necessary to suppose that it was a very difficult one. Here it may be said in explanation, if not in defence, of the low standard of qualification. for admission, that it was no lower than the one found at the similar schools in the country, at least with very few exceptions.

A few years later it was announced that graduates of Colleges, and students. who had honorably completed an academical or high school course and presented the appropriate certificate or diploma, would be admitted to the school without a preliminary examination. All other candidates must

pass a satisfactory examination in Arithmetic, Geography, Orthography, English Composition and the outlines of the History of the United States and of England. The examination would be conducted in writing, and the writer must evince a competent knowledge of English Grammar. In 1894 still higher requirements were announced to take effect in October 1897; and the next year the standard was made the same as for admission to Group IV., the old B. L. course, in the Literary Department, said action to take effect in September 1900.

In 1884 the two terms making up the course of instruction were lengthened from six months to nine months each; that is, were extended