THE LAW SCHOOL.

The Springfield Republican of Monday contains an article on the Harvard Law School, full of interest for present and past members of that school, and especially valuable as a "pointer" for all who intend to enter the legal profession.

The article begins by stating that the inquiries of a graduate of a small New England college, among prominent judges and lawyers scattered all over the country, relative to the standing of the graduates from the different law schools in the United States, called out overwhelming testimony to the eminence of the representatives of the Harvard Law School. "The returns awarded the school a leading, if not the foremost, position among such institutions in America."

After giving an excellent description of the new Law School building the writer goes on to say : "It does not require a legal mind to see that with the beginning of the next academic year the would-be member of the bar is to receive his training in Coke and Blackstone under most luxurious surroundings. Whether the next generation of lawyers will be keener or more learned than those drilled in the close rooms of Dane Hall is a question, but that the Harvard student will be superior to others in his conception of the worth and dignity of the profession is certain."

The much disputed question of the relative merits of our own school and the Boston University Law School comes in for its share of attention as follows : "It has been the fashion for many years to institute comparisons between this school and that connected with the Boston University. The latter undoubtedly enjoys the great advantage of close proximity to the U. S. Courts; but there is a danger that this attraction may draw the student from his regular study and, on the whole, the Harvard professors are content to have the undivided time and attention of their pupils. The methods of the two schools differ widely. The Boston school teaches the principles of the law by lectures and refers the student to cases for illustration, while the Harvard professor teaches the principles of the law from the cases them selves, and compels the student to verify them by a long list of references. The plan is peculiar to Cambridge, having been introduced a few years since ??? one of the professors, and meeting with such favor and success as to comment it to the entire faculty."

The remarks in regard to this method to which were made by President Eliot in his annual report, are quoted and then the writer continues : "It will thus be seen that the whole influence of the school is against 'cheap' lawyers. 'A noble profession nobly filled' is dinned into the ears of the future advocate till he becomes ashamed of many whom he sees practising in the courts. The progressive changes in the regulations, of the school cut off many inferior men, but their places have been readily filled by those whom the school will be proud to send into the profession."

The article closes with a reference to one of the distinctive characteristics of our own school as compared with other schools of the country.

"It has sometimes been urged against the Harvard school that it deals too much with theories and not enough with the practice of the law, and there is probably more truth in this criticism than is generally admitted in Cambridge; still the professors have, with but one exception in the whole history of the school, been taken from the ranks of the active profession. The later tendency, however, may be seen in taking Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 'a closet lawyer,' or one who has made the law a study rather than a profession, for a new professorship. This appointment was regarded on all sides as admirable, and great was the disappointment when Professor Holmes was transferred to the Supreme Bench. Judge Holmes is himself a good type of the class of lawyers Harvard seeks to give the country, and, so far as the resources here outlined can accomplish that end, he is eminently well qualified to strengthen and ennoble the profession in the eyes of the world."