He was also desirous that perfect security should be established for the property which intellect creates. He further advocated the importance of a Public Prosecutor for England, as also a Court of Criminal Appeal, rather than that the responsibility and power should be longer placed, in matters of life and death especially, in the hands of the Home Office. I believe that England is the only country in Europe where no Public Prosecutor, nor a Criminal Court of Appeal on facts, exists; even in Ireland and Scotland, the former official is ingrafted on the administration of justice; and it is well understood that many evil-doers in England escape punishment for want of so important and useful an officer as a public prosecutor. Justice O'Hagan further recommended that the Encumbered-Estates Court should be extended to this part of the United Kingdom; and that the Registration of Titles recently introduced in England might become a reality, and be extensively availed of by less cumbersome and less expensive processes. The Chief-Justice reminded his hearers that in this and other legal respects Ireland had long been in advance of England.

The laws relating to the property of married women were also alluded to during the Congress, as most unsatisfactory and unjust, often leading to a degree of suffering, by mothers and children, much to be deplored. We are in this respect greatly behind our French neighbours. These all were considered deserving the attention and serious consideration not only of those who study jurisprudence as a profession or as a science, but of a reformed Parliament, that by wise legislation we may maintain the settled order in which progress grows.

Revision and Restoration of Local Administration of Justice, as it existed during the Roman, Norman, Lancastrian, and Tudor periods, was mentioned at this Congress, as it had been also at previous ones. Our forefathers

seem to have been better aware than we are, of the necessity for local courts in commercial centres, to settle differences and suits, as it was an established rule that, when and wherever a fair was held, a court should daily sit, although that court often consisted only of the manorial chief. If it was necessary then, how much more stand we in need of it now, when in one hour the transactions in a town like Liverpool are probably of greater importance than the whole transactions at one of these fairs. In course of time Local Permanent Courts arose from these fairs; we still have one such in the Passage or Borough Court, which might well be remodelled, and its jurisdiction so enlarged as to answer all the purposes of commerce. It certainly would be more congenial to English ideas and practice than the tribunals of commerce abroad. On this subject also, the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce held some time ago a conference with the Law Association, which showed every disposition to act in harmony with the Chamber's suggestions. Similar ancient Courts of Record in Manchester and Salford are about to be amalgamated, and are to hold daily sittings. I am aware the County Courts do partially supply the want of permanent courts, but their jurisdiction is limited to small amounts.

Justice O'Hagan expressed himself warmly on the withdrawal of the Professors of the Irish language from the Queen's and University Colleges in Ireland, by which the study of such authors as O'Curry and O'Donovan will be lost to the Irish student. This fact surprised me not a little; and appeared to resemble somewhat the action of Russia with the Poles, who are compelled to abjure their national language; and also of the Government of the Netherlands previous to the Belgian revolution, when Holland forced Belgium to plead, and to furnish all legal documents, in the Dutch language, which was one of the causes that led to the

revolution in 1831. The difference in the jury-laws between England and Scotland was also discussed, and on the whole, the Scotch system, where a majority of nine, after three hours' sitting, may form a lawful decision, was considered the more desirable.

In passing from this department to my next subjectPopular Education—I must commence with a remark which applies equally to Education, Medicine, and Law. Strong objection may be made to the mode by which many students for the legal and medical professions are instructed or prepared for their high calling; and to the facility with which they obtain those important positions on which in one case the life and health, and in the other the prosperity and often happiness and misery, of families and individuals depend.

In Holland, Germany, and on the Continent generally, a member of the one or other of these professions usually studies three years at one of the universities, having first passed through a course of some years' instruction at a gymnasium, in the classics and modern languages, mathematics, ancient and modern history and literature, natural philosophy, political economy, &c. Finally, the examination and promovation of the candidates for either profession are of the most searching description.

Now, how do matters stand in this country? We have two renowned and ancient universities, but their beneficent action is so circumscribed, and they are hampered by so many restrictions and ancient regulations and customs, that but a very limited number of the two professions come from either university. It was stated at a previous Congress, by the Rev. B. Zwecke, chaplain to the Queen, that "in the capital of an agricultural county, with a population amounting to more than 40,000, there was not a single individual, with the exception of some of the clergy, who had received a

university education. In fact, this disregard had now become so wide-spread, that if the bishops were to withdraw the rule they generally act upon, requiring from candidates for holy orders certificates, which imply a university .education, our universities would literally collapse for want of students."

In a recent work by the Rev. Mark Pattison, the Rector of Lincoln, On Academical Organisation, these statements of Mr. Zwecke are fully confirmed. He shews that "the universities, especially Oxford, lose their hold more and more on the wealthier classes, and one-third of the students are paid by bounties for coming there."

Even the barrister, the crême de la crême of the legal profession, is not obliged to receive a university education. True, examinations have to be passed. These however are greatly assisted by what is usually called the art of cramming. In fact, the road is too easy to insure either talent worthy of the name or plodding mental labour. I find, on enquiry, that £10 has been lately paid to a crammer in London, who coached a candidate for his examination as solicitor; a moderate amount, forsooth, to obtain the diploma of the foreign avocat or even avoué.

It is then by no means surprising that the ordinary members of the legal profession, viz. solicitors, occupy a much higher position on the Continent than they do in this country. Even the chemists or dispensers of medicine on the continent, although they do not attempt, nor are they allowed to usurp, by prescribing medicines, the place of the regular medical practitioner, have to receive instructions, or attend such lectures as will enable them to pass an examination in medical botany, chemistry, and compounding of medicine. Hence the apothecary or chemist is considered a bona fide member of a learned profession. I know of at least one instance in Holland, and in the town in which I resided, where the chemist I employed was called from the

dispensing of medicine to the professorship of chemistry at the university.

But I rejoice to see signs of better things in professional education. These defects have not escaped the attention of the leading members of the legal and medical professions, and stricter measures have been, and others are about to be, adopted, to improve and extend the education of those who aspire to legal or medical honours and emoluments.

It was argued and admitted at the Congress that though many reforms had been introduced at the universities, many more were required. The fellowships had been turned from sinecures into prizes, but they were sinecures still; and the whole system of prizes and of educational endowment generally needed revision. The requirement of celibacy was almost universally retained. This is fatal to any institution in which it is imposed. Where the rule of celibacy remains, the lay-fellows will go off to other colleges, in which they can marry, and desert educational pursuits; whilst college tutors will continue to be clerical fellows, looking forward to college livings, and confining themselves to studies more or less connected with the clerical profession. Hence, clerical ascendancy predominates in Oxford, and in a minor degree in Cambridge also. Now, institutions which are sectional, cannot be national, nor educate the nation.

Our old universities should become the centres of a liberal education of the very highest order, the education of those who are destined for scientific and intellectual

callings.

Let us hope that the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, as also Dublin, may, ere long, become like their sister institution in the metropolis, more enlarged and useful, and better adapted to the requirements of the age in which we live.

In dealing with Trinity College, Dublin, the same