O PROVIDE remedies by altering

or amending the rules of admission, we must ascertain with certainty what the existing evils are. It is equally necessary that we should have a clear understanding of the nature and functions of the office of a lawyer. It seems to us that, from whatever standpoint the subject is approached, a conviction is inevitable that under the present rules of the courts, and the existing systems of legal education, a class of lawyers is produced inadequate in legal and moral education and training to meet the requirements of the office which they undertake to fill. The formation of this Society is a striking confirmation of this view, and constitutes the strongest protest against existing conditions. It is the united voice of the Bar, crying for deep, wide, and thorough reform.

Where the intellectual and moral standards for the Bar are low, it inevitably follows that the administration of justice will be uncertain and deficient. An inferior order of lawyers creates an inferior quality of justice. This breeds contempt for both.

As Burke well said: "The degree of estimation in which any profession is held becomes the standard of the estimation in which the professors hold themselves."

With those already in the profession, the Committee does not undertake to deal. After admission to the Bar, absolute regeneration of the lawyer is impossible. We hope to influence him by clear rules of professional ethics. Fail

ing these, we must resort to measures of discipline. As to the future, however, we can prescribe and demand the application of such intellectual and moral tests as will insure a better class of practitioners. The door should not be opened for admission until we are sure that those who wish to pass through are equipped with such knowledge as enables them, at least fairly, to comprehend the office which they aspire to fill and the elements of the law which they are expected to apply.

An analysis of fundamental evils. which at present infect the profession shows:

First. That the average student, when he applies for admission, has no, or a very inadequate, knowledge of his various duties.

These duties are fourfold: First, to the state as an officer and citizen; second, to the court as an officer and adviser; third, to his client as a fiduciary; and, fourth, to his brother lawyers, out of which grows the "esprit de corps" of the profession-an indefinable code of honor, courtesy, and respect, varying or enlarging to meet the requirements of each case and epoch. He owes loyalty to the state, both as a citizen and as a sworn officer of justice; he owes respect and dignity in his deportment to the courts, and candor and honesty in his statements and dealings with them; to his client he owes his talents, his knowledge, his time, and his fidelity; and in dealing with his brother lawyers he should be controlled. by a proper esprit de corps.

The lawyer cannot perform his duty to one of these parties and neglect the others; he cannot be honest to the state and dishonest to the court and his client, any more than he can be dishonest to the state and court and honest to his client. But his duty can be performed to all without infringing or impairing the rights of the others.

In every employment which the lawyer receives, his primary duty is to the state. In performing this duty, he can fulfill all of his obligations to clients and courts with fidelity and honor. If he attempts to go beyond this, he strikes a blow at society. Why? Because he is a part of the judicial system of the government. He is appointed to conduct judicial proceedings. If a conflict arise between his duty to the government and his client, in which the position of the state in its whole corporate capacity is clear (not a mere question of law, applicable to both, or a question of the rights of the citizens, which is in fact the interest of the state itself), he must decide in favor of the former; for the interest of that client is subordinate to the interests of all the other citizens constituting the state-who are interested in maintaining the entire integrity of the political system. His oath to maintain the laws cannot be performed by giving advice, or resorting to acts, which cause their violation. Of course, he should not prejudge, and in cases of doubt he is free to act as his conscience dictates-honest doubt as to the law, or honest doubt as to the facts.

The tendency of the lawyer, in modern times, is to look to, and think of, nothing but the client's interests, and the ques tion as to how far his professional conduct affects the administration of justice, and the general salutary conditions of the state, is almost lost sight of; indeed,

students under the existing systems are

not taught to analyze their true relations in this respect.

Second. The student is not instructed in the real nature and functions of his office.

Perhaps he understands vaguely that he is an "officer of the court," but that only conveys to his mind the idea that the courts may, therefore, summarily reprimand, degrade, or punish him. But he is not taught that in general he is an officer of the court, to advise the courtin many instances to assist it; that in truth he is a real official friend of the court; that the court has always the right to call upon him to aid in the administration of justice. The fact that no attention is paid to these fundamental principles in the education of the lawyer has gradually tended to divorce the lawyers from the courts. They hold each other at arm's length, until the courts have grown suspicious of the Bar, and regard its practitioners as constantly endeavoring to wrest from the judicial tribunals orders, judgments, and decrees to which they are not entitled; to regard them as purely mercenary, pitiless advocates, careless of everything except success. And, unfortunately, there is ground for this suspicion and belief.

While, as an auxiliary of the court, the lawyer's vocation has been greatly enfeebled, he is still an officer of very great authority and power.

At the instance of a client, he becomes the official author and creator of all judicial proceedings. He is the fountain head of legal procedure, at whose command all legal processes flow.

The lawyer's mandate-the summons, writ, or by whatever name the original process may be called-compels the appearance in court of the highest or lowliest individual in the land.

Apart from suitors themselves-who are permitted to appear in their own cases-no judicial action can be put in motion without the sanction of some lawyer. He is the sole officer authorized to cause civil action to be begun. If the lawyer approves the client's demand, he can issue, or cause to be issued, process which will bring any individual or corporation before the court. The demand may be unfounded, the action unjustified, the whole proceeding utterly without merit, in law or in fact, yet the defendant must obey. A lawyer, the day after he is admitted, the veriest tyro in the profession, may, without a title of justice or right, summon the worthiest and pur

est individual to answer the demands of a professional blackmailer; and although, after years, it may be, of litigation, in which character, property, and expense are involved, the suit is dismissed as unfounded, yet the lawyer sits serenely in his office, secure from liability, exempted from acts which often, through his negligence or design, have caused untold. mischief and damage. His ordinary mistakes of law, or judgment, cannot be made the basis of a legal demand against him. How many of such mistakes are made, how many causeless actions are instituted, can be easily seen by consulting the records of the courts, which show the number of suits finally dismissed.

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

1. Is the Constitution of the United States one of granted and enumerated powers, or one of limitations of powers?

2. Does any provision in the Constitution of the United States or of this State confer any express power upon the courts to hold a statute unconstitutional? If so, quote the provision.

3. Is the state Constitution one of limitations or of granted powers as to the legislative department? How is this as to the executive and judicial departments?

4. Can the Legislature repeal the charter of a railroad company? Can it alter such charter without the consent of the company?

5. What is the restriction imposed by the Constitution upon the General Assembly as to the method to be observed in passing laws to raise money and to impose taxes or to allow the counties, cities, and towns to do so? 6. May the courts in any case by mandamus, direct the Public Treasurer to pay an admittedly valid indebtedness of the state when there is no existing act of the Legislature directing payment? Const. art. 14, § 3.

PERSONAL PROPERTY

15. Has the writer of a letter such property in it that he is entitled to an injunction to restrain its publication by the person to whom it is addressed or by others who have acquired possession of it?

16. Is a patent right assignable, and is it subject to sale under execution?

17. Name the several modes in which the title to personal property is transferred by operation of law.

18. In what cases will the recovery of a judgment effect a change of title in personalty?

EQUITY

19. What are the principal cases in which equity grants relief, as stated by Lord Coke? 20. Define fraud, as it is employed in courts of equity.

21. Are there any cases of fraud against which equity will afford no relief?

22. Give some instances of constructive frauds against which equity will grant relief. 23. What is the rule in equity as to granting relief in case of mistakes in will, and is evidence of matters dehors the will to show mistake admissible?

24. Has a court of equity jurisdiction as to public officials exercising public trusts or functions?

NEGOTIABLE PAPER

25. What are the requirements of negotiable instruments under our statute?

26. Is there any case in which the purchaser of a negotiable note, with knowledge of the equities between the original parties, will acquire title to it free from such equities?

27. What constitutes a "holder in due course" under our statute, and what are his rights?

28. What is the effect, if any, of including in a note or bill of exchange that it be paid out of a certain fund?

CONTRACTS

29. Can a person who enters into a contract the day before his twenty-first birthday avoid it or not by pleading infancy, and the reason? 30. Can a contract under seal be impeached for want of a sufficient consideration?

31. In what cases is a total want of consideration a perfect defense in an action upon a contract, and when is it not?

32. What, if any, contracts bear compound interest?

33. If A., for a nominal consideration, agrees to convey valuable property to B., can the latter recover in an action for breach of the contract?

34. Are there any exceptions to the rule that a contract valid where it is made is valid everywhere?

TORTS

35. What is the statute of limitations as to an action for tort?

36. Is a parent liable in a civil action for the torts of his infant children? Are the infants liable civilly?

37. In an action for an injury sustained by failure to adopt appliances required by law, is contributory negligence a defense?

38. In an action for injury to an employé in a cotton mill, when the employé is under the age prescribed by statute, can the defendant set up contributory negligence or not? Give the reason.

CORPORATIONS

39. Is notice to a director notice to the corporation?

40. What is necessary in order to bind a corporation by specialty?

41. Can a corporation chartered in another state exercise its franchises in this state if the comity to do so is withdrawn by the Legislature here?

42. Is a corporation indictable for a crime in which the intent is an essential element? 43. To whom do the lands and tenements of a corporation go upon its dissolution? How was it at common law?

44. What is a quasi public corporation? Give instances of different kinds.

EVIDENCE

45. When one party to a transaction is dead, under what circumstances is the survivor a competent witness in regard thereto?

46. How do you determine whether a presumption is one of law or one of fact?

47. In actions for a tort, are the admissions of one defendant competent against his codefendant, when the act was committed by them jointly?

48. What is the distinction between judicial confessions and extrajudicial confessions?

49. What is the distinction between a patent and latent ambiguity, and is parol testimony competent?

50. Can the acknowledgment in a deed of the receipt of the purchase money be contradicted by parol?

HOMESTEAD

51. Does the homestead exemption continue after the death of the homesteader for the benefit of the widow? If so, in what cases and how long?

52. Under our statute, if the allotted homestead is conveyed, does it become at once liable to sale under judgments docketed prior to the conveyance? And is one who has conveyed away his homestead entitled to have another allotted?

DOMESTIC RELATIONS

53. Is a husband liable in damages for his wife's torts? Is she liable?

54. Is there any restriction in our statutes upon the right of a married woman to contract with the assent of her husband? In what cases may she contract without his assent?

PLEADING AND PRACTICE

55. In what cases may a married woman bring an action without joining her husband? 56. What is a bill of particulars, and in what cases may the judge order it to be furnished? And does the statute apply to criminal as well as civil actions?

57. How must pleadings be construed at common law? and under the Code?

58. When must a pleading be verified, and how?

59. In what cases will the writ of habeas corpus be refused an applicant, who may ap

ply for it, who can issue it, who can serve it, and what is the procedure?

60. What is the procedure prescribed for "settling" a "case on appeal"?

61. In what cases must a guardian ad litem be appointed, and in what mode is this done?

62. Name the pleadings required under the Code, and when must they each be filed?

63. State the jurisdiction, civil and criminal, of each of the different courts-Supreme, superior, clerk, probate, recorder, and justice of the peace.

64. Name the ancillary remedies, and state what purpose each serves.

WILLS

65. Can a married woman dispose of both her real and personal property, or either, by will without the assent of her husband?

66. Name the different kinds of wills and the requirements as to the valid execution of each.

In delivering a lecture recently before the students of the University of Indiana Law School, Hon. Roscoe Kiper, judge of the Warrick and Spencer circuit court of Indiana, said in part:

"It is the duty of every lawyer to aid in the enactment of wholesome laws. During the last few years our system of jurisprudence has run the gauntlet of Legislatures and organic conventions with the cry of reform sounding at its heels. To an extent not dreamed of, the people have taken the remodeling of the whole body of the law into their own hands. The age has gone by when the opinion will be tolerated that the end to be sought by a system of jurisprudence is the establishment of an abstruse science. It is now demanded that the prime object of the law shall be to meet out speedy and exact justice between man and man, that judges shall disregard technicalities and make forms yield to substance in determining the merits of controversies, that precedents which have outlived the occasion that originated them shall not obstruct the current of equity, that rules which have survived the reason on which they are based shall give place to others formed on the enlightened wants of our own times, and that causes shall be dismissed from the courts as rapidly as the substantial interests of the parties will permit.

"The Legislature being the enacting power of our state, to whom is delegated the authority to formulate laws, it must necessarily follow that the wholesomeness and practicability of our own laws must depend on the kind of men who compose that august body. It is a remarkable inconsistency in our system of government that in all our occupations, art, or science some method of instruction is required to fit one for

his calling, except only the science of legislation. For the minister, the physician, or lawyer a long course of reading and preparation is necessary, but ordinarily the man who becomes distinguished as an adept in precinct politics, or who has been disappointed in his application for the post office, is seized upon as a possible candidate for the Legislature, without any regard for his mental qualifications. The result is that a very large part of our statute books consists of freak legislation, embodying the theoretical nostrums for social ills of every village wiseacre who can get a seat in the Legislature. Man will reflect his environment, and the member of our own Legislature from one of the counties bordering on the Ohio, who introduced a measure to provide a bonus for each night owl destroyed, clearly reflected his surroundings. Chief Justice Cockburn once remarked that he never took down an act of Parliament 'without a shudder,' and I presume members of our judiciary likewise shudder when required to give meaning and force to some of the anomalous ambiguities embodied in the reports of our own Legislature for instance, the drainage act, or the rock road law, or the act conferring judicial authorities on town clerks. Inconsiderate legislation comes with double force against the courts, which are required to bring order out of chaos and give life and reason to statutes that most vaguely disclose their intention, or which are repugnant to the well-founded principles of our jurisprudence. The court must stand between the drastic innovations demanded by inflamed legislators and the conservatism of adherence to precedent, and define, discriminate, and construe wholesome rules of law that will equally uphold the majesty of the law and yet insure the citizen the preservation of his right and protection. The people have the same right to demand proper qualifications of their legis