§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR, in moving the second reading of this Bill, said that its object was to improve the education of attorneys and solicitors. He would not dwell on the importance of that branch of the legal profession, or the confidence necessarily reposed in them in all the affairs of life. Although some amongst them, such as the late Mr. Roscoe, of Liverpool, had great literary acquirements, it was generally that they had not received a liberal education, being too much engrossed in early life by professional 1188 pursuits. This Bill was intended to facilitate and encourage literary studies in the case of young men designed for that profession—and for this purpose it offered certain advantages to those who should have taken a degree at Oxford or Cambridge, or at the Universities of Dublin, Durham or London, or in the Queen's University in Ireland. At present before a man could be admitted to practise as an attorney he must have served under articles for five years. It was now proposed that those who had taken University degrees should be admitted after serving three years in clerkship under articles. It was also proposed that any young man who had successfully passed the middle-class examination lately established throughout the country by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, should have his clerkship abridged by one year, so that it would only be necessary for him to serve under articles four years instead of five. Another clause extended the 6th and 7th Vic, c. 73, to persons articled for four years, one of which might be served with a barrister. Another clause of the Bill gave power to the Judges to form regulations by which, before an attorney entered into his clerkship, he should undergo an examination, and this examination should be reviewed before he was admitted to practice. These enactments were to extend to the attorneys of the counties palatine of Lancaster and Durham. It might be asked how these regulations would compare with those for the education of members of the bar. He was ashamed to say that this had been formerly in a very lamentable condition; but it was not necessary to introduce any legislative measure on the subject because the Inns of Court had abundant power in their hands to deal with it. A system had now been established, mainly through the exertions of his learned Friend Sir Richard Bethell, the present Attorney General, by which before any student was called to the bar by an Inn of Court, he must undergo an examination, or give proof of regular attendance at lectures. That system had already been productive of the best results, and it was to be hoped that the Bill now proposed would do as much to improve the education of the other branch of the profession.
§ Bill read 2a and committed to a Committee of the whole House on Tuesday next.