niversity for profession of law
only_, or of any one human science, that is in the world, and advanceth
itself above all others _quantum inter viburna cupressus_. In which
Houses of Court and Chancery the readings and other exercises of the law
therein continually used are most excellent and behoofful for attaining
to the knowledge of these laws; and of these things the taste shall
suffice, for they would require, if they should be treated of, a
treatise by itself."

This passage has been cited for the special purpose of exhibiting the
close affinity between the Universities and the Law, for which, it will
be generally conceded, it is admirably suited. It is necessary, however,
that it should be pointed out that the learned Coke was writing at and
of a period when the system was fullblown. In the early period when
"hostels" for apprentices of the law began to be, no distinction
obtained into Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery. These apprentices
were, originally, just what the term implies, but their importance
became greater until their representative is now the ordinary
barrister-at-law.

In the year 1292--a date of some significance for us, not only in the
immediate context, but with reference to other portions of the work--the
King (Edward I.) promulgated an ordinance "De Attornatis et
Apprenticiis" in which he enjoined on John de Metingham and his fellows
that they should, at their discretion, "provide and ordain from every
county certain attorneys and lawyers of the best and most apt for their
learning and skill, who might do service to his court and that people,
and those so chosen only, and no other, should follow his court and
transact the affairs therein, the said King and his council deeming the
number of seven score sufficient for that employment, but leaving it to
the discretion of the judges to add to or diminish the number, as they
should see fit" (Dugdale's Tr.).

Serjeant Pulling is somewhat perplexed concerning the precise position
of the _apprenticii ad legem_ at the time of this edict. He, however,
hazards the conjecture that "by the apprentices were meant the advanced
students, or learners of the law, who, as pupils or assistants to the
Serjeants of the Coif, had obtained an insight into practice, and
perhaps also there were included the more irregular followers of the
law--the dilettante practitioners and Cleri Causidici, who continued to
follow the law in the secular courts in spite of repeated