ies put to them. What are the distinctions between the
several species of the lawyer? What sort of an animal is, in reality, the
conveyancer, or the special pleader, or the equity draftsman--what are its
habits, where its haunts--how is it bred, how nourished--what process is
he himself to go through, before he can be recognised as belonging to the
class--how best may he set to work, and with least loss of time?--these
are matters which he is very curious to know, and to him nothing is more
welcome than to find them all explained in the printed page--to find them
where he is accustomed to look for every thing, amongst his old friends
the books.

Surprise has often been expressed at the fact, that there is no publicly
appointed method of legal tuition, no lectures delivered on which it is
compulsory to attend, not even any examination to be finally undergone
before admittance to the bar. A little acquaintance, however, with the
nature of legal studies, will soon dissipate this astonishment. There is
but one way in which the law _can_ be mastered; severe, steady, solitary
reading, accompanied by the privilege of watching the real practice of the
jurist in the chambers of the conveyancer or the special pleader. To one
bent on the professional study of the law; lectures would be mere waste of
time. To the idler they may bear the appearance, and bring some of the
profit, of study; to the conscientious and resolved student, they would be
an idleness and a dissipation. Where a subject admits of being
oratorically treated, good lectures are extremely valuable; for oratory
has its office in tuition, stimulates to reflection, and stirs generous
sentiments, and we wish the oratory of the professor's chair were more
cultivated amongst us than it is. Nor need we say that where the subject
admits or requires the illustration of scientific experiments, lectures
are almost indispensable. But in the tangled study of the law, where one
must go backwards and forwards, as in a rope-walk, and twist one's own
cable out of many threads--of what use can the lecturer possibly be? To
teach us law in a fluent discourse, what is it but to have us feed--as the
humming-birds are said to do--upon the wing? But even humming-birds feed
in no such fashion; they sit down to their supper of rose-water. Much more
must a lawyer have his table--his desk--fast before him; and spreading out
his various fare, which needs a deal of mastication, feed alternately, a