CHRISTOPHER C. LANGDELL and stuck to the ship. They were finding out how the law was made, and the reasons for it, and how it was applied in actual prac tice. The lecturer was working it out for himself with them. Every step of the reasoning was scrutinized and tested and re-examined till proved right or wrong. The law was being taught as a science, not as a rag-bag of rules and exceptions. In the happy phrase of Professor Gray, the lan guage of the law was being taught, not from the artificial grammar, but from the natural translation. The rest of the class were apparently hoping for a quick arrival of the millennium, when "the law," being fully "known," there would be no need of cases in the courts to decide it. Then came the new and dreadful ordeal of the examinations. Better than pages of description, the questions on the papers show the difference between the systems. The old professors called wholly for defini tions and rules : —"When and by what statute were lands made alienable in England after the conquest?" — "What is the difference between an action of trespass and an action of trespass upon the case? " The new Dean presented actual problems for solution: — "If A contract with B to serve him one year at so much per month, and at the end of six months' service he dies, will his representa tives be entitled to recover against B for the six months' service; and if so, how much and upon what principle? " — " If a debtor tender to his creditor the amount of the debt on the day it becomes due, and the creditor refuse to receive it, and afterwards sue the debtor, how should the latter defend himself?" Dismay filled the School. What chance now of learning what the law was? The number of students began to diminish. Undeterred. Langdell took his next step in the development of the system, and carried the appointment of one of its earliest gradu ates. J - B. Ames, LL. B, 1872, as Assistant Professor of Law, in 1873. Here truly was fresh fuel! How was a young man, without the least practical experience, to teach the
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law? Dark predictions were in the air. Lawyers of high rank and unquestioned dis cernment said openly that the School was being ruined. A large and prosperous school was opened in Boston, its instructors chosen from the ablest practitioners of the day, with the avowed purpose of continuing the old, safe-and-sane text-book method. Professor Washburn, a man of great reputation and influence, universally beloved, resigned in 1876 — the last survivor of the old corps. Keenly as Langdell's nature suffered under each new blast of discouragement his invin cible perseverance, which alone had carried him through his student days, carried him through these as well. Sensitive but undeviating as the compass-needle amidst impending shipwreck, he went straight for ward. He knew he was on the right track. And a few others knew it, among them the illustrious band of new teachers he had gathered around him. The brave, sagacious president of the University knew it, and steadfastly upheld the hands of this new prophet. The case system, far from being abandoned, was improved and extended. For a time, recent graduates of the School had been employed as private tutors to tide "over the laggards from the old channels to the new. The prospectus for 1878 an nounced that the regular course would there after require three full years. The library, meantime, as the source of all law, was jealously fostered. A skilled and enthusi astic librarian had already been appointed. Langdell himself, like Story of old time, deposited his own rare collections there. The administration of the School became a marvel of economy, foresight, and judgment. Not in vain had its Dean early learned the lessons of thrift and method. The average ability of the student body was vastly in creased by the requirement that either a college degree or a special examination should be necessary for entrance. The graduates of the new system began to take high rank in the profession, as their numbers grew and time gave them opportunity.
