Mr. Escaler. These officials have always taken an exceptional interest in the welfare of the college.

The student body numbers one hundred and fifty. There are also about eighty in the preparatory law course which, with the admission of graduates of the Ateneo de Manila and Silliman Institute, would indicate that even with high entrance requirements of two years of college work, and strict and thorough legal instruction, attendance is bound to increase. Were the entrance requirements lowered so as to admit high school graduates, there is no doubt that over one thousand would enroll, but it is not our desire to compete with private schools or to draw from the other professions. The student council composed of the heads of the different organizations and a representative from each class and the college alumni controls student enterprises. The loyalty, spirit, and sacrifices of our students can not be commended too highly.

The courses of instruction are so arranged that, upon completion of a two years' preparatory college course the student receives three or four years of practical and thorough instruction for the practice of law in the Philippine Islands. These courses follow the American law school method as to logical sequence, e.g., Contracts coming in the first year, and other subjects, as Agency, dependent and ancillary thereto, later. They follow the Spanish law school method in that the law in force in the Philippines and the cases construing the same, are studied, e.g., in Civil Procedure, a study of Act 190 of the Philippine Commission, preparing the student for Philippine practice. Text-books and syllabi are used where possible in the freshman year, when the student, verdent in the law, is totally unacquainted with cases, how to find them, and how to study them properly when found. The case system, with outlines, is used thereafter, where feasible. But always the portion of the written law of the Philippines which is included within the scope of the subject, and the leading opinions of the United States Supreme Court, or of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands, construing the same, are thoroughly covered. Emphasis is placed on such practical subjects as moot court work, and conveyancing; not only is it believed that students should understand the principles of code pleading, but they should know how to institute and conduct a case through all its stages; not only should students be

familiar with the essential requirements for a good contract, will, mortgage, partnership agreement, etc., but they should know how to draft such documents.

A thesis amounting to a contribution to legal knowledge, is made a prerequisite to graduation. Prizes for scholarship and for the winners. of college contests are awarded during each academic year.

With the institution of this Law Journal, and next year, of a post graduate review course and a free legal dispensary in connection with the work of the Public Welfare Committee; with action on our application for membership in the Association of American Law Schools; with the organization of the alumni association, and with legal research work begun by members of the faculty, the plans, which I have had, will have been realized. We have next to organize and develop a School of Finance and Business Administration in connection with this College.

With the foregoing description of the College of Law, I conclude as

I did in the article from which this is taken

The stock objection to a Government law school in the Philippines was, and is: "There are too many lawyers and politicians in the Philippines." In a measure, the statement is correct. The Philippines do not need so-called lawyers, who are only able to fulfill Aaron Burr's ironical definition of Law: "Whatever is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained." 1 The Islands do not require politicians who believe with the cynical Voltaire that: "The art of government is to compel two-thirds of the people to pay all they can to support the other one-third." Even the description of a juris-consult, by Cicero, is not sufficient: "Skilled in the laws, and in the usages current among private citizens, and in giving opinions and bringing actions and guiding his clients aright." 2 What is needed is, not a greater quantity, but a finer quality of men, who, thoroughly grounded in a general education, have builded thereon an understandable comprehension of the existing law and institutions of the Philippines, and who upon graduation, can practice law in the official language and take a leading, progressive part in good government. The College of Law will fail in its duty just so far as, through over-kindheart

1 Magruder, Life of Marshall, page 203.

2 Quoted in the Yale Law Journal for November, 1911, page 72.

edness or laxity the road to the practice of law or to a place in public life is made easy.

The school can not hope to accomplish its plans, or to assume its proper place by merely striking the rock and expecting there to burst forth a complete college-but varying the figure of speech, as was said in the Talmud:

"The foolish man says, 'It is impossible that I should be able to remove this immense heap. I will not attempt it.' But the wise man says, 'I will remove a little today, some more tomorrow, and more the day after, and thus in time I shall have removed it all."1 Said Alexander Hamilton, quoting from Hume, to show that a perfect constitution is not possible: "The judgment of many must unite in the work; experience must guide their labors; time must bring it to perfection, and the feeling of inconvenience must correct the mistakes which they inevitably fall into in their first trial and experiment." The idea thus so appropriately stated by this eminent statesman is just as true in its application to the College of Law. It can, however, even now, have as its ideal that which President Bartlett so aptly phrased in his inaugural address as "efficiency." The College of Law, University of the Philippines can, under any circumstances, and at all times, aim at being primarily a college of law of the Philippine Islands, for the Filipinos and other residents of the Islands, and eventually, particularly as students are graduated and gain experience, by the Filipinos.

1 Quoted in 219 U. S., page XV

THE FILIPINO LEGISLATOR; HIS DIFFICULTIES AND SUCCESSES

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY HON. VICENTE SINGSON Y ENCARNACION, MEMBER OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION, BEFORE THE LAW FORUM OF THE COLLEGE OF LAW ON AUGUST 1, 1914.

As you know, in the United States there are two great political parties which up to the present time have been in power alternately. One is the republican, and the other the democratic party.

The leaders of each of these parties have declared that it is not the purpose of the American people to enslave us, but to prepare us for an independent self-government; the only difference between them being, that while the republicans proclaim that the present generation is not capable of maintaining a stable independent government and that it will probably be necessary for two or three generations to pass before such a government can be established here, the democrats contend that selfgovernment and independence must come in time for us, who are living and have struggled to establish such a government, to enjoy the same, within say, two years or within four or six years at the most.

The republicans, consistent in their ideas. passed the Act of Congress approved July 1st, 1902, known as the Philippine Bill, entitled "An Act temporarily to provide for the administration of the affairs of civil government in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes," by which the Philippine Commission was to be converted into the upper house and the Philippine Assembly into the lower house of a Legislature granted to the Filipino people merely as an opportunity to demonstrate its capacity for self-government.

I

PHILIPPINE ASSEMBLY.

Leaving the Philippine Commission to the last, I shall now pass on to the consideration of the Philippine Assembly, which, as you all know,

was officially inaugurated on the 16th of October, 1907. The Assembly, o new thing in this country, during the first months and even years of its existence, encountered not only the natural difficulties attendant upon every new constructive undertaking but also many others which have not been met by other old legislative houses or assemblies of civilized nations and which have required the greatest efforts on the part of the Assembly

to overcome.

NATURAL DIFFICULTIES INCIDENT TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PHILIPPINE ASSEMBLY.

The members of the Assembly, in order to overcome the natural difficulties attendant upon a new organization, were compelled to adopt the rules of some other legislative chamber, and did so, not haphazard but deliberately, selecting the rules of the House of Representatives of the United States. In doing so, they took into account the fact that at that time the majority of the Commission, the other legislative house, was composed of Americans, who were naturally more accustomed to the methods of their own congress than to those of any other nation, and, chiefly, they took into account that, in the end, the American people and no other would be the judge of the success or failure of said Assembly which was being established as the touchstone of the capacity of the Filipino people to make their own laws.

When under way, after the ordinary routine work necessary in all legislative labor, such as the introduction, consideration and discussion of bills prepared by the delegates themselves or by any private citizen had been settled in an ordinary manner, they were confronted by a fundamental difficulty which was whether the members of the Assembly were representatives of the electoral districts which had elected them or were simply delegates thereof.

Although at first it was maintained, on account of the designation. "Delegate to the Philippine Assembly" that they ought not and could not have free opinions on questions on which contrary and unequivocal opinion had been given by the districts from which they were elected, after long discussion it was generally admitted that the members of the Assembly were vested with all the prerogatives of representatives in