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are either written or oral, as the professor and the quiz master may agree. In actual practice more than half of them have been written. Each member of the class is required to attend every written quiz and hand in answers to all questions. Absence without excuse is graded zero. In each set of answers a few papers are graded by both the professor and the quiz master. These grades are then compared and the questions and answers discussed. If there is a difference, it is adjusted. The grades, thus corrected, are taken as a basis for grading other papers. If complaint is made by any student as to his grade, given by the quiz master, the professor looks into the matter, and takes such action as seems just. The quiz master soon becomes quite competent in grading, and complaints are rarely made, and a great many of the quiz papers are never seen by the professor. These grades are entered in the class records, and taken in connection with any additional grading made in the topic by the professor, constitute the class standing in that topic. If the class attendance and attention have been good, and the class record is 85 per cent or over, not infrequently the student is excused from final examination. If, however, the class standing is low, say 65 per cent or under, it is useless to attempt the examination, as the passing grade is 80 per cent, and the class grade is at least one-half of this. If that is 65 per cent or less it would require an examination grade of 95 per cent or over to make the average, and this is almost impossible on work leading to a low class record. As the quizzes come very frequently and unexcused absences from them are marked zero and low grades are difficult to overcome, they furnish a regular and active stimulus to daily study and class attendance. Verily, the way of the crammer in the Law Department is hard. We hope soon to close it against him entirely, and then eliminate him from the department.

I wish to say, parenthetically, that the request for this paper came to me about the time the Senior class took up the subject of Corporations last session, and I preserved copies of all my quiz questions and requirements for written work on that subject, and have them here if any of you desire to inspect them.

The foregoing gives you a general idea how instruction is given and the contemporaneous class record is made. Upon the completion of each topic a written examination is given in it. These papers are usually graded by the professor. If the examination grade, together with the class standing, gives an average of 80 per cent, the student passes and is credited with that topic. If he does not make an average of 80 per cent but gets 75 per cent or over, he

is entitled to a re-examination. If the grade is below 75 per cent, he is required to take the subject again with the class.

In addition to the class and quiz work above indicated, an earnest endeavor is made to give practical instruction in Procedure. During the first year about thirty days are given to the regular study of Pleading and such related matters of Practice as seem essential to an intelligent presentation of that subject. A text-book is used and a number of cases read and explained, and the subject is lectured upon in a practical way. After the text has been completed the review is given by preparing statements of fact, having them analyzed by the class, developing each of the three elements of a cause of action, viz.: the legal right in the plaintiff, the legal wrong by the defendant, and the resulting damage to the plaintiff. The general principles of law bearing on each are discussed, and their application shown, and the whole matter made as plain as can be done. Each student is then required to prepare a petition correctly presenting the case as developed in the class, and hand it in at the next class meeting. These petitions are then exchanged; a defensive statement is then given out and analyzed, and each student prepares an answer to the petition which he has gotten. Several of these cases, as presented by the pleadings, are tried at the next class meeting. This process is repeated through the time allowed for review. Usually three or four cases are thus presented. This is as much practical work as is done in the Junior year.

In the Senior year, there is a series of practical lectures given. Those before April 1st are devoted to Procedure in the State Courts, those after that time to Federal Practice. The practice court work proper, is done in the afternoon. The process is much the same as that indicated at the close of the Junior year, except that it is very much more systematic and complete. As it is an admitted fact that in the majority of instances civil suits are won or lost before the announcement of "ready," we try very hard to train the students in the early, systematic and careful preparation of the case. To do this more effectively the class is divided into sections of from eight to twelve members. These sections are met in the afternoon where some good working library is accessible, and the students are trained in the use of books, and in hunting and digesting authorities, and in making briefs. Each case given out is required to be carefully and logically briefed, before anything else is done; after that, pleadings properly presenting the issues in the case are prepared, and after this the case is tried by men chosen by the section.

The student who does faithfully the work of any year in the

Law Course has full occupation; and if he use his opportunities, he becomes fairly conversant with the topics covered in that year. When he has completed the curriculum, we feel that he has such a knowledge of his profession and such training in the methods of study and the use of books as will enable him in the process of time to become a lawyer. No law school can do more for him than this. I have given you an outline of the work in the Law Department. I fear I have wearied you with its detail, but we are exceedingly anxious that the bar of Texas should know the nature and extent of the work being done. We are most earnestly endeavoring to make it systematic, thorough and practical. We seek not only to teach the rules of Law, but also to discover, point out, and impress the fundamental principles on which all our jurisprudence rests, to show the relations and interrelations of its various branches, to fix in the minds of the students that the Law is not a detached set of arbitrary rules, but on the contrary, is a systematic and scientific whole, presenting the highest human exposition and embodiment of truth and righteousness.

SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE ADMIRALTY LAW.

A PAPER READ BEFORE THE

TEXAS BAR ASSOCIATION,

BY

JOHN C. WALKER,

OF THE GALVESTON BAR.

By the title of this paper the writer does not intend to convey the impression that the admiralty law is in reality peculiar further than that it, like the Civil and Ecclesiastical Law, differs in many particulars from the Common Law, modified by statute, which the great majority of the lawyers of this State have occasion solely to study and practice. It may be of interest to point out some of the most striking features wherein the systems differ, both as to rule of decision and practice.

The Constitution of the United States vests all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction in the Federal courts, but by act of Congress the right of a Common Law remedy is saved where the Common Law is competent to give it. Thus in many cases the Common Law courts have jurisdiction concurrent with courts of admiralty, provided service can be made upon the person liable in the action.

The early decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States confined the jurisdiction as to place to localities where the tide ebbed and flowed, or on tide waters navigable from the sea. (The Thomas Jefferson, 10 Wh., 428.) Congress passed an act in 1845 extending the admiralty jurisdiction to the Great Lakes and navigable waters connecting the same. Shortly afterwards the United States Courts abandoned the narrow English rule confining admiralty jurisdiction to tide waters, and by degrees have held that it extends to all navigable waters where substantial and per

manent commerce is carried on, irrespective of congressional legislation, which is now the established American doctrine. The Genessee Chief, 12 How., 443; Revenue Cutter No. 1, Brown's Admiralty, 92; Leovy v. United States, 177 U. S., 621. But it has been judicially doubted by a United States District Court whether the waters of a lake entirely within a State, having no navigable outlet, are within the admiralty jurisdiction. United States v. Burlington & Ferry Co., 21 Fed. Rep., 341.

The subject matter of admiralty jurisdiction extends to contracts, maritime in their nature, and to torts committed on public navigable waters, though in many cases, both of contract and tort, the Common Law may be competent to afford a remedy. There is frequently difficulty in determining what are and are not causes exclusively maritime in their nature. This subject will be dealt with herein under various heads.

This much by way of introduction.

THE ADMIRALTY LIEN.

The word "lien" suggests to the Common Law practitioner a written instrument, with notice by record or otherwise to bind subsequent bona fide purchasers for value. True, the implied lien of the vendor is a recognized doctrine, but it may be lost if the land be conveyed by deed containing recitals of full payment of the purchase money and sold afterwards by the original vendee to a bona fide purchaser. So of an unrecorded mortgage.

A maritime lien is far different. Its mere existence fixes liability upon the property to which it attaches-usually a ship-irrespective of ownership, and regardless of transfers made after the creation of the lien. This lien is by no means confined to contract. In fact, it is frequently fixed upon property subject to it very much against the consent of the owners, as in cases of maritime torts, which include all kinds of liability for negligence. The ship or other property to which the lien attaches is regarded as a sentient being capable of making contracts, or committing actionable wrongs, as a natural person could do, and if such contract or tort is maritime, the lien attaches ipso facto to the thing itself, and suit is brought against it accordingly; hence, the term action “in rem."

In bringing suit against a ship or other property to enforce a lien in admiralty, it is not essential to name the owners; they may be-in fact, frequently are unknown.

Great difficulty exists in determining what are such maritime

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