The Roman law and the law of nations were studied in preparation
for admission to the American bar more generally and more
thoroughly in the years immediately preceding and following the
Revolutionary era than they have been since.[Footnote: See
Chap. XXIII.] The law student was also set then to reading more
books on English law than he is now.[Footnote: See Report of the
American Bar Association for 1903, p. 675.] He learned his
profession by the eye and not by the ear. His only lectures were
the occasional arguments on a demurrer or writ of error which he
might hear in the court room, and these were a reiteration of
rules laid down in English law-books.

The reason why he read more of Roman law than is now required in
legal education was mainly that there was more time for it, since
of English law reports there were then few, and of American none.

When the Revolution broke out it also became important in helping
to explain the practice in prize courts. These were set up (or
existing common law courts invested with admiralty jurisdiction)
in all the States, and American privateers gave them not a little
business. In order to secure uniformity of decision in matters
so directly affecting our foreign relations, the Continental
Congress claimed the right to exercise appellate functions,
through a standing committee of its members, and in 1780
organized a formal court for the purpose, styled "The Court of
Appeals in Cases of Capture." Three judges were appointed and
provided with a register and seal. They held terms at Hartford,
New York, Philadelphia and Richmond during the next six years.
On an average about ten cases were disposed of annually, and the
decisions were generally conceded to have been fair and well