The qualifications for admission to the bar are generally left to
be regulated by the courts. In a few States they are fixed by
constitutional or statutory provisions. In all, when the
Constitutions do not regulate it, the legislature can. It has
indeed been asserted that the admission of attorneys is in its
nature a matter for the courts only.[Footnote: See _American
Law School Review_, I, 211.] English history does not support
this contention.[Footnote: Pollock & Maitland, "History of
English Law," I, 211-217; II, 226. O'Brien's Petition, 79
Connecticut Reports, 46; 63 Atlantic Reporter, 777.] The Inns of
Court, which are mere voluntary associations of lawyers, have
from time immemorial exercised the function of calling to the
bar, so far as barristers are concerned, and the admission of
attorneys has always been regulated by Acts of
Parliament.[Footnote: See In the Matter of Cooper, 22
N. Y. Reports, 67, 90.] By our American legislatures the same
course has been generally pursued.

The duty of ascertaining whether candidates for admission have
the prescribed qualifications is occasionally performed by the
judges in person; more often by a committee of the bar appointed
by the court for that purpose; in some States by a standing board
of State examiners, receiving compensation for their
services.[Footnote: This comes from fees paid by those examined.]
The latter method was introduced in the latter part of the
nineteenth century and is steadily gaining in favor. A committee
of a local bar is unavoidably subject to some local influences or
prepossessions. A State board can act with greater independence
and maintain with more ease a high standard of admission.