the number of attorneys in the State of New York had risen to
120. Morse's "American Geography," ed. 1796, 506. Thirty years
later it was 1,200. Miles' "Register," XIV, 311.] Those already
members of it had educated themselves as best they could, with
slight assistance from the lawyers in whose offices they had
studied. They in turn were indisposed to do more for such as
might desire to read law in their offices. Few of them were
competent to do much.[Footnote: See "Life of Peter Van Schaick,"
9, 13.]

There was a demand for a professed school of law, and in 1784 the
first in any English-speaking country was opened at Litchfield,
Connecticut. There are now 104 of them,[Footnote: Report of the
American Bar Association for 1903, p. 398.] with a total
attendance of over fourteen thousand students. The course of
study in a few may be completed in one year; in most two are
required; in the rest three, with perhaps an offer of a fourth
for advanced instruction leading to the degree of master or
doctor of laws. The ordinary degree is that of bachelor of laws
(LL.B.).

The American Bar Association has had an important influence from
its first organization, in 1877, in prolonging the period and
raising the standards of legal education. In affiliation with it
there is an "Association of American Law Schools," representing a
large majority of the teachers and students engaged in law school
work. This admits no institution into its ranks at which
students are received without a preliminary education at least
equal to that given by the ordinary high school. A few of the
schools so associated receive no student, save in exceptional