Members of the Graduating Class:

You have learned in your legal studies that object evidence is oftentimes of great value as a means of proof. It gives me great pleasure to present you this evening to this throng of our assembled friends as object evidence of the most significant kind, showing the rapid growth and the robust vitality of the New York Law School. A year ago at this time the School had not even an existence. Not until the eleventh of June, 1891, was its charter of incorporation granted and its career begun. And now how glad the fruition! The seed that we planted took quick root, flourished luxuriantly, and in one brief season has brought this rich harvest. It is but natural, I think, that we who planted the seed and cherished the confident hope of a goodly success, should take an honest pride in the results achieved. And it is with feelings of deep gratification that we greet this, the first graduating class, so large in numbers, so earnest in spirit, so zealous in preparation for the professional duties that the future has in store. We asked the Board of Re

gents of this great State of New York who represent the State in its care for the interests of higher education, to give the School an existence. We promised, as was done in old Roman times, that the State should receive no detriment. We sought simply permission to instil learning into the minds of our students, while we asked the Regents themselves to take charge of the final examinations and discover, by whatever tests they sought to apply, what those minds then contained. You have been the first to receive such examination and undergo such tests. So well have you borne this experience that the Regent's examiner was able to say that your papers had a very high average. Some court examinations for admission to the bar have also come in your way and those of your number who have submitted themselves to these, have passed them with entire success, not a single man falling by the way. ing by the way. In fact this faculty of passing examinations has seemed of late to be a forte peculiarly your own. And as the members of the Board of Regents who are present with us this evening look

into your earnest faces, I am glad that you have borne so well their tests, as well as ours, and that they can be assured that the degrees which they are to bestow upon you are worthily received.

It has been an eventful year's experience. When we began, many elements of uncertainty clustered about our heads. The fact that the School possessed no power in itself to confer degrees might have a serious effect in repelling students. No one could foresee the result. We possessed, too, a great heritage in the method of instruction, which was celebrated far and wide as the method of the most distinguished and successful law teacher this country has ever known, Professor Theodore W. Dwight, but the great teacher `was himself to be no longer with us. And it might be that to assume his method as our own would be like giving a child some distinguished name, whose greatness so far exceeded the best of which he was capable, as to dwarf and belittle all his efforts from the start. But Professor Dwight was himself willing to put the torch into our hands and to bid us keep its light undimmed and bear it aloft with what strength and perseverance we might. With this sanction and encouragement, therefore, we felt that we could justly take heart and start forward in the course with solid grounds of hope. And one brief year has solved these doubts. Your class came to us more than eight score strong and the Junior Class with almost three score more. This gave to us that rare experience in the history of new institutions, a Senior and graduating class as well as a Junior Class, in the very first year of the School's existence. You have borne witness to your faith in the fortunes of the School in the most striking

manner. When one thinks of the great institutions of learning, at home and abroad, whose roots are sunk deep into the past and around which cluster memories most tender, most sacred, most inspiring, it is easy to understand the spirit of loyal devotion by which their sons are animated. The very buildings are hallowed by age, the footsteps of memorable men who have come and gone are heard forever through their halls, and the impress their teachers have left on the life and thought of their time and of all succeeding time can never be effaced.

But for an institution with no past, no buildings, no memories, it is strange indeed that there should be any peculiarly strong attachment on the part of its students. And yet the spirit of loyalty you have shown to the School, your pride in its success, your zeal in its upbuilding, your interest in its fortunes, would have done honor to any son and lover of Oxford, of Yale, or of Harvard, in testifying his affection to Alma Mater. You have seemed to feel the same strong desire that Trustees and Faculty have felt that the School should have a foundation that would prove firm and solid and lasting. And for this we return to you our sincere gratitude. If the School has any assured hold upon the future, this will depend upon one thing beyond all things else,that is, the loyal affection of its students and graduates. May other classes give this in the same full rich measure in which you have given it.

You stand now at the threshold of your active professional life,-a time fraught with great hopes, high ambition, much speculation as to the future. Each one naturally asks himself the question: Of what value is the education I have re