United States, there were no LL. D.'s? During the Dark Ages the Roman law was lost amid the ravages of the Goths and Vandals. At Bologna a copy of the Roman law was said to have been found in the eleventh century, when the emperor ordained that it should be publicly expounded in the schools, and to give encouragement to the study, it was further ordained that the professors of this law should be dignified with the title of Doctor. The priesthood commenced its study, and became much delighted with it, as well they might. A department was established at the University of Bologna for the study of the Civil or Roman Law. Hence the degree. But this law not being adopted by Great Britain, whose law we have inherited, we have no LL. D.

In the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the professors, many of them being from the Continent, attempted to introduce the Civil Law into Great Britain. But the sterling nobility repelled it. Great Britain refused to adopt it and we followed. It has never been taught in the British universities. Inns of Court were established, but no degrees were ever introduced. The lawyers of England had indeed two distinctions-barristers and sergeants-which answered to the degree of Civil Law of Master and Doctor, but without its effect. The degree of M. D., until recently, by the laws of this State, admitted the one who bore it to the right to practice medicine-that of D. D. to practice Divinity. In Germany the title of LL. D. admitted its bearer to any of the courts. But not so here. It confers no such privileges with us, and is not recognized. In England they have the Doctors' Commons, a place where the Doctors of the Civil Law congregate and practice in these courts. It will be seen, therefore, that these degrees, originally and now, on the Continent, confer honor and power, but it is not so here. Heretofore, and until very recently, the degree of M. D. conferred power to a certain extent, but now it is a mere honorary distinction-well worthy the aspirations of any one, but conferring no substantial privileges under the laws of this State.

It will be seen that universities as instituted in Europe, were designed for the liberal arts, law, divinity and medicine. Our citizens called for and obtained a university charter. Where is your faculty for the department of law? Where your professors of divinity? Where your academic branches? All wanting. Shall this much longer be a reproach to a city which is increasing its population at the rate of 5,000 per year, and in wealth and business prosperity! The medical faculty, by a noble and persevering effort, have filled up theirs, and are now prepared to go on with their school in an edifice which their own hands have builded. All else is vacant. Reflect, and see if it will not be a reproach upon us, if we longer permit our university to exist with but a single branch in operation. But it can scarcely be so deemed. Not that this may not be the most important. Now to secure the advantages of an academic department, we are compelled to send our sons to Geneva, to Union, and other institutions at the East. But he looked forward with confidence to the time when this would not be, and at no distant day.

He recollected reading recently that Macauley delivered an address at the University of Glasgow, which was founded 400 years ago by the Pope. He called up the long list of great names who have graduated there during this period. May not some future Macauley-when 400 years more may have elapsed-call up the name of some, it may be, now obscure individual, who has been a benefactor of his racewho has been educated at our university? If such an opportunity is afforded, it must be done by enlisting your exertions in building up an institution which shall be an honor to the city.

Mr. Fillmore said he had spoken much longer than he had intended, and would give way to one of the professors of the college, who was better prepared to address the audience.1

1. The reporter (or editor) considerately added to the foregoing: "Mr. Fillmore is not responsible for anything but the leading ideas of the above sketch."

AT THE DEDICATION OF THE

BUFFALO GENERAL HOSPITAL

The Buffalo General Hospital1 was dedicated June 24, 1858, with exercises of uncommon interest, shared in by many prominent men and women of Buffalo. Mr. Fillmore was president of the day, and on taking the chair spoke as follows:

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I feel that it is no slight honor to be called to preside at the dedication of this building. Its erection and the purpose it is intended to subserve, constitute an object of great importance to our growing city. I know not how much attention you may have given to this enterprise, but for myself I must confess that I have been delinquent. I was not aware how silently and rapidly this building had grown up, and I was at once gratified and astonished yesterday, when, in company with Mr. Clarke 2 and the Board of Trustees, I passed through the edifice and saw how much had been done.

To a city like ours, a hospital is indispensable. It is so situated upon the great lines of travel, and its pursuits and commerce are of such a nature, that transient persons are

I. Of the many Buffalo institutions with which Mr. Fillmore's name must always be associated, none has stood for greater use in the community than the General Hospital. It was organized November 21, 1855, subscriptions having been made early in that year. In 1856 the State made an appropriation of $10,000 towards the erection of a building, and in June, 1857, the present site on High street was chosen. The hospital was opened to patients July 15, 1858. During the Civil War over 1200 sick and wounded soldiers received medical aid in this institution.

2. Charles E. Clarke, president of the Board of Trustees.

attracted hither from all parts of the country, creating a constant need for such an institution. Hitherto the provisions for this purpose have been inadequate. Indiscriminate charity is, beyond question, a great evil and error. The primal penalty imposed on man was, that by the sweat of his brow should he earn his bread, and if we adopt such a system of indiscriminate relief as will lead men to believe that their wants will be provided for in any event, whether they labor or are idle, we but stimulate mendicancy and offer a reward for idleness. But there are two classes of the needy which demand and deserve charity. The orphans are already provided for by a noble institution among us. And next are those who by sickness or accident are deprived of the power of supporting themselves, for whom, up to the present time, no sufficient charity has been afforded. I therefore congratulate you on the opening of this charity, on the success which has hitherto attended the labors of its founders, and the encouraging prospects to which they can look forward. These gentlemen whom you see around me are those who are entitled to the honor of having carried out this object. It is by their labor and devotion that the plan so wisely begun has attained to such honorable success.

I intended to occupy but a moment of your time in taking the chair, but I could not resist the impulse to say thus much in honor of the occasion.

AN "ATLANTIC CABLE" BANQUET

September 1, 1858, a banquet "in honor of the successful submersion of the Atlantic telegraph cable," was held at St. James Hall, Buffalo. Millard Fillmore presided, and spoke as follows:

We have met, fellow-citizens, to commemorate the most important-I may say, the most marvelous-event of the age the successful laying of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable, by means of which intelligence flashes across the broad ocean with the velocity of lightning. Only a century since, Swedenborg acquired the reputation of a prophet because he announced at Gottenburg that a fire was then raging at Stockholm. But now the Queen of England, sitting in her easy chair at Buckingham Palace, salutes the President at the White House, as though he sat in an adjoining room with the door open, and after exchanging congratulations upon their intellectual proximity, gives him to understand that the difficulties with China are all settled, and that the rebellion in India is nearly quelled.

Is it strange that two nations, whose aggregate possessions encircle the globe, should mingle their congratulations at an event like this? In the Dark Ages such an event would have been a miracle at the annunciation of which whole nations would have prostrated themselves in reverent adoration. But to us it is no miracle, but an understood reality, and therefore, the bells of old England and young America ring out their merry chimes, and their cannons roar and bonfires blaze, as though we were of one heart and one mind. In this exultation of joy we forget that we are distinct nations, that a Revolution has sundered the political