OF THE CASTS OF THE ARCH.

At

To make casts of so great a body of sculpture is a difficult and expensive undertaking. Professor Frothingham, however, the archæological director of the American School at Rome in 1895-96, resolved to render this service to the study of art and formed a plan of securing funds for the enterprise through the cooperation of several universities, each institution to receive casts in return for its subscription, after the work should be done. The class of 1896 voted four hundred dollars as the contribution of the University of Michigan to this cause, choosing the casts that should be received as their class memorial. The work was done with the greatest skill and care. the time when the project was outlined and the appropriations made, Profeessor Frothingham was unable to tell what proportion of the casts could be furnished for the money; but he sent to the University eighteen out of the twenty-eight numbers in the catalogue of the casts actually made, including among them copies of all the best groups. These casts came last summer; they were packed in fifty-one large cases, which filled a car and a half. They are a very valuable collection, affording material for the study of an important chapter in the history of art. A more striking or useful class memorial could hardly be thought of; but the value of the memorial to the University is not limited to the casts themselves.

OF THE DISPOSITION OF THE CASTS.

When the casts came the question at once arose, Where can they be exhibited? The present Art Gallery was already overcrowded. After some deliberation it was decided that the old chapel would make a very good room for temporary exhibition, for the reliefs could be placed upon the walls far enough above the eye to give the proper effect. It was soon learned, however, that owing to the congestion of classes it would be necessary to use the chapel as a lecture-room; and the frequent coming and going of large classes would raise so much dust that the casts would be damaged by it. Hence it was decided to leave the casts in the

boxes till a better arrangement could be made. The class memorial of '96 has thus acquired a new significance; it is a tangible and most effective argument in favor of an art gallery. That such a collection should be kept in the cases simply from the lack of suitable accommodations, that its usefulness as an addition to the educational resources of the University and as an attraction for the general public should be thus obscured, is a plea the force of which must be at once felt. The value of the service which the class of Ninety-six has rendered to the University in forcing to the front the problem of an art gallery is hardly less than the value of the memorial itself, great though that is.

Regent Barbour has started the accumulation of a fund for an art gallery with a most generous gift. Will not the class of Ninety-six, and all alumni and friends of the University, spread this fact abroad, and so unite in resolve and effort that at the earliest possible moment the Art Gallery shall be an accomplished fact?

Francis W. Kelsey.

THE FIRST LAW CLASS.

The writer was a member of the literary class of 1858, a class great in numbers. It graduated forty-nine. It was the custom in those days for each senior to deliver an oration on commencement day. The class of '58 were limited to five minutes each, and they gave the audience a perfect fusilade of speeches for more than three hours at short range.

During the college year of 1858-9 I was connected with the Ann Arbor High School. As I recollect, sometime in January or February the public were made to understand that the Regents would establish a law department in the University. Immediately several members of the Washtenaw County Bar became interested, and they delivered before the students several volunteer lectures upon various law subjects. Theirs were the first law lectures delivered in the University. Some time

before commencemet the Regents appointed the first law faculty, consisting of Judge James V. Campbell, Thomas M. Cooley and Charles I. Walker. Judge Campbell had recently been elected a member of the Supreme Court; Thomas M. Cooley was then Supreme Court Reporter and Charles I. Walker was a leading member of the Detroit Bar. Professor Cooley removed that spring to Ann Arbor, where he has since resided. All the members of the faculty were young men. Judge Campbell had a face of striking beauty, he was a graceful and fluent speaker and his voice was sweet and full of melody. He was a man of wide and varied learning. There were very few persons, if any, in the State that possessed broader and more accurate knowledge of the history of Michigan and of every subject connected with its development. The very fullness and variety of his knowledge hampered him somewhat as a successful lecturer. His lectures contained so much, and the facts were so interlaced the one with another that the student found it difficult to carry away many fragments.

Judge Cooley's voice was not musical, scarcely pleasant, but he stated a proposition with great distinctness and the student had little difficuly in taking full notes of his lectures. He was genial and affable and was a favorite with the students. The ideal lecturer, however, was Judge Walker. No one could excell him in the beauty and clearness with which he stated a legal proposition. And then, too, there was the flavor of the man in all he said, just enough of self-assertion and conscious egotism to make his language racy and enjoyable. He would often remark, after having stated a legal proposition, that A. vs. B. was a case directly in point; that in that case he had the honor to appear for the plaintiff, and then he would add: "You will find in the plaintiff's brief in that case a very full, accurate and able argument upon that question."

The law school opened in October, 1859, and the lectures were delivered in the old chapel, which then included the space on the ground floor between the north and south halls in the north wing of the main building. That chapel was also Dr.