INNS OF COURT. The four sets of build ings in London (the Inner Temple. the Aliddle Temple. Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn) belong ing to the four legal societies which have the exclusive right of admitting persons to practice at the bar. hence the societies themselves. The (Tight of the inns trace, bark to the medheval inns of law, the origin 1.4 which is lost in an tiquity, and their present importance is but a dim shadow of their former greatness. In the later Aliddle Ages they became the seat of great schools of law, to which students resorted from all parts of England, and in which scholars, statesmen. and men of affairs. as well as the leaders of the bench and bar, were trained. To day they are little more than dubs of lawyers, which maintain a few lectures for law students, /11141 guard their admission to the liar. The dis tmetion of four principal inns of law (i.e. houses where lacy was taught). as Inns of Court, was fully established in the fifteenth century: hut in earliVr times. and sometimes later, the name Inns of Court, or its equivalent, seems to have included both the hospitio major° of the early period and the lioxpi inora , or lesser inns. to whieh the Inns of Chancery (q.v.) be longed.
The four inns are each governed by a com mittee or board, called the benchers, who are generally king's counsel or senior counsel. self chosen. i.e. each new bendier is chosen by the existing bendier.. Each inn is self-governing. and quite distinct from the others. all, however, possessing equal privileges; hut latterly they have joined in imposing certain tests for the admission of students. It is entirely in the discretion of an inn of court to admit any partieular person as a member, for no member of the public has an absolute right to be called to the bar. there being no mode of compelling the
inn to state its rea5o14s for refusal. But. practi Cally no objection is ever made to the admission of any person of good character. Each inn has also the power of disbarring its members, that is, of withdrawing from them the right of practic ing as counsel. This right has been rarely ex ercised, but of late years there have been ex amples of persons abusing their profession, and indulging in dishonest practices; in such eases, the inn has its own of inquiring into the fact: affeeting the character of a member. and is not bound to make the investigation publie. By this high controlling power over its members, a higher character is supposed to be given to the bar as a body, than if each individual was left to his own ds viees. unchecked. except by the law. I See BARRISTER.) The buildings of each inn con sist of a large tract of house: or chambers. whirl] are. in general. occupied exclusively by barristers. and sometimes by attorneys, and are a source of great wealth. The buildings of the four inns are not marked any general plan or uniformity in grouping or style of architecture, hut repro sent the growth of succeeding centuries. The Inner Temple has a tine hall of the time of Eliza beth, with an open-timbered roof of lunch beauty; the Middle Temple has 1t library which is a nine teenth-century building with n 1'001 studied from that of \Vestmginster Ilan. See 1.1.:(1M, EDUCA TION.