151 / 216
DECEMBER, 1923]
The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
29
Your Council consented in deference to the
strongly urged opinion of the members and
delegates of the Provincial Bar Association
of Ireland, representative of the Provincial
Solicitors. That the Judiciary Committee
went beyond the recommendations of the
Provincial Bar Association is in the opinion of
your Council a matter of regret. But what
ever disapproval there may be, we must
accept the Bill with a resolve to make its
operation so far as possible, useful to
the
public, and avert the evil results which we
apprehend. In this attempt we hope that we
shall not be frustrated by the rules which
have to be framed under the Act, but that
these rules shall be so framed as to give
liberty to the plaintiff in the selection of the
Court wherein he is to pursue his claim, and
to give a wise discretion to the Judge in the
matter of costs, so that the plaintiff may
not be penalised when he makes reasonable
selection.
" He that goeth about to persuade a
multitude that they are not so well governed
as they ought to be shall never want attentive
and favourable hearers, because they know
the manifold defects whereof every kind of
regiment is subject, but the secret lets and
difficulties which in public proceedings are
innumerable and inevitable, they have not
ordinarily the judgment to consider."
When tempted to criticise Government, I
•always
recall
these words,
the opening
sentence in Hooker's " Laws of Ecclesias
tical Polity." Written over three hundred
.years ago, they are still applicable.
The remarks which
I make, therefore,
are not to be taken as criticism adverse to
the Government.
I fully appreciate the
great difficulties which the Government of
the Free State has had to contend against
since its establishment, and the greatness
of the work which in spite of these difficulties
it has accomplished.
For some years the legal profession has
had to work under embarrassing conditions
and in future our work must be carried on
under conditions which will differ in many
respects from what we have been accustomed
to in the past, and no doubt recent experience
and natural apprehension of change, render
many anxious for the future.
I have heard
too, from several of my esteemed colleagues,
the expression of regret that lawyers are
not at present popular. But was popularity
ever incident to the exercise of
the law ?
As an old writer says in respect to recourse
to law :
" It is a good remedy, bad business,
and worse recreation." Like Wordsworth's
sequestered maiden by the Springs of Dove,
the best part of our professional
life and
work is half-hidden from
the view, hence
of us there are none to. praise, and very few
to love.
The wonderful realm of
research and
discovery too, such as belongs for instance
to the great medical profession, and which
worthily claims the admiration of the public
does not pertain to us.
We are guided by
experience and precedent, and cannot pretend
to
that
interest. Nevertheless,
for
the
maintenance of Society, our work is not
only useful but absolutely necessary.
The other evening a member of the Bar,
speaking
at our Apprentices' Debating
Society, compared it to the mortar which
knits together the social fabric.
I may add
that, when the architectural beauties of a
building call forth our admiration, we do
not spend much of it on the cement and
mortar ; but all the same, consequent on its
decay or want, comes disintegration and
destruction.
Prosperity follows peace, and the success
ful exercise of our professional duties are
dependent on peace. Our office is to see
that the laws intended for the protection of
liberty, and the rights of property, shall be
properly interpreted and applied on behalf.
of every individual who has recourse to us.
It is a great and honourable undertaking,
and your Society strives not merely
to
protect our professional privileges, but to
see that in that respect the public is well
served.
To us as to every other member of the
community, it is of vital interest that law
and order should prevail with peaceful
conditions, so that each can carry on his
avocations without danger or menace from
those who make their own idiosyncrasies a
religion.