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The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society ot Ireland.
[DECEMBER, 1923
The President of our Free State went
this year on a double mission of Peace ;
one that the Free State might be enrolled
in the League of Nations, and the other to
pay tribute to
the shrine of that great
Irishman Columbanus, the first great mission
ary who left our shores to preach Christian
peace and true freedom.
In his farewell
letter to his brethren in the North of Europe
Columbanus uses the phrase : " Si tollis liber-
tatem tollis dignitatem," words signifying
that worthiness of life must be the companion
of true freedom, that freedom cannot exist
save when accompanied by all that seemliness
and civic virtue which is expressed by the
Latin word "dignitas" and which has been so
lacking in our country during recent years.
However, to-day we are justified in hoping
that that wretched period of hate, and shame
of crime and destruction has ended, and for
ever.
The country has recognised too that
inaptitude for honest work does not consti
tute the hero or the patriot, and we have
an indication of returning confidence and
enterprise in the extensive application which
already has been made to share in the
National Loan.
I beg to move the adoption
of the report of the Council.
MR. STIRLING, Vice-President, seconded
the adoption of the report.
MR. JAMES BRADY said he was sorry
to see by the report that amongst the other
evils arising from Partition that the member
ship of the Society had been considerably
reduced.
As to the Courts of Justice Bill,
ho personally regretted that no attempt was
made to amalgamate both branches of the
legal profession in a country which consisted
only of about
four million
inhabitants,
and that as well as having two branches of
the profession they had also the expensive
luxury of two sets of judiciaries. He further
regretted to observe from the report that
but small attention appeared to be given by
the Government to the suggested arnend-
ments to the Bill as proposed by the Council.
SIR GEORGE
ROCHE said that the
{ailing off in membership was due to the
ack of accommodation and the loss of their
library. They ought to press forward their
claim for compensation on the Government
and to get suitable premises. He also drew
attention
to
the difficulty
in obtaining
Accountant-General's accounts of funds in
Court.
MR. T. H. R. CRAIG said that it was
stated that there was a demand for the
Courts of Justice Bill, and that the English
laws were not suitable for this country.
In
or about the year 1756 the Irish Parliament
established civil bill procedure and county
courts.
It was they who were first with
their procedure—and they had procedure
in this country as distinct from a Crown
bill that was set up by a Grand Jury—and
a great many of the sections were taken out
of their bill and embodied in 14 and 15
Victoria, which was their first county court
in
this country.
This bill, he believed, instead of making
law cheaper, would make it cost double. All
this could have been avoided if the Govern
ment had gone around to the profession and
explained what
they wanted. The bill
would double the expense, would not work,
and would muddle the whole thing. The
bill would not hurt the solicitors' profession,
but would hurt the public.
MR. PATRICK J. BRADY said that,
rightly or wrongly, some people thought
that the old laws were not adapted to the
needs of this country, and that they ought
to be altered and improved.
It was obliga
tory on the Government, under the terms of
the Constitution, that this reorganisation
of the judicial system should be under
taken.
He believed that, if the bill was
given a chance it would work in the interests
of the profession as well as in the interests
of the public.
DR. T. J. QUIRKE said that he did not
agree with the views of Mr. P. J. Brady.
The bill would damage credit. One gentle
man in the Dail said that it was no business
of theirs to enable a Manchester man to
recover his debts here. Was ever such a
doctrine put forward ?
He thought that it was the business of the
law to make it easy fora man to recover what