23 / 120
JUNE, 1914]
The Gazette ol the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
19
of the Courts here to make an order for
service out of the jurisdiction on the ground
that the contract sought to be enforced was
made within the jurisdiction.
Any such
alteration would have, in our opinion, very
injuriously affected the interests of not only
solicitors, but of litigants in this country, and
the same view has been taken by our rule-
making
authority,
of which
body
the
President of this Society is a member.
I
shall have to ask you to wait for a fuller
report of this important subject until the
circulation of our annual report, as also of
work done in connection with the Land
Commission delay list, Land Registry delay,
and other matters of interest to the profession,
as time will not permit me to refer to these
at this meeting.
But there is one other
matter of great importance which I would
like to bring before you—I mean the claim of
solicitors to our due share of
Legal Appointments,
a subject which has often been discussed in
this hall before, and which was brought
prominently before the Council during the
past year in more than one instance. Early
in the year it seemed probable that a vacancy
would occur in the office of Chief Clerk to the
Chancery Judge. The Council wrote to the
Lord Chancellor and the Chancery Judge,
urging the claims of solicitors to the appoint
ment; and drew attention to the provisions of
the 12th Section of the Chancery Act of 1867,
which prescribes that the office of Chief Clerk
can only be held by a practising solicitor of
ten years standing, or a person who has held
some office in the Court of Chancery for seven
years. The Lord Chancellor replied that the
appointment rested not with him, but with
the Chancery Judge, and the Judge replied
stating that in the event of any vacancy
occurring he would not fail to bear in mind
the contents of our letter. A vacancy actually
did occur on the 24th of January, and there
upon our Secretary wrote to the Judge,
asking him to hear the views of the Council
before making an appointment.
In reply the
Judge wrote stating that he would always be
pleased to see the President, but that he had
found it necessary to fill the vacancies which
had occurred in the offices of Chief Clerk and
Assistant Chief Clerk, and in neither case was
a solicitor appointed. The Council could do
no more than protest, and I think it is proper
that we should repeat our protest here.
Solicitors are pre-eminently qualified for the
office of Chief Clerk, and Parliament has
expressly recognised this fact in naming in
the first instance that those eligible for the
position should be solicitors of ten years
standing. Formerly all the chief clerkships
were held by solicitors ; now, out of the whole
number of chief clerks and assistant • chief
clerks there is only one solicitor.
Let me
mention another example of legal promotion
of recent date.
A Resident Magistrate
was appointed on the 21st of March last for
one of the western counties, and, in reply to
a question put by Mr. O'Shee, M.P., the Chief
Secretary stated the other day in the House
that his qualifications for the post were that
he had acted as civil and military officer in
Uganda, and had been Chief of the Police at
St. Vincent and Granada.
We lodged a protest with the Lord Lieu
tenant against this appointment as soon as
we heard of it, and can anyone say that our
protest was not called for ?
There are 65
Resident Magistrates in Ireland, and out of
the whole number there are only six qualified
solicitors; 16 are barristers; and the remain
ing 43 are either retired Constabulary officers
jr persons previously engaged in all manner of
pursuiis other than those which have any
thing to do with the study or the administra
tion of law. Let me read you some of the
qualifications as given in the official White
Paper:——"Ship
and
Quay
Owner,"
" Engaged in Agricultural Pursuits," " Served
in the Militia eight years," " B.A.. Oxon,"
" Tea Planting in India, Inspector under
the Local Government Board for one year,"
and so on. Why should a gentleman with
police experience acquired in Uganda, or with
knowledge of tea planting in India, be chosen
to administer justice in this country over the
heads of fully qualified professional men, who
have spent their lives in this country and in
assisting to administer the
laws of
the
country ?
And just as it is with Resident
Magistrates, so it is with many other appoint
ments of a legal nature. For example, take
the examinerships in the Land Commission,
for which solicitors are eligible and fully
qualified. There are nineteen examinerships