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DECEMBER, 1914] The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
In conclusion, on behalf of the Council, I
submit
the Annual Report,
confidently
expecting that you will favourably receive
it and adopt it unanimously.
It has often
occurred to me, as I am sure it has occurred
to many a member of our successive Councils
that these annual reports of ours may
sometimes read as " bald and unconvincing
narratives." The real truth of the matter is,
however, that a very large proportion of the
work done by your Council in the interest of
the Profession cannot be made the subject-
matter of report at all.
I cannot tell you of
the number of questions intimately concern
ing individual members of the Profession
which are submitted to
the Council for
decision, and of
the number of private
interviews which we have with Government
Representatives, Judges, Members of Parlia
ment, and others in the endeavour to advance
the interests of the Profession.
I can assure
you that the Council for the past year, as the
Councils of previous years, have in all such
matters done their utmost to protect the
interests and maintain the dignity of the
Profession.
MR. P. J. BRADY, M.P. (Vice-President),
in seconding the motion, said the exhaustive
review of the year's work and the analysis of
the Annual Report to which they had just
listened from the President made his task,
he would almost say, an unnecessary one ;
and he felt very much in a difficulty in adding
anything
to what had been said.
The
President had shown in the remarks which
he had addressed to them that thoroughness
which had characterised his presidency since
he was elected to his high office.
As the
President said, the Council of the Society
was frequently and properly the subject of
much criticism ;
b'ut he did not think any of
it had been an unfriendly criticism, but
sometimes it had been keen. He might be
permitted to say, from his brief knowledge of
the work, how difficult it was for a Solicitor
who was not a member of the Council to
appreciate the size of that work, and the
unceasing watchfulness on the part of the
President and the Council which that work
called for in the interests of the Profession.
Again, he thought he was but feebly giving
expression to the feelings of some of the older
members of the body in welcoming to the
ranks some new members, and they felt
perfectly
satisfied
that
these gentlemen
would be a very valuable addition to the
Council.
In a short time they would share
the views which the older members shared,
that it was not always possible to do what
one wished. They were met that day as a
professional body under somewhat exceptional
circumstances. As the President reminded
them, and as the Report told them, the
legislative year with which alone they were
concerned had been marked by the passage
of a very important Act of Parliament. He
meant the Act for the Better Government of
Ireland, as it was technically known, but
sometimes referred to as the Home Rule
Act.
Of
course, as
the President had
said, that was not the platform nor was
that the Hall
to discuss political ques
tions, and it was very far from his purpose
to do so ;
but it was very important for
them to remember as Solicitors that the
passage of this Bill into law and its future
operations in that country must have a very
important bearing on their Profession, as a
whole.
It was obvious, whatever one's views
might be as to the expediency or otherwise
of it, that the existence of that Parliament
in their midst would have a very important
bearing upon their interests as a Profession.
From that standpoint alone he wished to call
their attention to the passage of that Act.
One of the matters which would engage their
attention at an early date under that Parlia
ment would be the reform of County Court
procedure.
For the fifteenth or sixteenth
time an attempt was made to pass through
the House of Commons a Bill of a very simple
character for the reform of the County Courts,
and that Bill met with.the fate which all its
predecessors met with,
namely,
abject
failure. This was a case in which all the
interested parties were agreed as to the
necessity
for
reform.
The
commercial
interests and the professional interests were
identical in this matter. Nevertheless, the
Bill failed to get to the Statute Book ;
and
it did not require any gift of prophecy to say
that one of the legal matters to engage the
early attention of an Irish Parliament would
be the question of County Court reform.
Again, Private Bill legislation must claim an
important part in their legislative activities
if they had a Parliament sitting in Dublin.