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The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
them young and some of them personal friends,
but he took it that in this business it was the
best that always went first.
SIR WILLIAM FRY, speaking in support of
the adoption of the Report said it was a record
of honest work done by their representatives
on the Council who were entitled to every
credit for having transacted so much business
on behalf of the profession in a year, during
which it had been very difficult to transact
any business, owing to the way in which their
minds were affected by the War which over
shadowed the Empire.
It was a Report with
which the rank and file of the profession should
associate themselves to the full—expecially
in the expressions of sympathy and regret
which had fallen from the chair for those mem
bers who had lost their lives in the struggle.
They had set a noble example to others.
It
was a grand thing to say that the profession
had not been found wanting in responding to
the call of their King and Country. When
the call to the colours was made the Irish
Solicitors were not found wanting, for no less
than 70 of their members and 59 apprentices
had joined the Army, and all honour to them
for the step which they had taken. The stay-
at-homes, including those who were too old to
go, could only raise their hats to those brave
men, and extend their sympathy to those who
had lost their immediate relations, especially
to their good friend Mr. Brady.
Mr. JAMES BRADY said that he desired to
thank the meeting and the members of the
Council for the kindly sympathy which they
had extended to him with regard to the death
of both of his sons. He had one satisfaction
with regard to those deaths ;
and that was,
that they died in the furtherance of a cause
which he had and which every true Irishman
should have deeply at heart. That was a
satisfaction to him notwithstanding all the
trouble that those deaths had brought upon
h;m ; and he only hoped and trusted that the
sons of many more of his fellow-Irishmen
would assist the Empire in bringing
to a
successful conclusion the present War.
With reference
to
the Criminal
Evi
dence Act question, which he was instru
mental in first bringing before the Council,
that stood adjourned from the May meeting
until the present
one
for
consideration.
He had not changed a single view which he
expressed at the last meeting on the subject,
and he was still strongly of the opinion, and
impressed with his experience in practice,
that that Act should be extended to Ireland.
No words of his could possibly bring before
the meeting the beneficial effect of that Act
if brought into operation in this Country.
Their northern brethren and their southren
brethren had expressed their views in favour
of his contention ;
but the Council .in its
wisdom—he expected a majority—held a
contra view.
From inquiries he had made
among the profession the view was held that
this was a most beneficial measure, and ought
to be in operation in this County ;
and he
suggested to the meeting the propriety of
having the Act adopted and brought into
operation in Ireland. He regretted extremely
the absence from the Council that day of his
true and esteemed friend, Mr. Gerald Byrne,
who was a man of vast experience in criminal
work. Mr. Byrne, however, held a different
view fro'm his with regard to this measure ;
and, having regard to Mr. Byrne's experience,
he would be much inclined to fall into line with
his views, if he had not convinced himself from
practical experience of the benefits of the
measure. Mr. Byrne's experience, however,
had been somewhat different from his, for he
had found that on every occasion under any of
the Statutes which enabled defendants or
persons accused to give evidence in their own
defence, in 99 out of every 100 of these cases
there had been acquittals. He found the
same thing occurring in the Coroner's Courts
where men accused of committing a crime
went before a jury and gave their story, he
found that those juries brought in a verdict
acquitting the defendants of the offence alleged
against them. The Act did not make the
accused a compellable witness ;
and there
could be no comment from the prosecutor or
anybody else if the man accused did not go
into the box ; on the very contrary there was
a prohibition against commenting upon his
not going into the box. He knew that the
views existing amongst the lay public were
altogether in favour of allowing an accused
person to give evidence in his own defence ;
and from that point of view he would suggest
t lat the resolution which he proposed at the
last meeting should be adopted there that day.
As regards the question of fixing costs, he
hoped his colleagues would take to heart the
views of the President of the Society in this