84 / 122
90
The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
[FEBRUARY, 1912
am now ready to hear this resolution pro
posed, seconded, and discussed.
MR. T. H. R. CRAIG :—It falls to my lot
to propose the resolution, but, before doing
so, I would wish, on behalf of our profession,
particularly on behalf of the County Court
members, and especially on behalf of the
Dublin County Court practitioners, to offer
you, Mr. President, our hearty congratula
tions on your elevation to the Presidential
Chair (applause).
I think I cannot do better
than to quote the words of a correspondent
in the country, who wrote regretting his
inability to be present to-day, and added :
" It would be very appropriate if this year
these very necessary reforms could be shaped
into an Act of Parliament during the year of
office of Mr. Byrne, as President of the
Incorporated Law Society " (hear, hear).
I
wish that some one more worthy and more
capable than I of putting this matter before
the meeting had undertaken this task, but
acting,
as
I have
for
some years,
as
Hon. Secretary of the Dublin County Court
Bar Association, this duty has been thrust
upon me. Now, there is one matter that I
would wish this meeting and the public to
keep before them, and it is this, that this is
not a matter brought forward merely by the
members of the Dublin County Court Bar
Association in our own interest. It is brought
forward in the interest of the Commercial
community (hear, hear).
It is not brought
forward exclusively in the interest of our
profession.
Anything
that benefits
the
Commercial
community will,
of
course,
naturally benefit our profession.
That is
perfectly plain. After careful consideration
this matter has been brought forward in its
present form to endeavour to get something
practical done after beating
the air for
sixteen years. There
is
no matter of senti
ment in the proposal. We are here to-day as
business men to discuss a business proposi
tion, I hope, in a business-like way. And
while possibly many of us may have
divergencies in our views as to the best way
to bring about the result, I am perfectly
certain that the thing which we wish to have
brought about, namely,
improvement of
matters in regard to County Court adminis
tration, and particularly with reference to the
recovery of small debts, is uppermost in our
minds here to-day (hear, hear).
I would
appeal to my brethren in this matter not to
let any spirit of narrow-mindedness enter
into their discussions. Possibly you may not
be able to have the same point of view as
some other brother practitioner, but let us
try and act to-day as a united body, whether
we believe that a Commission would be the
best means of forwarding the interests we
have at heart, or whether deputations to wait
upon this body or that body would be the
best. Let us be united and unanimous, and
let us formulate some one means and have
this matter placed before Parliament or the
Government, so that we may get the neces
sary reforms pushed through (hear, hear).
There is another matter I also want to make
perfectly plain to-day. We are not here to
make an attack on anybody, we are not here
to make an attack on any Court or on any
official (hear, hear). We are here to attack
the out-of-date principle upon which the
County Courts have been administered for
years, and to attack, and, if possible, find a
means of remedying the defects in the system
of administration. Now in order that the
matter may be fully understood it will be
necessary to go back a little bit, and there
are two questions that I think this meeting
should have before them, and I know the
Commercial community have them before
them. The first of these questions is this :
If you can put yourself in the position of a
merchant or trader, which would you prefer—
to give credit to a customer in a country
where debts ca.n be quickly and cheaply
recovered, or in a country where difficulties
are placed in the way of recovering debts ?
Having answered the question to your own
satisfaction, I would ask you this further
question :
Are
the methods at present
available for recovering small debts in Ireland
such as would warrant you in giving credit, or,
in other words, if your debtor is well able to
pay, but unwilling, are you, in existing cir
cumstances, able to compel him to pay ?
Now, we all know that trade and business
cannot be carried on unless credit is given in
a country, and the better facilities there are
for recovering debts, the more readily will
credit be given, and the trade and business
of the country increase.
In order to find the
first Act of Parliament dealing with what I
may call small debt recovery in Ireland, one
must go away back for a great number of