The Gazette 1911-12

DECEMBER, 1911]

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

61

blacklegs and scabs on my profession. hear.) MR. DAVID A. OUAID : While deeply interested in the position of the County Coirrts (Ireland) Bill, I cannot quite follow the reference made by my friend Mr. Brady to the deadlock in the procedure of the County Courts. No doubt there may be a congestion of business in the Court we are probably very much interested in here locally; but it is entirely owing to the immensity of work thrown upon the dis tinguished Judge who presides over that Court, and to no other cause whatever. What I am interested in principally is that the Report which is before you makes no allusion whatever to the continued neglect of the claims of' this profession by the Executive Government in regard to the members of the profession being preferred before other classes for administering Petty Sessions law throughout the country. I have a return made to Parliament on the motion of Mr. MacVeagh, and I find from it an extraordinary state of affairs. I find that there are about 66 Resident Magistrates, and of these there are only seven Solicitors. Two of them, I think, have only been appointed quite recently. The qualifications of most of the others are of a startling kind, and I have tried to analyse them. I find that 22 Resident Magistrates are ex-R.I.C. officers, and 16 are Barristers-at-Law. I think, however, that Solicitors would be of greater service than Banisters in administering the Petty Sessions system. I find that the remainder of these gentlemen are military gentlemen, a ship and quay owner, Civil Servants, in Commission of the Peace, " served in Militia," Constabulary Officer. These seem to be the qualifications that appeal to the Executive Government. To my mind the contempt which obtains in a great many parts of Ireland for the Criminal Law is entirely owing to the fact that the gentlemen appointed -by the Executive Government do not understand the law they are administering, and do not understand the people for whom they are supposed to be administering the law. We should protest most strongly at the practical exclusion by the Executive Government of this profession from its proper share. I hope that next year we will be able to secure more than two positions. (Hear,

THE PRESIDENT: There were Solicitors appointed last year. MR. CRAIG : I think this question of Civil Bill procedure in Ireland is a very important one, and I do not agree with Mr. Brady that it is a matter that does not concern our profession. I think it is a matter that concerns our profession vitally. In support of that I would like to give you two or three figures. In the recent return issued of civil business, I find that in 1910 there were 14,540 writs issued in the High Court of Justice. Now we all know that every action that is commenced in the King's Bench Division—that there is a record of every writ issued, because there is a 2s. stamp on it. But in the Civil Bill Court there is no record of every Civil Bill issued, because the only record kept is the number of cases entered for hearing before the Court, which in the County and City of Dublin alone for last year was 6,799, or in other words, in Dublin City and County we were dealing with nearly half as many actions entered for hearing as there were writs issued in the whole of Ireland. One other set of figures. The number of Civil Bills entered for hearing in the whole of Ireland was 82,153, above five times as many as there were High Court writs issued. The amounts recovered by Civil Bill and ejectment decrees, or rather the amounts of the cases which were entered for hearing, were £317,646. Taking into account a reasonable figure for Civil Bills issued and paid before entry, we may put the total amount at £467,646 dealt with by the Civil Bill Courts in Ireland. Can anyone say that is not an important subject for our profession to deal with ? (Hear, hear.) I want to ask what steps do the Council intend to take in reference to this Bill which has being going on now since 1895. Surely there is some method by which this persistent opposition could be put an end to. Is there any real reason why the names of the opponents of the present measure should not be known—why the public should not know who are opposing the Bill ? The Bill has been approved of by the practitioners, by the Mercantile Association, and the Chamber of -Commerce, and it was introduced as everybody's child, and yet somebody saying " I object to this Bill " puts a stop to the whole thing. I have been trying to get that four