§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORasked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, Whether the Order of the Lord Lieutenant in Council, No. 60, dated 18th December 1877, fixes the sittings of the Judges as follows: Michaelmas, 2nd November to 21st December; Hilary, 11th January to 1st April; Easter, 15th April to 18th May; and Trinity, 1st June to 8th August; whether suitors are entitled to have actions placed on the paper for hearing on serving ten days' notice, and to have motions moved on two days' clear notice; whether a notice was inserted in the Legal Diary for the Hilary sittings, directing that no causes or actions, of which notice of trial should have been served later than 1st March, should be placed on the paper for hearing during that sitting, and that the 5th March should be the last day for serving notices of motion for that sitting; whether there is any legal authority for issuing such a notice; whether it is a fact that the Master of the Rolls failed to sit in his Court on the following days in March, 10th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 29th, 31st, and on April 1st; whether the Vice Chancellor failed to sit on March 7th, 8th, 14th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 31st, and April 1st; and, whether the attention of the Lord Chancellor will be called to the notice referred to, and the failure in question, and to the injury and delay of justice to suitors in the Chancery Division resulting therefrom?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR, IRELAND (Mr. WALKER),in reply, said, the days fixed for the sittings of fudges by the Judicature Rules were as stated in the Question. A suitor was, primâ facie, entitled to have his case heard on giving 10 days' notice of trial, and to have a motion disposed of on giving two days' notice. The notice referred to in the Question was issued to prevent the trial of cases being kept back by professional men to the very end of, the sitting, and to prevent the accumulation of arrears; and from his own experience he knew it was framed solely n the interest of suitors. But, notwithstanding it, both the Judges referred to have been always ready, in any proper case, to hear any action, and dispose of my motion ready, as soon as arrears are got rid of. The Master of the Rolls, on some of the days referred to, was engaged in hearing cases for the Common Law Divisions during Circuit; and, on the other days on which he did not sit, he had disposed of all cases on his paper, and I may add there is not now in his Court a single case in arrears, and no lelay has been caused to any suitor in it. The same observations as to the despatch of business and non-existence of arrears apply to the Court of the Vice Chancellor.