SECOND READING. (Hansard, 1 May 1876)

§ LORD SELBORNE

, In moving that the Inns of Court Bill be now read the second time, said, it was not necessary that he should make any lengthened observations in respect to it, as it was in exact agreement with the Bill which last Session received the sanction of their Lordships' House. The General School of Law Bill, which stood next on the Paper, was not the same as the Bill with a similar title which was before their Lordships last Session. The latter measure was read a second time; but, owing to objections taken to it by his noble and learned Friend on the Woolsack, it was not carried to the further stages. To meet his noble and learned Friend's objections, he had confined the General School of Law Bill now on the Paper so 1893 far as related to the organization and objects of the proposed School of Law under the Bill itself, to making provision—as was done in the London University—for the examination of students. The school was to be an examining, but not a teaching, body: though he had introduced clauses, enabling it to accept trusts, and to make arrangements with the Inns of Court and the Incorporated Law Society, for any purposes connected with legal education.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

said, the object of the Inns of Court Bill had his full concurrence. He did not know how far the Bill would meet the views of the Inns of Court themselves; but he had had several communications with them on the subject with which the Bill dealt, and he believed they were very ready to consider any such measure. With reference to the second of his noble and learned Friend's Bills—the School of Law Bill—he continued to be of opinion that the establishment by Parliament of a School for teaching Law would be open to serious objection. If any such school succeeded it could only do so by diminishing the influence and the action of the Inns of Court, and this, in his opinion, would not be desirable. He would suggest whether even the title of his noble and learned Friend's second Bill, "General School of Law Bill," would not give rise to a good deal of misapprehension by conveying the idea of a teaching body. Moreover, it seemed doubtful whether sufficient funds would be forthcoming to carry out the proposal. Again, the machinery of the Examining Body was, in his opinion, too cumbrous. He thought an examining body similar to the Examining Body in the Medical profession would meet all the requirements of the case. However, that and the details of the Bill were matter for consideration in another stage; and as his noble and learned Friend said that he intended the school to be only an examining body, he would not oppose the second reading.