The ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, the House would recollect, that on Friday, in answer to a question put to him by the hon. Member for Youghal (Mr. Anstey), he had read a letter from Lord Chief Justice Wilde, relative to the attendance of Judges at Chambers. On his (the Attorney General's) arrival in town this morning he found a letter from Mr. Justice Cole- 796 ridge, expressing his views on the subject, which that learned Judge had requested him (the Attorney General) to make as public as possible. With the permission of the House he would therefore read the letter, which was in these terms:—
My attention has been called this morning to the Times' report of a speech made by you, and a letter from the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Picas read by you in the House of Commons, on Friday last. I am personally interested in both, because, if the view then presented be correct, I am the judge now in default, and who ought to be in attendance at chambers. Having seen no authorised copy of the letter, it will be better for me to make no direct comments on what may be an incorrect report, but to state, as accurately as I can from recollection, the facts of the case.Although he (the Attorney General) had not seen the report to which the learned Judge referred, he had reason to believe that the letter had been accurately given. Justice Coleridge proceeded:—I have this advantage, that I was present at the meeting referred to, took part in the discussion, and have had occasion to refresh my memory on the subject. It is perfectly correct that until 1838 it was not considered the duty of any judge to attend in town during the long vacation. At a meeting of the Judges, either in that year or the preceding winter, the subject was taken into consideration, and a resolution was come to, that, for the future, the junior judge who had not once performed the duty should, in every year, undertake the attendance at chambers during the long vacation. In the course of the discussion it was distinctly considered whether the Chief Justices and Chief Baron should attend in turn, and it was, without any division, resolved in the affirmative, on the ground that, as we were all undertaking a new duty—incumbent on none of us when appointed—there was no reason for exempting them; and the rather as they in their turn, and according to seniority only of appointment, claimed to take the chamber business during the circuits; the practice as to both having grown out of the same circumstance, the appointment of three additional judges. Lord Denman and the late Lord Chief Justice Tindal were both present, and, speaking from recollection, I am certain that neither of them expressed any dissent. Lord Abinger was not present, and he did dissent from the whole resolution, and declared that he would not be bound by it; not, however, because he took any distinction between the chiefs and the puisne judges, but because he thought that some recreation and cessation from labour was necessary for every judge in every year, and that he was not called on to add spontaneously to the duties which he had undertaken on his appointment. He died before it came to his turn, and whether he would have adhered to his resolution, of course, cannot be known. I was not aware that any judge who was present at the framing of the rule had ever expressed a doubt as to its construction or operation; and I had only heard in so vague a way, before the circuit, of the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas questioning it, as to make me think it possible he 797 might take the opinion of the Judges on it. This not being done, I concluded that no difficulty would be made. I left town under that impression, nor was I informed until the end of the circuit that the chambers would be left unprovided. When, according to a plainly expressed rule, my turn shall come, I trust I shall not be found absent from my post. At present I say nothing of the exhaustion consequent on a laborious circuit, because I am unwilling, by acquiescence in the view which the Lord Chief Justice takes of it, to affect the interests of the puisne judges in a matter of no small importance to their comfort and health. I should be obliged to you in your place to give this communication the same publicity which you have given to the letter of the Lord Chief Justice, and I shall send a copy of it to the Lord Chancellor.It appeared, from this letter, that Mr. Justice Coleridge was of opinion that the resolution to which he referred bound the Chief Justices as well as the puisne judges. This was, however, a matter to be settled by the Judges themselves; and he could only express a hope that they would take care the public suffered no inconvenience while they were engaged in determining what course they would adopt.