PROCESS AND PRACTICE (IRELAND)— COMPENSATION ALLOWANCES. (Hansard, 2 May 1851)

§ MR. SADLEIR
said, that if it was proposed to proceed with the Process and Practice (Ireland) Bill without affording the information which was asked for before Easter respecting the officers of the Court of Exchequer, whom it was proposed to compensate, he should move that the Chairman should report progress.

§ MR. HATCHELL
said, that the Court of Exchequer Chamber, which was the Court of Error in Ireland, was established by an Act of Parliament in 1803. By that Act, the Clerk of the Court, being the Registrar of the Court, had a salary of 300l. a year. Subsequently the court was regulated by another Act, to which there was a schedule of fees attached, under which alone the officer of the court was remunerated. Sir Edward Tierney was that officer, and hold the situation for twenty-five years. Whenever the Court of Error sat, it was the duty of that officer to at- 500 tend and take down the orders that were pronounced by the Judges, and to superintend the business of the office. The Bill of his right hon. and learned Friend the Master of the Rolls last year was to regulate the general process and practice of the Superior Courts of Dublin. The object of the Bill was to supply an omission in the Act of last year, which omitted to provide for the compensation of Sir Edward Tierney, while it made provision for the other judicial officers whose offices were abolished. He really was at a loss to understand the reason of the opposition. A freehold office was abolished, to which a salary, averaging 300l. a year, was attached, and the public would be benefited by the abolition of the office.

§ MR. SADLEIR
did not consider the information given by the right hon. and learned Attorney General for Ireland at all satisfactory. He approved of the object of the Bill, which was to remedy a blunder committed by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Master of the Rolls, who had left out the Exchequer Court from the Process and Practice Act of last Session. Before Easter it Was said that this Bill was to compensate three officers of the Court of Exchequer Chamber; but these three gentlemen were now reduced to one. He believed that, as long as he had been connected with professional practice in Dublin, this office had been a sinecure, so far as the personal service or attendance of Sir Edward Tierney went; he had been for a large part of his life an absentee in England and upon the Continent, and if he had any duties they were discharged by deputy. He protested against proceeding with the measure at nearly one o'clock in the morning. He wished the right hon. and learned Attorney General for Ireland would follow the practice adopted by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Master of the Rolls last Session, of not originating debates on Irish Bills after midnight, except with the concurrence of Irish Members, who might he disposed to take a prominent part in their consideration.

§ LORD JOHN RUSSELL
said, he had listened with great attention to the hon. Member, in the expectation that he was going to urge some Amendment to the Motion, but he had made none. He took no interest in Sir Edward Tierney's compensation; but he had always understood that when any change was made with respect to Judges who held patent offices 501 which were to be abolished, it was the custom to give them compensation. To adopt a contrary practice would be a great injustice, and quite without precedent. The Bill of last year was supposed to include this court and office; but such appeared not to be the case, and the present Motion was for the purpose of supplying the defect. He had no objection to the proposition that debates on Irish subjects should not be brought on after twelve o'clock, contrary to the wish of Irish Members.

§ MR. HATCHELL
denied that Sir Edward Tierney was either a sinecurist or an absentee. He discharged the duties of his office, aided by two assistants, and these were the three referred to; but Sir Edward Tierney, he found, would alone be entitled to compensation.