MR. O'CONORasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Under whose instructions the police on duty in Westminster Hall prevent barristers from passing through the outer door of the Court of Queen's Bench to the Bail Court and the Robing Rooms underneath that Court during the Tichborne trial; whether there is any other entrance provided for barristers who are by these instructions prevented from using the shortest route to the Robing Rooms; and, whether these instructions are consistent with Chief Justice Cockburn's repeated declarations that the Court of Queen's Bench remains during the trial as at other times an open Court?
MR. BRUCEI have inquired, Sir, into the Questions put to me by the hon. Gentleman. As to the first and second, I have to state that no such instructions have been issued. But I am informed, as a matter of fact, that when the passage from Westminster Hall into the Court has been especially crowded, barristers without their robes have been requested for their own convenience to go round to the Judges' private entrance, a distance of about 150 yards, and to enter the Robing Rooms by that which is the usual entrance of the great majority of barristers. With respect to the third Question, I have to state that the Court is an open Court in all respects, except that the barristers' benches are reserved for the exclusive use of the Bar, and this state of things is consistent with the Chief Justice's declarations.
MR. O'CONORobserved that he himself was informed by a policeman on duty that he had strict orders to permit no barristers to pass by that entrance.