§ MR. DILLWYN (for Sir JOHN LUBBOCK)asked Mr. Attorney General, Whether by the new rules under the Judicature Act the Bank Holidays will in future be observed in the Law Offices?
THE ATTORNEY GENERALSir, the Bank Holidays, as fixed by the Act which bears the hon. Baronet's name, are four in number—Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the first Monday in August, and the first working day after Christmas Day. It is proposed by the Judicature Rules to adopt three of these Bank Holidays as holidays in the Law Offices—namely, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, and the day after Christmas Day—but it is not proposed to make the first Monday in August a holiday; and, having regard to the pressure of business in the Law Offices at that period of the year, I do not think that it would be conducive to the interests of the public to make an early day in August a holiday in the Law Offices. I may take this opportunity of stating that I have to-day laid on the Table of the House a Copy of the Judicature Rules as pre-pared by the Judges and submitted to the Lord Chancellor, and also a Copy of the recommendations of the Judges as regards a re-arrangement of the Circuits.