§ MR. WATKIN WILLIAMSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is true, as stated in the legal journals, that Her Majesty's Judges have passed a resolution to the effect that reporters shall not be admitted to hear and report the decisions upon the matters disposed of at the Judges Chambers in Serjeants' Inn; whether any reason has been assigned for that proceeding; and, whether the Government will take any steps in the matter to prevent the exclusion of reporters from the Judges Chambers?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS,in reply, said, that having consulted the learned Judges on the subject referred to in the hon. and learned Gentleman's Question, he had received a letter from Mr. Justice Lush, in answer to his inquiry, to this effect—That it was a matter of common knowledge with the profession that the rooms in which Judges sat in Serjeants' Inn were not, and never had been, open to the public. There was no accommodation in them, and none could be provided there, for the reporters; but it was quite true that in the early part of November, when the Judicature Act first came into operation, an application was made to Mr. Justice Lush, as the Judge then sitting in Chambers, to allow a reporter to attend in order to furnish for one of the law papers notes of the decisions under the new Act. Mr. Justice Lush went on to say that he thought the 480 occasion was so exceptional, and that the publication of the early cases upon points of practice would be so beneficial to the profession, as to justify him in departing from the established usage for the time; and some arrangements were made for one gentleman of the Press to be admitted, on condition that he supplied others with the reports. The arrangement was considered as temporary and exceptional, and not to be taken as a precedent for the future. At a meeting of the Judges, which had been recently held, it was considered that the Judicature Act had been long enough in operation to make any further reports unnecessary, and they therefore reverted to the original practice. The matter was one entirely in the discretion of the learned Judges, and in which he could not interfere.