§ MR. CHARLEYasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, If he will state the names of the Committee who are to conduct the inquiry which he recently intimated would be held into certain offices connected with the Supreme Court of Judicature: and, whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government that the Committee should inquire into the present unsatisfactory state of things at the Chambers of the Judges of the Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer Divisions of the High Court of Justice; and, if so, whether the existing Chamber Clerks of these Judges, or any of them, will be permitted to tender themselves for examination as witnesses before the Committee?
§ MR. W. H. SMITH,in reply, said, that the Committee appointed to conduct the proposed inquiry into certain offices connected with the Supreme Court of Judicature consisted of the Master of the Rolls; Mr. Justice Lush; Mr. F. Herschell, Q.C., M.P.; Mr. W. Law, assistant to the Secretaries of the Treasury (and formerly a Member of the Legal Departments Commission); Mr. E. F. Burton, Vice President of the Incorporated Law Society; Mr. H. L. Pemberton, Official Solicitor to the Supreme Court of Judicature; and Mr. F. W. Rowsell (formerly a Member of the Legal Departments Commission). One of the matters which had been specially suggested for the consideration of the Committee was "in what manner the duties at Chambers performed by the Judges' clerks can best hereafter be provided for" (having regard to the 79th section of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act). The evidence which the Committee should call for or receive in the prosecution of their inquiries was a matter entirely within their own discretion.