§ Order for Committee read.
§ SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON, in moving that the House go into Committee on the Bill, said, it carried out the recommendations of the Committee which sat in 1877. It was proposed to amalgamate the officers of the Common Law Divisions in one Central Office at the new Courts of Justice, and to enact that in future all the necessary steps in connection with any action should be taken in the Central Office, without reference to the Division in which the action was to be tried. The Bill would fuse the duties of certain heads of Departments, and of certain clerks in different Departments; and it would not only save expense, but facilitate the transaction of business. He moved that the House do go into Committee.
§ Motion made, and Question, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair,"—(Sir Henry Selwin-Ibbetson),—put, and agreed to.
§ Bill considered in Committee.
§ (In the Committee.)
§ Clauses 1 to 13, inclusive, agreed to.
§ Clause 14 (Abolition of certain offices and continuance of others).
§ MR. RYLANDS moved that the Chairman report Progress, remarking that the Bill would enable the Lord Chancellor to add unduly to the expenditure of the country. He had known some Lord Chancellors to resist the economical views of the Treasury in regard to legal salaries; and that might also be the case in the present instance. He would remind the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer of his promise not to press the Bill should any serious opposition to it arise. He (Mr. Rylands) felt more dissatisfaction with it the more he saw of it, and as it could not be properly discussed at that late period of the Session, it would be no disadvantage to the public to put it off until next year.
§ Motion made and Question proposed, "That the Chairman do report Progress, and ask leave to sit again."—(Mr. Rylands.)
958§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir JOHN HOLKER)protested against the course adopted by the hon. Member for Burnley (Mr. Rylands).
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, that as opposition had been offered to the Bill, and as the clause under discussion evidently required some consideration, he would assent to the Motion for reporting Progress, and would fix the resumption of the debate for to-morrow. He wished, however, to say that, although he did not profess to be thoroughly familiar with all its details, this Bill was one the object of which was to reduce expenditure. He could state further that the Treasury had never found in the present Lord Chancellor an opponent of economy; but, on the contrary, it had always found in him a great assistant in its efforts to keep down expenditure.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
§ House resumed.
§ Committee report Progress; to sit again to-morrow.