HC Deb 16 August 1881 vol 265 cc32-4
MR. A. ELLIOT

asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether it is the intention of the Government to withdraw from the Lord Advocate any of the Scotch business hitherto under his management; and, whether he can state the. nature of any new arrangements that may be contemplated for the transaction of Scotch business? He explained that he had put this Question in consequence of certain statements which had appeared in the address issued by the Lord Advocate to the electors of Edinburgh.

MR. GLADSTONE

Sir, I have not seen the terms of that address, and, consequently, I should answer without any reference to them. But the state of the case is this—that while the Secretary of State for the Home Department has always continued to be the Minister for Scotch affairs, as for other home affairs, the accumulation of Business—and the great accumulation of Business in that Office is, perhaps, more than in any other—has led in an increasing degree of late years to the handing over to the Lord Advocate, not only of the legal business of Scotland, which is his proper and main duty, but what may be called the lay or general business of Scotland. I speak in the hearing of the right hon. Gentleman opposite the late Home Secretary (Sir E. Assheton Cross), and I daresay he is cognizant that in former times—I mean quite within my own memory, say, 30 years ago—the position of the Lord Advocate was more nearly analogous to that of the Law Officers of the other countries than it has been lately. My right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department has now acquired additional assistance in the Home Office—not by the creation of any new Office, but assistance which will enable him to discharge the greater portion of the business of Scotland. There is no formal change, and still less nothing that will tend to lower the Office of the Lord Advocate, which will remain one of great importance. But it does not seem desirable, as a general rule, that the sole Adviser of the Secretary of State on Scotch matters, who is occupied with other matters, should be a gentleman of the Legal Profession. It is desirable to have a layman acquainted with Scotch affairs.

SIR R. ASSHETON CROSS

May I ask whether there is any intention to change the position of the Lord Advocate as one of the five great Officers of State?

MR. GLADSTONE

Certainly not. There is no intention to make any change of that kind.

MR. A. ELLIOT

I gather from the answer of the Prime Minister that he did not get a private note on the matter, in which I inclosed the statements in the Lord Advocate's address?

MR. GLADSTONE

I received the letter, and I have answered the note sent me; but I had not time to refer to the inclosure.

SIR R. ASSHETON CROSS

Will the Prime Minister allow me to ask him one further Question, as to whether the Lord Advocate will continue to hold a place on the Committee of Council on Education in Scotland, of which the Lord Advocate has of late years been a member?

MR. GLADSTONE

The practice, I believe, has been this—that the Lord Advocate has never been appointed on accession to Office to the Committee of Council on Education. He has been appointed of late years after holding Office for a certain time, and that is a matter which, of course, might be considered.