HC Deb 30 November 1882 vol 275 cc383-5
MR. M'COAN

asked the First Commissioner of Works, Who is responsible for the arrangements in connection with the forthcoming opening of the Royal Courts of Justice, under which standing room to view the ceremonial within the building is provided for only two hundred members of the Junior Bar, while all other members of the profession, except Queen's Counsel and Benchers of the Inns of Court, are relegated to an open air stand in the outer quadrangle, along with bricklayers' labourers and other workmen who have been employed in the erection of the building; and, whether there is not yet time to amend this arrangement and provide more adequate and befitting accommodation for the many hundred barristers who will thus be practically shut out from even witnessing a pageant so full of historical interest to all members of the profession?

MR. SHAW LEFEVRE

The hon. Member has very much understated the accommodation I have been able to provide for the Junior Bar and for other persons. There are 1,700 places in the Central Hall at my disposal. I have appropriated 900 to the various branches of the Legal Profession, to the Judges, Queen's Counsel, officers of the Court, the Junior Bar, and also to the members of the Incorporated Law Society. I have also been able to erect galleries in the quadrangle, in which there will be accommodation for 700 persons. A considerable number of places will be provided in rooms overlooking the quadrangle. I have been in communication on the subject with the Treasurers of the Inns of Court; and I find they have not taken any exception to the arrangement that workmen who have been engaged on the building are to be admitted into the Courts to witness the ceremony. I have erected a gallery where 450 of them will be able to see the proceedings, and I may add that Her Majesty has consented to receive an address from them.

MR. J. R. YORKE

asked whether it was true that tickets had been supplied to the jury in the case of "Belt v. Lawes," giving them accommodation in the quadrangle; and, if so, by what influence were they obtained, and on what principle were they bestowed?

MR. BROADHURST

asked whether it was not the right hon. Gentleman's opinion that the bricklayers and labourers who had been engaged in the building of the Law Courts were as much entitled to tickets as members of the Junior Bar?

MR. SHAW LEFEVRE

I thought I had intimated my concurrence with the hon. Member in the answer already given. I think that these men, having been engaged in the building of the Courts, are as much entitled as members of the Junior Bar. With regard to the other Question, it is quite true that Mr. Justice Huddleston wrote to me asking for tickets for the jury in the Belt case, and I have sent him 12 tickets for the stand in the quadrangle.

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL

Why?

[No reply was given.]