§ MR. TOTTENHAMasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If he will state the reasons which have induced the Lord Lieutenant to withdraw from the magistrates the assistance they have hitherto been accustomed to receive from the Law Adviser to the Government, in cases in which they have felt a difficulty in dealing; and, whether he will confer with the Lord Lieutenant on the desirability of cancelling the Circular issued by Mr. Hamilton on the 23rd instant?
§ MR. GIBSONasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is true that the Government, by a recent Circular to the magistrates of Ireland, have apprised them that they can no longer obtain advice from the Law Adviser at Dublin Castle, and that they must rely on their own experience and that of their clerks; and, whether, since this change will deprive the unpaid magistracy of this opportunity of being well advised on difficult matters of Law, he will state what is the intention of the Government as to the future status, qualification, and pay of the Petty Sessions clerks, whose responsibility is thus sought to be increased?
§ COLONEL KING-HARMANasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he is aware that petty sessions clerks in Ireland are not professional legal men, as is the case with petty sessions clerks in England; and, what means of advice in difficult legal matters country magistrates in Ireland are now to be furnished with, as it appears that the office of Law Advisor has been abolished?
§ MR. TREVELYANWhile it is a fact, Sir, that petty sessions clerks in Ireland are not professional men, yet their position has in late years been considerably improved, and I have reason to believe that the persons now appointed are as a rule of superior attainments to those formerly appointed. The Government issued the Circular referred to 1420 by the right hon. and learned Member for the University of Dublin (Mr. Gibson) after full consideration and in the belief that the magistrates will be able satisfactorily to dispose of the questions arising before them without obtaining advice from the Law Adviser, and that it is more satisfactory that they should act on their own judgment in cases brought before them judicially. The number of applications for such advice has of late considerably decreased. I have, however, to add that should it turn out that any public inconvenience results from the discontinuance of the practice of magistrates obtaining advice, the Government will take care to make arrangements for the purpose of obviating such inconvenience.
§ MR. GIBSONI desire to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether the unpaid magistrates will not, as a matter of obvious common sense, now that they are deprived of the assistance of the Law Adviser, refuse to accept the responsibility in deciding difficult cases, and postpone them for the magistrates who are paid to incur the liability involved in this Circular?
§ MR. TREVELYANI should be very sorry to answer a Question of this kind straight off, without the assistance of my right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney General for Ireland; but I can quite imagine that such would occasionally he the case. The present system, however, appears to be full of very grave disadvantages, and I am extremely alive to the difficulties which may result from changing it. After all, the office of Law Adviser is not founded by legislation. It is only part of a system on which a change is considered desirable.
MR. MACARTNEYIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that although these clerks are of a better class, they have no legal attainments?
§ MR. TREVELYANI am quite aware of it.
§ COLONEL KING-HARMANHas the right hon. Gentleman taken into consideration the cases of Chairmen of Boards of Guardians and Town Commissioners, who often have knotty points of law before them, and who have been accustomed hitherto to apply for advice?
§ MR. TREVELYANWe are not now on a question of the fresh appointment of a Law Adviser. I am not 1421 aware that very much of the work of that officer was with reference to the bodies which the hon. and gallant Member has named. The seriousness, which I fully admit, is with reference to the question raised by the right hon. and learned Member opposite.
§ MR. GRAYMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether there exists in England any official corresponding to the Law Adviser in Ireland to whom local Magistrates, Chairmen of Boards of Guardians, Chairmen of Town Commissioners, and other gentlemen in similar positions, are entitled to apply for advice under the circumstances mentioned by the hon. and gallant Member for Dublin?
§ MR. TREVELYANNo, Sir; no such official exists. It cannot be said that the circumstances of England and Ireland are precisely parallel. [Ironical cheers.] I can assure hon. Members that these cheers do not bear upon the point of view to which I am going to refer. The difference between England and Ireland is this—the magistrates' clerks in England are invariably of a different standing, and possessed of very different professional qualifications from that of magistrates' clerks in Ireland.