§ MR. INDERWICKasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether his attention has been drawn to the eighth section of "The Judicature Act, 1875," which provides that a judge of the Probate and Admiralty Division may be sent on circuit "so far as the state of business in the said division will admit;" whether any and what steps were taken to ascertain the state of business in that division before Mr. Justice Butt, one of the 1913 Judges of the said Division, was sent on circuit; whether before the said judge commenced his circuit the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice were informed that the pressure of work in the Admiralty Division during the whole of the year had been steady and continuous, and that there were enough Admiralty actions then ready for trial to keep one judge continuously employed till the Long Vacation; whether the postponing of decisions as to the succession to real and personal estate and of Admiralty causes does not necessarily lead to great inconvenience of suitors, and to an enormous increase in the cost of litigation, by the continuation of receiverships and temporary administration, and by the detention of ships and crews; and, whether, if at any future time a judge of the said division is sent on circuit, arrangements will be made by which some other judge of the High Court will be appointed to complete the work left unfinished by the judge of the Probate and Admiralty Division?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES)I am aware of the inconvenience caused by the absence of Mr. Justice Butt; but I am afraid it is an inconvenience shared by other Divisions of the High Court. The President, however, of the Division is still in town.
§ MR. INDERWICKsaid, he would call attention to the subject, and move a Resolution.