§ MR. GREGORYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the lamented death of the late Master of the Rolls will involve any alteration in legal patronage—and the appointment of the officers of the several Courts of Law?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES)Sir, my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department has asked me to answer this Question; but, before doing so, I hope the House will not consider mo obtrusive if I take advantage of the opportunity to express my opinion, that I am sure that there is no Member of the Judicial Bench, no member of the Legal Profession, and no one among that portion of the public which is acquainted with the administration of justice, who does not most fully reciprocate the application by my hon. Friend of the word "lamented" to the death of Sir George Jessel. I believe no Judge has ever sat upon the Bench who combined great knowledge, ability, mental power, and an earnest desire to administer justice to every suitor to a greater extent than the late Master of the Rolls, 1109 Of late years he has been the very centre of the Judicial Bench. The public always sought his judgments and were content with them; and although the word "irreparable" in connection with the loss of any man ought not to be lightly used, yet I am sure this loss to the public service cannot be over-estimated or easily repaired. I know that this is not the occasion on which the full eulogy of Sir George Jessel can be spoken, nor am I, perhaps, the person who ought to utter it; but I could not bring myself to pass unheeded by even this incidental reference to his name in my hon. Friend's Question without endeavouring to express something of that which so many are feeling. In answer to the Question put to me, I have to refer my hon. Friend to the Statute of 1881, c. 68, by which he will see that the Master of the Rolls appointed in succession to Sir George Jessel will retain exactly the same position as the late Judge, excepting that he will have to go on Circuit.
§ MR. M'COANasked, if there was any truth in the statement which had been published, that the office had been offered to Mr. Horace Davey, the Member for Christchurch?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES)I am not at all in a position to answer that Question. I have not the slightest information to give on the subject.