§ MR. STUART-WORTLEYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is true that a scheme is being considered by any Members of the Government for the purpose of rearranging and grouping the existing assize towns in England and Wales so as to avoid the waste of judicial time; and, if so, whether that scheme will, when matured, be made known to this House some reasonable time before it or any part of it which may be capable of being given the force of law by Order in Council shall be so brought into legal operation?
§ MR. HICKSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, in any scheme for re-arranging and grouping the assize towns, regard will be had to the expense, trouble, and loss of time which now presses upon all classes of jurors and others, though in unequal degrees, in different counties?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT, in reply, said, that the matter was not in his hands; but that he had communicated with the Lord Chancellor, who had stated that the whole of the judicial arrangements with reference to the subject were under his consideration, in consultation, of course, with the Judges. The Lord Chancellor had also stated that, although it would be inconvenient to lay before the House beforehand a scheme on which nothing authoritative had been done, he would certainly take care that any Order in Council made upon the matter should be placed before 71 the House, so that the House might express its opinion upon it, as it was empowered to do under the Act of 1875. He was quite sure that the Lord Chancellor would, in these arrangements, have regard to the trouble which might be given to jurors and others.