§ MR. LEWIS FRY (Bristol, N.)I beg to ask the Attorney General whether he is aware that the case of "Eliot and others v. the Mayor and Corporation of Bristol," set down for 42 hearing in Mr. Justice North's Court in July, 1891, is still unheard, and that only about one-third of the cases then set down before it for hearing have been disposed of; and will he explain why the case, which has for some time been marked as fit for transfer to the Queen's Bench Division, has not been so transferred?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir RICHARD WEBSTER,) Isle of WightIn answer to the question of the hon. Member I have to say that from information furnished to me it appears that at the date when the action referred to was set down for trial there were 53 actions standing before it in the list, and that 28 of these still remain to be tried. The delay has been due to the fact that some exceptionally heavy causes, one of which lasted no less than 20 days, have had to be disposed of. The marking of a case as fit for transfer does not imply more than that if the state of business in the Queen's Bench Division permits the action will be transferred for trial to that division. The unavoidable absence through illness of three Chancery Judges, and the consequent necessity for trying ordinary Chancery causes by a Judge of the Queen's Bench Division, rendered it undesirable to transfer causes to the Queen's Bench Division at the present time, but I may add that it was open to the plaintiff, had he so desired, to have commenced his action in the Queen's Bench Division, in which case the trial would probably have taken place at an ealier date.