§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether two of Her Majesty's Judges in Ireland, the Right Honourable Christopher Palles, the Lord Chief Baron, and the Right 302 Honourable Mr. Justice Madden, have for the last six weeks been sitting, the Lord Chief Baron as chairman and Mr. Justice Madden as one of the Commissioners, on a Commission appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to inquire into the working and administration of the system of Irish Intermediate Education; whether this Commission has sat during the period for the holding of the Hiliary Sessions of the High Court of Justice in Ireland; has the absence of these two judges from their judicial duties been productive of inconvenience and delay; and what steps, if any, have been taken for the relief of the inconvenience and delay caused by the absence of the learned judges from their judicial duties, and by whom have these judicial duties been discharged in such absence?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe Lord Chief Baron and Mr. Justice Madden have been engaged for some time past as members of a Commission to inquire into the working and administration of Irish Intermediate Education. The Chief Baron and Mr. Justice Madden are chairman and vice-chairman of the Intermediate Education Board for Ireland. All the members of the Board were appointed to the present Commission. The inquiry is one of the highest importance, and the learned judges, so far as is consistent with attention to their judicial duties, have attended as frequently as possible the sittings of the Commission. Having regard to the well-known character of both the learned judges for zeal, energy, and painstaking care, it is in the highest degree unlikely that they would permit any inconvenience to arise in connection with the discharge of their judicial duties. No complaints have reached me on the subject.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the business of the Court of Appeal in Ireland and of the various Divisions of the High Court of Justice in Ireland was suspended, and the hearing of jury cases postponed, on the 31st January, so as to permit the attendance of the members of the Irish Judiciary at the Levée of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Dublin Castle; and whether, having regard to the great additional expense and inconvenience 303 entailed on suitors by the delay of legal proceedings, and to the circumstance that the members of the English Judiciary do not suspend the business of their courts in order to attend Royal Levees, arrangements will be male to secure that the attendance of the Irish Judges at the Viceregal Levees will not be accompanied by the abandonment for the day of their judicial duties?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe course pursued by Her Majesty's Judges in Ireland on the 31st January last in adjourning their seven courts for the purpose of attending the Lord Lieutenant's Levée is one that has been usual for very many years. The practice being a well recognised and established one, known to both counsel and suitors, no public disappointment or inconvenience arises. The matter is, however, one for the judges themselves.