§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD CHELMSFORD moved the second reading of this Bill, the object of which 1115 was to assimilate the law relating to the profession of attorneys and solicitors in Ireland to that of England.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a"—(Lord Chelmsford.)
THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, he had looked at the Bill during the recess, though not in a very careful manner. He would not offer any opposition to the second reading, but he might, perhaps, desire to suggest some Amendments in Committee when the Bill was in Committee.
THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDEsaid, the Bill was a most important step towards raising the status of attorneys and solicitors in Ireland, and his only wish was that it had gone a little further. Two years ago he proposed to allow the attorneys and solicitors of Ireland to practise in England, and the English attorneys and solicitors in the Irish courts; but the Irish attorneys and solicitors thought the change would be injurious to them. In that they were extremely wrong, for it would be quite the reverse. He hoped that some measure on the subject would result from the Commission appointed by Government four years ago, and which had not yet made its second Report, and that that Bill would embody the improvement which he had recommended. The difference between the practice of attorneys in Ireland and England was very great, for in Ireland a Judge would not listen to an attorney in chambers, and both the profession and the public were sufferers, as the expense of a Motion in open court was three times as great as in chambers.
§ Motion agreed to: Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Monday next.