§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
§ LORD ABERDARE,in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, its object was to regulate the admission of Solicitors of the Supreme Court of Judicature of England. By former statutes, and by the Acts of 1873 and 1875, persons applying to be admitted as Solicitors were required to pass examinations known as the preliminary, the intermediate, and the final examinations; and the power of making regulations for the conduct of those examinations and of appointing the examiners, was vested in certain of the Judges of the High Court of Justice: the Bill proposed to transfer those powers to the Incorporated Law Society, and make other amendments in the law relating to Solicitors. No person was to be admitted as a Solicitor without a certificate that he had passed the three examinations before stated; these examinations were to be held under the management of the Incorporated Law Society, who were to make all necessary regulations as to time and place and subjects of examination, to appoint the examiners, and arrange their remuneration by fees or otherwise. The fees payable in respect of their examinations were to be settled by the chiefs of the Divisions of the High Court of Justice, and were to be applied to the necessary expenses of these exami- 479 nations and to other points of legal education. In case of the refusal of a certificate an appeal was given to the Master of the Rolls. Members who had taken University degrees, or had passed certain academical examinations, and utter barristers, who desired to transfer themselves to the other branch of the profession, were excused the preliminary examination. Barristers of five years' standing were exempted from the intermediate examination also, and could be admitted Solicitors on passing the final examination.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."—(The Lord Aberdare.)
THE LORD CHANCELLORthought the provisions of the Bill would be extremely useful, and as the measure had the approbation of the Judges, he agreed to the Motion for the second reading.
§ LORD HATHERLEYalso expressed his approval of the measure, and said that the Incorporated Law Society deserved the highest credit for what it had done in the cause of legal education.
§ Motion agreed to: Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Tuesday next.