§ THE EARL OF REDESDALE (CHAIRMAN of COMMITTEES)wished to call the attention of their Lordships to the fact that a second of the Committee Rooms of the House had recently been occupied by the Judges for the administration of the law. This had been done without the permission of the House, and he thought it desirable that their Lordships should receive some information on the matter.
THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, he did not exactly know on what principle his noble Friend would act in a case of this kind; but he did know it was a matter of very great convenience to the public that the room in question, while 1220 not required for the Business of the House, should be used for the purpose of the administration of justice. He was himself so far, and so far only, responsible for what was done in this instance, that he had requested, in what he had understood to be the proper quarter and the proper manner, that this accommodation should be afforded at the present time, if any room not now required for the use of the House could be made available for the purpose could had given him pleasure to find that what he asked had been done; and he had, till this moment, imagined that he might have been partly indebted for this favour to the good offices of his noble Friend. He regretted now to find that this was not the case, and that his noble Friend thought that there had been some irregularity in the matter. If it was so, he was unable to explain how it had happened; but, whoever might be held responsible, he was quite sure that it had been done without any wish whatever to encroach on the rights and privileges of their Lordships' House. For some time the use of a Committee Room had been given to the Court of Appeal, and, from the manner in which that concession had been permitted by the House, he had concluded that there was no reason for thinking that their Lordships would be unwilling to place another room at the service of the public for the administration of justice, so long as it was not required for the Business of their Lordships' House.
§ THE EARL OF REDESDALE (CHAIRMAN of COMMITTEES)said, that on the ground floor of their Lordships' House there were only three Committee Rooms, so that if three Committees were appointed they would not have rooms to meet in. The room recently appropriated to the administration of justice had been given to the Judges without any previous consultation with the House.