The Gazette 1912-13

QUNE, 1912

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

the interests of any branch of the Solicitor profession, having regard to the assent given by the Incorporated Law Society to such a rule." ,.u He might^say that the existing practising Solicitors in Ireland paid annually to the Government about £11,000 for licence duties, and each and every one of them had to pay £105 to the Treasury, making a grand total of money paid by the existing body of Solicitors in Ireland to give them the right before admission to practise as advocates, practically £160,000 ; so that the Govern– ment, by allowing unqualified persons who paid nothing to compete against them, really meant that the Government Treasury who assented to such a course was guilty of nothing short of obtaining money from Solicitors under false pretences, and many people were in the dock for less. He said they should not tolerate this thing any longer. They all knew of the efforts made from time to time by Clerks of Councils, Secretaries' of Councils, and gentlemen from the Local Government Board to conduct legal proceedings. He thought it was nearly time to start out against that sort of thing. Unless they put an end to this thing it would be getting worse instead of better. For some time past an effort had been made by trades union organisations to get powers inserted in Statutes to enable what they called their delegates to attend Courts and Coroners' inquests on behalf of the next-of-kin. Now, he had been all his life one of the strongest advocates of trades unionism in this country, and he was indebted to trades union organ– isations for many favours. But that was no reason why he was going to vest in them rights which existed only in the Solicitors' profession. While he was not condemning these trade organisations he was going to try and compel the shoemaker to stick to his last. Their efforts were not based upon any philanthropic idea at all. That was the merest humbug, because the gentlemen who attended inquests on behalf of the next-of- kin took good care that they were paid for the time occupied in the work. Therefore, when they sought to come in and represent any person concerned in any of these Courts of inquiry, they were interfering with the rights and privileges of the Solicitors' pro– fession. Those who talked of blackleg labour and " scab " labour should be told

Indeed, he felt he had in the President a friend in Court, because on a former occasion the President and he (Mr. Brady) successfully fought to an issue a question of this sort on behalf of the Solicitors' profession in Ireland. He did not desire to occupy any time in going into this matter very fully, for this reason, that they had all seen communica– tions from him in the Press, and had also read the controversies he had had in court on several occasions in the interests of his professional brethren. HL stated fully in these controversies in the different Courts his reasons for so doing, and so there was no use in entering upon them there. The Solicitors (Ireland) Act of 1898 contained very stringent clauses with regard to the punishment for a violation of that Statute by a person who acted as a Solicitor without qualifications. Having regard to this Statute he could not understand the conduct of those Government Departments and other public bodies who had been acting in violation of this Statute, on the ground that they were empowered to do so under a certain section of the Public Health Act. He entirely dissented from these contentions. Indeed, it was stated that decisions had been obtained from Courts of Justice permitting this conduct, but he disagreed with these decisions, and would like to know what decision these Courts would give on the subject if the rights and privileges of the members of the Bar were sought to be invaded by unqualified persons, although, if the decisions relied upon were well founded, it appeared to him that there was nothing to prevent the Barrister profession from being invaded by these unqualified persons, acting on behalf of public bodies in the conduct of proceedings in Courts, under the same powers by which they now allege they are entitled to invade the rights and privileges of the Solicitor profession. When he last contended against these tactics by public bodies in a Court of Justice, the Local Government Board appeared in Court, and produced an order, sanctioned and approved of, as stated after consultation with the then President of this Society, with the result that, to use the words of the learned Magistrate : "It operated virtually as an equitable estoppel on him, in so far as he purported to be acting on behalf of and in