Amalgamation: being some considerations on proposed changes in the relations of the legal professions in Ireland

Abstract

Not seldom are complaints made of the unwillingness of a legislature to enact reforms until compelled to do so by agitation. In some cases this procrastination has its advantages. Instances indeed are not unknown in which resistance to popular clamour became the duty and the reason of a government. In such cases it behoves the thoughtful few to examine the pretensions and restrain the violence of the hasty and self-interested many. Tonight, however, I propose to draw your attention to an agitation for reform which is being carried on, not by unlearned and heedless men, but by members of an ancient and honorable profession, whose claims to our respect are all-powerful, and to whose proposals careful consideration must be given, whether we may agree with or differ from the conclusions at which they have arrived. I refer to the question of amalgamation of the solicitors' profession, and that of the bar, and to other kindred topics which have recently occupied the attention of the Incorporated Law Society in this country, and have resulted in an elaborate report upon which their final decision is to be given in a few days. That report was drawn up and approved of with but three dissentients, by a large and representative committee, after giving a full and anxious consideration to the question of amalgamation, and after a very complete examination of the constitution of the legal profession in foreign countries, and in the colonies?their labours extending over a period of eighteen months.