REPORT.
5
as by the performance of these duties he will be qualifying himself for the higher duties of the office, viz.,
attending Court, taking notes, and entering the orders of the Court in full on the books.
In order to carry out this arrangement, we recommend that Mr.
Whelan at once be permitted to retire from his present position in the office, and that he be appointed a clerk under the 17th section of the Act, at a salary equal to the whole of his present emolu¬ ments ; and that the Lord Chancellor appoint" to the fifth clerkship, under the 11th section of the Act, which is now vacant, and which upon Mr.
Whelan's retirement must be filled up.
It will be unnecessary to appoint the seventh salaried clerk so long as the services of Mr.
Whelan can be made available.
We recommend these arrangements a& absolutely essential to the well-being of this office, and necessary to put an end to the anomaly of its present position.
An Act which passed in the year 1836, one of the express objects of which was to secure the regular succession from the Junior Clerkship to the office of Registrar, is still in abeyance, owing to the survivorship of one life, viz.,
that of Mr.
Whelan ; and, although every gentleman in the office accepted his situation under the impression that he would, so soon as the former clerks were removed, as of right succeed to the post of Registrar in his turn, yet they are all still liable at any moment to have a stranger to the department introduced, and placed over their heads, even in the event of a clerkship becoming vacant.
We think it scarcely possible to conceive a system more calculated to damp all zeal, and to withdraw from the service of the public every inducement to energy, activity, or a desire to master the knowledge of the duties of the office, and to perform them with exactitude and efficiency.
The power very properly reserved to the Lord Chancellor, under the Act of Parlia¬ ment, of withdrawing his assent to the promotion of any person not duly qualified for advancement, is, in our opinion, a sufficient protection to the public that no unfit person be promoted ; and the Lord Chancellor might, moreover, state the qualifications which he deemed it necessary that a young gentleman entering the office should possess, and such test could be exacted, in conformity with his Lordship's wishes, through the medium of the Civil Service Commissioners.
We are of opinion that payment of fees in money should be discontinued in this, as well as in every other department of the Court, and that a moderate stamp duty should be substituted.
This can only be effected by means of an Act of Parliament, after which the services of Mr.
Crowther, as Cash Clerk, will no longer be required.
As regards the Record Depart¬ ment, we are of opinion that a salaried clerk, not in the order of succession to any higher post, is the most eligible mode of providing for the duties of this office.
It has been suggested to us by the Senior Registrar, that it would be very desirable that the Court Registrars should have one or two days in each week to sit in their offices and settle their notes, and that the Assistant Registrar should on those days attend in Court.
We have no doubt that this is a most valuable suggestion ; but as the Registrars can, with the sanction of the Judge of the Court, effect this arrangement amongst them¬ selves, we shall do no more than thus refer to it.
We think that the better mode of remunerating the services of the clerks in this office would be by a graduated scale of salaries in classes, and we annex a schedule showing the salaries now received by the Registrars and their clerks, and those which we propose for adoption.
We are of opinion that the entire discipline of the office should be vested in the Registrars, and that they should be responsible for the conduct of the clerks ; and that upon a representation in writing from a Registrar to the Lord Chancellor, and subject to his Lordship's approval, the annual increment of any clerk, or his promotion from one class into that above it, should be suspended.
ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE.
The office of Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery was created by the Irish Act of the 23 & 24 of Geo.
III.,
cap.
22.
By the Act of the 4th Geo.
IV.,
cap.
61, sec.
55, it is provided, that a salary of £700, Irish, shall be payable out of the Consolidated Fund to the Accountant-General; to his head clerk, £400 ; to his second clerk, £100 ; and to his third clerk, £80 ; and by the 56th section, it is provided, that a fee of two pence a line, on all copies of accounts, shall be payable to the Accountant-General, but that no other fee shall be payable in his office.
The duties of this office have greatly increased since the Act of 4 Geo.
IV.;
and the staff
