2-982-475 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Right Hon. J. Napier, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 1858. Irish lawyer and politician: Queen's Counsel; Professor of Law at Dublin University; Attorney-General for Ireland. 'The right honourable and learned gentleman was to have presided over the Section of Jurisprudence at the Social Science Congress held last week at Liverpool. Not being able, however, to obtain the Government document necessary to his leaving Ireland in time to attend the meeting, he forwarded his paper: "Moral elevation, trained capacity, and the love of justice in those who administered the laws were essential, if our legal system was to command respect and take root in the affections of the people. He recommended that the tests of qualification should be applied before admitting barristers, and that a number of years' standing at the bar should not be, as now, the qualification for legal office, without proof of the requisite capacity of legal learning".' From "Illustrated London News", 1858.