I greatly regret that I was not in the House at the time to hear the statement made by the Attorney-General at the beginning of the debate. There are two questions which certainly should be kept entirely distinct, and, as regards one of them, there ought not to be, and with the skilled guidance which we have from the Law Officers I am sure that there will not be, any real dispute. One question is whether or not this Bill does restore the position, so far as regards the right of trial by jury is concerned, as it existed before the War began. That is a question which laymen may very properly turn to lawyers to answer, but it is a question which is of very great general importance. The importance of it far transcends the technicalities of lawyers, because it is deeply involved both in the rights of ordinary citizens and in the constitutional traditions of the country. The other question which might arise is the question as to whether or not it is desirable to make any change from what the practice was before the War broke out. Those two questions are quite distinct, and it is desirable that they should not be confused one with another.

As regards the second question—the question whether we ought after the War to have different arrangements as to the extent of the right to trial by jury from those which prevailed before the War broke out—I do not understand that the Attorney-General makes any such suggestion. I do not understand that the Government are bringing forward this Bill and avowedly and openly urging the House of Commons to restrict the right to trial by jury as it existed before the War. If, indeed, that issue be raised, there is a great deal that may be said about it, and it is by no means a Committee point. It is a point of the greatest and most fundamental importance. If I assume that is not the defence which is offered for this Clause, then I am left with the other question which ought to be capable of a distinct and clear answer by any trained person; and it is one on which it is surprising that there should be controversy. Does this Bill really restore the position as regards the right to trial by jury as it was before the War? If the Solicitor-General is going to reply, I would ask him to be good enough to follow the matter through in some such way as this. My understanding is that in civil trials in a Common Law Court before the War broke out, there were certain classes of action as to which you could give notice of your desire to have a jury at the time which is provided in Rule 2 of Order 36, and under Rule 6 of the Order, in any other cause or matter upon the application, within 10 days of the notice of trial which has been given, of any party thereto for a trial with a jury of the cause or matter or any issue of fact, an order shall be made for a trial with a jury.

If I put those two things together, then I have this result. We have nothing at all to do with proceedings in the Chancery Division, which deal very largely with documents and with matters which you could not ask ordinary citizens to judge sitting as a jury. We have nothing to do with a case where the matter to be decided involves a prolonged examination of documents or a detailed examination of accounts, because anybody who has been responsible for conducting a case before a jury knows that it is very difficult to conduct it if there be an immense mass of documents of which each juryman wants to have an intelligent knowledge. Putting those cases aside, my understanding is that, whether under Rule 2 or Rule 6, in any other action in a common Law Court, whether it was an action for slander, libel, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, seduction, or breach of promise of marriage, or whether it was any other Common Law action, such as negligence or nuisance, the party, if he were so minded, could secure a jury as a right. I do not believe that anybody who is at all acquainted with this subject matter will dispute that that was the position before the War. Let me take as a simple example, an action for negligence. Of course, if it be simply a running down action, if it be an action brought against a motor omnibus because it has knocked down somebody in the street, it is obvious that a jury is perfectly well able to attend to the evidence and to assess the damages, and I have no doubt that under this Bill any Judge would so hold.