In 1934 Schuster was subject to a public attack by Lord Hewart, the Lord Chief Justice.Hall (2003) p.216 On 7 December 1934 his clerk found a bill amongst Hewart's parliamentary papers with a clause that allowed the Lord Chancellor to appoint any Lord Justice of Appeal as vice-president of the Court of Appeal, a right traditionally held by the Lord Chief Justice. Hewart immediately made plans to attend the House of Lords, where Lord Sankey was expected to move the second reading of the bill in question.Hall (2003) p.218 Immediately after second reading Hewart rose and began a speech that was "as violent an attack as has ever been made in the Lords".Hall (2003) p.219 In it he criticised the officials of the Lord Chancellor's Department (which to listeners clearly meant Schuster specifically) and insinuated that the bill was part of a conspiracy to move power from the judiciary to the politicians (and thus the civil service) and create a Ministry of Justice. The speech provoked uproar in the house; a public quarrel between senior judges and civil servants had not happened in centuries, especially in such a traditionally calm and collected place. Lord Reading, himself a former Lord Chief Justice, adjourned the debate, and the following Friday Lord Hailsham, at the time the Leader of the House of Lords, made a defence of Schuster, saying that "I can show that this is an absolute delusion [and] that there was no such scheme ever hatched".Hall (2003) p.224 He showed that the proposal of a Ministry of Justice had originated in 1836, long before Schuster became Permanent Secretary, and in addition that the report Schuster had helped prepare for Sankey was clearly biased against the creation of such a Ministry as he himself was opposed to it. He went on to praise Schuster as "the author and instigator of many great reforms", and along with a similar speech by Lord Sankey and an amendment to the offending bill this helped appease Hewart.
