§ SIR PATRICK O'BRIENasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he will consider the propriety of recommending to the Government to introduce a measure transferring to some administration responsible to the Government and to the Country, the power to grant licences for the sale of spirituous liquors and for the opening of music halls and other places of amusements in the immense area now under the jurisdiction of the "Middlesex ma- 755 gistrates," a body appointed by an individual, and responsible alone to the Lord Chancellor in case of proved malfeasance?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTI cannot say that the Government have it in contemplation to deprive the Middlesex magistrates of their present jurisdiction as far as the granting of licences is concerned.