§ MR. SEXTONasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the Rev. John Brien Frith, a J. P. for the county of Fermanagh, is the same person as the Rev. J. B. Frith, who was condemned by Mr. Justice Lawson for committing a fraud upon 583 the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland, whilst rector of a parish in the neighbourhood of Dundalk, by procuring an incumbent of an adjacent parish to appoint him a sham curate, he giving the said incumbent a similar sham appointment; and, whether, if they are the same person, the Rev. J. B. Frith will be retained in the Commission of the Peace?
§ MR. TREVELYANThere is no information in the possession of the Government to warrant the statement that Mr. Frith was condemned for fraud. He claimed an annuity as Incumbent of Camlough, and also as Curate of Meigh in the same diocese. Mr. Justice Lawson allowed his claim as incumbent and disallowed the claim as curate. Mr. Frith did not appeal against this decision. Another case which appears to have been intimately connected with this ended differently. The clergyman who was Incumbent of Meigh claimed in that capacity and also as Curate of Camlough. In his case also the claim in respect of the curacy was disallowed by Mr. Justice Lawson; but he appealed to the three Commissioners, and in the result the claim was allowed.