§ MR. M'CARTAN (Down, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to a report in The Belfast News Letter of the 28th July, to the effect that Mr. Thomas Hamilton and Major Beresford are two of the four legal magistrates appointed to administer the Coercion Act in Antrim, Down, and other counties in Ulster; whether he is aware that neither of these gentlemen ever practised at the law, nor ever passed a legal examination; whether Mr. Hamilton was formerly in the Revenue Police and afterwards in the Royal Irish Constabulary, and Major Beresford was a country gentleman who had been 13 years in the Army; and, whether no will state what was the legal qualification which satisfied the Lord Lieutenant as to the sufficiency of the legal knowledge of these gentlemen?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)Sir, four Resident Magistrates, already stationed in the Northern Constabulary Division, have been declared to he legally qualified within the meaning of Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment (Ireland) Act. Two of these are the gentlemen referred to in the Question. I am not 719 aware whether either of them ever underwent any legal examination; but they are both experienced magistrates, and possess accurate knowledge of the law. Major Beresford served in the Army from 1866 to 1879, and prior to his appointment as Resident Magistrate, in 1882, he was a Justice of the Peace. Daring his service he has proved an efficient magistrate, and is possessed of ample legal knowledge. Mr. Hamilton did serve in the Revenue Polite, and afterwards as a Constabulary officer. In 1867 he was appointed to a Constabulary Resident Magistracy; and he was one of the Resident Magistrates of whose legal knowledge Earl Spencer declared himself satisfied under the provisions of the Crimes Act of 1882.