HC Deb 13 September 1887 vol 321 c482
MR. CLANCY (Dublin Co., N.)

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been directed to the reports in The Western Morning News of 28th July, and in The Dartmouth Chronicle of 29th July last, of an action for assault (Cleland v. Owen) tried at the Assizes at Exeter, from which it appears that on a Sunday afternoon two Justices of the Peace of the Borough of Dartmouth and County of Devon engaged in a personal encounter on a public road, near Dartmouth, and gave each other black eyes; whether the Lord Chief Justice, who presided at the trial, observed, with regard to the sworn evidence of one of the parties, that he "could not be depended on in a question of fact;" and, what action the Lord Chancellor proposes to take in the matter?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS), (Birmingham, E.)

in reply, said, the Lord Chancellor had made inquiries with reference to the subject-matter of this Question; but he had not yet been able to arrive at a decision.