§ MR. PALKsaid, he would now beg to ask the right hon. Baronet the Home Secretary a question with regard to the appointment of chief constables in counties. He wished to know whether if a gentleman who was appointed to that office was in the commission of the peace, that was considered to invalidate the appointment?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, that the fact of a gentleman being in the commission of the peace for a county did not absolutely invalidate his appointment as chief constable. The question arose when the right hon. Baronet the Member for Carlisle (Sir J. Graham) was Home Secretary, and it was determined that the holding of the office of chief constable was incompatible with the remaining in the commission of the peace. A case had lately arisen in Kent, in which he (Sir G. Grey) had acted in the same way, and the appointment was not confirmed until the gentleman's name had been removed from the commission of the peace.