RETURN REFUSED. (Hansard, 24 February 1859)

§ MR. COGAN
said, he rose to move for a return of the names of the Members of the Board of Superintendence of each County Prison in Ireland, specifying the number of Roman Catholics on each Board. The reason for the Motion was the paucity of Roman Catholics on these Boards, where it was of importance that some of those in authority should be of the same religious faith as the majority of prisoners, which necessarily, in the majority of instances, was composed of Catholics.

LORD NAAS
said, he would be prepared to show at a future time that the superin- 837 tendence of the prisons was of an entirely satisfactory kind. ["No, no!"] He had mixed with all classes of his countrymen, and had never heard any fault found with the mode in which the grand juries had performed their duties. The first portion of the Motion was useless, as the names were already on the table; and as to the religious faith of the individuals, no record was kept, and he did not know from what source the return, if ordered, could be made.

§ MR. H. HERBERT
said, he would beg to remind the noble Lord that the returns could be furnished by the secretaries to the grand juries.

MR. WHITESIDE
said, that a more ungracious attack could not be conceived than that which had been made on the conduct of the Government in reference to Roman Catholic magistrates. They were ready and anxious to make such appointments when they could find proper persons to fill the office; and when the Marquess of Donegal, who was himself a Member of the Whig party, had lately, in his capacity of Lord Lieutenant of the county of Antrim, recommended that a Roman Catholic gentleman should be named a magistrate for that county, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland had at once made the appointment. In reference to the Motion itself, he would only observe that there were no means of compelling any gentleman to make known what was his particular religious profession.

MR. HATCHELL
said, he thought it would be only right to have the returns asked for that the real facts might be known. There would be no difficulty in obtaining the information required.

MR. SERJEANT DEASY
said, he would remind the House that a Commission had recommended that appointments of magistrates should be more extended to Roman Catholic gentlemen. He also would remark that the Lord Chancellor had power to appoint magistrates without the recommendation of the Lord Lieutenant of the county.

THE SOLICITOR GENERAL
said, that on no occasion had a magistrate been appointed for the county of Antrim except on the recommendation of the Lord Lieutenant.

§ MR. HASSARD
said, that out of the twelve Members of the Board of Superintendence in the city which he represented (the City of Waterford) six were Roman Catholics.

§ MR. GREER
said, that the return ought 838 to be extended in such a manner as to show the religion of the superintendents.

§ MR. T. O'BRIEN
said, that these returns were absolutely needed to inform the House on the real facts of the case.

§ MR. WALPOLE
said, that the question was not one in which the Government were in any way concerned. The Members of the Board of Superintendence were appointed, not by them, but by the local authorities. The religious distinctions mentioned in the Motion were never given in returns, and he thought it would be most unreasonable to require that they should now be furnished.

§ MR. COGAN
said, he desired the information which the returns would supply, because the noble Lord (Lord Naas) had proposed by his Bill to extend the jurisdiction of these local Boards to the lunatic asylums; and the returns, by giving the name and religion of each of these gentlemen, would show why that ought not to be the case.