§ MR. MONKasked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, Whether any, and, if so, what qualification is required for the office of High Sheriff of an Irish County; and, whether he is of opinion that a gentleman possessing neither lands nor residence in Ireland is legally qualified and liable to serve that office?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. DOWSE)said, in reply, if the hon. Member's Question had related to a mere abstract point of law, he should have been indisposed to enter upon it; but if it related, as he assumed it did, to the recent appointment of the High Sheriffs of Westmeath and Louth, he was in a position to state that the High Sheriffs of those counties had been selected by the Lord Lieutenant in the usual way from the list sent in to him by the Judges. He must assume that the Judges had done their duty, and had returned the names of gentlemen duly qualified and liable to serve as high sheriffs. Under these circumstances, he trusted the hon. Member would think that he was not justified in proceeding further in the matter.
§ MR. MONKsaid, in consequence of the hon. and learned Gentleman's Answer, he should proceed with the Motion of which he had given Notice for that evening.