§ MR. MONKasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether, in the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, the Officers of the Inland Revenue Department are under any statutory restraint or disability in respect to Elections of Members to serve in Parliament; and, whether any enactments restraining Officers of the Customs from taking part in Elections are still in force?
THE ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, he trusted that the hon. Member for Gloucester would not think him disrespectful when he said that the Attorney General and Solicitor General were Law Officers of the Crown and not of the hon. Member for Gloucester, and that there were modes of obtaining their opinions on questions of law; but that the House of Commons was not the proper place for seeking to get that information. The function of the Law Officers was to advise the Government, and he must protest against any hon. Member putting a legal Question, and then asking the Law Officers of the Crown what they thought on the subject. Having made this protest, he had no objection to tell his hon. Friend that, with regard to the Inland Revenue officers, he believed that they might now vote, and also interfere in elections by canvassing, because the statute which prevented them from doing so had been repealed. With regard to the Customs' officers, the prohibition of their interference at elections used to rest on two statutes, and the first of those statutes had alone been repealed.
§ MR. MONKsaid, he wished the House to understand that he was requested by a Member of the Government to put the Question.