MR. CARTERasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he 1172 is aware that in a district of the West Riding, consisting of the important and populous townships of Pudsey, Idle, Calverley, and Farsley, with a population of 29,214, an area of 8,447 acres, and a rateable value of £81,153, there is only one magistrate, a clergyman, who usually resides, not in the district, but in the township of Leeds?
MR. BRUCE,in reply, said, the facts stated in the Question of the hon. Member were substantially correct; but he was informed that there were sittings twice a-week at Bradford, distant about four miles, with good railway communication. There had been no local expression of a desire for more magistrates and no complaint of inconvenience from the existing state of things. If there were any such desire, it should be conveyed to the Lord Lieutenant or the Lord Chancellor; but, considering the population of the neighbourhood, perhaps they could not do better than combine to appoint a stipendiary magistrate.
MR. CARTERasked if the right hon. Gentleman was aware that no railway passed through any one of the parishes named?
MR. BRUCEsaid, he was not; he knew only what he had been told in the letter sent him by the clerk of the peace.