§ MR. P. J. SMYTHasked Mr. Attorney General, If, having regard to the Resolution of this House declaring John Mitchel to be incapable of being elected or returned as Member of Parliament, it is optional with the Sheriff of Tipperary either to receive or reject a properly filled nomination paper presented to him on behalf of Mr. Mitchel?
THE ATTORNEY GENERALI am as desirous as any person can be of answering, to the best of my ability, all such Questions as may be put to me by hon. Members; but I must submit to the House that there is a limit to the privileges of hon. Members in respect of Parliamentary questionings; and I venture to think that the hon. Member for Westmeath has passed that limit in asking me as to the course which the Sheriff of Tipperary should pursue in the possible event of a nomination paper being presented to him, filled up with the name of a gentleman who has been declared by this House incapable of being elected. The Sheriff is both a ministerial and a judicial officer, and it appears to me—and I trust that the House will agree with me in thinking so—that it would not be consistent with my duty as Attorney General to express an opinion in this House as to the way in which the Sheriff of Tipperary should discharge his duty in a possible state of circumstances.