§ SIR PATRICK O'BRIENasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the attention of the Government has been directed to the large amount of labour and responsibility at present imposed upon the Middlesex Bench of Magistrates (in addition to other duties) in deciding upon the granting and transferring of licences to public houses, music halls, and other places of entertainment in the populous boroughs of Westminster, Chelsea, Marylebone, Finsbury, &c.; and, whether the Government deem it expedient to introduce a measure limiting the jurisdiction of the Bench to the county of Middlesex proper, as distinguished from the large area included in the before-mentioned boroughs?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, the magistrates of the county of Middlesex had, he believed, like the magistrates of every other county, the duty imposed upon them by statute of transferring licences of public-houses, irrespective of the question whether certain Parliamentary boroughs which had not magistrates of their own, were included in their area or not. They had also, under the Act of George II., the duty to discharge of granting licences far music and dancing. He had made inquiry at the Home Office, but did not find that any complaint had been made by the Middlesex magistrates with regard to the duties which were imposed upon them; and therefore he did not think it expedient to introduce any measure for such a limitation of jurisdiction as that which the Question of the hon. Baronet indicated.