§ SIR EDWARD WATKINasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If Mr. Buckingham and Mr. Follet, practising solicitors, Mr. Loyd, and Mr. C. Lewis, have been placed in the Commission of the Peace for the city of Exeter; and, if so, if he has any objection to lay upon the Table the statements or representations upon which the Lord Chancellor was induced to appoint?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, with reference to the subject, he had received the following communication from the Lord Chancellor:—
The Lord Chancellor appointed the four gentlemen alluded to by Sir Edward Watkin to be magistrates of the city of Exeter on the 26th of January last. Before appointing these gentlemen the Lord Chancellor satisfied himself that they were in all respects highly eligible for the office. They are all gentlemen of high standing, three of them having served the office of 1359 Mayor of Exeter, besides holding other public positions of responsibility in the city. It is true that Messrs. Buckingham and Follet are solicitors, but their business is not of a nature to oblige them to appear before the city Bench, and before appointing these gentlemen the Lord Chancellor obtained an assurance from both that neither of them, nor any member of their firm, would practise before the city magistrates so long as their names remained on the commission of the peace. There is no rule by which solicitors are excluded from the Bench in boroughs, but the Lord Chancellor's custom is not to appoint gentlemen of that profession if they are in the habit of practising before the Bench of the borough or city in which they carry on their business. It is not the practice, and it would be prejudicial to the public service, to lay on the table the papers connected with the information which the Lord Chancellor has to collect on the appointment of magistrates.