MR. OWEN LEWISasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If his attention has been called to a statement in the "Freeman's Journal" of last week, to the effect that the Queen's County grand jury have appointed a collector of county cess at a salary of ninepence in the pound, although a gentleman of equal respectability and solvency had offered to discharge the duties for sixpence in the pound, the successful candidate being a Protestant, the unsuccessful one a Catholic; if it is legal for a public body to impose an unnecessary tax of threepence in the pound on unrepresented taxpayers; and, if he is prepared either to introduce or give facilities for the introduction of a measure this Session to prevent such a case again occurring?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHThe hon. Member sent me a copy of a letter in The Freeman's Journal to which his Question refers, and I have also made inquiry into the case. It appears that at the recent Assizes the Grand Jury of Queen's County had before them three applications for the appointment of cess collector in one of the baronies of that 1568 county, one at 9d. in the pound, the others at 6d. in the pound. They appointed, all but unanimously, the person who had tendered at 9d. in the pound, the only dissentient being one of the hon. Members for the county, who was on the Grand Jury. I presume that they were guided in making the appointment by their local knowledge of the circumstances and responsibility of the candidates; they acted entirely within the law, and the matter by no means seems to me of the importance attributed to it in the hon. Member's Question.