MR. MACARTNEYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been drawn to a report contained in the "Irish Times" of Tuesday, the 24th October, giving an account of a case brought before the bench of magistrates at Londonderry on the previous day, in which a man named Patrick Wray was accused of having publicly cursed the Queen and Constitution; whether it is true that Mr. O'Neill, one of the magistrates trying the case, used the following language while the prosecutor, Serjeant Major Pigeon, of the East Yorkshire Regiment, was giving his evidence:—"It is a mere cooking up of a case, and nothing else;" and later on: "It is making a mountain of a molehill," and other remarks of a like nature; and, whether he will make an inquiry into the circumstances of the case?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, I have seen the account of the case referred to by the hon. Member; but I do not see any reason for inquiry into the circumstances. Indeed, I have no power to order such an inquiry, because any complaint against a magistrate for his conduct while acting in his judicial capacity should be addressed to the Lord Chancellor.