§ MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHY (for Mr. SEXTON)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether Mr. George Bolton, Crown Solicitor for the county of Tipperary, and Solicitor to the Valuation Office in Ireland, is the same person who was concerned as a defendant in the case of MacDermott and King v. Bolton and others, lately heard before the President of the Pro-hate and Divorce Division, London; whether Mr. Bolton, being examined as a witness in the case, admitted that he had acted as a solicitor in drawing up his own marriage settlement; that his wife instituted against him a suit in the Chancery Division in respect of the said marriage settlement; that she charged him on the pleadings with unprofessional and fraudulent conduct; that she swore his reply to her statement of claim was untrue; that he had induced his wife to agree to the sale of shares to the amount of over £16,000 to pay for a property which cost only £15,000; and that he instructed his counsel in the Chancery suit to submit to a decree against him; whether he further admitted that Mr. Justice Fry, the judge who tried the suit in the Chancery Division, had written respecting his conduct in the matter to the Lord Chan- 588 cellor of Ireland; whether the President of the Probate and Divorce Division declared, in his charge to the jury, that, apart from the question of fraud, the marriage settlement drawn up by Mr. Bolton, on his own behalf, was a most astonishing settlement, and how any man, whether solicitor or no solicitor, could have thought otherwise it was not easy to see, since it was the A.B.C. of marriage settlements that a woman should have the first interest in the property which she brought into settlement, whilst the effect of the settlement drawn up by Mr. Bolton was to denude the woman (the wife) of the great portion of her property; whether the jury found against Mr. Bolton, and the judge gave costs against him; and, whether it is the intention of the Government to retain him in the public service in Ireland?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, Mr. Bolton, Crown Solicitor for Tipperary, is the same person who was concerned as defendant in the probate suit mentioned in the Question. As to the alleged matters of fact referred to in the second part of the Question, the case stands thus:—Mr. Bolton was defendant in a Chancery suit brought some years ago by his wife for the purpose of setting aside the marriage settlement. In that case a decree was pronounced against Mr. Bolton, but with his consent, after negotiating with his wife, and before the defendant's evidence was heard; and the truth of some of the allegations which had been made could not be established without re-hearing the cause. It is a fact that Mr. Justice Fry, before whom the Chancery suit was heard, did make a communication to the then Lord Chancellor of Ireland under the late Government, the Right Hon. John T. Ball, who, in conjunction with the Law Officers, fully considered the matter, and they all came to the conclusion that it was not a case calling for the interference of the Executive. In the probate suit recently heard, no additional facts appeared in reference to the Chancery litigation, and the Government cannot go back on the decision arrived at some years ago on the same state of facts after mature official consideration.