§ MR. BIGGARasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is a fact that, at the time of the appointment of the last Protestant magistrate in the Petty Sessions district of Termonfecken, County Louth, there resided in the district a Roman Catholic who owned considerable fee simple property there, and whose valuation was more than twice that of the gentleman so appointed; and, whether he would consider such Roman Catholic a fit and proper person to be entrusted with the Commission of the Peace for a district almost exclusively Catholic, and with a local magistracy entirely Protestant?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe gentleman referred to as last appointed was appointed so far back as 1881, and has proved a most excellent magistrate. Appointments to the Magisterial Bench cannot depend on a contrast between two gentlemen as to the respective amounts of property they may possess. The fitness of any particular person for the Commission of the Peace is for the Lieutenant of the County and the Lord Chancellor to consider.