§ MR. MOLLOYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If it is a fact that, in several cases recently tried by Messrs. Tyrrell and Ridgeway, Justices of the Peace for the Edenderry District of the King's County, persons convicted were advised by their solicitors to appeal, the convictions being manifestly illegal; whether the parties subsequently, and during the period open to them for appealing, were induced by the magistrate's clerk not to appeal, intimating to them that if they appealed, and were successful, the next time they came before the magistrates they would not be dealt with so leniently; whether, on the persuasion of the said clerk, the convicted parties refused to appeal; whether, in one case, the parties appealing paid the magistrate's clerk ten shillings to prepare the necessary form for his appeal; whether the said clerk accepted the said sum of ten shillings, and promised to have the appeal made out in due form, but subsequently, when the matter came before 1361 the County Court Judge, the necessary notices which the clerk undertook to serve, and was paid for drawing, were not served; whether this clerk was appointed, although he was not legally qualified; whether the said clerk is also a car proprietor in the town; and, whether the said clerk provides cars for the transfer of such prisoners to the county prison as are sentenced by the magistrates?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe hon. Member's Question is somewhat vague. More direct and satisfactory inquiry could have been made if he had mentioned the names of the parties to the oases to which he refers. So far as I have been able to ascertain from general inquiry, the clerk denies that in any cases he acted in the improper and irregular manner described in the Question; but if the hon. Member will give me some particulars by which the cases to which he alludes can be identified, I shall have further inquiry made. With regard to the position of the clerk, there is no ground for the suggestion that he was not legally qualified. It is true that, when appointed by the late Lord Lieutenant, he was over the age prescribed by His Excellency's Regulations on the subject; but these Regulations have no legal effect, and His Excellency was quite within his powers in making an exception when—as in the present instance—he deemed it for the public interests. The clerk is reported by the Head of his Department to have been always a satisfactory officer. With regard to the use of his cars for the conveyance of prisoners, I understand that other car proprietors in the district refused to hire out cars for the use of the authorities.
§ MR. MOLLOYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If he is aware that there is not a single Catholic Magistrate for the district of Edenderry in the King's County; that in the memory of the present generation no Catholic Magistrate has sat in the Court House of Edenderry; if he is aware that there are several Catholic gentlemen in the neighbourhood qualified to receive the Commission; and, if he can state why none such are appointed?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI am informed that on the Edenderry Bench there is not at present any Catholic 1362 magistrate. I am not aware that properly-qualified Catholic gentlemen can be found in the neighbourhood to be placed in the Commission of the Peace; but the Lord Chancellor informs me that he has been in communication with the Lord Lieutenant of the county, who has not as yet been able to recommend any Catholic gentleman whose name has been suggested. The Lord Lieutenant of the county has, in the Lord Chancellor's opinion, evinced the utmost desire to redress, whenever possible, any religious inequality in the magistracy of his county.
§ MR. MOLLOYasked if the Lord Chancellor would receive the names of Catholic gentlemen properly qualified?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANsaid, he was not precisely aware of the general course in such cases; but he would say he was sure the Lord Chancellor would be very willing to do anything in his power in the matter.