§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Londonderry, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether, if the Government consider that Colonel Lloyd, J.P., Clerk of the Peace for county Monaghan, can only be dismissed by Quarter Sessions, they mean to take any steps to give effect to their views regarding him before that tribunal, since there is an appeal to the Queen's Bench; is it intended to allow him to retain the Commission of the Peace; is the Government aware that, though debarred by his clerkship from acting as magistrate, Colonel Lloyd continues to act as ex-officio guardian by virtue of his commission, and is now chairman of the Monaghan Union; have the Local Government Board held that, while Colonel Lloyd admittedly is incapable of acting as magistrate, he may as such rightfully be an ex-officio guardian, though his commission is suspended; is it the fact that in the analogous case of sheriffs who are divested of the Commission of 731 the Peace during their year of office, their right to act as ex-officio guardians has also been considered suspended; and, can he say who paid the official shorthand writer in Shaw v. Lloyd, since it appears his notes of the trial are not public property?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY) (Newcastle-on-Tyne)Anybody who may allege an act of misconduct on the part of Colonel Lloyd can bring his case before the Quarter Sessions. It has been decided in the case of Colonel Lloyd himself in the Irish Courts that his Commission of the Peace was not, and is not, vacated or suspended by his appointment as the Clerk of the Peace. The Local Government Board have been advised, under these circumstances, that he is capable of acting as an ex officio Guardian. A Sheriff is by Act of Parliament prevented from acting as Justice of the Peace during his shrievalty, and therefore as ex officio Guardian. The shorthand writer was employed by the parties by arrangement for their own purposes, and Colonel Lloyd would, in the result, have to pay his charges.