§ MR. FENWICK (Northumberland, Wansbeck)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it be true that the miners of Somerset petitioned the late Lord Chancellor to commission Mr. R. Harty Dunn as a working man magistrate for the county, and whether Lord Herschell refused to commission and Lord Cork to nominate him on the ground that he is not possessed of the property qualification fixed by Law; and, whether the Government will bring in a Bill to abolish or amend the Law relating to the property qualification of county magistrates, so that, as in municipal boroughs, representative working men may be put on the Commission of the Peace?
§ THE SECRETAEY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)I have inquired at the Lord Chancellor's Office and at the Crown Office, and am informed that nothing is known there of the petition of the Somerset miners, or of any papers showing what the action of Lord Herschell and Lord Cork may have been. I am unable to make any statement as 665 to the intentions of the Government with regard to any amendment of the existing law as to the property qualification of county magistrates.