§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)said, that he desired to call attention to a subject of much interest to his constituents—namely, the constitution of the magistracy in Flintshire. The question had been brought before the notice of the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Matthews) by means of Questions by hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway. He had not himself taken part in these Questions until that day, being in hopes that the grievance would be removed. But his hopes were now very faint, and he thought it was his duty to impress upon the House the great injustice under which the Nonconformists of Flintshire laboured. It ought to be known that in this county two-thirds of the population were Protestant Nonconformists. The magistracy of Flintshire numbered between 80 and 100 gentlemen. He believed there was not a single Nonconformist on the Bench in 1046 Flintshire. This caused, as it seemed to him, very grievous injustice. The appointments in Flintshire had been made, he might say, almost entirely in the interests of the Conservative Party. Most of the magistrates in Flintshire belonged to that Party. There were a few Liberals, mostly Churchmen, and one or two Catholics; but so far as he knew, there was not a single magistrate sitting on the Bench in Flintshire who belonged to the religious denomination of the great mass of the constituency. This state of things was one which, at this age of the world, was perfectly intolerable. They had hoped that by means of friendly private negotiations they might get over this difficulty; but they had come to the conclusion that there was nothing for them to do but to lay the matter before the public and the House of Commons, until at last the mere sense of shame, if nothing else, would lead to justice being done. He had asked the right hon. Gentleman the Home Secretary whether there were about 30 gentlemen in Flintshire who possessed the requisite qualification, and the right hon. Gentleman had informed him that this was not the case. Now, he (Mr. Samuel Smith) had taken much pains to ascertain how many Protestant Nonconformists of Flintshire possessed the legal qualifications, and he was quite within the mark when he said there were 30 such men that could be easily found. He might be told that some of these gentlemen did not possess the social qualifications. He admitted that some of them did not hold the highest position in society; but there were, no doubt, a fair number who possessed both the educational and social as well as the legal qualifications. If the appointments were made by the Lord Lieutenant, looking at this matter with fair and unprejudiced eyes, there could not be any difficulty in discovering several highly estimable persons who might be put upon the Bench with great satisfaction to the mass of the population of Flintshire. Again, the bulk of the people were Welsh speaking, while the present magistrates, almost without exception, were English speaking, and were totally unacquainted with anything of the Welsh language. Interpreters—often men of a very incompetent kind—were employed, and he believed that in consequence there were cases decided in 1047 which the magistrates were improperly informed as to the facts, and injustice was done. There ought to be an adequate representation on the Bench of the Protestant Nonconformists, and especially of those who were able to speak the Welsh language. The existing state of things was producing want of sympathy between the people of Flintshire and the administration of the law. He wished to see the law strengthened, and it could be so only in so far as it was based on the confidence and affections of the people; but those who were responsible in this matter in that part of Wales were doing their best to bring about a breach between the people and the administration of the law. The system of excluding the great mass of the community from their proper share in the administration of justice was not truly conservative, or conducive to the real interests of the country. He hoped that the Government would, in some way or other, put pressure on the Lord Lieutenant, the Queen's Representative in Flintshire, in order to see that this glaring injustice was remedied. If it was not remedied, he believed there would be never-ceasing agitation, increasing disaffection, and want of confidence in the administration of the law. He did not wish to see in Wales a repetition of the scenes that had taken place in some parts of Ireland; but this system of excluding representatives of the great mass of the people from the administration of justice was certain to bring it about. His only object in bringing that question forward was to promote good feeling among all classes of the community, and to remove all just ground of complaint.
§ MR. OSBORNE MORGAN (Denbighshire, E.)said, the people of Wales must be exceedingly grateful, and he (Mr. Osborne Morgan) begged to ex-press his thanks to his hon. Friend for bringing that matter forward, because such a state of things as now existed in Flintshire did not exist in any other county of England or Wales. Although the great majority of its inhabitants were Nonconformists, yet there was not a single Nonconformist magistrate on the Bench. Question after Question had been put to his hon. Friend the Under Secretary of State to the Home Department (Mr. Stuart-Wortley), and he was bound to say that the answers of 1048 the Under Secretary upon the question had been most unsatisfactory. His hon. Friend had pointed out that there were 30 Nonconformist gentlemen in Flintshire who possessed the necessary qualification for appointment to the magistracy. The hon. Member for the county of Flint (Mr. Samuel Smith), and also the hon. Member for the Borough of Flint (Mr. John Roberts), themselves possessed the necessary qualifications for the magistracy, and both of them, he believed, acted as magistrates in neighbouring counties, but yet the Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire had not thought fit to put either of them or any other Nonconformist on the Bench. Was that the result of accident? The Welsh people had hitherto been among the most loyal and law-abiding subjects of the Queen; but he doubted whether there was not a strong spirit of discontent and disaffection springing up in many parts of Wales, and he was bound to say that Lords Lieutenant who acted in the way which the Lord Lieutenant for Flintshire did were greatly responsible for that state of things.