§ MR. COBB (Warwick, S.E., Rugby)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Justices for the Ross Petty Sessional Division of Herefordshire have recently appointed a debt collector, who is not a lawyer, as their clerk; and that the new clerk so appointed served for 14 years as assistant to the former clerk; whether the appointment has been made in consequence of " special circumstances," under the 7th section of " The Justices' Clerks Act, 1877," and, if so, what such special circumstances are; whether he is aware that the Magistrates who are in the habit of attending the Bench are exclusively, or almost exclusively, clergymen or military men, but none of them lawyers, and that such appointment of the new clerk has caused dissatisfaction, and even indignation, among the inhabitants in the district; and whether he will represent to the Chairman of the Bench that it is desirable that the clerk should be a trained lawyer.
§ MR. MATTHEWSI have made inquiry into this matter, and I am informed that the recently-appointed clerk was not a debt collector, and that he has been continuously employed for upwards of 20 years in attendance at Petty Sessional Courts, and for 16 years as assistant to the clerk of a Petty Sessional Division. The appointment was made under the 7th section of the Act quoted. The Justices inform me that they have always found him an excellent legal authority, and considered him much to be preferred to any other applicant. There is only one clergyman on the Bench, and he is a County Magistrate of long standing, and I am assured that the appointment has met with general approbation in the district. I am not aware of any circumstances which would justify me in making any representation to the Chairman of the Bench on the subject.