§ MR. DANEI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland how long Colonel Buchanan has been a Governor of the District Asylum for Tyrone and Fermanagh; how many attendances he has made during that period; what was the total windier of attendances; and upon what grounds was his removal effected front the List of Governors by His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland?
MR. J. MORLEYThe general grounds on which the Lord Lieutenant acted in selecting his own nominees for the Asylums Boards for 1893 were fully explained in my reply yesterday to a question put by the hon. and learned Member for Londonderry, and again in my statement of last evening. The fact that the particular gentlemen mentioned were, with others, not included in the limited number of selections made directly by His Excellency was in no way whatever due to personal considerations, hut solely to the necessity of establishing a fairer and more general representation on the Boards. I understand both these gentlemen gave good attendances. It is, of course, open to the Grand Jury to 402 nominate them to any of their vacancies. The Lord Lieutenant would he also glad to appoint them to any vacancies among his nominees when it can be done without interfering with the more general representation which he has endeavoured to establish.
§ MR. DANEArising out of that answer, may I ask if the right hon. Gentleman is aware that Colonel Buchanan was removed in favour of another gentleman who was also a Protestant? Is he also aware that Colonel Buchanan not only most carefully and sedulously attended the meetings of the Board, but lived within gunshot of it; that he was unanimously elected on each one of its committees, and that, as a matter of fact, he kept all the minutes of its meetings in his own handwriting?
§ MR. CARSON (Dublin University)Before the right hon. Gentleman answers the question, I wish to ask him, is he aware that last year Colonel Buchanan received special thanks from the Visitors of the Lunacy Department for the manner in which he had discharged his duties?
§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)Is not Colonel Buchanan Clerk of the Peace for the county of Tyrone, and are not his official duties in that capacity sufficient to occupy Ids attention? Did not the gallant gentleman in the course of a speech that he recently delivered say that if the Home Rule Bill were passed he would put himself at the head of his regiment?
MR. J. MORLEYWhen the change was made I was not aware of one qualification or disqualification of the kind enumerated.
§ MR. MACARTNEY (Antrim, S.)Was any inquiry made by the Lord Lieutenant into the qualifications or disqualifications of the members of the Board?
MR. J. MORLEYThe object of the inquiries made by direction of the Lord Lieutenant was to redress the balance in the representation on the Board. No personal consideration of the kind indicated in the questions put, to me were entertained for a moment.
§ MR. MACARTNEYI am not in conflict with the right Gentleman on the point that the right hon. Gentleman was entitled to exercise his own judgment in the matter, but I want to know whether any inquiry was made by 403 the Lord Lieutenant as between the gentlemen on the Board as to who had been most regular in attendance and who had the greater or the lesser qualifications?
MR. J. MORLEYThe fact of the attendance was undoubtedly in our view when these appointments were made, but the question of qualification in other respects was not.
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!