§ MR. DODDI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Her Majesty's Government proposes to ask this House to assent to the abolition of the property qualification now required for County Justices; and, if so, how it is proposed to deal with the present practice of requiring gentlemen to have the recommendation or nomination of the Lord Lieutenant of the county as a condition of their appointment?
§ MR. H. GLADSTONEThe Bill of which the Home Secretary has given notice, but which he has not yet been allowed to introduce, will, if passed into law, abolish the property qualification of County Justices. The Government have no present intention of proposing legislation on the subject of the recommendation or nomination of County Justices.
§ MR. FENWICK (Northumberland, Wansbeck)Arising out of that answer, may I ask if the Government will afford facilities for the Bill of my hon. Friend the Member for the Maldon Division of Essex, which proposes to abolish the property qualification for County Magistrates, so that working men in counties, like their fellows in towns, may be able to sit on the Magisterial Bench?
§ MR. H. GLADSTONEI must ask for notice of that question.