§ MR. SAUNDERS (Newington, Walworth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can state the number of working men who have been appointed Magistrates in the United Kingdom since July last?
§ MR. ASQUITHThirty-six working men Justices of the Peace have been appointed in England, exclusive of Lancashire. This refers only to Borough Benches. In Scotland many working men may have been made County Justices of the Peace; but I am not in a position to give the number, having no information at hand.
§ MR. SAUNDERSThen I wish to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Duchy how many working men have been appointed in Lancashire since the present Government came into Office?
§ *THE CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER (Mr. BRYCE,) Aberdeen, S.The total number of working men appointed to the Borough Benches of Lancashire since (but not including) August last is 33.
§ MR. DARLING (Deptford)May I ask the right hon. Gentleman what is his definition of a working man upon which he has compiled his statistics?
§ *MR. BRYCEThe question of the hon. and learned Member opposite is a difficult one to answer. It is not altogether easy to find a satisfactory definition. In the number I have given I have included certain persons who are in the employment of working men's Co-opera- 921 tive Associations, and have excluded some who, though practically representative of the working classes, have ceased to be actually working men. The very large majority of the 33 are actually working men.
§ MR. STUART-WORTLEY (Sheffield, Hallam)Is this the first occasion on which working men have been placed upon the Commission of the Peace?