§ MR. TULLY (Leitrim, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that, according to the Return presented to Parliament in December last, there were in County Leitrim 13 Roman Catholic Magistrates and 62 of all other religious denominations, whilst the population of the county consists of 71,098 Roman Catholics and 7,520 of all other denominations; that in the barony of Carrigallen, with a population of 14,691, the only Roman Catholic Magistrate has recently died, and the present Lord Chancellor has appointed no Roman Catholic Magistrate there; that also in the barony of Mohill, with a population of 15,899, there has been no Roman Catholic appointed since the present Government assumed Office; and whether the Lord Chancellor will make appointments of Roman Catholic Magistrates to remedy the existing disproportion between Catholics and Protestants on the Magisterial Bench in the County of Leitrim?
MR. J. MORLEYThe facts, I understand, are correctly stated in the first paragraph. The Lord Chancellor informs me that before the question had been placed on the Paper he had taken steps for the appointment of several Catholics to the Commission of the Peace for the County Leitrim.