§ MR. T. OWEN (Cornwall, Lauuceston)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in accordance with the promise he made last year (in answer to a Question), he has conferred with Mr. Attorney General with a view to taking steps to put an end, in the public interest, to the practice whereby Justices' clerks, whose duty it is to advise the Magistrates in licensing cases, regularly act as solicitors for brewers and licensed victuallers in connection with the sale or transfer of public houses in respect of which application subsequently come before such Justices; and, if so, with what result; and whether, in the interests of justice, he will now take steps to secure that Magistrates' clerks shall cease to occupy the conflicting positions of being, in connection with the same cases, in the first instance the legal advisers to Courts of Petty Sessions, and afterwards the prosecuting solicitors before Quarter Sessions, with extra remuneration for each case committed for trial?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH,) Eife, E.I did confer with the late Attorney General on the matter. We found on inquiry that the practice, so far as licensing cases are concerned, to which my lion. Friend refers, was not common, and that where it exists it usually extends only to the preparation of formal notices by the Justices' clerk. Upon the general question, the conclusion at which the Attorney General and I arrived was, that the practical harm done by the existing 1628 system is so small, and the difficulties in the way of making any change so great, that it was not desirable to propose any legislation on the subject. To this view I must adhere, while there are many other subjects on which the necessity for legislation is both clearer and more urgent.