§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether Captain Monro, of Allan, Ross-shire, who is Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland and a Justice of the Peace, recently appointed on the recommendation of the Lord Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty, is entitled to sit as a Justice of the Peace, seeing he holds a Government office and has control over the police, who, in the majority of cases falling under the jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace, are witnesses for 1540 the prosecution; whether he is aware that Captain Monro sat at a Licensing Court at Tain, on the 17th of April last, and was chairman of the meeting; and that he took statements from the police at Portmahomack and Chief Constable of Ross and Cromarty derogatory to an applicant for a licence, without allowing the applicant an opportunity of disproving the statements so made; whether Captain Monro voted against said applicant on that occasion; and that, on appeal to the Quarter Sessions, at Dingwall, went there and also voted against the applicant; and whether, seeing that Captain Monro is Inspector of Constabulary, he is entitled to sit as a Justice of the Peace on cases where penalties are incurred under the Excise and other Acts, in many cases of which police officers are the chief witnesses for the prosecution?
§ SIR G. TREVELYANThe facts appear to be as stated in the question, except that I am informed that the applicant was in Court and was also represented at the Bar. A Justice of the Peace is not disentitled to sit in cases where penalties are incurred under the Excise Acts because he is Inspector of Constabulary.