§ MR. MACLUREI beg to ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will give a list of the names of the Justices of the Peace who have been appointed during the last three years, and a statement of the number of times each of them has attended Quarter or Petty Sessions, exclusive of the day they attended to qualify; and, how many, having been nominated, have not yet qualified?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. H. H. ASQUITH,) Fife, E.The 1160 names and dates of qualification of the Justices of the Peace appointed during the last three years were given in a Return granted to my hon. Friend the Member for Sunderland in August last. To obtain the information as to the number of times each magistrate has attended Quarter or Petty Sessions, application would have to be made to the Clerk of the Peace and Clerks of each Petty Sessional Division, who could only furnish it presumably by going through the record of their Courts sitting by sitting. As there are about 700 magistrates in the country, the labour would be very considerable, and in the opinion of the Chancellor the value of the information would hardly justify putting this amount of work on the Clerks of the Peace and Clerks of Petty Sessional Divisions.