§ Mr. MICHAEL AUSTIN (Limerick, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if a register is kept of the members of the 57 Masonic Society in Ireland, in compliance with the Act of Parliament, 39 George III., c. 79; and if said list for the different counties is sent annually to the Clerk of the Peace for each county; if so, is it open for inspection?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURNo register is kept of the members of the Masonic Society in Ireland, though the Act of Parliament referred to has not been repealed. It has fallen into disuse and become obsolete, like the Catholic Emancipation Act, which prohibits the assumption by Roman Catholic clergymen in Ireland of ecclesiastical titles, and constitutes as a misdemeanour the coming into the realm of members of religious and monastic orders in Ireland.