MR. J. P. EARRELLI beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland will he cause inquiry to be made into the circumstances under which the election for the Petty Sessions District of Letterbreen, county Fermanagh, held in January last after due advertisement, has been annulled by the Irish Government, on the allegation that the advertisement was bad, and a new advertisement and summons have been issued for another election on the 25th instant; and will he state wherein the first advertisement was bad, and if it is legally competent for the Irish Government to so change the old form of summons, by the new advertisement issued in April last, as wholly to 932 alter the conditions for the election in this case?
§ *THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELANDI am quite familiar with the particulars of the case, so that all further inquiry is unnecessary. The election was annulled because it was informal and irregular. A new advertisement has been issued and a fresh election is about to take place. The first advertisement omitted to state, that an exception to the limit of age was made in favour of persons already acting as Petty Sessions clerks. It is in my opinion perfectly competent for the Government to take the course they did, namely, to annul the election and state expressly in the advertisement for the new election this exemption in favour of persons already holding the office of Petty Sessions clerks in another district, which it has been always the custom to act upon.