HC Deb 02 April 1901 vol 92 cc487-8
MR. FLYNN (Cork, N.)

I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, in reference to the proceedings at Monaghan quarter sessions on the 26th ultimo, in connection with the granting of a licence to Mr. Leslie, agent of the Earl of Dartrey, whether he is aware that of the forty magistrates present many came from a distance and from districts other than the petty sessions district of Monaghan; and whether, in view of the fact that the October quarter sessions is the ordinary licensing sessions in Ireland, by what authority these magistrates attended and adjudicated at a sessions court other than the court of the district to which they were appointed by the Lord Chan.

AN HON. MEMBER

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that a number of what are known as "Morley magistrates" were imported and voted against the licence?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON,) Londonderry, N.

The hon. Member is confounding quarter sessions with petty sessions. It is only in reference to the latter that ordinary justices are required by the Lord Chancellor to indicate the petty sessions district in which they will elect to serve. In this instance all the justices present were justices entitled to serve in the petty sessions districts comprised in the quarter sessions division for which the sessions were then held. There was, therefore, nothing irregular or improper in the constitution of the Court, so far as I am aware.

MR. FLYNN

I am not concerned with the "Morley" magistrates. I want to know if it is proper for magistrates to act in divisions outside their own, except at the annual licensing sessions in October?

MR. ATKINSON

Justices are appointed for a county, but for the convenience of public business the Lord Chancellor asked them to act in a particular petty sessional district.

MR. FLYNN

Is it not a fact that one of these magistrates came all the way from Aldershot to vote for this licence?

[No answer was returned.]