§ MR. NANNETTI (Dublin, College Green)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the official assignees in 1893, 1896, and in 1899 tried unsuccessfully to get the terms of Order No. 255 of the Bankruptcy Rules, which provides that no official assignee shall, directly or indirectly, carry on any trade or business, or hold, or be engaged in, any office or employment other than his said office and employment as official assignee, altered; and, seeing that one of the official assignees, Mr. Alexander Knox McEntire, has been permitted to give evidence as an expert in handwriting under the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act and on other occasions, will he state by what authority this official was allowed such employment.
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON,) Londonderry, N.The official assignees, I believe, sought to have the Rule mentioned altered, so as to enable them to act as 1019 official liquidators in the winding-up of companies if appointed for that purpose by a Chancery Judge, with the consent of the Judge for the Court of Bankruptcy. Mr. McEntire appeared to give evidence on the question of handwriting in two prosecutions by the permission of the Judge for the Court of Bankruptcy, who apparently considered that Rule 255 did not apply in this case.