§ MR. LONSDALE (Armagh, Mid.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that Dr. P. Kerley, who has been elected by the Ballinasloe Asylum Committee to the position of second assistant medical officer, is married; and whether, seeing that the rules of the Privy Council governing such appointments provide that the second assistant medical officer must I be unmarried, he proposes to take any, I and if any, what action in the matter.
§ MR. WYNDHAMYes, Sir. The rule prohibiting a married man from being appointed to the position of assistant medical officer of a district lunatic asylum is of universal application throughout the United Kingdom. It is embodied in an Order of the Lord-Lieutenant in Council dated the 28th April, 1898. I am advised that it would be most undesirable in the interests of the public service to depart from the rule, and that the Lord-Lieutenant has no power to dispense with its observance.