§ MASTER OF ELIBANK (Edinburgh, Midlothian)I beg to ask the Lord-Advocate, as representing the Secretary for Scotland, whether, in view of the fact that a considerable portion of the public in Peebleshire strongly object to their servant, the clerk to the county council, for whose salary they are rated, acting as election agent and appearing as paid agent in the Registration Courts for a political Party in connection with the Parliamentary and county roll; and whether, looking to the fact that Peebleshire is the only county where such practice actually prevails, and that every representation for its discontinuance has been persistently ignored, he will introduce a short Amendment to the Local Government (Scotland) Act placing county clerks and their firms, if they be solicitors, on the same neutral footing in respect of politics as thaof procurators-tfiscal.
*MR. SCOTT DICKSONI would remind the hon. Member of the Answer given by Mr. Graham Murray to a similar Question on March 14th, † 1904. The Secretary for Scotland is not prepared to introduce special legislation on this subject.