HC Deb 01 August 1906 vol 162 cc1064-6
MR. CHARLES CRAIG

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if the recent appointments by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland to the magistracy in the county of Antrim were made with the concurrence of His Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant, or if he had been consulted beforehand; whether they were made with the concurrence of His Majesty's Lieutenant of the county; if not, was the Lord Chancellor informed by him that there was no public need for any additional justices; on what considerations did the Lord Chancellor act in making the appointments; who is responsible for the status and respectability of the gentlemen so appointed by the Lord Chancellor where the Lieutenant of the county declines to concur; and what number of justices were available in the Ballymoney, Ballymena, and Larne districts respectively, before the recent appointments.

An HON. MEMBER

Before the right hon. Gentleman answers that Question may I put to him a Question of which I had given him private notice, whether he is aware that the magisterial bench has been and is at present composed almost entirely of Tories and Orangemen, and that with one exception the Lieutenants of the counties are all Tories and Orangemen; whether he is aware that Catholics and liberals are over 85 per cent, of the country, and whether he will appoint to the Commission of the Peace a number of Nationalists and Liberals in proportion to the population.

MR. BRYCE

The notice to which the hon. Gentleman has referred has not reached me. I did not know this Question would be put to me to-day, and I am not prepared to answer it. I may say the appointment of magistrates does not rest with me, but with the Lord Chancellor. As to the Question on the Paper, I have referred this Question to the Lord Chancellor, who has favoured me with the following observations:—The appointment of county magistrates rests with the Lord Chancellor, as Keeper of the Great Seal. The Lord-Lieutenant's concurrence in such appointments is not necessary, nor is His Excellency consulted in the matter. The recent appointments to the magistracy for county Antrim were made by the Lord Chancellor upon his own responsibility, and without the concurrence of His Majesty's Lieutenant of the county. The Lord Chancellor had carefully inquired into the suitability for the magistracy of the gentlemen in question, whose names he communicated to the Lieutenant of the county; but having waited for what he considered a sufficient time without receiving any reply from the Lieutenant, he considered it his duty, without further delay, to take upon himself the entire responsibility for the appointments. In so doing, he acted within his undoubted right. He considered the gentlemen whom he appointed to be fit and proper persons for the magistracy, and he deemed their appointment to be desirable. In considering the appointment of magistrates, the Lord Chancellor has always been desirous of securing the co-operation, and assistance of His Majesty's Lieutenant in each county, and he has been fortunate enough to receive such co-operation in nearly every case. It has, however, never been obligatory on the Lord Chancellor to confine the scope of his inquiries to any one source, or to limit his information to that which the Lieutenant of a county may afford him; and the Lord Chancellor reserves to himself the liberty to determine whether additional appointments may be desirable in any particular place. In making the appointments for county Antrim, in what the Lord Chancellor considered to be the public interest, he had before him the number of magistrates and the composition of the Benches in the particular district referred to in the Question.

MR. T. W. RUSSELL

Is it not a fact that 90 per cent, belonged to one political and religious Party?

MR. BRYCE

I have no information as to that.

MR. T. W. RUSSELL

I know it.

AN HON. MEMBER

This Question appeared on the Paper for another day and I sent a letter to the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary giving him private notice both to his house and to his office.

MR. BRYCE

I did not understand that the Question was going to be put as a supplementary Question to-day. I probably looked at it as a matter I should have to answer in due course, but not as a matter I should have to answer to-day.