§ CAPTAIN CRAIG (Down, E.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether his attention has been called to cases in which persons, placed in the Commission of the Peace ex officio as chairmen of Town Commissioners in Ireland, have acted as magistrates outside of the towns of which they are chairmen; and whether, in view of the effect of their participating in the hearing of summonses without jurisdiction upon the decision arrived at, he will say what steps, if any, it is proposed to adopt to prevent the due course 861 of law being interfered with by such irregularities.
§ MR. BIRRELLMy right hon. friend asks me to reply to this. I am not aware of any case in which a chairman of Town Commissioners has acted as a magistrate outside his district. The Question is probably intended to refer to the case of certain chairmen of district councils in the counties of Galway and Roscommon who have recently acted as magistrates outside the districts for which they are ex officio Justices of the Peace. I am informed that these gentlemen have already been communicated with by the Lord Chancellor, who at present has their cases under his consideration.