§ Mr. VINCENT KENNEDYasked how many licence holders had been appointed to the commission of the peace for the county of Donegal on the recommendation of the Duke of Abercorn?
§ The CHIEF SECRETARY for IRELAND (Mr. Birrell)I am informed by the Lord Chancellor's Secretary that five persons appointed to the magistracy of the county Donegal on the recommendation of the Lieutenant of that county held licences when appointed. Two of them were required as a condition of their appointment to transfer their licences, two were hotel keepers, and one was not known to be a licence holder at the time of his appointment. The circumstances of these cases were exceptional, and they cannot be regarded as forming any precedent.
§ Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSYHow is it that in some counties the Lord Chancellor objects to appoint to the Commission of the peace people who hold licences, and yet he appoints them in Donegal?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Lord Chancellor does object. In this case two persons who held licences had to give them up before they were allowed to proceed to appointment. Two were hotel-keepers, and I believe a distinction has been drawn between hotel-keepers, in the real sense of the term, and ordinary publicans. In another case the man was not known to be a licence-holder at the time of his appointment.