Mr. T. F. RICHARDSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he was aware that Mr. Thomas Abraham Bayliss, who had been gazetted as a magistrate in Worcestershire, was one of the defendants in the appeal case of Barkerv. Sullivan and others, heard in November, 1901, and April, 1902; that the jury found that the defendants, including Thomas Abraham Bayliss, had issued an untrue, false, or misleading prospectus, fraudulently and recklessly, without reasonable grounds for thinking it was true; that on appeal the verdict and judgment in favour of the plaintiff was allowed to stand, the question of fraud being considered as not having been dealt with at all in the Court of Appeal; and whether these facts were known to the Lord Chancellor when Mr. Thomas Abraham Bayliss was appointed a justice of the peace?
§ Mr. GLADSTONEThe Lord Chancellor informs me that since the hon. Member's previous questions on this subject on 21st of June and the 19th of August he has made inquiry, and in all the circumstances of this case, which he has fully considered, he does not think he ought to take any 2003 further steps. Information about the case of Barker v. Sullivan and others ought certainly to have been given before Mr. Bayliss was considered for the Bench. It was not given, but this was not the fault of Mr. Bayliss himself.