§ Mr. FETHERSTONHAUGHasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that about two years ago Mr. Thomas Jordan, of Kiltinagh, was recommended to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland as a suitable person to be appointed a justice of the peace, and that he was approved of by the Lord Chancellor, and was sent the necessary papers to fill up, and directed to send the fees payable on the commission; and will he explain why his money was subsequently returned with an intimation that, though he was not a licensed publican, he could not be appointed, as the Lord Chancellor was informed that he had some interest in a public-house, seeing that the Lord Chancellor has recently appointed an actually licensed publican, with a public-house of trifling valuation and a thatched roof, to be a justice in the same or the adjoining petty session district and four other licensed publicans to be justices in the same county?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe reply to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The Lord Chancellor, in the exercise of his discretion, did not deem it desirable to proceed with the appointment at the time.