iO REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON f E. Parker. M. Barringtoa. whose feelings and connections were all friendly to the individual against whom his testimony seemed to bear. But if the rent had been adequate to the value of the lands, Your Committee conceive that the act of a trustee, signing an agreement for a lease in his own favour, and thus be- coming at once landlord and tenant, is liable to the gravest animadversion. One of the complaints made by the inhabitants is, that, under the influence which has swayed the councils of the corporation, improper appointments to the public offices have taken place. Your Committee are aware how painful and invidious a task it is to inquire into the moral, intellectual, or even the pecuniary qualifications of individuals, and they have entered into this branch of their inquiries with infinite reluctance. But by referring to the evidence, it will be perceived that this charge is App.( A.) Min. Ev. not without foundation; and in affirming it to a certain extent, it is sufficient to state, that an individual was continued as recorder, the first administrator of the laws, after his discharge as an insolvent in the very court where he was authorized to preside; that the removal of the same judge from office, in consequence of a punishment inflicted by the House of Commons, tainting his moral character, and depriving him of all claim on public confidence, took place only by the act of the Irish government, in refusing to ratify his appointment. The case of the defaulting treasurer; Mr. Morony, continued in office after his default, is another instance of abuse of trust on the part of those who exercised the right of appointing and of removing; an abuse of trust, productive of loss not only to the city of Limerick, but to the public revenue of the state. Your Committee cannot close this branch of their inquiries without suggesting that the continuance of the same individuals in office as sheriffs, for four or five years. successively, appears highly objectionable, and that the same principle of jealousy and suspicion which has by statute prohibited the recurrence of such appoint- ments in counties at large, may, on every reason of justice and of analogy, be extended to cities and towns also. It must likewise be evident, that the limited number of corporate justices, who are expected to perform the arduous duties of magistrates in cities and towns, being in the county of Limerick six only, in a population of 67,000, cannot but throw the most serious impediments in the way of establishing an efficient and vigorous police. By the statute law of the land, a check over many of these appointments is vested in the Lord Lieutenant; and Your Committee cannot conceive any case in which the power of government can be more judiciously exercised, than in providing proper officers for executing the laws, and thereby promoting, in the most efficient manner, the happiness of the people. Mr. Parker's Evi- dence. By the charters of Limerick, the freemen of the corporation Carta Ed. I. in are allowed to meet in their common court, to make bye laws and App. ( B.) regulations for their internal government;—" Concessimus quod ipsi in " quodam loco infra civitatem praedictam ad voluntatem suam convenire " et ordinationes et statuta pro commodo ejusdem civitatis stabilire et " ordinare." This right seems to have been exercised in Limerick, as it now is in other great cities of Ireland. The court in which the citizens meet, was called the Court of D'Oyer Hundred, and the presiding officer was styled the Common Speaker. One of these appointments of common App. ( B.) Speaker appears in the Appendix, and took place " on the 3d April 1680. From the proceedings of that day, it appears that the form of making bye laws and regulations, was, that such should be proposed in the court of common council, or select bodv, and confirmed by the citizens at large in ibid. D'Oyer hundred or general assembly. In the general assembly, all the oaths were administered of corporate office or qualification. This appears by