84" M r N U T E S O F E V I D E N C E B E F O R E S E L E C T C O M M I T T EE Appendix How many were admitted on that day?— Very few; only three, I believe. ( A.) The 29th January 1817, is that a charter day ?— No. S. ^ J How many names of freemen are there ?— More than one hundred a good deal. Mr. Is it the usage of the corporation of Limerick to admit freemen upon any day Edward Parker, vvhatsover on which the council may chance to be holden ?— Yes. ( 27 June.) Who has the power of summoning the council ?— I conceive that the mayor has. The mayor can call a council at his will and pleasure, as the head of the corpo- ration ?— I believe so. Produce the single sheet?—[ The witness produced the same.] What is that ?— That is a sheet containing the resolutions of the council when the books were last in England, June 1820. The following extract was read :— " Resolved, that Mr. Mayor be requested to call a council upon some convenient day after the town clerk shall return from London with the books, in order that then our resolutions may be inserted in them in the presence of the said council, and that a report may be given to the council then assembled, of the proceedings that shall have taken place with regard to such petition." In those resolutions it appears, that Mr. D'Esterre was elected recorder for the ensuing year, on the 26th June 1820; did Mr. D'Esterre serve the office of recorder for that year ?— No. How did he cease to be recorder?— There was a recorder appointed in his place, in consequence of an order from the Irish government to discontinue him. He was elected by the corporation, in consequence of an order from the Irish government; he was not sworn in, and another gentleman appointed in his room ? — Yes. Will you produce the petitions of the several persons claiming their freedoms?— [ The witness produced a bwidle of papers.] There are very many of those papers?— Yes. Has any individual who has so petitioned, been admitted to the freedom of Lime- rick ?— I believe there is; amongst those there are petitions from Mr. O'Sullivan, and Mr. Barrington, who was admitted afterwards. Mr. O'Sullivan was admitted by mandamus?— Yes, but I think Mr. Barrington is amongst these; he was admitted by special favor. . He petitioned as a right, and he was admitted by the corporation as of special favor ?— That I believe to be the fact. Have the kindness to inform the Committee, what the distinction of the stamp duty is, between admission as of right, and admission as of favor ?— As regulated by the stamp act, it is £. 1 British, under the respective rights of birth, servitude and marriage, and £. 3 British by special favour. Can you show, by the production of the admission of Mr. Barrington, whether he was admitted upon a £. 1 stamp, or a £. 3 stamp?— He was admitted on a ^. 3 stamp. Therefore you cannot say that any one individual, claiming as of right, has been admitted under that claim of right by the corporation, except in the cases of man- damuses ?— I do not recollect an instance of it. Do you consider the admission of freemen upon council days to be a legal admission?— I consider the admission is not completed until the freeman is put upon the stamp and sworn. The question applied to is the original election; you described the freemen as consisting of three different stages; their election, admission, and granting; do you consider that the election of freemen on a council day, that is not a charter day, illegal?— I do not. Do you consider it legal ?— Yes, so far as that goes; it is not complete ; it is the first step. Did the corporation always deny the right of birth, servitude and marriage, as a valid claim to admission to the freedom of the city ?— Always, in my memory, since I came into office, until the decision of the committee. Have all the petitions you have produced here been referred to the committee?— I believe not. Have any of them ?— I believe twelve or thirteen of them. Why have not the others been laid before the committee ?— It was by accident they came into my custody; they were in the possession of Mr. Vereker when mayor of Limerick; they were put into a bag, and I got them from Mr. Murphy, high constable, and I have kept them. Do