.' ON PETITIONS RELATING TO LIMERICK TAXATION. 87 . Do you recollect, that the ancient records of the corporation were, in the course o'f those legal proceedings, lodged in the court of King's Bench with the proper officer ?— I recollect perfectly well, after a conditional order for a quo warranto had been made, the court of King's Bench, in consequence of an application made on behalf of the relators to the quo warranto, made a rule to have the books of the corporation brought up to the office of the King's Bench, for the purpose of enabling those on behalf of the prosecution, to inspect the same. Do you recollect what number of books were then produced ?— I am certain five old books. Did you obtain access to those books at that time ?— Constantly in company with others. Do you recollect, whether any of those five books related to periods previous to the year 1 745 ?— My memory serves me, that the earliest book produced on that occasion, pursuant to the order of the court of King's Bench, commenced in 1680; and I believe in succession came down beyond the year 1746 or 1747. You do not mean that one of the books came down to 1746 ?— No ; the other books in succession ; I must observe, that it did appear from several entries in many of those books, that there must have been other books as well as these, from the manner in which those books were marked on the outside ,• I recollect perfectly well there were double letters, on some double G, merely to show that there had been other books that had not been received; but the only books I saw were the five I have mentioned. Did they seem in regular succession, or were there any gaps?— I do not recollect there had been any chasm in the period ; when I say there were other books, I meau relating to other subjects to which those books were not referrable; 1 have a strong recollection that there was a book of bye- laws, which I recollect I was surprized not to find. Were you acquainted with any proceedings subsequently taken against the corpo- ration in 1812 by mandamus ?— If the Committee allude to the proceedings in man- damus that were tried in Ennis, I was acquainted with them. Was there any application made at that time for the production of those corpora- tion books which you had inspected in the court of King's Bench in Dublin ?— There was evidence given upon the trial, of notices having been served upon the agent con- cerned for the corporation, for the production of those books at the trial, and by reason of the non- production of the books, I was, and I believe others, if I do not mistake, Mr. Casey also, were produced as witnesses to give evidence of the existence of those books. In consequence of the non- production of those books, were you allowed by the court to give secondary evidence of their contents?— Certainly ; and I did do so. Are you aware who was the officer of the corporation who had signed a receipt for those books in the year 1796 or 1797 ?-— I believe the late Lord Gort, he acted, I believe, as chamberlain. In the trials at Ennis, was the late Lord Gort still chamberlain of the city of Limerick?— I am inclined to think he was. It appears by documents in evidence before the Committee, that an order was at that time, in 1813, served upon Lord Gort to produce those books, were they so produced at the trial at Ennis ?— I have no recollection of any book being produced but one, and that I believe was a book conversant with the latest period. The four more ancient books were not produced ?— No. Have you any reason to think that you have, at any period subsequent to the exa- mination of those four ancient books in the court of King's Bench in Dublin, seen those books ?— I never did, or ever had reason to believe I saw them, subsequent tu their examination in the court of King's Bench. In the ancient books you examined, was there any reference to the court of D'Oyer hundred, or the court of the citizens at large ?— Innumerable references from the earliest time. In the more ancient books, which are not now produced, there were references to the assembly of the citizens at large ?— Yes ; the D'Oyer hundred, where I recollect a common speaker had been regularly elected every year; my recollection of the entries enables me to state that. Do you recollect any of the proceedings which appeared to have been submitted to the court of D'Oyer hundred?— I recollect, generally, among others, the setting tolls, the approval of freemen to the admission of freedom, the awarding the payment of sums of money ; my general recollection is this, I was not so particularly anxious on 617. Appendix ( A.) H. D. Grady, Esq. ( 5 July.) the