12 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE jtjr Did you apply on your own individual capacity, or on the part of any of the Richard Purdy. inhabitants ?— As appointed by the inhabitants of St. Mary ; I went in company with ——^ ' one of the churchwardens and another gentleman. ( 28 April.) jn ^ g case0f Mr. O'Shaughnessy's deficiency, did you hear how it was supplied, whether there was any re- levy upon the inhabitants, 01* how the amount of it was paid in to the public account?— The insolvencies are always re- applotted on the parishes. At what time did that deficiency occur?— I think in the course of last year. Was the amount of that deficiency re- levied?— The amount of the deficiency has not yet been ascertained ; the insolvencies returned by the collectors are levied on the parishes again; for instance, if a collector returns the most solvent man in the parish as insolvent to the grand jury, the amount of tax so returned forms part of the re- applotment on that parish. Does it rest entirely with the collector, to determine whether the person to whom he applies for his assessment is solvent or insolvent ?— I have no knowledge of any control which the parish have over his return; the body to whom the collector is accountable, is the grand jury. Does it rest entirely with the collector, to determine whether a person is solvent or insolvent?— It does not; the grand jury of course control his return. You say, that the collector returns a person insolvent to the grand jury; what check has the grand jury upon the collector, as to the solvency or insolvency of the person so returned by him ?— By inquiry. Is the collector's mere assertion of the insolvency of any individual, a sufficient satisfaction to the grand jury ?— No ; his affidavit is required. Then the collectors hold themselves entirely accountable to the grand jury ; of • what class is the grand jury of the city of Dublin composed; is it confined to the corporation: Suppose a man of 10,000/. a year lived in the city, would he be called on the term grand jury if he did not belong to the corporation ?— The grand jury is most generally composed of the leading members in the corporation, usually the same persons, term after term. That is the presenting grand jury ?— Yes ; the presenting grand jury is almost exclusively composed of the members of the corporation. Almost, or entirely?— There may be an individual instance to the contrary; but I think, generally speaking, they are altogether composed of the members of the corporation. Any person, out of the corporation, whatever his property in the city might be, would not be called upon the presenting grand jury, or the grand jury which have to control their public accounts ?— I have never known an instance of a person being summoned on the presenting grand jury, who wasnot a member of the corporation, v/ ith one exception; a most respectable gentleman who stated, that he was summoned on the presenting grand jury about twenty years ago, and that in consequence, as he supposes, of some inquiries which he conceived it to be his duty to make, into some matters, he has never been called upon since. Who was that gentleman ?— Mr. Arthur Guinness. Do you know whether Mr. Arthur Guinness is, or is not, a member of the corporation ?— He is a freeman, but he is not one of the common council, or board of aldermen. By what law, or by what regulation, municipal or otherwise, is it that persons who do not belong to the corporation are prevented from being on the grand jury to make this inquiry ?— I do not know of any. Then the Committee understand you to say, that all accounts of the expenditure and levies of public money are laid before the grand jury, and that the only persons who are upon the grand jury are the members of the corporation; is that the case ?— It is. Who summons the grand jury?— The sheriff. Are those persons who do not belong to the corporation, and are not called upon the grand jury, liable to pay their full portion of the taxes, as much as if they were?— They are. Do those presenting grand juries consist very much of the same individuals?—• They do ; in the list of juries for the ten years ending 1821, there are not more than sixty persons, and many of those died during that period. Can you inform the Committee, how often Alderman Exshaw served upon the • presenting grand juries of the last twenty years ?— Nineteen times out of twenty. Can you inform the Committee whether, during those . years, accounts of Alderman ^ Exshaw's