The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-02 00:00:00

PROPOSED REMOVAL OP 4 JUDGE.

The South Australisu parliament has addressed
the imperial government, praying it to dismiss Judge
Boothby, for erroneous judgmenta. The Duke of New-
castle submitted the matter to the law officers of the crown,
who conclude an elaborate report by saying, "that on the
question of Mr. Justice Boothbv's removal, we have to
observe that, although Mr. Buothby has in some instances,
as it appears to us, mistakes the law (as, for example,
with reference to the lteal Property Act, which we think
not invalid. on the ground on which he rests its inva-
lidity, of the governor's assent being contrary to the royal
instructions), yet in some other respects he has been right ;
and the fault has been with the governor in not reser-
ving' acts for the royal meant which were expressly re-
quired by statute to be so reserved. Moreover the ' houses
of parliament,' in the addresses by which her Majesty is
, prayed to remove the judge, were sot, in strictness, when
they so addressed the crown, a lawful parliament, although
they either have been, or shortly will be, legalised as from
the beginning ; and under these circumstances, we thiuk
that the crown would not be well advised to acoede to the
addresses. We see no objection to a separate address to
this effect being presented by each house, or to the absence
on the face of suet. address of a statement of specific charges,
provided that the crown is by any means satisfied of the rea-
sons on which the address is founded. We think that the crown
is invested always with a discretion as to compliance or non-
compliance with such an address. But we entertain no
doubt that the crown might properly remove a judge on the
address of both houses, if satisfied that, owing to his perver-
sity or habitual disregard of judicial propriety, the admi-
nistration of justice might be practically obstructed by his
continuance in his office. No appeal to the Privy Council
or any other court or tribunal would lie against such a re-
moval of a judge by the crown. No instance of the removal
of an English judge by the crown on the address of both
houses of parliament has occurred since the passing of the
sth Geo. IL, c. 23.—We have, lee.,
"W. ATHERTON.
" ROONDILL PALMER.
" His Grace the Duke of Newomtle. lee."

A discovery of great interest with regard to the
natural history of France in by-gone times was made some
days ago at Verrieres (Jun). In that part of the country
there an great numbers of deep fuonslabaped cavities,
called "Datums," some of which have never been
thoroughly explored. Last weak M. Lavaur, station-muter
at Verrihvis, determined to see what they contained. Ac-
cordingly, acoompanied by two friends and provided with
ropes and torches, he went down one of these " baumes,"
about 80 feet in perpendicular depth, and at the bottom
found an open purge presenting a gentle descant, which
they proceeded to examine. They bad not advanced far
when they found a quantity of bones of various animals,
and smoog them the skulls of two elks with antler of
enormous size. This discovery will doubtless lead to •
minute examination of all the "betimes" in the neighbour-
hood.