The Express.
London, England, 1849-01-09 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 9, 1849.

THE UNPAID MAGISTRACY.
Sts,—ln year pipe et Friday, Des. 16, occur II
wake remarks .0 die vapid ariOuntes, in relation to the
Wymoadkaa .caca • aaptstir the duirableaces drab.
stitrting a saiirlod elected by the rate-
payers, for the present slam. I believe that me London
edits, iaer can be, aware of die oefiof the meaty mask-
tncy. You naturally flu rat Mleatka ea a kw tallest
paints. such as that at Wymondhsat ; but of the character
and effects of the cyst= sa a whole you are likely to know
absolutely nothing. Aad lot, with your smatier glean of
judging, you land oa the oonaltulsa to which all who live
in the ranl districts ham been bug Windbag—sanely. the
substatutios, not only is pollee, bat to all other come now
disposed of by county magistrates, of • court similar in kind
to the county courts, or of a pail Jostler at the Mod of a
circuit..

I w6l
'rah, first, of the present mode of appointing
rarity magistrates, and on this, r all besides, I will state
only what has come ander my own personal obeervatica.
We have heard much ha praise at "an unpaid magis-
tracy." Been you speak of It as "an institution designed
le encourage habits of business In our gentry." Never was
e a great a 'retake. Believe me there are many induct made
to Mame the office of which you are not aware. hie sought
ea a distinctiou appertaining to leaded nroprietors—as a
sans of strengthentne a party es a sours of patronage
and power—mac, not least of all, as a means 01 promoting
personal and private Interists. No doubt many magistrates
are actuated by public feelings ; but of the coat majority I
will venture to darn that the acquisition of " habits of busi-
ness," or (as you farther say) 'keeping the law a living
part of man's thought,"is the last thing that occupies either
their aims or their "thoughts."
A gentleman inherits a landed property, or he obtains one
in a particular divisin. He desires to qualify as a justice,
or, if the then existing bench jurist* him to he suitable to
their tastes, he is invited to qualify. He is then noose.
weeded to the lord lieutenant by some magistrate intimate
with his lordship, or who has his ear; mad, if the other
magistrates do not object, he is appointed. This is the peo-
nes in the oases which have come under my notice. I have
known it matter of boast among magistrates that they had
net one on their bench who ilia not hold conservative prin.
eipin ; and as to any one being a magistrate who bad not
considerable landed estates—phoo! the thing was not to be
thought of.
Let any one look around him, and, if he reside in a rural
district, and that district at all reessable these I refer to,
what will he find? He will see a bench, numerens beyond
the requirements of the district, sad qualified, nay super.
qualified, to act as megistratee—by the possession not merely
of 1001 per annum landed property, but of many hundreds.
But if he inquire more narrowly into their qualifications,
what will he further find ? He will disrwer that they are
men generally and as a body bel.w the avenge as to natural
fitness ; men not only wholly ignorant of law, and unread
even in " Burn's Justice," but without the capacity some
times, and often without the disposition, to repair their defi-
ciencies' sad who are eoatent to remain wholly in the hands
of their clerk as to points of law, while they are shielded from
all the consequences of any but the most glaring and wilful
wrongs, by the act of parliament " for protecting justices
against vexatious actions," so called, but which ought rather
to have been entitled " an air for protecting justices in their
wrongs," for I defy any but a rich man to obtain redraw, and
even he must be content to do it at a certain loss.
Lot such a one then proceed to analys- the composition of
the county magistracy of his district more precisely, and he
will find at to be made up of some such elements as these. It
will consist of the Noires of his division. Of these the
greater part will seldom set, or act only oa special occasions,
such as cases where they have some proximate interest—the
making or altering of a road, the prosecution of some offeace
against the tame laws, where they cm oblige a brother ma-
gistrate; cc on what may be termed state merlon., each as
ar ending at quarter sessions. The general business will be
in the hands eat some half-dox-n justices, of whom one or
two will be hustling men—men, oftentimes, who wiil have to
decide cases in which they are interested, and three or four
others who must be dull indeed if they cannot serve to make
up a quorum.
Such are the men who, nine times out of ten, transact the
busiers at petty morons, where, after all, most of that bur-
nets is transachd which affects communities, and the mass of
which more than makes up for its minuteness. It is not by
the acts of jostle s assembled at quarter sessions, where the
eye of the public is full upon them, and where there are
venally a few nobler, more generous, aid better info wed
spirts to take the lead or give the tone, that the un:said ma-
gistracy, as a whole, is to he estimated, although it isof these
almost alone that the London press and the world at large
take note. As, in private life, it is the current of daily
actions, email in detail but large in amount, which tam and
declare the character, so it is in the weekly sessions, which
no barrister Wends to watch, and of which few but the
parties interested take heed, that the true character of magi.
'trans and a inseistraey is seen. And there, with some re
spectabls exceptions, may be a'enost weekly witnessed not
only ignorance, dulness and inaptitude—not only temper,
petulant pride of office, and a jealous exac•ing of ceremonious
observance such as would be ridiculous even in a judge, but
an exhibition of tendencies, far the indulgence ot which, in
an administrator of justice, human frailty can furnish Ism
extenuation. But of these I may speak hereafter.
Looking then at the constitution of our county mai:jersey,
and this, either in the a *tract principle on hie,' they are
appointed, with no reference to any qualification but acres;
or in the concrete, as they appear upon the b .nch, is it not a
spectacle fitted for a barbarous age ? Does it not stand forth
moue the most aneular phenomena of the age we live in,
Or now, when England is so expended in her population a.
to nem one vast town—when there is no lack either of pro-
le.sional men, or funds to remunerate them—we should be
content to we the laws administered by men avowedly
ignorant of its veriest rudiments; men who, if you talk to
them, you will find never think of looking into a law book.
To me, I confess, the toleration of such a system amongst us,
is one of the most thoroughly ridiculous things that still
linger on the surface of civil society. Yet, no! The elects,
is rural districts, have been ams Miens for laughter.—Ovrts.

THE SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY AND