The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-04 00:00:00

look upon the judgment seat of the Court of Corn •
mon Pleas. After a day's labour, sleep; and what
then, after a life's labour, when all the toil- of that
long waking day has ended? The man has put
off sleep until he had warnings not to neglect it
Can he collect facts as Brother Cockburn could
collect them ? Has he the same sharp eye to
detect those nice distinctions upon which law
depends? Is Sir Alexander Cockburn, C J., the
master n f Brother Cockburn, to keep him in order
to correct him, to control his statement to thejury,
and to give the jury a more masterly statement, in
more lucid language, with more consummate skill
and a maturer strength? Ask himself. It
is said that the English bar isdeclining—that it does
not present the men who used formerly to adorn it.
As the bench is, so the bar will be. If the bench is
to decline, the bar will sink still lower. If upon the
' judgment seat there are to be only sleeping partners
of justice, with all the wide-awake fellows down be-
low, new morals may take possession of the forum.
and we fear not better morals. And if we can read
the story rightly, the bar is not now exactly, nor
purely and in single sense, the path to the bench.
On the contrary, you may reach the bench most
successfully, with the best lading of stores, if you
pass by other paths : through the House of Com
mons is one way; through the smoothly-swinging
doors of the Treasury another. The judge is to
owe his elevation to the bench, not- to his own
standing at the bar ; he is not to command it by
a legal force which extorts the appointment, but
he is to owe it to his connexion with the
Treasury ; and every step of his career
is to be influenced by his connexion" with
some parliamentary borough. That is a new and
not a professional path. It is one that might be
pursued by men whose-power at the bar would not
extort appointment by the sheer force of talent and
professional success. And if the bench is become
only a bed, upon which the tired politician is to lie
down with" a pang of regret," that path will serve
as well as any other ; only then we shall have to
ask, what will become of the independence of the
bench and the bar, which aforetime have been
safeguards of our political liberties ?—Spectator.

MORE "OFFICIAL" UTTERANCES ON PARLIA•
MENTARY. REFORM.

There is nothing more to be dreaded at a season
when reform will occupy the attention of the people,
than a tendency to make the representative
assembly an index to the mere numerical
majorities in the nation, instead of an organic
representation of the various interests and classes
which constitute the nation. What is the dis-
tinction between a mechanism and an organism
but this—that in the former, single pur-
poses and ends are gained, and in the latter the

infinite variety of a whole life is expressed ? Now
what we want in a representative assembly is not
merely an index to the most powerful forces of the
national life, but a full expression of that life
itself. We want the nation to be organically
represented by the state. We want to see in it
not simply the organs of the greater social interests,
but the organs of. all interests which are, of vital
importance to the well-being of the nation. What
is most of all to be dreaded in a hasty reform is,
that a uniformity of representation may take the
place of a healthy variety that the smaller
interests may be drowned in the monotonous
reduplications of members who represent
the numerically larger interests. No doubt it
is idle and mischievous to maintain that a
system of representation which suits one genera-
tion will fairly express the mind of another. But
what is to be avoided in preparing the public mind
for any syeat change is the injurious notion that
classes stationary in numbers must lose their voice
in the national councils, in order to leave room for
a fuller chorus from the classes which are increas-
ing in numbers, Let us not be misunderstood.
We desire nothing more than to see those larger
classes not yet adequately represented, receive
their share of influence, But let it not he laid
down. that that share of influence ought to be in
proportion to their numbers. This is the radical
evil of a democratic constituency, and sincerely as
we believe that the time is not far distant when
some new modifications must he adopted into our
representative system, there is no object we_ba,ye
more at heart than this—thatiEfore such a change
takes. place the country should clearly understand
that they ought not to aim at indefinitely extending
the parliamentary representation of classes in pro-
portion even to their social weight, but rather at
securing a fair influence to those who are.in danger
of being outnumbered in the constituent bodies.4t
was with"the greatest s ttisfaction that we found the
leading journal lately using its influence to secure
the recognition of this principle. There is, for
example, a large and growing unrepresented class
—the class of artisans—who at the next remodel-

line of our representative system have a right to
ask for more influence. But while we freely admit
this. let us ask from them a concession in return,
namely to take to heart the principle that England
will cease to be England as soon as she admits the
American doctrine that the will of the numerical
majority of her population is to constitute directly
the moving power of the government. Our
safety lies in the various play of mutual
influences which our various classes exercise
on each other—in the readiness of our people to
waive the advantage of physical numbers in favour of
intellectual and moral respectability—in the mode-
ration which will not rule by force when it cannot
rule by reason. There is a reserve of power in
the English people which they are wise enough
never to put 'wholly forth into their political
organisations. They do not use up all their
strength in their electoral capacity. A new and
vivid,- political interest calls forth a whole mass of
unused force, which, to the surprise of everybody,
changes the whole face of the political world
There is no constitution so elastic as the English
—in which you can so little calculate the combina-
tions of political classes. Now, all this elasticity
would be lost if we ever give in to the principle of
extending electoral rights in mere proportion to
numerical strength. " A democratic republic and
an absolute monarchy," says a great writer, " agree
in this, that in both alike► the nation or people
delegates its whole power," and so is lost that "due
proportion of the potential, that is latent or dor-
mant power, to the actual power." We see this
state of things in America, we see it in France. In
neither country is there a healthy action of the
lesser forces of the state upon the greater. The
majority predominates and tyrannises over all the
minorities Never may we see such a state of
things in England, Let it be the first object of the
press to inculcate on the people, that in looking for
principles of new reform, we must avoid unifor-
mity of interest in calling forth the new consti-
tuencies. Let the people study well this wise
remark of the frfmes t--" A good minority ought not
to be disfranchised ; and we cannot but suspect
the government of this country would have been
steadier for the last thirty years and its oscillations
less violent, if minorities had enjoyed a less inter
mittent and more recognised influence." Of the
best means of attaining this object we must speak
on some other occasion.--Economist.