The Sun.
London, England, 1836-01-22 00:00:00

TORY MAGISTRACY.

ST. PANCRAS VESTJ?Y.

Tuesday afternoon a numerous meeting of the members
of the above Board was held in the Vestry-rooms, Gordon-
square, to receive the report of a deputation appointed to
wait upon Mr. Hume, M.P.. respecting the want of co-
operation of the local Magistracy with the vestry in the
collection of the poor-rates.
Richard Cooke, Esq., in the absence of the Churcl.-
wardens, was unanimously called to the chair.
The followed letter from Mr. Hume, embodi3d in the re-
port, was read by the Vestry Clerk :
" Bryanstone-square, Jan 16, 1886.
" SlR—Having considered the resolutions of the Vestry
of St. Pancras, of the 14th instant, and also met the de-
putation appointed to explain the difficulties in which the
parish affairs are placed by the want of magistrates, I re-
quest you will submit to the vestry this letter, as the sub-
stance of what I have verbally stated to the deputation.
" I consider the present mode of appointing magistrates
in the counties, and the power they exercise, as most ob-
jectionable, and I am satisfied that justice cannot be ad-
ministered to the people, nor economy to the county funds
enforced, whilst such a system is allowed to continue. The
Lords Lieutenant having the power of recommending the
magistrates, and being virtually irresponsible, it will be
found that party politics influence their choice of county
magistrates, rather than the possession of the qualification
for the due administration of the important duties of that
office. It is notorious that a large portion of the Lords
Lieutenant of England, being Tories and strong party
men, have entirely exercised the power and influence they
possess, as servants of the Crown, to support their own
party and oppose the Alinisters of a reformed Administra-
tion ; and it must be obvious to every one that such a state
of things cannot be but very prejudicial to the general as
well as the local interests of the counties.

I have represented to Lord John Russell, nearly four
months ago, the great disproportion of the Tories and Re-
formers in the active magistracy of the county of Middlesex,
and that consequently all the magisterial proceedings, such
as licensing public-houses, the appointment of county offi-
cers, and, in short, everything that comes within their juris-
diction, is tinged with a spirit of their party, which is that
of direct hostility to the present Government, and it is not
to be wondered that Reformers feel themselves aggrieved
by such a state of things. I must state frankly to the
vestry, that the appointments Gf the Duke of Portland to
the magistracy of Middlesex have prostrated at the feet of
the anti-Reforming party all the interest of the county, and
that this is a great injustice to the majority of the county,
who have proved themselves Reformers.

" The majority have also power to assess the county, and
to expend the money so levied without the sanction or con-
troul of the rate-payers ; and, as might be expected, there
are heavy and just complaints throughout the country of the
increase of rates, and of the improper manner in which they
have been expended.
" The rate-payers of all corporations of England have
now the power of electing men in whom they have confi-
dence to manage the pecuniary affairs of the corporations,
and they have also the advantage of recommending to their
Council the gentlemen most qualified, in their opinion, to
be magistrates within their several districts. I see no
reason, therefore, why the rate-payers of the counties, and
particularly the inhabitants of all the metropolitan boroughs,
should not be placed in the same advantageous situation.
" In September last I took the liberty, in conse-
quence of strong representations from different parts of
the county, to lay before Lord John Russell the names
of twenty gentlemen of liberal opinions who have been
pointed out to me as fit and proper men to be placed in
the commission of the peace ; their places and residences
being such as will enable them to supply the duties of
those districts most in want of magistrates, and I know
that his Lordship has used his endeavours to get some of
them appointed by the Duke of Portland, but after up-
wards of three months' negotiation, he had not been able,
up to the 2d. of the present month, to succeed in having
one of these gentlemen added to the commission. You
must judge what must be the nature of the objections of
his Grace to these gentlemen when I state to you that
Mr. Alderman Wood. M.P. ; Mr. Grote, M.P. ; Mr.
Warburton, M.P. ; Mr. H. Weymouth ; Mr. Thomas
Gibson, &c., were among those recommended, and the
vestry will therefore excuse me making any further applica-
tion in favour of the gentlemen they recommend.
" The time is come when Parliament must consider and
decide whether the present system of Lords Lieutenant and
their irresponsible magistrates shall longer continue to con-
duct the pecuniary affairs of counties. I would, therefore,
recommend the immediate co-operation of the several ves-
tries of the metropolis in the application to his Majesty's
Ministers, and to Parliament, for relief, although I am
satisfied that no effective improvement can be effected until
the old system is altered.
" That the Vestry will excuse my earnestly requesting
their early attention to the matters I have submitted to
their consideration, in the belief, that unless men use their
best efforts to relieve themselves, they will have little
chance of obtaining relief,
" I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" To the Vestry Clerk. " JOSEPH HUME."
The letter was ordered to be entered on the minutes,
and taken into consideration on a future day.

With reference to the above, we have received the fol-
lowing letter from a correspondent :

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.
Sir—l creep out this winter night to pop into your
box some facts in confirmation of what Mr. Hume has
advanced in his letter to the Pancras Parochial Committee.
Allow me to call your attention to the annexed paper,
which I invite you to publish, containing the names of
the magistrates to be found from Staines (which has no
resident justice) inclusive, by drawing a slightly curved
line to the north of the Bath-road to Brentford, including
that place, which is in the same predicament at ,Staines,
thence to Isleworth, and then following the border of the
county and the Thames, back to Staines, i. e., including
the greater part of the polling district of Bedfont, and a
corner of another. You may imagine the moral influence of
such a state of the magistracy, supposing no direct influence
to be exerted.

Men will naturally prefer their political partisans, amongst
whom their private friends are mostly found, in the distri-
bution of patronage. When the lower class of voters see
local power so exclusively in Tory hands, they can hardly
be brought to believe that Liberals are in power at head-
quarters, or that the reform has borne any fruits.
The patronage in the case of the Middlesex Magistrates
is very considerable in petty offices, bridge and gaol build-
ing, and contracts of all descriptions. There is no lack of
eligible gentlemen in this district, either of liberal principles
or unidentified with politics. The Magistrates enumerated,
as well as elsewhere, are almost to a man active canvassers.
Every thing is going wrong in the district in question, in
consequence of their activity, and the notorious Court and
Hampton Court pensioners' influence. At their various
meetings they are a sort of permanent Tory committee,
like the parsons. The whole body have a club at Clerken-
well, where they dine, the members being ballotted for pre-
vious to their admission into a room which is public pro-
perty, to eat a dinner, purchased in part with the Magis-
trates' wages allowed by the public. They are self-elected,
inasmuch as it is notorious the Lord Lieutenant always con-
sults and is guided by them as to appointments, when they
do not themselves originate them for their sons, brothers,
and cousins. Their " mistakes" are proverbial. Their
factiousness about the Chairman's appointment notorious,
vide their proceedings " passim." And what is most mon-
strous, Magistrates stand alone in the British empire
in-
vested with the power or arbitrary taxation, for which
Charles suffered, to resist which " Hampden died in the
'field and Russell on the scaffold," in good old Whig phra-
seology. Let Mr. Hume's suggestions be acted upon ; let
us petition in meetings for popularly elected Commissioners
for a county rate, and stipendiary or popularly recommended
Magistrates. No more amateur justice or taxation.
BEDFONT DISTRICT-TORY MAGISTRATES AT ELECTION