The Sun.
London, England, 1838-07-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

A good deal of surprise is expressed by several of our
contemporaries at the intemperate language of the Duke
of Wellington in characterising the late appointments of
Magistrates by the Lord Chancellor. There are so many
good points in the Duke of Wellington, that it is always
painful to us to speak of him in terms of reprehension. On
the occasion in question he certainly forgot what was due
to the Lord Chancellor, and betrayed a most suspicious
soreness. Every man loves justice in the abstract ; but
there are not many persons who are fond of it when the
sentence is against themselves. The Duke of Wellington
might have admired the conduct of the Lord Chancellor,
had it not unfortunately happened that it amounted to a
reproof of his Grace in his capacity of Lord Lieutenant
of Hampshire. A Sunday paper (the Observer), re-
marks—
" The Illustrious Duke put hypothetically some cases,
in which the Lord Chancellor might wish, for political pur-
poses, to include improper persons in the Commission of the
Peace ; but we have a strong suspicion that the cause of the
Noble Duke's soreness is to be found in the consciousness
that he himself, as Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire had objected
to the insertion in the Commission for that county of the name
of such a gentleman as Mr. Augustus Moreton, Lord Ducie's
son, and resident in the Isle of Wight, simply because Mr.
Augustus Moreton was the Liberal Member for Gloucester-
shire. Are we mistaken in adding that the Illustrious Duke
did also object to the appointment of Mr. Oglander as a Ma-
gistrate for that same county, because he too bad upon him a
taint of Reform principles?"
If the responsibility of appointing to the Magistracy
rests with the Lord Chancellor, how could his Lordship
have acquitted himself to the satisfaction of his own con-
science by suffering respectable gentlemen, of whose qua-
lification and title there does not exist the shadow
of doubt, to remain excluded from the Commis-
sion ? But the Duke of Wellington, while he ad-
mits the responsibility rests with the Lord Chancel-
lor, would yet, strangely enough, make him a mere passive
instrument for confirming the fiats of Lords-lieutenant.
Whether they allow themselves to be blinded by partiality
and prejudice, and refuse to recommend the fittest persons,
or whether they are guided in their recommendations by
the utmost vigilance and impartiality, the Lord Chancellor
must act blindly in accordance with their opinions ! The
doctrine is preposterous. Whatever the intention of those
who have agitated the question, great good must result
from the circumstance ; for every sensible person through-
out the country will at once perceive that the Lord Chan-
cellor has vindicated the Royal authority, of which he is
the depository, and interfered in time to prevent a most
dangercus encroachment from becoming too firmly fixed to
be comb .tted. The Lord Chancellor ought, and will al-
ways, as a matter of course, consult with the Lords-
lieutenant of counties before he nominates any
one to the magistracy, and due weight will
always to be given to the or inions of Lord-Lieutenants. It
rests, however, with himself to determine on the fitness of
individuals, and not with the Lord-Lieutenants. But if
the Lord Chancellor must not only blindly adopt the re-
commendations of the Lord-Lieutenants, but adopt the re-
commendations of the Lord-Lieutenants alone, then the
latter have def./ref° the appointment,and it would be better
that the responsibility should rest with them also. The
next step would be for Lori-Lieutenants to declare them-
selves irremovable, and then we should have so many
petty Sovereigns throughout the country iaterposetl
between the regal Government and the people. The
soreness expressed by several Lord-Lieutenants at
the determination Lord Chancellor no lonzer
to leave that important part of his duty, the no-
mination to the magistracy, to be exercised at the
blind caprice of the Lord-Lieutenants, proves that it was
high time to interfere. The Noble and Learned Lori
would perhaps have given greater satisfaction to the coun-
try had he exercised his power of nominating, when Lord-
Lieutenants have been par:ial still more unsparingly. In
mod of the counties we know the appointments have been
very few. We may refer, as an ins:auce, to the barge and
populous county of Somerset. In the irmnediat._! neigh-
b otrhood of B.th only three adltions have ben made
to the Commission. On,, a most talented and respectable
individual, Mr. Bh-dr, for two iucceedirp.; years Milor of
Bath ; the second nomination, Mr. Tudor, a eery
re-
spectable person, but a decided Tory ; the' third is
Colonel Bailey, whose app tintment has gis en sa-
tisfaction to all parties, although he is a zealous and
eon'tant supporter of the present Government, one of the
heroes of tValerloo, and a commanding officer of a regi-
ment, fie second Lattalion of the Sazh, on that glorious
day. As far as that county is concerned, it cannot at a' I
evt.nts be imputed either to the Lord Li,latenant that he
has b.-en actuated by party rnoti‘es in his recommendations
to the Lord Chancellor, or to the Litter that he has shown
any unnecessary desire to exercise his power in an unwar-
rantable manner. The present Lord Chancellor has won
golden opinions from all men on account of his admirably
conduct as the head of the first Court of the country ; and
the same high qualities which make him one of the best
'udges this country has ever possessed, will secure to the
country a better nomination to the magistracy than it has
experienced for a long period.—Morning Chronicle.
It is to be hoped that the country will not pass over
without just reprehension the monstrous claim put forth by
Lord John Russell, on behalf of mal-practitioners of all
classes who may have the good or evil fortune to be
favoured by his Lordship and his colleagues. On Tuesday
and Friday last certain questions were put to the Secretary
for the Home Department by Lord Ellenborough in the
Upper House, and by Lord Chandos and Mr. Herries in
the Lower, touching the late appointments made by Lord
Durham in Lower Canada, where, under a variety of
curious pretences, the Noble Lord had superseded the old
Executive Council, and had actually got up the sham re-
semblance of a new one, by stringing together and gazet-
ting the names of sundry of his own household (ffcers, and
clubbing them " Executive Councillors" to " assist him,"
forsooth, in carrying on the British Government of North
America. Now the persons so appointed, as was
shown by Lord Ellenborough (and one of whom was the
celebrated Mr. Turton, as appeared from the GaTette),
became, by an old custom of the colony, the sole board of
audit there—that is to say, the sole board for auditing the
accounts of the Executive Government, they themselves
forming a portion of the same Executive Government, and
the sore instrumental part of it, acting under the supreme
commands of Lord Durham—, board, in fact, for doing
whatever Lord Durham might order them, and for justify-
ing by the annexation of their signatures whatever extra-
vagance he, their chief, might of his own arbitrary will
and pleasure entail upon the colony. Lord Ellenborough
has the reputation certainly of being a better constitu-
tional lawyer than my Lord Glenelg. We doubt whe-
ther he may not have almost equalled the attainments
of Mr. Charles Buller, and (the professional ones) of
Mr. T. E. M. Turton, and it is stated by Lord Ellen-
borough to be a doubtful question whether Lord Dur-
ham, with all the paraphernalia of his dictatorship about
him, could legally dissolve the old Executive Council,
or displace the persons composing it, except for some
sufficient cause, such as misconduct, or so forth. So, Lord
Brougham, and afterwards the Duke of Wellington, de-
clared that whatever powers were vested in Lord Durham
belonged to him by virtue of the Act of Parliament passed
this Session ; and by that alone ; nor could either of those
Peers find authority granted to the Noble Earl in the said
Act for dissolving the old Council and governing without
any Council ; or, what was precisely the same thing, with
a sham Council, constituted of its own immediate crea-
tures, and void of every particle of freedom in the exer-
cise of their own judgments. Here, in this debate of
the Lords, we see the germ of that sore, jealous, and
angry, because frightened, spirit, manifested by the Pre-
sident of the Council, which subsequently in the House
of Commons bore such edifying fruit, when matured by
the meditative broodings of Lord John Russell over the
acts and prospects of the Durham reign. Lord Lans-
downe " deprecated" (of course he did) the practice of
" raising debates on the spur of the moment," and on
detached pieces of Canadian intelligence. With regard to
the importent question 9f nominations by the Dictator of
the Canadae, and of the salaries to be enjoyed by those
who are favoured with his patronage, Lord Chandos intro-
duced, in the mildest terms, an inquiry, which was followed
up with judgment and spirit by Mr. Herries, and addressed
to Lord John Russell. The latter Noble Lord conde-
scendingly admitte4 that it " was a question of which dis-
cussion might take place whether the principles acted upon
by Lord Durham, as announced in the letter signed by his
Chief Secretary, Mr. Buller, were sound and wise, or
otherwise." He further said, and it was all he could say,
that " he felt no doubt of Lord Durham having acted to
the best of his judgment." Such is the only satisfaction we
are to have for Lord Durham's arrogance of temper, greedi-
ness of power,
and mulishness of will, in unravelling and
breaking up
the whole of those arrangements which Sir
John Colborne, a man incomparably more acute and
sagacious than ever Lord Durham could pretend to be,
had made for the carrying on of the domestic government
of Lower Canada. For be it recollected Sir John Col-
borne had received about the end of last March from Lord
Glenelg a copy of the new Act passed this session, for the
temporary government of Lower Canada—viz., that Act
by which the precious Constitution of the province was sus-
pended. In pursuance of the powers vested in him by that
Act of Parliament, on which Act also rests the entote autho-
rity of Lord Durham, Sir John proceeded " to constitute
a special council for the affairs of Lover Canada, which he
did by nominating 21 gentlemen of character and respecta-
bility, who had sufficient influence in their districts to war-
rant their being selected for that important office." Now,
Sir John Colborne had heats intimately acquainted for the
period of I 0 years with the interior of Canadian society, and
with the characters of all the leading personsiu the province.
The judgment of that able officer amid administrator might