The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-16 00:00:00

BOROUGH MAGISTRATES.
(Abridged from the Devonport Independent).
A very numerously attended public meeting was held
on Wednesday evening last at the Town Hall, according
to a respectably-signed requisition, for the purpose of
considering the propriety of memorialising her Majes-
ty's Government on the contemplated appointment of
new Borough Magistrates, and praying the Legislature
to take into consideration the whole present system of
magisterial appointments, with the view of substituting
for them Stipendiary Magistrates, to be paid by the
State. It was evident that the greater number of those
present. were averse to the proposal.
Capt. SAUNDERS, RN., having been called to the chair,
Mr. W. J. LITTLE said he felt great pleasure in ad-
dressing them now, as he should on another occasion a
Jury composed of men who would go into the box
having no bias either for the plaintiff or defendant--
either for the prosecutor or the prisoner. Any question
connected with the administration of the law, and with
the administration of justice, did indeed demand their
serious consideration as much as a question that affected
the rights of the public in general, the rights of any one
branch of society, or the rightS of any particular person.
The meeting was called to consider the propriety of me-
morialising her Majesty's Government, or rather peti-
tioning Parliament to deliberate on the expediency of
appointing throughout the kingdom gentlemen with a
competent knowledge of the law, as Stipendiary Magis-
trates. Before he proceeded further he wished them
thoroughly to understand him, because he understood
that some gentlemen had come to the meeting prejudiced
against the motion before them, because, if Stipendiary
Magistrates were appointed throughout the kingdom,
and if they had one in this town, it would add to the
heavy burdens they were exposed to, in the shape of taxes,
and for that reason they were opposed to it ; but, before be
concluded, he trusted that he should satisfy them that it
would not entail on them any extra expense, while it
would be the means of giving the people what they ought
to.e.ele for and had a right to require, a purer administra-
tion of justice and of the law—(Hear)—throughout the
kingdom. The present system was attended with certain
evils, which he trusted would be removed by the mea-
suro.which he proposed to carry out. Magistrates were
appointed now, in counties by the Lords Lieutenant, and
in municipal boroughs like this it might perhaps be said
by the Council, or it might .be contended, on the other
hand, by the Government of the, time being. It was
against these appointments that he then addressed them;
he would contend that these appointments were not made
as appointments of such vast importance ought to be,
and his reason for saying so was this, that ebmpetence to
fill the office was always lost sight of, legal competence
was lost sight of, and the appointments were made pro
and con, according to whether the Government exercised
the power of appointing men of political opinions coinci-
ding with their own. In the appointment of Magistrates
of counties they would find that wherever there was a
Whig Lord Lieutenant, if he created Magistrates he gene-
rally culled them from gentlemen of his own political
party. He need say no more than this, but simply ask
them the question, was that the basis on which the fabric
of justice ought to be built ? Was the simple fact of
.a
man being a Whig or a Tory, a qualification for a seat
on the bench, whenit ought to be filled by men compe-
tent to discharge the duties of the office ? Magistrates
were petty judges, and ought to have a knowledge of
all questions argued before them. Gentlemen of his
(Mr. L.'s) profession were in the habit of appearing be-
fore the Magistrates, and there were gentlemen of more
eloquence than he pbssessed, who might make black ap-
pear white.— (Laughter and cheers:) There might be
gentlemen of powers of speech so great as to make black
appear white in the estimation of ignorant people
(Laughter)—he would say then; were they, the public,
the people, who were in the habit of having their rights'
and liberties tried before the Magistrates, were they to
have those rights and liberties endangered by having
them placed before those whose only qualification to fill
the chair of Justice was their being Whigs or Tories?
This had been carried out, though Lord Fortescue, Lord
Mount Edgcumbe, and Sir William Trelawny, all men
respected in private life, and who would not have aPe
pointed any man as a Magistrate who was not respected
in his private character, but he would ask them if this
alone was sufficient to fit men to preside on the
Bench?
He would ask them whether the fox-hunting squire or
the clergyman of the parish were qualified for Magis-
trates? Was the sportsman a competent person toile-
cide on questions arising from the game-laws? Or was
the clergyman, whose duty it was to speak on topics
of religion, a fit and proper person to sit in judgment on
vice and immorality ? He thought they would agree