The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-04 00:00:00

JOHN' WHITE, Manufacturer, 228, Piccadilly.

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TIMES—We lately had the painful dutyof calling
attention attention to the fact that the highest place
llrish Common Law Bench is occupied by a Judge
90 years of age. Chief Justice Lefroy was once a
man of learning and eloquence, of a powerful and
penetrating mind. If he had been advanced to his
present office in the full strength of his intellect, he
would have fulfilled all his duties with success, and
might have left a name honoured in the annals of
the law. But, unfortunately, the unworthy close
of his career is likely to obliterate the recollection
of his former merits. He will be remembered, not
as the keen lawyer of the past generation, but as
the feeble and decrepit magistrate of the present,
clinging to a dignity the duties of which he cannot
perform, and exhausting the patience of too forbear-
ing and indulgent people. We have refrained from
entering into individual cases in which the senility
of the Chief Justice has worked a denial of right to
suitors ; but the matter which was the subject of
conversation in the House of Commons yesterday
evening shows in so strong a light this great scandal
that we must call particular attention to-it. It will
be remembered that last year a young officer named
Clutterbuck was murdered by a man whom he had
hired as a guide on a shooting excursion. This man
was tried before Chief Justice Lefroy, and the At-
torney-General for Ireland prosecuted. What oc-
curred will be best understood from the debate of
last evening. Mr. Bryan, the member for the county
of Kilkenny, asked the Attorney-General whether
his attention had been drawn to a statement pub-
licly made, to the effect that the Lord Chief Jus-
tice, when passing sentence of death on a prisoner
at Tullamore, was unable to read the sentence,
although written for him in large handwriting, and
that his lordship required and had the assistance ‘of
some other person in the performance of that citify ;
and whether that statement was substantially cor-
rect. To this question the Attorney-General con-
tented himself with replying that the statement
" was substantially correct." Up then rose Mr.
Lefroy, the son of the Chief Justice. This gentle-
man, who is himself 66 years old, hastened to vindi-
cate his father from the charge of failing energies.
He entered into an explanation which, so far as we
can see, explains nothing at all, and informed the
house, on the authority of " au eminent Queen's
Counsel," that a mistake had been made by the in-
formant of the member for Kilkenny. But Mr.
Lefroy was probably little prepared for what fol-
lowed. The Attorney-General rose and declared,
that he knew the statement to be strictly true, in-
asmuch as it was he himself who had dictated the
sentence to the Chief Justice. "The day on which
the execution was to be carried out," said the
Attorney-General, " had been arranged beforehand,
and the officer of the court wrote out the sentence
in large characters for the Lord Chief Justice, who
however, was totally unable to pronounce that sen-
tence in the legal form, and omitted a material
clause, which would have rendered it void in point
of law. As conducting the_ prosecution for the
Crown, it became my duty to call the Chief Jus-
tice's attention to the omission, and I was obliged
to stand near him on the bench, and dictate the
sentence to him over again in legal form. These
are the facts, which can be substantiated in any
way if necessary." Such is the declaration of the
First Law Officer of the Crown in Ireland with
respect to a matter in which he played a principal
part, and on which he cannot be mistaken. If
anything can add to the scandal of such a proceed-
ing, it is that men should be found in the House
of Commons to defend the Chief Justice, and
to encourage him in the retention of his office
by pretending that he is still in possession of
all his power. Mr. Whiteside begins roundly
that " the complaint was the most miserable cavil
ever submitted to a body of intelligent and
reasonabe men." This is the confident nisi pries
style, and may have its effect upon twelve Irish
jurymen, but is not likely to persuade the House of
Commons, particularly when followed by a lame
attempt to show that the Chief Justice ,ine.r.V.
hesitated as to the day of the exeeii'' ana by a
,
deprecation of any referensg .ta event which took
place at such a eo as eight months ago.
remog
It is quite evideP*-11 the Attorney-General would
never hair,..ttie so public and confident a state-
t N‘ ere not sure both that the facts were
_n_lsniable and it was necessary for the public ser-
'vice that they should be known. On this last point
we entirely agree with him. The incident at Tul-
lamore is only an instance of what is said frequently
to occur, and we have no hesitation J'n dec Lanni,-
tbate'for some action in the matter. It -the
Justice will not take the advice of those whose

counsels, though more unpalatable than those of his
intimate friends, are more wholesome, there will be
nothing left but to resort to that extreme course
which the Constitution provides for the removal of
an unsuitable Judge. The public is, we think, very
ill used in this matter of judicial appointments. No
country pays its Judges so well, none gives them
such splendid allowances on retiring. After a term
of service, which is not long to any man who comes
to it in the prime of life, a Judge may retire with
a pension equal to the major part of his salary. If
he be overtaken by permanent illness or infirmity,
he is provided for during life. We ought, then,
never to have a; physically incapable Judge. If it
were understood that men were to be selected as
Judges in the full strength and energy of life, and
were to retire as soon as they became unequal to the
perfect discharge of their duties, the public would
only have the advantages which are justly its due.
But this is not the case. Men are not placed on the
Bench until an advanced age, and until they have speht
all the best years of their lives in building up their
private fortunes. They then feel themselves at li-
berty to keep their appointments as long as they
are bodily able to take their seat in Court. The
cause of their persistence is not difficult to find.
They are often unconscious of their failing powers,
and perceive no distinction between their present
and former treatment of a case. As long as they
are capable of rousing themselves occasionally—
and sometimes they succeed thus far in a wonderful
manner--they imagine they possess all that they
ever possessed, and would resent criticism if they
ever heard it. It is the rarest thing, however, that
anybody criticises except in a whisper. The Bar
submits sullenly; the unfortunate suitors suffer in
silence ; the Government leaves things alone ; a
somewhat odious subject is left to the press. But
this indulgent silence cannot be always preserved.
The country requires as judges men in the vigour
of mind and body. To speak of the isolated speeches
of Lord Lyndhurst at an advanced age as proof that
a man can fulfill the duties of a chief justice at 90
is an absurdity. There can be no comparison be-
tween making an occasional speech and sitting in
Court from morning till evening, day after day,
with the mind continually taxed, to say nothing of
the labour of noting down voluminous evidence.
The bench and the bar would not, we conceive, have
any ground of complaint if an age were fixed for
the retirement of all persons holding judicial and
legal appointments, and if no one were allowed to
remain in office beyond it. Our own opinion is,
that few men are capable of fulfilling the functions
of a judge after they have attained their three-score
years and ten. Who would commit any important
business to a man 75 or 80 years of age ? If men
of that age remain members of a firm of merchants
or lawyers, the business is always really done by
younger men. How, then, should the most im-
portant of all functions be fitly performed by per-
sons of such advanced years ? The subject is one
of much importance, and we trust it will not be
allowed to pass out f remembrance.
HERALD.--It is much to be regretted that the
rumour, which on Wednesday evening caused a
sudden rise of securities in the Paris Exchange, to
wit, that France, England, and Russia had agreed
to mediate or intervene in the interests of peace be-
tween Austria and Prussia, has derived no sort of
corroboration from the news which has since reached
us. That such a combination might do something
more than advise, that it might speak authorita-
tively to the opposed Powers, whose bickerings have
now arrived at such a point that they threaten an
immediate disturbance of the peace of the world,
can hardly be a matter of doubt to any reasonable
man. We may go further than this. The co-ope-
ration of the great neutral Powers is not only the
most likely means of extrication from this great
dilemma, it affords us the only chance of escaping
from an embroilment, the disastrous consequences
of which it would be impossible to 'exaggerate.
United these Great Powers would be strong, indi-
vidually they are powerless. The advantages of a
common. action, which would cost them so little, are
BO great and so obvious, that it seems almost super-
fluous to insist on them. Without adding a singlea
soldier to their armies, a single gun to the arma-
ment ment of their fleets, without a pound of extra
ex-
penditure, save what would be required Infoolscap,ene,
the three Great Powers might become
speeches
„rocrn
tom of mankind—might save their
ueofa
overwhelming calamity, by, the uthteirla
bec
—There is peace, and therep
e
acwe
,
otind
Europe. Were France, England,sa and
Russia, to.
the C4erraaaa
say this simultaneously, war between

Powers, war between Austria and Italy, would be
absolutely impossible. Whose fault is it, then,
that the word is not spoken ' • whom are we .to
blame for the lamentable fact that the nations
of central Europe, without hindrance or remon-
strance from without, are about to cut each
Other's throats in a foolish quarrel which results
from their own wrongdoing? Russia is on
such close terms of alliance with Prussia and Aus-
tria, her prosperity and her very career are so in-
volved in and interlaced with the fortunes of her
quondam friends of the Holy Alliance, that we can-
not believe that she has been backward in proposing
mediation. Dynastically linked with one Power,
sympathetically with the other, interested tradition-
wally in
her the
must,
ally in the well-being of Germany, England has
ensue
fromprospect
war.
ofgreib
avtcaotemvmererwciealmluoasys
think in other cases of Lord Russell and his policy
we rememb
er that he is an Englishman, and not
unpatriotic. We cannot suppose him so blind both
to interest and
conflict
ts
.not to desire most earnestly
momenbtyi
supposedto
forath is
pweaarce would tnhait:tebriasdeleo.untlrtyiscnouoltdtorubue
in
alone
atrhdeourirskfoorf
upon interventionu.onot
lead in
us
to Germany.such
lengths as that. But,
o
Epurrooppored to decide by a bloody
and Russia in putting a with France
c et° n war, in insisting
eofnerwenhiecehtiotiias
gres. of the mooted
arbitrament, England would be -
°nu
question tri
simply doing her
duty as a great Power in the world. We may take
it for granted that neither
England nor tussia
-P
would object to such combined mediation. We may
even presume that both have urged it.
While thisy
mediation seemed still possible there was an alter-
native before us. On the one hand, peace might
have been restored, armaments reduced ; Austria,
Prussia, and Italy might have shaken hands across
their frontiers ; all pending questions might have
been settled without shedding a drop of blood ;
everything finally arranged without an appeal to
arms. On the other hand, there would be a colli-
sion compared to which railway accidents, earth-
quakes, volcanoes—all possible commotions, convul-
sions, catastrophes, and slaughters, are but fleabites.
A shpek of two armies, each of half-a-million of living,
thinking, intelligent, and fighting beings, against
another army of three-quarters of a million of the
same trenches and battlefields heaped with wounded
and slain, the plains of Saxony, Silesia, and Venetia
manured with human carcasses, the whole green
centre of Europe running with blood, nations deci-
mated, empires and kingdoms dismembered, old
landmarks obliterated, and the map of the world re-
modelled ; what once was orderly involved in inex-
tricable chaos, the active power of a generation
emasculated and unproductive, and traditions of
hatred and honour bequeathed to posterity. Whose
fault is it that the Powers who have the issue of all
this practically in their hands have not chosen the
better part, but consented to suffer all this mischief
to brew undisturbed? We should be sorry to say
that it was altogether the fault of France, but we
must nevertheless draw attention to the exposition
of French policy by the Minister of the Interior in
the Corps Legislatif yesterday. The speech of M.
Rouher certainly goes far to justify the imputations
which have been cast on till., policy, which has been
accused of inclining to this absolute neutrality, of
which such boast is made, simply-because France is
not averse to war in Germany, but expects to reap
some positive benefit out of the wreck which it will
make. M. Rouher deprecated a discussion on the
German question, and objected to the criticisms
made on the conduct of Prussia by M. Thiers and
M. Jules Favre as likely to cause inconvenience and
embarrassment in the present position of affairs.
We are not informed in the telegraphic summary
what efforts were specified by M. Rouher as having
been made by his Government towards the main-
tenance of peaep. They were probably limited to
the writing of letters containing an abundance of
good advied. Such as they were, they were
says M. Rouher, " by a firm resolve not
to co.tract any obligation, and to maintain liberty
r,/ action in questions which, after all, did not
affect her honour, her dignity, and her. interests."
The country of Louis XIV. and Napoleon must be
sadly changed when it can protest that such a
convention as that which is impending on its border
concerns it so little. M. Rouher takes his stand,
it seems, on an " honest neutrality," of which we
can only say that we trust the event will justify the
adjective applied to it. France, we are told, is de-
termined " to profit by her liberty of action," an
expression which would have an ominous sound
were it not qualified by the words which follow—
templates —sueraVal tTa'ciErrnfriNt'WlVlLlQPW
Rouber has uttered in so oracular a manner are

altogether without meaning, and were probably
meant to be so. No such declaration of disinte-
restedness and honesty has been made by either
England or Russia. The French Government is at

all events the first to avow that it has made, and -.4

will make, no earnest or decided effort to avert war

in Europe. It is true it has hastened to assure Italy
that it is " thoroughly determined to throw upon
her all the perils and risks of any attack she may
make upon Austria." France is adding to her army,
and massing her legions in the south, but it is not
to help Italy, only to provide against eventualities.
The army of the south is to protect " the power,
security, and liberty of France." France will not
help Italy, but Italy " is unfettered in her resolu-
tions," and may seek for further aggrandisement in
another alliance. To the alarming news that now
reaches us from every side—Prussia and Austria
simultaneously refusing to disarm, a general war
fever and a new loan in Italy—this manifesto of the
French Government adds a fresh element of dis-
quietude. We could wish, in the interests of peace,
that the language of M. Rouher had been less am-
biguous and less liable to misconstruction.