The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-05 00:00:00

Sir R. PEEL said, certainly not to-morrow, in con-
sequence of the Income-tax.
APPOINTMENT OF BOROUGH MAGISTRATES.
Mr. HUTT presented a petition from Gateshead,
against the recent appointment of Borough Magistrates.
The Hon. Memler then proceeded to move for copies
of circulars sent out by the Secretary of State for the
Home Department to the various Town-clerks or Clerks
to the Magistrates, between the months of August and
December, 1841, requiring information as to the state of
the Magistracy in the towns to which such circulars were
sent, as to the number of such Magistrates, and of those who
had qualified themselves to act. He would offer no apology
to the House for bringing under it the subject .of which
he had given notice ; for if, the view which he took was
correct, it was a matter which imperatively required die
attention of the House of Commons. Fortunately, for
the liberty of the people of this country, the right
of nominating municipal Magistrates had never
till a very recent period been vested in the Go-
vernment. Up to the year 1836 the municipalities
of England, almost without exception, enjoyed
the right of electing their own magistrates. The
right was one which had been inherited by the people
from the earliest founders of their institutions, and on
that account perhaps it was entitled to their veneration.
But it had more solid and practical claims on their re-
spect. It was admirably adapted for preserving harmony
between the Government and those who administered the
law throughout the country. Accordingly it was preserved
by the Government of Lord Grey, in the Bill which was
introduced for reforming the Corporations of Scotland ;
and as the Right Hon. Baronet had been a member of
Lord Grey's Government, he must have heard
with interest and satisfaction of the well-working
of the system of which he was in part respon-
sible. In 1835 it formed one of the provisions
of the Bill introduced by the Government of
Lord Melbourne for reforming the Corporations in Eng-
land and Wales. The provision received the unanimous
sanction of the House of Commons, but unfortunately,
in one of those angry quarrels which had occurred with
the other House, it was struck out of the Bill.
When . the Bill came down from the other House
of Parliament, mutilated in that, as well as in
manye ade of that r other
r respects, the Noble Lord, then the
l
llouse, though he deplored the
circumstance of this provision being struck out of the
Bill, did not consider it a sufficient reason for rejecting
the measure. He observed that he did not think any
Minister would be found 'hereafter, who would refuse
to the corporations the exercise of this right ; and
he remarked, that if any Minister should hereafter
be found, he did not doubt but that the House
of Commons would not be slow to censure his
conduct. The Noble Lord further added, that so long
as he held the seals of the Home Office, he should think it
his duty to perpetuate the 'ancient practice of the land ; and
that no Magistrate should be appointed ix the Corpora-
tions till he had previously consulted with the town council.
With this understanding the Bill passed the House of
Commons, and then it was that the ancient rights,
which they had recently granted to the people of
Scotland by the unanimous sanction of both Houses
of Parliament in 1833, which the peope of England
had inherited from the date of their earliest in-
stitutions, which they had preserved in some sort or
other through all revolutions for eight hundred
years, snatched from them at last, and uncondi-
tionally given up. He hoped one day to introduce a
Bill into that House which would restore to the people
of England those ancient rights, for he believed the mu-
nicipalities of the country were the only safe sup-
ports of the constitutioa.-7--(Hear, hear.) The Noble
Lord, the then Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment, acted'up to the declaration he made. It was
then remarked that his adoration was made before
the Bill had received the sanction of that House. It
had been said, " yes, it is very fine to consult the Corpo-
rations so long as the Corporations are of your own po-
litical opinions." There would have been som justice
in the sarcasm if the Noble Lord had made that declara-
tion after the result of the municipal elections had been
determined. But he determined on his course before
the Bill had passed that House—before the Corporations
had been established—before any man living could pos-
sibly foresee what would be the result of the municipal
Elections. It was then that the 'Noble Lord made that
declaration to the House and to the country, and to that
delaration he adhered. He (Mr. Hutt) could not con-
ceive why that example could not be followed.
He knew very well it might be said that
Corporations did not invariaby recommend the fittest
persons to the borough magistracy. He (Mr. Hutt)
admitted that he thought it not impossible that the
Right Honourable Baronet (Sir James Graham)
might . be prepared to shuw many instances in
which they had erred ; but did not Lords-
Lieutenants sometimes err in their selections of the Ma-
gistrates for the burgh municipalities. No man would
argue that because they sometimes erred, that
therefore they must never be appealed to.—(Hear.)
Whoever was a good Magistrate for his neighbourhood,
for the municipality in which he resided, was good
enough for a Secretary of State. The Secretary of State
in the selection of Borough Magistrates must appeal to
some one of local knowledge, and he was sure
he could not find any persons more calculated to
give information than those in authority in the borough.
That course, however contemptible it was, and he consi-
dered it so, had been pursued by the Right Hon. Ba-
ronet. He thought such a course was highly to be la-
mented. When they considered that the people of
Scotland enjoyed the power of electing their own
Magistrates by the Act of the year 1833, when
it was considered that the Citizens of London did
tile same thing, and whether people ef this country
falai enjoyed for 800 years a similar right, he thought,
under all these circumstances, the House would be of
opilion that the Right Hon. Baronet had taken a very
improper course, and had most improperly strained the
power of the Crown. He had in his hand a list of
400 Magistrates appointed during the last eight months,
and such being the case, he should like to know from
what motives the Right Hon. Baronet had set about thie
Magistrate making ? Was it because the Magistrates
were inefficient, or was it because he had documents
showing that justice had been improperly administered?
The Right Hon. Gentleman had evaded the question
with less than his usual address. Would he answer it
to-night ?—(Cheers.) The question, however, had already
been answered in another place.—(Cheers.) It was
customary to speak of the appointment of municipal
Magistrates as the act of the Home Secretary ;
every body knew that it was the act of the Home
Secretary, although the Lord High Chancellor
was nominally the person making the appointment, But
the Lord Chancellor himself had declared in another
place the reason of these appointments. They had the
authority of the Lord High Chancellor himself for stat-
ing the reason 'of these appointments to be, that the
Town Councils had recommended too many Liberal
Magistrates to serve the purposes of the present Go-
vernment—(Cheers)—that it was necessary to redress
the balance by making a large number of Conservative
Magistrates, in order to secure to the Conservative party
the privelege of licencing public houses—(Cheers)—a
power intended to be used for electioneering purposes.—
(Cheering and counter cheering.) Such was reported
to have been the statement 'made by the Lord High
Chancellor of England in another place. But the Right
Hon. Bart. himself who seldom indulged in any excess of
frankness, was reported to have made an avowal of a si-
milar nature, in answer to certain persons who had
waited upon him as a deputation from the Conservative
Assoeiation of Devonport. These persons had paid a
visit to the Right Honourable Baronet to arrange
about the appointment of Conservative Magistrates
for Devonport. These persons had reported that
they were charmed with the condescension and kindness
with which the Right Hon. Baronet had received them ;
and in describing their interview with so distinguished
a personage, they stated that while they were dilating
on the special merits of the Conservative can-
didate for the Alagistracy, the Right' Honour-
able Baronet had interrupted them by exclaiming=—
"Never mind about particulars—how many will it
take to swamp them."—(Great cheering, laughter, and
cries of "Name, name.") He had read the statement in
a Devonport newspaper.—Cheers, and cries of "Oh 1
Oh !" and laughter.) Ile did not wish to take any
unfair account of the transaction. Did he understand
that the Night Hon. Baronet disclaimed it ?
Sir J. RAHAM—I have not the slightest recol-
lection of it.—(Cheers and laughter.)
Mr. HUTT thought, that as the Right Hon. Baronet
had not the slightest recollection of it, perhaps the
transaction bad not taken place—(Cries of " Oh ! oh !")
—but would the Right Hon. Baronet deny that he had
acted on those principles.—(Laud cheers.) If he had
not done so, had the appointments been made, because
there had been any complaints made as to the manner
in which justice was administered in the country, or as to
the existing number of Magistrates.
to quarrel with the appointment of
gong
cheers.) Ha had received, since
ofs
his intention to ask the House to look
theHanhineetyo gaveiwint
individual.—(Tory
dti insufficiency fnv iiocdit
notice i nagco
ogf
subject, suggestions from various quarters, as to
why this or that man was improper to fill the office in such
or such a place.
He gave no heed to any such communi-
cations, and he would do the Right Hon. Baronet thej ustice
to express his belief that he had never placed upon the
Bench any individual whom be .did not think qualified
to fill the office.—
(Loud cheers) As far as he had any
personal knowledge of the aivointmetits, such unques-
tionably was the case—(Cheers}—and whilst he com-
plained of the large addition which the Right Hon. Ba-
ronet had made to
.
the Magistracy, he admitted that
in no case had he appointed a person who was not
qualified to discharge the duties.—(Loud cheers.)
But, he would ask, when he made the last addition to the
Magistracy of Hull, why did the Right Hon. Baronet
place Dr. Alderson at the head of the list ? That gen-
tleman was highly respectable ; and when he (Mr. Hutt)
bad tha honour to represent the borough, Dr. Alderson
was of the Liberal party, although, like the Right Hon-
ourable Baronet, his opinions had since undergone
some change.—(Cheers and laughter.) But it was
a great slight to other gentlemen who were quite as re-
spectable, to have him placed upon that account above
them. With respect to the town which he now had the
honour to represent (the Borough of Gateshead), there
were six Magistrates in the borough ; and in number
and efficiency they had
appeared quite equal to dis-
charge all the duties of the
Magistracy ; and one of them
was a consideration._(Great cheering from the Tory
benches.) He (Mr. Hutt) very well uuderstood the
meaning of the cheers, But he would remind Gentle-
men opposite, that there was as great a preponderance of
Liberals in the Borough.—(Hear, hear.) The Right
Hononourable Baronet, however, did not think six
magistrates enough, and he gave to this fa-
voured town six Conservative Magistrates in addition
making as many magistrates as pelicemen.—(Cheers,
a town—why did he giv .
e
and great laughter.) He asked, Why did the Right Hon
pinions predominated,
Baronet so accomodate
a town, in which Liberal o
a majority of Tory Magistrates.---(Hear, hear.)
The Noble Lord-Lieutenant of Durham thought he
could justify the proceedings at Gateshead. by remarking
that it was a place where revolutionary opinion pre-