The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-06 00:00:00

they might not inquire into their political opinions, but they
might say that if they were fit to be placed on the Bench they
rtorrlal be fit to do justice to Whig, Tory, and Radical alike.
On fiiit iiiineiple it was that there had been a partial ex-
clusion with respect to the county Magistracy. There had
been some instances of partiality— ( Hear, hear)—among men
of considerable landed property. Ile remembered the ease of
a hanker of high eminence and well-known character, and who
' had the confidence of all his neighbours, and when he (Lord
J. Russell) inquired of the Lord Lieutenant why he had not
been appointed to the Magistracy, the reply was, that he was
so engrosted in his banking concerns that he could not be well
appointed; end thet there were several young gentlemen
of considerable landed property, who had arrived at twenty-
one years of age, and whom he (the Lord Lieutenant) had not
appointed. When such partiality was exhibited, could lion.
Gentlemen opposite taunt the Members of the late Govern-
ment with partiality? Could the late Government declare
that Magistrates were unfit to be trusted because they held
Tory opinions? If they did so they would have betrayed their
duty to the interest of the Crown. Yet what was the effect
of the Right Hon. Gentleman's declaration, that there was
no security—no confidence in the administration of justice,
because the majority of the Magistrates were Liberals?
Wiry he, (Lord John Russell) said that however Liberal
they might be, being respectable men, frill confidence
must be reposed in their administration of justice. The Right
lion. Gentleman had very properly abandoned the ground of
naming Magistrates for the licensing of public-houses. Ile
had not attempted to support that opinion, which had been, he
trusted, erroneously attributed to the Lord Chancellor. What
security, then, as far as the administration of justice was con-
cerned, was there to be found in the constitution of the Magis-
tracy
by the Secretary of State for the Home Department? '
Let them push that principle further, and it affected the
Judicial Bench itself. When the lete, Govertement was in office
a gentleman was recommended to the Grown %Tic!) held the office
of Solicitor-General—the present Baron Rolfe. :Since the
Right Hon. Gentleman had come into office, he had recom-
mended a gentleman to the Crown—Justice Cresewell. No
one at either side of the House had found fault with either of I
those appointments. Yet those gentlemen were decided poli-
ticiarts in that douse, and took opposite sides, arguing some-
times with vehemence in favour of their opinions ; and if
every Judge on the Bench were seep as Baron
Rolfe, the Tories might have the greatest confidence in
the administration of justice ; and if every Judge had the cha-
t racter of Justice Cresswell, \% higs and Radicals might feel
equal confidence. But if they took the opinion of the Right
Hon. Gentleman as given that night, there weal no security to
he felt in the administration of justice, and they must have an
equal balance of the Judges on the Bench, half Whigs and
half Tories izathe Queen's Bench and Common Pleas-, And he
supposed a few Radicals in the Court of Excheq,aer.—
(Hear, hear, hear.) The Right Honourable Gentleman
found fault with the principles according to whit'}
he (Lord J. Russell) had acted, and which he had stated in a
circular issued in the October after the passing of the Muni-
cipal
Corporation Bill. That circular stated that the recom-
mendation of the town councils would have due weight with
the Government in the appointment of Magistrates, He had
not said that all those who were recommended would be ap-
pointed. If the Right Hon. Gentleman followed up his opinions
he was bound to take away that right which the corporation of
the City of London possessed ; for in that city tl.e Magistrates
were popularly elected. In Scotland, too, the appoimment of
Magistrates is directed by the popular voice. In Scotland the
great majority of the people and the town councils were of one
political opinion. The Right Hon. Gentleman considered
that that popular origin and sanction of the Magistrates was
not to be confirmed. He (Lord J. Russell) entirely disagreed
with him. He did not know but it was the better way, as it
was in Scotland, to give the direct nomination to the towns
themselves ; but of this he was sure, that if the Right Hon.
Gentleman was prepared to set the principle at defiance, he
must go further, and set at defiance the ancient privileges of
the law of England, which now subsisted in the Corporation of
London, and in the kingdom of Scotland. He (Lord John
Russell) had proceeded on the recommendations of the town
councils. There were, indeed, certain cases in which, as the
Noble Lord had said, he had not so proceeded.—(Hear.)
It appeared to him that there were some cases in which,
if there had been exeludi d persons of what were called
Conservative opinions, bad feelings must have been cre-
ated 'in these towns. (Hear, hear.) The Right Hon.
Gentleman had mentioned Manchester, Liverpool, Birming-
ham, and Leeds, and he had said that there was not more than
20 persons of Conservative opinions among the Magistrates of
those towns. He (Lord J. Russell) believed that the town
councils had recommended but two or three out of these 20,
and that the rest were appointed at his recommendation.
He had not attempted to make a balance of political opinions
in those towns, but he had thought that a total exclusion would
have been unjust. The Secretary of State for the Home
Department, in adverting to his (Lord J. Russell's) conduct
with respect to Liverpool, had carefully omitted that circum-
stance. There were circumstances mentioned to- night, which
at that late hour he v.-ould not detain the House by
giving ; reference had been made to the borough of
Guildford, where he had not taken the recommendation of tire

town council, and the result of his advice was, the giving of a
more liberal complexion to the body of the Magistracy than
that which had been given by the recommendation of the
council. At the same time, with regard to those opinions, he al-
waj s found that if they attempted to come to any nice distinctions
as to what people's political opinions were, they would find
great difficulty. NS'ith regard to the statements made respecting
Guildford, the Right Hon. Gentleman said that the Liberals
were three to one. The Hon. Member fur Guildford (Capt.
Mangles) had said that two of the Magistrates
were of one political opinion, and two of another.
In Bristol there were two or three Magistrates who had
been set down as belonging to the Liberal party, and who
had yet never voted for tha Liberal candidate there. So it
had been stated by the lion. Member for that city. Thus
much, then, for the striking- of balances in political opinions.
In Exeter a gentleman, who, it was said, was of Con.
servative principles, was nominated by the town
council, because they considered him a decided Whig,
Such then, were the differences with which they must deal,
if they were to arrange all the Magistrates, so as to have
a particular numher of one political opinion and the remainder
of the contrary. It would be far the better way to make no such
distinctions at all. If the doctrine of the Right Hon. Gentle-
man, that there was no reason for confidence in a body belong-
ing to a particular class, were taken up at one side, it would he
taken up at the other Bi:teals s. if Iley declared from that place
that a person who held Conservative opinions was alone to be
trusted in the administration of justice, they would have
every man of Liberal opinions in the country declaring
his want of confidence in Magistrates of Conservative
opinions. They would be thus introducing a new prin-
i and one injuring altogether the administration of justice.
He did not deny that the town councils had recommended a
preponderance of persons of his (Lord John Russell's) political
opinions.—( Hear, hear.) He supposed that the majority in the
town councils held those opinions, and that, therefore, they re-
commended those in whom they had confidence, and whom they
they had been accustomed to follow, in preference to those in
whom they had no confidence.—( Cheers.) If the opinions of
the towns should change, the opinions of the town council,
would change also; and that, whenever a vacancy in the Ma-
gistracy should occur, there would be a recommendation of
persons of other politics ; but, in the mean time, he thought it
would not tend to the purity of the administration of justice,
that it should be proclaimed that one man had been elevated
to the bench because he was a Liberal, and another because
he was a Conservative.--(Cheers.) 'The Right Hon. Gen-
tleman hal alluded to a letter which he had stated had
been written by Mr. Coppock to a gentleman named Bur-
roughs. He (Lord John Russell) was not acquainted either
with Mr. Coppock or with his correspondent.—( Hear, hear. )
He did not know to whom it was that that letter was addressed ;
but with regard to one portion of the information sought to be
obtained by that letter, that relating to the employment of the
persons nominated, the inquiry was perfectly unnecessary, be-
cause an official letter was always written by the Under-Secre-
tary, by command of the Home Secretary, to the town councils,
desiring them to state what were the ditiercnt employments of
the persons recommended ; therefore, as far as that part of the
letter was concerned, it was unnecessary.—( Hear, hear.)
Hr thought that the Right Hon. Gentleman himself could not
attach importance to what he had said on that part of the
subject, but that he must hare brought it forward merely as a
make-weight.---(Loud cheers.) An Honourable Gentleman,
he thought it was the Hon. Member for Durham, had said, in
the course of the debate, that he (Lord J. Russell) had changed
his politics within the course of the last 20 years.—( Hear.)
He (Lord J. Russell) was nut conscious of having made any such
I change.—( Cheers.) Of this he was certain, that he had been
at least as consistent as the Secretary of State for the
Home Department.—(Vehement cheering ) Twenty years
ago he had brought forward the question of Reform in
Parliament ; but. on that occasion he had stated dis-
tinctly that he did not think it would remedy the existing
distress, but that it was necessary as an act of justice.—
(Cheers.) He was then a moderate Reformer, and a Whig
—(Cheers)—and be still ramained nothing mote than a mo-
derate Reformer and a Whig.--(Cheers from both sides of
the House.) If he had ever deserted that moderate line of
conduct, the only time lie !sad ever done so was in the
year 1830, when the Right Hon. Baronet the Secretary of State
for the Home Department used to bring in motions asking for the
production of the lista of Privy Councillors.—(Clieers. ) He
would own he was induced by the eloquent denunciations of
the Right Hon. Gentleman against what ho then called the
birds of prey—(Loud cheering)—to give him his support.—
(Continued cheering.) The Right Hon. Gentleman com-
prised in Isis sweeping denunciations all persons holding au-
thority, whatever might be their station in the Privy Council—
( Renewed cheering)--not recollecting that those denunciations
affected persons not only of political consciences, but of eccle-
siastical and judicial consciences also.—( Loud cheers.) In
voting for that motion, he (Lord J. Russell) gave a counte-
nance to extreme Radical opinions—(Cheers and laughter)—
which formed a contrast with his conduct during the rest of
his life. lie certainly regretted that part of his conduct, and
he thought that the Right Hon. Gentleman himself regr.teed the
course he had pursued.—(Hear, hear.) Those against whom
he (Sir James Graham) had then uttered those tierce denuncia-
tions, were now his own friends and colleagues, and supporters.
(Loud cheers.) And that party which the Right Hon.
Gentleman had then described as steeped in corruption—.
(Cheers)—unfaithful to their trusts—(Loud cheers)—untit to
govern the country—(Renewed cheering)—from the absence
of all public virtues—(Continued cheering)—was the very
party to favour which he had appointed 400 Magistrates.—
(Long and long continued cheering.) When the Hon. Mem-
ber for Durham charged him (Lord J. Russell) with having,
during the course of the last twenty years, given some votes of
which he must repent, as having too much of a democratic
tendency, he supposed the Hon. Member must allude to the
votes which he (Lord John Russell) had given
in support of those motions.—( Hear, hear.) He
confessed he did regret the votes which ho had given on those
occasions, but, as his sin had not been so great, so his repent-
ance need not be of so deep a nature—(Loud cheers. )—nor
would he have to make so full a recantation as that of the
Right Hon. Gentleman.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. W. WILLIAMS was surprised at the attacks which had
been made on the Magistrates of Coventry by the Hon. Mem-
ber for Warwick. That Hon. Gentleman had no knowledge
either of Coventry or the Magistrates there, and he considered
the Hon. Gentleman's remarks uncalled for and unfounded.
He denied that the Magistrates of Coventry had refused any
licenses to persons keeping public-houses, merely because they
were Conservatives. In every case in which licenses had been
refused, the Magistrates had had good and sufficient reasons for
such refusal. They were incapable of the conduct
with which they had been charged by the Hon. Gentleman.
The Magistrates of Coventry were men of the highest respec-
tability, and would not be actuated by party feeling in their
conduct as Magistrates. The Hon. Gentleman bad stated
that at the last election all the Magistrates of Coventry had
voted for him (Mr. W. Williams) ; he hoped that information
was correct, for it would be a great gratification to him (Mr.
W. Williams) to find that those gentlemen liked him better
on further acquaintance than they had done at first—for at the
former election, which had taken place just before their nomi-
nation to the Magistracy by the Nobla Lord, some of those
gentlemen, so far from supporting him (Mr. W.
Williams) had been among his most active opponents.
Politics mingled very little with the proceedings of the Muni-
cipal Council of Coventry; and there was no desire shown that
the management of the affairs of the town should be entrusted
exclusively to one party.
Mr. COLLINS denied that any partiality bad been shown
by the Naf,Yistracy of the borough of Warwick, which he had
the honour to represent, in the licensing of public houses or
upon any other subject. He could bear his testimony that
more honourable men did not exist.

Mr. J. W. WOOD repelled any imputations against the Ma-
gistracy of the Dorough of Kvadal, winch bo bad On honour to
represent