Star.
London, England, 1814-03-02 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The House met at die usual hour. In consequence
of the great accumulation of business, an unprece-
dented number of Private Bills were brought in, and
read a first time. •

-SIR WILLIAM GARROW.
Mr. LUSHINGTON having moved, that the
Speaker should issue his warrant to the Clerk of the
Crown to make out a new writ for the election of a
Burgess for .the Borough of Eye, in the room of Sir
William Garrow, who since his election had accepted
the otfiee of Chief Justice of Chester,

Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY observed that the ap-
pointment which had occasioned the necessity for the
motion just made by the Hon. Gentleman appeared
to him to be so objectionable in its nature, that he
should not consider himself as having proper)y dis-
charged his Parliamentary duty, unless he called the
attention of the House for a few moments to the sub-
ject. It was not his intention to make any motion
respecting it ; he had not heard that such was the in-
tention of any other Hon. Member. The present;
therefore, was the only opportunity which he could
ever have to make the observations that seemed to
him to be so necessary. He understood that his Ma-
jesty's Attorney General, who had recently accepted
the high judicial office described in the Hon. Gentle-
man's motion, had not resigned the office of Attorney
General, and did not mean to resign it ; but that it
was...his intention to hold the two offices together. To
him (Sir Samuel Romilly) it appeared that the two
offices were wholly incompatible. (Hear, hear, hear.)
To appoint a Gentleman holding a lucrative office se
the sole pleasure of the Crown, and rtmovable from'
that office the very moment that he might give dis-
satisfaction to the Crown, to a high judicial situa-
tion, was in his opinion distinctly inconsistent with
that independence of the judicial character which it
was so important to preserve inviolate. It could not
be out of the knowledge or the recollection of most
of the Honourable persons who heard him, that early
in his Majesty's reign, and on a very memorable oc-
casion, his Majesty was pleased to state to Parlia-
ment, that it appealed to him- that the independence
of the Judges was essential to the impartial admini-
stration of justice, to the preservation of the liberty of
the subject, and to the maintenance of the honour of
the Crown. He could not think that these sacred
considerations were attended to in the appointment
of a Gentleman to a high judicial office, who, as
he had before observed, held at the same time another
office, very lucrative in its nature, and frt%a which
he was removeable at the pleasure of the Crown
at any moment at which the Crown might think
fit so to remove him. Besides, it was evident that to
place as a Judge over the subject an Attorney• Gen-
eral—he whose duty it was to assert and maintain the
rights of the Crown against the subject, was not the
way to insure the equal administration of justice.—
He trusted that in making these observations he should
not be understood as intending any thing personal or
any thing disrespectful to the Learned Gentleman in
question. He had merely done as others had done
before him. An individual who stood in the high
situation of his Majesty's Attorney-General, had a
right to expect, and had a right that the public
should expect for him, that when any high judicial
situation became vacant, he should be vested with
the judicial functions. But then he ought no longer
to retain his office of Attorney-General. He knew
that there was a particular Attorney-General for
Chester, as well as an Attorney-General for the
King ; and that in many, perhaps in most cases, pro-
secutions might be conducted in the Court of Chester
by the former, without any previous interference by
the latter. But this Orag not always the case. For
instance, the recent criminal prosecutions for riot in
that part of the country were directed by his Majesty's
Attorney. General, who assisted at the consultations
of his Majesty's Government, the object of which was
to ascertain the best mode of quelling the disturbances.
Should such occurrences again take place under the
existing circumstances, persons would be tried by
an individual who had advised and directed their pro-
secution ! It was undoubtedly true that these two
offiees had at former periods been held by the same
individual. Lord Kenyon, Lord Alranley, and
other persons, whose memory he highly respected,
had so held them. But so inconsistent did the ap-
pointment seem to him, with pure notions of the
independende of the judicial character, which' ought
not to be exposed to be affected either by the
hope of Royal favour, or by the fear of Royal re-
senturtst, that no example, even had Sir Matthew
Hale er Lord Sensors himself afforded it, could, in
his opinion, sanction such a measure. It was a great
misfortune that the instances to which he had just
alluded, in which the two offices were held by one in-
dividual, bad bees allowed to pass withouteommene.
mposaible as it was to lassify the appoistakeota is was

essential that such silence shßuld not again be ob-
served, and particularly in that House, one of the
peculiar duties of which was vigilantly to watch over
the impartial administration of justice. What would
be said by the country if one of the twelve Judges
was to accept an office inconsistent with the proper
discharge of his judicial functions, and from which
he was removable at his Majesty's pleasure ? What
then could be said of an individual who held the two
incompatible offices of Judge and Attorney-General,
the emoluments of the latter office being four or five
times greater than those of the former, and from
which latter office he was removable at the pleasure
of the Crown ? Could such. a person be considered
an independent Judge ? The House must be aware
that the office of Chief Justice of Chester was a very
high one, being next in importance to those of the
twelve Judges ; the Chief Justice of Chester having
always to try an extraordinary number both of crimi-
nal and of civil caws. He had felt it to be his duty
to throw out these observations ; but he repeated that
it was not his intention to make any motion on the
subject.—( Near, hear.)
The motion was then put and agreed to.

On the motion of Mr. PONSONBY, a new Writ
was ordered to be issued for the County of Kildare,
in the room of Lord Henry Fitzgerald, who had ac-
cepted the office of Steward of East Hendred.