The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-21
dle life. This is owing to the system (

dle life. This Is owing to the system or early retirement. The police force of England is a unit and is administered by the home office Of the government. Consequently what applies in London is also the rule. with trif1ing modltca- tions, in every country parish After tWenty-six years of good, honest ser vice the policeman retires on pension. It isn't much--only five dollars week but it at least insures the necessaries of life, and since he may still work II he can get any one to employ him, as he usually can. his position from that time may be better financially than it was before,
 Of course the pension he gets after twenty-six years of service will be part of the interest on his own conn pulsory savings. Every week he is docked about shilling, This isn't all for his pension: some of 1t Is For his weekly dues in a benefit society. The latter insures. a good plump sum in case of death, sand in case of early re- tirement through infirmity still larger sum. So that the English policeman is fairly well provided for even down to old age, and this undoubtedly is one reason why he keeps so good natured in harassing situations and is so general ly behaved and self-respecting. His pay is not large, but it is sure, and assuming good conduct for tWenty-siX years his position is life one.
 In the provinces the pay of policemen is lower than in London, yet here it is low enough, one would think. For the first year it is six dollars a week. and it rises annually until, for what is called a constable of the frst-class, it reaches one pound, fifteen shillings and twopence per week, or about nine dol lars. A police sergeant receives ten dollars, and officers of higher rank lit tie more.
 Wholly out of proportion to the small pay of policemen are the salaries of judges in this country, The lord chief justice gets annual stipend which all most equals that of the president of the United States-in other words forty thousand dollars. Most of the other Judges get not less than twenty-five thousand year. and the London mag istrates, of whom there are twenty-five, range in salary from about seven thou sand dollars to ten thousand. On the other hand it is striking fact that outside of few magistrates in cities and large towns, those who fill the magisterial office in England do SC with no pecuniary recompense whatev- CT. The theory Is that they are we'll enough paid in the honor of setting in the seat of judgment and in the satis- faction of lording it for time over their unfortunate fellow creatures. These gentlemen are commonly spoken of as "The Great Unpaid They are appointed for life or during good be- havior by the Lord Chancellor. Most of them are men of wealth and leisure and many of them men of title. Earl Russell was justice of the peace until a few days ago, but the powers that be have concluded that from now on the services of that unfortunate nobleman quite as much sinned against as sin ming, everybody here thnks-can be dispensed with.
 The way in which justice, or what is not justice, is dealt out to petty offend
 
 the most vulnerable points in the whole judicial system of England Certainly 1t is the one that meets with most crit
 cism. It used to be a proverb that these country. magistrates were better judges of wine than of law, and that their sentences in the morning were regulated, as to the degree of severity involved, by the severity or lightness of the attack of gout they had suffered the night before. But times have changed and so have men, even Englishmen, who so little like change, including even the country squire of England, who is usually the country magistrate, and usually, too, very set in his ways and thoughts. There was a movement some time ago to break the tradition that only men of property were eligible as justices of the peace, and it was partially successful. In a few in- stances. as vacancies occurred, work ing men were put on the bench. But the trouble is that workingmen are obliged to use their time in making a living; the mere honor of being jus tice of the peace doesn't make the pot boil nor furnish anything to go in the pot That is one trouble, and another might be that working men might be just as much inclined to favor the class to which they belong in which case strict Justice would be as far off as ever.
 Extended and careful observation of the unpaid magistracy of England has convinced me that excepting in one di- rectbn they can be pretty well relied upon for fairness and even kindliness. Englishman, not given so much as of old to either wine bibbing or the luxu- ry of gouty toes, but well intentfoned, well informed and, like the higher classes generally in this country, deep ly sensible that high responsibility and in particular the responsibility of guarding and helping the classes who are lower down. But with all their good intentions these great landed magistrates, being only human, fail at one point Woe betide the poor wretch who Is guilty of breaking into their game preserves. They easily condone trifling offences against the person, but where property is involved, espec ially if it be the kind of property that conduces to sport let the poor culprit look out. For the privilege of knock ing a man down and kicking him you may have to pay not more perhaps than two alYd sixpence, but for picking ril lJa h1 erri,1 a