There has been a public m...
The Times, 1824-12-15T00:00:00

There lias becn a public meeting in the Staffordshire Potteries, to consider about the introductioni of a bill into Parliament, for improvinig the administration of justice in that populous and important district. The debate was principally on the question, whether or not the appoinit- mnent of a stipendiary magistrate shoutld be provided for as part of the bill. The majority appeared to be against such a provision-an error in judgment, as we must beg leave to call it, which, considering, first, that it was a shrewdl anid intelligent body of men who composed the assembly, and next, that the majority cetnsisted of persons who had a direct interest in supporting the rejected pro- position, scens to us Ilot easy to account for. A good ma- gistrate must be one who unlerstanids the law which he has to admtnister, and one who is not susceptible 6f any bias that might lead him to pervert his knowle(dge. In both these points, it is to us very manifest, that a regular- bred lawyer, selected from the profession, will be infinitely better qualified to discharge the office of a Judge, than the ordinary run of English gentlemen, not used to the pro- . ',ItAt_ 1AOLtO , J tUAt) V. ~fj'n.,.s,..ziCv dopj'oc Is)LCtLl(J(I of tleC rucs and principles of law. The superiority of the Barrister over the Fox-hunting Esquire, becomes a fact even m-ore important in a district like that of the Staffordshire Potteries, where the greater 'proportion ol differences to be adjusted are suchI as arise between maeter- manufacturers and their workmen, and where in every instance the dispenser of justice must belong excluviuely to one of the litigating classes, and be governed by partialities and prejudices advcrse to the interests of the other. The glare tlhrowni round our country justices, by the flashy epithet applied to them of anl " unpaid magistracy," has led, we fear, to muclh individual wronig, and to serious po- litical mischief. Of the long list of poacher cases which occur thlouglhout England, howv many are there upon wvhich no country gentleman of the neighbourhosd ought to be suffered to give an opinion, muelo less to join in a sen- tence of conviction or punishment? Three times out of four, the questions between rich men and those who work for their daily bread are decided by judges (we mean the country magistrates) who have, and wlio must have, a strong fellow-feeling with one of the contending par- ties. If this be the case between the landed gen- try and the peasants, how much more forcible an(3 definite mnust be the sympathy, where the Magistrate, in a narrow but thickly peopled district, is always a inaster- manufacturer, and where almost all the disputes which come before him are between his brother masters and their men, and-where his decision is ever after to operate as a precedent upon similar cases botween hinself and his own people ! Accordingly, we find that the argumeitt and commron sense of the Staffordshire folks was, as reported in their own newspapers, fearfully against the appointment- at least the uncontrolled authority-of' Potter Magistrates," the growth of the neighbouring country. Mr. WEDGE- wooD, first in the line of wmanuf'acturing gentlem. en, had the taste and integrity to declare, tlhat he did not feel him- self qualified to form part of a tribunal before wvhich his own intcrests were likely to be brought in conflict with those of others: but an honest and sensible, though un- educated worthy, of the nane of FasaRESTER, put the right view of the subject in half a dozen words-" Felow-werk- " men," cried this native orator, "don't let's ha ony potter "Justices, but stypendry, or ony other, afore themn. Do " your duly-stypendry afore potter."So say we.