Speaking on Monday evening in Durham—his old consti- tuency—Lord Herschell
declared that "he yielded to no one in the conviction that to enforce the law, to maintain order, to repress crime, were among the primary functions of govern- ment" We must, however, never be indifferent to the means. All methods were not legitimate, and especially harmful were those which, foster a hatred of or resentment to the law, and distrust of it. In England, we had always prided our- selves on two things,—one, that "when inferences were to be drawn as to a man's conduct and intentions, those inferences should be drawn by a jury of his countrymen ;" the other, "that the Magistracy should be absolutely independent." "No one could deny that at the present time the Irish people had been deprived of these two safeguards." Surely this language is not as candid as we have a right to expect from Lord Herschel!. In England there are plenty of offences tried without a jury,—almost all, indeed, for which the term of imprisonment is under six months, the limit of punishment imposed by the Crimes-Act Courts. Again, the English Stipendiaries hold their offices during pleasure as do the Irish Resident Magistrates. Surely Lord Herschell should have told his hearers this. Otherwise, his words distinctly imply that every part of England and Ireland are under essentially different administrative systems, both in regard to minor police offences and as to the tenure of their places by the Magistracy, which, in truth, they are not.
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