The Times states that the Government intend to modify the
position of the Lord-Advocate for Scotland. That great officer is now not only the chief legal adviser of the Crown on Scotch affairs and public prosecutor-general, but is also, by long prescription,. Home Secretary for Scotland. The charge of all Scotch Bills,. the patronage of all Scotch offices, and the initiative of all Scotch reforms rest with him. Sir W. Harcourt, it is reported in the Times, thinks he ought to be reduced to a purely legal position, political power being transferred to the Home Secretary, and a Bill will be brought in to that end. If a considerable majority of Scotch Members are of this opinion, there is, of course, no objection, but if not, the Home Secretary is not wise. The present arrangement, whatever the objections to it,. has contented the Scotch for a century, and has obviated all the collisions likely to arise from the widely different laws of the two countries, and should not be altered without the fullest popular consent. Some day, a Home Secretary who does not understand Scotch feeling will do or forbid something in which Scotland is sincerely interested, and we shall have a Home-rule cry coming up from the North of the Tweed. Until opinion is ripe for a fusion of the two legal systems, which it certainly is not yet, Scotch affairs should be entrusted, as at present, to an experienced Scotch officer, and not to the Home Secretary. An Under-Secretary for Scotch Affairs would have too little influence.
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