STATE OF THE MAGISTRACY.
Tun parentnge and politics of Mr. Josnpu PARKES are as well known to the Earl of WARWICK as to any other person in her Ma-
jesty's dominions. It is quite impossible that the Peer should mis- take the able, active, and successful solicitor, for anybody else. Many Tories have had cause to rue his independence and energy' of cha- racter, but none snore than RICHARD Earl BROOKE and V4 ARWICK. It was therefore something much worse than affectation and aristo- cratic hauteur, which prompted Lord WARWICK to speak of Mr. PARKES, in the House of Lords, as "a Mr. JOSEPH PARKES "—a " whipper-in or active canvasser"—and again, "a person of the name ofJOSEP11 PARKES." There was no need of refreshing Lord WARWICK'S recollection with the recital of certain passages" in the family history of %omit: and that of the " person' whose name the Peer could not mention without an overflow of gall : but Mr. PARKES has condescended to notice the attacks upon him in a let- ter published in the Morning Chronicle ; from which we take the following cutting and truthful narrative- " Your Lordship's manner or style of using my manic does not degrade me, but poirself. You exhibit only a want of real nobility of mind. If your Lord,hip uses personalities, unbecoming a mum of rank, 1 will not reply by any vulgar retorts unbetitting the character of a gentleman. I can account for your Lordship's spleen. You owe me and as commoner ancestors no political good-will. For nearly a century past, your family and mine, hereditary poli- tical enemies, have in a small way resembled the Guelphs and Gibelins, who in the twelfth century kept up a perpetual agitation in Germany and Italy. We are the last successors to the old family feud. For twenty yems I have not remitted the spirit of my forefathers. You are vainly striving to keep up the feudal system ; I successfully (in the long run) topull it down. The ori- ginal and present object of contest is, whether the Earls of Warwick shall nominate the Representatives in the Commons House of Parliament of our native town, or whether the independent electors shall freely choose their own Representatives. The end in view is the prevention or gain of improved and popular institutions of government. Your Lordship must admit, that in our generation your party has been the loser. In 1820-7, in conjunction with sonic public-spirited burgesses of Warwick, I professionally, by quo war- ranto and criminal information, ejected from the old corporate body, of which your Lordship was then Recorder, your brother, Sir Charles and several of your nominees; and we published the before bidden charters, &c. of incorporation. We returned two Liberal Members, in support of the Re- form Bill, and two for the county. We subsequently, in 1833, successfully petitioned against the return of your brother, and ousted him from his seat—ex- posing in 1833-4 the scandalous corruption of the constituency by your Lord- ship's money. The result of the Corporation Commission in Municipal Reform displaced your old governing body of the town, and placed its powers in an elective Town-Council, disfranchising you as the Recorder. In these retro- spective matters, and my humble professional aid of them, I have, may Lord, incurred your displeasure. Iliac lachrymw."
Mr. PARKES shows, that in his capacity of member of the Bir- mingham Political Union—which association he refused to join until after the rejection of Earl GREY'S Reform Bill by the Lords— he never counselled violent or unlawful conduct ; and then proceeds to a more important subject, the constitution of the County Magistracy. Lord WARWICK had attacked the Government and the Birmingham Liberals, on account of the exclusion of Tories from the new commission of the peace- " Of the old Magistrates of Birmingham," said Lord Wanwscit, "ten were retained out of twenty-two; and out of these ten, four were Conservative. To these were added thirteen new Magistrates, all of whom belonged to that description of men connected with political associations. Thus there were nineteen Magistrates of one party and only four of the other ; and yet this was called a Lair and liberal constitution of the Magistracy !"
The proportion of four to nineteen, or about 20 per cent. of the whole number, Lord WARWICK considered most unfair towards the minority. Try him by his own rule. For many years lie and his Tory predecessors have had the virtual appointment of Magis- trates in the county of which he is Lord-Lieutenant. What is the ratio of Liberal to Tory Justices in Warwickshire ? Mr. PAassEs furnishes a reply to this question- " On inspection of the Commission, (and the county has to thank you for public attention being called to it through your gratuitous abuse of me,) I see that, including 15 noblemen, 6 honourables, and 14 baronets, you have, in gross, 157 lay Magistrates. In this number I find 49 Liberals only ; many of the latter, as non-residents, not acting! Now to your clerical portion of Parson Justices. Few counties can compete with you in number or proportion of clerical Magistrates. SIXTY Vicars, Rectors, and Curates, are in the com- mission, forming upwards of a fourth of the entire County Magistracy! With a good knowledge of the county, and the help of local friends, we find that in the sixty priests you have but FIVE Liberals. !l" [Mr. PARKES establishes the charge by a list of "Reverend " names.] But of the 49 Liberal lay Justices, 22 were forced upon Lord WARWICK by Lord Chancellor BROUGHAM, since 1831. Deduct these, and the proportion of Lord WARWICK'S Justices will be 27 Liberals to 190 Tories. Before Lord GREY'S accession to office, Mr. PARKES believes there were not a dozen Liberals on the War- wickshire commission, and only one Dissenter ! It cannot be pre- tended that this disproportion was caused by a scarcity of Liberal resident gentlemen ; for Mr. PARKES shows, that party-spirit alone excluded Mr. TOMES, the banker of Warwick, and Mr. KNIGHT, of Barrels, Alember) for Wallingford. Yet the man who sanc- tioned a system nearly approaching to a Tory and High Church monopoly of the Magisterial office, complains that a Liberal Government and Liberal Town-Council admit his party only in the proportion of 20 per cent.-4 to 19—to time Justices bench.
The Duke of WELLINGTON also has no cause to thank Lord WARWICK. A correspondent of the Morning Chronicle states, that although the greater portion of the land in the Isle of Wight is owned by Liberals, the Liberal Justices are only in the proportion of 6 to 21 ; and that when his Grace was requested to add four gentlemen to the commission, three of whom were Liberals and one Tory, lie took the Tory and put aside the Liberal names.
Now, the misuse of authority by Tories in the matter in question, is no valid excuse for similar misbehaviour in their opponents; though
the argument to quoque never was applied more fairly. The predominance of party ought not to be an object in appointing mi- nisters of the law and of justice. At present, the influence of magis- tracy is unscrupulously perverted to the uses of faction. Jobs arc distributed, licences granted, offices conferred, and even sentences from the bench of justice delivered, with a close reference to the promotion of party interests. The only effectual remedy would seem to be the appointment of Stipendiary Magistrates, well paid and strictly responsible for the administration of the laws : the other parts of the anomalous duties of the Magistrates in Quarter- Sessions being relegated to County Representative Assemblies— which the immense increase in Private Bill business may before long render indispensable.
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