THE UNPAID MAGISTRACY.
THE Great Unpaid have grievously disappointed their friends Those who take the trouble of thinking before they form their opinions, knew that these gentry would prove ineffective, whenever their powers should be called into active operation ; but the reason- ing portion of the public, until very lately, formed a miserably small minority of the population of Great Britain ; and we were doomed, from day to day, to hear dinned into our ears the praises of the magistracy, of which we knew them not only to be unde- serving, but that their conduct was then laying a train of evils, to Arhich-their wisdom would never impose or their vigour fix a ter- *nation./ Their advocates lauded them as a body most compe- tent to the daily administration of the details of rural jurispru- dence, as impartiaLarbitrators between the peasantry and their employers, and as an irresistible force of executive. justice, when- ever the,.exigence of any popular convulsion should call forth their full collective strength. there were others who have maintained, that the poor were entitled to as competent a tribunal as the rich ; and though they did not argue, that the cottager, or the village chand- ler, was likely to bring before his judge as complicated a case as the claimant of a reversion, a contingent remainder, or a springing use—neither that he would perplex the rustic court with all the in- tricacy of merchants' accounts, bottomry, respondentia, del ore- dere, or the navigation-laws,—though it was not insisted upon to have a TENTERDEN in every parish, hundred, or even county, competent skill was claimed for the labouring popu- lation ; the skill of men who have trained their minds to that which they profess, not the blundering incapacity of an amateur performer, who, though he may get rid of nine cases in ten, when no great difficulty is presented, stumbles over the first obstacle, and re- venges himself on the unfortunate litigant who has thrown it in his way. It was argued, also, that neither the squire, or parson of the parish, or the attorney, was the most proper or impartial arbitrator between the labourer and his employer. They have afelkay-feeling with the one, none with the other ; but in the present day Me objec- tion is yet stronger—they have a direct interest in lowering wages— the less the farmer pays to those below, the more he can afford to pay to those above him—the rent and the tithes must be screwed out of the -labeurer; what chance, then, has Giles in competition with his master? . The attorney, it is true, cannot sit on the bench, and pronounce sentence ; but he can sit below it, and pull the wires ; he cannot be actor, but he can be prompter; he cannot be the magistrate, but he can be his clerk ; he may not support his own immediate interest, but he serves his employer. We do not make this latter observation with any intention of throwing undeserved obloquy on a class already the subject of much vulgar prejudice, but in order to clear away one of the pretences which are opposed to us. Some, on the other side of the argument, admit the ignorance and stupidity of the Justices ; but then they say, This is practically no evil, because the clerk can set him right; the thing works well. Look at Guildhall and the Mansionhousef—you have the dignity of Sir CHARLES FLOWER, Sir PETER LAURIE, or Sir CLAUDIUS HUNTER, combined with the experience of Mr. IrloBLEa, Mr. PAYNE, and Mr. BERESFORD I Then we admit Justice Midas is an ass, to whose judgment_we would not submit the comparative !writs of two bundles of hay; but his land-steward, Mr. Scrivener, an acute, active man, and a regular lawyer. If _to preserve game, enforce the payment of tithe.% stop foot- paths, and silence profane fiddles, had been the only ends and ob- hats of justice, the squires and their .clerical adjuncts night hve served the purpose. They have shown every disposition; and have displayed extraordinary vigour in punishing. _the. Iran • ., • signs, exacting the dues,_ curtailing tbe..Coinietiienc.fas; and de ing the amusements of the lower orders ; but if greater things are to be accomplished—crime to be prevented, famine averted, op- pression repelled, confidence and content to be secured—then our rustic police is at fault. When the case rises higher—when a long train of misgovernment and the most grinding local tyranny have excited disturbances, even to the verge of rebellion, then indeed our provincial authorities betray their utter imbecility ; the blusterer of the bench proves a coward' in the field—the Solon of petty sessions is but a Dogberry in the counciauftl. -A The buntings, which commenced in rner of the county of Kent, have extended over nearly a third of the kingdom ; and he it observed, that the disturbed districts are those in which the practice of reducing wages to the lowest possible denomination, and paying a fraction of the deficiency out of the poor-rates, was most notoriously prevalent. The magistrates began with a false- hood—they declared that the fires were not the work of the pea- santry: to avoid the exposure of that falsehood, they omitted to institute those inquiries which, if rigorously pursued, must have led to the detection of the offenders. This was their first default ; of their subsequent cowardice, vacillation, want of concert, and utter inefficiency, the public is well aware : some have actually fled from their dwellings, others have skulked under various pre- tences ; and of those who have acted, the majority have done so little good that they might as well have been on their featherbeds. A few have done their duty, but what are a few among so many ? When the LORD CHANCELLOR, in the House of Lords, alluded to the recommendations of Justices of the Peace by the Lords- Lieutenant of counties, and expressed his determination to act on his own information in filling up the commission, he covertly hinted (truth must not be spoken too openly in some places) that he was aware of one of the roots of the evil. It is not the judicial, but the political quality that is looked to—it is not, how will he act en the bench ? but how will he vote on the hustings ? Lord anoer also knew this, and therefore deprecated any interference with the patronage of the Lords-Lieutenant—those venerable Tories, for the most part, whose useful Ministerial services it would be most ungrateful in him not to acknowledge. But even admitting that the magistracy were impartially ap- pointed, they would yet, constituted as they now are, be inade- quate to the performance of their duties in cases of national emer- gency. They are individually under no obligation to act ; when they do act, they act individually, or else as coequals—there is no concert, no command, no obedience, no control, no responsibility. Is this an effective organization ? In what other department is there this total absence of arrangement ? In what country, in what time, was there ever an institution for any executive purpose similarly constructed ?
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