Lord Loreburn gave evidence at great length before the Royal
Commission on the Selection of Justices of the Peace on Wednesday. The greatest difficulty was the political element. Recommendations had reached him direct from Members of Parliament, Liberal candidates, Trade-Unions, Co- operative Societies, and Temperance Societies, and he reckoned that about twenty thousand had been recommended but not appointed. To sift the applications he suggested that the Lord Chancellor in consultation with the Lords-Lieutenant should appoint local advisory committees of thoroughly impartial men. During his tenure of office the appointments had been about three Liberals to one Conservative, but, with the exception of about one in a hundred, they had been made with the concurrence of the Lord-Lieutenant. This showed that the Lords-Lieutenant did not object to the appointment of people who did not agree with them politically. Lord Loreburn's evidence is all the more significant in view of the hostile criticism to which he has been subjected by the extremists of his own party. We have no hesitation in saying that he has earned the gratitude of the entire country by his refusal to regard the Bench as a party preserve.
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