5 MAY 1928, Page 3

' Lord Silisbury tried to defend the Clause on the

ground of economy—the saving of litigation—but for our part we regard no money as wasted which is spent on the independence of the Judiciary. If the Clause had been passed Acts of Parliament might have become more complicated than ever as it would have been felt that from every difficulty a Government could be extricated in good time by the Bench. All who have studied the course of justice in countries where the judges are depen- dent upon the Executive must shrink from such a model. Fiction and drama are not without examples of the tragic miscarriages of- justice that may ensue, as in the case of that judge who-convicted a prisoner whom he knew to be innocent because he had discovered that successive acquittals had caused his competence to be questioned.