THE MIDDLESEX MAGISTRATES.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR:] S1R,-I apprehend that Mr. Cox, L.L., Carlton Club, will not contribute very materially to the interests of his party by the inaccurate letter which appears in your number of August 3rd. As a specimen of his non-acquaintance with the subject on which he writes, I may point out that there is not (as stated by him) such an office as that of Vice-Chairman in the county of Middle- sex. But the argument on which he founds his censure of your comments on the recent highly reprehensible appointment of Chairman of the Middlesex Sessions, turns on the question whether the name of Lord Carnarvon had been proposed after the date when a self-constituted Committee took action, and sacrificed the independence of the Magistrates of Middlesex, by soliciting the approval of the Duke of Wellington to the appointment of Captain Morley (an election agent of Lord G. Hamilton) to succeed Lord Salisbury as Chairman of the Middlesex Sessions.
In answer to this, I can safely assert that the possibility of the claims of office occasioning the retirement of Lord Salisbury had long been recognised, and that the names of Lords Carnarvon and Enfield had been discussed as suitable Chairmen to succeed him, both names, no doubt, being equally obnoxious to the small fry of waiters on Conservative providence at the Carlton Club ; but whether or not what you very properly stigmatise as "a very discreditable bit of official spite" originated in the chief members of the Government (however some of those members may have lent their names to the transaction), I am inclined to think it may be traced to some of the numerous pickers-up of
crumbs at the Ministerial banquet, who doubtless hoped to elicit a patronising smile from the dispensers of good things which sat at the Ministerial table.
The whole transaction wears an unpleasant apppearance, and will not tend to raise the Middlesex Justices in public estimation. It seems that a self-constituted Committee, with a full-blown Chairman at its head, was formed "for promoting the election of Captain Morley" (a most unusual proceeding, to say the least) ; and the modus operandi appears to have been the obtaining in the first instance, a certain number of names at a convivial party, at which this Captain Morley was present. The Duke of Wellington was then solicited for the use of his name, and a first edition of names was printed and sent round to the Justices ; and subse- quently a second edition, revised and improved, left the press, and was circulated ; and afterwards there came a reminder of the engagement to support Captain Morley, which engagement had been so adroitly obtained by the use of the Duke's name as Custos Rotulorum (the Duke's name appearing as one of the Magistrates, when, tell it not in Gath, his Grace had not qualified as such).
A trap, baited by a live Duke was, in fact, sent round, for the poor little mice of Magistrates to enter. But afterwards there came a reaction, and at the election those who declined to vote at all outnumbered those who voted for Captain Morley, there being at the time a very prevalent feeling that Lord Enfield would allow himself to be nominated ; and had he done so, there is every reason to believe that he would have carried the votes of the Court in his favour by a large majority. I understand that Lord Enfield took the same objection as Lord Carnarvon, and although willing to give his services to the county, he disapproved of the system of touting for votes and influencing voters which had been pursued by the self-constituted Committee.
But out of the between three and four hundred Magistrates who form the Middlesex Bench there is no lack of suitable chair- men, combining business habits with high social position and a landed interest in the county. There are such business men as the Deputy-Chairmen of two of our principal railways (Lord Colville and Sir A. Wood), the Duke of Westminster, Lord Lucas, Lord Cadogan, and a number of others of similar social position, who would have added dignity to the proceedings of the Middlesex Court of Quarter Sessions, and who would at least be found equal to presiding on the eight county days of the year, and of performing the mere nominal duties to which the office of chairman is limited, the real business of the county being con- ducted by numerous distinct committees. I have endeavoured to obtain the most accurate information in my power, as the pro- ceedings which I have described seem to me to be utterly in-
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