On the question of law we are inclined to agree
with Mr. Justice Channel', though we admit the hardship in this particular case. But we exceedingly regret that the senior Judge should have thought it necessary to import into the hearing of the petition on several occasions a tone of party acrimony and flippancy. The smallest appearance of political bias is at all times regrettable in a Judge, and doubly so when the case is an election petition. We do not, of course, suggest that Mr. Justice Grantham allowed party feeling to influence his action on the Bench even in the very slightest degree, but that does not excuse his want of reticence and good taste. The ordinary man reading his remarks would be only too likely to come to the conclusion, though false in fact, that the Judge was biassed. The general belief that our Judges when on the Bench are absolutely unprejudiced by party feeling is one of the most precious assets in our public life, and anything which tends to destroy that belief must be strongly condemned. That a Judge of Mr. Justice Grantham's experience and perfect rectitude of intention should not realise this fact, and in obedience to it refrain from party jokes and party flippancy, is to us absolutely incomprehensible.
Previous page
