On Friday, May 5th, the House of Commons carried, by
293 to 240, a resolution proposed by Sir Charles Dike to the effect that County Magistrates should no longer be made by the Lord Chancellor only on the recommendation of the Lord- Lieutenant. If this means that in future the County Benches are to be packed, as we fear the Borough Benches too often are, first by one side and then by the other, the decision is to be greatly regretted. If, however, the resolution will merely be used to induce the Lords-Lieutenant to be very careful lest their appointments, though not meant to be political, should be so in fact, then no great harm need come of it.. We fear, however, that the extremer Gladstonians mean packing ; if not, why should they have refused Mr. Hobhouse's very reasonable amendment, which was viewed, he tells us, with favour by the Chancellor? He proposed to add that the appointments should be Made " on grounds of personal fit- ness, and not in the interest of any political party ; " but the Gladstonians would not even allow him a hearing. This was a great opportunity lost for putting on record an opinion of the House in favour of non-party appointments to judicial office. Mr. Hobhouse, in an excellent letter to the Times of Monday, points out how the introduction of the " spoils system " into the County Benches will cause not only great mischief, but will waste the time of the House and of the Chancellor in petty disputes. "It is surely astonishing," he says, " that the present Government, so eager for decentrali- sation as it professes to be, should voluntarily add this new obstruction to their legislative difficulties."
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