Lord Herschell was equal to the occasion. He showed the
deputation how much more be had done than be appeared to have done, in introducing new elements upon the Bench. He showed how wisely anxious he had been to render the various county Benches less political, less in the hands of a single party, than they had been, and yet how anxious also not to risk abrupt changes which would have rendered the adminis- tration of justice less effective, and the co-operation of the men of different parties and different social strata less frank and hearty ; and he showed how laborious and difficult is the task of obtaining the requisite information for the due discharge of his responsible duty. But the greater part of his speech was devoted to a very decided and somewhat contemptuous snubbing of the deputation for their indifference to, or rather incapacity to understand, what is essential to an effective Bench of Magistrates, and especially to exposing their monstrous and absurd notion that the Lord Chancellor could delegate his responsibility in appointing Magistrates to the sort of reckless and ill-informed county Members who think, with Mr. Cony- beare, that their recommendation should be final, or, with Mr. Alpheus Cleophas Morttin, that the parish beadle might give him more effective assistance than the Lord-Lieutenant. Lord Herschel declared that he would sooner renounce his office to-morrow, and he would do so without any great regret, than after accepting the responsibility of appointing the Magistrates, shuffle it off on to the shoulders of the various county Members. The deputation retired with the consciousness of having had their ostentatiously arrogant tone painfully contrasted with their ignorance of the subject with which they professed to deal.
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