Lord Palmerston has filled up the vacancy on the Bench
caused by the decease of Mr. Justice Wightman by the appointment of Serjeant Shee, an act of justice the more acceptable because it carries the principle of religious toleration for once into substantial practice. The law threw all posts, except the woolsack, open -to Catholics thirty-six years ago, but no Catholic in all that long period has been raised to the English bench. The secret feeling in the middle class has been that of Cromwell, who "tolerated all opinions, but would not allow the mass," and statesmen who know that judges of every conceivable creed have still done honest justice have bent to the ignorant clamour. It is time that a rule which proscribea one-fifth of her Majesty's immediate subjects were swept away, and Lord Palmerston could have selected no better man with whom to commence a fairer system. Mr. Serjeant Shoe is a thorough lawyer, and is not an Ultramontane, and will, we believe, by his conduct on the bench, do much to remove a popular prejudice.
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