. The Lord Chancellor made a striking, though quiet speech
at Exeter on Thursday. After some warm expressions of his friend- ship for the Lord Chief Justice, who was entertained with him, he passed. on to defend. the peculiar office be himself held in the Constitution. That office, uniting, as it does, political and judicial attributes, is sometimes considered an anomaly ; but he doubted if it was expedient to break every connecting link between the Administration and. the Judges of the land, or to give the Ministry of Justice to any but a Judge who lives among and can influence Judges, or to deprive politicians of "that moderating influence conducing to temperate judgment" which a Lord Chancellor should exercise. That is most excellent in sentiment, and we see no reason for altering the existing scheme, .which, for one thing, binds the great lawyers to the Constitu- tional machine ; but is not Lord Selborne reading history in too genial a spirit? He is a moderating influence, no doubt ; but would . he extend. that praise to Lord Thurlow, Lord. Ellen- borough, Lord. Lyndhurst, Lord. Brougham, Lord Westbury, or even Lord. Cairns ? We should have said that the lawyer politicians were usually among the most bitter partisans. Imagine Sir Hardinge Giffard, or Sir W. Harcourt, or Sir II. James exercising a "moderating influence, conducing to temperate judgment !"
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