DE SENECTUTE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your very confident and anonymous " Utter Barrister " points to what he considers a great wrong, and asserts the simple remedy of excluding men over sixty-five from the Bench. I do not expect to convince him but I think many readers will agree with me in believing that wisdom and folly, capacity and incapacity, vice and virtue, are to be found in youth, middle, and old age. As an octogenarian I may be prejudiced but I have consulted young and middle-aged men all concurring that chronology has little bearing on these qualities.
I often regret having to convict motorists for infringing the 3o miles per hour law when there is no danger, but the duty of the magistrate is to administer the law, and the law gives the power of inflicting fines far beyond those usually imposed..
A long experience leads me to the conclusion that the Bench, especially since the appointment of women justices, is well adapted to the work which conies within its scope.—Yours, &c.,
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