Aged J.P.s
Everyone will agree with the Lord Chancellor that the justices of the Peace (of whom there are 20,000 in this island) are doing very important work in the administration of justice ; and will equally agree with him that when they reach extreme old age, when they may be deaf or infirm, it is no longer deirable that they should sit on the bench. A man of 8o or ,0 years of age may be as young as he feels ; but in some cases be is not, and when that is so it is obviously desirable that he should be placed on the Supplemental List, where he may main- tam his dignified position for administrative purposes, but cease to administer justice in court. Recently it has been made a condition in the appointment of new magistrates that they should withdraw to the Supplemental List on reaching the age of 75. But to magistrates appointed before last November this condition does not apply. Lord Simon now proposes (by a Bill he moved in the House of Lords last Tuesday) that if the Lord Chancellor is satisfied that a J.P., by reason of his age or infirmity or other cause, should not continue to exercise judicial functions, his name should be transferred to the Supple- mental List. Clearly this power ought to be used in the case of men who have failed to retain their youth beyond the seven- ties or eighties. It might be added that Clerks to the Justices, whose right appreciation of the law is perhaps more important gill, should be subject to a similar rule.
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