In reference to the late attacks made by the Judges
and bar- risters upon the "way they do business at Clerkenwell," and es- pecially upon certain blunders in bills of indictment, the Morning Herald makes the following remarks.
"In Middlesex, as in other counties, there is an officer called Clerk of the In- dictments, to whose province the framing of indictments specially belongs. In Middlesex, the Clerk of the Peace is the responsible person; he, however, resider 200 or 300 miles from town; and his duties in this respect, we have heard, are performed by two clerks from Police-offices. This, we should imagine, gentle- men practising at the bar of the Middlesex Sessions, or that of the Old Bailey, ought to know. At all events, the merest tyro at the bar must know that the Chairman of the Sessions has no more to do with the blunders of the indict- ments than the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench has with any errors that may be committed in the Crown Office: and knowing it, or even not in- quiring into the fact, is hardly consistent with common fairness, not to say courtesy and liberality."
These observations are perfectly fair. One would suppose that. technical blunders were never made at the Old Bailey, or at Westminster Hall ; so vehement is the indignation expressed by Mr. CHARLES PHILLIPS and his brethren, whenever a Clerkens well Magistrate is presumed to have made a slip. Of a verity, Mr. ROTCH is not a Solon ; but he ought to have fair play never- theless.
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