The Earl of Haddingtonrose, pursuant to no- 1123 tice, to call the attention of the House to the case of certain persons recently appointed to the Commission of the Peace for the city of Edinburgh, and he could assure their Lordships, that he would not have taken up their time at that late period of the Session, if he had not considered this case to be a real grievance, and to present grounds of just complaint. An addition had been made to the number of the magistracy for the city of Edinburgh to the amount of ninety-one, and these, with the persons previously in the commission and official personages, made 187 justices for a population of 150,000 persons. He knew not why this immense array of justice should have been provided. There was little or nothing to do, all the regular business being fully discharged by the magistrates of the city and the sheriff of the county; and he had some right to complain of the selection made; that of the ninety-one lately appointed, eighty-seven were notoriously Whigs or Radicals, and four only Tories. Their Lordships were aware, that party spirit ran very high in Edinburgh, and it was assuredly the object of a wise Government not to inflame that party spirit; but no course could have been pursued so likely to excite and increase it, as to make a Commission of the Peace, which, on the face of it, appeared to favour a party that had returned as its particular representatives to Parliament, the right hon. the Speaker of the House of Commons, and the hon. and learned Attorney-general. He understood that the persons who had been thus placed in the commission, were notorious retainers and canvassers for those honorable persons; and further, that many individuals had been left out whom it would have been natural to select for filling the honorary office. Of the entire magistracy, 100 were what were called merchants, although the greater part of these were merely shopkeepers of a respectable class, and only fourteen of them were Conservatives. In a city containing a great number of bankers, the commission contained the names of only three, one of whom only was a Conservative; and there were twelve advocates, of whom only two were Conservatives. Of the 155 magistrates, exclusive of official persons, who, being most of them connected with the town council of Edinburgh, were generally of the same political opinions with the present Government, twenty-five were Con- 1124 servatives, and 130 Whigs and Radicals. He did the noble and learned Lord the justice to believe, that what he was now stating was new to him; for he could not believe, if the noble and learned Lord had known that a political list of this sort had been returned to him, he would have given it the sanction of the great seal. The city of Edinburgh, as regarded party feeling, had been tested not merely by the Parliamentary, but by the municipal elections, and he should have expected, that a recommendation coming from the chief magistrate, as lord-lieutenant of the county and city, was one which would have been strictly inquired into. If the noble and learned Lord had not instituted an inquiry as to that list, he must say, that he had not discharged his duty; but at whatever door the blame might lie, this partiality was calculated to produce the greatest mischief. If these justices were to be of any use at all, it must be at a time of considerable riot and confusion; and, at such a time, it was highly desirable, that the inhabitants of the town should have full confidence in their magistrates; and with their feelings excited and inflamed by such a list, it was scarcely to be expected, that they would entertain that necessary degree of confidence in those magistrates; for there was no doubt, that a decided majority of the respectable inhabitants of that city entertained the same political opinions with the majority in that House. He should, therefore, move, for copies of the correspondence on the subject of these appointments between the Lord Provost of Edinburgh and the noble and learned Lord on the woolsack.
§ The Lord Chancellorsaid, that the noble Earl did him no more than justice in supposing, that he would reject any list which he knew to be framed at all upon the principle of exclusion. He had no knowledge himself of the facts of the case; no complaint had ever been made to him of the persons so appointed, nor had he ever received any application from others claiming to be inserted. A list had been submitted to him by the Lord Provost, in the month of October or November last, and he had written in reply to state, that the names in the Lord Provost's list would be inserted in the new commission. He had acted on the recommendation of the lord-lieutenant of the county of the town of Edinburgh, and he had received no complaint either before or since that time. 1125 He had now stated the whole of the correspondence, and the noble Earl might take any further steps he thought proper; but he could not enter at all into the description given of these persons as being Whigs and Radicals, because he knew nothing at all about that.
§ Lord Lyndhurstsaid, though his noble and learned Friend had received no complaint, he had received very great complaints from the highest authorities in Edinburgh, and he could assure their Lordships, that a very strong feeling existed in that city on this subject. His noble and learned Friend was rather unfortunate in his appointment of magistrates. In England, when the lord-lieutenant happened to be a Conservative in polities, the commission was kept back a considerable time, and minute inquiries were made, and ultimately a list was presented, containing many names which a lord-lieutenant would never have presented, and which were introduced contrary to his opinion. But when they went to Scotland, to a county where the lord-lieutenant happened to be a Whig—what took place then? Two persons were suggested, both of whom notoriously had been guilty of fraud, and one of them was in a low station of life; but, in that case, so little inquiry was made, that though, with their own consent, they had been convicted of fraud, those persons were inserted in the commission. On a former discussion, the noble and learned Lord had laid down a doctrine to which he would, by no means, give his consent, and it was to the effect, that if there were a certain number of Conservatives in the commission, it was expedient to add the names of some Radicals, for the purpose of creating a balance between the parties, so that justice might be administered fairly and without passion; and that doctrine had been followed by the noble Baron, Lord Holland, who said, that if he found a certain number of persons members of the Church of England in the commission, he should feel it his duty to introduce a corresponding number of Dissenters for the same purpose of keeping the balance even. Now, what system could be more abominable than that? But let them mark the consistency of his noble and learned Friend. His noble and learned Friend had looked at the old commission for the city of Edinburgh, and he found there forty-four Whigs and twenty-one 1126 Conservatives. What, then, ought he to have done on his own principle? Why, he ought to have added twenty Conservatives. But what did he do? Why, he added eighty-seven Whigs and Radicals. His noble and learned Friend asked, innocently enough, how could he tell whether they were Whigs or Conservatives; how was it known what their politics were? They knew it by the poll-books—a pretty good test—they knew it by their being actively employed as partisans in the sharp contests which had taken place in that city. Whether they were Whigs or Radicals it might be now difficult to discover. Indeed, the only difference seemed to be this—that he who was a Whig in office became a Radical when he went out. He wanted to know, why his noble and learned Friend had not acted on his own principle of keeping the balance even, instead of throwing the whole weight so extravagantly on one side. They would not have complained of anything in moderation; but this was so extravagant—eighty-seven to three by way of a balance! This was really too bad. He had no doubt, it was not intentional on the part of his noble and learned Friend, who was not aware when he was guilty of partiality, or how far his judgment was influenced by his private feelings; for whether he was appointing trustees or justices, no doubt, he intended to do that which was just and proper; but, in the end, it generally turned out, that Radicals were appointed.
§ The Lord Chancellorsaid, that with respect to the appointment of trustees, in very few cases indeed had the decision of the Master been altered, and the cases in which that had taken place afforded no ground whatever for the observation of the noble and learned Lord. He should have thought, that at least the noble and learned Lord would have been satisfied on that matter, because he was acquainted with the practice of the Court of Chancery, and he must know that the charge was wholly groundless; but the charge was equally unfair and unjust as regarded the appointment of magistrates. In this present case he knew nothing of the persons in the list submitted to him; he had no means of knowing anything, and therefore he could exercise no discretion about it. If other persons had thought themselves entitled to admission, why had they not applied? He had received no such application; he had heard no complaint 1127 until to-night. By no possibility could a public officer, holding the situation he did, discharge its duties without instantly being subject to attacks of this sort; but it was unnecessary for him to complain of them, as they were manifestly unjust. He did not object to the noble Earl bringing the subject forward, because there might be matter of complaint of which he had no knowledge, being unacquainted with the names in the list, as also with the wants of the locality.
The Earl of Haddingtonsaid, that he had made no charge against the noble and learned Lord. He was only surprised, that it did not occur to him to make inquiry into the composition of a list coming from the Lord Provost of Edinburgh. There was another case to which he would just allude. From the county of Dumbarton a memorial had been presented to the noble and learned Lord, from which it appeared that there were three persons of property in the county who had been formerly magistrates, and who were entered as solicitors; they had perhaps properly been struck off; but three others were found on the same list who had no connection with the county, and one of whom was the general agent in Edinburgh for the lord-lieutenant of that county, a supporter of the present Government.
§ Motion agreed to.