§ LORD CAMPBELL rose to put a question to his noble and gallant Friend the Commander in Chief of the army. His noble and gallant Friend, according to ancient custom, had been in the habit, on the approach of the assizes, of issuing an order all over England and Wales, requiring 1834 the soldiers, both foot and cavalry, to remain in their barracks while the assizes lasted. That was an order which proceeded from a most laudable motive, but which, he believed, was not required by any law, and which he also believed was not called for by expediency. The Judges were not afraid of being intimidated by the military power, and the soldiers behaved themselves on all occasions in the most creditable manner. The consequence of this order was, that as soon as he (Lord Campbell) went into an assize town the commander of the troops came to him and asked permission for the soldiers to go out—a request with which he at once complied, adding to it an invitation for them to come, if they chose, into his court. Now, he put it to his noble and gallant Friend whether the practice of issuing such an order might not be discontinued, as not merely unnecessary, but, in some cases, injurious.
§ VISCOUNT HARDINGEwas understood to say that he had no objection whatever to withhold the order to which his noble Friend referred, as probably it was an order for which there was very little necessity. It was a curious fact that no such order was issued in Ireland, where, on the contrary, the practice was to march soldiers into a town where the assizes were held. He saw no reason why the army should be placed under suspicions which it did not deserve, and to which no other portion of the community was subjected.