THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I must earnestly beg your Lordships' attention while I bring to your notice what has taken place in reference to an attack which was made by a noble Earl (the Earl of Leitrim), whom I am glad to see in his place, upon Lord Chief Justice Monahan. Yesterday, in presenting a petition to your Lordships, the noble Earl made most severe animadversions upon the conduct of the Lord Chief Justice and imputed to him gross misbehaviour in 899 his office of Judge. On that occasion I asked whether any notice had been given to the Chief Justice of this attack, and the noble Earl replied that no notice had been given; upon which I certainly expressed some surprise, and perhaps some indignation, at the mode of proceeding which the noble Earl had adopted. Then the noble Earl said he would give notice that on Thursday week he would bring forward this charge against the Lord Chief Justice Monahan. Now, I find on the Notices to day this Notice, and nothing beyond it, that he will, "on Thursday, move for Copies of two Presentments to the Grand Jury of the County of Donegal at the last Summer Assizes." That is the Notice, and no more—not intimating in the slightest degree the name of the Lord Chief Justice Monahan, or what the charge is to be brought against him, or what preparation he should make for his defence. Upon this I sent for the Petition on which the noble Earl had founded the charge he brought forward without notice, and to my surprise, in this petition there is not the slightest notice taken of Chief Justice Monahan. It is simply a Petition from certain inhabitants of the county of Donegal, who say that there is Ribbonism there, and that there are disturbances in the county, without imputing any blame whatsoever to the learned Judge who was the subject of this attack. Now, my Lords, I do object very seriously to this mode of making an attack on a Judge. No doubt he is responsible to Parliament, and it is the duty of Parliament to censure or punish him for any misconduct of which he may be guilty; but it is equally the duty of your Lordships and of the other House of Parliament, when a charge is made against a Judge to give him an opportunity of defending himself. The only instance within my recollection of a charge being brought against a Judge was in the case of Mr. Justice Fox, an Irish Judge. That occurred, I believe, in the year 1804. I have referred to that case; and there I find that there was a petition charging particularly the learned Judge with misconduct in what he had said and what he had done, and giving him the most ample opportunity of preparing for his defence, and showing whether the charges were false or substantially true. Now here the noble Earl proposes, without anything more than a notice that he will move for two presentments laid before the Grand Jury of Donegal at the summer assizes of 1860, to renew the 900 charges against Lord Chief Justice Monahan, which are loose, multifarious, and of a very serious nature. I did not catch them very distinctly, but I understood the noble Earl to complain that the learned Judge misconducted himself in addressing the grand jury and making himself a political partisan. I must implore your Lordships' protection for Lord Chief Justice Monahan as I would for any other of Her Majesty's Justices. I say that if the noble Earl intends to renew these charges he should state distinctly what they are, so that the learned Judge may have the opportunity of meeting them. No doubt, if the noble Earl on reviewing the circumstances, thinks that the learned Chief Justice has been guilty of misconduct, he can move an Address to the Crown praying that Chief Justice Monahan may be removed from his high office; but I hope your Lordships will take care that no Member of your House shall bring forward a charge of this nature without giving such an opportunity of defence as would be accorded to the meanest and most obscure among the servants of the Crown.
THE EARL OF LEITRIMThe noble and learned Lord certainly expressed his indignation last night in stronger terms than are usual in your Lordships' House; and not satisfied with that, the noble and learned Lord has this evening repeated his indignation, as appears to me, most unnecessarily. In presenting a petition to your Lordships' notice last evening, I thought myself called upon to animadvert on certain irregularities—which seemed to my mind very gross irregularities—which had been committed by the Lord Chief Justice Monahan, and from this I am not in the slightest degree prepared to depart. But I complain of something more; I complain that it is the practice of the Irish Judges to make partisan speeches of this character to the grand juries in opening the assizes; and it is upon this general ground that I wish, to bring this question before your Lordships. Now, however, by throwing down the gauntlet, the noble and learned Lord has challenged me to bring specific charges. I can only say that I shall be very happy to meet the noble and learned Lord, and to settle my Motion in any terms which may be suggested as convenient for taking the opinion of the House thereupon.
THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, that since he had remarked upon the propriety of giving Chief Justice Monahan notice of 901 the charges to be made against him, the noble Earl had himself put upon the Minutes a notice, which, however, conveyed no idea of what those charges were to be. Now, surely, the Chief Justice ought to know of what he was accused so that he might be able to defend himself. It was the height of injustice to make such loose and multifarious charges against any functionary under the Crown; and to make them upon presenting a petition which did not at all inculpate the Chief Justice, or even mention his name, was extremely irregular, and was a course very much to be deprecated.
THE EARL OF LEITRIMsaid, he was really quite at a loss to know what the noble and learned Lord wanted. He would beg their Lordships to allow his notice to be put off till Friday.
THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, what he wanted was that the noble Earl should state specifically what the charges were, so that the Chief Justice might be informed of the accusations against him, and might be prepared to meet them.