JUSTICES OF THE PEACE BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 15 March 1904)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (The Earl of HALSBURY)

My Lords, this is one of a considerable number of Bills which your Lordships have passed through this House and which, when they go to the other House excite no great interest and attention, with the result that at the end of the session there is no one to urge their importance and they are forgotten. This Bill in its exact terms passed through your Lordships' House last session. It is mainly for the purpose of removing what I am sure all the Lords Lieutenant throughout the counties in England have recognised to be a great inconvenience. By a very ancient statute the Lord Chancellor is directed—and, of course, lie is bound to obey that direction —to only appoint persons resident in the county. It very often happens that there is an extreme want of justices in particular parts and that the residences of the persons most fitted to be appointed are just over the border, and in those circumstances the Lord Chancellor is obliged to 1103 refuse the recommendation of the Lord-Lieutenant. This is an inconvenience that has been recognised many times in the different counties, and which this Bill will remove. The Bill also provides that any person who is a justice of the peace by virtue only of holding or having held any office, may be excluded from the exercise of his functions as such justice by the same authority by which other justices can be removed from the commission of the peace; but the main purpose of the Bill is that which I have described. I have no loubt your Lordships will again read it a second time, and I trust that after it has passed this House it will meet with a better fate that it has hitherto done.

§ EARL SPENCER

My Lords, last session, when the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack brought forward this Bill, I ventured to express the hope that it would be carried. I am afraid I did not follow its career elsewhere, but daring the course of the winter, acting as His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant in Northamptonshire, I recommended two or three gentlemen to the Lord Chancellor for appointment as justice who lived just over the border of the county. We had very few magistrates at two particular sessions, and it was very important, where there was a joint session, that there should be magistrates who could act for both counties. Not; being aware of the fate of this Bill in another place, I recommended these gentlemen to the Lord Chancellor, who was, of course, obliged to decline to appoint them. A very great inconvenience arises from the present state of the law on this point, and therefore I sincerely trust that His Majesty's Government will urge on those who represent them in another place the great desirability of passing this very small measure, which I am sure in my county, and no doubt in others, would greatly facilitate the proper administration of justice.