Lord Albemarle on Thursday moved the second reading of a
Bill altering the qualification of a Justice of the Peace. At present he must have £100 a year in land, an absurd arrangement, intended to secure a monopoly of power to landowners, under which a re- tired Indian judge with /2,000 a year and endless experience may be declared unfit for a seat at Petty Sessions. Lord Albemarle proposed that an income of 2.100 from any source should be suffi- cient qualification ; but the true policy would be either to sweep away qualifications altogether, or to make them educational. The practical evil of the present system is that it compels Government to appoint too many clergymen,—there are 74 in Suffolk,—who are often suspected of being guided by their impression of general character as much as by the evidence, but the Bill was thrown out by 36 to 26.
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