We trust that the statement of the Times' correspondent - in.
Paris as to the attitude of the Right in regard to the election of Judges is inaccurate. • This writer, who usually knows well what the Orleanists will do, asserts that the whole Right will vote with the-TExtremiste for the Bill making Judges elective, be- cause they think the chances of public disorder will be increased. They did so vote, he affirms, last time, and it was by their aid that the vote was carried, and the Minister of Justice forced to resign. Such conduct is almost too monstrous to believe. It amounts to a deliberate and conscious sacrifice of the country to party feeling, end this upon a subject which to the Right must seem to involve a grave, moral question,—the purity of the Bench. Frenchmen may have a terrible penalty to pay for such wicked- ness. Experience shows that while there is no power so injurious to the Democracy as this, there is none which it is more difficult to induce them to resign. Even the Reformers in New York have been compelled to stop short of this proposal, and to
palliate the evil by suggesting longer terms of office. They say hat if the people cannot be trusted to elect Judges, they can- not be trusted to elect Representatives, a palpable begging of the question. Election is only a good system when the will of the people is to be carried out,which is exactly what Judges are expected not to do.
Previous page
