A correspondence appears in the Worcestershire papers, which de- serves
notice as bearing on the important subject of the administration of justice by the Unpaid and Local Magistracy. At the Stourbridge dinners to Messrs. Cookes and Holland, the Members for East Wor. eestershire, Mr. Robert Scott, a Liberal barrister, magistrate, and a gentleman of property in the county, made some severe remarks on the system of appointing Magistrates, and on their generally inefficient ad- ministration of justice. These remarks, whose pungency was owing solely to their truth,—for the language in which they were couched was by no means offensive,--provoked the wrath of four Tory Magistrates; who addressed a letter to Mr. Stott, which is most fitly described by the epithet "blackguard," calling upon him to make good his assertions, imputing to him " confined knowledge and a narrow mind "—designat- ing him as "obscure "—and expressing contempt for minds constituted as his, and more insolence of the same sort ; and this litter, it appears, from a published statement by Mr. Scott, was written after that gentleman had expressly disclaimed to one of its authors any'intention to animadvert particularly on the conduct of the Worcestershire Ma- gistrates,—his remarks being applied, as they were applicable, to the country at large. Not content with assailing Mr. Scott, the angry Justices wrote a letter to the Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Lyttleton, calling upon his Lordship to institute an inquiry into the conduct of the Magistracy, with a view to prove Mr. Scott a calumniator. Lord Lyttleton, of course, would not condemn Mr. Scott unheard ; but, after making due inquiries, returned an answer to the Magistrates' letter, refusing to institute the inquiry demanded, acquitting Mr. Scott of any impropriety, and admitting his right to make the remarks which had been the cause of the application to him, "Mr. Scott," says Lord Lyttleton, "makes a speech,. (he admits it,) in which he condemns the present mode of appointing Justices of the Peace; and expresses several opinions connected with the subject ; which I by no means in- tend to say I concur in, but which he was fully entitled to deliver. The whole is couched in the broadest general terms; and I cannot discover in it the re- motest personal or local allusion. Mr. Scott was exercising an undoubted right of every British subject—the right of openly finding fault with whatever he deems censurable in public institutions, and in the conduct of public men. This is an important constitutional safeguard of our laws and liberties ; and ought not to be lightly interfered with. I, therefore, see no ground, on the one hand, for taking any steps for the vindication of your characters, which have not been assailed; nor, on the other, for passing the slightest censure upon Mr. Scott."
His Lordship also condemned the letter of the Magistrates to Mr. Scott- " Such contumelious and scornful language as you have addressed to Mr. Scott, appears to me to be always indefensible ; and, if possible, doubly so, when levelled at a gentleman of character and education, and a brother Magis- trate. Such language, believe me, tends far more powerfully than any external attacks to degrade the Magistracy, and to weaken its authority. It betrays a spirit and temper any thing but judicial."
Lord Lyttleton does credit to the name he bears ; we wish heartily there were more Lords-Lieutenant of his stamp in England. As for the Magistrates, how smartly they felt the reproof so coolly and pro- perly given them, is proved in an impertinent reply to Lord Lyttleton, not worth further notice. The secret of this hostility to Mr. Scott is, that he is an active and influential Reformer.
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