THE JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. Alexander Coppersmith, must be an optimist if he thinks the lay justices of the peace will disappear. They have flourished and waxed more powerful for six hundred years, and must by now number 80,000.
Like Mr. Coppersmith, I have known and watched an enor- mous number of justices, in and out of Court. I have also known and watched many clerks. Like him, I believe the job of doing justice between man and man should be a whole- time job for trained men. The comic side of the business is that if your correspondent's view of the Metropolitan Police Court Clerks be correct, we have the most efficient clerks in the same Courts as the best qualified magistrates, who need the least assistance ; while it is at least probable that the most ignorant Benchei arc guided by the worst clerks, who really are incredibly bad and often unduly influential.
Mr. Coppersmith touches lightly on dishonest Benches. Such do, alas I exist. But • there is another aspect of the matter, not so glaringly evil, but stills as I think, undesirable. Too many of our justices are members of borough councils, county councils and other local bodies. They want to be popular ; every now and then they want votes. And nearly all of them want to stand well with the police.. Most of them
think they are honest and try to be. But can local characters immersed in what they love to call " public work " really be as impartial as a professional magistrate, preferably living outside his own district, aloof from local politics and unknown personally to most of the people who resort to his Court ? And because even barristers are not infallible, let them have whole-time clerks who are efficient specialists and who, being debarred from private practice, are as unapproachable as the magistrate himself. But, Sir, how can we hope- to get rid of the (mostly) worthy, well-meaning 80,000 ?—I am, Sir, &e., A. Clean.
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