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LETTER CLXXVIII. TO J. A. MURRAY, ESQ.

My dear Murray,

Lincoln's Inn, 23d November, 1811.

I am much surprised to hear that some persons entertain a doubt, whether Gillies has done right, in point of political principle, by his acceptance of the judicial place offered him by the government. To me it appears most certain, that the office of Judge in any of the supreme courts, is and ought ever to be regarded as entirely independent of political party; and that when the ruling party is compelled, either by a just sense of merit and public duty, or by the utter incapacity of their own troop of adherents, to look for Judges in the opposite band of barristers, he to whom the offer is made (supposing it to be made without any improper terms) is perfectly at liberty to accept of it, without any compromise of his principles upon the management of public affairs, and without any failure of duty towards the political party to which he has hitherto belonged. It is a fit question for him to put to himself, no doubt, on such an occasion, whether he feels inclined and thinks it right to quit the active duties, very important and useful ones in every free government, that are required of a party man, and which are incompatible altogether with the character and station of a Judge; but that is a question which he would have no less to put to himself, and to decide on, if he received the offer from his own party. It is manifestly for the public interest, on various accounts, that the patronage of judicial situations should be uniformly regarded in this light by barristers of all parties; and none but the

See note, Vol. I. p. 139.

dunces, that are in the tail of each party, have any interest in establishing a rule to the contrary, which, upon the part of the men of talents who carry on the business of the bar, would amount to a self-denying ordinance, of the worst nature for the public. The principle upon which Gillies has most properly acted, gives the state the best chance of having judges who really know the laws; and gives us a better chance of the sentiment being impressed upon them all, that when judges, they are not party men; and the differences of political opinion that will still remain among them, for they are not to be required to have no opinions, because they cease to enforce them by political activity, - will give a fairer probability of an even and equitable determination in all state trials or political suits that may come into the courts of justice. I understand this to be the established morality of Westminster Hall, and it appears to be founded on the best reasons of public usefulness and propriety. The example of so eminent an advocate as Gillies will sanction and establish the same principle, I hope, in the Parliament House, which will be a great benefit to Scotland, resulting from his acceptance of the gown, as the offer of it to him by the ministers has produced a still greater benefit, in giving a victory to public opinion on the subject of judicial appointments. I have no doubt you agree with me in all this; but as you might possibly be told that a few of our friends here, but a very few, are factious enough to say that Gillies might as well have suffered the ministers to go on making bad appointments, I was anxious that you should not imagine that I agreed with them. Lord Holland, Abercromby, and Ward, concur exactly in the same view of it with me; and I mention these three,

because they are not likely to agree except where their joint opinion is the true one.

Yours ever affectionately,

FRA. HORNER.

Parliament met on the 7th of January, and the session lasted till the 30th of July. Mr. Horner did not originate any measure, and does not appear to have taken an active part in any of the great subjects of debate. He is reported as having spoken on several questions in the early part of the session; but all that is given of his speeches, on any of those occasions, occupies a very brief space in the columns of Hansard.

On the 17th of March, Mr. Percival brought forward a bill, for the purpose of continuing, under certain amendments, and of extending to Ireland, an act passed in the preceding session, which made bank notes a legal tender. It was discussed on the bringing up of the Report on the 20th of April; and Mr. Horner is reported as having spoken "at considerable length" on that occasion; but the report occupies a dozen lines only.

On the 7th of May, Mr. Creevey brought under the notice of the House the large incomes derived by the Marquis of Buckingham and Lord Camden as tellers of the Exchequer, although wholly sinecure offices; and moved a series of resolutions, the purport of which was, to reduce, and fix at a definite sum, the incomes of those officers. The motion was resisted by the government. Mr. Brand moved, as an amendment, that a committee should be appointed.

Mr. Horner, on this occasion, said," he was desirous of stating his reasons for the opinion he entertained on

this subject. No committee was necessary to prove what was an undoubted right. Had he entertained any hesitation on the subject, the speech of his right honourable friend (Mr. Ponsonby) would have convinced him of this. Nothing, he conceived, could be so clear, as that in all regulations for economical purposes, vested rights must be sacredly protected. If there was even a solitary precedent, as had been alleged, in the year 1740, in which a contrary line of proceeding had prevailed, still he should hold that to be a bad precedent, and one which ought not to be followed. No man could deny the right of the House to regulate, reform, and even abolish offices; but still that must be done subject to regulations. He was prepared to go as far in regulations which had economy for their object as any man; but in doing so, the rights of those having vested interests in such offices must be kept sacred. The property of the state was not to be protected at the expense of private property. All property was the creature of the law, and equally depended upon it for protection. If this principle were once broken through by the House, temptation would grow upon them, and there would be no end to it. He reminded the House that such an interference had been one of the steps, taken by those frenzied politicians in a neighbouring country, to whom it was to be attributed, that that country had so long been the prey to anarchy, and every other description of horrors." The motion was negatived by a large majority.

Mr. Horner is not reported as having again spoken during the remainder of the session: his attendance had been very much interrupted by ill health. A dissolution took place on the 29th of September. The new parliament met on the 24th of November, and sat till

the 22d of December, when it adjourned to the 2d of February; but Mr. Horner was not then a member of the House.

LETTER CLXXIX. TO J. A. MURRAY, ESQ.

My dear Murray,

Lincoln's Inn, 22d January, 1812.

I was unluckily prevented from hearing the whole of Brougham's speech last night; what I did hear was most excellent, and the rest, I am told by the best judges, was still better. He has made an impres sion upon both sides of the House much more near the proportion of his talents and powers, than he had made by any former exertion of them in that place. He has done this, too, upon a subject of the first importance, and which has been waiting some years to be treated by so able a hand. The time for an adjustment of that matter with the Crown is not indeed till an actual demise; but it was desirable to have the ground broken up, and topics thrown out for discussion among the public, that when that time arrives, the public may support its own interests, and second those who maintain them. It was objected by some of our critics, that he overcharged his statements; and it is true that his style in general has that fault, with another, which is akin to it, of charging the different parts of his subject and argument with an equal weight of earnestness and emphasis.

But the practical purpose to be effected last night, was not to gain the question, which would have been a premature success, but to make an impression as to

* On the Droits of Admiralty. See Hansard's Debates, vol. xxi. p. 241.-ED.

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