OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS PROMISES.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 29, 2 July 1857, Page 2

OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS PROMISES.

It is amusing to observe the pains taken by certain defanlers of Magistrate Beckham to parade their own ignorance and unmask their own hypocrisy. Not least amusing member of this precious gang subscribes himself “ Parchment,” probably because he has been accustomed to “ engross,” and though now a clerk out of luck can furnish Mrs. Slipslop with a good deal of the misinformation he picked up when sweeping, his employer’s office. On the other hand, it is possible that Parchment is a “ Schoolmaster Abroad,” who wishes to turn an honest penny by attacking Magistrate Beckham with all the pedantry of a village pedagogue united to all the impudence of a town attorney. Before proceeding to dissect this knowing persons charges against the Resident Magistrate, I have some charges to make against himself. One is of unlucky ignorance. In h's i.iundiJ-t i-he-cindid-botin' epistle he sneers at Carleton for styling Magistrate Beckham the J ust Judge. Being like his brother-chip, the redoubtable Murray Hamilton, a first-rate mare’s nest discoverer, he discovers that amongst other grievous sins chargeable upon Carleton is the never-to-be-forgiven' one of styling onr Resident Magistrate the Just Judge. It happens, however, that the honor of so styling him belongs to Constitutionalist Boylan, and therefore not to Progress Carleton. “ Wits have short memories,” and had Parchment been a wit, be might be fairly supposed to have forgotten that it was during the contest between Brown and Wynyard that the terms Just Judge were first applied to Magistrate Beckham. As, however, Parchment is not a wit. but very pure witling, any just judge will allow that he did not forget that to Boylan Magistrate Beckham is indebted for the style of Just Judge, for the simple leason tnat he never knew it. Best friends of Parchment will admit that having set himself up as Judge of our own Just Judge, and, moreover, having made flaws in that functionary’s education, he should neither misquote as in the phrase to put the right men in their right places ; mr appropriate without acknowledgment as in this sentence—ln a law suit he (Magistrate Beckham) has no assistance, and tells them (suitors, I suppose be means), to wait a bitnor scribble unintelligible gibberish such as “leaving all party and personal feelings entirely out of the question, I maintain against all odds that in his case, that is, in thus acting, is one that cannot be successfully defended.”

Parchment has profoundest respect for lawyers and makes Magistrate Beckham’s assumed ignorance of law a chief ground of objection to him. It happens, however, that Parchment can no more be relied upon for ]aw than he can for logic, and throughout his entire epistle furnishes incontestible evidence

that he is neither a lawyer, nor a scholar, nor a ci i tic, nor a gentleman, but simply a snob, who owing Magistrate Beckham a grudge, takes this safe, free, and easy mode of paying him. Notone of his statements lias he attempted to prove. All that can in any way affect the judicial character of Magistrate Beckham rests entirely upon Parchment’s assumption ; and what that is worth the reader shall see.

Parchment ventimes to assert “that Judge Stephen looks upon Mr. Beckham's position in quite a different light to what Mr. Carleton appears to do.” Now, iu what light Mr. Carleton looks upon Mr. Beckham is neither clear nor important; but the light in which he is viewed by the public is not only important but quite e'ear. As to Judge Stephen, I will venture to assert that Parchment never so much as copied.jone of his summings up, or cleaned a pair of his boots, and with regard to that Judge's opinion of Beckham, or the light in which he views his position, knows exactly as much as while penning his diatribe he knew about Magistrate Beckham’s ignorance of law or his own ignorance of facts within'tbe cognizance not oniy of pedagogues who like himself can claim to be considered A.S.b., though not L.L.D., but of every lawyer’s clerk in the Province ; and not only of every lawyer’s clerk, but every lawyer’s office sweeper.' Parchment assures us, quite in the spirit of a learned waiter, that Magistrate Beckham did not eat his terms, or as he phrases it, “ eat any dinners at the Temple.” Now, evidence iu support of ' this hungry looking statement he need not trouble himself to give but on his behalf I venture to assure the public that his reason for making it had more to do with' belly than brains, and that if allowed by Magistrate Beckham quietly to eat more dinners than he is able to earn, he in all likelihood would hold his peace concerning him. Bome of his impertinences are very droll. For instance, he asks : When he (Magistrate Beckham) has had a difficult case, has he not invariably told the parties concerned to wait a-bit ? I answer, No—not invariably, Mr. Parchment, and if your experience in the Resident Magistrate’s Court were larger than it appears to be, the people, who crammed you with such sort of misinformation might have found you more wise and less willing. But even though it were true that Magistrate Beckham in difficult cases alwavs takes time to consider and thus makes the parties concerned wait-a-bit, I should be little disposed to blame him ; for difficult cases require much as well as deep consideration. Judge Martin seems to have held a like opinion : for when dealing with difficult cases, he always took time to well consider his judgment. What Parohment would do in difficult cases may be inferred from his fast method of dealing with easy ones. What a pity he is not a lawyer. Did he drop his mask, the Auckland world might see a notable illustration of Gray’s lines :—, Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomaed caves of ocean bear ; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its fragrance on the desert air. For though he is not alawyer who ever reads his abusive rigmarole will see at once that he has been familiar with English town clerks as well as with English Courts of Request, and upon the strength of such familiarity pronounces Magistrate Beecham utterly unfit for his office. But the Auckland public will ue slow to set aside a magistrate of fifteen years' standing, and if they did set him aside, would wait-a-bit, and a considerable bit too, before putting a lawyer iu his place. Their experience of lawyers and law has not tended very much to raise either law or lawyers in their estimation. Had we fewer lawyers, we should have less law, and I believe, considerably more justice. Almost all lawyers are bad judges. Their inveterate habit of paltering with truth disqualifies them from either appreciating or understanding it. And every one (except Parchment perhaps) knows that in a majority of instances, the best pleaders are the worst judges and conversely the worst judges are the best pleaders. From lawyer-fired magistrates may Heaven defend us | PUBLICOLA.