The Dominion. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1911. JUDGES AND POLITICS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1048, 10 February 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1911. JUDGES AND POLITICS.

In . somo very instructive cable messages appearing in to-day's paper, referring to a controversy in which tho principal figure is Mr. Justice Grantham, there aro raised some very,important questions. No British judge, excepting perhaps Mr. Justice Darling, is bettor known to. tho public than Judge Grantham, who is not only an excellent judge, but a most able and a*, very interesting, man. Ho holds very, decided opinions upon most questions, and when upon tho Bench has often expressed nimself with much force and vigour. As it happens that ho is strongly anti-Radical in his sympathies, he has for years been the object of ceaseless attack at the hands of Badical speakers and tho Radical press. For somo years past, for example, it has hardly been possiblo to read tho Daily News, the most bitter of tho Badical newspapers in London, for a month without finding an editorial attack upon this Judge. It would appear that tie sniping has now developed into an organised assault, the object apgarently being to drive from the ench a man whose opinions, as they always carry weight and arc always given full publicity, aro very objectionable to. those with whom he differs. The immediate pretext for the onslaught by the Radical press was a repudiation by. the Judge, from tho Liverpool Bench, of tho charges of political partisanship .that have been levied at him since, in connection with an election petition caso in 1906, he offended the Radical party. Scarcely a week had passed ■ since then, ho said, without threatening and insulting .lottcrs being received by him. Later in tho day, so the cable message (adds, he observed, in sentencing a Canadian' prisoner: "This is tho sort of reciprocity I Canada has for England—sending criminals to be .punished. In other matters slio seeks reciprocity with tho United States."

This, of course, was not a propor thing, for tho Judgo to say, for although in itself it is not more open to objection than many judicial utterances .that do not provoko comment, it took _ a new significance, anda'special impropriety, from tha facts, that tho Judge is a Tariff Reformer, and 'that tho' reciprocity question is a subject of keen debate. But the chorus of indignation from the' Radical papers quoted in the cabhv. message was probably not morely indignation at this particular statement, but the outcomo of a long dislike of 1 tho.Judge who had so often trodden upon the tendcrest tforns of -Radicalism. For Judge GitAjmiAif Jis 1 " dh .uncompromising opponent, not only of Radical politics, generally,' but of that sloppy humanitariauism-that-is such a monaco to the health and. integrity of British law.' For example, when nrcsidirig at the Guildford Assizes last: November, his Honour referred very sharply to the agitation that had been conducted by tho Radical papers , for sympathy with woraon who, 'in certain circumstances, commit infanticide. The proposal, ho said, that:no woman should bo executed fdr'murdering it child under 12 months old was a premium upon infanticide. On the same occasion, in sentencing a prisoner • to \ three years' penal s'crvitudo for arson, he referred to tho prisoner's declaration that ho proforrcd prison to tho work'house.. It was'a very sad thing, ho said, that our administrators had dono so much toimprovo tho lot of the prisoner and so little for tho unfortunate man who was compelled to enter tho workhouse. Ho questioned whether doing away altogether with to treadmill was not a mistake. This . Johnsonian robustness of thought is intolerable to tho Radical mind. -In referring, to somo strikers who had pushed their strike to the point of riot and widespread wanton, damago to property, the Judgo spoke so sharply, upon tho tactics of unionism ; that ho added fresh fuel to tho hatredof his critics. His crowning offonco, in tho eyes of the Radicals, however, was his advocacy of Tariff Reform and his warning against tho, payment of members of Parliament, m a.public address on October 10 last, on his return from a visit to Canada. ,

No doubt it is natural enough that the Judge has been rancorously pursued by tho Radicals and the Radical press. Yet tho occasions upon which he has been indiscreetly freo with his opinions when upon the Bench aro extremely rare; and in any event it has never been suggested in any respectable place or by. any responsible person that he is not a wise and honourable judge. He has, as a matter of < fact, done good service to the public by the uso he has, made of tho freedom ho allows himself. Yet it, really is undesirablo that, a judge should, cither on or off tho Bench, take one sido or the other in any 'debatcablc' question, excopting, of course, such questions as. ho has to decide when upon tho Bench. Thero aro' judges,' no doubt, who may be unconsciously guided by their political sympathies. To obtain a judge who has not definite political opinions is impossible : no would be an ass if he had not clear privato views .of his own. But a judge can protect himself from his unconscious Bias. He can only do this by abstaining from, politicn and from discussing, oven' privately, tho questions that sharply dividd the public. Politics is a very dangerous training for a judge: they may permanently infect as it were. It is only by remaining a silent spectator that ho can acquiro that habit of self-repression which makes self-obliteration easy to him in his judicial capacity.