And though both West the aristocrat and the Whig and Higgin the stern, unbending Tory were both sound judges, kind-hearted men and honest, upright, conscientious administrators of the law, yet it is easy to see that their usefulness was limited by their education and environment, and that it would be untruthful to deny that in all human beings—in judges no less than in smaller men—there is a class bias drawing their minds to certain conclusions and points of view. And no one can
certainly blame those whose bringing up has been less fortunate and whose University has been the factory or the pit, from recognising very clearly that the judicial mind does not readily coincide with the views and thoughts and aspirations of their own class. And this must remain so as long as the official places in the law are the appanage of the upper and middle classes.
I have often wondered why more of the clever younger men of the working class do not grapple with the study of the law. A few years ago I addressed a labour audience in Manchester on this subject and listened to an interesting firsthand discussion of the matter. Although not expressed in so many words, I think there was an idea at the back of many speakers’ minds that an individual selected to be educated and equipped for the profession would in the end break away from service to his order and seek to make good a great individual career. But I am not sure that this would of necessity be the case. I cannot imagine, for instance, that Charles Bradlaugh if he had been at the Bar would have utilised his sound and ingenious legal mind merely in the making of money. And the experiment should certainly be tried in the interests of the whole community, for the Labour Party will never be able to express its thoughts articulately and clearly until it has its own Attorney-General who can advise its Cabinet on
the legal aspects of the measures they have to consider.
And one reason why I should not like to see the ancient lay office of Justice of the Peace abolished is because there and there alone men of the working class are brought on to the bench as actual ministers of the law. No doubt as time goes on and education advances we shall find the circle widening out. There should be far more working men sitting on juries, and paid for their services, there should be more representatives of all branches of trades and industries sitting on the bench and taking part in quarter sessions, and the amalgamation of both branches of the profession would, I feel sure, lead to less class origin in judicial appointments.
But looking at the administration of the law in this country in comparison with others, I cannot but think that the court of quarter sessions—especially the larger county sessions, where the lay element is strongly represented upon the bench—is a court wherein an innocent man desiring an honest verdict may take his trial with a real sense of security. And though no sane and reasonable citizen doubts the honest administration of the law in our country, yet perhaps words have fallen of late years from the lips of those in high places not unnaturally misunderstood in the lower places where they fell. For there are judges who make little effort to put themselves in the place of the poor folk whose affairs they are dealing with, and forget
to obey the fifth law of Nature according to the statute of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. And “the fifth law of Nature is Compleasance; that is to say, that every man strive to accommodate himself to the rest.” Or as St. Paul wrote to the Galatians—but you remember that.