under the guidance of his
organisation politics in Ireland would be shaped after the model of
Tammany Hall rather than that of St. Stephen's. The party which appoints
the municipal officers of Dublin in secret caucus, meeting for reasons
which are never avowed and after debates which are never published, is
only waiting to extend its operations. Even now it is notorious that the
magistrates' bench in Ireland is regularly and systematically "packed"
whenever licensing or agrarian cases are under discussion. The
scandalous inaction of the present Irish Executive in reference to
cattle driving and other forms of organised intimidation, the failure to
enforce the law and the absolute immunity which the present Chief
Secretary has persistently allowed to Nationalist Members of Parliament
and paid organisers in incitement to outrage and intimidation, have
paralysed the administration of justice and disheartened and disgusted
the Judiciary, the Magistrates, and the Police. But under Home Rule the
measure of protection which is still afforded by a strong and
independent Bench would be removed. The Resident Magistrate would be as
much under the heel of the caucus as the local justice; the Recorder's
Bench and even the High Court would be constantly subjected to
influences of a mischievous and incalculable kind. Whatever may be said
against the present occupants of the Judicial Bench, their integrity and
fairness have never been seriously questioned. Since the days when the
Irish judges issued a writ of _habeas corpus_ for the release of Wolfe
Tone, while the Irish Rebellion was actually in progress, they have
consistently held an even balance between the two parties. Their
learning, their impartiality and their wit have rightly made Irish
judges respected throughout the world. Their reputation and their
services alike demand that they shall not be set aside wantonly or
without consideration. But there is no doubt that Home Rule must mean
the end of the Irish Bench as we have seen it in history. The men who
have been proud to represent the British Crown would resent with
indignation the idea that they should become the tools of the Hibernian
caucus. They realise that the judges who oppose the lawless will of
popular ministers will have to face obloquy and perhaps direct attack in
the Irish Parliament. Even if the concurrence of both Houses in the
Irish Parliament were made necessary for the removal of judges, it would
not adequate