ent wished to make. But the tendency of this bill is, beyond
all doubt, to make this House less capable than it once was, and less
capable than the other House now is, of discharging some of the most
important duties of a legislative assembly.

Of the duties of a legislative assembly, the noble lord, and some of
those gentlemen who support his bill, seem to me to have formed a very
imperfect notion. They argue as if the only business of the House of
Commons was to turn one set of men out of place, and to bring another
set into place; as if a judge could find no employment here but factious
wrangling. Sir, it is not so. There are extensive and peaceful provinces
of parliamentary business far removed from the fields of battle where
hostile parties encounter each other. A great jurist, seated among
us, might, without taking any prominent part in the strife between
the Ministry and the Opposition, render to his country most valuable
service, and earn for himself an imperishable name. Nor was there ever
a time when the assistance of such a jurist was more needed, or was more
likely to be justly appreciated, than at present. No observant man can
fail to perceive that there is in the public mind a general, a
growing, an earnest, and at the same time, I must say, a most sober and
reasonable desire for extensive law reform. I hope and believe that, for
some time to come, no year will pass without progress in law reform;
and I hold that of all law reformers the best is a learned, upright, and
large-minded judge. At such a time it is that we are called upon to shut
the door of this House against the last great judicial functionary to
whom the unwise legislation of former parliaments has left it open. In
the meantime the other House is open to him. It is open to all the other
judges who are not suffered to sit here. It is open to the Judge of
the Admiralty Court, whom the noble lord, twelve or thirteen years ago,
prevailed on us, in an unlucky hour, to exclude. In the other House
is the Lord Chancellor, and several retired Chancellors, a Lord Chief
Justice, in several retired Chief Justices. The Queen may place there
to-morrow the Chief Baron, the two Lords Justices, the three Vice
Chancellors, the very Master of the Rolls about whom we are debating:
and we, as if we were not already too weak for the discharge of our
functions, are trying to weaken ourselves still more. I harbour no
unfriendly feeling towards the Lords. I anticipate