The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5465, 2 October 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1878.

The great forensic burlesque of Barbell v. Pickwick hashad a long run, and is getting stale j if we may judge from the performances of last night it may happily find a successor in the great antipodean cause of Barton versus the Supreme Court Sergeant Bczfuz by the Hon. Sir George Grey ; Mr. Phunky by the member for Mount Ida, Mr. De Lautouu. The facts of the case are familiar. An officer of the Supreme Court proved to be refractory and incorrigible in his official capacity, and after long and patient endurance of his disobedience and want of respect for the judicial tribunal, he was committed to prison for contempt. For this the Judges have been practically impeached by the delinquent Mr. Barton before 'the High Court of Parliament. Mr. De Lautour, apparently holding a brief for, and presumably instructed by, the plaintiff, opened the case with very considerable ability for a junior ; but the speech of the leader last night was, to use a vulgar and not very reverent phrase, a “stunner.” “ Chops and tomato sauce!” roared the great Buzfdz, “was ever the peace of a too confiding female destroyed by such false words!” “Thumbscrews and the boot!” screamed the Premier,' “was ever the legal wind of an impracticable barrister squeezed out of him by such tyranny as the rules of Court and the law of the land empower the Judges of the Supreme Court to exercise upon wigs and gowns 1” In the days of the Wairarapa letter there was a dread on the part of the Superintendent of a certain province that he would be poisoned by the Ministers of the day, because in Venice, ages ago, “ the Ten ” occasionally adopted that summary method of getting rid of troublesome persons ; so, because Jadgospassed sentence of death on witches generations back, men who adorn the Bench of Justice in our day cannot be trusted to preserve order and decorum in the proceedings of their own Courts, without being regulated by “ the descendant of a great race ” like Mr. De Latjtour. That was really the substance of thoPromier’s speech lastnight. It would be surprising now to find the Cabinet agreed upon any public question, and they are not of course agreed upon the merits of this one. The Attorney-General takes the statesman’s view, and his speech on the occasion does him great honor._ But it would appear that ho stands in the Ministry alone. The judicial branch of the Colonial Executive Government is certainly not the least important part of it, and if the Premier’s ran t of last night represented any real conviction on his part it was his duty long since to have taken the necessary steps to remedy what he seems to regard as an enormous evil, and not leave to a private member of the House of Representatives, how able soever he might bo, the task of undertaking to redress it. We took occasion not long since to present to our readers a verbatim report of some proceedings in tho Supreme Court In which Mr. Barton figured, as a sample of the conduct complained of; we think that a very general impression was produced in the public mind that the situation was becoming intolerable, and that, in the interest of public justice, and of tho public safety which depends upon ft, decorum must be maintained in the temple in which the law is administered. Wise men strive to surround the Bench of Justice with the respect and confidence of the community. Commonly the demagogue hates the Judge. “There “can be no security,” says the Chancellor Kent, “for the minority in a free govern- “ mont except through the judicial department. In a monarchy the sympathies of the people are naturally “enlisted against the meditated oppres- “ sions of their ruler, and they screen his “ victims from his vengeance. His is the “ cause of ono against the community. “But in free governments, where the “ majority who obtain power for the “moment are supposed to represent the “ will of the people, persecution, especially « of a political nature, becomes the cause “of the community against one. It is “ the more violent and unrelenting, bo- “ cause it is deemed indispensable to “ obtain power, or to enjoy tho fruits of “ victory. In free governments, thero- " fore, the independence of the judiciary “ becomes far more important to tho se- “ curity of tho rights of the citizens than “ in a monarchy ; since it is tho only “ barrier against tho oppressions of a “ dominant faction, armed for the “ moment with power, and abusing tho “ influence acquired under accidental “ excitements to overthrow the institu- “ Hons and liberties which have been tho " deliberate choice of the people.” There will long remain an uneasy recollection of a scene in tho House of Representatives in which, upon being challenged by Major Atkinson to repeat, outside of the privileged precincts of the Chamber, certain accusations, which he had made, in order that he might got tho opportunity of substantiating thorn in tho Supreme Court,—Sir George Grey said that tho honorable gentleman wanted to have him brought up before a relative of his own in order to have him punished. This, like the offensivcncss to tho Governor, is but an exhibition of that temper of tho demagogue which resents every check upon his personal authority. Tho people will, wo are sure, learn with satisfaction that the Parliament of tho colony have declined to insult the Judges of tho Supremo Court, and have resisted Mr. Barton’s invitation, backed by tho eloquence of Mr. De Lautour and the Premier. The second reading of the Judicial Commission Bill Was negatived by a largo majority.