Judge and Politician.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 186, 23 August 1888, Page 2

Judge and Politician.

Our Sydney correspondent writes Judge Windeyer has fallen foul of the Minister of Justice. Mr Clarke, speaking in the House, allowed it to appear that the decision respecting some of the criminals convicted for the Mount Rennie outrage was deferred owing to the delay of the Judge in reporting on certain minutes and papers forwarded to him. Judge Windeyer replies very effectively, by showing that the papers referred to were at that very time in the Minister’s possession, and did not reach their destination until after the speech had been delivered. It cannot be expected that a judge, of all men in the world, should acquiesce tamely in an unjust accusation, and in a case of this sort refutation was certain to follow promptly. Without making any reflection on Mr Clarke, of whom I know nothing personally, and who may be far superior to the ordinary run of politicians, I may remark that the relations between Ministers for Justice and the judges are not as a rule of the most cordial character. It can hardly be expected that men educated to a lofty standard of personal honour, and whose minds of necessity are cultivated almost to the highest pitch of which they are capable, men who, moreover, live and breathe in an atmo -phere of almost punctilious equity, can have much in common with the coarse and ignoble features of “ practical politics, ” and the fshifty expedients, which, it is taken for granted, are necessary foi success. The successful landjobber or publican may be a very able guide amongst the windings and tricks of hie own particular calling; and this ability may also st.nd him in quite as good stead in the devious ways of political life, such as we have it in colonial communities. But it does not necessarily confer any heaven-born illumination in legal matters which will enable him to supervise with success the judgments of legal luminaries or the finding of Supreme Court judges. I don’t wish to be understood as asserting that judges are necessarily angels, and politicians necessarily the reverse. Things are not always what they seem. The rough appearance may hide an honest and honorable heart, and the courtly and polished exterior may cover something very ugly. But men can only rule their conduct towards each other by the things they see, not by the things they don’t see. And no one can affirm that unsullied integrity, legal knowledge, and personal culture ought, in matters purely legal, .to be placed at. the mercy of such traits as are ootnmonly conspicuous in the “ higher walks ”of politics. Of course the moral of the whole thing is netutor ultra trepidant, 11 Let tho cobbler stick to his hit.”