close.

II

Two stubborn and noisy scuffles arose in the autumn of 1871, in
consequence of a couple of appointments to which Mr. Gladstone as prime
minister was a party. One was judicial, the other was ecclesiastical.

(M125) Parliament, authorising the appointment of four paid members of the
judicial committee of the privy council, had restricted the post to
persons who held at the date of their appointment, or had previously held,
judicial office in this country or in India.(251) Difficulty arose in
finding a fourth member of the new court from the English bench. The
appointment being a new one, fell to the prime minister, but he was
naturally guided by the chancellor. The office was first offered by Mr.
Gladstone to Lord Penzance, who declined to move. Application was then
made to Willes and to Bramwell. They also declined, on the ground that no
provision was made for their clerks. Willes could not abandon one who had
been "his officer, he might say friend, for thirty years." Bramwell spoke
of the pecuniary sacrifice that the post would involve, "for I cannot let
my clerks, who between them have been with me near half a century, suffer
by the change." The chancellor mentioned to Mr. Gladstone a rumour that
there was 'an actual strike among the judges' in the matter. Nobody who
knew Bramwell would impute unreasonable or low-minded motives to him, and
from their own point of view the judges had a sort of case. It was
ascertained by the chancellor that Blackburn and Martin had said expressly
that they should decline. Mr. Gladstone felt, as he told Lord Hatherley,
that "it was not right to hawk the appointment about," and he offered it
to Sir Robert Collier, then attorney-general. Collier's claim to the
bench, and even to the headship of a court, was undisputed; his judicial
capacity was never at any time impugned; he acquired no additional
emolument. In accepting Mr. Gladstone's offer (Oct. 1871) he reminded him:
"You are aware that in order to qualify me it will be necessary first to
make me a common law judge." Three days later, the chancellor told Mr.
Gladstone, "It would hardly do to place the attorney-general on the common
law bench and then promote him." Still under the circumstances he thought
it would be best to follow the offer up, and Collier was accordingly made
a judge in the common pleas, sat for a few days, and then went on to the
judicial committee. The proceeding was not taken without cabinet
au