I do not, however, appeal to Lord Gorell’s judgment on all points.  It is inevitable that a judge should be deeply impressed by his professional experience with a sense of the impotence of judges and laws and courts to deal satisfactorily with evils which are so Protean and elusive as to defy definition, and which yet seem to present quite simple problems to the common sense of men of the world.  You have only to imagine the Privy Council as consisting of men of the world highly endowed with common sense, to persuade yourself that the supplementing of the law by the common sense of the Privy Council would settle the whole difficulty.  But no man knows what he means by common sense, though every man can tell you that it is very uncommon, even in Privy Councils.  And since every ploughman is a man of the world, it is evident that even the phrase itself does not mean what it says.  As a matter of fact, it means in ordinary use simply a man who will not make himself disagreeable for the sake of a principle:  just the sort of man who should never be allowed to meddle with political rights.  Now to a judge a political right, that is, a dogma which is above our laws and conditions our laws, instead of being subject to them, is anarchic and abhorrent.  That is why I trust Lord Gorell when he is defending the integrity of the law against the proposal to make it in any sense optional, whilst I very strongly mistrust him, as I mistrust all professional judges, when political rights are in danger.

CONCLUSION

I must conclude by recommending the Government to take my advice wherever it conflicts with that of the Joint Select Committee.  It is, I think, obviously more deeply considered and better informed, though I say it that should not.  At all events, I have given my reasons; and at that I must leave it.  As the tradition which makes Malvolio not only Master of the Revels but Master of the Mind of England, and which has come down to us from Henry VIII., is manifestly doomed to the dustbin, the sooner it goes there the better; for the democratic control which naturally succeeds it can easily be limited so as to prevent it becoming either a censorship or a tyranny.  The Examiner of Plays should receive a generous pension, and be set free to practise privately as an expert adviser of theatrical managers.  There is no reason why they should be deprived of the counsel they so highly value.

It only remains to say that public performances of The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet are still prohibited in Great Britain by the Lord Chamberlain.  An attempt was made to prevent even its performance in Ireland by some indiscreet Castle officials in the absence of the Lord Lieutenant.  This attempt gave extraordinary publicity to the production of the play; and every possible effort was made to persuade the Irish public that the performance would be an outrage to their religion, and to provoke a repetition of