The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-19 00:00:00

OFFICIAL SALARIES COMMITTEE.

THE CHIEF DEPARTMENTS OF THE GO

VERNMENT.

The following is the principal portion of the evi-
dence of the Right Hon. Lord John Russell, First
Lord of the Treasury, who was examined as to the
duties and the emoluments received by the principal
officers connected with the State.
COairman—Will your Lordship be kind enough to
state to the Committee the offices you have held in
connexion with different Governments ?—I held the
office:of Paymaster of the Forces in 1830; I held,
that office till November, 1834. In April, 1835, I
was appointed Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment ; and in September, 1839, I think, I took
the Seals of the Colonial Department, where I re-
mained two year', till 1841. In July, 1846, I was
appointed First Lord of the Treasury, and that office
I now hold.

There are certain offices as to which it has been sug-
gested to this Committee that they have not duties
which occupy the whole time of the Ministers in
charge of them ; do you think that any different ar-
rangement could be made by which the duties of some
of those offices might be combined; for instance, the
office of Master of the Mint has been held occasionally
in conjunction with other offices; would there be any
objection to a permanent arrangement combining the
two together P—Those arrangements have been made

from time to time, according to the convenience of the
Government at the moment. The office of Pay-
master of the Forces, I believe, has always
been held separately ; indeed, there used to
be two Paymasters of the Forces. Then
there was one paymaster with 4,0001. a year ;
then it was reduced to one paymaster, with 2,000/. a
year and a house ; and I have joined the office, in the
last recommendation that .1 made to the Crown, with
the office of Vice-President of the Board of Trade.
Now it would be just as convenient an arrangement
that the Paymaster of the Forces should hold that
office only, and that the Master of the Mint should be
Vice-President of the Board of Trade; but I do not
think that would be an advantage. I think it would
be a loss if you said that every office in which there
was not much to do should be combined with another
with a good deal of business. I think there are seve-
ral reasons for that. I think one reason is, that the
persons who hold the offices of Secretary of State and
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and offices of that na-
ture, are charged with duties which absorb their time
so much, that if there is any question which is de-
pending in Parliament, or has to be considered by
the Administration, if it be one that does not come
within the scope of their several departments, they
have hardly time to attend to it. To give an instance
(which certainly may be said to be one that would
not often occur), when I was Paymaster of the
Forces Lord Grey
appointed me as one of a Com-
mittee to consider of a plan of Parliamentary re-
form; and after the plan was made, which, of course,
took up a good deal of my time, I brought
it forward in the House of Commons, and
the objections that were made to the- Bill
were very important and very serious. They were
urged by men of great ability ; and Lord Althorp
proposed to me that he should go through all the legal
objections, and that I should take all the objections
with reference to particular boroughs, their nature,
their extent, and their boundaries. I do not think
that Lord Althorp, with his duties as Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer could possibly have gone
through all the details of? the whole measure. Lord
Althorp and myself, in fact, took upon ourselves en-
tirely, with occasional assistance from the law pfficers
of the Crown, the whole defence of the measure in the
House of Commons. Ido not think that one man,
charged with the duties of Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, could have done it. Then, to give another in
stance : at the formation of Lord Grey's Government
there were two men of great importance, who had
been connected with him in politics all their lives,
who belonged to the same party that he did, and
whose talents would be recognised by everybody—l
mean Lord Lansdowne and Lord Holland. I rather
believe, though I do not know it as a fact, that Lord
Grey offered to each of them offices of great business,
but that they both said that their strength and
health were not sufficient to induce them to un•
dertake offices of great business. Now, I think if
he had had no other offices to offer to them, if he
had not been able to offer to Lord Lansdowne the
office of President of the Council, and to
Lord Holland the Chancellorship of the. Duchy of
Lancaster, he must then have been without their as-
sistance in the Cabinet, and I think that, considering
with the de-
clarationswenro't to have had
and Lord Holland
t thehe passistance
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would have been a great loss to the Government, and
great loss to the
ou
eafull benefit of the
country,
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rity in the House of Commons.
In your experience as Prime Minister, have you
found those offices which are lightly worked, namely,
those of Paymaster of the Forces, Master of the
Mint, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, to
be of essential service during the last few years in car-
rying on the Administration ?—Yes, I certainly have,
at various times. The office of Master of the Mint
hae been generally joined with that of Vice-President
of the Board of Trade. While I was Paymaster of
the Forces, besides that which I have just mentioned,
there were various questions relating to Dissenters, and
the registration of births and marriages, with regard
to which they had grievances of which they made
very strong complaints, which
Lord Grey's Govern-
ment felt to be just, and he referred the question to
me as holding the office of Paymaster of the Forces,
and I took great pains with it ; I do not
think I could have done it if I had had an office of
great business. Lord Holland, who was Chancellor
of the Duchy of Lancaster, with his information and
his knowledge of political history, was often of very
great use in the Cabinet. Lord Campbell, lately,
with his legal knowledge in the framing of measures
which we have considered absolutely necessary, from
time to time, has been of very great use to the Go-
vernment. I think that though with respect to those
offices it cannot he said that the services to be ren-
dered are exactly the same as those of some other
offices' it would be a very great loss if there were not
such offices which could be offered to persons such as
those by whom they have been held.