The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-04-28
OFFICIAL SALARIES IN ENGLAND
Correspondence N. z. sun.


Correspondence N. Y. Sun.
London, Mareh2s.-Dignity is commonly
an expensive article in any country. 1t is
| especially so in Great Britain. The Queen
| receives annually 81 925 600 from the ma
tional exchequer "for the support of her
Majesty's household, and of the honor and
dignity of the Crown of the United King
dom of Great Britain and Ireland" The
Lord Mayor of London receives $50 600 q
year, likewise for the support of q great
amount of "konor and dignity, }" aud is said
to spend more than his salary, as a COM
| mon thing, during his year of Office. Mil
lions of families in civilized countries earn
less than $500 q year, but they cannot, it
must be presumed, afford dignity on that
income. Golfers ard iron workers are
literally starving in South Wales and Stat
fordshire, and ct the Lord Mayor of Lon.
don continues to take his $50 600 year,
and her gracious Majesty the Queen still
takes her annual allowance of nearly
% 100000, aud each contentedly spends
nearly the whole amount in mere pomp.
Extremes usually go together. Where one
class is exceedingly opulent, another aud
far larger class is almost sure to receive
the very lowest wages, and be stepped in
poverty and ignorance. 1t is exactly thus
in England. Of the residents of the me-
tropolls one in six is said to end his days
in the workhouse or some other charitable
peace meetings in Hyde Park on the Sun
day afternoons of Feb. "a and March 10
were as degraded lot of human beings as
one ever clapped eyes upon. There We're
from 10000 TO 60000 of them, and their
sole object in coming there was to break
up mass meeting of the opposite party.
An English mob is not brave by any means
merely vulgar, violent and unreasonable.
That is a legitimate product of English
aristocracy.
In strange contrast with the groveling
ignorance and deep poverty of the masses
is the opulence of the landed nobility and
gentry, and the extrIvsgant salaries of
willing to allow to officers sufficient salaries
"to live and to maintain the dignity of
office" as they express it. The expires
sion is an ambiguous one, but in practice
the salary is usually large enough to we'll
avoid all ground of doubt as to it's suf-
fciency. Food is very high in England,
and the wages Of the common laborer are
just about such as would buy food foy one
person, If reasonable variety be adglitted.
Getting such meagre wages, the workman
is commonly on the lookout for little graf
uities-beer money, beggars' portions-
low salaries-low as compared with salaries
hereof officials in the United States, are
generally considered somewhat niggardly
by the English people. When the salary
OF the President was doubled, the American
people thought it far too high. The
English still think the amount very paltry.
If cheap things are to be considered poor,
and expensive commodities good, then
British justice should be most excellent
article, for it fs the moat costly justice in
the world, probably. No one could say
that the judiciary of Great Britain is totally
corrupt, or that bribery exists to any great
extent. Nevertheless, the legal system of
this country is one of the most ipiquitons
and grievous monopoies in existence.
Legal charges are enormously high, and in
any legal process fees mark every step of
the way. The real estate and commercial
system of the country are hopeleesly
wound about by the tolls of rapacious law
yere, who, if not knaves, are, at all events,
like Shylock, sure to demand all that is
named sin the bond" There are a great
many hard things Sin the bond" when you
are once involved in law suit here. The
legal system itself is as clumsy thing ss
ever civiized country was saddled with.
American law is very largely statutory ; |
the English is mostly the unwritten com
mon law that has come down from past
centuries, and whose provisions are very
largely, or perhaps mostly, determined by |
mere precedents. The charters of the city |
of London are in no case in the form, of
statutory enactments, and it would trouble !
the Lord High Chancellor himself to say
just what the boasted "rights and privi- |
!eges" claimed by the city under those
musty charters really are. This element |
of uncertainty in their provisions ia most
dangerous and troublesome thing, for they |
sometimes have set up claim to monstrous |
monopolles, AID no one was competent to !
say whether the thing in question was a
right of the city or not.
OF the judges and other high law officers of
the principal courts of Great Britain, one re- |
ceives u salary Of $50, 900 per annum; two have
$40 900 each; three have 335 900 eaoh; FIVE have
$4,000 each, and no less than twenty mine |
others receive $25 600 per year each. The Lord |
High Chancellor of Great Britain (Lord |
Cairns) receives the frst.named salary
$50 900 in his capacity a Judge, and s &C. 900 |
as presiding officer of the House of Peers.
His salary is just about four times that of the
Chief Justice Of the Supreme Court of the
United States. The Attorney General receives
S3o 900; the Solicitor General, $50 600; and the
Lord chancellor of Ireland, $4,000. The Final
Court of Appeal in Great Britain is the House |
OF Lords-two Judges here receive $50, 900 each
per year. The next lower court-Her Mejesty's
Court of Appeal-besides several Judges, who
are members of this Court er oficiO, has six