The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-02-24
HOUSE OF COMMONS CLERK

His Minority and Patronage-History
 of the Office Apropos of New h.
 cumbent.
 The resignation of Sir Reginald Pal
 grave, K c. B., of the Clerkship of the
 House of Commons is an event worthy
 of something more than mere passing
 reference Alike in the conditions of its
 tenure and the vast amount of patron-
 age which it has at it's disposal, the
 office which Sir Reginald has just re-
 linquished is one of the most important
 if not the most important, in the whole
 organization of the House of Commons It is the natural assumption, an as-
 sumption that will probably be justified
 by the result, that the successor to the
 retiring Clerk will be found in MT. Mil
 man, c. B., the present Clerk Assistant.
 But although the Clerk Assistant gene
 rally moves up, according to the ordin-
 ary laws of promotion, to the higher po-
 sition at the table of the House, the
 office is not his by sheer right. A case
 in point occurred when last there was
 a vacancy in the office. When Lord
 Farnboro,1gh resigned. in 1886, Sir Reginald Palgrave was Clerk Assistant,
 but it is a well-known fact that MT
 Gladstone had made up his mind to go
 outside the ranks of Parliamentary otfl-
 cialism altogether and to recommend
 to her Majesty the appointment Of MT.
 Henry Wyndham West, Q. C., who had
 formerly sat in the House of Commons
 as member for Ipswich, and who had
 been a strong supporter of MT Glad-
 stones proposals for the disestabllsh-
 ment of the Irish Church. MT. West had also been Attorney General for the
 Duchy of Lancaster, and had served Tn
 succession as Recorder of Scarborough
 and Recorder of Manchester. But, ow-
 ing to the popularity of Sir Reginald
 Palgrave at the time, and to the sense of the House that he was justly' entitled to the promotion, MT. Gladstone, in the end, gave way, and MT. West, conse- quently, never took his seat at the table of the House. MT. Gladstone, however, was well within his jurisdiction in rec ommending that the successor to Lord 1 Marlborough should be found in quar- | ter outside the existing offcialism Of Parliament There is, of course, little likelihood of this precedent operating
 
 Ae to the conditions under which he holds his office, there is only one other official of the House of Commons who possesses the same fixity of tenure as
 the Clerk of the House. This the Ser geant at Arms. Both hold office direct ly under patent from her Majesty, and they cannot be removed by any indl- vidual authority residing in the House itself So long as they are of good be- havior" they are secure in their posi- tion, however, Parliaments may come or go These are the only two officers Of the House of Commons who enjoy the ad vantage of this strong tenure. The Speaker is of course, chosen by direct vote of the House itself the first busi- ness of new Parliament being to select out it's own membership one who will preside over it's deliberations. The Chairman of Committees is selected in the same way. The Clerk Assistant and the Second Clerk Assistant are appoint ed by the Prime Minister of the day on the recommendation of the Speaker and their office is statutory one and not a patent one. So far as patronage Is concerned three officers of the House have control over various classes of ap- pointmetss In the case of the Speaker, the library and its officials come within the sphere of his authority That IS practically, all the patronage over which he exercises his jurisdiction outside the walls of his own office. Under an act of George III, the Sergeant at Arms is the housekeeper of the House. He is responsible for the maintenance of order It-., ,1I ,,tc rf tba nal an Westminster allotted to the House of Commons as well as the approaches to . the House. He is, in fact the head po- liceman of the House of Commons, or, in other words, he is the executive off, cer of the House.
 Roughly speaking, the Chief Clerk, the office just vacated by Sir Reginald Palgrave, has supreme control, without any check intervening between him and them, over all the clerks in the House. His standing salary is now G2,00O per annum but formerly his income was very much higher. Before the fifty second act of George H., became law the Clerk of the House of Commons ree ceived all fees. Out of these he paid the various clerks under him, and kept the balance. In the days of MT. Hatsell, a former Chief Clerk, this balance of fees amounted to as much as G10,000 per an- mum.
 The cost of the Chief Clerks depart ment is far and away beyond that of either the Speakers of the Sergeant at Arms department. In the last finan- year the expenditure on salaries, allow ances, postage and incidental expenses in the department of the Chief Clerk amounted to G25,600, while the expen- allure in the Sergeant at Arms depart | ment was e13,3S4, and in the Speakers department G10159. The Chief Clerk | exercises jurisdiction over the Public | Bill Office, and the Private Bill Office. | In all as many as fofty-seven clerks are | subject to the authority of the Chief | Clerk, and so far as positions of these officials are concerned, the l Chief Clerk of the House has absolute power of appointing and dismissing. When it is remembered that the four offices just named have control over Il the public and private business of the House, and over it's records as well, it will be seen at a glance that the whole duties of the Chief Clerk are by no means confined to the work he does at table of the House. His influence and reach out far beyond the mere ,oofipaS immediate lopic1 "a tive 1