The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-10

sits above all parties. Henceforth he has no political opinions to bias his rulings from the chair. So he remains Speaker-being reelected unanimously at the first meeting of each new Parli- ament-until he decides to resign or is removed by death.
 In former times the Speaker was paid salary of e5 a day, and a fee .of e5 on every private bill. This fiuc- tuating income was replaced by a fix salary of s6,0OO a year on the election of Henry Addington to the Chair ill 1I89. It was also decided at the same time that a sum of e1,0OO equipment money was to be given to the Speaker on his first appointment. Charles Ab- bot states in his Diary that he paid his predecessor in the Chair, Fres- man-Mitford, e1,O0O for the state coach, built in 1701, and still in exis- tence: Gl,00O for wine, and e500 for house furniture. The official resi- dence of the Speaker then adjoined, as now, the House of Commons.
 After the fire of 1884, which destroyed the Speakers house, with the Houses of Parliament, residence was provid- ed for the Speakers in Eaton Square. The present house, a cOnspicious wing of the Palace of Westminster, with its carved stone work and Gothlic win .dows, extending from the clock tower to the river, close to Westminster Bridge, was first occupied by John Evelyn Denison in 1857. It furnished by the State and the Speaker enjoys it free of rent, rate, taxes, coal and light.
 In the reign of William ", the sal- ary of the Chair was reduced from G6,OOO to e5,0OO, to be paid, free of all taxes, out of the Consolidated Fund: but for the first time an official se- cretary, with salary of $500, was at tached to the office. The ancient al- lOwance of G1,0O0 as equipment money upon first appointment still continues. There are also some quaint yet pleas an. little perquisites attaching to the office. The Master of the Buckhounds sends the Speaker every year buck and as doe from the royal preserves at Windsor, and from the Clothworkers' Company of London comes, as a Chris mast present, a generous width of the best broadcloth.
 The Speaker gives several official entertainments during the Parliament ary session. There are dinners to the Ministers, to the leaders of the Op- position and to private members. Ac- cording to iong established custom a member who accepts an invitation to dine with MT. Speaker is required to appear either in uniform or court dress In the House of Commons Joseph Hume made frequent attacks on a custom which, as he objected to wear court dress, shut him out from tho pleasure of sitting at table with Mr Speaker. Golden, during his twenty four year in the House of Commons from 1S41 to 1865, felt himself constrain- ed for the same reason to refuse the Speakers invitations to dinner. John Bright was another distinguished member of the House who protested against this restriction as to the suit able dress in which to appear at the Speakers table. But the rule is still enforced.
 The only departure from it was made by MT. Speaker Peel, during the short Liberal Parliament of 1895, when he formed a separate dinner party of the Labor members without any re- striction as to dress but that precedent at least, has not once been followed at Westminster.
 MT. Speaker is attired at these func- tions in a black velvet court suit, knee brooches with silk stockings, a steel handled sword by his side and lace ruftles around his neck and wrists. The table and huge sideboards in the oak paneled rooms are spread with magnificent old plate, and the walls hung with portraits of many famous First Commoners." MT. Speaker was created First Commoner of the Realm by an act of the reign of William and Mary, and as as such he has prece-' dence of all the Commonalty, that mighty crowd outside the peerage.-.- Michael MacDonagh in the Nineteeth Century and After .:.