Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-07-17
HOW TITLES ARE TAXED.
What Man Must Pay in England to
Become a Peer.

The elevation of John Morley and Sir
ii. ii. Fowler to the peerage is probably
as pleasing to themselves as it is to their
thousands of admirers, but each of the
gentlemen so honored will have to pay
a fee of at least f200 for the privilege
Of adding the title of "Viscount" to his
name, which is the cost of letters patent
for yiscounty of the United King
dom.
For higher rank the fees amount TO
more. The new Duke of Devonshire,
for instance, when he comes to take
the necessary letters patent which will
fully entitle him to his own will have
to pay 1850 for the same, in addition to
paying away an immense fortune in the
shape of death duties. If the change
had been that Of marquisate the fee
would have been f300. A newly made
earl pays f250, baron ESQ and ii
baronet E100.
These fees, however, are only part eff
the expense entailed by a man who is
honored with a title. The cost of in
vestiture, heraldry, ETC., considerably
augments the amount. 1t may be re-
membered that when Lord Roberts ac-
cepted his earldom in 1901, and was
presented with a bill for t1To0, which
at first he strongly objected to pay.
To the average reader it will probably
seem absurd that when such rewards for
serving the country are granted the re-
clpient should so suffer in pocket. 1t is
not so bad nowadays, however, as in the
time of James l., for instance, who
mulcted his baronets pretty heavily for
their privileges. They were obliged each
to maintain thirty soldiers for defense
purposes or pay into the exchequer an
equivalent sum, which amounted to
t1095 per year. Furthermore, to be
qualified for the honor in those days one
lad to be a gentleman born" and have
a clear estate of $1,000 per annum.
Originally the fees were paid to GER
tain officers of the state connected with
the business of investing a man with
his title, but they are now more in the
nature of duties, and are paid into the
exchequer, thus helping to swell the
revenues of the country. Recently it
was proposed that further tax on titles
-f10 per annum for a knight, 600
for an earl, and $4,000 for duke-should
be imposed, and some irresponsible peo-
pie have even dared TO suggest these
titles should be put up to auction and
sold to the highest bidder.
As illustrating the curious demands
made upon a man who becomes a titled
parsonage it might be mentioned that
at the beginning OF the year ZUU ceieDrl-
ties, who within the last four years have
been granted the privilege of prefxing
their name with Sir each received
letter from the Walker trustees, Edin-
burgh, asking for a sum of f3 6s. 3d.,
which it was said, was due in respect
of each gentleman's creation as knight of
the United Kingdom. In the case of
baronet f5 was demanded. When in
auiries were made it was found that the
Walker trustees, of whom very few
of the titled gentlemen had ever heard,
had purchased the rights of the heritable
usher of Scotland, one of the many
functionaries scattered about the United
Kingdom who were entitled to per-
quisites in the shape of fees from per-
sons whom the King honored by con-
ferrng titles upon them.
Practically all the officeholders who
were entitled TO these perquisites sur
rendered their rights 10 the late govern
ment in return for an annual allowance.
The heritable usher of Scotland, how
ever, declined to do so, and consequent
IL the Walker trustees, as holders of that
Office, sent out their much discussed re-
quests for fees to newly made knights
and baronets.-Tit-Bits