The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-24

peal, and the chancery division of the
high court of Justice. He has he ap-
pointment OF all justices of tbs peace
throughout the kingdom, and al the
judges of the superior courts except the
Lord Chief Justice, who is nominated by
the prime minister. Incidentaliy-ow
ing to the fact that the Lord Chancellor
of days gone by was an ecclosiastic-
the present one controls no end of the
ecclesiastical patronage" in the shape
of crown livings and ne is supposed TO
be the general protector of all infants,
idiots and lunatices and has the super
vision of all the charities of tho king
dom
Perhaps most important of all the
Lord Chancellors functions. however,
is his custodianship of the great. seal
of England. This seal. the specific en-
blem of sovereignty is attached only to
the most important cfass of public doc
uments, such as writs summoning par
lament, treaties. and official acts of
state. A new one is made for each SOW
erign, tn cold one being solemnly
broken, and this seal is delivered to
the Lord Chancellor on his appoint
ment and relinquished by him on his
retirement. che resigns when the party
VI WHICH ne Is HicllibtI goes out Dl
office). Never. in fact, is the Lord
Chancellor supposed to let the great
seal go out of his possession, and this
was Lord Ha1danes chief difficulty in
accepting the recent invitation TO
visit America. 1t has, however been
solved by reverting to an ancient Gus
tom, which consisted of putting The seal
into commission, as the phrase goes,
i. e, appointing certain commissioners
to administer it during the Lord Chan
cellor's absence from the realms.
If there is no counterpart In the
American cabinet for the Lord 'J'hancel-
lor neither is there an exact one for
the First Lord of the Admiralty or the
ruler of the Kings navee," as w. s.
Gilbert, who was fond of poEing fun
at high dignataries, called him. As a
matter of fact, however (and mere lies
the distiction between his office and
that of the American secretary of the
navy), the First Lord Is not actually
the ruler of Britians sea forces. The
real boss of the navy was the Lord
High Admiral. who no longer exists
but whose ancient office Is "in commits
sion, to use the phrase once more-the
commissioners in this case consitng of
the first Lord of the Admiralty and
four sea lords, in the persons---at pres
ent--of one admiral, one vice-admiral
and two rear-admirals of the fleet, who
each gets 1880 or $500 q year--all
that is, excepting the Third Sea Lord
Rear Admiral Briggs. who is also
comptroller and receives $3.50
The first Lord of the Admiralty, as a
political officer can make suggestions
to the sea lords, but he cannot order
a change of policy on their part; II he
tries to they resign and their is no end
or a pother. The First Lord. now, OF
course, the Right Hon. Winston Spencer
Churchill, gets $22.500 year and has
the use, as residence of the Admiralty
building itself which contains. among
other handsome apartments, the finest
private ballroom in London This. by
the bye, is the only one of the rooms oil
at the Admiralty which the present
FIRST Lord, who has a house III Eccles-
ton Square utilizes personally, the
others having been turned over to the
clerical force of the department.
Winston Churchill makes frequent
use, however of that other "perquisite'
of the First Lord of the Admiralty. the
steam yacht "Enchantress, ON which
he and the Prime Minister recently re-
turned from a cruise in the Mediter-
ranean. Punch had an amusing cartoon
showing them lolling back in deck
chairs, imbbing cool drinks. and com
miserating their less fortunate col
leagues in London with Votes fol
Women" fanatics, strikers, and various
colored "perils" on their hands
The "Enchantress" which was built
at Belfast, in 1894 does not compare
of course, with the floating palaces