The San Francisco call., 1913-08-24
Law Provides Against Con-
tingency Similar to Secre-
tary Bryan's Case in
This Country
MINISTERS TO STATE
THEY NEED IT
Required to Have Held Office
for 4 or S Years-Pensions
Are Automatic

LONDON. Avg. 23.-People here have
cabled from America about Mr.. Bryan 9
lecture tour and his statement that he
can not. live on his salary In Washing
ton and save anything for his old age
when out of office. Here, of course. a
cabinet minister's future is looked
after IL he be poor man, for he can
always have pension sufficient to
maintain the state in which he lives as
An official of the crown.
A minister OF the crown may obtain
a pension IL he has held Office for four
or five years. But he is not entitled to
1t as right or on account OF his serv-
Ice He must apply for II to the first
lord of the treasury and make a decla-
ration that he needs 1t because his pri-
vate income or resources are insult
cient to support his social station.
TWO AUTOMATIC PENSIONS
Only two members of the govern
ment receive pensions automatically or
retiring from office. These are the
lord chancellor of England, who gets a
pension of $4,000 a year. and the lord
chancellor of Ireland, who gets PEN
sion OF $4,000. These two pensions are
payable as a matter of course, however
brief may have been the service of the
retiring lord chancellor. Nor is there
any limitation to the number of such
pensions that may be paid at the same
time. At present, for instance, two
former lord chancellors of England
Lord Halsbury and Lord Loreburn, and
until quite recently former lord chan.
cellors of Ireland the late Lord Ash
bourne and Mr.. Redmond Barry Were
in receipt OF these retiring allowances
at the same time
The other political pensions are, as
have said, conditional. in the corrupt
stage of political life that marked the
eighteenth century, when probity often
sat loosely upon public men. there were
numerous fat pensions and sinecure Of
fices for ministers who were needy OF
simply greedy. but as political moral
ity developed with the progress of the
nineteenth century or as the tax payer
grew impatient of his increasing bur-
dens, this egregious system of growing
rich. or repairing broken fortunes. al
the public expense gradually came tc
an end. The granting of political pen
sions was for the first time regulated
by an act passed by the reform govern
men of Earl Grey in 1884,
BY an act passed In 1869 the act OF
1894 was modified to the extent that
the pensions were limited. in number
duQ restricted IN amounts ranging from
$4,000 to $4,000, according to the emol-
uments held by the former minister
and the length of service. 1t was Glad
stone. then in the first year OF office as
prime minister, who introduced the
measure.
Three classes of pensions for form er
ministers in distress were created by
the political pensions act Of 1859. The
principle upon which they are based is
= \ - -
ONCE the less should he be entitled to
claim by way OF pension on retirement
The three classes OF pensions are: A
first class pension OF $4,000 for four
years service In an Office of not less
than $4,000 year; second class PEN
sion of $4,000 for FIVE years service In
an office of less than $4,000 and not
less than $4,000 a year. and third
class pension Of $4,000 for five years
service In an ONCE of less than $4,000
and more than $1,000 year. The period
of service may be continuous or at diff
ferent times and in different Offices of
the same class. mo new pension shall
be granted In any class while four
pensions In that class are subsisting,'
says the act. nor shall more than one
pension under the act be granted in the
same year"
yILLIERS FIRST BENEFICIARY
It happened that the first beneficiary
under the act of 1869 was Charles Pei
ham Villiers who was distinguished
associate OF Golden and Bright In the
agitation for the establishment of free
trade. He entered parliament for VOL
verhampton in 1895 and sat for the
same constituency until his death in
1898 at the great age of 96. For some
years. at the end of his career as a
member of parliament, he was father
of the house of commons He Is mum
bered among the few men who have
had statues erected to them In their
lifetime. He was so honored by VOL
verhampton I'm 1888.
Villiers received altogether, under
the act Of 1859, the large sum OF $155,-
900. and was drawing the pension at
his death in 1898. On the proving of
his will it was found that he had been
a very wealthy man. He left In fact,
a fortune of s1,25o. 900. subsequently
to the award of the pension to Villfers
a rule was made by Gladstone by which
an applicant for pension is not only
required to make a statutory declara-
tion that his personal resources are in
adequate to maintain the social position
proper to an ex minister of the crown,
but he Is also obliged to engage to sur
render his pension II at any time he
should receive an accession of fortune.
Villiers, It seems. did come into a large
income, but evidently he did not con-
slider that the new rule applied to him.
A first lord of the treasury is re-
stricted by precedent to granting these
political pensions only to ex ministers
of his own party.