Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-08-24

Directly next door is IL Downing street
an infinitely less luxurious and historic
but eminently comfortable house. where,
rent free again, lives the chancellor or
the exchequer 1t is rather striking
coincidence, by the way, that LLOYD
George, who, like W. ]. Bryan, has come
to be regarded as the tribune and ad-
vocate of the plain people, would, like
his distinguished contemporary on the
other side of the Atlantic, be the only
member of the present cabinet to allege
that his official salary is inadequate to
his needs.
OF all the well rewarded members of
the British cabinet. the first law officer
of the crown, Sir Rufus Isaacs, has the
best feathered nest. To begin with, he
draws a salary Of $4,000 year, as COM
pared with $1,000 with which Attorney
General McReynolds is rewarded year
ly. this sum. however. being his emou-
ment merely as legal adviser to the gov
eminent. Unlike the American Attorney
General he also appears in the courts
on behalf of the crown, and gets Whop-
ping big fees for so doing.
OF course. the yearly aggregate of these
fees varies according To the number of
cases in which the first law officer of
the crown is engaged, but they invariably
amount to enough plus the attorney gen
erals official salary, to enable the gov
eminent to get a man at the top of his
profession for the post Sir Rufus lsaacs,
the present attorney general, who may
have been appointed lord chief justice be-
fore these lines appear in print, is for
example, one of the ablest of English bar
risters, and must have given up prae-
tice as *. c., or kings counsel, worth
from s10O,000 to $1JG,0 d year to accept
the attorney generalship.
Last year, which brought with it the
long drawn out Titanic investigation, the
state prosecution of Mrs. Pankhurst and
the Pethck IaWrenceS, the Olympic
Hawke collision case and the suit for
S1O0,00e,Uo0 brought against the govern
ment by the National Telephone Com
pany was rich one for the attorney
general, who pocketed in fees and ''re-
freshers." between January and Deem
Der 81 the goodly sum of 60, 76I or just
short of 100000, which makes his
nual income work out at little less than
$4,000. For his appearance in the Titanic
inquiry alone Sir Rufus Isaacs received
s2.45s, or, roughly. Sl2.29O, this sum rep
resenting a brief fee of 300 guineas or
81 800 and ''refreshers' at the rate of so
guineaS $50 a day.
**
The second law officer of the crown,
officially known as the solicitor general
gets a salary of $4,000 and, like his dis
tinguished chief, fees Those pocketed
by the present incumbent of the post,
Sir John Simon, amounted last year to
$32,G75. Like the attorney general, the
solicitor general sits in the house of COM
during vacancy. he may perform the
functions of attorney general in all their
extent.
Legal luminaries are well recompensed,
the world over. and the member of the
British cabinet with the latest official
salary, or screw" as it Is colloquially
termed over here, is that potent and
vastly yua disnifled n Parsonage. the lord
taking him off quite lately in the Ameri-
can revival of ''Iolanthe." into which
opera with characteristic irreverence,
W. S. Gidbert, himself an ex-barrister.
introduced the dignified occupant of the
famous woolsack in the house Of lords.
In the United States we have no exact
counterpart of the lord chancellor who,
besides acting as speaker of the upper
house, Is supreme head of the English
judiciary. and who draws an annual
salary of $50,O00. When he retires, more
over, he Immediately enters upon a life
annuity amounting to $4,000 year.
The present holder of this Office is, Of
course, Lord Haldane, who was secre-
tary of state for war before his eleva-
ton to the woolsack, and who is cross