EARL OF BIRKENHEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20112, 24 November 1928, Page 14

EARL OF BIRKENHEAD.

RETIREMENT FROM OFFICE. A MATTER OF MORE MONEY. [from our own correspondent.] LONDON, Oct. 19. General regret is expressed that such a brilliant intellect as that possessed bv the Earl of Birkenhead should bo now tast to the Cabinet.' It was thought that he would remain in office until the general elections, but it now appears lie is anxious to take up immediately the position in the city which he has been offered.

"Lord Birkenhead," says the Times, "will be a greater loss to the Cabinet than to his department, in which he.has sat rather loosely for some time past; and, if he were to leave the India' Office at all, it is just as well that his successor should take hold of it at the beginning of the main tour of the Simon Commission But he has always been a valuable counsellor in the general work of the Government. The brilliant invective with which he sometimes delights the House of Lords and reduces a debate to common sense has often been of equal service behind the scenes. 1 "Brilliance apart, there is no saner or cooler head in tho Cubinet whenever it can be brought to bear upon a difficult problem of administration or of politics. The difficulty has a 1 way a been to keep it concentrated on public affairs —especially since it became necessary to look outside for a more substantial livelihood than the public service affordt.. "It is admittedly a matter of money that leads to Lord Birkenhead's resignation; but there is no reison on that account to denounce the 'system' which sometimes induces men of great ability to exchange Downing Street for Lombard Street or Fleet Street, or any of the other thoroughfares where the monetary prizes are largest. It is a commonplace that the business of government cannot enter into competition with these wealthy private concerns; and it is a commonplace also that a highly successful barrister, who joins the Government at the height of his fortunes, may hava contracted habit.s of living, which are out of all proportion to his . future income." "Lord Birkenhead's career has been the most dazzling of any in our time," says the Sunday Times. "His mind cuts like a diamond, and his tongue, on occasion, like a sword; .consequently he has not always engaged public affection, but he has never failed, even among his bitterest foes, to enjoy,their keenest admiration and a rospect that in some of his adversaries must have been more akin to dread. But the vitality and elan of the 'Galloper' are only one side of the picture; on the other is the searching analytical inind of the lawyer, which has been responsible for sonic of the finest constructive statesmanship of our generation. It is only necessary to remember his reform of the tangled, old-fangled law of property, and the decisive part he played in the Irish settlement to recognise Lord Birkenhead's permanent contributions to British legal and political history." "Lord Birkenhead no doubt made a mistake from the material point of view when he accepted the Lord Chancellorship," says the Morning Post. "To sit down upon the yielding softness of the Woolsack is a temptation which no law* yer seems able to resist; even although "the House of Lords, having been deprived of power, has fallen in import* ance. If he had remained an advocate ho could have made an income adequat* to an expensive and generous nature, which adds to his other talents tho talent of spending."