PRIME MINISTERS' SALARIES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume v, Issue 232, 12 October 1877, Page 3

PRIME MINISTERS' SALARIES.

Apropos of Mr. Gladstones^ correction of the statement in "Dod's Peerage to the effect that he was in receipt of a pension of £2 000 a year, it may be worth while to recall tne fact that the "CaWnet pensions "at the disposal of the Crown are only four in number, the present holders being Lord Beaconsfield, Sir Georee Grey Mr Wai pole, and Mr. Milner Gibson; payment of Lord Beaconsficld's being of course suspended during his tenure of "an office of emolument" Each pension is of the value of £2,000 a year, the recipient bavin- to make certain declarations in respect of Ms income previous to accenting it It may be doubted whether a less Jx^My^SbS^&i that of an English politician exists under the sun. Lord Russell told a Committee of the House of Commons that he found his salary as Fust Lord of the Treasury inadequate to meet the expenses entailed oil him by his position as Prime Minister. So sensible was the late vaiJSf to l« S n™ 6 %*?■'* f 11 i U ; St Lord of the Trcasurv ™* ™ L raised to £8,000 a year. Notice had been given by a member of a motion to that effect, and there can be no doubt that it would have been earned. In former times the case was otherwise. The official f™°,^SgjV el ' and ' 'I Mle ministel ' of James 11., have teen estimated at £40,000 a year. At a much later period the younger Pitt, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchecmcr, and Warden of the Cinqiie Ports, received at least £10,000 a year, ami had two residences rent free. And, perhaps, it is not too much to say that Ti- n <&>° V 6 '™ "go £10,000 a year went quite as far as £10,000 a year will go now. Not, indeed, that Pitt cared for thesu things. It was only m deference to the almost positive command of George 111. that he accepted the Lord Wardensuip of the Cinque for r S^ lei T^ 1788 f hc S ay « amorcdcckled Proof of Ms contempt for money. It was feared that a regency might have the effect of depriving him of power, and the merchants of London made no secret of pffSß! 1 ? ? raislu l a i um of fIOOf 100 ' 000 as a to the w» istc r-