I wish that Sir Stafford Cripps could have been a
little more sympathetic to the suggestion that judges' salaries should be re- considered. It is almost incredible that they should never have been revised since they were last fixed in 1832. If they were fixed at a reasonable figure then they obviously stand at an intolerably un- reasonable figure now ; £5,00o must have gone not far short of three times as far in William IV's reign as it does in George VI's. Industrial workers are not inhibited from public demands for a rise in wages ; His Majesty's judges are. They are rightly expected to live on a scale consistent with the dignity of their office—for which their present stipends, after tax and super-tax, are plainly inadequate. A twenty or twenty-five per cent, increase would lay a negligible burden on the Exchequer and would create no precedent that need cause disturbance ; to do the same for any other profession whose emoluments have not increased since 1832 would be a safe offer.
Previous page
