Mr. Lambert on Tuesday moved for a Committee to inquire
into. official salaries, with a view apparently to their increase, especially in the case of the Premier. His main argument was that the cost of everything had enormously increased since the salaries of ministers. were last settled, but the salaries had not increased likewise, and he quoted memoirs and evidence to prove that office generally cost its possessors money. Mr. Fawcett, who followed, objected to inequalities in the salaries of ministers as leading to injurious. changes ; Mr. Rathbone said powers were often given to particular- men on condition that they should see the work done, instancing the Ministry of Education ; Mr. Mundella made rather a bitter- little speech on the way round men were put into square holes, Mr. Fortescue into the Board of Trade, for example ; and Mr. Gladstone, while declining to have his salary increased—a main object with Mr. Lambert,—declined also to "regiment the Minis- try" by keeping men always in the same department. That practice would not make statesmen. Considerations of salary never entered into promotions, and as to Mr. Fortescue, give him time, and he would introduce a very good Trade Marks' Bill, the delay in which Mr. Mundella had complained of.
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