Time seems to hang rather heriVilk thr Lord Birken- head
• Since 'he joined the ranks' of the business men. Apart 'from his jOUrnalistic flares he has enlightened us in the Tinies on many points of legal history, Ostensibly With a view to chastising publicly 'Sir Henry Slesser. Sir Henry, who was Solicitor-General in the Lahour Government, had the " impertinenee " to suggest in the House of Commons last week that the ex-Lord Chancellor might put in some work on the Judicial Committee since he was still receiving the statutory f.5,000 - of the so-called pension. 'We think the word "pension " is inappropriate, but there are historical reasons for it, and Lord Birkenhead is perfectly right to point out that moneys so paid are legal property not conditioned by any discharge of services. There was no reason, however, to drag in the question of what he was earning at the Bar before becoming a Law Officer, for dignity of office and monetary gain are two entirely different things between which no comparison is possible. And in England, the mother of unwritten laws, it is strange to see a prominent figure standing hp for statutory rights— not for his own sake, oh dear no ! but for the sake of his successors—as against the better counsellors of custom and. courrniin sense. - *
Previous page
