§ MR. COGHILL (Stoke-on-Trent)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will take advantage of there being no ex-Lord Chancellor alive to alter the amount of pension paid to ex-Lord Chancellors, and to reduce it to the same amount that is given, when claimed, to other Cabinet Ministers?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir M. HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.I do not think there is any analogy between the office of Lord Chancellor and that of any other Cabinet Minister with regard to a claim to pension. When anyone is appointed Lord Chancellor he necessarily gives up a lucrative practice at the Bar, and cannot return to his profession on resignation of office, which he may hold for a very short time. Ex-Lord Chancellors sit regularly as Judges of Appeal, so that the more proper comparison would be with the pensions of judges. Regarded from these points of view, the pension of a Lord Chancellor does not appear to me to be too high.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLIs the right honourable Gentleman aware that the honourable Member who asked the Question is wrong in saying there is no ex-Lord Chancellor alive? The Right Honourable Samuel Walker, ex-Lord Chancellor of Ireland, one of the best judges we ever had, is still in the land of the living.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERI understood the honourable Gentleman to refer to England.