§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT BIRKENHEAD)My Lords, I have a personal matter which I desire to bring before your Lordships. I am sorry to say that in the last month or two I have had some anxiety in relation to my eyesight, which has made it almost impossible for me with any comfort to read written documents. I am advised by those whom I have consulted that it is essential that I should take a month's complete rest from work of any kind. I am glad to say that I have encouragement to feel that the disability from which I suffer is not so much the result of any grave specific organic weakness as of general overwork, and that I may hope that I shall be restored as the result of the rest for which I ask leave.
For eight years I have had unremitting burdens as a Minister; for four and a quarter years as Solicitor-General and Attorney-General, and for three and a quarter years in my present Office. The burdens of this Office do not diminish as the years go by, and if ever there be a modification of the Office of Lord Chancellor, in my anticipation it will come not as the result of the discussion in which we took part yesterday, but as the result 983 of the increasingly grave burdens which are imposed upon the holder of the Woolsack in relation to the general business of the country. It is now quite common that there should be four Cabinet meetings in one week, and very often three important Cabinet Committee meetings of one or the other of which the Lord Chancellor is a member.
I have deeply considered throughout the whole of the tenure of this Office where my duties lay in relation to these competitive demands, and there were almost two months in which I was never able to attend to the duties of the Cabinet, because I gave exclusive attention during that period to my judicial work. These questions are difficult and I do not discuss them now, but it is indeed the truth, and a moderate statement of the truth, that fourteen or fifteen hours labour in the twenty-four hours are hardly sufficient to discharge the vast judicial, administrative and political duties which at present attach to this Office. I have not felt that the burden of the speeches which it has been my duty to make in this House has been an excessive one, because I have been sustained throughout by the kindness and patience with which your Lordships have supported my intervention in debate.
I have represented these facts to His Majesty who has been pleased, subject of course to the approval and permission of your Lordships' House, to give me his free leave to absent myself for the period for which I ask permission to-day. The Great Seal, if Your Lordships think proper, will be placed in commission. I have satisfied myself that in the few days which will elapse before Parliament adjourns no matter is likely to arise in which my assistance would be specially required by your Lordships. I hope to resume my duties here within a few days of the resumption of our Parliamentary sittings after the recess, and I humbly beg leave, therefore, to absent myself for the period I have indicated.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE MARQUESS CURZON OF KEDLESTON)My Lords, I am sure we shall all have listened with the warmest sympathy to the statement which has just been made by the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack. There is not one of us who has not witnessed with admiration, and may I say with surprise, the astonishing range of his activities, judicial, Parliamentary, political, adminis- 984 trative and otherwise. As a member of the Cabinet to which he belongs I can testify to the character and the strain of the work he has been willing to take upon himself, and I would say this—that no man, unless he were endowed not only with extraordinary intellectual activity but with amazing physical strength, could have supported the burden in the way the noble and learned Viscount has done. I am certain your Lordships will gladly accord to him the legitimate and well-deserved holiday for which he has asked and will welcome his reappearance in this House within a few weeks from the present time.
§ LORD BUCKMASTERMy Lords, I feel sure that all your Lordships must have heard the statement of the Lord Chancellor with feelings of regret not altogether unmingled with surprise. Politics often seem to be a pitiless occupation and we are very apt, in the heat of controversy, to overlook the fact that an adversary may stumble, or may appear to be petulant and perverse, owing to his suffering from the strain of incessant labours which we, in the Opposition, are not called upon to share. I have seen no evidence either of weakening power or of irritation that so often accompanies overwork, in the speeches of the noble and learned Viscount, and I am pleased beyond measure that he has taken the wise course of meeting in time what I trust may be only a slight and transient failing. I have only to add that I hope he will soon be restored to health. I hope also that among his many talents he possesses the supreme accomplishment of being able to take, and enjoy, and profit by a brief and well-earned holiday.
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYMy Lords, I trust your Lordships will allow me to join with other noble Lords in expressing to the Lord Chancellor how very sorry we are to hear the announcement he has made. I am sometimes called upon to criticise some things which fall from him, but I most sincerely say that I yield to none in my admiration for his great intellect and the wonderful Parliamentary ability with which he has conducted so much of the business of your Lordships' House. I hope he may soon be restored to health and that his holiday may not only be the means of restoring him, but an enjoyment in itself. We shall welcome him back whenever he comes.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I can only say that I am most deeply touched by what has fallen from the three noble Lords and the evidence your Lordships have given that what they have said expresses your kindly feelings towards myself.