BRITISH PREMIERS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 773, 6 October 1922, Page 2

BRITISH PREMIERS.

SOME NOTABLE CAREERS. Prime Ministers are a comparatively modern institution in Great Britain. . ' The first occasion on which there was a real Prime Minister was on April 3rd, 1721 when Robert Walpole was definitely installed at the headi of Parliament as First Lord of the Treasury an,d Chancellor of the Exchequer, Not until 1907 was the official position of the Prim,e Minister formally recognised. (The place : then assigned to him in the Order of Precedence was that of the former Lord Treasurer, after the Lord Chance-llor and before the Lord 1 President of the Council. He is thus the second, no'the first lay subject in the kingdom,

At times the Prime Minister has presided over another department; but generally, for two hundred years the position of head of the Governmerl; has been united; with that of First Lord of the Treasury. The Prime Minister receives no salary. but his salary as First Lord of the Treasury has generally been abouit 25 000 dollars a year The official residence, 10 Downing Street, London (called after Sir George Downing, a Secretary of State in the time of Charles II.) was originally offered to Sir Robert Walpole by George 11., as an official nesklence for himself and his successors at the Treasury. The term Prime (or Sole) Minister belongs to the >iast century. The word “Premier” an abreviation of Premier Minister, came into use about tire middle of the eighteenth century.

As George I. knew no English his conversations with Britain's firsf Prime Minister, Walpole, were carried on in crude Latin, Walpole was Prime Minister for twenty-one years, the' longest period for which that office has been held in the history of England NOT DEVOID OF WIT.

> The second Prime Minister (1742) was ; the Earl of Wilmington, “His only' pleasures were money and eating.)” But he was not devoid of .wit. He is credited with the remark about the Duke of Newcastle ‘That he always lost half an hour in the .morning, which he was running after for the rest of the day without being able .to overtake it.”

In twerity-six years, ffi/om 1757 to 1783 of nine Prime Ministers, four were 'dukes. In, the last hundred yealrs only one duke has filled "Thai place.

The Duke of Devonshire, who died at the age o,f forty-four, was the shortest lived/ of all Prime Ministers.

Lord North (Prime Minister in 1770) was much inclined to the appearance of somnolence on :the Treasury Bench. On one occasion an opponent, who was belabouring him with investive, was so enraged at this that he exclaimed“Evdiji omv, in the midst ,cff these perils.' the' noble lord is asleep.” Without open, ing his eyes. North said, wearily : “I wish to hea'ven I was !”

There is another hale of Lord, North being asked by a neighbour at dinner: “Who ;is that frightful woman opposite ?” “Oh, said Lord North, “that is my wife,” “No/’ said the other. “I mean /he monster next her.” “.Thait.” said Lord North, “is my daughter—and I may <iell you sir, that we are considered to be three of the ugliest people in London.”

‘"This joke Robinson (afterwards Earl qf Rip on,, and Prime Minister in 1827) retailed many year's later to the lady next to him at a parly. He remarked that ft was not received with as much relish as he nad recounted it ; and then he recollected thait he was talking to the ‘monster in question.”

THE FAMOUS PITTS. “The family of Pitt is undoubtedly the most distinguished' in i:he political annals of England. Modest in origin, and little aided' by wealthy connections it gave the country two Prime Ministers. For <two generations i't dominated! The. fortunes of England; it doubled the House of Lordte and controlled half the House of Commons.” When on December 19th, 1783, William Pitt walked into the House of Commons as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer he was then twentyfour years of age—The youngest prime Minister ever/ known, He died on the twenty-fifth anniversary of ‘.the day on which he had first entered! Parliament. Only one Prime Minister had lived a shorter life, and only one had held the office fdr a longer time. Spencer Percival Prime Minister in 1809, was shot dead by a madman named Bellingham in 1812 as he was entering .the Lobby off the House of Commons. ft is said that liofrd Salisbury, Prime Minister in 1885. had a limited recollection of names and! faces. I A story (of doubtful truth, perhaps) describes Mm looking through a long

bst qf names of candidates for the post of Rkitish Envoy at some minior and distant court. When he came to the bottom of the list, the last name struck a chord, and he said, “Brown—Brown.. A good old Eng--lish name! Give it to Brown !” Lord 1 .Rosebery, Prime Minister in 1894 won the Derby for two years running’, 1894-1895, a feat never be. fore accomplished by a Premier. When, at the age of eighteen Mr Lloyd George paid his first visit to the ‘House of Commons, he recorded his impressions in his diary : ‘1 will not say-,” he wrote, “but what I eyed the assembly in a spirit similar’to that in which William the Conqueror eyed England on his firs(t visit to Edward the Confessor, as the region of his future domain. O vanity 1

NATIONALITIES of premiers. Of the thirty-six British Prime Ministers, five have been Scotsmen, three Irishmen, one Welsh and one of (foreign extraction. Of the remainder who were English, six have come from Yorkshire and Lancashire while Disrae'li used to say that five (he included himself) were Buckinghamshire squires. The averagei age of entering one of other House of Pariitment

has been twenty-five,' though seven went into the Commons and four into Ithe Loxjds at .'twenty-one. Their average age for first becoming Prime Minister was fifty, and! for last ceasing ito hol'd that 'position fifty nine One, however,i first became Prime Minister q;t twenty-four, and one not until he wts seventy. One completed his 'tenure of office as early as thirty-four, and another as 1 ito .as eighty-four. Comparatively few Prime Ministers have been materially benefited by their place . apart from its power and. patronage. Some nine or ten have had! to receive pensions or houses. Several, on the other hand, have seriously diminished their fortunes by tenure of office. A few have had their debts paid after death by Parliament.