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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 158, 5 July 1881, Page 4

The death of Lord Beaconefidld relieves the Exchequr of a payment of £2000 a year. Thia was the the pension whioh tbe late statesman drew as ex-Cabinet Minister. It is an optional advantage whicb a few ciMinisters may or may not avail themselves of, as they thiuk proper. Tbe salary of an English Prioie Minister is a manifestly inadequate remuneration. If the matter were to be be regarded merely from o monetary consideration, it is obvious that a map able enoogb to be a Prims Minister of England could, if he turned his attention in other directions, earn considerably more tban £5000 a year. It was, therefore, delicately arranged many years a 2 o that two or three of the principal officers of the State should carry with them retiring pensions bf £2000 a year. Mr Gladstone his never availed himself of this privilege Lord BascooEfield, being a man of cmaller fortune, accepted the not too overwhelming boanty of tbe State. The pension lapses when the regular salary of a Minister is drawn. Thus frG.i> 1874 Mr Disraeli dieappeared from tbe list, but io 1880 application was madse for tbe £2000 ia tbe naa.e of tbe Earl Beeconßfield. A very extraordinary existence was brought to close a short time ago by the death of a man who was known as the "man of glass." The records of the asylum at Bicetre, where the map died, ahow that as long ago as in 1797, when he was 18 years old, a certain. J übisser was brought to the hospital suffering from mental alienation of a severe kind Hia malady had been caused by a wound inflicted by a pane of glass which fell on his head; and before the cut could bo healed the brain became affected by permanent disease. The sufferer lapsed into idiocy and then into madness of a more violent kind; and he was shortly after shut up in. the asylum, where he has remained ever i since. After the first transports of del I lirium had passed off the man became 1 more quiet; but he could never get rid |1 of the idea that he was made of glass; ' andl that the least shock or blow would cause him to break in pieces He rei mained therefore perfectly quiet and silent, being afraid even to speak, for fear of precipitating the catastrophe which he fancied was ever impending; For 83 long years he has led this sing-; ular existence, only once opening his lips in speech, when he asked for a little tobacco. At one other period his intellectual and physical faculties appeared to be aroused, and that was when during tbe siege of Paris he could hear the shells bursting in the air at no great distance from his place of retreat. At this time he was seen to grow nervous andi less lethargic, and to walk about restless-* ly, humming some words which had nd

I intelligible sequence or meaning He j survived, however, and relapsing into i his usual condition has fo lived until the age of one hundred and three, testij fying in a somewhat striking way to the effects of totally placid and inactive tranquility both of body and mind in prolonging life. No little credit is however due to the authorities at Bieetre for having thus preserved for 83 years an existence which from the first was utterly useless and uninteresting.