our own island and its domestic affairs, but
the management of its relations with most
of the states of Europe, and with many important
colonies. Much of the colonial business
was, however, taken off the hands of the
Secretar of State by the Board of Trade and
Plantations. This secretarial division of the
north and south continued until the reign of
George the Third; when a third Secretary of
State was appointed. After the loss of the
North American colonies, the office of third
secretary was abolished; but it was revived
on the breaking out of the French war. Then
the business of the country was distributed
nearly according to its present form; three
secretaries of state presided over three great
offices—the Home, the Foreign, and the
Colonial. War business was assigned to the
Colonial Office; but, very recently, that has
been transferred to a fourth secretary, the
Minister of War.

Thus we have now four principal Secretaries
of State, holding the patents of their
appointment under the great seal of the
kingdom; but, although each secretary has
his own peculiar department over which to
preside, his patent does not specify so much.
It simply appoints him one of Her Majesty's
Principal Secretaries of State. The department
which he is to manage is officially
expressed only by the nature of the seals that
are entrusted to him by the Crown. This
general character of the appointment has its
use; for, since all orders of the monarch
must be conveyed through a Secretary of
State, and since by the theory of our constitution
the Queen is supposed always to have a
Secretary of State in attendance to receive
the royal orders, it is convenient that one
secretary should have power to act for another
in any case of great emergency, or when
the Crown is distant from London.

The Home Secretary has the usual Secretary
of State's salary, five thousand pounds a year.
It used to be more. He is responsible to
Parliament for the right working of our laws
in the United Kingdom; but, in practice, his
attention is required chiefly on behalf of
England. Ireland still has its home affairs
managed at a cost of sixty or seventy
thousand pounds a year, by a Viceroy, whose
single salary is twenty thousand pounds,
besides more than another six thousand for
his household. In Scotland the Lord Advocate
—who is the first law officer of the Crown,
and is attached to the political fortunes of the
ministry—performs the work of the Home
Secretary. Nor has the Home Secretary much
patronage. The church patronage chiefly
belongs by legal right to the Lord Chancellor,
and partly by custom to the Prime Minister.
Again, though responsible for the good
conduct of judges and county magistrates, the
Home Secretary has not the right of
appointing them. He transacts business at the
Home Office in Whitehall. The cost of this
office, with a staff of thirty-eight persons, is
about thirty thousand pounds a-year, five
thousand of which is expended upon super-
annuation allowances. The staff is as follows:
First there is the chief with five thousand
a-year. Next come the two under secretaries.
Mr. Under Secretary A is permanent and not
political; he receives two thousand a year:
generally he is a lawyer of some reputation,
who has had large experience in criminal
jurisprudence. Mr. Under Secretary B comes
in and goes out with the ministry. He is the
parliamentary or political under secretary,
receives fifteen hundred a-year, represents his
chief or assists him as far as may be necessary
in the House of Commons, and attends
generally to the minor official business of his
department. Length of service gives a pension
to Permanent Under Secretary A, but none
to Political Under Secretary B. Next in
importance is the counsel who is the cook and
confectioner of acts of Parliament. His salary
is two thousand a-year.

Then we come to the clerks, who are
arranged in four divisions, with a senior clerk
heading each, and a chief clerk over all. Each
clerk receives his first appointment at an
early age, and undergoes no examination, but
works for a twelvemonth on trial; but, once
established, the Home Office clerk is, up to a
certain point, always improving his position.
Thus young Mr. C. begins with one hundred
and fifty pounds a-year, and every year his
income increases by ten pounds, until he is a
junior of fifteen years standing, when he
receives three hundred a-year. At that sum
he may stop for the remainder of his life, if
there be any fault in him that impedes his
promotion into the next rank of clerkships.
if not, he may rise from class to class to
receive eight hundred. The chief clerk's salary
mounts from nine hundred to a thousand
pounds a-year. The senior classes are supplied
only by promotion from the junior classes.
Thus the income of a government clerk is
carefully regulated according to length of
service.

Then there are certain retiring allowances
and pensions. Some of the great officers of
state, including the Home Secretary, are
entitled, after two years' service, to a
pension of two thousand a-year. But it is
provided that there must not be more than
four ex-ministers in receipt of such pension at
any one time, and that the receiver shall in
each case declare that he is a person of small
fortune. This pension is therefore seldom
sought, and is enjoyed at present only by one
gentleman. To form a superannuation fund
for permanent officials, an abatement of five
per cent is made from all salaries paid to clerks
and others, and the retiring allowance is
proportioned to the length of previous service.
After working for from seventeen to twenty-
four years, the pension is a quarter of the
salary and so on, more being paid for longer
service, up to a service ot thirty-five years;
which ensures a pension equal to two-thirds