It is invidious, Sir, to mention specific instances. It is unnecessary, Sir, to quote examples of this kind which most of us may know. As the saying goes, in my part of the country at any rate, while everybody knows the name of his wife, none will utter it. That being so, I certainly am not prepared to violate that maxim, and mention names which may or may not be accurate. But I think there ought to be no difference of opinion that the head of the State should be free from any such charges. Hence, even if we may not have an absolutely destitute person as President, or a person without any family entanglements, a person without any connections or dependents, even then we should insist upon such safeguards as will see to it that human frailty is not reinforced by individual temptation, or constitutional laxity, and permit things which should never be done. The human brain is ingenious and lawyers there are who will reinforce that ingenuity. Cases are not wanting in the past when persons deliberately misinterpreted or violated the spirit of their own oath, if not the letter. I remember the case of a former Lord Chancellor of England who had in his power vast patronage of appointments to which he appointed only his own relatives. When this scandal grew to such an extent that only his sons, nephews and grandsons had any chance of appointment at all, the House of Lords appointed a Committee of Inquiry to find out whether or not such charges were well-founded. Appearing before the committee the Lord Chancellor–I think it was Lord Elden–had the temerity to say, before this Committee, quite solemnly “I have taken an oath that I will appoint only those whom I know to be so and so. And whom do I know better than my sons or nephews? He forgot to add that it was only those whom he knew to be qualified that he was to appoint, and not only those whom he only knew. That was a difference and a distinction which his learned Lordship did not care to remember at the moment.
