The County Court Clerk shook his head.
“But you don’t mean,” said I, “that the suiters are made to pay £90,000 a year for what only costs £60,000?”
“I am afraid it is so,” said Mr. Nottit.
“Dear me!” said Mr. Ficker; “I never heard of such a thing in all my professional experience. I am sure the Lord Chancellor would never sanction that in his Court. You ought to apply to the Courts above, Mr. Nottit—you ought, indeed.”
“And yet,” said I, “I think I have heard something about a Suitors’ Fee Fund in those Courts above—eh, Ficker?”
“Ah—hem—yes,” said Mr. Ficker. “Certainly—but the cases are not at all analogous. By the way, how are the other fees distributed?”
“The Clerks,” said Mr. Nottit, “received £87,283, nearly as much as the Judges. As there are 491 clerks, the average would be £180 a-year to each. But as the Clerks’ fees accumulate in each Court according to the business transacted, of course the division is very unequal. In one Court in Wales the Clerk only got £8 10s. in fees; in another Court, in Yorkshire, his receipts only amounted to £9 4s. 3d. But some of my colleagues made a good thing of it. The Clerks’ fees in some of the principal Courts’ are very ‘Comfortable.’
| “The Clerk of Westminster netted | £2731 |
| The Clerk of Clerkenwell | 2227 |
| The Clerk of Southwark | 1710 |
Bristol, Sheffield, Bloomsbury, Birmingham, Shoreditch, Leeds. Marylebone, received £1000 a-year and upwards.”
“But,” continued our friend, “three-fourths of the Clerks get less than £100 a-year.”