When Mr. Bonar Law was elected leader of the Unionist party he resigned all his company directorships, worth nearly £3,000 a year. And he was by no means a rich man. When asked why he had done so, he replied that he could not allow th slightest suggestion of personal 7 financial intcrest* to weaken his influence with the public as a party leader... At the time his party was in Opposition, and not very long before Cabinet Ministers in office thought it no shame to hold company directorships, I remember "Black Michael,' when Chancellor of the Exchequer explaining that he remained the chairman of a life assurance company in order to keep guard over his own life policies, But this sort of view of public responsibility was not good enough for Mr. Bonar Law even when he was out of office. And at the time he was actually digging into his modest capital, because his income was insufficient to support his new political position.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.