The British Treasury announced last week without comment the significant fact that onetime (1921-26) Governor-General Baron Byng of Canada has refused to pay a so-called "peerage patent fee" demanded by the Treasury. Theoretically this sum, amounting to several hundred pounds, is due as payment for inserting in the Official Gazette a paragraph to the effect that, last fall, Baron Byng was elevated to the style of Viscount. Actually, of course, the "fee" is a time-honored bit of British graft. How did Lord Byng explain his nonpayment?
"My decision is taken," said Viscount Byng, "in...
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