SIR WILLIAM JOLIFFE.
SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY.
Sir William George Hylton Joliffe, Bart., M.P. for Petersfield, and lately appointed Secretary to the Treasury, has long been known in the House of Commons as a leading Conservative of the old type. He was born in Little Argyle Street, in the year 1800, and is therefore fifty-eight years old. He is the son of the Rev. William Joliffe, by the daughter and co-heir of Sir A. Pytcher, od Streatham, Surrey. He was created a baronet in 1820; and married, in 1825, the daughter of the Hon. B. Paget. The Hon. Baronet lives at Meath House, Petersfield. Sir William first sat for Petersfield in 1830.
There are two Secretaries of the Treasury—one to manage the patronage, and the other to take charge of the financial department. Sir William Joliffe succeeds Mr. Hayter as Patronage Secretary, and Mr. George Alexander Hamilton follows Mr. Wilson as Financial. As Patronage Secretary Sir William will be chief ‟whip” to the Government. This honorary office is generally attached to the paid office of Patronage Secretary to the Treasury—for obvious reasons. The Patronage Secretary does not of course dispense all the patronage of the Government—all the higher offices he does not meddle with, and with a great many of the smaller ones he has nothing to do; but still he has the uncontrolled appointment of a vast number of officials, such as clerks, excise-officers, tide-waiters, inspectors, provincial post-masters, &c., &c., and derives enormous influence in the House from the judicious distribution of these good things. What family Sir William has we do not know, but he has a son in the House—Colonel Hedworth Hylton Joliffe, M.P. for Wells, who was at Alma and Inkermann, and in the Light Cavalry charge at Balaclava. Sir William Joliffe is a tall, erect man, and bears his years well. He does not pretend to be an orator, but addresses the House with ease and perspicuity when he has anything to say.
[The above are abridgements of the lengthier notices in the Illustrated Times.]