Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Lord Chancellor (as seen in several of the portraits depicted below). In recent times, it has only regularly been worn at Coronations, but some chancellors (at least until the 1990s) have also worn it when attending the Trial of the Pyx as Master of the Mint. According to George Osborne, the robe (dating from Gladstone's time in office, and worn by the likes of Lloyd George and Churchill) 'went missing' during Gordon Brown's time as chancellor. Although the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland had been united by the Acts of Union 1800 (39 & 40 Geo. III
Stop of the Exchequer had put their money in their hands were ruined by this dishonourable and perfidious action". This seems to have been only a slight exaggeration: the goldsmith bankers were heavily hit, and some of the most prominent, including Edward Blackwell and Robert Viner, went bankrupt. Danby, the Lord Treasurer, promised them compensation, but this was never forthcoming, leading to a lawsuit, "The Goldsmith Bankers case", of almost unheard-of length. Eventually the Court of Exchequer Chamber gave judgment in favour of the bankers, but in 1696 Lord Somers, the Lord Chancellor, reversed the judgment on technical grounds which left a general feeling