PRACTICAL MEASURES .

No. II. CONCLUDED.

PENSIONS.

OUR last week's investigation, as a whole, of pensioning in practice, proved that, in a personal expenditure of fourteen millions of money, eight millions only are expended on pay and no less than six millions on pen- sions. A general examination Into certain branches of expenditure gave results equally startling, if not more EC1. The number of indivi- duals paid and employed in the Army was found to be 81,311; the number pensioned and idle, 93.336. The officers serving were shown to be 5,901 ; the officers unemployed, 6,592. It was proved by tabular exhibition with chapter and verse, that whilst the Dead-weight, or pen- sioned expenditere of theArmy, bud, since 1817, increased in most of its branches, and only fallen off to any extent where it could not have been prevented,—as in pensions to foreign officers, and to officers for wounds,—a positive addition of 33400/. had been made to the total amount ; and that after more than twenty years of profound peace, in which it ought naturally to have diminished considerably. In the Navy, a similar table proved that the number of officers unemployed was five times as great as the number on service, and that the pensions of these un- employed gentlemen cost nearly as touch as the actual pay of the whole Navy, including officers, seamen, marines, and boys. The facts brought out by a detailed analysis of the Navy Half-pay, &c. are indeed so im- portant, that we repeat it, in case any of the readers of the present paper may have missed the last.

7•11LE 01' THE COMPARATIVE: NUMBERS OF NAVAL OTFICERS E3ITLOVED .AND IDLE.

11 Admirals Emp!oyed 919 Idle. 61 Captains 623

65 Commanders 979 393 Lieutenants 2,219

213 Masters 3M 35 Chaplains 32 1050 Medieal °Mears 613

101 Pursers I 470 1.177 Employed. 5.499 Idle.

So that, in ronnd numbers, For eve y 1 Adtniral employed, there are 20 Admirals idle ; For every 1 Captain employed. there are 10 Captains idle; For every 1 Commander employed, there are 15 Commanders tile; For every 1 Lieutenant employed, there are.... 6 Lieutenants idle.

And as regards proportionate cost,

Time PAY

For Admirals emplo■ed is .621,455

For Captains employed is

30.559 For Commanders employed 19.502 For Lieutenants employed is 49.538

TUE PENSION

For Admirals ill, is

For Captains idle is For Commanders idle is 4150.909 61

For Lieutenants idle is

Passing from large results and the men of arms, we will continue this branch of the subject by looking into a few particular instances of pensioning in practice amongst the lawyers. The salary of the Lord Chancellor is, in round numbers, 10,000/. per annum. The country pays 14,0001. a year for the retiring pensions of three Chancellors ; so it costs nearly half as much again for the pension as the pay. If there be one office more than another in which, under existing circumstances, high pay is necessary, it is that of judge. Some property must be spent on a mares education before he becomes a barrister : should be ever intend to appear with a chance of success in the legal arena, he must train himself by bard study and labour : if sufficiently distin- guished to be made Chief Justice, be must sacrifice a large profes- sional income for the post ; and when he attains it he must exercise his functions in the presence of a skilled and critical audience, and work 'very hard to boot. The salary of the Lord Chief Justice is 8,000/. a year. Lord ELLE:SIX/ROUGH'S sinecures of Chief Clerk, &c.— for which he neither did any thing nor bad any thing to do—brought him in 9,6251. a few years ago. Such offices for the fleecing of suitors have since been "regulated,"—a word which Mr. SPRING RICE tries as if it meant abolished, when he is pressed upon the subject of abolishing sinecures. What the thing is, can be readily shown. At page 80 of the Finance Accounts, will be found a payment of 5,496/. 5s. 4d. to the " Honourable Thomas Kenyon, Filacer, Exigenter, &c. as a com- pensation for loss of fees and emoluments : " so that the regulation under which this gentleman suffers gives him 496/. a year more for doing nothing than a Puisne Judge receives for his work. This, however, is by no means the only " regulated " case in the Court of King's Bench. There are many other persons receiving " Compensations for loss of fees and emoluments," the aggregate of which amounts to 20,880/. ; being pensions of the worst kind, granted for the loss of sinecures, or of offices which were useless. The salaries of all the Judges of the same court only amount to 28,500/. It is worth while to examine more closely the effect of this principle of granting compensations upon the reduction of a useless office ; which, stripped naked, is only saying that because a man has held a place that ought never to Inure been given, the nation whose money be has thus wrongfully been taking, is bound to pay it him for life. For superannuating a man who has passed his youth and his prime in the public service, one can perceive many reaF.ons of sufficient cogency to require some very powerful arguments and striking facts to overbalance them. But to pension men merely because they have been paid by the public without rendering any service in return, is on the face of it of very questionable propriety as a general rule. Yet even here it may be said, you have occupied the time of the individual ; you have prevented him from pushing his fortune in other directions, and pro- bably caused him to miss opportunities of advancement, if not closed up channels that were formerly open to him. But not a shadow of reason can be alleged in favour of sinecures. The time of the sine- curist is riot claimed ; he can use his talents or his interest in any other direction. He robs the public ; the public deprives him of nothing. So far from being entitled to claim a pension for life equivalent to the iircome of his sinecure, strict justice would require bun to disgorge his plunder. Yet such is the impudence and low state of public morality the pension system engenders, that Lord Essesmottoucir declared he held his sinecures by as good a title as other people held their estates. The following table is an attempt to show the general working of this vicious system, so as to display the proportion which the worst class of pensions bear to the bad. The first column shows the amount of Superannuation Pensions, the second the' Compensation Pensions, or, in official language, the "allowances for offices abolished and com- pensation to officers for loss of fees."

(Finance Accounts 1836-7, Nos. 9, 68,71; and Miscellaneous Est:mates,' No. 3)

Se MMMM NNUATION C resSIONS.

Customs 115,551 61,975 Excige 97 846 31,275 Stamp Office 7.546 7,570 Land and Assessed Tax Offices 4,181 22,129 Post Office 14,907 11,706 Management of Crown Lauds. 1,943 7,251 Poutsc °mess, Treasury 5,336 5.683 Colonial Office 2.420 3,922 Alien Office 600 1,400 Audit Office 2,073 9,755 Stationery Office 160 459 Linen Bolo d, and some other offices in lrelaud 4,239 11,256 National Debt Office, Ireland

297 Late Levant Company .. 538 - African Company

902 - Lottery Office ..

3.733

- Exchequer Office

19 '04 - Irish Treasury .. 2 745

- Ditto Auditor.General's Office

.. 2,739 - Ditto Clerk of the Pells Office .. 3;2'83 - Ditto Military Audit Office

3,112

- Irish 1.10ant of Works

519 Miscellaneous Compensations of various kinds, to which there is no oppositue Supernormal ions .. 71,172 Courts of Justice in England and Ireland, approximate statement

44,140 177,216

Co iipensations to sundry persons for loss of Emoluments by the Irish Union .. 11,833 Civil Departments of the Army. (Army Estimates)

Horse Guards 666 106 War Office 1,725 19,65S

Adjuta ma feneral's if /nice

241 154 Army Medical Depart 'mut 1.400 900 Judge. Arivocate•Gen• rill's Office 900 300 Pay master-General's Office 2.334 6,783 Muster Master.General's Office

1,07S Late Comptrollers of Army Accounts 1,800 1 Late Agent General's Department

Chelsea hospital 291 1 ' Royal Military College 516 ;es: Miscellaneoes M 230

Departments in Ireland 1,036

Civil Departments of the Nosy for one year only ; the preceding amount, 199.3001., nut being separately stated. (Navy Estimates) 6,629 3,423 Civil Departments of the Ordnance, excluding Wirloss aud Artificers, (Navy Estimates) 22.347 25,422

Having thus analyzed the subject in its generals and particulars, we next proceed to give some personal examples of pensioning in practice. The list, however long, is not offered as a complete one ; nor would it be easy to render it complete. The distinctions between pensions, superannuations, retiring allowances, compensations, and all the other mysterious and confusing jargon of the Public Accounts, is fully called into play ; and he who attempts to look into the subject, must wade through a mass of accounts and a wilderness of words. But this is not all. The Government does not bind itself by its own definitions. So far from it, the Pension-list proper does not contain, by very many, the whole of what even in 'Government phraseology are called pensions. They are charged on the gross revenue ; they are charged on various ac- counts upon the Consolidated Fund ; they are annually voted. In short, they are to be met with everywhere, and perhaps found com- pletely nowhere. However, this list will answer the purpose of showing the amounts and nature of the principal pensions, and the names, stations, and pursuits of the receivers. It will also help to a shrewd guess as to their deserts.

With the pensions proper we have intermingled some instances of su- perannuations and compensations, with, when practicable, the salary received before the reduction took place. These tables are proper sub- jects of study to the inquirer. Thus, Mr. SPEER was engaged in doing nothing useful, for which he was paid 1,7001. a year : the office was at last abolished, and he was assigned a pension of 1,700/. for doing nothing at all. There is another case which comes more com- pletely within our range : a Mr. NicitoLas PRICE got 1,590/. per an- num as compiler of the Gazette in Dublin, which might be reckoned at about eight times the worth of his services : his office is abolished, or he is superseded for a cheaper hand ; but he is still paid his 1,590/. a year. Our compiling friends will envy this man : here are no pensions for private editors.

(Paid to 5011 January 1837. Finance Accounts, No. 68.)

ANNUITIES TO Inc ROYAL i AM1LV, X

The Duke of Cumberland

21,000 The Duke of Sussex

21,000 The Duke of Cambridge

21,000 Prince George of Cumberland

6,000 Prince George of Cambridge

6.000 Princess Augusta

13,000 Princess Mary, sow Duleliess of Gloucester

13,000 Princess Elizabeth, now l'rincess of Ilesse homburg

13.000 Princess Sophia

13,000 Dutchess tot Kent and Princess Victoria

22,000 Princess Sophia of Gloucester

7,000 Trustees of the King of Belgium, who repay 34,0001.

50.000 Prince of Mecklentairgli Strelitz

Re!, at Servants-

1,846 George the 'Fltirri's 10.079

Queen Charlotte's 7,553

Queen Caroline's

..

823

ANCESTRAL Pommes,

18,785 (Nara) land Rodney

2,923 Viscount Duncan (uow Earl of Campertlown) 2,000

Ditto on Irish Consolidated Fund

1.000

3.1.100

Lord de Saurnarez 1,200 Viscount St. Vincent

3,000 Earl Nelson 2.230

Countess of Nelson 750

Dowager Countess of Nelson 2,000

5,000

Lord Exmouth 2.000 I tun . Stroh Colliogwood

500

(Military.)

Viscount Lake

2,000 Duke of Marlborough (on the Post.utlice Revenue)

5.000 Heirs of the ltuke of Schomberg (Ditto)

4,000

ON riNdIONS.

Lord Atnherst, received by Earl Morley in trust 3,00 Lord Abercrombie 2,000

(Civil.)

Granville Penn, Esq. 4,000 Hon. Jane Carr (late Perceval) 2010 Spencer Perceval, Esq 2.700 Family of the late Mr. Canning .. 3,000 Duke of Grafton on Post-Office Revenue 4.700 Ditto on Excise 9,000 13,700

MILITARY PENSIONS,

The Duke or Wellington 4,000 Lord Beresford 2,000 Lord Combermere 2,000 Lord 11111 2,000 Lord Lynedoch 2,000

NAVAL PENSIONS,

Sir Sidney Smith, Consolidated Fund 1.000

Ditto, 40 per Cents 1.250

CIVIL SERVTCES,

Lord Colchester 3,000 Lord Sidinuuth 1,120 Lord Bexley 3.000 Right lion. Hems Goullturn 2,000 Right lion. S. IL Leshingtott 1,500 Right lion. John Wilson Crukcr 1,500 Right Hon. Henry Huhltouse 1,000

Right Hon. Thomas Peregrine Courtenay 1.000

Joseelt Planta. Esq. 1.500 Willtatn R. Hamilton, Esq. 1,000 Robert Plumer Ward. Esq 1,000 Viscount Canterbury 4,000 Earl of Athlone 1,846 (Miscellaneous Estimates, No. 3.)

SALARY. PRNI1011,

George Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Am X tutor o Treasury Accounts 3S0n 21 OC Edward C. Bullock, Chief Clerk 1:00 1.201 William Pearce, Librarian and Preeis•writer to Itorne Office 1.075 70t John Hicks, Senior Clerk, Home Office 1,135 946 Granville Penn, extra Chief Clerk, Colonial 0.3ce 1.000 550 Richard Penn, Third Clerk, Colonial Office 1,125 750

Thomas Lack. Esq. Assistant•Secretary, Board 01 Trade 1,500 1.500

James Chapman, Esq. Commissioner of A edit MU . 1,200 1,200 William Gregory, Under Secretary its Chief .Secretary's Office, Ireland 2.226 1,015

Alexander Mangle, Clerk in ditto 1,047 785

Peter Burrows, Commissioner of Insolvent Debtors' (Start, Ire- land 2,000 1,600

COMPENSATIONS,

William Speer. Chief Clerk and Auditor of Treasury Accounts 1.700 1,700 Thomas I lublyn, Chief Clerk, Treasury 1,400 1,050 Gilbert West, Senior Clerk . ............ 1.100 825

J. Halket. Esq. Commissiouer of West India Audi Office 1,500 750 Nicholas Price, Compiler of the Dublin Gazette (..pi ears to be now dead) .. • ... 1,500 1,590

(Finance Accounts,No. 60)

LEGAL PENSIONS, .£

Earl of Eldon 4.000 Lord Brousliam and Vans 5,000 Lord Lyndhurst 5.000

Lord Wynffirs1 3.730

Sir William Alexander 3.750 Sir Robert Graham 2.625 Sir John Richardson 3.500 Sir James Hummel' 3.500 Sir William Gamow 3,500 Sir John Bayley 3,500 Dr. A. Croke 1.000 Dr. J. II tucluliffe 1,000 Henry Moreton Dyer, Esq. 1,000 Dr. W. 'Ferritt 1.000 Thomas Jervis. Esq. 1,015 Robert M. Casberd, Esq. .............. ......... ......... 1,000 (Finance Accounts, No. 63.) David Monypenny of Pitmilly. Esq. formerly Lord of Session and Justiciary, and one of thc Lords Cotntnissioners of the Jury Court 2,400 Sir Archibald Campbell, Bart., a late Lord of Session and Justiciary .. 1.950 William Robertson, Esq., late a Lord of Session... 1,500 Sir Samuel Shepherd, turmerly Chief Baron of tile Exchequer ju Scotland .......... 3,000 David Hume, Esq., formerly one of the Barons of the Ex- chequer in Scotland 1,500 (Finance Account', Nos. 71 and 03.)

COMPENSATIONS,

Court of King's Bench, England,

Lord Ellenborough. Chief Clerk Plea Side, 54c.• 9.625

The Honourable Thomas Kenyon. Filacer, Exigenter, 3m., 5,496 Lord Kenyon. Custos Brevium . 1,391 Samuel and Joseph Platt. Esquires. Joint Clerk of the Papers 1,551 Charles Short, Esq., Clerk of the Rules 2,028 Peregrine Dealtry. and C. Francis Robinson, Esquires, Clerks

Ott the side of the Crown £1,474

Peregrine Dealtry, Esq. King's Clerk 529 2,003 Court of Common Pleas, Thomas Hudson. George Wallington, and henry Belward

Ray, Estys. Prothouotaries 3,945 Court of Exchequer.

Thomas Adlington, Esq., Side Clerk 1,160 Thomas White, Esq, Side Clerk 1,114 Harry Edgell, Esq., Clerk of the Errors 2,333 Admiralty Court, Scotland, William G. Campbell, late Principal Clerk 1,107 (Finance Accounts, No, 70.)

DIPLOMATIC PENSIONS,

Ambassadors, Sir Robert Adair The Right Honourable Charles Arbuthnot Sir Robert Liston Lord St. lieleus Lord Stranarord Lord Stuart de Rothsay Earl C ditcart Earl Clancatty Lord Cowley Earl Eight Sir Gore Ousley Sir Edward Thornton Sir Arthttr Paget Lord Heytesbury

• This was what he received a few years ago. Since that, his offices have been, as Mr. Rice says. " regulated,"-which really meatus basura against fluctuation. The average receipts of a certain number of seam were takeu, and this sum secured to the holders come what may. Lord ELLEN14011011011'S income, we believe, is now between eight and nine thousand pounds ; bat we only find a return for one office, which yields 2,3531.

2,250

SUPERANNUATIONS,

2,056 2016 1.594 2,056 2.056 2,056 1.786 1.786 1,786 1,786 1,796 1.706 1.706 1.700 1.700 1,516 1,516 1.516 L336 1,300 1.300 1,300 1.066 1.066 1,066 1,066 1.066 1.066

650 1.200 1,000 500 660

The exposition of pensions would scarcely be complete without their exhibition in another phase—the ratio of reward between Peers and People, the aristocracy and the mass. Pensions on the Com- passionate List, as the name implies, are a gift, to which the person bad no regulation or legal claim. It is granted in some peculiar case of distress, and mostly to relations of the public servants. Let us take in juxtaposition with the last Compassionate List of the Commissa- riat, some persons who derive their pensions through Peers.

Or the subject of People and Aristocracy may be put in another light : 438 Ordnance artificers and labourers are pensioned for 8,420l.; it costs 13,700/. to pension one Duke of Gitarrom.

We shall not, of course, be supposed to mean that all these pen-

sions could have been saved, or that many of them have not been deserved. No one would grudge an ample income to the family of NELSON, or to that of any other benefactor to his country. No one wishes to cut down the pay of public servants to a pittance that would merely support them whilst employed and then turn them adrift as soon as they were useless or worn. out. All we aim at is to show that the present system of pensioning is a " proved abuse," which has fa- cilitated the most enormous jobbing, and the most improper, not to say profligate grants—swelled the unproductive expenditure of the country to full six.eiyhths of the cost fm. actual service—seems in- capable of any sufficient check—and calls aloud for some practical remedy.

Officials may tell us that a remedy has been found for many branches of the Civil service. Even admitting that this were true, there would yet remain untouched those great leviathans—the Army, Navy, and Ordnance—which swallow up nearly four millions of pension-money annually. But let us see what this remedy is. In compliance with

many suggestions, the WELLINGTON Ministry in 1829 made a Treasury

regulation, which was subsequently embodied in the 4th and 5th Will. IV. c. 24. The act is now lying before us ; but, like most pro- ductions which emanate from the Legislature or the Government, it resembles the handwriting on the wall, and requires an interpreter to render it thoroughly intelligible. If, however, we rightly comprehend the enactment, it as one of the most miserable pieces of peddling that can be imagined. All the evils connected with the Superannua- tion and Compensation system remain untouched—indeed unnoticed. No attempt has been made to regulate in future the proportion between the number and amount of the paid and the pensioned, nor, we should say, to form what is properly a superannuation fund. The Act directs 2i per cent, to be deducted from salaries not exceeding 100/. a year, and 5 per cent. from those above ; and tile sums derived from this source appear to be applied towards paying the current superannua- OM of the respective offices. To what extent they operate, can be shown by a few instances. The gross amount of the Civil Superatt- nuations of the Ordnance is 60,777/. ; the contribution from the opera. boa of the Act 705/. In the Navy, this class of pensions is 209,331/. ; the contribution 586/. In the Army, 47,1301.; the contribution 150/. Even in the Customs, where the proportion is the highest, the con- tribution is not 3 per cent. on the gross amount of the pensions. So far as we can make it out, the whole thing is a gross delusion—a blind to mystify Members of Parliament who attack without a knowledge of their enemy.

THE REMEDY.

So much for Pensions as they are : the next question is what can be done for the present and the future. As regards the existing Pension.list, much of it, no doubt, would on a scrutiny be discovered to have been granted most improperly. In many instances, the pension would be found out of all proportion to the deserts of the party, or to any services be had rendered ; whilst the ample, not to say exorbitant rate of the active salary, would prove a pension altogether uncalled for. Even where no palpable objection of this kind existed, a close scrutiny would detect many barefaced jobs at the public expense. Jo the Army, old lives systematically permitted to sell out to young and favoured men, thus keeping up a constant sup- ply. of annuitants—feeding the Army Pension.list. In the Navy, active, experienced, and willing officers shelved, to make room for new corners with interest, arid producing that enormous disproportion we have exhibited between the employed and the idle. Even in the Civil departm. ents there has been a good deal of jobbing. By a Treasury regulation, the Treasury itself had the power of allowing retiring pen- sions after a certain number of years' service ; and by this means, men, able and even desirous to continue employed, were in a measure forced to retire, that the dispensers of patronage might fill up their places. Under the old Tory regime, these processes went on famously; and

Sir Charles Bagot Alexander Cockburn, Esq.... JP. Morier, Esq The Right Honourable .1.11. Trete Sir Brook Taylor Lord Berwick G. W. Chad, Esq The Right Honourable Sir Robett Gordon... Bartholomew Frere, Esq.

George Hammond, Esq Lionel Harvey. Esq Henry Pierrepoint, Esq. J. Spencer Smith, Esq. W. Wickham, Esq Consuls, Richard Be*rave Ilopner (Superannuation) (Compensations on abolition of office.) Sir James Gambier Sir Woodbine Parish Anthony St. John Baker honorable John Meade ANCEsTR.O.PENsIONS OF PEERS. CoNIEAsiToNATF. LIST OF THE PEovi.r.

Pak., of Marlborough........

45,000 O. Laitlley £16 0

Lint Amherst ..

3,000 N. Laidley 16 0 Lord Abercremhie.. ..... 2,000 C. Laiilley 16 0 The Family of the late Mr. Canning 3,00 M. Laiilley 16 0 Earl Nelson 2,250 E. Laiilley 16 0 11m g"' C011ittess of Nelson.. ... 2,000 T. Laidley 16 0

Coutites,i of Nelson..............

750 H. T. Plant 10 0 Lord Camperdown 3,000 C. 11. Hoililer 7 10 Viscount St. Vincent 3,000 17. L. 11 odder 7 10 Lord Rodney 2,923

M. G. Horsier

7 to

Spencer Perceval, Esq. 2,700 E. J. Armstrong 7 IV lion. Jane Cam (late Pereetal).. 2.000 J. N. Armstrong

7 to

both Whigs and Conservatives have since worked them to the utmost extent of their means. We have heard that, during the short Premiership of Sir ROBERT PEEL, everybody was removed on superannuation who could be put out with decency : and every one remembers the gross Whig job of the new Exchequer, by which Mr. Essis, the effi- cient head of the old office, who first suggested the plan of the new, and whose salary was only 1,400/. a year, was pensioned in order to give the already superannuated Sir JOHN NEWPORT 2,0001, per annum.

Notwithstanding all this, it cannot be denied that there are too many difficulties in the way to allow of a very satisfactory settlement, even with the boldest and most honest inquirers. Unless in the case of sinecures and such like things, which we abandon without a word, the most profuse of the superannuation.; have this defence—" This allow- ance was granted according to a law, or aquas/ law, operative at the time when we entered the public service : we were taught to look forward to this pension as a provision for our age ; we spent our salary on the faith of the public credit ; we had no hand in making the law or fixing the pension ; and if you deprive us of it now, you break faith and turn us out to penury." Many pensions granted for services have a still stronger case. It is no fault oh' an officer that the authorities have chosen to force him upon the Pension-list against his will ; it is no fault of a Tory clerk whom the Whigs, or of a Whig cleik whom the Tories have virtually compelled to become superannuated. These mon may very fairly plead their ease as a case of hardship—" We are pensioned against our will ; we should have preferred the excitement of a pursuit with the full pay or the higher salary, to being doomed to rust in idleness with the scantier income." In point of fact, the present Pension system is as mischievous to honest public servants, who re- ceive the money, as to the people, who are taxed to find it. It is only the aristocracy who are gainers. Be the results of' inquiry easy or difficult, however, it is useless to expect even the form of it from the Pal liament which the enfranchised people have been induced to elect. Under any circumstances, with the present constituency and mode of voting, the aristocratical influences would be too strong to admit of justice being done to the great reci- pients ; and we see no reason silly the pourer and more deserving pen- sioners should be made their scapegoats. If the Ministers had the will,—which we do not believe,—they have not the power, or the im- mediate means of getting the power, to institute the inquiry. THE PAST, we suspect, must remain as it is, until, as the Whig pamphleteer has it, " Death " relieve us,—unless no course of do-nothing delusion and misgovernment should at last exasperate the people to storm the hostiles.

THE FUTURE, however, can easily be guarded against, if the Minis- ters choose to take the trouble. And it appears to us, that there are three processes to be undergone in effectiug this Practical Measure ; two of which, consisting in preparation, may be carried on in despite of tile Tories ; and in the third, if the ease be properly got up and boldly pressed on, they will have little difficulty. The first step to be taken is one of inquiry and examination ; the object being to establish the proportion which the number of persons employed in the various public departments bear, or under a right sys- tem should bear, to those who are superannuated or otherwise inca- pacitated. To the 31inisters this would cost no more exertion than that of ordering the thing to be done; and the expense would not reach to the amount of one year's income of one of the higher pensioners. To people unacquainted with these inquiries, the process may seem one of unparalleled difficulty ; and so it would be to them. But the thing is done daily in principle. It is a mere question of averages. Nothing is more uncertain than the duration of a single life, nothing more sure than the average duration of many lives. Sickness is still more uncertain, it would seem, and truly as to individuals ; but both the duration and frequency of sickness bear a certain average proportion to the health of the whole of any given number. Even accidents do not happen, so to speak, accidentally : they obey a certain law of ave- rage, and occur in some fixed proportion. Give the number of persons employed in any or all of the public departments to a selection of com- petent actuaries ; state the ages at which they are usually admitted, and give them the ages at which they are usually superannuated. We know enough of official tricks, however, not to stop at this. Let applica- tions be made to the Bank of England, the East India Company, and any other public offices ; and permit, moreover, the actuaries, each for himself, to take any other data he pleases, only statieg what he does take. And let them fix, from the result, not with mathematical exact- ness, but with airy degree of reasonable liberality, the proportion which the pensioned in civil service ought to bear to the paid, whether it be one in ten or one in twenty, or any other number. An analogous plan might be pursued with the Army and Navy; allowing even more laxity, beyond mathematical exactness, than was adopted in the civil departments; not because men wear out sooner in the niilitary than the civil service,—for if they do, it must be in some certain proportion,—but because we would not run the risk of shaking the effi&ency of the forces for the sake of trifles. All we desire is to put it out of the power of a few heads of offices to continue such monstrous anomalies as we have exposed, and to subject the country to millions upon millions of annual expenditure in order to favour the aristocracy. If it must be done, the direct process would be cheaper than the roundabout : vote them a million or so a year., and let them scramble and squabble for it amongst themselves. Having settled these proportions,—which would also involve the question of the ages at which retirements might take place,—the next point would be, the fund for discharging the legitimate superammattona that would arise under the new system. This is likewise a matter of calculation, and as simple as to fix the premiums of a life-insurance office; depending upon the number of contributors and the amount of the pensions. The process of raising it would of course be by deduc- tions from the actual salaries, not upon the Government's stupid plan of equal percentages according to the amount of the salary, but accord- ing to the age of the receiver. If the pay is too low to admit of this, raise it : the addition swill not be one tithe of six millions. It is im- possible that the Navy can ever really require as many officers idle as active, but be it so : at present there arefive idle for one active; so that the gain would be 400 per cent. The Army is the same an de- free, though not in proportion, as respects officers ; and, with regard to the men, their pensions have increased from 911,000/., three years after the cluse of the war, when they sheuld have been highest, to 1,255,0001., after twenty-two years' peace, when they should km: been greatly reduced. The proper addition to the pay would not be so much as the present per sions of an equal number ; but it is in the numbers we expect the great gain. The question of whether each department should form its own superannuation fund, or whether there should be one in common, is a matter fur consideration. We certainly consider there should be one superannuation office of control and account, however the payments may be made ; but we incline to form three fiinds,—one fur the Army, one" for the Navy, and another fur the Civil departments,—the wear and tear in each being so decidedly different. In suggesting the establishment of a new office for the management and control of pensions, we would at the same time have the w bole of the existing pensions transferred to its account, 11 not to its payment. How. ever patient John Bull may be, he would never bare allowed thePensions --pay without work—to have swelled to their present amount, if he bad clearly known it. No Parliament, however corrtyt, would have continued to vote such amounts, nakedly presented, if any Minister had dared to ask them. But, scattered through every public department, their parts have been in a measure concealed, and the whole uccessfully hidden. Let us have a clear and distinct account annually presented ; and even this publicity will contribute to check any juggle as regards the past. But this can only he done by a new office, even though, for this purpose, it should only consist of a couple of clerks. The Admiral:y and the Secretary at War's Office have partially complied with our former re- quest for more detailed information in their Estimates,—and we thaak them, both for the use we have made, and for the use we may hereafter snake of it. But the changes in the Public Accounts, which the Whig offithils have made, seem, if judged by their results, to be merely change —delusions, in which it would be very difficult to tell the respective proportions of ignorance and quackery. These points being settled—the future proportion of the superannu- ated to the active—the establishment of a proper principle of reduction, by which every man should become his own pension.insursr, and the creation of an office by which the whole system should be regulated and controlled, and its results brought before the puldie— the next step would be to act upon it. And this would be done by preparing a law, which should abolish the existing modes of gii.liting pensions of all kinds after a certain day ; establish the new Pension Code ; cud transfer all existing pensions, of whatever kind, to the new Pension Office ; which, though it might leave the payment to the respective offices as now, should present one estimate of the whole sum to be voted,—taking Care, however, to preserve every right as it now stands, so as not to make that which is now merely custom obligatory—to turn an annual tenancy into a freehold. In the working of this question, two difficulties only suggest them- selves. The first regards the sale of commissions in the Army ; the second, the claims of persons now employed in the Civil service, and who may plead a right to superannuation either under the old regulation or the new act. Both these, however, are matters of calculation and ques. tions of expense. It is clearly better for the country, after enforcing all proper regulations, to pay a sum at once, than to be saddled with such a half. paylist as ours ; and the second is almost if not entirely disposed of in our suggestion for the raising of pay. Individual cases of difficulty most probably will occur, as they do in the working of all new things ; and these must be met as best they can. We all have OW difficulties to encounter, in all undertakings; and if Ministers are to base no "difficulties," why are they paid ? why have they the patronage ef twenty millions of expenditure at their disposal ? why are the powers of government placed in their hands ? The merest routine business is not without its "difficulties," if it differs from a public office and can- not be neglected with impunity. Let us hear nothing of natural dif- ficulties.

That, however, Government will voluntarily undertake any difficulties which they can avoid, we do not suppose ; at all events, they have not shown any peculiar aptitude in this way. Professing " economy"..._ 44 to govern without patronage"—and a desire, to rectify " all proved abuses"—the Whigs, calling themselves Reformers, have held office for seven years, during which time this pensioning gangrene has been increasing ; yet they have made no further attempt to work its cure, than the miserable Act of Parliament we have just analyzed. It is not, however, yet too late to apply themselves to this mischief: and if their measure be well.considered and workable,—if the man to whom they intrust it is capable of making a proper statement of the case,-... they will have prepared for carrying a practical measure which, hate it as they may, the Tories either in Lords or Commons will be afraid of opposing. Or if they should be rash enough to declare open war on the pockets of the people, let them. They may reject a worn-out mersure, got up/or rejection, with far less danger. But if Ministers persist in doing nothing, save bringing forward mock questions to " keep out the Tories," then let some active, bard-working Liberal, take up the subject ; and, thoroughly mastering It in its various bearings, bring it before the House by resolutions em- bodying his leading objects. A trained man of business, with official experience, a capability of labour, and an aptitude for statistics, could effectively manage the question. Is Mr. WARD such a person ?—judging from his first speech on the Irish Church, and from his labours in the Committee on Colonial Lands, we should incline to say he is and sure we are, that the shrewd men of Sheffield would be better satisfied

with his labours in this field of Practical Measures, than by any efforts he may make with Mr. Home, Mr. O'CommEss, and the servile band of place-bunters and place-holders, to "keep in the Whigs." And, un- less the better part of the Radical party are utterly emasculated, he ought not to want seconders or supporters. Mr. \tram:a-row is quite capable of acquiring the requisite facts of the subject, and

testing its principles ; so is Mr. CLAY ; so is Mr. HAWES : all of them are men of business, who have clerks of their own to pay, but hot to pension after the fashion of Government ; and all are acquainted with the practice of tbe world at large, and of the great mercantile com- panies here and elsewhere—and in none, we venture to say, will they And the proportion of pay eight and pension six.