II.---THE PENSION SYSTEM.

When constituencies and the people clamosously call fora revision of the Pension List and the abolition of all undeserved pensions, and when many Members of Parliament pledge themselves to vote in compliance

with their demands, we feel sure that neither the One nor the other ima- gine that all this turmoil only involves the consideration of some/Sur hundredth part of the public income. Yet such is really the case. Bs

pensions, the masses mean, a payment fir which tri present service is ren- dered; and by undeserved pensions, a payment for no service at all, or of an amount exceeding the desert of the receiver. Official men, when they debate upon the subject, mean only the Civil List Pensions,—a sum of less than 140,00W. But this delusion (fur it is no better) is only under- stood by a few attentive and hard-working Members of Parliament.

In our exposition of the subject, we shall speak in the popular sense, and class every payment "Jr which no present service is rendered as a pen- sion: making no diffirence, for instance, between the 66,5001. which is voted in the Army Estimates for the " Full Pay for Reduced and Retired Offi tiers," and the 54,9601. which is charged upon the Consolidated Fund for "Pensions of the Diplomatic Service." We shall consider the 2,2001. a year of Mr. Gecntoe HARRISON, formerly " Assistant Secretary and Au. dints of Treasury Accounts," as much a pension, notwithstanding it is softly called, in official language, a " superannuation allowance," as Mr. CHOKER'S 1,5004 a year, which figures among the " Pensions for Civil Services" of the Consolidated Fund. And in causing mit our objects, we shall consider—first, the principle or rationale of pensions ; second, the practical financial results they have produced, exhibited both generally and in some detail ; third, the measures to be adopted with a view to re- medy the evil. THE RATIONALE OF PENSIONS.

.After the best consideration we can give the subject, we have come to the conclusion that the true principle is, altogether to abolish pensions— pay for which no present service is rendered—and to forbid them by law. If we look round upon society,where practices naturally adapt themselves to the circumstances of the time and the general feelings of the people. pensions are a sely rare exception. Where they exist, they are mostly granted from personal feeling or family ties,—as in the case of domestic servants or nurses; both which motives, however amiable, are always de. nounced as %ices when they operate in public life. Merchants are not in the habit of pensioning the sailors they employ; they never think of put- ting the officers of their ships upon hullpay, or of giving them "retired full pay," alter a certain length of service. Vet it' the discipline in the mercantile marine is less strictly regular than in a King's ship, there is room tor more caprice ; the work is both balder and the danger greater, from the smaller number of hands a merchantman carries. The argu- ment drawn from the commercial marine applies to the Army ; for the hardships,expostire, arid risks ofthe sailor, are greater than those of the sol- dier : and there are several manufacturing businesses where the waste dim- man life, or t he risk of casualties, is perhaps quite as considerable as ill either of those professions. yet where the workmen are never pensioned by their em- plus ers. In other civil emplosments, the practice of pay without service is equally unknown. The higher artificers of a private shipbuilder must lay by a fund for old age, contribute to some joint stock benefit fund, or take the consequences of their neglect. The same may be said of all the superior and confidential classes of workmen in employments, whether analogous or dissimilar to those which Government undertakes. If we rise to clerks

or persons analogous to officials, the principle of no unproductive expendi- ture—no pay without work—equally obtains. The banker, the merchant,

the manufacturer, the trailer, the professional man, pays his clerks, workmen, and assistants, the current rate of remuneration, and leaves them to pension themselves by their own forethought. And as regards individuals employed by individuals, there is an additional drawback in the uncertainty of their employment. Workmen, and many persons ranking above them, are frequently dismissed to seek fresh engagements: their loss of time, indeed, through this cause, is an important diminution of their scanty income. Even more confidential assistants, from failures, if from nothing else, have much less of certainty than men in public employ ; who, in a properly-regulated system, would be in the way of well-doing for life. Yet Go% eminent follows the practice of private paymasters, when the duration of its servants' employ is uncertain. Day workmen, and supernumerary clerks "not on the establishment," are dismissed at pleasure, and have no claim to any pension. Persoos who hold office during what is called good behaviour, are all entitled to a pension ; so that those who want it the most get it the least.

It may be alleged that tl:e pay of persons in private employ is higher than that of men under Government. In the Navy it is, but in every other department lower, in proportion to the hours, the assiduity, and The kind of work revised-6 the King's chaff is better than other folks' corn." Even admitting the fart to the fullest extent, the logical conclu- sion is not in favour of pensions, but of increase of pay. It may be urged, that if the pay of inferior servants and of soldiers and sailors were raisial, they would squander it at the time: which may be admitted to affect the individual's benefit, hut not the public principle. Nor is there any thing to prevent the application of this increased pay to the formation of a pension or superannuation fund, analogous to the voluntary benefit. societies of private individuals, or the more methodical insurance-funds of mines and factories. As regards any additional expense from a proper addition to the pay of the employed, our table of Pay and Pensions will presently show that the notion is altogether absurd.

All that has been said upon pensions in general applies with still more force to the higher class of public servants, or rather, to public Servants with the higher class of salaries. Through the aristucratical prejudices of our Legislature, they are mostly men of fortune, who do

Bat require pensions; and if adventurers are found in a Ministry, to whose narrow means a retiring pension is an addition of the last im-

portance, instead of fulfilling their official duties, or considering the most beneficial course of policy for the country, and the most honour- able for themselves, it is to be feared that they strain their arts and their influence to spin out the duration of a Ministry regardless of disgrace, until it has lived long enough to give them by law or regulation a pen- sion fur life.

It may be asked, "i.e no one, then, to have a reward from a nation beyond the stipulated hire ? Is great merit, exerted in the public service, to have nothing more than common pay ? "—In a lofty philosophical

COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE COST OF PAY AND PENSIONS IN THE VARIOUS DEPAR TN! ENTS OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE, The Numbers in Me table refer to the No. of Account in the Finance Accounts ending 5th January 1837.

PAY. PErrsTOX.

The Civil List for the personal expense of Majesty, including X

75,000/. pensions. (Finance Accounts, No. GI') 510,000 retEtilillS to the Royal Family. and for Military, Naval. Judicial, awl Miscellaneous," and, we may add. Unknown Services. (No.68) .. 510,019

the Earl of Bath's pension 1 100

10,000

84,32 Post-Office, (No. 44) Duke of Marlborough° 3,125

Doke of Grafton (addithinal. see Excise) 3,407 Heirs of the Duke of Schomberg 2,900 C'ompensotions payable ont of the Gross Revenue before it reaches the Fsclesoicr, awl whilst yet in the hands of the Officers w ho reeci% e it; -s it.: Costreas, (No. 17) Ce.iip..ie,t1 ion allowances to' Naval Officers in the

Plantations 3,922

Compensation to Naval Officers of the Coast Guard service, for the loss of haltpay 23,014

26,936

Customs, Ireland, (No. 21)

Compensations to Officers of the late Irish Fishery

Establishment 204

Compensations to Naval Officers of the Coast Guard

Seri ice, for loss of half-pay 7,436

34,576

Exelse, Ireland, (No. 29)

Allowanees to the late Officers of the Tax-office in Ire- land, over and above the arrears of duty collected 9,844

9,844

Compensations charged on the Consolidated Fund, No. 69; and Voted in Miscellaneous Estimates, (Nos. 3 and 4) Earl Camden, to make goal the deficiency of his fees as

Alfred Coppn. Keeper of the Lions in the Tower '20,022

206

late one of the Tellers of the Exchequer.

Sir Abraham Bradley King, late Grand Master of an 4,024 Weiglimasters of Butter, for deficiencies of fees Orange Lodge. nod late King's Stationer in Ireland, (A very gross job.) 2,500

• The Duke of Momnonneou's rennion in S,Ono/., and g.loomouna'r 4:04'.1 but we give them,. ret down, We al.0 0,0 1.01,1 CAMDEN.* MI it ntriiml, Formerly melt hord.hip only relitini•A 5,7001. told t• kat 'cc, the purplus to thy !public : he may do to ■4111, hut we have not found any nparrient cannel to account.

sense, it might be answered that public approbation, and the distinctiCla and celebrity it confers, are in themselves a reward ; but peculiar service" are an exception, and must be treated as such. Even here, however, we would not pension. Purchase for any man who has deserved pre- eminently well of his country, au estate like Blenheim or Strathfield- saye, or vote him a sum of money, and place it in the hands of trustees for investment. And this will be by far the cheaper way. Look at the pensioa gr rated on the Post-office revenues to the Dukes of Maalaimsourana The country has been paying it for one hundred and twenty or thirty years, when thirty years' purchase w mid have procured it at starting, and settled it for ever. If it be not desired to grant a perpetual income, buy an annuity ; but, we earnestly repeat. abolish pensions by law. There are some persons of limited experience, and incapable of rising to general views. wao, in any consideration they give this subject, are altogether swayed by cases of individual hardship that may have fallen within their knowl dge. They only look at the wants of the recipients on one side, and the merit of pubtic compassion on the other. Active compassion in helping the needy with the public money, is, however, no part of the function of' a government ; and if want be a mason for being pensioned, it would be impossible ever to get people off or to keep the= off the Pension-list. The wealthiest have some wish ungratified, or some worthy purpose in view beyond their means ; and there is no lack of poverty anywhere. Under a proper system of payment,—and this we would gladly see established.—to pension a man's relations, or the man himself, because he has during a considerable period been receiving the public pay, is a gross act of extortion upon the tax-payers. Nor is it difficult to imagine that much imprudence or extravagance has been ostered by the hopes or the chances which the Pension-list has held out to thoughtless individuals.

This is not a mere abstract theory, taken up on sudden thoughts and supported by such reasons as ingenuity can furnish ; it is, we think, a principle, and is at all events deduced from facts, which no nation can furnish in such profusion as the English. The enormous abuses use shall next proceed to exhibit are no small proofs of the unsoundness of the system we condemn, whatever may be thought of the principle we would establish.

PENSIONING, IN PR A CTICE.

Various parts of what is called our ti Dead-w(ight" have been often

exhibited ; but we believe there has never yet been given a clear compa- rative view of the sums respectively paid for Pay and Pension, so as to show the actual cost of the personnel of each branch of service which does the work, in contrast with that which has ceased to do any thing. To accomplish this as correctly as is possible with the data at our dis- pitsal. is the object of the annexed table. The course we have pursued in framing it, has been, to deauct from the general expense of the department those charges which are not salaries, or those salaries whose receivers are not melded to pensions by the rules of the service, and who, though they may get them in special cases, are too few in number. to affOct the general totals to 71.tily extent. Thus, from the Navy Esti- mates we deduct the amounts for timber and stores for shipbuilding, the cost of' making embankments, erecting new buildings, &c., as well as rent, and all these expenses which fall under the head of Contingencies : the wages of common workmen, whom we consider not entitled to allow. ances of any kid, are also excluded. By this means, we fairly pit Pay against Pension ; the Pay column containing only those receivers who are entitled to a pension, and the Pension column showing the incomes of those persons who do no work fur their pay.

Pemims royal de out of the Gross Revenue before it reaches the Exchequer, and whilst yet iu the hands of the Officers who re- celve it,—viz.: Exei.e. (No. 25)

of 471:620000

Duke of Grafton Earl Cowper Assignees of the late Charles Boone. Esq., moiety Linen Board, and sundry small offices in Scotland and Ireland • 16,006

'TOTAL AMOUNT OT PIEVSIONS FOR WHICH NO A/SALOONS ACTIVE SERVICE IS RENDINED SO AS TO IflIRNISH MEANS OF COMPA 41,126,629

Risoit

(The authorities for the following are the respective Estimates.)

ARMY,

Cavalry and Infantry, both of the Guards and of the Line..., 3,115.811 2,438,054 Civil Departments of the Army. The horse Guards 12 871 772 Secretary at War's Office 27 879 20.383 Quartermaster General's Office 5,522 63 7.135

Adjittant-General's Office 435 Judge-Advocate-General 4,537 1,200 Abolished Oflices,or departments included in the Army charge, as the Medical Department 24285 Ordnance,

Engineers, Sappers anti Miners, and Artillery 406.047 109.775 Civil Departments 151 138 60.0/;2

CommissanisT 73,565 52,726

NAVY.

Offieers,Seamen. and Marines. "wages and victuals" 1,520,443 1,339,420

Civil Departments of the Navy, Shipbuilding and Dock yards, Victualling and Medi. cal Establishments, Marine Barracks, and Marine Infirmaries £125.157 219,530 208.765

DIPLOMATIC SERVICE.

Ambassadors, (No. '70)

Consuls. (Miscellaneous Estimates, Nos. 2 and 3) Slave Trade Commissioners, (Ditto)

JUSTICE,

Courts of Justice in England anti Wales and Ireland, so far as paid from Consolidated Fund, (No. 71). .•

Ditto in Scotland, (No. 03)

(The following are chiefly front the Miscellaneous Estimates.)

PARLItMENT,

house of Lords These of Commons

PUBLIC ()mess, Treasury Exchequer and Paymaster of Civil S'ervices, (just established).

Paymaster-General, (just established) Audit Office Mint

Dome Office

Foreign (Mee Coloni ii Office Privy Council and Board of Trade Alien Office

COLLECTION OF THE REVENUE, Cestoms, (Finance Accounts, No. 9)

Excise, (Ditto) Stamp Offices. (Ditto)

"Can't anti Assessed Tax Office, (Ditto)

Post Office, Management of Crown Lands, (Ditto)

£8,111,778 6.09,133)3

SUMMARY.

Total of Pay, £8,511,778. Total of Pensions, £6,065,539. *The small cromairative Prnion.li,t of the Post-office Is cxplalnable by ;at tbc day ray oj postmen and allowance., to Po-t.ollice-keepers being Includei in the Pay st , Of the results of this table it may be truly said, that there is nothing like it in the world. Eight millions for the ita meat of present service ; six millions for the pensions of past, ii,dependent of the " Dead-weight juggle between the Government and the Bank of England, which would considerably swell the amount could it be truly stated. But the facts which the detailed particulars of this table furnish are of Ion singular and striking a kind to be altogether passed over. Space and time, indeed, would fail us to display the subject in all its richness; but we will do something. After the comparative amount of pay and pension, the next point which naturally suggests itself is the respective number of recipients under each been1 ; but in many instances this cannot be stated at all, and in none with perfect completeness. The nearest approximation, however. is in the Army. The total amount of persons engaged in active service is 81,311; the number of individuals receiving pensions is 93,336. The number of officers, paid by Parliament. on actual service, is 4,515 ; the number pensioned is 6,592. In the Ordnance, the number of officers employed is 746; of pensioned, 625. But this is nothing to the Navy. The half-pay. &c. for officers alone is 810,000/.; the pay of officers, sailor., and marines "afloat" is only 911,4201.; so that the regular pensions to officers only, (independent Of pure peudons fur e etraordmary services,) is within one-ninth p irt of the whole pay of tl:e Navy em- ploy. d. If the cost of the officers paid be competed with the cost of

the officers idle, the disproportion is of course grosser. Here is a

COOP D'CEII, OF THE COST AND NUMBERS OF NAVAL AND 3IAIIINE OFFICERS RECEIVING PAY OR PENSION.

Numbers. PAY.PENSIGY.

115 Flag Officers and their re. X Numbers. 4,416 Commbsioned

tinue 30,540 eluding Admiral,. Cap.

Officers sa pel 'Mending tai';. I. elite nate s. M as.

Dock-yaol • and Chaplabis 0651R435t4 4,530

1,153 t _ ap.a.ns, Commanders, 613 Medical Officers Lieutenants, Mestere, 470 Pursers 33,027 Surgeons, and Pursers.. 183,949 • • 42.578 Admiralty

Registry Office

Scientific Branch 87.699 1.390 5,284

108 790 54960

83,359 13.746 11.500 5,069

255.062 177.218

96,335 11105

13000 4.200

45,000 6,597

47.330 11,020 15.000 3,267

01,900

42 235 11S2 26 12) 1 819 13 453 3.059 22 467 3.009 19,541 6:342 21,288 2.065 500 2,057 566 116 177.526

739,200 129.121

65:106 15.116 49 195 20,310 249.533 26613 22.166 9,135

• ■•■111

1,275 218,919 5,499 763,414

239 Marine Officers 58,044 437 Marine Officers 47,337 —

1,513 Total Active, £277,063 5,936 Total Tulle, £810,715

This is bad, but worse remains behind. The following tal he exhibits the comparative numbers of naval officers employed and irrle; and is the must astounding document we ever met.

TABLE oF THE COMPARATIVE NUNIBERS OF NAVAL OFFICEP.A EMPI.oVED AND IDLE.

Ii Admirals Employed . . • 62:117:219Idler

01 Captains . . . . • 65 Commanders . . . - 393 Lieutenants . . . . 2.219 213 Masters. . . • . . 351 •

ae Chaplains . • • • • 32

290 Medlin,' Officers . . . . 613

101 Pursers . . . . 470

,

Total . • . L177 Emphoycd. 5499 Idle.

For every 1 Admiral employed, there are . . 20 Admirals idle; For every 1 Captain employed, there are . 10 Captain, idle;

Pb? every I Commander employed. there are

. 15 Commanders idle; For Admirals idle is . . £117,037

For ' 'apt tins idle is . . . 131,526

For Commander:idle is . . 15e.909

Fur Lie..tenauts iffieis . .

. 213.041

AVhatever may be thought of our proposition to abolish an future pen- sioning by statute,—of course providing some wer-consid red self-superannuattng fund.—no one, after sech a display, vill deny the practical evils of the existing system. And iloW they are to be remed ed, without the strong arm of the law, we cannot see. The If.rese thiards, we believe, do pretty touch as they please. The Admiralty vrat.:;st-s to have a regu- lation for the purpose ef keeping down the numbers of the Half-pay list : in answer to which rep:la:len, we offer the list of the employed and the idle. But t At truth is. that no regulitions ere sit:1i •rent to resist the in- terests of party, the feelings of caste, and the clahns of relationship amongst the dispew-ers of good thines. Whilst our ariseocratic youths are begging by hundreds for connuis.ions, officers wilt lie put upon the Hail-pay or Retired List, to make room for those \rho have the meet in- fluence, no matter whence it arises.

Passing from large results and the men of arms, let its look into a few instances of i eesioeing in practice amongst the lawyers. The salary of Lord Cur TENHYM, the Chancellor, is in round numbers 10,000/. per an- num. The country pays 14.0004 a year to Lords Eenue, Bkoruirem, and LYNDHURST. three retired Chancellors; so it costs nearly half u much again for the pension as the pay. If there be one office more than smeller in which, under existing circumstances, high pay is necessary, it is that of judge. Some property must be speat on a man's education be- fore he becomes a barrister should he ever intend to appear with a chance of success in the legal arena, he must train himself by hard study and labour : if sufficiently distinguished to be made Chief-Justice, he must sacrifice a large professional income for the po-t ; and when he attains it he must exercise his functions in the presence of a skilled awl critical audience. and work very hurl to bout. The s dary of the Lord Chief-Jus- tice is 8,0001. a year. Lord Eimecuoitotuif. sinecure of Chief Clerk, 8:c.—for which he neither did any thing nor had any thing to do—brought him in 9,625/. a few years ago. Such offices for the fleecing of suitors have since been " regulated"—a teen/ which is used by Mr. SPRING Rica as if it meant abolished, when he is pressed upon the subject of sinecures. What the thing is, can be readily shown. At page SO of the Finance Accounts, will be found a payment of 5,5961. 5s. 44. to the " Honourable Thomas Kenyon, Filacer, Exigenter. 8:e., as a compensation for loss of fees and emoluments ;•' the re gulatiwt under which feis gentleman suffers giving him 496/. a year more for doing nuthing than a Puisne Judge re- ceives for his work. This, however, is by no means the only " regulated" case lathe Court of King's Bench. Other persons receive " Compensa- tions for loss of fees and emoluments." which amount to 20,b80/. ; being pensious of the worst kind, granted for the Ir,ss of site:cures, or of offices which were useless. The salaries of all the Judes of the same court only amount to 28,500/.

It is worth while to trace 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 have been given, the nation whose money he has thus wrongfully been taking, is bound to pay it him for life. Fur superannuat- ing a man who has passed his youth and his prime in the public service, one can perceive reasons of sufficient cogency to require some powerful arguments and striking facts to overbalance them. But to pension men merely because they have been paid by the public without ren lering any service in return, is questionable on the surface. Yet it may be said, you have occupied the time of the individual ; you have prevented him front pushing his fortune in other directions, and probably careed 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 ut sinecures. The time of the sinecurist is not claimed ; he can use his ta- lents or his interest in any other direction. He robs the ',Wolk ; the pub- lic deprives him of nothing, So far from being entitled to claim a pen- sion fur life equivalent to the income of his sinecure, strict jastice would require him to disgorge his plunder. 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 colemn shows the a ineunt of Super- annuation Pensions, the second the Compensation Pensions. or, in official For every 1 Lientemoe .mfamed, there are . 6 Lieutenants (dle. And as regads pre:, • ...rate cest,

THE PAT THE PENSION

For Admirals employed is. £24,455 For Captains employed is. . • 30,4150 Fur Commanders employed is . 19.5e2 For Lieutenants emplojed is. . 44.531 ' Another table upon Ills subject, reel we cease. The fellosing is a comparative view of the respective a 'wont., ot some of the pri tcipal branches of tee Army I) a I_ wig it expend titre, a. it stow! ia 1817, and as it stands now. AVe tak • 1-17 tao ye trs oter the war) which allowsample time for the reduction of the A. my to a pe ice establish- ment. and therefore ads the fai.vst specimen of whit the A, iny Dead- wei -lit was at the heaviest permi t etia d ever :rave rs.tiltly been,— namely. at the close of a leng. al I arduous wee A single glance will suffice to show. that in several in ,tath•es t roe, has I een .t c. ni lerable inereose if pension exp./1,14w, alter weary years of to mute The tally two ditnmutions of any c ,s,vience are in Pensi Ins for Wounds and to renege Odi ses. w here no Lite est was to be served by inereasing the amounts, awl wh..re increase was tm:eed impossible from the nature of the case.

COMP Ut.kTIVE VIEW OP THP PRINCIP1I. BISANclIES MI: ARMY DEAD..

WEWILIE IN 1 st1.7 tree i537.

Retired Fell NY, 11'11. P13, au:111302Sui:810.009 Oul.Pensioners of Chelsea alla RON ai 13011111i,, Relation, of Wilts' Pensami

Com pissionate List Pensi .ns for Wo inds Commissariat Superannuation Allowances in

Fer,ign Half-pay and Pensions 1 4,710

Kilmainham enlieers killed in 33,510 • • 64;,301

91161,Q40362

1'23 s'll

32.743 ...... £D111!,85.04. 1,23511:437101 615500 148..:21 8297:22:

General 011icel%

Civil Depart m-ists 5_74271_1'772501 To!al ill 1317. £2124272 Tin in 18,7. X2.452,503 * Third Report ol'th- Finance Committee 011.32s. &Tenting. 1, page 30. Arm; Estimates, 1837. I - - rariii-ra OM"; 1 f ialii•latiliffi -itirafficeiristOrisSierinriosnponiiiiii. to

Punsic Oretevs,

fifties-is fin less of fees." .

Audit Office Treasury. tote mu Office . ..

Alien Office St atiouery Office Peat Office Customs Management of Crown Lauds Stamp Office

Land and Aseessed T ax Offices

Exelm

(Finance Account, 1836-7, Nos. 9, 69,71; and Miscellaneous Estimates. No 3)

StIrsitAuscATION ComliEssATIoN Possioss. ressinNs.

115.551 in7.3.84646 14.907 25976607340090

1,913 4,181

160 31.275 9e,129 11.70G 7.251 947551 5A83 3,923 1,400 7,570 . do - Linen Board, and some other offices in Ireland 4,939 11,236

i National Debt Office, Ireland late Levant Company • • •• 297 531 - African Company 902 ••

- Lottery Oft • s. 3.739 - Exchequer Office -- Irish treasury • • 12914058

- Ditto Auditor-Grneral's Office • •

- Ditto Clerk or the Pelt's Office .. .. 313.3

-- Ditto alilitary Audit Office •• :S,112 - Irish Board of Works . •• • 519 Miscellaneous Compons. • ms of carious kinds, to is high therein no opposing Soperannuations .... '71,172 Courts of Justice in England and Irelaud, approximate statement Compensations ts sundry persons for loss of Emolumeuts by the Irish Vision Civil Departments of tile Army (Army Estimates.) Horse Guards War Office. .....

Adjutant-General's Office Army 5letlical Department 'Judge Advocate•Generats Office

Paymaster General's Office

Muster Master•Generul's Office

Late Conipt.ollers or Army Accounts

Late Agent General's Department Chelsea hospital ifil Royal Military College 516 Miscellaneous 230

Departments in Ireland 1,096

Chit Departments of the Navy for one year only ; the preceding amount. 199,3001., not being separately stated (Navy Estimates) 6,628 Civil Departments of the Ordnance, excluding Widows and Artificers, (Navy Estimates.) 22347 25,423

Having thus analyzed the subject in its generals and particulars, we next proceed to giee 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 names of the recipients we :mold find, would fill a Spectator, and many are not given at all. The dis. tinctions between pensions, superannuations, retiring allowances, com- pensations, and all the other mysterious and confusing jargon of the Public Accounts, are 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 the whole of what even in Government phrase- olcgy are called pensions. They are charged on the gross revenue; they are charged on various accounts upon the Consolidated Fund; they are anually voted. In short, they are to be met with everywhere, and perhaps found completely nowhere. However, this list will answer the purpose of showing the amounts and nature of the principal pen- sions, 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 mingled some instances of super- animations and compensations, with, when practicable, the salary re- ceived 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 1,700/. a year : the office was at last abolished, and be was assigned a pension of 1,700/. for doing no- thing at all. There is another case which comes more completely within our range; a Mr. NICHOLAS PRICE got 1,590/. per annum 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 Reperseded for a cheaper hand ; but he is still paid his 1,590/. a year. Our compiling fiends will en ■ y this man; there are no pensions for private editors.

(Paid 1051a Janaary1837. Finance Accounts, No. 68.) MINI:It/ES TO TOE ROYAL FAMILY, £ 4

The Duke of Cumberland 21,000 Dutchess of Kent and Prioress lire Duke of Sussex 22,000

, . Victoria •.

The Duke of Cambridge 21,000 Princess Sophia or Gloucester.... 7,000 Prince George or Cumberland 6,000 Trustees or the King of Belgium, Prince Getrge or Canibtidge 6,000 who repay 34e001 50,000 Princess Aegean' 13,000 Prince of alecklenburg Strelitz... 1,846 Princess Mary, now Dutchess of Royal Servants- Gloucester 13,000 George the Third's.... 10.079 Priucet.s ELzabeili, now Prim Queen Charlotte's 7,893

cet,s of Ilt.sse llomburg..... 13.000 Queen Caroline's 823

Princess Sophia 13,000 18,785 MILITARY PENSIoNII, NAVAL PENSIONS. The Duke ot Wellington 4,000 Sir Sydney Smith, Con.Fund. 1,000

Lord Beresford 2,000 Ditto, 44 per Cents 1,250

Lord Comberrsere 2,000 .--- 2,250 Lord hilt 2,000 Lord Lynedoch 2,000

CIVIL SFRVICrs, Right Hon. Henry Hothouse... 1,000

Lord Colchester 3,000 Right lion. T. P. Courtenay.... 1,000

Lord Sidmouth 1,1'20 Joseph Plants, Esq. 1,500 Lord Bexley 9,000 William It. Hamilton, Esq. 1,000

Right lion. Henry (Southern 2 000 Robert Phonier Ward, Esq. 1,000 Right lion. S. It. laishingtou 1.500 Viscount Canterbury 4,000

Right Hon. Julio Wilson Crolter 1,500 Earl of Athlone 1,846 (Miscellaneous Estimates, No, 3.)

44,140 666 1,725 231 1,400 900 2,334

1,800

177,216 11,839 106 18,659 154 900 300 6,789 1,075 1,340 995 1,302 1,063

777 3,777

3,423 SUPERANSCATIONS, George Iferrison, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Audi to of Treasury Accounts Edward C. Bullock, Chief Clerk

William Pearce, Librarian and Preelswriter to Home Office

Johti Hicks, Senior Clerk. I I ome Office Granville Penn. extra Chief Clerk, Colonial Office Richard Penn. 'I bird Clerk. Colonial Office

Thomas Lack, Lays Assistant-sreretary, Board of Trade t James Chapmau, Esq., Commissioner of Audit Office SALARY. PirssioN.

A: 3,800 L500 1.075 1,135 1,000 1,125 1.500 1,2U0

2,200 1,200 700 946 550 750 1.500 1,200

- - William biesorY, Bader Secretary lu Chief Secretasys Office,

Ireland

Alexander Mangin, clerk in Mtn, Peter Burrows, Commissioner of Insolvent Debtors' Court, Ire-

land COMPENSATIONS,

William Speer, Chief Clerk and Auditor of Treasury Accounts

Thomas Hoblyn, Chief Clerk, Treasury Gilbert West, Senior Clerk J. Irina, Esq. Commissioner of West India Audit Office Nicholas Price, Compiler of the Dublin Gazette (appears to ha now dead) 1,590 1,590 (Finance Accounts, No. 68.) LEGAL PENSIONS, AC Sir William Garrow £3,500

Earl of Eldon • • 4,000 Sir John Bayley 3,500

Lord Brougham and Vaux 6,000 Dr. A. Croke 1,000 Lord Lyndhurst 5.000 . Dr. J. Ilincldiffe 1,000 Lord Wynford 3,750 Henry Moreton Dyer, Esti 1,000 Sir William Alexander 3,750 Dr. W. Territt 1,000

Sir Robert final= 2,625 Thomas Jervis. Esq 1.015

Sir John Richardson 3,500 Robert M. Casberd, Esq. . 1,000 Sir James Burrough 3,500 (Finance Accounts. No. 63.) David Monypenny of Pitmilly, Esq., formerly Lord of Session and Just nary, and one of the Lords Commissioners of the Jury Court 2,40 Sir Archibald Campbell, Bart., a late Lord of Session and Justiciary 1,950

wintam Robertson. Esq., late a Lord of Session 1,500

Sir Samuel Shepherd, formerly Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Scotland 3,000 David Hume, Esq., formerly one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland 1,500 (Finance Accounts, Nos. 71 and 63.) COMPENsATIONs, Court of King's Bench, England, Lord Ellenborough. Chief Clerk Plea Side, &c.• 9,623 The lionouralne Thomas Kenyou, Filacer, Engender, &c. 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 l'eregrine Heathy, and C. Francis Robinsou, Esquires, Clerks on the side of the Crown 41,474 Peregrine Dealtry, Esq., King's Clerk 529 - 2,003 Court of Common Pleas, Thomas Hudson, George Wallington, and Henry Mtwara Ray, Esquires, Prothonotaries. 3,845 Court of Exchequer. Thomas Atilington, Esq., Side Clerk 1,160 Thomas White, Esq., Side Clerk 1.114 Harry Edge% Esq., Clerk of the Errors 2,338 Admiralty Court, Scotland, William G. Campbell, late Principal Clerk 1,.07 (Finance Accounts, No. 70.) DIPLOMATIC PENSIONS, Ambassadors, X Sir Brook Taylor 1.336 Sir Robert Adair 2.056 Lord Berwick 13(0 Right Hon. C. Arbuthnot 2.056 G. W. Chad, Esq. 1,300 Sir Robert Liston 1.594 Right Hon. Sir It. Gordon 1,300 Lord St. Helens 2,056 Bartholomew Frere, Esq. ..... .. LOCA Lord St ratieford 2,056 George Ilammoud, Esq. 1,066 Lord Stuart de Rothsay 2.056 Lionel Harvey, Esq 1.060

Earl Cathcart 1.786 Henry Pierrepoint, Esq 1,066 Earl Clancarty 1,786 J. Spencer Smith, Esq 1.066 Lord Cowley 1,786 W. Wickham, Esq, 1,066

Earl Elgin 1,786 Consuls,

Sir Gore Ouseley 1,786 Richard Belgrare Hopner (Su-

Sir Edward Thornton 1.786 aunuation) 650 Sir Arthur Paget 1.786 (Compensations.) Lord Iles tesbury 1,700 Sir James Gambier 1.200 Sir Charles Begot 1.700 Sir Woodbine Parish 1.000 Alexander Cockburn, Esq 1,516 Anthony St. John linker 800 J. P. Hurler, Esq. 1516 Honourable John Meade 660 Right Hon. J. II. Frew, 1.516

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 are of the nature of a gift, to which the person had no regulation or legal claim. It is granted in some peculiar case of dis- tress, and mostly to relations of the public servants. Let us take in juxtaposition with the last Compassionate-list of the Commissariat, some persons who derive their pensions through Peers.

C. L Hodder 2,923 M. G. Hodder

Spencer l'erceval, Esq. 2,700 E. 3. Armstrong Hon. Jane Carr. (late Perceval) 2,000 J. N. Armstrong 7 10

Or the subject of People and Aristocracy may be put in another light; 458 Ordnance artificers and labourers are pensioned for 8,4201,;

it costs 13,700/. to pensi in one Doke of Grafton.

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

could have been saved, or that many of them have not been deserved. No one would grudge an 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 pension- ing is a "proved abuse," which has facilitated the most enormous job- bing, and the most improper, not to say profligate grants-swelled the unproductive expenditure of the country to full ers-eig4ths of the cost for

actual service-seems incapable 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 Ord- nance-which swallow up nearly four millions of pension-money annu- ally. But let us see what this remedy is. In compliance with many

suggestions, the WELLINGTON Ministry in 1829 made a Treasury regu-

lation, which was subsequently embodied in the 9th and 5th Wil. 1V. c. 24. The Act is now lying before us. If we rightly comirehend the enactment, it is one of the most miserable pieces of peddling that can be imagined. All the evils connected with the Superannuation and Compensation system remain untouched-indeed unnoticed. No at-

• This was what he'received a few years ago. Since that, Iris offices have been, as Mr. Rice says, "regulated,"-which really means insured against fluctuation. The average receipts of a certain number or years were taken, and this sum secured to the holders come what may. Lord ELLIMBORoUGH'S income, we believe, is now between eight and nine thousand pounds; but we only fluil a return for one office, which yields 9,3531.

ANCESTRAL PENSIONS OT PEKE,.

Duke of Marlborough £5.000 Lord Amherst 3,000 Lord Abermombie........ 2,000 The Family or the late 151r. Canning 3,000

Earl Nelson 2,259

Dowager Countess of Nelson 2,000 Countess of Nelson.. 750 Lord Camperdown . ..... 3,000 Viscount St. Vincent . 3.01)0 Lord Rodney COMPASSIONATE LIST OP TM' PEopLE.

0. Laidley ..... .... .......... A:16 0

N. Laidley 16 0 C. Laidley 16 0

M. Laidley 16 0

E. Laidley 16 0 T. Laldley s 16 0

H. T. Plant 10 0 C. II. Hodder 7 to

7 10 7 10 7 10

1.015 785 1,600

2,226 1,047

2,000

1.700

1,050 825

750

1,700 1,400 1,100 1,500

tempt 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 roundabout : vote them a million or so a year, and let them scramble form what is properly a superannuation fund. The Act directs 21: per and squabble for it amongst themselves. cent. to he deducted from salaries not exceeding 100/. a year, aad 5 per Having settle:1 these proportions,—which weeld also involve the guess. cent. from those above ; amithe sums derived frtan this source appear to tion of the ages at which retirements might take place,—the next point be applied towards paying the current superannuations of the respective would be, the fund for discharging the legitimate superannuation. that offices. To what extent they operate, can be shown by a few instances. would arise under the new system. This is likewise a matter of calcula- The gross amount of the Civil Superannuations of the Ordnance ie time and as simple as to fix the premiums of a life-insurance office ; 60,777/. ; the contribution from the operation of the Act, 705/. In the depending upon the numbsr of contributors and the amount of the pen. Navy, this class of pensions is 209,351/. ; the contribution 5S6/. In the sions. The process of raising it would of course be by deductions from Army, 47,1501.; the contribution 150/. Even in the Customs, where the the actual salaries, not upon the Government'a stupid plan of equal per- proportion is the highest, the contribution is not 3 per cent. on the gross centages according to the amount of the salary, but according to the age

amount of the pensions. of the receiver. If the pay is too low to admit of this, raise it : the ad- So much for Pensions as they are: the question is, what can be dune Navy can ever really require as many officers idle as active, but be it so ; for the present and the future ? at present there orefive idle for one active ; so that the gain would be

If the existing PensMmlist were scrutinized, much of it would be (Es- 400 per cent. The Army is the same in degree, though not in propos- covered to have been granted most improperly. In many instances, the tion, as respects officers ; and with regard to the men, their pensions pension would be found out of all proportion to the deserts of the have increased from 911,000a, three years after the close of the war, party, or to any services he had rendered ; whilst the ample, not to say tvhen they should have been highest, to 1:255,000/., after twenttetwo exorbitant rate of the active salary, would prove a pension altogether years' peace, when they should have been greatly reduced. The proper uncalled for. Even where no palpable objection of this kind existed, a addition to the pay would not be so much as the present eensions of an close scrutiny would detect many barefaced jobs at the public expense. In equal number ; blit it is in a decrease (if the numbers of the pensioned, the Army, old lives systematically permitted to exchange with young and that we expect the great gain. Tne question of iehether each depart- favoured men, thus keeping up a constant supply of annuitants—feeding ment should form its own superannuation fund, or whether there should the Army Pension-list. In the Navy, active. experienced, and willing he une in common, is a matter for consideration. We certainly consider officers shelved, to make room for new corners with interest, and pro- there should be one superannuation office of control and account, however ducing that enormous disproportion we have exhibited between the the vestments may be made ; but we incline to form three funds,—one employed and the idle. Even in the Civil departments there has been a fur the Army, one for the Navy. and another for the Civil departments, good deal of jobbing. By a Treasury reeulation, the Treasury itself —the wear and tear in each being so decidedly different.

had the power of allowing retiring pensions alter a certain number of In suggesting the establishment of a new office for the management years' service ; and by this means, men, able and even desirous to con- and control of pensions, we would at the same time have the whole of tinue employed, were in a measure forced to retire, that the dispensers of patronage might fill up their places. the existing pensions transferred to its account, if not to its payment. Yet there are too many difficulties to allow of a very satisfactory settle-

however patient John Bull may be, he would never have allowed the ment, even with the boldest and most honest inquirers. Unless in the case Pensions—pay without work—to have swelled to their present amount, if Of sinecures. which we abandon without a word, the most profuse of the he had clearly known it. No Parliament, however corrupt, would have superannuations have this defence—" This allowance was granted ac- continued to vote such amounts. nakedly presented, if any Minister had cording to law, or a quasi law, operative at the time when we entered dared to ask them. But, soattend through every public department,

the public service : we were taught to look forward to this pension as a melded, and the whole successfuliy p the public mystified. Let us have a clear and distinct account annually presented provision for our age ; we spent our salary on the faith of ;

credit ; we had no hand in making the law or fixing the pension ; and if d even this publicity will contribute to check any juggle as regards the you deprive us of it now, you break your faith and turn us out to past. Blit this can only be dune by a new office even though, for this penury: Manv pensions granted for services have a still stronger case. purpose, it should only consist of a couple of clerk's. The Admiralty and the Secretary at War's Office have partially complied It is no fault of an officer that the authorities have chosen to force him with our former re- upon the Pension-list against his will ; it is no fault of a Tory clerk whom quest for more detailed information in their Eetimatee—and we thank

salary, to being doomed to rest in idleness with the scantier income." In portions of ignorance and quackery.

lions upon millions of annual expendituregin order to favour the aristo-

cracy. If it must be done, the direct process would be cheaper than the

THE REMEDY. (talon will not be one tithe of six millions. It is impossible that the

their parts have been in a measure co me au them, loth for the use we have made, and for th ll

But be the results of inquiry easy or difficult, it is useless to ex- the whole system should be regulated and controlled, and its results pect even the form of it from the Parliament which the enfranchised brought before the public being effected—the next step would be to act people have been induced to elect. With the present constituency and upon it. This would be done t preparing a law, which should abolish ly raode of voting, the aristocratical influences would always be too strong the existing modes of granting pensions of all kinds after a certain day : to admit of justice being done to the great recipients ; and we see no rea- establish the new Pension Code ; and transfer all existing pensions, of son why the poorer and more deserving pensioners should be made their whatever kind, to the new Pension Office. This department might leave scapegoats. lithe Ministers had the will, they have not the power. or the payment to the respective offices as now, but should present one esti- the immediate means of getting the power, to institute the inquiry. Tut: mate of the whole sum to be voted,—taking care, however, to preserve PAST, we suspect, must remain as it is, until, as the NVhig pamphleteer every right as it now stands, so as not to make that which is now rnersly has it, " DEATH ' relieve us,—unless a course of domothing delusion and custom obligatory—to turn an annual tenancy into a freehold. misgovernment should at last exasperate the people N stnrrn the Bastiles. In the working of this question, two difficulties only suggest them- Me FUTURE, however, can be easily guarded against, if the Ministers selves. The first regards the sale of commissions in the Amy ; the second, the claims of persons now employed in the Civil service, and who choose. And it appears to us, that there are three processes to be under- gone in effecting this Practical Measure: two of which, consisting in may plead a right to superannuation either under the oldoregulation or ' the new act. Both these, however, are matters of calculation and ques- preparation, may be carried on in despite of the Tories ; and in the third, tions of expense. It is clearly better for the counny, after enforcing if the case be properly got up and boldly pressed on, they will have little all proper regulations, to pay a sum at once, than to be saddled with difficulty. such a half-pay list as ours ; and the eco The first step to be taken is one of inquiry ; the object being to es- snd is almost if not entirely tablish the proportion which the number of persons employed in the disposed of in our suggestion fur the raising of pay. Individual cases various public departments should bear to thoso who are superannuated of difficulty most probably wi.1 occur, as they do in the working of all or otherwise incapasitated. To Ministers this would cost no more exer- new things ; and these must be met as best they can. We all have our difficulties to encounter, in all undertakings. The Reader doubtless tion than that of ordering it to be done. To people unacquainted with such investigations, the process may seem one of unperalleled difficulty ; has his own, and we have had ours in preparing these "Practical Mea- and so it would be to them. But the thing is done daily in principle. sums." And if Ministers are to have no "difficulties," why are they paid? It is a mere application of the universal law of averages. Nothing is why have they the patronage; of twenty millions of expenditure at their more uncertain than the duration of a single life, nothing more sure than disposal ? why are the powers of government placed in their hands ? the average duration of many lives. Sickness, it would seem, is still The merest 10 tine business is not without its " difficulties," if it differs snore uncertain—and so it is to individuals ; but both the duration and from a public office and cannot be neglected with impunity. Let us hear frequency of slid:ems boar a certain average proportion to the health of nothing of natural difficulties. the whole of any given number. Even accidents do nut happen, so to But if Ministers persist in doing nothing. save bringing forward mock speak, accidentally: they obey a certain law of average, and occur in restions to e keep out the Tories," then let some active, hard-working some fixed proportion. Give the number of persons employed in any or Liberal, take up the subject ; and, thoroughly mastering it in its bearings, bring it before the House by resohn all of the public departments to a selection of competent actuaries; state various ions embodying his the ages at which they are usually admitted, and give them the ages at leading objects. A trains(' man of business, with official experience, a which they are usually superannuated. We know enough of (Oficial capability of labour, and an aptitude fur statistics, could effectively tricks, however, not to stop at this. Let applications be made to the manage the question. Is Mr. Ward such a person ?—judging from his Bank of England, the East India Company, and any other public filet speech on the Irish Church, and from his labours in the Committee offices ; and permit, moreover, the actuaries, each for himself, to take on Colonial Lands, we should incline to say he is : and sure we are, that any other data he pleases, only stating what he does take. And then let the shrewd men of Sheffield would be better satisfied with his labours in them fix, from the whole, not with mathematical exactness, but with any this field of Practical Measures, than by any efforts he may make with degree of reasonable literality, the prspurtion which the pensioned in Mr. Hume, Mr. O'CONNELL, and the servile band of place-hunters and civil service ought to bear to the paid, whether it be one in ten, or one in place-holders, to "keep in the Whigs." And unit ss the better part

twenty, or any other number. of the Radical party are utterly emasculated, he ought not to want

An analogous plan might be pursued with the Army and Navy ; seconders or supporters. Mr. IV eusentoe is quite capable of acquiring allowing even mere laxity than was adopted in the civil departments ; the facts of the subject, and testing its principles ; so is Mr. Cray ; BO not because men wear out sooner in the military than the civil service,— is Mr. Hewes: all of them are men of business, who have clerks of for though they do, it must be in some certain proportion,—but because the their own to pay, but not to pension after the f .shion of Government; efficiency of the forces ought not to be risked for trifles. All we desire is and all are acquainted with the practice of the world at large, and of to put it out of the power of a few heads of offices to continue such mon- the great mercantile companies here and .elsewhere—and in none, we strous anomalies as we have exposed, and to subject the country to mil- venture to say, will they find the proportion of pay eight and pension

SIX. .