The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-10 00:00:00

sources, crippled their efforts in the way of economy,
and prevented them from securing their families from
the misery of what may be called posthumous desti-
tutiou. Surely in all this there is very grievous
crurAty—cruelty disgraceful to the country, deroga-
tory to the State, and singularly injurious to the re-
p atation of the Legislature. The question appears to
us, moreover, one of such peculiarly flagrant noto-

riety as to preclude the House of Commons from the

opportunity of much longer deferring its settlement.
It cannot be set aside much oftener without reflecting

a very disastrous scandal upon the Government. Too
many particu'ars have already been published, by
way of exposure, to admit of the matter being inde-
finitely procrastinated as one simply of official or
Ministerial inconvenience. After all that has now

come to light upon the subject, we do not believe it
possible that it can be coolly denied once more the
chance of the good almost inseparable from a Parlia-

mentary investigation.
Whoever may not be already acquainted with the
nature of the evil to which we are here making refer-
ence, can be afforded within the space of a few sen-
tences the capacity for its fullest appreciation. It
must be, first of all, remembered, that by reason of
the Act already mentioned, that of 1834, being the 4
and 5 WM. IV., cap. 24, every individual, upon
entering the civil service of the Crown, is compelled
—at the rate of 5 per cent., supposing his salary to
exceed 1001. per annum, and of 2/ per cent., suppos-
ing it to be less than 1001. per annum—to contribute
to a fund known as the fund of " Superannuation."
Against such a system of compulsory contribution
no reasonable objection could of course for one in-
stant be raised by any person of common sense, com-
mon prudence, or common sagacity—taking for
granted, that is to say, that the amount thus collected
be properly conserved, judiciously expended, and ac-
counted for in every way to the general satisfaction.
Under those circumstances the arrangement could
only be regarded as one entitled to our most earnest
laudation. It would evidence a humane solicitude
for the welfare of the civil servants of the Crown,
mediately on the part of the Legislature, and imme-
diately on the part of the Government. It would be
tantamount to a declaration that the State would itself
regulate to a certain, and, all things considered, very
allowable extent, the economy of its employes, so as
to guard them in the most effectual manner from the
evils consequent upon individual improvidence. It
would be simply bringing upon them most beneficially
the force of law, so far as to oblige them, it might
be in spite of themselves, to lay up a rational store
for their own future advantage in case of emergency.
Experience has, however, unhappily proved to the
civil servants of the Crown that no such benefits are
capable of resulting from the accumulation of the
fund originated by the Act of Superannuation. In-
stead of proving beneficial in any respect, indeed,
that unfortunate enactment would seem only to have
produced the most bitter heart-hurniegs and the most
lamentable disappointments. And small wonder that
it has ! For, according to the unanimous evidence of
those who have pronounced, and are competent to
prcnounce upon the subject, the only fruits of the
existing system have been those of an injustice so
flagrant as absolutely to amount to inhumanity. De-
ductions, upon the scale before indicated, have year
after year been made from the salaries—by no means
exorbitant—of a body of men—by no means lightly
tasked, either in regard to toils or in regard to re-
sponsibilities. A really considerable sum of money
has, in this manner, been in rapid course of accumu-
lation. What becomes of almost every portion of it
nobody can discover with certainty—scarcely any one
can even dimly conjecture. The most that is known in
reference to the Fund is, that it is regularly enhanced
by the periodical contributions to it, deducted from
the various salaries, some at the rate of 5 per cent.,
and some at the rate of 2/ per cent., according to the
stipulations already intimated; and that the amount
actually paid in the way of superannuation from time
to time is, when compared with the aggregate, ac-
tually preposterous for its insignificance. The reason
why so few individuals obtain assistance from the fund
may, unfortunately, be only too readily specified. It
arises simply from the circumstance of only one small
class of applicants having their claims for aid allowed
by the Government; namely, those who, after ten
years' service, are incapacitated from further labour
by incurable bodily infirmities. A civil servant of
the Crown may have toiled nine years and eleven
months, and disease or accident may render him unfit
for more exertion—yet be can look for no help from
the fund to which he himself has contributed out
of every instalment of his paltry and hard-earned
pittance. He may die before the requisite ten yearn
have expired—and his widow and children are aban-
doned to privation. Nay, he may slave at the desk
for twenty, or thirty, or forty years, and breathe his
last, after having grown grey in the service of the
Crown, and the survivors of his family can look for
no recompence, however trivial or inadequate. After
labouring assiduously for a quarter or, it may be, for
half a century, the employe in the Government
offices may wish to solace himself in his old age by
retirement. If so, and his health still continues
sound, he must leave without even the semblance of
compensation. It is only, we repeat, those who, after
ten years' service, are disabled from further work by
either disease or accident, who can look with
any confidence to the Superannuation Fund
for pecuniary assistance under emergencies. Com-
paratively few, therefore, are aided by the money thus
collected together from the salaries of the employes
themselves. And widows may starve, and orphans
may suddenly be reduced from a position of comfort
to a state of beggary, and aged servants of the coun-
try may retire to repose themselves a while before
dissolution, without one single compensative sixpence
for the protracted toil in which their energies have
been honourably exhausted—and meanwhile .5 per
cent. and 2i per cent. still continue to be struck off
from the earnings of those who happen to be the pre-
sent labourers, in order to swell a fund which has
already reached an extravagant aggregate, and the
application of which is amongst the number of the
inscrutable mysteries of the Administration !
The continuance of this most cruel and irrational
system, we for one, protest can redound but little to
the honour of the Legislature, or to the credit of the
Government. It must be abandoned, or, at any rate,
it must be so far modified that the Civil servants of
the Crown shall not have such serious cause for com-
plaint and lamentation. All they require is justice
—not bounty, but simply justice. The money sub-
scribed to what is called the Superannuation Fund,
is their own—let it be applied, therefore, to their per-
sonal advantage. Do not, in the name of common
humanity, squander the hard earnings of these honest
toilers in the national hire, lavishing it upon some
secret object which continues to this moment name-
less and unimaginable—leaving the relicts and the
children of these good citizens, the prey of undeserved
destitution ! Rather than this, let the scheme re-
cently proposed be adopted by the Cabinet; namely,
that of authorizing the conversion of the assessments
levied upon public salaries under the Act 4 and 5,
Wm. IV., cap. 24, into a " PROVIDENT FUND," for
the support of the widows and orphans of the Civil
servants of the Crown. This would obviate the ne-
cessity of obtaining a specific grant of a Provident
Fund from the Legislature. It would be a remedy
preferable to that capable of being furnished by volun-
tary subscriptions—a source obviously precarious.
It could be still more reasonable than the method of
imposing further compulsory contributions—the in-
comes of the employees of the Crown being already
sufficiently burthened and restricted. It would secure
timely aid in the case of death to their widows, their
orphans, and their dependent relations—and would be
in every respect a generous and just modification of a
really cruel enactment—a modification we should
rejoice to see effected to-morrow, upon the proviso of '
its being so conducted as not to prejudice in any
manner whatever claims may be afterwards instituted
upon the subject of Retired Allowances. It is in our
capacity as the advocates of economy, that we urge
this most desirable act of justice and humanity upon
the most serious coneideratioa of the principal Mem-
i bers of ber MAJESTY'S Government.

People continue to complain, and assuredly not
without ample cause, of the high prices of human
the materials,food, notwithstanding the great
fall in the costs of
stderably dim i
diminished by the competition springing
We have had the price of cattle con-
from Contmental importations ; but beef and mutton
and vell waritain the old rotas and are scarcely