The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-03 00:00:00

THE PENSION LIST.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
beg through you to express my grateful thanks to your
two correspondents, " A Practical Reformer and no Radical "
and " No Radical," for their kind assistance in exhibiting with
me the abuses of the Civil List. I have also equally to thank you
for having given me two such able coadjutors, who have not
haired to support so formidable a person as a Radical. It was
impossible for me to work through such a mass of, wasteful
prodigality, of wanton remuneration, and of untoward meanness,
without omitting some objects, neglecting others which merit
particular attention, or noticing sonic to whom suspicion attaches
from their very names, that they are receiving sums to which
they are by no means entitled from the public purse, under the
mask of Royal bounty. As the whole of the three lists of pen-
sions are without any designation of the person, or any mention
made of the particular service done to authorise the grant of the
pension, it is left entirely to conjecture who it may be, or why
bestowed. A personal knowledge of all could not be expected
to be possessed by one individual. Some persons who arc given
as still on the list, are evidently deceased, but then why should
they be continued 2 The amount of the pension must have been
paid from the Treasury. Who, then, have been the receivers:
How the pensions are paid, and by whom, whether quarterly or
half-yearly, is not shown ; but certainly some kind of receipt
must be given. It can be traced into whose private hands the
various sums of money have passed from the public purse. There
is au instance in particular—that of Count Lally Tollendal, who,
in 1794, had granted to him 2661. 18s. 4d., and who has been
dead nearly these twelvemonths. This French nobleman ob-
tained this grant most probably, besides being an emigrant,
from a consideration that his father, as Governor of Pondi-
cherry? had been suspected from his Irish connections not to
have discharged his duty on the defence of that colony, acid met
with an unjust and ignominious fate. This nobleman, on the
restoration of the Bourbons, recovered some part of his pro-
perty, and also received liberally from the French nation as a
Peer, by an inscription in the Grand ',lyre." Yet this
pension appears to have been constantly drawn, and is con-
tinued down to the day of the return, the 30th of October,
15:30. 1 should regret extremely to be uncourtooua to a lady,
and particularly so to one so respected as the Dowager Lady Eli-
bank, who in her note to you gives the denial to Radical" of
ally pension being received by her or her son. The lists may be
wrong, but I made no mistake. I quoted most correctly from
the two. Mr. Edward Ellice, who had just been installed at the
Treasury, as successor of Mr. George Dawson, could notbe ex-
pected himself in a few days to ascertain the correctness of such
au enormous return. Mr. George Dawson had prepared little
for him. As the return was given null„ re lui, thought the clerks
had been set to work from the memorable vote which ordered it,
that from the Ist of June up to the 30th of October contains so
few pensions, and so recently given, that Mr. Ellice would have
hail the means of personally ascertaining its correctness, but in
that a Lady Elibank appears for 1331. Ss., but whether it be the
present Lady, or a Dowager Lady Elibank,. is impossible to
distinguish ; if not the latter, but the former, then probably there
has not been that intimate chit-chat communication between
them, to allow of the old lady learning the good fortune of the
young lady. It is very painful to remark how grasping are the
very many members of the aristocracy, and with what tenacity
they hold the merest trifies. After arriving at affluence they
still meanly hold pensions which could only have been claimed
under the pretext of poverty—of inability to support their rank.
I am distressed to remark the disgraceful submission of some
hundreds to their wives' disgrace, sons to their mothers' rapacity
or their own baseness, brothers to their sistare pauperism; the
highest rank, the largest fortune,—all alike bending to public
s oliation. if a particular order of privileged persons be essen-
tial to the State, it should be distinguished by the noblest feel.
ings and highest conduct. If my information be correct, the
present Earl Tyreonnel married the heiress of a large fortune, set
he retains pensions both on the English and Irish lists, obtained
in March and June, 1813; the two amounting to 1,04 a Bs. Id.,
and which apparently he has been enjoying and still enjoys, not-
withstanding he has come into the pOssession of the fortune of
the heiress. What pleasure can an additional equipage aftbrd—
wlat consequence a few more pampered menials" give ? he
sensation of horror that must be excited at the recollection that
such poor indulgencies are purchased at the sacrifice of high
feeling ought to be most painful and humiliating; but it is to be •
doubted whether such persons are gifted with recollection, or are
blessed with the finer feelings that do honour to man. Would ,
my Lord Strangford otherwise, with so large a retired pension as
he has as a diplomatist, still condescend to draw yearly the SUM
of 88/. Is., Isis mother, sisters, and, as I believe, a brother—the
lion. G. A. F. Sydney
Smythe---and other relatives, having also
',elisions to a considerable amount ? He has not the excuse of
the Dowager Countess of Errol, otherwise Mrs. J. H. Frere,
whose sisters, having a most scanty provision, she pays over to
diem her small pension, and lends them her apartments at Ramp-
ton-court. This is very amiable : but should this amiability be
indulged in at the public expense 2 Should the proud high-
minded Duke of Newcastle, the paragon of the order, have al-
lowed his mother to have received for so long a period a sum so
unworthy of her rank, and only abandoned when, by an honest
:in unusual vote of the Commons House, the list of pensions was
to be blazoned forth to the:vulgar gaze of the people, and circus