The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-19 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1856.

On Tuesday last we directed public notice to
the national balance-sheet for the financial year
ending on the 31st ultimo. There was, however,
ono very important item to which we were unable
to devote the particular attention which it so
eminently merited. It figures under the rather
modest designation of " redemption of hereditary
pensions," but for trio not very trifling sum of
213,177/. Is. 21. That the Government should
select a time when the nation was involved in a
very serious war, and when there was a deficiency
of no less than 22,753,8541. ss. ld., to redeem
any portion of the public debt seemed almost in-
credible. The country was at that time on the
borrowing tack. Sixteen millions bad been ob-
tained, and as that proved to be altogether insuf-
ficient—as any one but a Financial Minister
might have known—there was a supplementary
loan of 5,000,0001., exclusive of additions to the
unfunded debt of nearly 3,000,0001. sterling.
This was certainly not the time for the redemption
of any charge4owever well founded, and how-
ever strongly ore national faith might be pledged
to the payment. The GLADSTONE abortion was
at the time exciting the public mind, and no
similar proposition could by any possibility have
received the Legislative sanction—a redemption
of any kind therefore seemed alogether out of
place, and when the item appeared, a natural
anxiety for explanation was manifested on every
side.

That given. Mr.
explanation has just been
Witsoig last night announced the pensions that
had been purchased up, and showed also that
other transactions—perhaps " jobs" would be a
more appropriate term—of a similar kind had
taken place. The first redemption was that of
one of the hereditary pensions, held by his Grace
the Duko of GRAFTON, charged on the Excise, and
amounting to 7,132/. 12s. per annum, for which
the sum of 193,777/. was paid. The other was
"the remains of the SCIIOMBERG pension," amount-
ing to 7201. per annum, which was obtained at a
lower rate, 17,400/. only being paid, the Dutch
heirs of the Dutch grantee being probably anxious
to invest in the new Russian Loan which was then
oming out on favourable terms at Amsterdam.
The sanction of Parliament was not required, tho
job being perpetrated under a Treasury minute of
more than thirty years' standing, and the coun-
try would have heard nothing on the subject but
for the recent change which made Parliament deal
with the gross revenues. Mr. WILSON, with great
apparent candour,
explained that the only differ-
ence was, that
ccwheroas, in former times Parlia-
ment had no cognisance of the redemption of pen-
sions, the net revenues alone being returned ; iu
the present instance, the gross revenues of the
departments were laid before the House, and the
purchase-money debited in the accounts." • He
added that " the transaction was strictly in keep-
ing with all the precedents."
We have no doubt of the fact, and that the ini-
quitous system would have been kept strictly
private but for the accidental discovery. Not the
slightest intimation has ever hitherto been given
of the process, which has so long been in operation.

•
-3r
The Aliemption money has been charged to the
working expenses of the different establishments,
and there has been a conspiracy to deceive and
defraud the public, for which the parties, if in a
private stations, should have been punished with
prolonged incarceration, accompanied with hard
labour.

For the present we shall only deal with the
sums thus improperly, and, as we believe, illegally
applied during the past year. The large sum of
193,777/. was paid for the pension of 7,1321.
125., payable to the Duke of GRAFTON and his
heirs out of the Excise—or, in other words, from
the tax on beer. That pension (with another of
4,700/. per annum on the Post-office, which
has, perhaps, already been redeemed on equally
exorbitant terms) was granted by CHARLES
the Second to his illegitimate son, by BAR-
BARA, Countess of Castlemaine, who, after
her lapse of virtue, was created Duchess of
Cleveland. The juvenile bye-blow was subse-
quently created Baron ARLINGTON and SUDBURY,
and afterwards, in 1675, Duke of GRAFTON.
The pensions were, moreover, granted without
the assent of Parliament to him and to his
heirs when he obtained an Earldom, in 1672,
so that he, therefore, enjoyed the amount
for no less than one • hundred and eighty-
four years. As we have already explained,
in The Sun, if the sums had been invested at
compound interest, there would have been not
only sufficient to pay off the National Debt, but
to have provided amply for the entire military,
naval, and civil establishments of the country, and
to have left a handsome surplus for national im-
provements—to have purified the Thames, given
handsome and commodious thoroughfares, and ren-

dered the British metropolis the first in all respects
in the world, and now when public attention had
been directed to this monstrous' plunder, where
no public faith was pledged—nothing but the
illegal and unconstitutional grant of a licentious
tyrant miscalled a " Merry Monarch," we find
the matter compromised at an extravagant rate,
under a Treasury minute of 31 years' standing,
without the assent of Parliament being sought

for, and the matter being only discovered by a
mere accident ! If that be legal or constitutional
we may some day find that Uncle LEOPOLD has re-
ceived a million and a half sterling for the capitali-
sation of the annuity for which he hasalready drawn
two millions from the Exchequer, or that Prince
ALBERT has commuted his allowance, for a million
of pounds to be invested in Russian or Prussian
Bonds or railways, and withdrawn in gold from
the country—all questions of monetary reform
being postponed until these important arrange-
ments have first been effected by Treasury Mi-
nutes, the consent of Parliament not being re-
quired or sought for.
As Mr. DISRAELI declared, " the principle,
whatever its advantages to the holders of heredi-
tary pensions, would by no means be regarded as
a benefit to the country." We trust, then, that
Parliament may adopt immediate measures for the
prevention of future jobs of a similar character,
and to insure their own privileges as guardians
of the national purse. It may be merely " shut-
ting the stable door after the steed has been
stolen," but it will be right to prevent the possi-
bility of similar misconduct, where it may be
effected to a larger extent, and in a manner even
more disagreeable to the nation. These vicious
precedents should bs swept away, and no plausible
excuse allowed to any future jobbing Chancellor
of the Exchequer.

In the lowest depths there is said to be a lower
deep. It may be matter for congratulation to
some people—the present House of Commons has
not got to that. Below repentance it seems to
have stuck at the shady side of remorse, being at
once fractious, and apparently possessed of a
Might modicum of shame. Its gorge rises, to
judge by the bitter " Oh, oh's" elicited last night
by the reply of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
to the question of Mr. DIINDAS, at the notion of
the exhibition of fire-works in Hyde Park. And
no wonder. For what painful thoughts and re-
miniscences would not the sight of that spectacle
evoke ? How suggestive the crackers to Hon.
Members of their noisy protestations of political
virtue at the hustings—the squibs of the mer-
ciless that awaits them on a dissolution
—the rockets, aimless and harmless, of tic
vast stores of warlike missiles uselessly accumu-
lated at our arsenals, the Roman candles of May-
nooth, the snakes and serpents of ABERDEEN,
GLADSTONE, and the illustrious Field-Marshal—
the golden rain of the frightful waste of expendi-
ture to which Honourable Members have been
parties—the maroons of the three years' War,
with its one campaign—the Catherine wheels
of the thousands of our soldiers martyred through
their scandalous Inches—the Bengal lights of the
retributive eyes of a nation awakened to the con-
sciousness that it has been sold—the coloured fires
of their political doom—the entire spectacle of
their utter worthlessness, and the heavy cost of
their unsalaried stewardship to a too credulotts
people. Any spectacle but that—the political
hereafter with its bitter reminiscences and re-
proaches was surely enough ! Hardened as Sir G.
LEWIS may. be supposed to be as an Edinburgh
Reviewer, even ho seemed to have a glimpse of the
bitterness of their case, judging by his reluctance,
real or feigned—let us hope real—to :state what
the fireworks were for. So sink the fireworks,
and hey for the naval review !
Salt water has many virtues, and is especially
good if taken in a spanking breeze. anything
will minister to a mind diseased, pluck from the
memory a rooted sorrow, and relieve the over •
charged breast of the perilous stuff that weighs
about the heart, it is this medicament taken in the
chops of the Channel. So hey for the, naval re-
view ! Never mind the inconsistency 0, grudging
the people places of recreation on accolant of the
cost, , and shutting them out of the British
Museum on the only day duri.3g which
they have opportunity to enter it, from a pre-
tended respect for the sanctity of thn Sabbath,
and then hastening to countenance and admire an
array of gun-boats formidable and costly, so
many of which have been got up exclusively for
the review, and with such haste that one thou-
sand Government workmen have had to labour
at them during two successive Sundays. Never
mind that, and away with the croaking raven that
hoarsely sings of the infinite loss the country has
sustained from the want of a like energy in the
construction of gun-boats when their armaments
could have won a peace the nation. might be
proud of. Away with retrospection and gloomy
forebodings, and hey for the Review with all is
fascination, the Emperor NAPOLEON and his
princely " babby " in Jewish tinsel inclusive,
But how to get there ? A "disagreeable" at
the outset—a special train provided--but hoe.
members to pay the expenses ! Never mind,
a ship is to be provided, with refreshments,
stewards included, and no charge. The Perse-
verance !—insult to injury, seeing to what straits
perseverance in iniquity has brought them ! The
Perseverance ! Could Lord PALMERSTON and his ;
Wood-en lieutenant entertain a notion of revenge
for their fractiousness so cold-blooded ! Why,
that was the ship that toppled ever in the docks,