The Sun.
London, England, 1821-10-15 00:00:00

[THE TIMES.]

We hear that ninisters have, at length, come
to the determination of relinquishing their plan
for establishing a superannuation fund in the
several public offices, to be drawn out of the
pockets of the clerks. The injustice of this
measure has been so generally decried, that we
suppose its abandonment to have proceeded from
a mixed feeling of shame and apprehension—
apprehension, we mean, of a final inability to
enforce it. It is some degrees better to retreat
in time than obstinately to persevere in an im-
practicable error. To recompense a course of
faithful service, by retired allowances propor-
tioned to the length and importance of that
service, is not only a necessary encourage-
ment tc, a zealous discharge of the duty,
but is a 1 roceeding recognized and sanctioned
by an express Act of Parliament. A great
portion of, the clerks in our public offices have
entered those offices on the pledge afforded them

by such Act of Parfiament,,and all have conti-
nued to serve upon the faith of that pledge. The
claim to an allowance,- therefore, of a `certain
value, and determined and secured by definite
regulations, has acquired, in favour of the
claimants, all the force of a right, to rob them of
which, even by an Act of Parliament founded on
an ex post facto Treasury minute, would' be a
heinous injustice. But this (now, we hope, re-
linquished scheme) annulled the right to the old
provision, and levied a new tax upon those who
had enjoyed the ' right, while it took away the
certainty of ever profiting by the contribution
thus extorted from their own pockets. By
the new play, a clerk, we say, paid a certain
tax, and lost a certain recompense for service.—
'Every clerk was to contribute ; but if the
charge for superannuation should already amount
to 10/. per cent. on the gross expence of his
department, he would not be entitled to any
allowance, although he might have made an atr-
nual sacrifice of a tenth, nay, a seventh, of his
whole income towards the fund for upwards of
twenty years. Moreover, while the tax was
created, the scale of superannuation itself was
reduced below that which hail been stipulated
by the act of 50th Geo. 111. So that-1. The
clerks were taxed. 2. Their retired pay was
diminished. 3. Their certainty of enjoying it
after a given period was' changed into a mere
contingency. Any insurance-office in London
would secure to the -public servants a better
provision, and on more liberal terms. Respectable
men do not enter the public service for the sake
of the trifling salary they at first receive ; it is
the prospect of the ultimate advantages which
cheers them in their labours. How unjust, then,
to tell a man, after he has been-toiling 20 or 30
years in the service, and when he thinks he •is on
the point of reaching the goal, that he has been
wearing out life in chase of a shadosv,•and that
the public faith on which he had staked his ex-
istence is like virtue to the dying Roman—" but
a name." Justice required- that the deduction
should have been made from the salaries of those
only who were to enter the service after the re-
cent notice. After .all, the sum which could be
saved to the country by- drawing the money out
of the pockets of poor clerks is. too paltry
to be worth the consideration of the most
rigid economist : and when, in addition, we con-
sider the decrease of zeal and the universal dis-
satisfaction which must result from such an act
of injustice, we are almost tempted to congratu-
late Ministers that their eyes have been opened
to the impolicy of the measure. We repeat what
we said upon a former occasion, that this is not
the retrenchment which the country calls for. It
is against the holders of sinecures, against over-
grown pluralists, against pupilary Lords of the
Admiralty, Treasury, &c., that the small pha-
lanx of Patriots in the House of Commons have
directed their useful efforts.

HOWARD AND GIBBS'S BANKRUPTCY.

On. Saturday last the Commissioners sat on
HOWARD and GIBBS'S bankruptcy in Guildhall,
and as that was the day nominated for the ap-
pointment of assignees to administer the affairs
of the estate, the Court of Common Pleas was
crowded with creditors ; but when Mr. MON-
TAGUE, who is Counsel for several creditors, ap-
peared, he applied to the Commissioners for the
postponement of the appointment of the assig..
nees until a decision was had upon some unad-
justed claims within their adjudication. He said
that the delay would be but an act of common
justice, as every creditor necessarily had a voice
in the nomination of assignees.. The Commis-
sioners would recollect that they had devoted
much time in private to the investigation of a
claim of 30,0001. and upwards, made upon the
bankrupts' estate, which still remained unde-
cided. As he understood there would be no
opposition to his application, it might be as well
to admit it now, to save the time of many of the
creditors, who no doubt attended under the im-
pression that the appointment of assignees would
take place on ,that day. The Commissioners then
ordered that the appointment of assignees should
stand over until the 3d November. Mr. Walsh, an
elderly gen tleman,attended to prove a debt of 4581.
but Mr. TRESLOVE begged leave, before the proof
was admitted, to ask him if he was not the holder
of an acceptance of the bankrupts.for so large a
sum as 999$1.—Mr. Walsh being sworn, replied
that he was not the holder of any such bill—he
knew nothing about it.—Mr. TRESLOVE then said,
that he would examine Mr. Gibbs (one of the
bankrupts) respecting the acceptance in question.
—Mr. Gibbs being. sworn, said he should have
no difficulty in calling Mr. Walsh's recollection
to the fact. The acceptance was given to Mr.
Walsh last December, upon their promise to re-
deem the annuity which Mr. Walsh held of a
certain Nobleman.—Mr: TRESLOVE said, that it
was necessary to have that acceptance produced ;
for,althnugh nothing arose out of it, yet it would
be as well to have it cancelled, to bar any litiga-
tion which might arise from its possible produc-
tion hereafter.—Mr. 'Walsh said that he now
recollected something of the circumstance, but
knew nothing of what became of the bill.—Mr.
TuEnEcx said, that the Commissioners required
the production of the document before his proof
could be admitted.—Mr. Walsh, after some con-
sultation with his friends, left the Court to as-
certain whether the bill could be found among
papers of his, which were deposited at Messrs.
Ransom and Co.'s, the bankers ; but not having
returned at three o'clock, the Commissioners
adjourned.

PROVIDENTIAL ESC tPE.-At Doncaster, a
short time since, a child, four years old, son of
Mr. CLARKE, Church-street, fell from the window
of the attic story, but fortunately a man was
passing at the time, when the head of the child
came in contact with his shoulder, by which the
fail was broken, and the child was taken up only
very slightly injured.

NATURAL CURIOSITY.—A pear tree may now
be seen most luxuriantly in full bloom, i❑ a gar-
den at the back of our county gaol.—(Shrewsbury
Chronicle.)