The Sun.
London, England, 1826-03-13 00:00:00

Jll LONDON JOURNALS.

DAILY
Extracts from the Morning Prpers,March 13,18`26.

rTHE TIMM.]
It seems pretty clear that there must be a re-
vision of the curious humbug called the " dead
weight commutation." Mr. Canning gave. Wit
only poor Mr. Vansittart, ,but his own friend,
Lord Liverpool, who had both been parties to
that most wise bargain, a " set down" of no very
merciful description, when he. said that for his
part " he did' not understand the thing at all ;"
nor can any one understand the thing in such a
way as would enable him to justify it on princi-
ples of common reason. The half-pay and pen-
sions, naval and military, amounted to above
5,000,0001. per annum, payable during the lives
of men, most of whom, we acknowledge, may
have well deserved the incomes thus awarded to
them by their country. The Ministers, with the
professed view of reducing the present amount
of our expenditure, propose to pay, during a de-
finite period of 45 years, an annuity which shall
bear to the above sum of 5,000,0001. the propor-
tion of two eight-tenths to five—that is
2,800,000/. They agree as to part of the
required sum—we believe something less
than 600,000/. per annum—with the Bank of
England': the remainder, so far as we can gather
from the indistinct explanations afforded in
Parliament, being still a charge in its original
form, upoh the country.—Now here begins the
strange intricacy and incoherency of the whole
contrivance. ft is clear enough, that when a
calculation was made, that the period likely to
elapse before the annuities payable for military
or naval service would extend to about fokay-
five years, a certain hotly of attnuitant, or at
least a certain class of ages, must have been
taken as a datum for the calculation, and conse-
quently as a condition under which the Govern-
ment and the monied corporation making a con-
tract upou the subject must have felt themselves
to be reciprocally engaged. But what has really
been the case in respect of the above condition ?
Why, the military half-pay list (we know nothing
of the naval) has exhibited a perpetual lluctua-
tion of names, persons, and ages, in nine in-
stances out of ten, to the injury of the public so
far as concerns the unsold part of the dead
weight, and detrimental to the Bank of England
with regard to that portion of the burden which
it has taken upon itself to discharge: for what is
the use now made of the military half-pay by
those whP have the dominion of the army ? It
has, in a great variety of instances, been made a
receptacle or rather passage for officers, moving
from a lower to a superior rank in the profession.
Old officers—all below the age of 60 years—
have latterly been permitted to sell their half-pay
commissions, which are purchased by or for of.
fivers of junior rank to those who sell—by men
of less advanced age, and therefore likely to en-
tail upon the party paying the annuity, a more
protracted burden. 'Chest) officers so pur-
chasing, have, we believe, the title of being
unattached ; that is, they receive the half-
pay only of the rank into which they purchase.
This half-pay comes out of the dead-weight
fund : the present purchasers, again, on
playing a certain difference, obtain the full pay of
the same rank, being attached to regiments, as
vacancies happen, and sell their. half-pay which
they had before bought, to [mother succession of
junior officers. 1 t seems plain, therefore if we
have been correctly informed with regard to this
system, that a foundation is laid for the iounor.
tality of the dead weight, instead of its expira-
tion in 45 years. Ministers ought, certainly, to
bring the subject once more under the serious
notice of Parliament, that if no good can he ex-
tracted from the present arrangements, they may
be got rid of, and the mystery with them.