Star.
London, England, 1808-08-30 00:00:00

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I

• •LI %tots the. grecial eiresgistgaiices *llendittgliialt:
'articular,. case.
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SINECURES, 7 •• • .• • •
AsdAillses exceut‘il

-" Next in order to Pensions, comes. atudmbignous
Sod middle class, partaking of the-nattirl of pensions.
inasmuch as no 'service is performed, but stilLrankirtg
under the head of offices, from the name 'of official
business having been continued after the:functions
at become extinct-or obsolete. ,f.)f these there still
remain specimens in various departments, .although
the labours of Parliament have been not fruitlessly
employed in suppressing.nsany of them,- particularly
by the 38 Geo. lIL c. 1)6.- aad 4'r Geo. 111. c. 12.
relating to the Customs, by the former of which 196
places, of the annual value-of 42,6551. were sOppressed
in England, and by thelatter. 88 places of a similar
description in 'lreland ;• and also by an act of the pre=
sent Session for abolishing the office of Survitier of
Subsidies and Petty Customs in the port of London.
It being difficult to ascertain, without a long and
minute examination of evidence, the exact nature of
several offices to which active and efficient duties are
not annexed, or to draw the limit between such as
are Sinecures and such as are wholly or chiefly exe-
cuted by duty, your Committee have thrown toge-
ther all whin they consider as belonging to either of
those classes in the annexed list, submitting it as giving
a general view of the several offices therein enume
rated, although they cannot answer but that some in;
accuracies may be discovered in it, being aware that
some of the offices do not distinctly range under either
description, while they very much partake of the na-
ture of both. Nos. 68 to 76 Appendix.
The Committee
•
he Committee on Finance, in the remarks upon
this subject, with which their 294 Report concludes,
observe, 6 That sinecure offices of high rank in some
6 of the ancient establishments of the State may be
usefully employed in particular instances, as either
• to accompany a Peerage given for the reward of
6 personal services, or to secure an honourable retreat
6 to pers. ns who are entitled to marks of public favour
by the long and meritorious dificharge of the duties
6 of high office, oravho have sacrificed lucrative pro-
• fessional situations on engaging in the public service,
by vesting such office in the persons themselves, or
6 in their immediate descendants.'
" Since the date of that Report, ,his Majesty. has
been empowered by the statute of 39 Gen. 111. c. 10.
to make provision for life for those who have sacrifi-
ced. lucrative professional situations, so far as relates
to Chancellors and Judges, on retiring- from office';
which must be remarked, in passing,- as extending the
. power of granting pensions, and as fairly-to be set
off against some of the retrenchments proposed. In
the peerages subsequently created, your Committee
canuot discover that any such application of the sine-
cures, as was suggested in that respect, has taken
place, but that the annexing of pensions by authority
of Parlix. lent has been not unfrequent.
" The view which your Committee take of this
• subject ccarevonds in principle, and differs only in
degree from that of the former Committee ; but it is
their anxious wish to guard against suffering the sub-
ject to escape notice, without being acted upon, white
the information is fully brought under observation.—
. If the opinion should prevail that -a legislative mea-
sure ought to he no longer deferred with regard to
offices of this description, your Committee submit,l
that leaving untouched all places of honour and distinc-
tion connected with the personal service of bis Ma-
jesty and of his Royal Family, it may be expedient
considerably to reduce Vie emoluments of some, and
to abol sh others. At the same time, regarding it
as a fundamental part of the constitution of this coun-
try, and of the reason of state in every country, that
there must be a means of rewarding public service,
and that those means will-be incomplete, and indeed
wholly insufficient for that .purpose, if there should
-be no further reward for that service than the daily
wages it receives during the pleasure of the Crowil,„
your Committee are of opinion that such sinecures
as the House in in-wisdom may think fit to retain,
should always in future be applied to recOmpende the
faithful discharge 'of the duties of efficient office ; or,
in thceeent of the House preferring to abolish gene.
rally all such offices, they conceive, that it will be-•
come proper tet substitute-some other mode by which
the Crown may be enabled to reward public servants
in a manner, proportioned to the nature and length of
the duties performed. .