The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-03 00:00:00

REPORT OF THE PENSION COMMITTEE.

The committee on the pension list have closed their labours,
and the report has been laid before parliament. Subjoined
to the repoit is a list of all the existing pensions referred to
them by the house. They have classed them under the fol-
lowing heads, where they are connected with particular
branches of the public service, or capable of being traced to
an origin admitting of such arrangements :-
1. Army, 2. Navy, included in one class; 3. Diplomatic;
4. Judicial and legal; 5. Political; 6. Civil and revenue;
7. Colonial; 8. Services to Royal family and in household;
9. Rewards for literary and scientific attainments ; 10.
Royal bounty and charity; 11. Compensation for forfeited
estates ; 12, Miscellaneous, not included as above. It then
proceeds:— 1_

Your committee trust that the explanations given in the
appendix will appear to the house clear and satisfactory, and
they are enabled to state with confidence that no efforts on
their part have been omitted which could ensure its accuracy
and precision. It is formed from the information laid before
them, excluding that portion which was confidentially com-
municated, and which, as it related to the private circum-
stances of the several parties, your committee feel assured
the houSe would neither expect nor desire to see made matter
of public disclosure.
In eases where pensions were originally granted, either
specifically or mainly, in consequence of the narrow circum-
stances of the parties, and such circumstances remain un-
altered, your committee have found some instances in which
the near collateral relations of the pensioners are persons of
wealth and station, though not within those degrees which'
create a legal obligation for support. As your committee
have no means of calling on such relations to provide for the
support of the pensioners if these grants should be withheld,
your committee abstain from recommending a discontinuance
of such pensions. in some of those cases the relatives have
taken on themselves the payment of the sums hitherto re-
ceived from the state, but others have not done so; and you r
committee feel it their duty to express their decided opinion
that where close relationship exists, and where means of sup-
port may be afforded, it is to family connections, and not to
the public purse, that application for relief made.
Your committee have placed in a separate class certain
pensions which, in their judgment, should for the present be
suspended, and should only be re-granted on the responsi-
bility of the government, in case the circumstances of the
parties require it, when the particular contingency arises
which may render such pensions hereafter necessary. The
majority of these cases are those of ladies who during the
lifetime of their husbands do not stand in need of those pen-
sions, but to whom they may become necessary as a species
of settlement or jointure in the event of their surviving their
husbands.
Another class forms the converse of the preceding one. It
comprehends many to whom your committee consider that
the existing pensions should be continued for the present,
but where the term of the grant should be limited to another,
and generally a shorter, period than that which.was originally
fixed.
The last class on the list comprises those pensions which,
in the judgment of the committee, ought not to be continued.
In submitting this recommendation, your committee cannot
but feel considerable reluctancei because they are well aware
that in consequence of the continued renewal of civil list
pensions from reign to reign, and even after a change of
dynasty, an expectation was created in the minds of parties
that these pensions should not be disturbed. But, giving
full weight to these objections, your committee, however
reluctant they may feel, cannot rink from the performance
of the duty imposed upon them by the house. They are,
however, of opinion that provision should be made for the
payment of the amount already due to all those parties whose
pensions are proposed to be suspended or wholly disconti-

nued.
They recommend that in the case of all future civil list
pensions the warrant or other instrument of appointment
should set forth distinctly the reason and motive of the grant.
This will be a cheek against inconsiderate recommendations
for pensions, and will furnish to parliament hereafter that
ready information which your. committee have found so much
difficulty in obtaining:
They recommend that where
.pensions are granted for ser-
vices to persons other than the individuals by whom the ser-
vices were rendered, care should be taken, if these pensions
are granted for younger lives, that the amount of pension
should be reduced so as to prevent any undue increase of
charge to the public. Indeed, excepting under very peculiar
circumstances, it is the opinion of your committee that such
grants should be avoided, and all the facts connected with
them considered with the greatest care.
They recommend that in cases where pensions are granted
as acts of royal bounty for the relief of distress, it should be
distinctly provided that such grants should cease when the
circunistances of the parties no longer require their coati-

nuance.
This principle has already been acted on in various cases
even where a pension bad been granted for public services,
highly to the credit of the parties concerned, among whom
the names of Viscount Sidmoutb, the late Lord Farnborough,
Mr. Moore, Mr. Marsden, and Mr. Charles Bathurst, are
honourably distinguished.
The house will also bear in mind that civil list pensions
have been surrendered on the same grounds, and that for
several years the pensions granted to the Duchess of New-
castle, Lord Reay, Mrs. Percy Smith, and Lady Seymour,
have ceased by the voluntary acts of the parties interested.
They recommend that under no circumstances should the
mere combination of poverty with the hereditary rank of the
peerage be considered as a justification of a grant of pen-
sion. It is far from being the wish of your committee to ex-
press an opinion that a peer should not have the same in-
ducements to exertion, and should not share in the same re-
wards
for services rendered, which are enjoyed by other
classes of her Majesty's subjects; but your committee consi-
der, no less for the honour of the peerage itself; than for the
interests of the public service, that the system of granting
civil list pensions to members of the peerage, merely because
they are reduced in their circumstances, should be altogether
discontinued.
In order to avoid any possible doubt or misconception
hereafter, your committee recommend that enactments with
respect to the Irish and Scotch revenue, analagous to those
contained in the English statute of 1 Anne, should be made
part of the bill which provides for the re-grant of the civil list
pensions.
They recommend that ail pensions to be grar ted should be
held liable to deduction or suspension in the event of the par-
ties being appointed to office in the public service, thus ren•
dering the continuance of the pensions unnecessary, either
for a time or permanently. This course has been followed
in some cases of grants of pensions submitted to your com-
mittee, and might be advantageously extended further.
Your committee have now concluded their 'important and
laborious duties, and have only to recommend that a provi-
sion be made on the consolidated fund for the pensions
charged on the civil list, transferred to the consolidated fund,
or charged on the 44 per cent duties, agreeably to the tenor
of this report; and •,u-order that parliament may be satisfied
that these principles are strictly carried into effect, ycur com-
mittee recommend that a return of all pensions which her
Majesty may be pleased to re-grant shall be laid on the table
of the 'house within ten days of the opening of the next ses-
sion.

July. 1838.
The following is an extract from the appendix:—
PENSIONS RESIGNED.
Aston, Lord, £97; Auckland, Lord, £386, (Ceased on
Lord Aucklatta's appointment in 1830;) Berea's, Lady
Catherine, £81; Bouverie, Lady Frances, £81; Bradshaw,
Augustus, 92; Bromley, Lady Louisa, £`2oo; Carmarthen,
Marchioness of, £300; Cranstoun, Lord, £184; Dalrymple,
Elizabeth, £49; Drummond, Thomas, £3OO, (surrendered
whilst Under Secretary in Ireland;) Elphinstone, Lord,
£276, surrendered on 4pointment to is ;) Grant,
Catherine, Ann, and Harriet, £97; Gray, Lady, £97;
tlunter, Sir Richard, £288; Hay, Lady Jane, £97; Lush-
ington, Hon. Ann, £624; Lennox, Lady Sophia, £150;
Parnell, Lady Caroline, £200; Strangford, Viscount, £BB.
Pensions to be for the present suspended, and to be re-
granted on the responsibility of the government, should
the circumstances of the parties render it necessary here-
after, when the specified contingencies shall have occurred.
Batson, Isabella. £103; to be suspended during the life of
her husband, Mr. Batson.
Wellesley, Marchioness £300; to be suspended during
the life of the Marquis Wellesley.
Croker, Rosamond, £300; to be suspended during the life
of the Right Hon. J. Wilson Croker.
Drummond, lion. M. D., £200; to be suspended during
the life of her husband, Mr. Drummond.
DruMmond, Clementina, £49; to be suspended during
the life of her husband, Mr. Davies.
'
Freemantle, Albino £43; to be suspended during the life
of her husband, Mr. Butler Danvers.
Hobart, Lady Vere; £100; to be suspended during the
life of her husband, Mr. Cameron, of Luchiel.
, Goddard, Isabella, £662; to be suspended during the life
of her husband, Archdeacon Goddard.
Pensions which the committee consider should determine at
another or an earlier period than that which is contemplated
by the original grant.
Sidney, family of, £500; not to continue for the life of the
grantees, but for the life of the present Sir J. S. Sidney.
Stewart, Sir Simeon 11., £200; not to continue for the life
of the grantee. but for the life of his mother.
Tyrconuell, Earl of, £600; not to continue for the life of
the grantees, but for the life of his lordship's mother, the
Hon. Mrs. Carpenter.
Strathmore, Countess of, £181; to be surrendered when
the circumstances of Lady Strathmore enable her ladyship to
do so; this contingency is anticipated by Lady Strathmore,
who has expressed her willingness, in such case, to resign
her pension.
Holmes-, T. K., £500; to be continued, not for the life of
the grantee, but for the life of W. Holmes, sen.
Rumbold, Emily, £115; to be continued, not for the life'of
the grantee, but for the life of Caroline Rumbold.
Pensions for which the committee do not think it expedient
that future provision should be made :
Courtney, Lady Elizabeth, £81; Hay, Lady Mary Turner,
£29; Hobart, Lady Albinia, £100; Johnstone, Edward J.,
£3OO, (a retired allowance to which the party has been enti-
tled, but wbich was suspended being-in future paid ;) Napier,
Caroline, now Reid, £97 ; Sheridan, Harriett S., now Black-
wood, £57 ; Walsingliam, Lord, £936 ; 'Home, Earl of,
£276 ' • Onslow, Arthur, £81; Sinclair; Lord, £184; Wil-
kins, Hon. Eliza, now Stretton, £115; Scott, Sir David,
Bart., £449; Hereford, Viscount, £582.