

3So 



PENSION. 



PENSION. 



386 



after the 25th of March, 1702, beyond the term of thirty-one years or 

 for three lives, reserving a reasonable rent. As this clause applied 

 only to the land (revenue, it was enacted by another clause that no 

 portion of other branches of revenue, as the excise, post-office, &c., 

 should be alienable by the crown beyond the life of the reigning king. 

 On the accession of George III., in consideration of the surrender of 

 the larger branches of the hereditary revenue, a civil list was settled on 

 his majesty, amounting originally to 800,000?., and afterwards increased 

 to 900,0002., on which the pensions were charged. There were no 

 limits, except the Civil List itself, within which the grant of pensions 

 was confined ; and at various times, when debts on this list had 

 accumulated, parliament voted considerable sums (Sir Henry Parnell, 

 in bis work on ' Financial Reform,' says" some millions") for their dis- 

 charge. In February, 1780, during the administration of Lord North, 

 Mr. Burke introduced his bill for the better security of the independ- 

 ence of parliament and the economical reformation of the civil and 

 other establishments. In this bill it was recited that the pension lists 

 were excessive, and that a custom prevailed of granting pensions on a 

 private list during his majesty's pleasure, under colour that in some 

 cases it may not be expedient to divulge the names of persons on the 

 said lists, by means of which much secret and dangerous corruption 

 may be hereafter practised. Mr. Burke proposed to reduce the English 

 pension list to a maximum of 60,000?., but the bill, as passed, fixed it 

 at 95,0001. Thia act (22 Geo. III., c. 82) asserted the principle that 

 distress or desert ought to be considered as regulating the future grants 

 of such pensions, and that parliament had a full right to be informed 

 in respect to this exercise of the prerogative, in order to ensure and 

 enforce the responsibility of the ministers of the crown. Mr. Burke's 

 speech on introducing his bill will be found in the third volume of his 

 ' Works,' ed. 1815. 



Up to this time the Civil List pensions of Ireland, the pensions 

 charged on the hereditary revenues of Scotland, and the pensions 

 charged on the 4J per cent, duties, had k not been regulated by 

 parliament. 



In Ireland the hereditary revenue of the crown was used as a means 

 of extensive political corruption, the English act of 1 Anne, already 

 cited, not being applicable to Ireland. In a speech of Mr. Hutchinson, 

 secretary of state, made in the Irish House of Commons, in June, 

 1793, he stated that the gross annual hereditary revenue of Ireland 

 amounted to 764,6272., reduced by various charges to 275,1022. only; 

 that the disposition of this revenue was in the hands of the king; 

 that "his letters and seals were the only authority for using it, 

 and the only voucher allowed by the Commissioners of Accounts 

 and by the House of Commons ;" and that there was no Board of 

 Treasury executing their functions under the authority of parlia- 

 ment. The Irish parliament, in 1757, had come to a unanimous 

 resolution, " That the granting of so much of the public revenue in 

 pensions is an improvident disposition of the revenue, an injury to 

 the crown, and detrimental to the people." The Irish pensions then 

 amounted to 40,0001. : in two years after the above resolution was 

 passed, an addition of 23,0001. was made to them; and in 1778 they 

 were nearly double the amount at which they stood in 1757. In 1787 

 leave was refused to bring in a bill to limit the amount of pensions, 

 and to disable persons holding pensions for a term of years, or during 

 pleasure, from sitting and voting in parliament. Mr. Forbes, who 

 moved this bill, stated that " it was a practice among certain members 

 of the House to whom pensions had been granted, to carry them into 

 the market and expose them for sale." In 1790 Mr. Forbes again 

 moved resolutions, stating " that the Pension List amounted to 

 101,0002., exclusive of military pensions ; that the increase of pensions, 

 civil and military, since February, 1784, had been 29,0002.; and that 

 many of these pensions had been granted to members of parliament 

 during the pleasure of the crown." These resolutions were not adopted. 

 In 1793, when the whole policy of the Irish government was changed, 

 among other beneficial measures introduced and recommended on the 

 authority of the lord-lieutenant was a bill to limit the amount of pen- 

 nons and to increase the responsibility of the Treasury, which was 

 passed into a law. By this act (33 Geo. III., c. 34, Irish statutes) the 

 pensions on the Civil List in Ireland were limited to 80,0001., allow- 

 ing a sum of 12002. only to be granted until such reduction was 

 effected. Grants held during the pleasure of the crown, and converted 

 into grants for life to the same parties and to the same amount, 

 were exempted from the limitations of the act. This act carried 

 into effect a surrender of the hereditary revenues for the life of the 

 king, and the principle of appropriating money by parliamentary 

 authority. These restraints on the crown were not however equal 

 in efficiency to those contained in the English statute of Anne. At 

 the time of the act of 33 Geo. III. being passed, the Irish pensions 

 amounted to 124,0002., and the amount was not reduced to 80,0002. 

 until 1814. By the 1 Geo. IV., c. 1, the Irish Pension List was fur- 

 ther reduced to 50,0002., no grants exceeding 12002. to be made in any 

 one year until the list was so reduced. 



The statute of 1 Anne, having been passed prior to the Union, did 

 not affect Scotland ; and pensions were accordingly granted by the 

 crown for life or for lives, in possession or in reversion, without 

 restriction in amount or in the duration of the grant, other than the 

 amount of the revenues and the claims and burdens i already upon 

 them. By the 50 Geo. III., c. 3, the principle of parliamentary inter- 



ABTS ASD 8CI. CIV. VOL. VI. 



ference was established in reference to the hereditary revenues of 

 Scotland, the amount of the pensions was reduced to 25,0002., and no 

 more than 8002. was to be granted in any one year until such reduc- 

 tion was effected. At this period the Civil List pensions of Scotland 

 amounted to 39,3792. By the 1 Geo. IV., c. 1, the hereditary 

 revenues of Scotland were placed to the account of the consolidated 

 fund. 



Certain duties, called the 44 per cent, duties, were not withdrawn 

 from the private control of the crown until 1830, when they were sur- 

 rendered by William IV. for his life, the pensions then chargeable 

 upon them continuing payable. On the acession of William IV. 

 there was nothing therefore to prevent the Pension Lists of 

 England, Ireland, and Scotland being consolidated ; and this was 

 effected by 1 Will. IV., c. 25, which also made provision for their 

 reduction, on the expiration of existing interests, from an amount of 

 145,7502. net, to a future maximum sum of 75,0002. The Pension 

 List for England was at this period 74,2002. net ; Scotland 23,6502. ; 

 Ireland, 47,'9002. 



In 1830 the ministry of the Duke of Wellington was overthrown on 

 the question of referring the Civil List (which comprises the Pension 

 List) to a select committee, Sir Henry Parnell's motion to that effect 

 being carried by 233 against 204. 



In February, 1834, in order to define with greater precision the class 

 of persons to whom the grant of pensions ought to be confined, Lord 

 Althorp, chancellor of the exchequer (afterwards Earl Spencer), moved 

 resolutions to the following effect, which were agreed to by the Houseof 

 Commons : " That it is the bounden duty of the responsible advisers 

 of the crown to recommend to his majesty for grants of pensions on 

 the Civil List such persons only as have just claims on the royal bene- 

 ficence, or who, by their personal services to the crown, by the per- 

 formance of duties to the public, or by their useful discoveries in 

 science, and attainments in literature and the arts, have merited the 

 gracious consideration of their sovereign and the gratitude of their 

 country." 



On the accession of Queen Victoria, in 1837, the subject of pensions 

 was again considered ; and a select committee of the House of Com- 

 mons, appointed to inquire into the Civil List, recommended, " That 

 in place of granting a sum of 75,0002. for Civil List pensions, her 

 Majesty should be empowered to grant in every year new pensions on 

 the Civil List to the amount of 12002., these pensions to be granted in 

 strict conformity with the resolutions of the House of Commons, of 

 February, 1834." These views were adopted by the House, and 

 embodied in the 1 Vic., c. 2, the words of the resolution being intro- 

 duced into the Act. Since the accession of Queen Victoria, still greater 

 force has been given to the spirit of the Act, in consequence of the 

 recommendations of a select committee of the House of Commons, 

 appointed in December, 1837, to inquire how far the pensions charged 

 on the Civil List, as settled on the accession of William IV., ought to 

 be continued, " having due regard to the just claims of the parties and 

 to economy in the public expenditure." This committee after a 

 searching and protracted inquiry into the merits of each case on the 

 Pension List, recommended the immediate suspension of several pen- 

 sions, to be regranted on the responsibility of the government, should 

 the circumstances of the parties render it necessary ; others they con- 

 sidered should determine at an earlier period than specified in the 

 original grant ; and for several pensions, they considered it unadvisable 

 to make any future provision. In their report, dated July, 1838, the 

 committee recommended that in the case of all future Civil List pen- 

 sions, the reasons and motives of the grant should be set forth in the 

 warrant of appointment ; that in pensions granted for services to 

 others than the individual by whom the services were rendered, care 

 should be taken, if these pensions are granted for younger lives, that 

 is, to the sons or daughters of the individual entitled to the pension, 

 that no undue increase of charge should be made ; and that such 

 grants should be avoided, except under very peculiar circumstances : 

 they recommended also that pensions for the relief of distress should 

 be granted only on the condition of their ceasing when the circum- 

 stances of the parties no longer require their continuance ; that all 

 pensions should be held liable to deduction or suspension in the event 

 of the parties being appointed to office in the public service; 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 pension. The committee also recommended that, in 

 order to avoid any possible doubt or misconception hereafter, enact- 

 ments should be made with respect to the Irish and Scotch revenue 

 analogous to those contained in the English statute of 1 Anne. 



Besides the pensions on the Civil List, the regulation of which at 

 different periods has been referred to above, there are vast sums 

 annually appropriated by parliament to the payment of pensions of 

 another description. Thus in 1860-1 the sum of 1,063,3712. was voted 

 on account of the out-pensioners of Chelsea Hospital, 58,469 in number ; 

 232,7642. to the out-pensioners of Greenwich ; 135,7852. to 2478 widows 

 of officers of land-forces ; and to officers in each of the civil depart- 

 ments of the government large sums are annually paid in pensions 

 and superannuation allowances. The half-pay to retired officers of the 

 navy and army may also be considered in the light of a pension. The 

 Civil List pensions in the year ending June 20, 1860, amounted to 

 15002.. divided among twenty-two recipient*. 



CC 



