Your committee perceiving that so large and increasing a proportion of these reserved revenues has been applied to pensions, and that under the present system there is no security against their further extension, have thought it their duty to direct their particular at tention to this subject; which had likewise attracted the notice of the committee of finance in 1798, (30th Report, p. 15.) who adverting to the great increase of pensions on the civil establishment of Scotland, even at that time, and to the comparatively small duties performed by many of the persons holding some of the offices,' thought it an object well deserving consideration, whether, instead of their being granted, as in some instances < they appeared to have been, the emoluments thereof should not, as future occasions and as instances might offer, be applied in favour of persons who might have distinguished themselves by great public service, or in ease of the funds applied to the pension list, if the existing charges thereon, on a due 'examination, should be found ne cessary. The amount of pen. sions, which is already equal to more than two-fifths of the allowed pension list of England, ought clearly to be considered, in connexion with the emoluments of sinecure places and offices per. formed by deputy in Scotland, which amount to near 30,000%; a subject which will come under more immediate consideration in a further part of this report.-By the articles of union, it was stipu. lated that certain branches of the ancient establishment of Scotland should remain; but although the duties of some of these offices have ceased, and those of others have been diminished, the ancient sala. ries and emoluments continue to be annexed, and in one instance (that of the privy seal) an addition of 1,500l. per annum was made in 1804, which is, however, profes. sedly in the nature of an annuity, and to continue only so long as the present possessor shall continue to hold the office of keeper of the privy seal; being in substance an augmentation of the pension list, to which it has been added in the foregoing account. It is payable out of a part of the reserved reve. nues called land rents and casual. ties; and the warrant has been al ready printed by order of the house, 5th March 1805.—As it appears from the foregoing statements, that the pensions granted by the crown in this part of the united kingdom, as well as the reserved revenues out of which they are paid, have been considerably increased, your committee are of opinion, that they should not have acquitted themselves of the duty imposed upon them, if they had not pointed out these subjects as matters which to restrain. It is obvious that a too will well deserve the consideration of parliament, whenever the expenditure of the civil list shall again become the subject of investiga. tion; and if not precluded by the terms of the civil list act, from in. terfering in any manner at present with the application of the reserved revenues, your committee would suggest, that it might become the advisers of the crown to refrain from recommending any further increase of the pensions No. 42, presents a return of the charged upon those revenues until convention of royal burghs in Scotoccasion shall have been given for land to an order, for an account of such investigation. The number public money placed at the disposal of persons receiving pensions in of the convention, in pursuance of 1761 was 19; in 1797 it had in the civil list act, sec. 16. together creased to 185; and it now amounts with a statement of the application to 331, exclusive of 24 contingent of the same.-The lords of trade pensions. The present pensions, and police in Scotland being abo however, are for the most part lished by that statute, it was ensmall, and about two-thirds are acted,. that all sums under their granted to females.-The commit-management should be placed at tee of finance in 1798, remark on the delicacy with which a fund should be touched, which concerns the munificence of the sovereign, as applied either to the encourage ment of learning and religion, to the remuneration of national ser. vices in the rewarding of public merit, or in the support of those branches of noble and respectable families, which the policy and principles of the British constitu. tion cannot suffer to fall into indigence.' 30. p. 12.-Your com. mittee by no means wish to repress the munificence of the crown as applied to the three first of these objects, nor even to exclude the last-mentioned consideration; but the undefined state of the reserved revenues appears to have encou. raged a growing facility in grant ing pensions, which it may be, on a future occasion, important to VOL. L. the disposal of the convention of royal burghs ;' it appears however that no such sums have been received, that considerable difficulty and delay occurred in procuring information, nearly five years having elapsed before the balance in the hands of the cashier to the late board (amounting in July 1783 to 8581.) was ascertained, that a demand to deliver up the records of the board, and to pay this balance, was resisted, on the ground that the act gave no power to receive such papers, nor to call on the cashier to account for his intro. missions with the sums received by him during the existence of the board; that the board of police also represented that the same act authorised the commissioners of the treasury to grant annuities equal to the legal emoluments of the persons whose offices should be suppressed; (the expression of the act is, who have diligently and faithfully executed the offices;') and that the cashier having been used to derive emoluments from the money in his hands, he could not continue to enjoy a compensation equal to his accustomed and legal emoluments, it the balance in his hands should be taken from him during his life; that the convention commenced an action against the cashier in 1789 for his said balance, but relinquish ed it in 1791, from an unwillingness to incur expence in prosecuting a claim which might not be established. The return further states, that 600l. per annum, formerly granted by the commissioners of the freasury to the board of police, which the convention claimed, conceiving it to have been the only fund at their disposal, have, since the passing of the act, been granted to officers of the board, in compensation for the emoluments of the offices suppressed, of which 2501. only continue to be paid to four persons, of whom this cashier is one. (No. 43.) This payment having been for purposes purely local, seems to be a charge origin. ally belonging more properly to the hereditary Scotch revenue than to the civil list.-Your committee submit, that so very unsatisfactory a return may require the attention of the commissioners of his majesty's treasury; and that the balance due from the cashier ought to be paid forthwith, or if it should be irrecoverable, that the annual payment to him of 1007. ought im. mediately to cease. PENSIONS.-Ireland. The total of pensions on the civil list of Ireland were, in the year ended 5th Jan. 1808, according to the annual printed finance account page 91.... .£.89,639. They were for the year ended 5th Jan. 1807 ................ .£.93,250. An account was laid before the house, made up to June 1801 (and printed 16th June), with the names of the pensioners; the amount of which was ....£.112,166. There were also two additional accounts printed 22nd Feb. 1805, of.... .£.1,200 and 6th Feb. 1807, of...£1,650. In the 59th vol. of the Journals, p. 718, is a list of all pensions granted on the establishment of Ireland, up to the 1st Jan. 1804, specifying the date and continuance of each grant; to which your committee are obliged to refer for particulars, not having received a return to their repeated orders, of the present state of the pension list. The amount on 1st Jan. 1804, according to that list, was 104,2581. exclusive of 104. under the head of charity, and 3,832/. in military pensions. The civil list act, 33 Geo. 3. c. 34, directed the gradual reduction of the pension list to 80,000l.; but as it allowed an annual grant of pensions to the extent of 1,2001. in every year, there still continues an excess above the limited sum. In 1793, when the act passed, the total was 88,1631. but by the finance papers above referred to, the total was, on 5th Jan. 1808 ........£.89,639. No. 46. Out of the customs for the year ended 5th Jan. 1807, £.17,705. The greater number of these are in sums not exceeding 201. In the printed finance papers for the year ended 5th Jan. 1808, p. 13, the salaries, pensions, and gratuities in the customs, exclusive of salaries on the establishment, are stated at...... ..£.41,662. No. 48. Out of the excise for the year ended 5th Jan. 1807, £.5.993. These pensions have been in. creased by 3007. or rather more, in each of the three last years.-They are in general in sums under 521. and are all granted by the board, with the approbation of the lord lieutenant and lords of the treasury. In the printed finance papers for this year, ended 5th Jan. 1808, p. 14, the salaries, pensions, and gratuities, payable out of the excise (exclusive of salaries on the establishment) amounted to .15,277. No. 49. Pensions out of the Post-office ...£.1,334. No. 50. Ditto, out of the stamp duties .£.1,496. No. 51. Under acts passed in 1799 and 1800, pensions were granted to persons instrumental in suppressing the rebellion, to be named by the lord lieutenant; which amount at this time, subject to diminution by the extinction of lives, to ...£.2,700. 645. Pension contingent to Thomas lord Manners, now lord chancellor of Ireland....£.4,000 Pension to John lord Redesdale, late ditto ...4,000 Pension to right hon. Geo. Ponsonby, ditto.... £.4,000. The description of pensions contained in Nos. 11. 14. 15. and in 13, are of an objectionable nature, inasmuch as they are neither paid nor entered at the exchequer under the head of pensions; and in case of any deficiency in the fee fund, they fall directly upon the civil list. These allowances are in some cases conferred by the head of an office upon persons in that office itself, without any other apparent control; and even where they have been granted by his majesty in council, although the instrument becomes more formal, all objection is not removed. They tend to confound two things, which ought always to be kept perfectly dis. tinct, the necessary expence incurred for transacting the business of the executive government, and gratuities paid where no duty is annexed; they become indirectly a burden upon the civil list, and by escaping notice, under the general title of establishment, may tend to divert a fund, which was wisely formed under the sanction of parliament out of the fees of office, for the purposes of economy, into a source of patronage.-This fund was constituted in the year 1795, out of the fees and gratuities received in the offices of the three secretaries of state; and it has relieved the civil list from the burden of the fixed establishment of those offices, which was previously charged upon it (with the exception of such deficiencies as are now occasionally made up by the civil list); in consequence of which arrangement, a material saving has been obtained for the public, and the salaries in those offices, which 02 were were before liable to great fluctuations, have been fixed at a precise sunt, considerably below the average of their former amount.-In No. 28, it has been observed, that pensions to certain persons formerly employed in the stamp of fice, are paid and included in the bill of incidents, in pursuance of warrants from the board of trea. sury. Your committee conceive that annual allowances ought not to be granted generally, and with out special reasons, to persons retiring from official situations either by their own choice, or upon any new arrangement in the mode of conducting business; and that such grants become more particularly objectionable, if the practice should be allowed to continue of charging any allowances, beyond such as are superannuations in the strictest sense, among the salaries or incidents of any department, instead of classing and entering them as pensions, so that they may be kept entirely distinct from the salaries paid for transacting the current business of the office.-Even when a meritorious officer has served for a number of years, he ought not to receive remuneration as a mere matter of course upon retiring, without taking into consideration the emoluments of the office, and the fortune which he may have had the means of acquiring in that service, as well as the particular cir. cumstances of his case: but with regard to such as may be inefficient or useless (otherwise than in consequence of age, or infirmity) special circumstances alone can justify the propriety of rewarding them, when it becomes convenient for the public service, that their situations should be filled by per sons better qualified to discharge the duties.-Your committee cannot but discountenance the principle of granting compensation for offices suppressed or abolished, the possessors of which have not either had an interest in them for life, or by the custom of such offices have been justly considered as having such a tenure in them.-With regard to the allowances made to those who were formerly employed in the collection of duties either repealed, or transferred to other management, it is impossible not to animadvert upon suffering persons to remain a permanent burden upon the public, if there has been any opportunity of placing them in other offices, where their qualifications and habits of business might render them useful, and de serving of salary. The warrants for most of these grants were in fact very properly drawn only during the pleasure of the commissioners of the treasury, or until 'the parties are respectively other. 'wise provided for.' The scale of all offices has necessarily been so much extended since the repeal or transfer of those duties, that little difficulty seems likely to have occurred in giving employment to all those individuals; and their situ. ation would probably have been more frequently presented to the notice of the executive government, if the allowance had appeared in the shape of pension, instead of being included among the incidents of the establishment.-Since offices ought to be regarded as created solely for public utility, and not the benefit of the individuals who happen to hold them, there must exist a perfect right in those who administer the affairs of the public, to |