In some cases half-pay has been allowed to those officers only who had been removed from other regiments in which they would have been entitled thereto; the other officers receiving, as disbanding money, from 3 months to 3 years' full pay, according to the periods of their service. It is to be observed, that the following classes of officers are allowed to continue their half-pay (contrary to the general rules of service;) viz. Officers receiving (under the Act 52d Geo. III. cap. 151) pensions for the loss of limbs. Officers of the King's German Legion, or Foreign Veteran Battalion, serving in the Hanoverian army. Officers of the Brunswick Corps, serving in the forces organized for the protection of the doininions of the Duke of Brunswick. Swiss officers serving in the Swiss Militia. Officers receiving pensions from the French government, provided no service be attached to such pensions. tent, the office of Treasurer of Chelsea-hospital; he presides at the boards which are held for the general business of the hospital, and attends the examination of the discharged soldiers, who claim, either in respect of service or disability, to be placed upon the pension-list. By the act of 46th Geo. III. cap. 69, persons are enabled to enlist in the infantry for a limited period of seven years, to re-enlist for a second period of seven years, and for a third period of seven years. In the cavalry, for a first period of ten years, a second of seven years, and a third of seven years. They are to be entitled to their discharge at the expiration of any of these periods of service; and further to such pensions for their services as his Majesty, by any regulations to be framed in consequence of that act, might think proper to allow. By a warrant of his Majesty, of 7th of October 1806, a pension of 5d. per day was granted to privates who were discharged, and had served their second period, viz. fourteen years in the infantry, or seventeen years in the ca valry; and a pension of 1s. per day to those who were discharged, and had served their third period, viz. twenty-one years in the infantry, or twenty-four years in the cavalry. In addition to these rates of pension, all those who have served beyond the third period are to be allowed one halfpenny a day for every year of service after the expiration of the third period; and in estimating the number of years' service for the pension, two years' service in the East or West Indies reckon service, and to the relatives of general officers who have no other adequate provision; leaving it of course still open for a departure from this rule in any individual instance of particular service, or of extreme distress. The circumstances of each case are stated to the Secretary of War, by whom the same are particularly investigated; and then submitted for the royal consideration. COMPASSIONATE LIST. Proper Objects of the Bounty. Children of officers of the regular army who die on full pay. Officers of fencible regiments who die on full pay and out of Great Britain. Officers of the invalids. Medical officers. special permission to that effect. The sons (except in cases of mental or bodily infirmities which incapacitate them from obtaining a livelihood) are struck off the list on their attaining the age of 18 years, or on receiving commissions in the army or navy, or other appointments which may be sup posed to afford a provision; and generally, all persons on the list are discontinued, on its being known at the War Office, that they are provided for in a way to render this assistance unnecessary. Persons ceasing to apply for payment for four years are also considered as giving up their claim to the allowance, and their names are struck off the list. SUPERANNUATION ALLOWANCES. Upon the allowances, compen Staff officers, including com- sations, and emoluments, in the missaries. Widows and children of adjutants of local militia, who had previously served as officers in the line. Widows of officers not strictly entitled to the regular widows pension have been placed on this list in cases of particular distress, and in some special cases at rates equivalent to such pension. These allowances are in no case considered as being granted for life, but only so long as the persons enjoying them shall remain unprovided for: the daughters of officers, therefore, cease to receive them upon their marriage, unless they can show in a satisfactory manner that they are still in circumstances to require the assistance of the bounty, when they are sometimes allowed to retain it by nature of superannuations, a considerable increase is to be observed. The amount for 1816 was 17,9641 ; it is for this year 25,5661.; which is accounted for by the various reductions which have been made in some of the departments, giv.ng claims for compensations or retired allowances to several of those who have been hitherto employed in effective service; but this head of charge should always be watched with peculiar attention, and the injunction contained in the letter from the treasury of 1816, which prescribes that no allowance should be made within any department whatever to its own officers, without the special sanction of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, should in no case whatever be departed from. EXCHEQUER FEES. On the charge of 35,000l. fur Exchequer fees, your committee observe, with much satisfaction, that in consequence of the late generous and patriotic conduct of the distinguished nobleman who holds the only tellership which continued upon the old establishment, the whole produce of these fees, with some inconsiderable exceptions, is now applicable to national purposes, in conformity to the act for regulating the Exchequer, 23d of the King, c. 83, without affording an increase of emolument to any individual whatever. March 29, 1817. service; and as we think this a favourable occasion for endeavouring to remedy the inconvenience which arises from these irregularities, and to reduce, as far as may be practicable, the several alterations which have been made into one regular system, we most humbly beg leave to submit to your Royal Highness's gracious consideration, the following observations and propositions, on the rates, classification, and scheines of arming and manning His Majesty's ships; and on the pay, ratings, and numbers of the officers and warrant and petty and noncommissioned officers of His Majesty's navy and royal marines, PROPOSALS AND REGULATIONS RE- and the establishment of the com LATIVE TO THE ROYAL NAVY, Mate by the Board of Admiralty, and sanctioned by Order in Counc. commencing on the 1st of January, 1817. It was to be expected, that, in the natural lapse of time, and still more, in the course of a war, unexampled in duration and extent, several variations from the old establishment and regulations of the Royal Navy should have taken place; and however desirable, in the view either of economy or convenietice, uniformity may be, it was impossible, during the pressure of war, either to resist the innovations which temporary cireamstances rendered necessary, or to remould and reform the whole system of the navy, on every occasion on which some alteration was introduced. We therefore find that there have grown up several inconsistencies, irregularities, and departures from the establishments, in particular articles of the naval VOL. LIX. panies of Royal Marine Artillery. 1. The postships of the Royal Navy are divided into six rates; besides which, there are the various classes of sloops, fire-ships, bombs, gun-vessels, yachts, schooners, and cutters. The division of the Royal Navy into six rates took place in the reign of King Charles I. and at that period, and for several years afterwards these rates included the whole navy. In the reign of King Charles II. the sloops, fire-ships, and yachts, became distinguished from the sixth rates. At the Revolution, the rates comprised nearly the same classes of ships which they now do, except that the sixth rate still included vessels of a less number of guns than twenty. In the year 1719, a general establishment for building was adopted, which however was not long adhered to. In 1733, a scheme of manning Z and reckon as three years in any other part of the world. And subsequently, all soldiers present at the battle of Waterloo have been allowed, by direction of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, 31st July, 1815, to add two years to their term of service, in estimating the amount of pension which they claim. There is also a regulation, by which soldiers discharged during their second or third period of service, are to be allowed, upon registering their names in a book to be kept at Chelsea, to reckon every two years which may elapse after such discharge as equivalent to one of service; and to receive the pension belonging to the second or third period of service at the expiration of the number of years which are requisite to complete such periods of service respectively; such discharged soldiers being liable to be called upon to attend musters, and in time of war to be enrolled, if found fit for service in the veteran battalions. Each year from the period of the first discharge till that of being called again into service is termed a year of absence. This regulation appears to have been so little understood by the soldiers, that up to the 9th of December last only 277 men had tendered their names, with the view of obtaining pensions under that regulation; and none had proposed to take advantage of it until the regulation was communicated to commanding officers, who were directed to promulgate it in their respective regiments. The only other important alteration which was introduced by the new system of 1506, in re spect of pension, was a considerable increase given by the same regulations in consequence of disability or infirmity contracted in service; as to which the Commissioners of Chelsea-hospital, in fixing the amount of pensions, exercise their discretion, within certain prescribed limits, according to the nature of the case. But as to the pension for service, no discretion is vested in them; it having been the intention of the act, and the regulations founded upon it, to confer upon the soldier a legal claim to a pension according to a fixed rate, and of which he cannot be deprived, except by the sentence of a general court martial. The amount of the out-pension at Chelsea-hospital in 1806, six months previous to the new regulations being adopted, was, upon 21,177 men, 179,902l. 8s. 4d. per annum: six months subsequent to the regulations, on 20.805 men, the amount was 347,662l. 10s. In 1793, previous to the war, the Chelsea out-pension was, upon 20,594 men, 157,759l. 15s. and the annual amount of it at Michaelmas 1816 was, upon 51,591 men,* 884,639l. 10s. 8d. The pension at Kilmainham in 1793 was, upon 2,550 men, 16,160l.'; it was at Michaelmas 1816, upon 10,031 men, 159,870. making, with 884,6591. 10s. 8d. the amount of the Chelsea pension, 1,044,5291. * Upon the disbandment after the seven years war, in 1763, the number of Chelsea pensioners was 14,700, and the amount of their pensions 112,800l. per annum. After the American war, the numbers were 20,700, and the amount of pension about 100,000/ 1,044,5291. 10s. 8d, or an increase in both establishments, occasioned by the war, of 870,7101. per annum. But this is not the whole of the increase occasioned by the arrangement of 1806; because, by the provisions of that arrangement, a much larger proportion of discharged soldiers are added to the pension list than were formerly admitted. The average rate of pension, previous to the regulations of 1806, was little more than 5d. per man per day whereas, under those regulations, it is nearly one shilling. Great as the charge has been which the measure of 1806 has thrown upon the country, your committee are decidedly of opinion, that no step should be taken to reduce the rate of pension as then fixed with respect to those who are at present serving or receiving such pensions, but that they should all be continued under certain regulations. ROYAL MILITARY ASYLUM. Of the Royal Military Asylum, your committee need say no more, than to express their general approbation of the economical manner in which it is conducted, annexing the substance of the regulations for its government, and a return of casualities since it was established in 1803. The object of the institution is to provide for the "maintenance and education of a certain number of orphan and other children of non-commissioned officers and privates" of the army. In the selection of the children for admission, preference is given, 1st. To orphans. 2d. To those whose fathers have been killed, or have died on foreign service. 3. To those who have lost their mothers, and whose fathers are absent on duty abroad. 4th. To those whose fathers are ordered on foreign service, or whose parents have other children to maintain. COMPASSIONATE LIST, BOUNTYWARRANTS, AND PENSIONS FOR WOUNDS. Allowances to officers wounded on service have been put upon as new footing since the battle of Waterloo, in 1815, which entails considerable expense upon the public, without keeping that exact gradation which was apparently the object of it. The inequality of the rule will be evident by putting the case of any young officer, so far disabled in action as to be absolutely incapable of following his profession, who must remain with the pension attached to the rank which he held when he received his wounds, while another of the same age and rank, less injured by wounds, and therefore not incapable of continuing in the service, receives an augmentation of his pension according to the successive steps which he may obtain in rank. There seems to be neither reason nor equality in such a regulation as this; which requires to be reconsidered, and perhaps to be replaced upon its former footing. The grants of bounty warrants are to be understood as generally confined to the relatives of officers killed in action, or dying from the immediate effects of fatigue on service, |