in cases of superannuation, except for officers who shall have served forty years without censure; or officers who shall have received a wound or hurt in the service, amounting to a total disability; or for widows of officers who shall have lost their lives in the service of the revenue: but by a subsequent-revision of that resolution, 26th July 1793, twenty-five years were substituted in stead of forty years, as being sufficient to answer the purposes of the said resolution.

courts, where service was not, or could not be performed.

With regard to the salary and emoluments of each separate department, the public ought unquestionably to be served as cheaply as is consistent with being served with integrity and ability: but it must be recollected, that what makes office desirable, in the higher departments, is not the salary alone, but the consequence and consideration attached to it, the power of obliging friends, These general unqualified expressions have and of creating dependants; and, in the been perhaps liable to misconstruction, as if lower degrees, the chance of gaining adthey were calculated to convey a sort of right vancement by industry and talent. The of superannuation after twenty-five years of principle of gradually increasing salaries after service; whereas it is to be presumed that it certain periods of service, and at fixed innever could have been the intention of the tervals, if they are not made too short, is House of Commons to countenance a new highly to be approved, as holding out a due claim on the part of the officers, but on the encouragement to diligence and fidelity. contrary to impose a restraint upon executive all cases of superannuation, duration of sergovernment, from granting any such allow-vice should be an essential requisite: and even then, regard should be had to the condition of each individual, as to his ability of continuing official labours, and to his situa tion in life from other causes.

ances even to superannuated officers, unless where they had served meritoriously the prescribed number of years, or had otherwise been incapacitated in the public service, as

described in the resolution."

The 18th section of the civil list act makes an exception in favour of persons who have served the Crown in foreign courts, and continues to his Majesty the power of granting at his pleasure such proportion of their former appointments as may seem expedient, after the expiration of their service.

The circumstances attending the present war make this list unusually large, at a period when so little of friendly intercourse subsists between this country and the continental powers: the charge amounts to £51,589; an additional list of recommendations from the secretary of state, for further allowances, amounts to £6,000. Your Committee conceive, that the true principles which ought to regulate this species of remuneration, can be no other than duration of service, and the importance of the mission, except in very special cases.

It is desirable unquestionably, both for the purposes of economy, and for the better execution of the duties of foreign ministers, that a selection should generally be made from among those already on the list; but it is not intended absolutely to recommend any invariable rule; those who have gone before may be unwilling to undertake, or ill qualifred to execute missions of particular delicacy ⚫nd importance; and eircumstances may arise where appointments of individuals to whom such business is entirely novel, ought not to be ascribed to motives of mere patronage or private emolument. Your Committee observe, with satisfaction, that according to the last return, all allowances have been withdrawn in cases of appointments to foreign

In

In many instances, where allowances have been granted as compensation for loss of office, who have obtained them have, at subsequent or on the plea of superannuation, the persons periods, been appointed to other officers: in both which cases, it is obvious, that the allowances ought to have ceased. The true principle applicable to all offices is, that public money should not be granted without reference to duty; and all exceptions whatever ought to be justified on the special circumstances attending such particular case. SINECURES,

And Offices executed wholly or chiefly by
Deputy.

Next in order to pensions, comes an ambiguous and middle class, partaking of the nature of pensions, in as much, as no service is performed, but still ranking under the head of offices, from the name of official business having been continued after the func tions are become extinct or obsolete. Ot these there still remain specimens in various departments, although the labours of parlia ment have been not fruitlessly employed in suppressing many of them, particularly by 38 Geo. III. c. 86. and 47 Geo. III. c. 12. relating to the Customs, by the former of which 196 places, annual value £42,655, were sup-, pressed in England, and by the latter 38 places of a similar description in Ireland; and also by an act of the present session for abolishing the office of surveyor 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 sine.

cures and such as are wholly or chiefly exe service than the daily wages it receives during cuted by deputy, your committee have thrown the pleasure of the Crown, your Committee together all which they consider as belonging are of opinion that such sinecures as the house to either of those classes in the annexed list, in its wisdom may think fit to retain, should submitting it as giving a general view of the always in future be applied to recompence several offices therein enumerated, although the faithful discharge of the duties of efficient they cannot answer but that some inaccura- office; or in the event of the house preferring cies may be discovered in it, being aware that to abolish generally all such offices, they consome of the offices do not distinctly range un-ceive that it will become proper to substitute der either description, while they very much partake of the nature of both.

The Committee of Finance, in the remarks upon this subject, with which their XXIId report concludes, observe," That sinecure offices of high rank in some 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 personal services, or to secure an honourable retreat to persons who are entitled to marks of public favour by the long and meritorious discharge of the duties of high office, or who have sacrificed lucrative professional situations on engaging in the public service, by vesting such office in the persons themselves, or in their immediate descendants."

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.

Offices executed by Deputy.

Offices executed wholly or chiefly by deputy, should be arranged with as much regard to economy as the public service will admit; and offices that have not duty aunexed in proportion to the salary should be reformed, and the salary suited to the responsibility and labour of the office.

The list of such offices is extracted from the returns in as complete a state as the examination of them can render it; but it may probably be still defective, from the same causes as have been mentioned under, the former Since the date of that Report, his Majesty head. In applying the principle of retrenchhas been empowered by 39 Geo. III. c. 10. ment to this class, your Committee desire to to make provision for life for those who have be understood, as recommending it with the sacrificed lucrative professional situations, so same exceptions with which they have accomfar as relates to chancellors and judges, on re- panied their recommendation in the case of tiring from office; which must be remarked, Sinecures. Some of the great offices in the in passing, as extending the power of grant- Exchequer, (which are indeed, as far as reing pensions, and as fairly to be set off against gards the principals, purely sinecures) being fome of the retrenchments proposed. In the probably among the fittest to be retained, peerages subsequently created, your Com- for the reward of personal services, or mittee cannot discover that any such appli- to secure an honourable retreat to persons who cation of the sinecures, as was suggested in are entitled to marks of public favour, by the that respect has taken place, but that the an- long and meritorious discharge of the duties nexing of pensions by authority of parliament of high office, or who have sacrificed lucrahas been not unfrequent. tive professional situations on engaging in the public service." Finance Rep. XXII. 19.

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REVERSIONS.

The view which your Committee take of this subject corresponds in principle, and dif- It should also be considered, that some of fers only in degree from that of the former the lucrative offices in our courts of justice, committee; but it is their anxious wish to which are in the disposal of the chiefs of the guard against suffering the subject to escape courts, constitute a considerable part of the notice, without being acted upon, while the valuable appendages to those situations, which information is fully brought under observa- it concerns the essential interest of the state, tion. If the opinion should prevail, that a still more than its dignity, to have filled by legislative measure ought to be no longer de-persons who are the most eminent, and best ferred with regard to offices of this description, qualified in their professions. your committee submit that, leaving untouched all places of honour and distinction con- The last general head is that of places grantnected with the personal service of his Ma- ed in reversion; a power which appears to jesty and of his Royal Family, it may be ex- have been exercised by the Crown with repedient considerably to reduce the emolu-gard to particular departments, for a very long ments of some, and to abolish others. At the same time, regarding it as a fundamental part of the constitution of this country, and of the reason of state in every country, that there must be means of rewarding public survice, and that those means will be incomplete, and indeed wholly insufficient for that purpose, if there should be no further reward for that

period, without any fixed rule or principle which is discoverable, as guiding its discretion in the original selection: the right therefore rests upon Usage, and the extent is limited by no written law.

But although no reason can be assigned for a practice which perhaps must be referred only to accident or temporary accom

modation, it becomes obvious that it can never have obtained with regard to efficient offices, without considerable risk of ultimately producing the effect of converting them, so far as respects the principals, into sinecures, or into offices to be executed wholly by deputy.

The right of the crown over its own demesne lands was formerly as complete as its power of conferring offices; and yet the use which was made of that part of its prerogative occa sioned parliament frequently to interpose; and particularly after the crown had been greatly impoverished, an act passed whereby all future grants, for any longer term than 31 years, were declared void.

The chief objections to this method of conveying contingent interests are, that, in the first instance of every such grant, a dimi- The misfortune is, as Mr. Justice Blacknution must take place in the permanent pre-stone remarks, that the act was made too late, rogative, equal to the difference in value be- after every valuable possession of the crown tween expectancy and possession; that the ap: had been granted away for ever, or else upon pointment of fit and sufficient persons to hold very long leases. offices is less likely to be regarded, when it is to take effect at a distant and uncertain period, than when a certain notoriety attaches on the manner in which each vacancy is filled, and it can hardly be disputed that incapacity from age, sex, or natural disability, may be disregarded, in the former case, which could not be tolerated in the latter. It may be further urged, that anticipations of this sort tend to perpetuate inefficient places, and to render any alterations and regulations less effectual and more distant, which the wisdom of parliament may think fit to adopt with regard to thein.

On the other hand, reversionary grants may be defended as a cheap and economical mode of conferring favours, of paying services by expectation rather than by actual of fice or pension; and of enabling the crown to draw distinguished talents and eminent characters into the public employ, who, without some prospect of permanent provision for their families, might be unwilling to give up their time and labour, and, above all, their professional emoluments, on the hazard of the short and uncertain duration of two things so precarious in their nature as office and life.

It must be admitted, that the prerogative will be abridged during the suspension of the power of making any such grants, so far as relates to the value of the reversionary right in these particular offices; and no farther.

It is also contended, that grants of this sort have neither been carried to excess, nor become chargeable with actual abuse.

With the view of fairly stating this part of the case, your Committee proceed to lay before the house the extent and amount of all subsisting reversions, some of which will be found to come distinctly within the class of those offices which they recommend to be regulated or suppressed; and with regard to the remainder, they see no cause to depart from their opinion, which was reported to, and adopted unanimously by, the house, March 24, 807, thinking it safer to invigorate and restore to an entire state this branch of the prerogative, than to allow that it should continue encumbered by any such anticipations.

It must not be passed altogether without notice, that reversionary grants have, in some instances, been applied to pensions ou the civil list; and it is easy to see to what an extent such a practice might be carried, and how entirely it might exhaust the future means of bestowing the royal bounty, even on the most deserving objects.

On the more general question relating to with, and affected by the proposed arrangethe prerogative of the crown, as connected ments, your Committee proceed to submit their sentiments to the judgment of the house, trusting that the same disposition, which has so often been manifested by parliament, will never be wanting to correct the growth of such abuses as the lapse of time or alterations in the mode of transacting business may have imperceptibly introduced into any of the departments of executive government.

The civil list act in 1782, the acts for abolishing certain offices in 1798 and 1807, that already referred to of the present session, and many others, afford abundant examples of temperate and judicious retrenchment; nor could the beneficial objects, proposed by the institution of the committee of finance in 1797, have been attained, nor can those for which your present Committee was appointed, be expected without interfering, in some de gree, with the patronage and influence of the

crown.

The subjects which are detailed in this Report have been specifically brought under consideration by the direction of the house; in obedience to which your Committee now present them, in the full persuasion that the reforms which they venture to recommend may be made without detriment to the public service, and with advantage to the public re

venue.

No offices of any description were originally created for the mere purpose of giving lu crative appointments into the disposal of the crown; the fact is, that duties were formerly attached to many places, which a different manner of transacting business, or accidental alterations, have long rendered sinecure; and