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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

mindanna.C.O. 8855

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

Relaxation for Army In 1820.

Recom-

nundation

of Select Committee of 1828

to revive the

prohibition.

Prohibition

revived in 1828 for Army.

And for Navy.

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the said half pay; that is to say, that if the amount of the salary and emoluments of the situation shall exceed three times, but fall short of four times, the amount of the hall' pay, then the officer holding such situation shall suffer such an abatement from his half pay as that the remainder, when added to the salary and emoluments of the public situation, shall make up the exact amount of four times his half pay, but in no case to exceed that amount."

In the following year a like relaxation was granted for the Army by section 20 of 1 Geo. IV. c. 111., in these terms:-

“That "o person shall have or receive any part of the same for any time during which he shall hold any other military place or employment of profit under His Majesty, or under any other Government, except on the staff, or in the garrisons, or in say of Ilis Majesty's colonies; and that in such excepted cases, or in the case of his holding an appointment of profit under another Government, the other shall not receive any part of his half pay, unless with His Majesty's approbation to la signified by the Secretary-at-War to the Paymaster-General of the Land Forces: that no person shall have or receive any part of the same for any time during, which he shall hold any civil place or employment of profit under Ilis Majesty, the net annual emoluments of which shall exeved three times the amount of the highest rate of half pay attached to the rank in virtue of which he receives half pay, except as herein-after provided, unless with His Majesty's appro- bation signition as aforesaid,

But if the net annual emoluments of such civil place

•

•

or employment shall exceed three times the amount of half pay aforesaid, and shall fall short of four times that amount, then it shall be lawful for the Paymaster-General of the Land Forces, with His Majesty's approbation, signified by the Secretary-at-War es aforesaid, to issue, on or after the 24th day of December 1820, so much of the half pay claimed by any such oflicer as shall, together with the net annual emoluments of the civil place or employment, be equal to four times the amount of such half pay as aforesaid."

It will be observed that in the case of this relaxation the Navy set the example and the Army followed it. In all subsequent steps the Army seems to have taken the lead and the Navy followed suit.

In June 1828 the Select Committee on Public Income and Expenditure issued their Third Report, dealing with non-effective charges, and the following extracts show their opinion on the present question :-

"The half pay of the Army and Navy is a portion of the pay attached to every commission received by the holder of it when he is not actually employed in the discharge of the duties of that commission,

"It cannot properly he considered as a remuneration for past services, nor as a compensation for the loss of employment, although it has sometimes been described as such for the service of a single day gives a claim to it as complete as the service of 20 years, and the officer receiving it is retained under the obligation of returning, whenever called upon, to those duties which are only suspended, and during the suspension of which he cannot receive the full pay assigned for the performance of them. • •

•

• •

"Previously to the year 1820 there were some very salutary restrictions on the receipt of half pay.

The most important of these consisted in the condition that no hall pay should be payable to any officer holding any other office or employment, civil or military, under the Crown (except in certain staff situatious) or in the service of a foreign State.

"The principle of this limitation is so obvious and so just, it is so strictly consistent with the nature of the pay, and so inseparable from the policy of the public purpose for which it is granted, that it would be difficult to account for the determination of Parliament to dispense with this limitation.

4 •

"The Cominitter

are decidedly of opinion that the abandonment of the restrictions which they have described was an ill-advised measure, and that it was not more at variance with a due regard to economy than opposed to the very principle upon which military half pay was established. •

*

They are far from being disposed to discourage the appointment of individuals who have served their country in the military and naval professions to civil employments; but when those individuals adopt the civil service, the Committee conceive they should receive the came remineration for it as civil servants would receive, and no more.

* Upon a careful consideration, therefore, of all the principles and circumstances affecting this part of the case, the Committee recommend in the strongest manner that the payment of all half pay be forthwith replaced upon the footing on which it stood previously to the year 1820, with respect to all military or naval officers hereafter to be appointed to any civil employment or office under the Crown or under any foreign Government."

This recommendation produced immediate effect. On 8th July 1828 the Act 9 Geo. IV. c. 95. sect. 15, whilst continuing the relaxation in favour of Army officers previously appointed to civil situations, subject to the special approbation of His Majesty in each case, enacted that-

*No person who shall, after the passing of this Act, be appointed to any civil place or employ- ment of profit under His Majesty, or in the colonies or possessions of His Majesty beyond the sens, or under any other Government, shall have or receive any part of the same for any time during which he shall hold any such civil place or employment of profit uuder His Majesty, beyond the sens, or under any other Government."

And an Order in Council of 27th October 1828 applied the same regu- lation to officers of the Navy and Marines, from 1st January 1829, except that it reserved a dispensing power to the Crown, the words being-

"And that no person who may after that time receive any civil appointment whatsoever shall be allowed to retain his haf pay unless by a special dispensation granted by Your Majesty,"

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The Act 10 Geo. IV. c. 60. sect. 19 re-enacted the prohibition of the Appropriation Act of the previous year, as from the 28th July 1828.

It was soon found, however, that the recommendation of the Committee Treasury

of 1828 was unwisely stringent and sweeping in its terms; and in 1830 the intervention Act Will. IV. c. 63. sect. 22 gavo power to the Treasury (whose inter- invoked in vention had not been previously invoked) to modify the operation of the 1830. prohibition contained in the Acts of the two preceding years as follows:-

It shall be lawful for the Commissioners of the Treasury, or any three or more of them, for the time being, to authorize the receiving half pay by military officers with civil employments in any cases in which the said Commissioners shall be of opinion that the employment of such military officers in the Colonies or elsewhere in civil situations of responsibility, with small emolument, will be conducive to economy, and thereby beneficial to the public service."

In the following year, 1831, the 21st section of 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 54. Household introduced the words "except in His Majesty's Household" prohibition to receive Army half pay, with the emoluments of a civil situation exempted in

as modifying the appointments to which the officer had been appointed subsequently to 28th July 1828.

This exemption in favour of appointees to offices in His Majesty's House- hold was extended to officers of the Navy and Marines by Order in Council

of 21st November 1831.

1831.

In 1832 the Act 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 126. sect. 23 very considerably extended Relaxation the power of the Treasury. Parliament evidently considered that, by com- restored in mitting the exercise of the dispensing power of the Crown to a Department

1832, for that was independent of the War Office, the objection to the original relaxa- subject to

Army, tion of 1820 would be removed. The Treasury, therefore, instead of the Treasury Secretary-at-War, was to be in future the Official Communicator by Warrant sanction. of His Majesty's Approbation. The following are the words:

"From and after the 1st day of January 1833, it shall be Inwful for the Paymaster-General to issue the half pay, or any portiou thereof, to any officer appointed to civil office or employment under His Majesty, or under any other Government, since the 28th day of July 1828, if His Majesty's pleasure to that effect be signified by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, or any three of them, through the Secretary-at-War, but such permission to be granted under the restrictions before mentioned."

That is to say, the Treasury might apply the limits of "three times" and "four times" to appointments after 28th July 1828 in the same manner as the Secretary-at-War might apply them to previous appointments. The Act also prescribed that a return of the officers allowed by the Treasury to receive half pay with civil emoluments, under section 23, was to be presented annually to Parliament.

In section 24 the Act repeated the permission to the Treasury to exempt in cases of civil appointments of responsibility and small emolument.

The Order in Council of 4th February 1833 applied the foregoing Army Likewise rules to officers of the Navy and Marines, with the exception that, wherever restored for the Act of Parliament specified that the dispensing power given to the Crown Navy in was to be signified either by the Secretary-at-War or by the Treasury 1833. through the Secretary-at-War, the same was, as regards Naval or Marine officers, to be signified by or through the Board of Admiralty, subject to the restrictions of "three times" and "four times."

The precaution, therefore, which Parliament held to justify a relaxation in the case of the Army was also taken in regard to the Navy. The Treasury, however, used to consent as a matter of course. Before five years had elapsed, therefore, the recommendation of the Select Committee of 1828 had become a dead letter.

In 1834 the Act 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 24. sect. 22 enacted that--

Civil pro- hibition of 1834 not extended to

"In case any person enjoying any superannuation allowance, in consequence of retiring from office on account of age, infirmity, or any other cause, or enjoying any compensation for past services, upon the abolition or reduction of office, shall be appointed to fill any office in any public department, every such allowance or compensation shall cease to be paid for any period Army or subsequent to such appointment, if the annual amount of the profits of the office to which he

Navy. shall be appointed shall be equal to those of the office formerly held by him, and in case they shall not be equal to those of his former office, then no inore of such superannuation, allowance or compensation shall be paid to him than what, with the salary of his new appointment, shall be equal to that of his former office."

Under section 21, however, the above regulation is prevented from applying to naval and military non-effective pay of any kind.

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