Noteworthy Pensions
The finance accounts for 1862 give, as usual, a rather serious list of Pensions charged upon the Consolidated Fund, and therefore not otherwise stated than in these accounts.
“Among the larger entries are five ex-Chancellors of England receiving 5000l. a year each, two ex-Chancellors of Ireland with 3692l., four retired English judges with 3500l., two Irish with 2400l., and five County Court judges dividing 4600l. between them. But these are pensions earned by personal service; perhaps not so much can be said of some others. The Earl of Ellenborough has a compensation annuity of 7700l. as chief clerk of the Court of Queen’s Bench; the Rev. T. Thurlow, 4028l. as clerk of the hanaper, in addition to 7352l. as patentee of bankrupts. Viscount Avonmore receives 4199l. as late registrar of the Irish Court of Chancery; the Earl of Roden 2698l. as late auditor-general of the Irish Exchequer. But these pensions will come to an end; even that cannot be said of some others. There is above 23,000l. a year paid in perpetual pensions, payable as long at least as there shall be an Earl Amherst or Nelson, a Lord Rodney, a Viscount Exmouth, an heir of William Penn, or of the Duke of Schomberg, and so forth. Of the limited number of first-class pensions of 2000l. a year to statesmen who have been in high office, and who claim the pensions, only two are now payable—viz., to Lord Glenelg and Mr. Disraeli; Sir G. Grey’s is suspended, he being again in office. Several pensions ceased in the course of the year; among them that to the family of George Canning, and that to the door-keeper of the Irish House of Lords; but the housekeeper still lives to receive her annual compensation for loss of emoluments by the Union.”