by private employers, are in the nature of deferred pay, and that
holders of posts which carry pensions must therefore be rewarded
by a remuneration less than the full market rate, by the difference
of the value of the pension. This view is hardly correct, for
the object of attaching a pension to a post is not merely to reward
past services, but to attract continuity of service by the holder
as well as to enable the employer to dispense with the services
of the employé without hardship to him should age or infirmity
render him less efficient. Dissatisfaction had been expressed
from time to time by members of the English civil service with
the system in force, viz. that the benefit of long service was
confined only to survivors, and that no advantage accrued to
the representatives of those who died in service. This was altered
by an act of 1909. See Royal Commission on Superannuation
in the Civil Service: Report and Evidence (1903). For the general
pensions given by the state to the aged poor see Old Age Pensions.
Civil Service.—In the English civil service the grant of pensions on superannuation is regulated by statute. the four principal acts being the Superannuation Acts of 1834, 1859, 1887 and 1909. To qualify for a pension it is necessary (1) that a civil servant should have been admitted to the service with a certificate from the civil service commissioners, or hold an office specially exempted from this requirement; (2) that he should give his whole time to the public service; (3) that he should draw the emoluments of his office from public funds exclusively, (4) that he should have served for not less than ten years; (5) that if under the age of 60 years he should be certified to be permanently incapable, from infirmity of body or mind, of discharging his official duties, or have been removed from his office on the ground of his inability to discharge his duties efficiently. On retirement on these conditions a civil servant is qualified for a pension calculated at one-eightieth of his retiring salary (or, in certain cases, of his average salary for the last three years) for each complete year of service, subject to a maximum of forty-eightieths. Civil servants retiring on the ground of ill health after less than ten years’ service qualify for a gratuity of one month’s pay for each year of service. Previous to the Superannuation Act of 1909 the pension was calculated at the rate of one-sixtieth of the retiring salary for each completed year of service, subject to a maximum of forty-sixtieths. This is still the rate for those who entered the service previous to the passing of the act (September 20, 1909) unless they availed themselves of the permission in the act to take advantage of its provisions, which were more than a compensation for the lowering of the rate. The act gave power to the treasury to grant by way of additional allowance to a civil servant who retired after not less than two years’ service, in addition to his superannuation, a lump sum equal to one-thirtieth of his annual salary and emoluments multiplied by the number of completed years he has served, so however that such lump sum does not exceed one and a half times his salary, while if he retires after attaining the age of sixty-five years, there must be deducted from that lump sum one-twentieth for every completed year that he has served after attaining that age. In the case of those who entered the service before the passing of the act, and take advantage of the act, this additional allowance is increased by one-half per cent for each completed year served at the passing of the act. The act also provided that where a civil servant died after serving five years or upwards, a gratuity equal to his annual salary and emoluments might be granted to his legal personal representatives. Where the civil servant attains the age of sixty-five this gratuity is reduced by one-twentieth for each completed year beyond that age. On the other hand, where the civil servant has retired from the service and all the sums received by him at his death on account of superannuation are less than his annual salary his representatives may receive the difference as a gratuity. Provision was also made in the act for granting compensation on abolition of office, provided that such compensation does not exceed what the recipient might be granted or be entitled to if he retired on the ground of ill health Pensions are also sometimes awarded in excess of the scale as a reward for special services, as compensation for injury in certain cases, or to holders of professional offices, appointed at an age exceeding that at which public service ordinarily begins. In the estimates for civil services for the year 1909–1910, there was provided for non-effective and charitable services (as pensions and gratuities in lieu of pensions are known as) the sum of £9,625,920; this, however, included an item of £8,750,000 for old-age pensions, leaving a sum of £875,920. There was charged on the Consolidated Fund, on account of pensions and compensation allowance for civil, judicial and other services, a sum of £142,767, while the following sums for civil pensions were provided in the estimates of the several departments’ War Office, £158,000, Admiralty, £369,800; Customs and Excise, £412,358; Inland Revenue, £116,096, Post Office, £649,000; Royal Irish Constabulary, £416,500; Dublin Metropolitan Police, £33,646, making a total of £2,298,167, or a gross total for civil pensions of £3,174,087. A return is published annually containing a complete list of the various pensions.
Perpetual or Hereditary Pensions.—Perpetual pensions were freely granted either to favourites or as a reward for political services from the time of Charles II. onwards. Such pensions were very frequently attached as “salaries” to places which were sinecures, or, just as often, posts which were really necessary were grossly overpaid, while the duties were discharged by a deputy at a small salary. Prior to the reign of Queen Anne such pensions and annuities were charged on the hereditary revenues of the sovereign and were held to be binding on the sovereign’s successors (The Bankers’ Case, 1691; State Trials, xiv. 3-43). By 1 Anne c. 7 it was provided that no portion of the hereditary revenues could be charged with pensions beyond the life of the reigning sovereign. This act did not affect the hereditary revenues of Ireland and Scotland, and many persons were quartered, as they had been before the act, on the Irish and Scottish revenues who could not be provided for in England—for example, the duke of St Albans, illegitimate son of Charles II, had an Irish pension of £800 a year; Catherine Sedley, mistress of James II, had an Irish pension of £5000 a year; the duchess of Kendall and the countess of Darlington, mistresses of George I., had pensions of the united annual value of £5000, while Madame de Walmoden, a mistress of George II., had a pension of £3000 (Lecky, History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century). These pensions had been granted in every conceivable form—during the pleasure of the Crown, for the life of the sovereign, for terms of years, for the life of the grantee, and for several lives in being or in reversion (Erskine May, Constitutional History of England). On the accession of George III. and his surrender of the hereditary revenues in return for a fixed civil list, this civil list became the source from which the pensions were paid. The subsequent history of the civil list will be found under that heading (Civil List), but it may be here mentioned that the three pension lists of England, Scotland and Ireland were consolidated in 1830. and the civil pension list reduced to £75,000, the remainder of the pensions being charged on the Consolidated Fund.
In 1887, Charles Bradlaugh, M.P., protested strongly against the payment of perpetual pensions, and as a result a Committee of the House of Commons inquired into the subject (Report of Select Committee on Perpetual Pensions, 248, 1887). An appendix to the Report contains a detailed list of all hereditary pensions, payments and allowances in existence in 1881, with an explanation of the origin in each case and the ground of the original grant; there are also shown the pensions, &c., redeemed from time to time, and the terms upon which the redemption took place. The nature of some of these pensions may be gathered from the following examples: To the duke of Marlborough and his heirs in perpetuity, £4000 per annum; this annuity was redeemed in August 1884 for a sum of £107,780, by the creation of a ten years’ annuity of £12,796, 17s. per annum. By an act of 1806 an annuity of £5000 per annum was conferred on Lord Nelson and his heirs in perpetuity. In 1793 an annuity of £2000 was conferred on Lord Rodney and his heirs. All these pensions were for services rendered, and although justifiable from that point of view, a preferable policy is pursued in the 20th century, by parliament voting a lump sum, as in the cases of Lord Kitchener in 1902 (£50,000) and Lord Cromer in 1907 £50,000). Charles II. granted the office of receiver-general and controller of the seals of the court of king’s bench and common pleas to the duke of Grafton. This was purchased in 1825 from the duke for an annuity of £843, which in turn was commuted in 1883 for a sum of £22,714, 12s. 8d. To the same duke was given the office of the pipe or remembrancer of first-fruits and tenths of the clergy. This office was sold by the duke in 1765, and after passing through various hands was purchased by one R. Harrison in 1798. In 1835 on the loss of certain fees the holder was compensated by a perpetual pension of £62, 9s. 8d. The duke of Grafton also possessed an annuity of £6870 in respect of the commutation of the dues of butlerage and prisage. To the duke of St Albans was granted in 1684 the office of master of the hawks. The sums granted by the original patent were: master of hawks, salary, £391, 1s. 5d.; four falconers at £50 per annum each, £200; provision of hawks, £600; provision of pigeons, hens and other meats, £182, 10s.; total, £1373, 11s. 5d. This amount was reduced by office fees and other deductions to £965, at which amount it stood, until commuted in 1891 for £18,335. To the duke of Richmond and his heirs was granted in 1676 a duty of one shilling per ton on all coals exported from the Tyne for consumption in England. This was redeemed in 1799 for an annuity of £19,000 (chargeable on the consolidated fund), which was afterwards redeemed for £633,333. The duke of Hamilton, as hereditary keeper of the palace, Holyrood House, received a perpetual pension of £45, 10s., and the descendants of the heritable usher of Scotland drew a salary of £242, 10s. The conclusions of the committee were that pensions, allowances and payments should not in future be granted in perpetuity, on the ground that such grants should be limited to the persons actually rendering the services, and that such rewards should be defrayed by the generation benefited; that offices with salaries and without duties, or with merely nominal duties, ought
