PERPETUAL PENSIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 15

PERPETUAL PENSIONS.

AN ENGLISH ANACHRONISM. SOME OF ______ COMMUTED. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, March 20. In 1753 the British Parliament granted a pension of £2000 a year to Admiral Sir George Rodney, as a reward for his services to his- country in inflicting an "overwhelming: defeat on a French fleet in April, 1782, and another notable victory over a Spanish fleet off the West Indies. Ten years later this pension was made perpetual, "and it has been paid ever since to the successive holders of the title of Lord Rodney. It has been for a continuous period of 141 years, although the title has not passed directly through father and son from the famous admiral. The present Lord Rodney, who is the eighth baron, is 33 years of age, and succeeded hiß father fifteen years ago. He is a grandson of the nephew of the fifth Lord Rodney, who was a brother of the third baron, the latter being the grandson of the admiral. Not one of the seven Lord Rodneys who succeeded the admiral served in the navy. The fifth baron was a clergyman, and the otheds served in the army. The present Lord Rodney, who formerly held a commission in the Royal Scots Greys, is a farmer in Canada. He owns a farm of over a thousand acres at Fort Sasketchewan, Alberta. He has been drawing only lialf the pension of £2000, the other half being paid to his mother, the Dowager Lady Rodney, who is a sister of Lord Winbourne..

• It was announced a few days ago that this perpetual pension has been commuted by a cash payment of £42,000, being at the somewhat generous rate of twenty-one years' purchase. Altogether the State has paid £324,000 to Admiral Sir George Rodney and his descendants. There are now only two perpetual pensions paid by the British Treasury. The j chief one is £5000 a year, drawn by Earl | Nelson, who is a grandson of the nephew j of the brother of the great Lord Nelson of Trafalgar. The other is a pension of £360 a year, paid to Mr. Gosling, a member of whose family purchased in 1792 this uncommuted portion of a pension of £2880 a year granted to the Duke of Scho—iberg and his heirs, for the duke's services as one of the German niercenaries of William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The Nelson Title. There have been repeated protests in Parliament and in the Radical newspapers at the continuance of the pension of £5000 a year paid to the successive holders of the title of Earl Nelson. The pension granted to the victor of Trafalgar was only £2000 a year, but after his death an act was passed through 'Parliament entitling his | successors to £5000 a year in perpetuity. This generosity on the part of Parliament was not in accordance with Nelson's wishes. He had no legitimate child, and he had quarrelled ©with his wife. He was passionately attached to the famous Lady Hamilton, who lived with him at his country home, Merton Abbey, and by whom he had a daughter, Horatia. On the night before- the battle of Trafalgar he wrote a codicil to his will, in which he set forth the services Lady Hamilton had rendered to the State through her intimate friendship with the Queen of Naples, and he asked that his country" should provide for her and her daughter Horatia. The Government of the day not only suppressed this codicil, on the ground that it would he politically injurious to the Queen of Naple3, but they completely ignored it. Nothing was done for Lady Hamilton and her daughter, but a sum Of £10,000 was granted in trust to each of Nelson's two 'sisters, arid £10,000 to his brother, Rev. William Nelson. Subsequently the brother was created an earl, arid a further grant of £90,000 was passed by Parliament to be spent in the purchase of a country estate, where he could, maintain the . dignity of the Nelson ■ family. A perpetual pension of £5000 a year was also granted. The first earl died without issue, and the title arid pension passed to his nephew, Thomas Bolton, the son of one of AdminNelson's snsters. The present Earli Nelson is the grandson of this Thomas Nelson. For 118 years the British Treasury has been paying £5000 a year to successive Earl Nelsons who are only remotely related to the. hero of Trafalgar. No More Now. In these days the British Parliament would not grant a perpetual pension to anyone, no matter what the nature of the services rendered to the. country. At the conclusion of the .war with Germany no. pensions of any kind were' granted, but substantial cash sums were granted to naval arid military officers, who had occupied posts of great responsibility. These grants totalled £595,000, the chief recipients being:— ... Admiral Earl Beatty £100,000 Field-Marshal Earl Halg 100,000 -Admiral Viscount Jellicoe .... 80.000 Field-Marshal Viscount French. 60,000 Field-Marshal Lord Allenby ... 50,000 Field-Marshal Lord Plumer.... 60.000 General Lord Rawlinson 30,000 General Lord Home 30,000

After the Boer War Field-Marshal liord Roberts received a - grant of fIOO-,000, and Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener £50,000. The latter also received £30,000 after the Sudan campaign. The Duke of Wellington was granted a pension of £2000 a year for two generations, after his first Peninsular campaign, and on the conclusion of the Peninsular War this pension was doubled. He was given f 100,000 for the purchase of an estate, and he was given his peerage. After Waterloo the Government bought the country estate of'Strathfieldsaye for him, at a cost of £263,000, and he received £60,000 as hi" share of prize money.