§ A Petition of several of the Clerks in the Office of the Accountant General of the High Court of Chancery, was presented and read; reciting an act of 46 Geo. 3. to 293 provide additional Salaries to the present clerks in the office of the Accountant General of the high Court of Chancery, and to provide additional clerks for the said office with salaries, and to make other payments in respect of the said office; and setting forth, "That certain provision was thereby made for the petitioners and their successors, clerks in the said office, by way of increase to their salaries during so long as they should continue as clerks in the said office; and that since the passing of the said act the business of the said accountant general's office is greatly increased and is annually increasing; and that owing to the great increase in the necessary expences of living, the incomes provided by the said act for the petitioners are greatly reduced in value, and the petitioners have not the means of making any provision for their families thereout; and they respectfully submit, that after a long series of years spent in the service of the suitors of the Court of Chancery, and considering the care, diligence, and anxious application which the duties of the said office impose upon the petitioners, it is not unreasonable for them to expect that such provision ought to be made for them; and that the legislature hath in various instances, in the cases of persons employed in the public service, made provision for them after a certain stated length of service, to enable them to retire from their offices with a decent provision in their old age: and that it is highly expedient, and for the benefit of the suitors of the Court of Chancery, that the clerks in the accountant general's office should be active and efficient for all the purposes of a business of so complicated a nature; and (generally speaking) a person in advanced years and declining health is not equal to the constant attention and exertion requisite to do the business of that office; and praying, that leave may be given to bring in a bill, authorizing the high Court of Chancery, out of the monies standing in the accountant general's name, which have been placed out for the benefit and better security of the suitors of the said Court, and of the interest arising therefrom, commonly called the Suitors' Fund, to Order that there shall be paid to the petitioners or any future clerks in the said accountant general's office, who shall petition the said court for leave to retire from the said office after thirty years service therein, an annual payment not ex- 294 ceding the salary to which such clerks shall be entitled at the time of such application; and that in cases of incapacity through permanent illness or infirmity, that the said Court of Chancery may have the power, after fifteen years service, to enable any of the clerks in the said office to retire therefrom upon such annual payment out of the said fund as the said Court shall think fit and see occasion for, not exceeding the salary to which such clerk shall be entitled at the time of such application."—Ordered to be referred to a Committee.