§ MR. HOGGrose to ask leave to introduce two Bills to authorize the East India Company to grant annuities of 5,000l. and 2,000l. per annum respectively to Viscount Hardinge and Lord Gough, for their recent brilliant services in the East Indies. He hoped no obstacle would be placed in the way of forwarding those measures.
§ SIR R. PEELsaid, that so far from throwing any obstacle in the way of their progress, he would do everything in his power to hasten them forward.
§ MR. HUMEwished to know when an opportunity would be given of discussing the merits of the Bills for granting Peerages to Lords Hardinge and Gough, 614 because it might happen that those Bills might pass at a late period of the night, without an opportunity being afforded of discussing them at all. He wished to have an opportunity of making some remarks respecting them, because he had an objection to grant pensions to persons whose descendants would be unable to maintain the dignity of the Peerage, and because the time had come when they ought to require Her Majesty not to grant Peerages which must be kept up at the expense of the country. With all due deference to the House, he must say that he thought this plan of granting Peerages with annuities for two or three lives, and then leaving those upon whom the honour had descended destitute, was a reprehensible practice, and ought at once to be abrogated. In the case of Lord Gough, for instance, the sums of money conferred upon him would not last longer than the ordinary duration of two lives, because he was advanced in years. He urged the same arguments several years ago, in the case of Lord Keane; but he was opposed to the House, and was, therefore, unsuccessful. He repeated that he considered the time had arrived when the Government ought to consider whether it was politic to grant titles when there was no property to maintain them; for wherever this was done they had the Peer and his family quartered upon the public, and there was no getting rid of him or his progeny for generations. He did not wish to particularize individuals; but, if they created an aristocracy, it ought not to be maintained by the public purse. It was true the customs of the country precluded them from following any avocation by which they could maintain themselves, but it did not preclude them from getting families. He thought it was really a question for the House to take up—whether, when Peerages were proposed to be conferred on individuals who had not the power of supporting them, and which would consequently have to be supported at the expense of the country, it was politic to grant them. It was the system he complained of, and not the individuals. He hoped, however, that the House would have an opportunity of discussing the Bills by daylight and not at the dead of the night, when the House could not be expected to give due attention to the matter.
§ SIR R. PEELsaid, that considering Lord Gough had recently gone through four gallant battles, it was rather hard for the hon. Gentleman to say that his life 615 was not worth a year's purchase. But, as to the Bills which were to be brought in, he would endeavour to afford every opportunity for their due consideration. It was not the fault of the Government that Bills of that nature were brought forward at midnight. As to the observations of the hon. Gentleman, he could not admit the truth of his assertion that Peerages, which had been created for public services, were generally dependent upon the public. In almost every instance the families of persons raised to the Peerage had been possessed of means adequately to maintain the dignity of their rank and position.
§ Leave given. Bills brought in and read a first time.