§ On the Motion for bringing up this Report,
§ MR. SCULLYmoved that the case of Mrs. Uniacke should be taken into consideration by the Secretary at War. The lady in question was widow of the late Colonel Uniacke, and had received all 1013 arrears of pay up to the day of his death, but since that time she had in vain made repeated applications to the War Office for a pension. She was now much embarrassed, and had intrusted him with a petition which the rules of the House forbade him to lay before them in any other than the present shape.
§ MR. F. MAULEobserved that the complaint was one of old standing at the War Office, dating from the time when the noble Lord the Secretary for Foreign Affairs was Secretary at War, and running down through his successors in office to the present. By that noble Lord the claim had been fully investigated, and, in his (Mr. F. Maule's) opinion, adjudicated on principles of right and justice. The fact was, the marriage of Colonel Uniacke took place in 1820, at which time he was seventy years of age; and it was a rule at the War Office not to grant pensions to the widows of half-pay officers who married after sixty years, as an inducement would be held out to officers in the last stage of existence to marry ladies in order to secure them pensions.
§ Resolutions reported.