§ SIR DENHAM NORREYSsaid, he begged to ask the hon. Secretary of the Treasury whether the authority under which the retiring allowances lately granted to certain Poor Law Inspectors, named in the return No. 320 of the present Session, was derived from any Act of Parliament, and, if so, which? or whether the power of granting pensions, other than those sanctioned by the Act 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 24, and other Acts, was claimed by the Treasury?
§ MR. WILSONsaid, he believed that from time immemorial it had been the practice of the Treasury to grant retiring allowances, whenever arrangements were made which had for their object the public benefit. Those allowances were not however absolutely pensions for life, for there was a clause in the Superannuation Act which rendered the parties receiving them liable to be called upon at any time to perform 620 other duties; and, in point of fact, one of the gentlemen referred to had already been appointed to another place under the Crown. The Act required that the Minute granting retiring allowances should be laid on the table the following year, and this Minute would not, therefore, be laid on the table until next Session.