§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, he would now beg to ask the President of the Board of Control, What is the present state of a fund of £70,000 created by a donation of Lord Clive in 1765, who paid a legacy which he received to that amount into the East India Company's Treasury at Fort William, to be at interest for the support of European officers and soldiers who might be disabled or decayed in the Company's Service in Bengal, and for the widows of officers and soldiers who might die on service there?
MR. VERNON SMITHsaid, that he wrote yesterday to the Accountant of the East India House to furnish him with a detailed account in figures relative to the Clive Fund. It had not, however, arrived when he came down to the House. As to the state of the fund, the best answer he could give was to refer the right hon. Gentleman to the evidence of Sir James Melvill before a Committee of the House, in which he stated that the Clive Fund had been superseded as to European officers by the grant of retired half pay by the Company to a greater amount than was provided by the fund. Both the principal and interest of the fund had long been exhausted, and the pensions were now supplied by the Company.