COMMITTEE MOVED FOR. (Hansard, 5 July 1859)

COLONEL NORTH
said, he rose to move, That this House will to-morrow resolve itself into a Committee to consider of an humble Address to Her Majesty that She will be graciously pleased to grant the half-pay of £400 a year, unattached pay, to certain general officers who obtained promotion upon half-pay under the provisions of the General Order of the 23rd day of April, 1826, who have since become general officers, and are now receiving only the halt-pay of their regimental rank, and to assure Her Majesty that this House will make good the same. He wished to explain that his Motion referred particularly to seven general officers who had been induced to retire under the Order of 1826—one of them having entered the army in 1796, and not one of them having done so later than 1807, and yet they were now only receiving 9s. a day, the half-pay of majors and lieutenant colonels.

§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERT
said, he was sorry he could not accede to the Motion of the gallant officer, who did not appear very clearly to have understood the objects of the General Order of 1826. No doubt an Order was made to enable officers to go on half pay with superior rank to that which they held at the time of retirement, and without prejudice to their future claims; but that did not exempt them from the operation of regulations which existed then, and which had existed ever since. One of those regulations was that no one should receive the allowance of a general who had not served six years as a field officer. The only exception was that their widows should be entitled to the pensions of general officers' widows, but that very exception showed that the officers were not themselves entitled to the reward of general officers. It might be true that the seven officers referred to in the Motion had each been in the service fifty or sixty years; but the House must remember that there was another side to that question, namely, that some of those gentleman had ever done a day's duty since 1826. He thought, therefore, that to award them the increased allowance would be merely adding to the dead weight of the army without adequate consideration.

GENERAL PEEL
said, he took a different view of this case to that taken by his right hon. Friend. It was said that no general officer was entitled to full pay unless he had served six years as a field officer; but this case was similar to that in which a field officer was placed on half-pay by reduction. On what principle could it be said that their wives were entitled to the pensions of Major-Generals, and that they themselves were not entitled to the pay of their rank? He had strongly pressed the case on the Treasury.

COLONEL DUNNE
said, he wished to ask if these officers understood that they were not to receive the benefits connected with the rank of general when they went on half-pay. He believed they did not.