MR. STAVELEY HILLsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether a first-class pension of £1,700 can be awarded to a Diplomatist after a service of fifteen years; and whether a fourth-class pension of £700 cannot now be awarded after a service of twenty-five years, or an actual service of ten years, from date of first commission?
MR. OTWAY, in reply, said, as there appeared to have been some misapprehension on this subject, he would state the conditions under which diplomatic pensions were at present granted. Under 1590 the Act 2 & 3 Will, IV., c. 116, no diplomatic pension could be granted to any person until after the expiration of fifteen years from the date of the first commission, nor until after he should have actually served ton years. But, if, in the course of these ten years, he had served three years as Ambassador at some foreign Court, he would be entitled to receive a first-class pension of £1,700. A fourth-class pension, not exceeding £700 a year, might be granted fifteen years after the date of the first commission; if the person had actually served ten years at some foreign Court. In the whole diplomatic service there were but four persons enjoying a first-class pension. One of these was Lord Napier, whose pension was at present in abeyance owing to his being Governor of Madras; he had served twenty-five years, five years of which as Ambassador. Another was Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, whose service commenced in 1807, and terminated in 1858; he had been more than five years an Ambassador before his pension was granted. The third was Lord Cowley, who entered the diplomatic service in 1824, and retired in 1867, having served continuously for forty-three years, of which thirteen and a-half as Ambassador, before his pension was granted. The last was Sir Henry Bulwer, who entered the diplomatic service in 1827, and retired in 1865, after thirty-eight years' service, of which seven were passed as Ambassador. Although under the Act diplomatists were entitled to pensions for the terms he had stated, practically the length of service for which pensions were granted was much more extensive than was required by the Act. After fifteen years, according to the Act, a man became entitled to a pension; practically the time was twenty years, because during the first four years of service he received no pay, nor had he a commission.