§ MR. STONEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether it is the case that those Greenwich Pensioners who wore inmates of the Hospital prior to 1865 received, on leaving the Hospital, pensions much larger than, and in some cases as much as double, those which they enjoyed before they entered, while the Pensioners who never entered the hospital received no corresponding advantage; whether the former class of Pensioners had any superior claims, either on the ground of merit or length of service; and, whether, in order to diminish the present inequality between the two classes, he can grant to those who have never been in the hospital either an increase of pension, or a reduction of the standard of age at which an increased pension is now enjoyed?
§ MR. GOSCHEN,in reply, said, that those Greenwich pensioners who were in the Hospital prior to 1865 received, on leaving, some compensation in addition to the pension which they were previously in the receipt of. The Act of 1865 gave them the money allowance 520 they received in the hospital and made other arrangements in their favour, and also in favour of the out-pensioners. In 1869 further advantages were given both to the out-pensioners and to those who had been in the Hospital. It was, therefore, not correct to say that no advantages were given to the out-pensioners. The pensioners who had been in the Hospital had certainly been selected on grounds of merit or length of service, and there was no intention of making any alteration in favour of the out-pensioners.