§ VISCOUNT MIDLETONmoved that there be laid before the House, Copies of the Correspondence which had passed between the War Office and the Treasury on the subject of pensions and annuities to the clerks employed by Army Agents in Ireland who had lost their means of livelihood in consequence of the War Office Regulations which came into force on the 1st of October, 1871. The noble Viscount said that these Papers had been already moved for and granted in the House of Commons, and he believed they would prove that a very small number of gentlemen were included in this application, that their services had been long, and their individual ages were advanced; and, finally, that the Regulations, which had subjected them in some cases to the total loss of their incomes, had effected a very large saving, amounting since October to nearly £30,000; so that, if the Treasury were disposed to consider the case and meet the claims of these gentlemen fairly and liberally, ample funds were at their disposal for that purpose.
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEhad no objection to produce the Papers; but, though at this stage it would be premature to discuss the question, he might say that the difficulty attending any grant to these gentlemen was not that no funds were available for the purpose, but that these gentlemen not being servants of the Crown, and only in the employ of Army Agents with whom the Crown had dealings, they were ineligible for pensions or retiring allowances under the Superannuation Act, and equally ineligible for any other grant.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ House adjourned at half past Six o'clock, till To-morrow, half past Ten o'clock.