In Ireland the hereditary revenue of the crown was used as a means of extensive political corruption, the English act of 1 Anne, already cited, not being applicable to Ireland. In a speech of Mr. Hutchinson, secretary of state, made in the Irish House of Commons, in June, 1793, he stated that the gross annual hereditary revenue of Ireland amounted to 764,6271., reduced by various charges to 275,102/. only; that the disposition of this revenue was in the hands of the king; that "his letters and seals were the only authority for using it, and the only voucher allowed by the Commissioners of Accounts and by the House of Commons ;' and that there was no Board of Treasury executing their functions under the authority of parlia ment. The Irish parliament, in 1757, had come to a unanimous resolution, " That the granting of so much of the public revenue in pensions is an improvident disposition of the revenue, an injury to the crown, and detrimental to the people." The Irish pensions then amounted to 40,000l.: in two years after the above resolution was passed, an addition of 23,000/. was made to them ; and in 1778 they were nearly double the amount at which they stood in 1757. In 1787 leave was refused to bring in a bill to limit the amount of pensions, and to disable persons holding pensions for a term of years, or during pleasure, from sitting and voting in parliament. Mr. Forbes, who moved this bill, stated that "it was a practice among certain members of the House to whom pensions had been granted, to carry them into the market and expose them for sale." In 1790 Mr. Forbes again moved resolutions, stating "that the Pension List amounted to 101,0001., exclusive of military pensions ; that the increase of pensions, civil and military, since February, 1784, had been 29,000/.; and that many of these pensions had been granted to members of parliament during the pleasure of the crown." These resolutions were not adopted. In 1793, when the whole policy of the Irish government was changed, among other beneficial measures introduced and recommended on the authority of the lord-lieutenant was a bill to limit the amount of pen sions and to increase the responsibility of the Treasury, which was passed into a law. By this act (33 Geo. III., c. 34, Irish statutes) the pensions on the Civil List in Ireland were limited to 80,0001., allow ing a sum of 1200/. only to be granted until such reduction was effected. Grants held during the pleasure of the crown, and converted into grants for life to the same parties and to the same amount, were exempted from the limitations of the act. This act carried into effect a surrender of the hereditary revenues for the life of the king, and the principle of appropriating money by parliamentary authority. These restraints on the crown were not however equal in efficiency to those contained in the English statute of Anne. At the time of the act of 33 Geo. III. being passed, the Irish pensions amounted to 124,0001., and the amount was not reduced to 80,000/. until 1814. By the I Geo. IV., c. I, the Irish Pension List was fur ther reduced to 50,000G, no grants exceeding 1200/. to be made in any one year until the list was so reduced.
The statute of 1 Anne, having been passed prior to the Union, did not affect Scotland; and pensions were accordingly granted by the crown for life or for lives, in possession or in reversion, without restriction in amount or in the duration of the grant, other than the amount of the revenues and the claims and burdens !already upon them. By the 50 Geo. III., c. 3, the principle of parliamentary inter ference was established in reference to the hereditary revenues of Scotland, the amount of the pensions was reduced to 25,000/., and no more than 800/. was to be granted in any one year until such reduc tion was effected. At this period the Civil List pensions of Scotland amounted to 39,379/. By the 1 Geo. IV., c. 1, the hereditary revenues of Scotland were placed to the account of the consolidated fund.
Certain duties, called the 4i per cent. duties, were not withdrawn from the private control of the crown until 1830, when they were sur rendered by William IV. for his life, the pensions then chargeable upon them continuing payable. On the acession of William IV. there was nothing therefore to prevent the Pension Lists of England, Ireland, and Scotland being consolidated ; and this was effected by 1 Will. IV., c. 25, which also made provision for their reduction, on the expiration of existing interests, from an amount of 145,7501. net, to a future maximum sum of 75,0001. The Pension List for England was at this period 74,200/. net ; Scotland 23,650/. ; Ireland, 47;900/.
In 1830 the ministry of the Duke of Wellington was overthrown on the question of referring the Civil List (which comprises the Pension List) to a select committee, Sir Henry Parnell's motion to that effect being carried by 233 against 204.
In February, 1834, in order to define with greater precision the class of persons to whom the grant of pensions ought to be confined, Lord Althorp, chancellor of the exchequer (afterwards Earl Spencer), moved resolutions to the following effect, which were agreed to by the House of Commons :—" That it is the bounden duty of the responsible advisers of the crown to recommend to his majesty for grants of pensions on the Civil List such persons only as have just claims on the royal bene ficence, or who, by their personal services to the crown, by the per formance of duties to the public, or by their useful discoveries in science, and attainments in literature and the arts, have merited the gracious consideration of their sovereign and the gratitude of their country." On the accession of Queen Victoria, in 1837, the subject of pensions was again considered ; and a select committee of the House of Com mons, appointed to inquire into the Civil List, recommended,—" That in place of granting a sum of 75,000/. for Civil List pensions, her Majesty should be empowered to grant in every year new pensions on the Civil List to the amount of 12001., these pensions to be granted iu strict conformity with the resolutions of the House of Commons, of February, 1834. These views were adopted by the House, and embodied in the 1 Vie., c. 2, the words of the resolution being intro duced into the Act. Since the accession of Queen Victoria, still greater force has been given to the spirit of the Act, in consequence of the recommendations of a select committee of the House of Commons, appointed in December, 1837, to inquire how far the pensions charged on the Civil List, as settled on the accession of William IV., ought to be continued, " having due regard to the just claims of the parties and to economy in the public expenditure." This committee after a searching and protracted inquiry into the merits of each case on the Pension List, recommended the immediate suspension of several pen sions, to be regranted on the responsibility of the government, should the circumstances of the parties render it necessary ; others they con sidered should determine at an earlier period than specified in the original grant ; and for several pensions, they considered it unadvisable to make any future provision. In their report, dated July, 1838, the committee recommended that in the case of all future Civil List pen sions, the reasons and motives of the grant should be set forth in the warrant of appointment ; that in pensions granted for services to others than the individual by whom the services were rendered, care should be taken, if these pensions are granted for younger lives, that is, to the sons or daughters of the individual entitled to the pension, that no undue increase of charge should be made ; and that such grants should be avoided, except under very peculiar circumstances : they recommended also that pensions for the relief of distress should be granted only on the condition of their ceasing when the circum stances of the parties no longer require their continuance ; that all pensions should be held liable to deduction or suspension in the event of the parties being appointed to office in the public service; that under no circumstances should the mere combination of poverty with the hereditary rank of the peerage be considered as a justification of a grant of pension. The committee also recommended that, in order to avoid any possible doubt or misconception hereafter, enact ments should be made with respect to the Irish and Scotch revenue analogous to those contained in the English statute of 1 Anne.
Besides the pensions on the Civil List, the regulation of which at different periods has been referred to above, there are vast sums annually appropriated by parliament to the payment of pensions of another description. Thus in 1860-1 the sum of 1,063,3711. was voted on account of the out-pensioners of Chelsea Hospital, 58,469 in number ; 232,764/. to the out-pensioners of Greenwich ; 135,785/. to 2478 widows of officers of land-forces ; and to officers in each of the civil depart. meats of the government large sums are annually paid in pensions and superannuation allowances. The half-pay to retired officers of the navy and army may also be considered in the light of a pension. The Civil List pensions in the year ending June 20, 1860, amounted to 15001., divided among twenty-two recipients.