ten years; of Lieutenant-colonel, seven years; of Majors, 5); and of Captains, 21. The following is a comparative statement of the present rate of promotion, and what it will be by the aid of the Fund: The line-step will be brought round once in four years. To guard against a Lieut.-colonel taking the bonus on the immediate operation of the Fund, before his contribution amounts to something fair, it is pro posed that a Lieut.-colonel, accepting the bonus, shall pay some small sum, in which shall be included whatever subscription or donation he may have contributed. The only chance of our ever obtaining a Retiring Fund is, to commence at once by subscription; and, therefore, the attention of the officers who are in favour of a retiring fund, is particularly requested to the following points submitted for their consideration and vote : 1st. The immediate establishment of this Retiring Fund; 2d. To authorize a committee at the presidency to take the necessary steps on their behalf. That his Excellency the Commander-in-chief be earnestly solicited to present the respectful request of the subscribers to the Retiring Fund before the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, to sanction conditionally the establishment of a Retiring Fund for the infantry branch of the army, subject to the confirmation of the Honourable the Court of Directors, and that Government, as a preliminary measure, will be pleased to direct the several paymasters to receive subscriptions, agreeably to such communications as they may receive from the secretary of the fund committee. Further, that Government, in like manner liberally granted to the Medical Fund, will be pleased to allow the sub-treasurer to receive the subscriptions, and grant temporarily an interest on the funds of six per cent.* To ensure any loss to the subscribers, if the Court of Directors should not approve of the fund, every expense connected therewith is to be kept within two per cent.; so that the subscribers may receive back their contributions, with interest at four per cent. As there are many in the service who may not be aware of the nature of that part of the plan relative to placing a full colonel annually on the retired list, the following extract from the Honourable Court's letter, dated 20th April 1803, is subjoined, as explanatory of the retired or senior list: 2d. That a retired list of general officers or colonels be formed, who are to be struck off the strength of the army, and considered altogether out of the service. The number to be twenty-one: nine for Bengal, eight for Madras, and four for Bombay. Sd. That each of the retired general officers or colonels be allowed the sum of £543. 15s. from the Off reckoning Fund, in addition to the full or half-pay they may be entitled to, &c. Extract from Court of Directors' letter, dated 6th March 1832, No. 15. "We are very solicitous for the comforts of our officers upon retirement, and are therefore disposed cordially to encourage the institution of funds in furtherance of that desirable object. We regret that in the present state of the Company's affairs it is not possible for us to aid the funds by a direct contribution, but we are willing not only to bear the increased charge of retired pay that will be consequent upon their establishment, but also to sanction the grant of an interest of six per cent. per annum on the balances of the several funds, and the remittance of the annuities which they may grant through our trea. sury at the rate of 2s. the sicca rupee." £1,200 Bombay Asiat. Journ. N.S.VOL.22. No.87. 4 for Bombay. 2 F 36. By the foregoing plan, an opening is made for an extension of promotion in the army by the retired list, in view to which, a liberal provision is made for officers of the higher ranks, whose constitutions may not admit of their being employed on actual service. And further, to point out that there can be possibly no hardship in reviving this list, the army list exhibits the season of appointment of the three senior infantry colonels as being in the years 1779, 1780, 1783; added to the foregoing are two colonels, who have served the allotted time on the general staff, and thus cannot serve again, besides one whose time of service on the general staff will cease in September next; making six to commence with. There is no other subject to which I would call the attention of the officers of the army, unless it be this; on the first glance of the scheme, it would appear that the expense of the pension of a full colonel would be £455 instead of £90. To explain this, it only requires to shew, that the Court of Directors, in 1832, limit this presidency to four retirements; they consent to the additional burthen of four pensions on the formation of a retiring fund; so that if we were to ask them to allow four lieut.-colonels to be pensioned, the amount would be 4 at 365 £1,460. = Now, in the plan, we propose to ask for one colonel £455, and three licut colonels at £365; the total will be £1,550; the difference £90; so that we, in effect, solicit from them what has been offered to us in 1832, Bombay, 29th June 1836. Extract of a letter from a Field Officer, dated " Bhooj, 11th August, 1836:" The following is my plan. I commence by shewing, as far as my means at command will admit, the actual receipts of the officers of the army in India and Europe; according to the statement of the number in Major Moore's plan, including also the Staff-say amount of Field Officers' receipts in India and Europe, including Command Allowance and Staff per annum. 8,50,000 at 6 per cent. is 51,000 Captains in India and Europe Lieutenants Ensigns ditto ditto ... 5,82,000 4 Total........ 23,280 15,240 3,648 93,168 By Major Moore's plan, the sum of Rs. 90,000 is required to place one Colonel in the Senior List, and to buy out three Lieutenant-Colonels annually, and to meet which, it is proposed, to provide by donations and subscriptions Rs. 1,12,070, upon a calculation which seems to bear particularly hard upon some officers; for instance, Majors in India, not having command of corps, Lieut.-Colonels, Majors, and Captains in Europe, who are called upon to pay 12, 10, and 7 per cent. when it is supposed they can least afford it.-Would it not then be much better to regulate subscriptions by a per-centage on actual receipts; say Field Officers and Staff 6 per cent.; Captains, 4; Lieutenants, 21; and Ensigns, 14? by which means a sum more than sufficient would be forthcoming, if the figure statement, upon examination, be found correct; and in order to induce Lieutenant-Colonels to retire, perhaps it would answer well, to offer the bonus of Rs. 27,000 on the simple plan of buying out, to the three Lieutenant-Colonels of longest standing in the service, at the expiration of one year, and in the event of any of them declining the offer, the same to be then tendered in like manner to the next in rotation, according to length of service, and this rule to be invariably observed throughout, without exacting any premium whatever beyond the monthly subscriptions to the period of accepting the offer; extending the benefit of the Fund to Majors, should Lieutenant-Colonels refuse to retire, but upon rather a reduced scale, say Rs. 24,000; and even to Captains, should Majors decline, upon a still further reduced scale, say Rs. 20,000; and any saving that may arise out of the operation of this system, to be carried to the credit of the Fund. Upon this principle, we, the undersigned officers of the 11th Regiment, do agree to commence paying subscription towards establishing a Retiring Fund, reserving to ourselves the privilege of joining or rejecting any other that may be submitted for approval." THE MADRAS MILITARY FUND. TO THE EDITOR. SIR: The question respecting the management of the Madras Military Fund appears to be alike interminable and unsatisfactory; and it is no wonder that the matter should fail to afford satisfaction, for, unless the regulations of the institution are based on the strictest rule of equity, it is vain to hope for permanence and stability to the Fund, or satisfaction to the persons interested in its welfare. The establishment of such a Fund, as a means of providing for the widows and children of deceased officers, cannot but be considered as a most judicious and salutary scheme; but it is indispensable to its well-being, that confidence be inspired towards it. Now is this institution placed on that firm foundation which cannot fail to inspire confidence? I fear a negative must be the answer to this question. Are not the present subscribers to the fund bound by the strictest ties of honour and equity to their deceased brother officers, that their widows and children, now annuitants on the Fund, shall, under no circumstances, suffer by any new regulations? and ought any of the fundamental regulations of the institution to be abrogated without the consent of the entire body of subscribers? The deceased officers, who paid their proportion of the Fund, did so on the faith of their successors continuing to their (the deceased officers') families the same income which experience had proved the Fund was capable of affording to the families of their predecessors; and were it properly managed, beyond a doubt, it would still be sufficient for that purpose. But the prospects of the Fund are now completely changed. By the abrogation of the exclusion clause, a large class of claimants has been admitted, and it is extremely doubtful whether the Fund can now afford to pay the annuitants at the same rate as heretofore. But with whom does the error lie? Not with the deceased officers, for while they had a voice in the matter, the exclusion clause was, and had ever been, since the foundation of the institution, a fundamental law. There is no question as to the humanity of rescinding this clause; but then those who were parties to the alteration were bound first to ascertain whether the Fund would admit of this liberality, and not first to admit the claim and then to ascertain their ability to pay it. They were, in fact, bound to be just before they were generous; and surely it cannot be just-nay, it is an act of injustice-if, from this cause, they suffer the widows and children of their deceased brother officers to lose that benefit which they had covenanted with them to secure. They have no right to assume that the deceased officers would have agreed, had they been alive, to the alteration of the exclusion clause; and they themselves have been guilty of the grossest folly in agreeing to admit so large a class of annuitants, without ever sitting down to count the cost, and ascertain whether the Fund was able to bear the increased burthen. As to the abrogation of the exclusion clause, by which native-born women and their children are now admitted to equal participation in the benefits of the Fund with Europeans, there cannot be, as I have already stated, a question of its being a humane measure; but the question is not one simply of humanity. The exclusion clause was a fundamental law at the original institution of the Fund, and although I hold to the doctrine that, in all associations, the minority are bound by the acts of the majority, in all common cases, when the suffrages are fairly taken; still, I do not think that the fundamental laws of any institution can equitably be altered without the consent of every individual member, and that in such cases the opinion of the minority is of equal weight with that of the majority: much more certainly when the dissentients, as in the present case, though still a minority, constitute a very large number. Where difference of opinion prevails on fundamental points, if these differences cannot be reconciled, the only equitable way is for the majority to pay back to the objectors both principal and interest, the money they have paid on the faith of these fundamental laws being fulfilled. And if it be objected, that it is a regulation that all officers shall subscribe to this Fund; then I answer, that if one fundamental law can be broken, another may also; and that, therefore, this regulation may as easily be rescinded as the others. In the present case, however, it were manifestly impossible to purchase the interest of the dissentients, because their number is so large that the Fund would be unable to accomplish the object; and, therefore, if equity guided the councils of the supporters of the Fund, one of these two plans ought to be adopted,—either the fundamental laws of the institution ought to be respected, or the institution ought to be broken up, and a new one formed on a different basis, the Fund transferring all their present liabilities to some assurance office for a determinate sum of money, and the residue to be equitably divided among all the surviving subscribers. If the regulations of this Fund are to be continually subject to alterations in the way they have been of late, no man is safe in subscribing to it. He had far better invest his money in an assurance-office, or in some family-endowment institution, where he is at least sure that the covenants made will be faithfully performed. The threat of the East-India Company to withhold their gratuity from the Fund, unless the exclusion clause were expunged, was utterly unworthy of them. They had sanctioned the clause for many years, from the first institution of the Fund, and they could have no right afterwards to object to its injustice. And what if they did? If the directors and supporters of the Fund had been true to themselves, they would, before agreeing to such an alteration, have ascertained whether the Fund would lose more by foregoing the Company's gratuity, or by admitting so large an increase in the number of annuitants: but to adopt the latter alternative, without at all knowing their ability to meet the demand, were indeed a folly, of which the most inexperienced ought to be ashamed. That this has been the case, the memorial of 30th September 1835, from the directors of the Fund to the East-India Company, abundantly proves. It may be said in reply, that the pointing out errors, does not remove them; and how can an effectual remedy be now applied? I will point out an easy mode. Of all calculations, statistical averages are the least liable to error; because, as they are based on the most extensive acquaintance with the changes which occur in the mass of the population, their very magnitude prevents any considerable errors. I should, therefore, consider that the best and only mode of establishing the Military Fund on a firm and satisfactory foundation would be, to take the opinions of two eminent actuaries, and to frame from their reports a code of regulations for the future management of the Fund; taking care that these selections of parts of the reports be made with judgment. As the managers of this Fund have long since taken the opinion of one gentleman of eminence on the subject (though, being in opposition to their own opinion, they have never acted upon it), let them now apply to some other able man (Mr. Corbeaux, for instance, who is well known for his statistical works), and submit the two reports to the scrutiny of persons best competent to decide on their respective merits, and from these prepare their rules; all parties agreeing to abide by such decision. In adopting this plan, however, I consider they are bound in honour that no new rules shall have retrospective effect: that is, that it shall in no wise affect those annuitants already on the Fund. Honour to the deceased subscribers demands this, and security to the Fund compels that; for, however large may be the sums at command, while they are so ill-administered, it is utterly impossible but they must ultimately fail. Trusting that these few remarks may have the effect of calling attention to the subject, I am, Sir, yours obediently, 4th February 1837. OMICRON. CUPID AND DEATH.* AN APOLOGUE. A Grecian bower, mith myrtle bound, This poem was suggested by a passage I have somewhere read-I think in Phaedrus-where Cupid is seen retiring to rest in the Cave of Death. The allegory is full of beauty and poetry, and has an air of Greek inspiration. Upon glancing through Fontaine, to see if he had availed himself of such a happy opportunity of exercising his genius, I found a very graceful imitation of an apologue, in which Death is an actor, though in a different way from the present picture. Fontaine was a writer of peculiar elegance and facility; in some respects, a French Goldsmith. He has fancifully and appropriately, in some verses, styled himself the Butterfly of Parnassus. The Fable I refer to is the sixteenth of the First Book, which the reader will remember among the pleasant Moralities of Esop, with whom, in the language of his imitator, even the fish has a voice, and who out of the mouths of animals instructs mankind. |