RETRENCHMENT IN THE NAVY PAY OFFICE . . CASE OF MR. BEAMISH.
WE have been among the most earnest advocates for the reduc- tion of unnecessary offices and improper expense in every depart- ment of the public service. We have been fully aware, however, while urging the necessity of adopting a rigid system of economi- cal reform in the present state of public feeling and of the pub- lic finances, that such a system would often bear hard upon, indi- viduals. BURKE said with perfect truth, that "all parsimony was of a quality approaching to unkindness ; and that (on some person or other) every reform must operate as a kind of punishment:. But that sagacious and admirable writer added, that "private feel- ing should be overborne by legislative reason, and that a man of long-, sighted, strong-nerved humanity, might bring himself to consider. not se much from whom he takes a superfluous enjoyment, as for whom in the end he may preserve the absolute necessaries of life." It is upon this principle that we have been the advocates of un- sparing retrenchment; and it has been one of the causes of com- plaint against Earl GREY'S Ministry, that he has. only partially acted upon this principle—that in several departments of the Government very practicable reductions have not been made, This complaint seems to be least applicable to the Naval ser- vice; and the thanks of the country are undoubtedly due to Sir JAMES GRAHAM for the extensive saving of expense Ntkieh he has made in his department. That many individuals have suffered severely from his pruning-knife, there can be no doubt. Where, however, a saving to the public, without any breach of faith, is the result, we should be unwilling to dwell much upon individual deprivation. But we have a case before us which really seems to call at any rate for reconsideration. It is that of Mr.. CHARLES BEAMISH, who was Senior Clerk in the third class at the Navy Pay Office, but who has lately been pensioned off and superannuated on a reduced salary. According to Mr. BEAM isles- own statement (the only one that wehave seen), the actual present loss to the country by his removal is 1081. 16s. per annum. More- over, it appears by a letter from Mr. BARROW, dated 2d August last, that the abolition of' the office held by Mr. BEAMISH was de- termined upon, and that therefore he was superannuated ; whereas it turns out, that he was only removed to make way for a young gentleman of seventeen years of age, who has suc- ceeded to the office which his predecessor only attained te- eter twenty-seven years' service. In the correspondence which' passed between Mr. BEAMISH and the several officers of the Navy department, to whom he addressed complaints of his hard treatment, there is no hint that misconduct or incapacity of any kind was the ground of his dismissal : on the contrary, he ap- pears to have been an unusually active public servant. We think, therefore, that this is a transaction which requires looking into; for, according to the account of the complainants it stands briefly thus : an experienced and able clerk in the Navy Pay Office has been pensioned off at a salary reduced from 3671. to 226/. per annum,. for which he now renders no public service; a lad of seventeen has been appointed to fill his place at a salary raised from 140/. to 3001. per annum, and a junior clerk also appointed to assist the latter at 90/. per annum ; the immediate increase of expense to the public by this arrangement is 108/. per annum ; the ultimate saving at Mr. BEAMISH'S death will be 1171. per annum only. Mr. BEAM ISIS has a large family, of nine or ten children, and can ill afford the reduction; though, as he is an active man of business, and now receives 226/. per annum for doing nothing, we think he can hardly be justified in stating, which he does repeatedly in the course of the correspondence, that he has been reduced to the most. abject poverty and misery by his superannuation. The public,. however, seems to be a loser by the change, provided we have the case correctly laid before us. Certainly the appointment of the young gentleman of seventeen, at the salary of 3 0 0/. per annum. is a suspicious-looking circumstance.
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