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India of a strictly provident character , and of still greater importance to the Anglo-Indian , community , and which have suffered in a more serious manner than even the Assurance Companies . These are the Indian Funds , founded for the purpose of granting pensions to the widows and orphans of the members of the military and civil services . Except to those ' immediately interested , the vast extent and enormous financial importance of these funds are but very imperfectly understood . We have now before us a series of most elaborate reports by Mr . 1 <\ G . P . Neison , who has been for many years consulted as actuary on the affairs of these funds , and we have been quite startled by the magnitude
of the benefits they confer . Anything of a similar kind in connexion' with the Royal army , is insignificant in the extreme , and scarcely deserving ot consideration . In fact , nothing has been organised by the armies of our continental States at all approaching , iu a financial sense , to the value and importance of the Indian Funds . From the moment that the Indian cadet enters the service his wife and children become thoroughly independent of all pecuniary vicissitude . A lieuteiuuit dying-, leaves his widow a pension of 102 / . per aimu m-, " and each child pensions of SO / , and upwards yearly , while a colonel ' s widow receives a pension of ' 6-101 . yearly . In the Civil Service , however , the pension of a widow is 300 / . per annum , and to children it varies from 30 / . to 100 / ., with
entary Fund , which grants pension to widows only . The Orphans' Fund provides for children . The mutiny broke out at Meerut on the evening of the 10 th May , 1857 , and from that date until the beginning of the present year no less than 396 officers , members of the Military Fund , had fallen . This frightful mortality is at the rate of about eighteen per cent , per annum , or niore than seven times the average ratio of deaths of the previous fifty-six years of this century . Accurate accounts will not Tor some time be made out of the casualties for the present year , but there can be no doubt as in the earl of it
to the immense mortality y part . It is , however , the deaths which have taken place among married subscribers which entail loss ; in fact , the death of an unmarried officer to some extent enriches the fund , as part of his previous contributions is saved , and all further liability ceases . In the Bengal Military Fund the married members form nearly one-half of the whole number . It might , therefore , be expected that a moiety of the 390 deaths , or 198 , would have entailed loss ; it appears , however , that of the 118 widows who were thrown on the fond during 1857 , not more than 88 cases arose from causes connected
with the mutiny . It is to be hoped that the wives of the remaining 110 married members were not also slaughtered . ' by the rebels , and still it is difficult to assign any other reason for more widows not declaring on the fund . It is to be remarked , however , that in some ranks of the service , the unmarried members suffered more severely than the married , but there is no such discrepancy between the two classes of results as to sufficiently account for not one-half of the number of widows being thrown on the fund that might be expected from the casualties that have taken place . There is little doubt that when more precise information is obtained a large number of the members' wives will be found tb have fallen victims to the fearful
mutiny of a whole army . We had recently occasion to congratulate the Directors of the " Medical , Invalid , and General Life Office " on the fact of that institution having so great . financial resources as to be able to stand the unprecedented loss sustained by it in India during the nineteen months which have elapsed since the first outbreak , without its stability and success being in any way endangered ; we wish we could with equal confidence assure the members and widows of tho Bengal Military Fund that we have as much faith in the stability and permanence of their own institution . In a report on the Fund ' s affairs
made by Mr . Neison , and dated the 13 th November , 1 S 5 A , we find that in its transactions with the then Indian Government it had sustained losses on exchanges to the extent of 437 , 914 / . sterling . These losses , it since appears , the late Indian Government declined to replace , and it yet remains to be seen how the question will be treated by the Imperial Government under the new order of things . In tho saino report Mr . Neiaon shows that in consequence of these and some other losses of a less amount the Fund was then in a very perilous condition . At that time there was a deficit of assets as
compared with liabilities of no less than 474 , 571 / . Whoever gives close attention to Mr , Noison ' s report , as well as to a pamphlet written by Colonel Henderson , must at once admit tho justice of the claim of tho Military Fund for a reimbursement of the losses it lias sustained in its transactions with tho Government , and it is to be hoped the case may be so placed before the present Indian Council as to meet with a favourable response . Iu consequence of this alarming deficit , and no definite decision having been yet come to iu regard to their claim to bo recouped the losses , tho directors of the Bengal Military Fund have boon compelled , fov a temporary period at least , to havo recourse to
tho painful expedient of reducing the scale of pensions payable to the widow incumbents . On the heels of this ' follows the awful calamity of tho Indian mutiny , entailing , in less than eight months , eightyci ^ lit additional pensioners on tho Fund . Tho directors in Calcutta have , in oonunon with the nssuranco institutions there , made application to Government to indemnify tho Fund from all liability in respect to llicso eighty-eight widows . These , of course , do not include all the losses sustained by tlio Fund to tho present time , and we therefore trust the Government will cpmo speedily to tho rcsouo , mul maintain tho integrity of iv Fund which as much distinguishes tho prudential feelings of tho officers of tho Indian , nviny as their horoio oourago and gallantry in tlua unparalleled mutiny has mado them conspicuous as soldiers in tho eyes of Europe
dowments of 300 / . to daughters on marriage . If the recent manifestations in favour of competitive examinations are at all likely to eventually supersede the influence , of , patronage , what a splendid prize do these funds offer to . able and aspiring young men , ambitious to distinguish themselves , but who , under the old system , could not , without family interest , secure appointments . These funds give the best assurance that if they pass the prescribed ordeal , nothing but moral turpitude can afterwards , under any circumstance , invalidate their status and independence . It is not generally known that the pensions paid in England ' to the retired members , widows , and
orphans of the various Indian Funds , irrespective of the retiring allowances derived directly from the Government itself , arc upwards of 500 , 000 / . per annum . So large an amount , and which , from the expanding dominion of the Indian Empire , has for the last iifty years been increasing , , must appear to every careful " observer as constituting so remarkable a feature in the economic institutions of the empire as to demand especial consideration from all journalists alive to the critical aspect of our Indian affairs , and with the full sense of this conviction on our minds , we feel compelled to invite the attention of our readers to a subject which ought really before this time to have received the advocacy of ^ omc Parliamentary friend of the Indian services ^ The young nobleman who by his talents and undoubted patriotism occupies the distinguished and
responsible post of Secretary of India in the councils oi the nation , we have every reason to believe , will do all in his power consistent with the demands of imporial duty to maintain the integrity and original purpose of each and every of the Indian Puuds , but the recent mutiny has invested those in the Bengal Presidency with so . many complicated but unforeseen difficulties , that it is not easy to predicate what course he will feel called upon to take in regard to them . It is impossible in tho present article to enter fully into tho detail of these matters , but wo shall direct attention to somo points which arc certain sooner or later to rivet the attention of those taking an interest in tho Eastern affairs of England .
All the Funds connected with the military , medical , and civil services in India arc absolutely under the control af the members of those services , ami are in one senso entirely republican and seli ' -goyorncd . in their constitution and their affairs , forming ,, as all readers of the Indian pross must bo fully awaro , the standing polities of Anglo-Indians j the only connexion with tho ruling powers boing ^ that tho Government' guarantees on tho roalisou and
accumulated capital a fixed amount of intorost , as woll as a small annual contribution . In every Other respect tho funds tiro therefore entirely seltsupporting , and properly come within our sphere of observation as journalists pledged to defend tho publio services of tho state on what wo boliovo to bo sound financial and economics principles . On tho present occasion wo shall confine ouv remarks to the manner in which tho mutiny in tho native army of India has ail ' eotcd tho Bengal Mili-
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TAXATIOTST AND DEATH . The Registrar-General reported the number oi deaths in the metropolis the week before last at ] 802 , and last week at 1738 . This high rate oi mortality , which , were it to continue , would " deprive the population of its natural increase , " is ascribed by the Registrar-General to the " recent severity of the weather . " Cold is notoriously fatal to life . It is to be presumed , therefore , that anything which impedes the people in having wellwarm ' ed habitations increases the death-rate , and that anything which facilitates heating apartments staves off death . We feel some astonishment , therefore , that Mr . Parr , the chief of the Registry-office under the Registrar-General , if not virtually that officer , who is zealous in finding out causes which occasion premature death , and is never tired of adverting to the neglect of sanitary precautions—that Dr . Letheby , the great sanitary adviser of the City—that all the medical officers of the different parishes of the City and suburbs , whose naming zeal in the cause they are appointed to promote is conspicuous , have not on this occasion taken any notice of the City coaltax , which enhances the price of fuel to the poor and
helps to starve them with cold , exactly as the Cornlaw starved them by withholding food from them . We are all the more surprised , because they can have no interest in continuing a tax . which helps materially to shorten life . When the agitation against the Corn-law was in existence , the clergy , pretending to have at heart the interest of the multitude , made a terrible mistake by not joining that agitation in a body , and promoting the abolition of a law that was as expressly forbidden by the words of religion as by the commands of nature . But they had in tithes a worldly interest in . keeping
up the price of corn , and they sacrificed their duty to the multitude , their country , and . the Almighty , from , mean personal and pecuniary considerations . Tue medical men cannot be thus biased , but while they vehemently attack petty nuisances—many of them caused by useful occupations which remove many and worse nuisances than they create ^ -they take nc notice of , or actually support , gigantic nuisances which slowly kill people by depriving them of fuel and other means of keeping them warm , comfortable , and healthy . Charity prides itself in giving a few scuttles of coal to the poor ; would it not do better were it to join the economists and allow the
price of these scuttles of coals to be remitted tothe poor by the abolition of a tax . which chiefly goes to akeep alive waste and corruption amongst City magnates , in the name of promoting improvement ? On many grounds the local imposition , has been most justly objected to , and its tendency to injure health , and destroy life , now made manifest , is only an additional , and perhaps an unexpected , element in its noxious character . We are quite aware of the old argument that this , tax takes very little from each person . But in this and in all similar pases it is the principle , not thedegree , which is important . The woman ' s offence was not the less because her child was a small one .
The City tax of 4 d . per ton is less than a-traction , of a farthing per cwt . ; it can , therefore , it is said ,, do no harm . Exactly the same plea was urged for the Corn-law . It took away a very small slice of each man ' s loaf , but the terrible consequences which ensued from that law , stifling an enormous mass of employment andpopulation , fullyjustifiesthedoctrinethat all laws iniquitous in principle , though their effects bo apparently trivial , should be condemned . Let us examine how tho Jaw works . The tax isadvanced to tho City by the coal merchant , who deducts it in the price of the coal , with a profit to himself on the advance from the dealer ; and the
dealer again deduots it with a corresponding profit on his advance from . his customer . Now the poor , who arc obliged to" purchase their coals in very small quantities , and go to the chandler ' s shop for them , have to pay the profits of a succession of dealers j and , boforo they get their cwt . of ooal , tho tax may take away nearly the odd 12 lb . This may bo equal to one cheerful little firo for a day , and to a life saved or lost in a family . Thus , to trnco tho offects of tho tax adds to tho weight of the argument derived from tho palpable ooiniexion between , inoroascd mortality , cold weather , and the Uity tax on fuel . . . , ,, Unfortunately , tho City duty on coals is not the only one which increases tho death-rate amongst tho poor . No inoonsiderablo slice is taken ofT a poor man ' s pound o ( ohocso and pound ot buttor by tho duty which enhances its pnoo through ft series oi
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X ^^ j yEGmnMR ^^ Sl THE LEAPEB , 1 B 55
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1858, page 1355, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2272/page/19/
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