Compensations and increased pensions granted.
Although opposed to the demand, and furnishing very valid reasons for their opposition, the Directors,[403] nevertheless, after reference to a meeting of shareholders, and to Parliament, “being anxious to extend the measure of relief as widely as possible,” granted compensation to all commanders and officers who had been actually employed in the “maritime service” within the period of five years antecedent to the 22nd of April, 1834, upon their declaration that it had been their intention to continue to follow their profession in the maritime service of the Company. This compensation amounted to a money payment of 1,500l. to each commander, 1,000l. to a master, and sums ranging from 600l. to 150l. to the chief mate, down to the fourth mate and purser. Besides these payments, they gave by way of further compensation to each commander, upon their declaration as to the number of voyages which they would have performed had the service continued, the sum of 4,000l. for three unexpired voyages, 3,000l. for two voyages, and for one voyage of which they had been deprived, 2,000l. Pensions[404] were likewise granted by the Company on a graduated scale to commanders and officers who had served ten years in the service, not for sickness or incapacity, but simply on the ground, for which their own attestation was sufficient, that they were unable to obtain employment, and that any income they possessed should go in abatement of such pension.
The commanders of the ships belonging to the Company (their number was small compared with those on the hired or “maritime service”) who had five voyages to perform were each paid, by way of compensation, a sum of 5,000l.; four voyages, 4,500l.; three voyages, 4,000l.; two voyages, 3,000l., and one voyage, 2,000l.; while the officers of these ships received compensation according to the situations they filled.[405] Nor were they less liberally dealt with in the way of pensions when the commercial affairs of the Company were brought to a close. Each commodore then received 400l. per annum; each commander 300l.; and each officer, from the chief down to the warrant officer, was granted a pension for life, ranging from 200l. to 30l. per annum. Widows were allowed two-thirds of their husbands’ pensions during their widowhood. Nor were the children overlooked, for they too received pensions according to their wants.
We should have been at a loss to understand the cause of the very liberal conduct of the East India Company to its servants, had the Directors themselves not derived emoluments far beyond what they were entitled to receive by the conditions on which they had agreed to serve, and our readers also might have been puzzled to understand why they displayed such extraordinary liberality. No doubt some qualms of conscience led them to feel that they ought to pluck the beams from their own eyes before scrutinising too narrowly the motes in those of their servants.
Remuneration of the Directors.
The fixed and acknowledged remuneration to the Directors was 300l. per annum; but the general opinion of the day seems to have been (and this opinion was frequently expressed) that the worth of each directorship amounted to no less than 10,000l. per annum, in one form or another; and certainly the avidity with which these directorships were sought after, when a vacancy occurred, and the large sums of money expended in obtaining the appointment, too clearly show that there were valid reasons for the popular rumour. Candidates, who were nearly all men otherwise in the enjoyment of lucrative employment as bankers or merchants, or who had filled high appointments in the civil or military service of the Company, would not have sent “carriages and four” to remote parts of the kingdom for voters, each of whom was limited to four votes, to secure an appointment to which they were expected to devote some portion at least of their time, and this, too, for the paltry remuneration of 300l. per annum. Indeed it was not in the nature of things that they should do so.
Their patronage.
The reason, however, may be explained by the fact that, associated with the position of a Director, there was a large amount of patronage under his own immediate control, which he claimed by rotation. That this must have been of very considerable value, may be suspected from the fact that the successful candidate sometimes gave the whole of his first year’s patronage to the chairman of his election committee. The estimated value of these nominations we have no means of knowing, nor would it be possible to ascertain what other sources of gain were within the reach of those Directors who felt disposed to avail themselves of them. Among, however, the more common and direct appointments, all the cadetships were at their disposal, as were also assistant-surgeons, chaplains, solicitors, and pilots, who were constantly required to fill up vacancies, or meet the ever-increasing demands of the service. Governors and members of the Indian Council had likewise to be supplied, and their places filled as vacancies occurred. Then there were writerships, worth from 4,000l. to 6,000l. per annum, at the disposal of the Court; while there was a grand plum in the appointment of young gentlemen to the civil service of the Company in China, each of whom, if he lived, was certain to reach the office of “Tyepan,” known to be worth 20,000l. per annum. But the appointments to this special and highly-favoured service were exclusively in the gift of the chairman, who seems almost invariably to have bestowed them upon some member of his own family, or near relative, or upon the son of a Director who, no doubt, reciprocated so great a favour when he had the opportunity. These nominations, however, were considered so valuable, that, though the chairman had double patronage, he was expected not to exercise any portion of it during the remainder of the year when the nomination to the Tyepanship fell to his lot.
FOOTNOTES:
[359] The first Charter of Incorporation was dated 31st December, 1660.