Authorizing justices to make orders respecting pensions in certain cases. such assignment, the same shall be determined in a summary void. When any pensioner or other person entitled to or in receipt 2 & 3 Vict., of any army, naval, or other pension or allowance as aforesaid, c. 51, sec. 4. shall leave his wife or family in any union or parish, or shall suffer them to become chargeable to any union or parish, it shall be lawful for two or more of Her Majesty's justices of the peace for the county or place in which such union or parish is situate, upon complaint thereof made on oath to them by any one or more of the guardians of any such union or parish, or any one of the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of such parish where no union or Board of Guardians is established, or by the relieving officer of such union or parish, or the heritors and kirk session in Scotland, and upon due and satisfactory proof being given to the said magistrates that the person so left is the lawful wife of the said pensioner, or the lawful child (as the case may be), by order under their hands and seals, as to army pensions payable at Chelsea Hospital or by the Commissioners thereof in the form set out in the schedule to this Act marked (F), and as to Greenwich out-pensions in the form set out in the schedule to this Act marked (G), and as to all other the before-mentioned pensions and allowances payable by Her Majesty's Paymaster-General in the form set out in the schedule to this Act marked (H), to direct that one half of the next payment which shall become due of such pension or other allowance, in case it shall be the wife or one child only who shall have been so left or suffered to become chargeable, or two thirds thereof in case a wife and child, whether his own or a step-child, or two or more children, shall have been left or suffered to become chargeable, shall be made to the guardians of such union or parish, or to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish, or heritors and kirk session, to which such wife or family shall have become chargeable; and such guardians or churchwardens and overseers of the poor, or heritors and kirk session, shall transmit or cause to be transmitted such order as to such army pensions as aforesaid to the Commissioners for the affairs of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, and with respect to such naval and other pensions as aforesaid to the Paymaster-General, Whitehall, London, in like manner and within the like period as any 3 Vict., assignment is herein-before directed to be transmitted, which become "And whereas by an Act passed in the eleventh year of the When officers 1, sec. 6. reign of His late Majesty King George IV., to amend and con- or seamen solidate the laws relating to the pay of the Royal Navy, power lunatic their is vested in the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord pensions payHigh Admiral to direct pensions payable to the officers and able to their wives, &c. seamen of the Royal Navy, and to the officers of marines and to marines, who shall become lunatic, or so much of such pensions as the said Commissioners shall think fit, to be disposed of in the maintenance of such lunatic persons, and it is expedient that such power should be extended to the pensions, superannuations, and other allowances made to persons for services in the civil departments of the navy"; be it therefore Orders and relating to the enacted and declared, that in all cases when any such persons same. C. If it shall happen that the minute of any Board of Guardians, 2 & 3 Vict., assignments and any assignment by the person entitled, and any order of c. 51, sec. 7. same quarter's justices relating to the same pension, or any two of such pension to be instruments, shall, as to such army pensions, be received at paid according Chelsea Hospital, and as to such Greenwich out-pensions be to priority of received at the Pension Office, Tower Hill, London, or as to dates. any other of such pensions or other allowance as aforesaid be received at the office of the Paymaster-General at Whitehall, in any one quarter, the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital or Her Majesty's Paymaster-General respectively shall pay the quarter's pension upon such one of the said respective instruments as shall have been first executed according to the date thereof, and duly transmitted, so as enable the Commissioners and Her Majesty's Paymaster-General respectively, according to their usual course of forwarding the receipts for quarterly pensions, to confer such priority; and in the event of any such instruments being dated and received the same day, then a proportionate part of the pension to which such instruments relate shall be paid upon every or each of the said instruments. To prevent frauds in assignments. "And whereas great frauds have been practised, and exor- Ibid, sec. 8. bitant and usurious interest obtained from pensioners, upon assignments made under colour of the said Act of the fiftyninth year of the reign of His said late Majesty King George the Third, and according to the form set out in the said Act, although the money advanced thereon has not been advanced out of parish funds, nor to reimburse a parish for relief given to the prisoner by the churchwardens and overseers": be it therefore enacted, that if any person entitled to pension or other allowance shall assign or aid or assist in making an assignment thereof, or of any quarterly or other payment thereof, to any person or persons whatsoever, except to the guardians of any union or parish, or to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish wherein such pensioner resides, or to the heritors and kirk session of any place in Scotland where such pensioner resides, and except for relief granted out of the funds of such union, parish, or townland to such pensioner, or his wife or family residing with him in such parish, it shall be lawful for the Lords and others Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital, so far as relates to army or other pensions payable by such Commissioners, and for the Lord High Admiral, or Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral, with 2 & 3 Vict., c. 51, sec. 9. respect to naval and marine pensions or other allowance, imme- felony. If any person shall forge or counterfeit or alter, or cause or The forging procure to be forged, counterfeited, or altered, or knowingly documents and willingly act, aid, or assist in forging, counterfeiting, or altering, any minute, copy of minute, assignment of pension, superannuation, or other allowance as aforesaid, order, certificate, receipt, document, or authority whatsoever relating to or in anywise concerning the claiming or obtaining payment of any pension money or other allowance as aforesaid, or shall utter or publish as true, or knowingly and willingly act, aid, or assist in uttering or publishing as true, knowing the same to be forged, counterfeited, or altered, any such minute, copy, assignment, order, certificate, receipt, document, or authority relating to or anywise concerning the claiming or obtaining payment of any pension money or other allowance as aforesaid, or the name of any pensioner, justice of the peace, guardian, parish officer, or other officer, or any other person authorized, or supposed or purporting to be authorized, to sign any such minute, copy, assignment, order, certificate, receipt, document, or authority, with intent or in order to obtain, or to enable any other person to obtain, the payment of any such pension or pension money or other allowance as aforesaid from the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital or Her Majesty's Paymaster-General respectively, or from any officer, under officer, clerk, or servant of the said Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital or of Her Majesty's Definition of parish." Secretary-at- Paymaster-General respectively, or from any person authorized The term "parish" shall extend, wherever the context shall 2 & 3 Vict., so require, to all places separately maintaining their own poor. c. 51, sec. 10. The 9th Vic., c. 10, sec. 4, repealed so much of the 7 Geo. IV., 9 Vict., c. 10, c. 16, as related to the payment and management of the out- sec. 4. pensioners1 thereof, and this section is unrepealed. The 19 & 20 Vict., c. 15, which received the Royal Assent on the 11th April 1856, regulates the payment of out-pensions, late payment and the provisions of the Act, are as follows of out-pensioners. Accounts to : By the 2nd section, the Secretary at War is authorized 19 & 20 Vict., to make such rules and regulations for the management and c. 15, sec. 2. payment of the Chelsea and Greenwich out-pensioners, whether residing in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, as shall appear to him best calculated for their and the public advantage, and be audited as upon the production of such proof of title to pension as he may Army effective consider necessary. services. All payments made by the said Secretary at War to or on Ibid, sec. 3. account of the pensioners aforesaid, and the expenses of every Nothing to description connected with their management and payment, interfere with shall be audited and passed in the same manner as the accounts powers of the of the Army effective services are now audited and passed. Admiralty and Chelsea Nothing in this Act contained shall be held to interfere with Ibid, sec. 4. Hospital as to the powers of the Lord High Admiral or the Lords Comgranting, &c., missioners of the Admiralty and the Commissioners of Chelsea of pensions, Hospital respectively, in regard to granting, increasing, reducing, suspending, taking away, or restoring of pension, or to abridge, take away, or interfere with any power, authority, or duty of the said Lord High Admiral or Commissioners respectively, other than by this Act is expressly provided. &c. Penalty for frauds re specting pen sions. Any person guilty of fradulently receiving or endeavouring Ibid, sec. 5. to receive pension money, or money in the nature of pension, from the Secretary-at-War, or from any officer or person employed or authorized to pay pensions, shall upon conviction be subjected to the same pains and penalties as are prescribed by law in the cases of frauds committed or attempted to be Power to re- committed upon the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital, the store pensions Lord High Admiral or the Commissioners of the Admiralty, the to Greenwich Treasurer of the Navy, and the Paymaster-General. pensioners convicted of felony. The Secretary-at-War, with the concurrence of the Lord Ibid, sec. 6. High Admiral or the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, may restore any Greenwich pensioner who shall have been convicted of felony, and thereby shall have forfeited his pension, either to his original pension or to any less rate of pension. Sections 7 to 10 inclusive will be found printed in pages 133 and 134, post. 1 As to enrolled pensioners, see Vol. I., p. 337. |