Subscribers who may be detained abroad as prisoners of war will be exonerated from the subscription during the time of their confinement; and that period will be included in the number of years which it is requisite for officers to pay in order to receive benefit, except from wounds, diseases, &c.

Officers to pay a trifling fee on promotion.

Officers reduced to half pay in the usual manner will pay at half the rate of full pay.

Officers who voluntarily retire to half pay must pay double the proportion of the subscription required from the rank they hold.

Claimants by right, being Subscribers.

An officer disabled by wounds or disease acquired in foreign service, after ten years, claims on forwarding his certificates.

An officer having served eight years in the West Indies or Africa, after he has subscribed twenty years.

An officer having served five years abroad may claim after he has subscribed twenty-five years.

An officer not having served abroad five years cannot claim under thirty years' subscription.

An officer on half pay may claim the full pension after the stated years. An officer permitted to sell out, having subscribed the regular time, may claim the benefit.

Wices and Widows.

An officer, if married prior to the commencement of the fund, subscribes for his wife from that time, otherwise he will have an entrance to pay of ten shillings after two years, and the subscriptions due from him rated on the pay he then receives, with compound interest: this entrance will be doubled after two years more, and increased in like manner to the end of the ten; after which, officers so situated must pay for their wives from their own age of sixteen.

No officer can subscribe for his wife unless he also pays a subscription for himself.

An officer marrying after thirty-five years of age must pay three pence in the pound; after forty five, six pence; after fifty, nine pence; and after sixty, one shilling; on the pay he then receives, for every year from his own age of sixteen; but from the day of his marriage he will pay the usual rate of two pence: This is to prevent imposition on the fund, from old men marrying in order to provide pensions for their widows.

A pension will be allowed to widows from the death of their husbands; those of equal rank will receive a like pension: all officers paying the same rate for their wives and children.

In case an officer's widow re-marries, the pension will be discontinued to her.

Children.

Children, if born prior to the commencement of the fund, to be subscribed for from that period, or included in the annual entrauces mentioned in respect to the widows.

If born after the commencement of the fund, to be subscribed for from their birth.

Pensions will be allowed to children rendered fatherless, till the age of sixteen.

An officer neglecting to pay or cause to be paid his regular subscriptions forfeits all claim to benefit.

Officers have it in their power to double or triple the subscription, for themselves, their wives, and children, as they may think proper; by this means, the pensions to either will be in proportion to the subscription paid.

A board of general officers will sit monthly, before whom the persons entrusted with the management of the business will lay a statement of the receipts and expenditure, which will be annually printed for the information of subscribers.

Having thus had the honor of explaining my plan, I trust my brother officers will, for their own interest, promote it. The happiness, the comfort, and the respectability, that hundreds will derive from it is evident.

From calculations which I have been enabled to make, with the assistance of many well-informed gentlemen, but particularly from one who has given much attention to the business, it is ascertained that if five-eighths of the officers subscribe, and which number I am warranted in stating to be under-rated, from the very flattering approbation the plan has universally met with, there will be an annual subscription of 32,0611. Ss. 11⁄2d.; and from the annual casualties in the army, such as deaths, retirements, &c. &c. there will be an annual increase on the above number of officers, of 1,6031. after the first year.

These sums together, as will be seen by the undermentioned table, will, in ten years, with their compound interest, accumulate to 420,9407. 10s.

1 J. Philippart, Esq.

Calculations on an annual subscription of 32,061l. 8s. 1d.1⁄2 laid out at compound interest, and on casualties after the first year, amounting to 1,6037.

In these calculations, no account is taken of the increased sum an office will pay, from brevet rank and staff appointments; neither the subscriptions from garrison officers, commissariat, medical department, officers of militia, fees on promotion, or casualties from deaths of wives or children included. These, with the immense honorary subscriptions, which a plan of such general benefit must receive, aud which I have every reason to think, from the liberal manner in which affluent men have already treated it, justify me in expecting that the amount of the fund will be at the least double what I have stated.

The several pensions to be allowed depend on so many casualties which are not the subject of computation, that at present it is impossible to state, with any certainty, what will be their amount.

On this subject I beg to subjoin an extract of a letter to the gentleman' I have before mentioned, from William Morgan, Esq. who is justly ranked one of the most able calculators in this kingdom.

"On the most moderate supposition, it appears, that at the end of ten years the fund will have so accumulated as to provide for the 2 annual distribution of 67,000l. among the different claimants, exclusive of the additional accumulation which shall have been formed from the many subscriptions, which can hardly be estimated at less than half that sum, and which will, consequently, increase the whole amount of the

1 J. Philippart, Esq.

2 Since that opinion was given, a deduction has been made on the subscriptions of wives and children, which reduces the amount of the fund from annual subscription to 54,711). 8s. 7d.; but the fees proposed on promotions, will, alone, be equal to that difference.

distribution to more than 100,000l. per annum; would it not, therefore, be better to make the plan as general as possible, by limiting the annuities or pensions at present, to no particular sum, and to hold out the large accumulation of the fund as affording the strongest reason to hope, that those who shall need their assistance will be liberally provided for from them?"

I beg to make one remark on the subscriptions: they are a most trifling deduction from an officer's pay. A captain of infantry, who subscribes twenty-five years, will, altogether, have paid no more, for himself, than 791. 15s. 10d.; and from this plan, by so small a contribution, it is proposed, in case he requires it, to add that to his income, when he arrives at old age, which will render his circumstances comfortable. I cannot think there is any man, who, perfectly aware of the benefit of this plan, however situated with respect to rank, age, or fortune, will not cheerfully contribute his support to perfect a scheme so essentially beneficial to the army. Such are the vicissitudes of this life, that no person can say, "Thus I am, and thus I will continue to be!" The wealthiest to-day may be the poorest to-morrow; nor shall any man say, that on some future day he will not congratulate himself in having, during the period of affluence, lent his aid to the formation of a fund, from which he may draw the means of comfort and respect. Even admitting him to continue affluent, will not his heart expand with gratifying sensations when he sees the veteran or disabled officer, the widows and the children of his brother officers, partakers of the benefits resulting from that noble institution he has assisted to establish? for we will not suppose that any officer possessing an ample income will ever clain from the fund, or weaken its power for the purposes of its original institution; and, indeed, no officer possessed of an income equal to eight hundred pounds per annum will be allowed to claim; nor a widow, if her income exceeds two hundred pounds a year, unless she has a very numerous family, when it will be at the option of the Board.

SUPPLEMENT

TO THE

PLAN FOR AN OFFICERS' BENEFIT FUND.

BY JOHN PHILIPPART, Esq.

SINCE the publication of the Plan for an Officers' Benefit Fund,

several individuals have been desirous that a medium should be offered whereby Officers might receive Pensions, in case of being disabled, from the commencement of the Fund, and also their Widows, and Children, if they, the officers, should die within the ten years.. Their desires have been fully considered, and it appears that the only method which can be adopted for this object, which is certainly very desirable, without injury to the Fund as laid down in the Plan, is, that Officers should pay a donation at the commencement of the Fund in addition to their subscription, and the interest arising from those donations must be competent to the discharge of all demands, which can be made from those who may become claimants during the ten years.

In regard to the amount of the donations, gentlemen of the highest talent have been consulted, and the lowest which could possibly be received, without injury to the Fund, are subjoined opposite to the different ranks of Officers; also the pensions, which will be allowed to the donors, if they become disabled after the commencement of the Fund, and in the event of their death, to their Widows and Children.

It is to be observed that Officers paying the donations will be subject to the same rules as detailed in the plan, and to forfeiture of all claim, should they fail to pay or cause to be paid their regular subscriptions; and after the expiration of the ten years, they will be on the same footing in every respect, as Officers who have been only subscribers.