P enob'scot, a river of Maine. The West Branch rises near the Canadian frontier, and flows east and south-east to where it meets the East Branch or Seboois River. Afterwards its course is southsouth-west to Penobscot Bay, a broad and sheltered inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, 35 miles long and 20 wide, with numerous islands. It is tidal and navigable for large vessels to Bangor, 60 miles from its mouth. The chief trade is in lumber. Penrhyn. See CARNARVONSHIRE, BANGOR, BETHESDA, and SLATE. Penrith, a market-town of Cumberland, in a picturesque and fertile valley, on the outskirts of the Lake District (q.v.), 18 miles SSE. of Carlisle. It has a fine old ruined castle, where Richard III. (then Duke of Gloucester) is said to have resided, and a grammar-school (1395; refounded 1564). In the churchyard are two ancient monuments, the 'Giant's Grave' and the 'Giant's Thumb,' often visited by Sir Walter Scott; and north-east of the town is the wooded Beacon (937 feet). Pop. 8300. Penryn (Corn., 'head of the river'), a town of Cornwall, at the head of a creek of Falmouth harbour, 3 miles NW. of Falmouth, with which till 1918 it returned one member to parliament (till 1885 two). Scarce a trace remains of Glasney College, founded in 1264 for thirteen Black Augustinian Canons; and none of a palace of the bishops of Exeter. Neighbouring quarries supply the famous Penryn granite-the material of Chatham Docks and other great public works; and the town has besides some flour and timber milling and manufactures of chemicals. Incorporated by James I., it was taken by Fairfax in 1646. Pop. 3000. Pensacola, a port of entry and the capital of Escambia county, Florida, is 244 miles by rail ENE. of New Orleans, on the west shore of a deep hay opening into the Gulf of Mexico. The entrance is defended by Fort McRee and Fort Pickens, the latter on Santa Rosa Island; and near by is the | principal American naval air-station. Pensacola contains saw and planing mills, and ships large quantities of yellow pine. It was settled by the Spaniards before 1700, occupied by the British from 1763 to 1781, and afterwards during the wars with Napoleon, taken by Andrew Jackson from the British in 1814 and the Spaniards in 1818, and passed with the rest of Florida to the United States in 1819. Pop. (1880) 6845; (1910) 22,982; (1920) 31,035; (1925) 25,305. Penshurst, a village of Kent, 5 miles SW. of Tonbridge. Penshurst Place, rich in literary associations, was Sir Philip Sidney's birthplace. Pensionary is the name formerly given to the syndic or legal adviser in every important town of Holland.-During the republic of the United Netherlands, the first minister of the province of Holland was called Raadspensionaris-Englished by State Pensionary, or, more commonly, Grand Pensionary. The Grand Pensionary had no vote in the assembly of the States, and could only bring forward the subjects of discussion. He, however, collected the votes, wrote the decrees, read the letters addressed to the States, conducted negotiations with foreign ambassadors and ministers, and took charge of the revenues of the province, and whatever else pertained to its welfare. The office was abolished in 1795, after the conquest of Holland by the French revolutionists. Olden Barneveldt, De Witt, and Heinsius were its most celebrated holders. Pensioners. See GENTLEMEN-AT-ARMS. Pensions may be broadly divided into superannuation allowances and rewards for special services. Great sums are required for superannua tion in the various departments of state, including the consular, diplomatic, and colonial services, and in the fighting services. The pensions granted from the Civil List (q.v.) to persons in straitened circumstances who have merited special distinction by their discoveries in science or their attainments in literature or in arts, are altogether on a different footing from those in the civil service, which last are part of the condition of employment, and are thus in the nature of deferred pay. Of the same nature is the retired pay of officers in Navy, Army, and Air Force, as well as the service pensions of other ranks. The enormous character of the burden of the non-effective services has given occasion for much discussion, and has called forth many suggestions. Thus, in the session of 1888 a motion was carried in the House of Commons, the effect of which is to restrict the system of compulsory retirement on pension of civil servants. The principle has been laid down that officials no longer required in their own departments who are still able and willing to render service for the public money should be provided with employ. ment in other departments, instead of being forced to become useless burdens upon the country. Perpetual pensions must be regarded as somewhat of an abuse of the principle upon which a state rewards good and faithful servants. The matter became the subject of a parliamentary inquiry on the initiation of Mr Bradlaugh in 1887. A select committee was appointed, which, after taking evidence of a curious and interesting kind, recommended that no more pensions or allowances should be granted in perpetuity. This committee also reported in favour of the abolition of all sinecure offices with salaries but no duties, and recommended that all existing perpetual pensions, allowances, and payments, and all hereditary offices, should be determined and abolished. In commuting such pensions it has been laid down as necessary to differentiate cases of grants for actual services by the original grantees, and cases of mere gratuity. Where no service or merely nominal service was rendered either by the present holder or the original grantee it was proposed that the payment should in no case continue beyond the life of the present holder. In former commutations of perpetual pensions a scale of twenty-seven years' purchase was usually adopted. On or about this scale there were, between 1881 and 1887, 330 pensions and allowances of the annual value of £18,957 commuted for a sum total of £527,933. The rate was reported to be too high, and in the session of 1888 a motion was passed for giving effect to the recommendation of the select committee, and for a return in detail of all outstanding hereditary pensions and the circumstances in which they were granted. Pensions such as those of £4000 per annum to the Duke of Marlborough, and of £5000 to Earl Nelson, and to their heirs in perpetuity, are, of course, well understood as in return for value received' in special services to the state. In 1925 a pension of £2000 held by a great-great-great-grandson of the distinguished admiral Lord Rodney was commuted for £42,000, and the only pension of this kind then remaining was that enjoyed by the descendant of Earl Nelson. The objection to the principle of such pensions is that it is a burdening of posterity with payment for services rendered to one generation. The rewards for distinguished services should be defrayed by the generation receiving the benefit of them, and should be conferred upon the persons who actually render them, either in the form of a capital sum down, or of a life-pension only. There are, again, a number of hereditary pensions conferred not for services, but as solatium for the loss of the fees of abolished offices. Thus, when the offices of Custos Brevium and Clerk of the Juries were abolished in 1837 the holders were compensated with hereditary pensions of £786 each.* These were commuted on a basis of twenty-seven years' purchase. One of the numerous perquisites conferred by Charles II. on his illegitimate son, the Duke of Grafton, was that of Officer of the Pipe, or Remembrancer of First Fruits and Tenths of the Clergy in the Court of Exchequer. This office was sold by the duke in 1765, and when the fees were abolished the holder was compensated with a per petual pension of £62, 9s. 8d. A still more remark- A minister of the crown who has held office (not necessarily continuously) for a specified period of service may claim a pension if his income from other sources is insufficient to maintain him adequately. The amount of pension is £2000, £1200, or £800, according to the office held; the number of such pensions is limited by statute to twelve. Similarly a Lord Chancellor of England is granted on retirement from office a pension of £5000, and judges of the Supreme Court are entitled to receive pensions equal to two-thirds of salary after fifteen years' service or on becoming permanently incapacitated from duty; county court judges and certain other officers of the courts are also granted analogous benefits. In the case of an established civil servant a pension calculated at one-eightieth of his final salary (or in certain circumstances the average salary of the last three years) for each year's service is granted on retirement at age sixty or over, or earlier if he has broken down in health, after not less than ten years' service; in addition a lump sum equal to one-thirtieth of salary for each year is paid on retirement. If death occurs during service a year's salary is payable to the officer's estate. The foregoing scales apply to male officers and are subject to qualifying conditions and limitations laid down in the Superannuation Act 1909; the benefits of women and of entrants before that act are somewhat different. The whole of the cost of the pensions of civil servants is met out of public funds. The superannuation rights of elementary school teachers (and certain other classes of teachers) are prescribed in the Teachers' Superannuation Act, 1925; part of the cost is derived from the joint contributions of the teachers and the education authorities, and the balance from the Exchequer. Similarly the police are required to contribute towards the cost of their pensions. The rules governing the award of pensions to officers and men in the Navy, Army, and Air Force are somewhat complicated and are varied from time to time owing, inter alia, to changes in the cost of living; for precise information, therefore, reference should be made to the official regulations applicable to the particular arm of the service. After the Great War the scales and conditions were extensively modified, and, as far as possible, the arrangements applicable to Navy, Army, and Air Force respectively were brought into line. Broadly speaking, pensions granted on retirement from service are based both on the rank of the officer or man and on his period of service. Navy pensions were first instituted in the reign of William and Mary. Those for officers may be classed as follows: good service pensions, Greenwich Hospital pensions, pensions for wounds, and the ordinary pension to which an officer may be entitled on retirement, now known as retired pay. No officer is entitled to a retiring pension until he is forty years of age; should he retire earlier he receives merely the half-pay of his rank, except in the case of junior officers who are invalided, when a further allowance is made. The maximum retired pay of an admiral of the fleet is £1800, admiral £1425, vice-admiral £1195, rear-admiral £1010; in these cases thirty years' sea service as a commissioned officer is requisite; in addition a good service pension of £300 may be held. The maximum retired pay of a captain is £900, commander £600, lieutenant-commander or lieutenant £450, the Cormal age at retirement being fifty-five, fifty, and forty-five respectively. The good service pensions, so-called, consist of ten of £300 a year for admirals, which may be held after retirement, and of eighteen of £150 a year for captains, those last are conferred on captains on the active list, and are relinquished when their holders are promoted to rear-admiral or retire. Seamen and marines are entitled to a pension after twenty-two and twentyone years' service respectively (disregarding any period before attainment of age eighteen); the basic rate is 14d. per day for each year's service, plus additions for very good character,' good conduct medal or badges. On attainment of age fifty-five an addition of 5d. a day is made, with a further increase of 4d. when age sixty-five is reached. Petty officers receive the seamen's rates, plus a rank allowance varying with length of service in that capacity. Greenwich Hospital pensions, which may be held in addition to ordinary pensions, date from the reign of William III., when Queen Mary established the hospital for infirm and aged seamen. These pensions range from £150 for flag officers to £30 for warrant officers; they are limited in number, and are divided into numerous classes. There are also pensions for wounds, varying with the rank of the officer or man and with the nature of the injury; and special pensions may be given to men unable to contribute materially to their support. Pensions are also given to the widows of officers in certain circumstances, and compassionate allow. ances made to their children or other dependents. In the case of the Army the retired pay of an officer consists of a sum depending on his length of service (£150 after fifteen years, with an addition of £15 for each year in excess), plus an allowance for rank (e.g. £12 for each year of service as a major); there are, however, over-riding maxima of £300 for a subaltern or captain, £450 for a major, rising to £1400 for a general. Non-commissioned officers and soldiers receive pensions similar to those granted to seamen; in their case too the basic rate is lid. a day for each year's service (21 years or over), plus rank allowance, and the increases at age fifty-five and sixty-five apply also. Formerly these age additions were granted only to naval pensioners, but the different branches of the service were brought in line after the Great War. In the Air Force the retired pay of an officer is similar to that of an Army officer of corresponding rank, but is further complicated by regard being had to whether he was employed on general duties (e.g. flying) or in the stores branch. Owing to the need for young flying officers a considerable proportion are granted short service commissions and on retirement receive only a gratuity. For other ranks the rates and conditions are generally similar to those applicable to soldiers, save that the normal period of qualifying service is twenty-four years instead of twenty-one years. Holders of the Victoria Cross and others who have been rewarded for gallant conduct receive additional allowances. The awards to officers and men invalided from the service on account of wounds or other injury depend, inter alia, upon the degree of incapacity. GREAT WAR PENSIONS.-Soon after the outbreak of the Great War it was apparent that the pension schemes for disabled men and for widows during previous wars were unsuited to a war in which the whole nation took up arms. Revised scales were adopted by the Admiralty and the War Office which are set out in Parliamentary Paper Cd 7662 together with the superseded scales; the whole question was, however, referred to a Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in November 1914, which recommended further substantial increases. For example, the widow of a private soldier without children who in previous wars would have received a pension of 5s. a week, was granted a pension of 10s. (increasing to 12s. 6d. at age thirty-five and 15s. at age forty-five); and a widow with four children 22s. 6d. (or more if the mother was over thirty-five), in place of 11s. hitherto in force. In the case of men totally disabled, a private received a pension of 25s. (with an additional allowance of 2s. 6d. for each child); if the man was partially disabled he received such proportion of the above sum as would, with the wages he was capable of earning, amount to 25s., but in no case less than 10s. 6d. for the loss of a limb or an eye. Separate scales were laid down for various classes of officers, nurses, and noncommissioned officers, and also for dependants other than widows and children. During the early years of the war the award and payment of pensions to naval ratings was normally vested in the Admiralty, the corresponding functions in regard to soldiers being exercised by the Army Council. But with increase in the number of pensioners and the consequent administrative strain on the fighting departments the work was transferred to a new ad hoc department, the Ministry of Pensions, which became responsible from 1917 onwards for all war pensions payable to soldiers and seamen or their dependants; later, when the Air Force was constituted as a separate unit, the functions of the Ministry of Pensions were expanded. In 1917 the pensions warrants were revised in the light of experience in various directions [Cd 8485]. The principal changes were (1) to increase the pensions of disabled men, especially if they had children; (2) to apply the standard scales to men disabled in the highest degree, proportionately medical board's assessment of disablement arising out of injury or disease due to war service; it is reviewed periodically until the man's position has become stabilised, and a final award under the War Pensions Act of 1921 can be made. The number of claims for pensions grew steadily during the war, until in the year 1919 the Ministry of Pensions had to deal with nearly 700,000 new cases. Up to March 1925 the aggregate number of awards (exclusive of allowances and gratuities for minor disablements) was over 2 millions, and the aggregate number of beneficiaries to whom compensation had been paid was 4 millions. Owing to deaths, remarriages of widows, attainment by children of the maximum pensionable age of 16, and improvement in the health of pensioners, the number who were in receipt of pension or allowance at that date had fallen to 1,900,000. smaller pensions being granted according to the prescribed degree (measured in tenths) of physical impairment, but irrespective of future earning power; (3) to grant supplementary pensions to disabled men or widows in addition to the normal scales where the man's status, judged by his prewar earnings, indicated that the normal pension would be inadequate. A further revision was found necessary in 1918, largely owing to the increased cost of living due to the depressed purchasing power of money, and for the same reason it was found necessary to give further assistance to persons receiving pensions in respect of service in previous wars. After the armistice the whole position was reviewed by a Select Committee of the House of Commons set up to inquire and report upon the past method of administering the pensions acts and warrants and what steps, if any, were necessary for the removal and prevention Up to March 1925 the total expenditure for of legitimate grievances. The committee recom- war pensions provided out of the Exchequer had mended that special tribunals should be set up for amounted to about 600 millions, the cost in the the hearing of appeals as to title to, or amount of, maximum year, 1920, being over 106 millions. In pensions, such tribunals to be independent of the 1923 the annual burden had fallen to 72 millions, Ministry of Pensions, and their decision to be final the corresponding figure in 1924 being 69 millions and binding on both the Ministry and the appellant. (of which less than 5 per cent. was absorbed in With regard to the scales of pensions the committee administrative expenses). The cost will diminish recommended that these should be increased to year by year as pensions terminate; and it has been meet the high prices then obtaining, and that estimated that the annual cost will drop to about power should be taken to increase or decrease 52 millions in 1930, 37 millions in 1940, and that the scales periodically as the cost of living rose it will not fall below 10 millions until after 1965. or fell. The plan was adopted in a new warrant NATIONAL OLD AGE PENSIONS belong to a [Cmd 457 of 1919], but though the cost of living different category, and may to some extent be condropped very materially in subsequent years no sidered as falling under the treatment of the poor adjustment of pensions was made. The following (see POOR-LAW), but dissociated from the stigma and specimen rates taken from the warrant of 1919 the disabilities of pauperism or workhouse condirepresent the minimum weekly pensions applicable tions. The problem of the provision of suitable to a soldier whose disability is of the highest assistance for the aged poor is one which has atdegree (e.g. loss of two or more limbs, total loss tracted the attention of the governments of most of sight, &c.): 40s. if single, 50s. if married, with civilised communities during the last half-century; an addition of 7s. 6d. for the first child, and 6s. for so far as the United Kingdom is concerned, the each subsequent child. The widow of such a man question assumed a definite shape in the last decade receives 20s. if not over forty and without children of the 19th century, public opinion being especially eligible for an allowance, or 26s. 8d. if over forty drawn to the matter through Mr Charles Booth's or with children, the allowances for children being investigations into the causes of the high rate of 10s. for the first, 7s. 6d. for the second, and 6s. for pauperism in old age. As a consequence, a Royal each additional child. On remarriage the widow's Commission was appointed to examine this subject pension ceases, but the children's allowances con- in 1895, and was followed by further committees, but tinue, and the widow is given a lump sum equivalent nothing was achieved until the Old Age Pensions to one year's pension. Act of 1908. Under this scheme, which was admitted by the government spokesman on its introduction to be only a beginning and necessarily experimental, old age pensions at the rate of 5s. a week were granted to all persons (subject to the undermentioned exceptions) aged 70 or over whose yearly means did not exceed £21 (approximately 8s. a week), persons whose yearly means were between this amount and £31, 10s. receiving smaller pensions ranging from 4s. to 1s. a week, and those whose means exceeded £31, 10s. being disentitled to any pension. The scheme was limited to persons who had been British subjects for at least the last twenty years, and who had been resident in the United Kingdom during that period. Persons in receipt of Poor-law relief (other than medical or surgical relief) were excluded from the scheme, and also persons who before becoming entitled to a pension had habitually failed to work according to their ability for their maintenance and that of their dependants a criterion which in practice has been found difficult to administer. Pensions were withheld also from pauper or criminal lunatics, and from persons convicted to be imprisoned without the option of a fine, while in prison and for a further period of ten years. Under the Act of 1908 the whole cost of the scheme is provided out of the Exchequer; the burden in the first complete financial year was 8 millions sterling, which by 1916 had grown to 12 millions. In 1916, owing to The arrangements referred to above, under which alternative pensions based on the disabled, or deceased, soldier's pre-war earnings could be claimed, were continued in the new warrant, with the necessary adjustments appropriate to the increased cost of living. In the case of N.C.O.'s, warrant-officers, &c., additions based on the man's rank are made to the scales applicable to privates. For officers the same general principles are involved, but there are important differences in their application. Stated briefly, a disabled officer of the rank of captain or under, whose disablement is of the highest degree, receives a pension of £210 per annum under the warrant of 1920; but where he would be entitled to more under earlier warrants because, for example, he was an officer in the regular army, his case is dealt with according to the more favour able scale. In cases of pecuniary need, additional allowances towards the cost of educating children are granted. Officers of higher rank are granted larger pensions, and proportionately reduced sums are payable to officers whose degree of disablement is less than the maximum. The pensions awarded to the widows of deceased officers are graded according to the rank of the husband and the number of children; for example, the widow of a captain receives £140 per annum, plus £36 for each child. A disablement pension is at the outset generally a temporary award for twelve months, based on a the high cost of living due to the Great War, additional allowances not exceeding 2s. 6d. a week were granted to pensioners who were suffering special hardship through the war; and in 1917 these supplementary payments were made general, the standard rate of pension being increased from 5s. to 7s. 6d. At the close of the war a Departmental Committee was appointed to consider what alterations as regards rates of pension or qualification should be made in the existing scheme; the committee recommended that the standard rate of pension should be increased to 10s., and that the pension age of 70 should be retained, the cost of a non-contributory pension commencing at an earlier age being in their opinion prohibitive, the effect of substituting age 65 for age 70 being nearly to double the cost. The majority of the committee thought that pensions should be universal, all qualifications as to means being abolished; the minority, however, recommending that the existing means scale should be doubled. By the Act of 1919 the standard rate of pension was increased to 10s., and as regards qualification, the recommendation of the minority was adopted. The means test was further eased by an amending act in 1924; the full scale is granted where, in the case of a married man or woman, the combined means of a married couple do not exceed £139, 10s., or, in other cases, the means do not exceed £65, 5s., but is subject to reduction if the income of a pensioner includes earnings of more than £39. Proportionately reduced pensions are payable where the means are larger, until in the limiting case a married couple with a combined income of £177, 15s., or a single person with an income of £88, 17s. 6d., receives no pension. The extension of the non-contributory pension scheme since its commencement in 1908 until 1924 had thus been substantial, being hastened by the changed value of money brought about by the Great War; and in view of the financial position of the country, the government decided that further developments, including the reduction of the pension age, for which there had long been advocates, should be financed on a contributory basis. The Widows', Orphans', and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act of 1925 extends the social services provided for the working population by adding to the existing schemes of health insurance, unemployment insurance, and workmen's compensation (see INSUR ANCE), a scheme of pensions for widows and dependent children, and old age pensions commencing at the age of 65 instead of 70, and passing, on the attainment of the latter age, into pensions under the Old Age Pensions Acts, freed, however, from the restrictions and disqualifications hitherto applied to such pensions. The Act of 1925, which extends to Great Britain, established the new scheme on a contributory and compulsory basis, interlocked with the existing scheme of National Health Insurance, and at its commencement in 1926 there were about 15 million contributors in Great Britain. The rate of contribution is ordinarily 9d. a week in the case of a man, equally divided between the workman and his employer, and 44d. in the case of a woman, of which 2d. is payable by the employee and the balance by her employer; in addition, the Exchequer makes a substantial contribution, as explained below. The above scales of contributions apply to the first ten years of the scheme (1926-1935), in the following decennium a further 2d. (men), 1d. (women), equally divided between the workman and his employer, will be charged, the scale rising again by similar additions in 1946 and also in 1956; the weekly rate of contributions will thus be 1s. 3d. for a man and 74d. for a woman from January 1956 onwards. The contributions are collected under the health insurance machinery, a combined stamp being employed, covering the contribution payable under that scheme and also that under the new scheme; by this arrangement the troublesome complication which would have arisen had an insured person had to carry an additional contribution card and his employers to stamp it weekly was avoided. Persons who, after a specified period of compulsory insurance, cease to be employed contributors on becoming, for example, their own masters, are permitted to continue as voluntary contributors, and this privilege was extended to certain classes who had passed out of compulsory health insurance before the new scheme started, provided that they exercised their option to contribute within the first six months of the scheme; persons are not, however, permitted to be voluntary contributors under the pension scheme alone, but must pay the combined contribution for health and pensions. Subject to certain qualifying conditions, the benefits provided for contributors are as follows: (a) Widows' Pensions.-10s. a week for the widow of an insured person, with an additional allowance for children up to the age of 14 (with extension to 16 if undergoing full-time instruction in a day-school) at the rate of 59. a week for the eldest child, and 3s. a week for each of the other children. In the event of the widow remarrying the children's allowances continue, but her pension ceases. (b) Orphans' Pensions.-7s. 6d. a week for each child of an insured man, being a married man or a widower, or of an insured widow. (c) Old Age Pensions.-10s. a week to insured men and insured women between the ages of 65 and 70, and 10s. a week to the wives, aged 65 or over, of insured men who are themselves entitled to pensions. From 70 onwards the pension is continued under the Old Age Pensions Acts, but without the application of the means, residence, and nationality tests. In addition pensions were given to women who had been left widows before the commencement of the act, if, broadly speaking, their husbands would have been insured persons at the date of death had the contributory scheme then been in existence; but no pension is given to a woman in this class unless she has dependent children, and the pension ceases when the youngest child attains the age of 14. Similarly pensions are provided for children left orphans before the commencement of the scheme. The widows' and orphans' pensions began in January 1926; for old age pensions at 65 the date of commencement is January 1928; but in the transi tional period pensions are provided from July 1926 for certain persons qualified by virtue of past insurable employment, over the age of 70, and for their wives or widows under the Old Age Pensions Acts, but without the requirements of those acts as to means, residence, and nationality. The act provides for the scheme to be adminis tered by the Minister of Health in England and Wales, and by the Scottish Board of Health in Scotland. A claimant for a pension who is dissatisfied with the decision of the Minister or the Board has ordinarily a right of appeal. Pensions are payable weekly by the Post-Office, and charged to a central pension account, to which the contributions and Exchequer grants are carried, the latter being fixed at four millions per annum for the first ten years of the scheme. Consequent upon the reduction of the pension age to 65 it was necessary to amend the National Health Insurance Act (see INSURANCE), the right to sickness and disablement benefits between the ages 65 and 70 being with |