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 Service; but I do not think that a change is either desired or desirable.

A hundred years ago, when the organisation of the Service was inchoate and incomplete, no provision was made for family pensions. When an officer died prematurely—a common accident in those days—it was the practice to circulate an appeal to his brother officers for charitable subscriptions for the benefit of his widow and children. In order to obviate the scandal and distress inseparable from this procedure, the East India Company sanctioned the establishment of special funds—one for each Presidency, Bengal, Bombay, and Madras—charged with the provision of annuities sufficient to keep the widows and children of deceased officers above the pressure of want. These funds, derived primarily from the subscriptions of the Civil Servants, and supplemented by liberal contributions from the Company in the shape of high interest on the accumulations, were administered by Service committees, under the supervision of the Comptroller-