Letter from John Forster, London, to Lord Shaftesbury, 1873 April 28 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning his retirement allowance as a Commissioner in Lunacy with respect to the Treasury's "Professional Clause"; arguing that he is receiving less than he is entitled to after his tenure as a Commissioner and then as Secretary; saying "The intention of the clause was to secure to public servants on retirement advantages corresponding to those which promotion while engaged in service had opened to them, and thereby to remove the temptation of clinging to office beyond the time when its duties might with full efficiency be discharged...To a Commissioner whose entire term of service, including his Secretaryship, may have been 30 years, the difference between the addition of 10 or of 7 years will matter comparatively little; but where the term of service has been only 15 or 20, the inequality will be gravely felt; And the temptation will remain to the holder of office (which it was the design of the professional clause to remove) to continue to hold it to the [illegible] limit allowable by the law."