Your committee deem the petitioner entitled to a pension under the facts set forth in the report of the Committee on Naval Affairs of the House, who reported this bill, but they deem a pension at the rate of a whole or total disability (viz: $17 50 per month) amply sufficient, and herewith report said bill back with an amendment in accordance thereto, and recommend its passage.

The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Maurice K. Simons, beg leave to report:

That the petitioner is now a pensioner at the rate of $8 per month, on account of an injury received April 27, 1847, which resulted in the loss of his left leg. That, although at the time of his receiving this wound he was serving in no military capacity, yet his services being of great importance, and his conduct highly commendable, he was pensioned as aforesaid by act of Congress, March 3, 1849. He now petitions for an increase of pension, and your committee, viewing the case as a meritorious one, recommends the adoption of the following resolution:

Resolved, That the prayer of the petitioner be granted.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

AUGUST 5, 1856.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. JONES, of Iowa, made the following

REPORT.

[To accompany Bill S. 430.]

The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Margaret Davis, (widow of George Davis, a sailing master in the navy of the United States during the war of 1812,) praying a pension, have had the same under consideration, and report:

That it appears, from the evidence in the case, that George Davis was a sailing master in the United States navy during the war of 1812, and that, as such, he, while in the line of his duty, contracted disease, which ultimately caused his death. The records of the Navy Department show that the name of said George Davis appears on the navy register for the year 1815; and it is a well known fact, that "most of the accounts settled before the year 1817 were destroyed at the burning of the Treasury Department in 1832." It also appears that Mr. Davis, at the time of his death, was on leave of absence; and as the records are destroyed, and nothing exists on the files of the department to prove the fact that Mr. Davis died out of the service; and as the department have acted on the presumption that when its own records do not show that an officer died out of service, he must have been in the navy at the time of his death, your committee, deeming the case a meritorious one, recommend that the prayer of the petitioner be granted, and herewith report a bill granting a pension to petitioner, at the rate of one half the monthly pay of a sailing master, (at the period said George Davis was in the naval service of the United States,) from the 1st day of February, 1855, at which time the committee deem the proof was completed, as far as was possible under existing circumstances, and recommend its passage.