ing, "That the sum of £1,250,000, Irish currency, be raised by way of annuities for the service of Ireland.

Sir John Newport wished that Mr. Foster's taxes might prove more productive than he could conceive them likely to be. He had one thing to impress upon the minds of the committee, which was, that it was perfectly immaterial what portion of gross revenue was to be raised upon the people, and paid to the treasury, if the expences of the different boards were allowed to go on increasing, as they had done hitherto. What follows calls loudly for serious attention.-Sir John Newport observed, that the incidental expences of the board of excise, in 1806, amounted to £13,000; in 1807, to £36,400; and in 1808, to £104,000; of which last sum there was no less than £29,000 paid to one individual for printing and stationary. This was only aggravating the burthens of the people, without raising any additional public revenue. The gross produce of the stamp duties had increased by £66,000; but there was a defalcation of no less than £44,000 for increased expences. In the post office, too, the expences were on the increase to such a degree, as to suggest the idea, that the nominal addition to the revenue was intended for the purpose of creating jobs, and adding to the burthens, rather than for the good of the public. It was lamentable to look at the funded debt of Ireland. This debt had increased in the proportion of 15 to 4, while the revenue had increased only in the propor

tion of 15 to 83. If the debt of Ireland was raised, like the debt of England, within the country, sir John Newport really thought that a great part of that debt would be done away.

Mr. Foster, with regard to the post office accounts, said, that they never had been settled, since post offices were established. And, as to the expence of the stationary and printing alluded to, it was occasioned by the division of the board of excise into two, by which a completely new collection of books had become necessary.— That the expence should increase, it was natural to suppose, as there were fourteen commissioners instead of seven.

The new arrangement of the post office must also have occasioned considerable additions to the incidental expences, but the public would soon be able to reap the benefit of them.

Mr. Parnell observed, that the nett addition to the revenue by the post office, had been stated at £68,000. But he had found, on enquiry, that the postage of one board amounted to £13,000. Now, if each board increased their expences in a like proportion, the aggregate expence would amount to £39,000, leaving the 29,000, to be received by the public. He could not help thinking, that the great principle of the revenue of Ireland was overlooked in the desire of extensive patronage, by the appointment of officers, so as to deprive the Irish treasury board of its power, and placing it in the hands of the secretary of the Lord Lieutenant. He was satisfied, that until an alteration in this particular took place, and the treasury

board

board of Ireland should either take an efficient part, or be abolished altogether, and these matters of revenue be put under the treasury of this country (England) entirely, the abuses would never be re medied.

The resolutions respecting ways and means, moved by Mr. Foster, were then severally put and agreed to, and afterwards, in the form of bills, passed into laws.

Under the head of finance, in the present brief sketch of national affairs, it is proper to arrange the proceedings of the house of commons on the fourth report of the committee of public expenditure a document of extreme interest and importance, as tending to illustrate the various ways in which losses may accrue to the public from the negligence of government; the injury done to the cause of patriotism and virtue in general by hypocrisy; and the base arts by which low and unprincipled men may insinuate themselves into the favour of a minister, and obtain offices of great trust as well as emolument, and confiding, on too just a calculation, on ministerial favour and forbearance, go on for a long series of years to plunder the property of the public, and thereby to press down and aggravate the heavy load of taxation on the uninformed, though suspecting people. While this document tends to shew the supineness and connivance, which ministers are apt to extend to their creatures and partizans at the public expence, it is a strong testimonial to the well-di

rected patriotism of the administration by whom the financial committee was instituted.

House of Commons, May the 1st. The fourth report of the committee of public expenditure being entered as read,* on the motion of Mr. Ord, that gentleman rose for the purpose of calling the attention of the house to the matters detailed in that report: which were such as to call for the most serious attention of the house. It had been too much the practice he observed, to pass over such reports without doing any thing upon them; by which means, the labours of committees of this kind were in danger of losing their credit with the public. Parliament had, for many years past, and was likely to have for many years to come, the task of imposing enormous taxes on the country, therefore there was no duty of the house of commons more sacred than that of watching over the expenditure of the

public money. Mr. Ord then proceeded to state from the report, that commissioners had been appointed in 1795 to manage, sell, and dispose of the cargoes of Dutch ships, detained or brought in, in order to prevent those cargoes from being greatly injured, or totally destroyed. They had general instructions: as to the conduct of their transactions from the lords of the privy council, requiring them to keep minutes of all their proceedings, and to keep their accounts in such form as the lords commissioners of the treasury should direct and approve; and in case of points of any difficulty occurring, they were to refer to the

committee

committee of the privy council for instructions. These commissioners were five in number-James Craw ford, John Breckwood, Allen Chatfield, Alexander Baxter, and JOHN BOWLES! a member of the society for the suppression of vice, or rather, as appeared from the report, of pilfering from the public. Their sales ceased, and their transactions were brought nearly to a close in 1799. Nothing remained after that period but small sales of remnants, not completed till 1801, and a few other things which would scarcely give the least trouble. To these small views, however, was to be added an important law suit commenced in 1797, which brought into question property to the amount of £180,000. But it was obvious that the burthen of this law suit must fall on the solicitors and counsel. As no fixed remuneration had been assigned to the commissioners, these gentlemen resolved to remunerate themselves, and charged a commission of 5 per cent, on the gross proceeds of their sales, which commission, in the four first years, amounted in all to £80,000. No regular accounts were furnished to government. And criminal as this was in the commissioners, Mr. Ord could not help saying, that the government was far more criminal in not calling for them. Only one account was rendered to the privy council, and in this it was remarkable that no mention was made of commission, which omission the committee observed, might lead the privy council to imagine that no commission was charged, although, at that time £25,000 had actually been divided. But the commissioners had good reason for not rendering

any account, because accounts might lead to the suppression of their illegal profits. This was a most extraordinary thing, Mr. Ord observed, considering the noise which Mr. John Bowles had made about false returns to the property tax. It would be curious to know what returns John himself had made to the property tax at the time he was receiving this large profit from his labour. The act authorizing the appointment of these commissioners required, that the proceeds of the sales should be paid into the bank of England. But instead of this the commissioners had opened accounts with private bankers. It was singular that a lawyer should lead them to a violation of the law, and that the merchants who were in the commission should state a false account of commission as consistent with the general practice in mercantile transactions.

Mr. Ord next adverted to the magnitude of the cash balances returned by the commissioners; and he particularly called the attention of the house to the fact, that Mr. Pitt had, in 1796, applied to them to know, whether any sum arising from the sale of property under their management, would be paid into the exchequer for the service of the current year. They denied that they could pay any thing into the exchequer, although it appeared they had in their hands a balance of £190,000: out of which though they had great demands upon them at the time it was proved, the committee observed, they might have advanced, at the least £50,000. The commissioners, instead of applying the balances in their hands, during the

years

years that preceded the completion of her sales, in a way that might render them productive to the public, had employed them in discounting private bills for their own emolument. If these balances had been vested in exchequer bills between 40 and £50,000, would have been saved to the public.

The next point in the misconduct of the commissioners to which Mr. Ord adverted, was, that by the commission at 5 per cent. on the gross proceeds, by brokerage and interest on the balances, it appeared, the commissioners had taken for their labours the enormous sum of £193,198, being at the rate of £26,000 for each commissioner.

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Mr. Ord farther pointed out a circumstance which seemed to have escaped the attention of the committee, namely, that the commissioners appeared to have charged the 5 per cent. commission on the property which had been managed and sold by the East India company, in the management of which they had been at no trouble whatever so that, in point of fact, a commission of 10 per cent. had been paid on much the largest proportion of this property, inasmuch as the East India company had also a commission of 5 per cent. on their sales. Some of the commisioners were themselves merchants, and must have known that the highest commission among merchants, on the gross proceeds is 2 per cent. What are the real services of these commissioners? Their sales had been finished in four years and a half from the time of their appointment, and the important part of their labours had of course then

closed. Though they were retained nominally, as the law suit had commenced in their names, in point of fact, during the ten years the commission lasted after the completion of the business, the gentlemen found time enough to do a great deal of other business. This same John Bowles had been active in several elections which had since taken place, and had time besides to write about thirty pamphlets about religion, morality, loyalty, and the duty of contributing faithfully and accurately to the property tax. Mr. Breckwood, too, appeared by the report to be at this moment a commissioner for the Spanish property. Two of the commissioners pleaded that they had quitted their professions with a view to the fulfilment of their trust. This was not the first time that professions were abandoned for something better. Another honourable gentleman whom he did not see in his place, (Mr. R. Ward) had also quitted his profession for a salary of £1000 a year as a lord of the admiralty. This brought into view another case adverted to in the report, which appeared to him to be a most palpable job, namely, that of Mr. Thomas Macdonald, who got £5000 for abandoning his profession to become an American commissioner, and that in addition to a salary of £1,500 per annum; when many thousands of persons could have been procured to execute the same commission as well for the same salary. Mr. John Bowles, too, must have a consideration for abandoning his profession, and the house had no difficulty to appreciate the means he had employed for obtaining it. Mr.John Bowles was to be compen

sated

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kated for the loss of a profession at which he might have starved! Mr. Bowles had discovered that it was much more profitable to trade in anti-jacobinism under Mr. Pitt, than to wait for causes at the bar. Mr. Ord was sorry to detain the house with such a man as Mr. Bowles: but it happened that his career was connected with some very important points. It shewed the nature of the cry of anti-jacobinism, which had been set up with so much vigour to defeat the most beneficial political objects. It exposed the principle upon which the loudest of those anti-jacobin declaimers acted, which was solely a view to their own private emoluThis John Bowles afforded an admirable specimen of an antijacobin-the eulogist of existing powers-the defender of present establishments-the denouncer of all who might condemn abuses, or call for reform, as vile jacobins. These tricks would no longer impose upon the public. The mystery was discovered. John Bowles himself let out the secret, and the reign of imposture and delusion was at an end. This transaction afforded a useful lesson to all governments on the point of bestowing important pecuniary trusts on low persons, having no merit to recommend them but the circumstance of their being mercenary authors. If governments would employ such persons, they must share in the disgrace brought on by their conduct. The employment of such men was a bounty on roguery, and an encouragement of abuses. Negligence in the selection of proper agents, and a profligate profusion in the public expenditure, had ever been the pe

culiar characteristic of the administration under which these commissioners had been appointed.

Before he should conclude he had a few words to add upon the mode of keeping the accounts of the commissioners. Mr. Rose had stated in his evidence before the committee that they were to be referred from the treasury to the auditors of the public accounts; in which he appeared to have been incorrect.

Mr. Huskinson admitted that they were to be delivered in to be passed at the treasury. Now, said Mr. Ord, most unquestionably the treasury was the last place to which he should consent to send the accounts of so loyal a man as Mr. John Bowles to be audited and passed; because it was not impossible but he might have friends there, who might not be very strict in the examination and sifting of his accounts. And, besides, the treasury had not power to examine upon oath. If he was rightly informed, the accounts sent in on one day were commonly passed on the next day. In the resolutions which he meant to propose, he should introduce one directing that the accounts should be sent to the auditors of the public accounts. As to the proportion of remuneration to the commissioners, the question could not well be brought before the house till the accounts of the commissioners should be passed. He did not include in the resolu tions he meant to propose, one for directing a criminal prosecution against the commissioners by the attorney-general, because he understood that a doubt was enter tained whether they were liable to such a prosecution. Mr. Ord con

cluded