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* have in the smallest degree taken place, * for he knows that not a shilling has been "lost to the public-(Hear! Hear!)—that no allegation of any such loss has been "mentioned in the report, and that, in fact "no mischief whatever has resulted from

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be fairly attributed to nobody but the persons, whose established malversation created he suspicion. As to the press, let any one, who is ablę, point out the passage, where the conduct of Lord Melville has been misrepresented to his disadvantage. The Morning Chronicle, The Times, and The Morning Advertiser, have, with a degree of talent and zeal that does them great honour, espoused the cause of the nation; but, has Lord Melville and the ministry been without their advocates? Has not the Morning Post, the Sun, the Oracle, the Courier, and the Morning Herald, been engaged in a defence of his lordship from the moment his conduct .was attacked? Will it be believed that the means of procuring defenders of this sort have been spared? And, as to "clamour," let the language of these latter prints be reverted to; and, if any thing half so clamorous, so abusive, so menacing, so evidently intended to intimidate, can be found in any other prints, upon any occasion whatever, then will I confess, that Lord Melville has been unfairly treated. Of pamphlets none has been published against Lord Melville. Even the Tenth Report itself has found no bookseller bold enough to furnish an edition to gratify the curiosity of the public; but, Lord Melville has not wanted a pamphleteer to take up Lis cause, and, from his performance, issuing from the shop of a bookseller professedly ministerial, I will make a few extracts, whence the public will be able to judge of the reasonableness of the complaint of Mr, Canning and Mr. Pitt. The publication alluded to is entitled, "Strictures on the Tenth Report, &c." The writer ascribes the report to the malice, ig norance, or folly, of a quorum of cold-bloid"ed inquisitors." He talks of the "ca'um"nies of accredited official reports." Men in power, he says, "will not find that the "loose libels of the Tenth Report have had "the effect of turning every mind in the "country from an experienced statesman, 46 so as to wish him removed from olice, "only to give place to some tyrant of the quarter lock .............if the Tenth Report "be famous, so are the acts of Nero and Caligula.... Already have they" [the Commissioners] produced litle less than "mutinics in most of the departments in the "naval service...... The Tenth Report is, "from beginning to end, almost a tissue of "calumnies. It is a report levelled, not "merely at the reputations of the first and "ablesi ministers of the Crown, but at the peace and well being of the country.... "It has visited the tomb for victims, to "salate the lust for scandal, of a faction of

this transaction -(A roar of Hear! Hear! "from the opposition benches).-Sir, the "House must be sensible that it is very lule consistent with the moderation and candour that ought to accompany a se "rions charge of this nature, to proceed "with such violence and interrupt a mem"ber with clamour. But they need not espect to interrupt nie. with such noise, which I must consider as an attempt to influence the passions of the House; ard I have the less doubt on the subject, when "I recollect the numberless misrepresenta“tions bath in and out of the Ilouse on this athair; misrepresentations which have "been attended with no little mischief. It " has been stated, not only that a very con"siderable loss bas been sustained, but that our seamen have, in consequence of the "transactions now before us, been prevented "frong receiving in proper time the money due to their valour and their meritorious services. (No! No! from the opposition) There "has not been the slightest grounds for saying any such thing, for I can safely aver "that the delay of an hour has never taken 16 place in paying such money, and i do, "therefore, most grievously, and justly complain, that this affair has not been treated with proper candour and moderation." As to the question of actual loss to the public, and consequent additional burdens, these topics belong to a subsequent head; but, who, 'till this speech was made, ever heard of any "clamour out of doors?" Who ever heard, that it was represented, that the sailors' pay was, on account of these malversations, detained from them? I never heard of any such thing; and, if such a notion was really entertained and propagated, who was to blame for it, and who would have been answerable for the consequences? Who but those, whose criminal conduct had attorded the grounds for the suspicions, whence such a inisrepresentation arose Eut," after all, was it a misrepresentation? If bills drawn upon Somerset House, for provisions for the navy, were not duly paid, if those, who ought to have paid bills upon the sick and hurt boards, did not duly pay those bills; if this was the case, and for years together, is it not possible, at least; nay, will any one say, that it is not likely, that demands for seamen's wages may have been delayed? At any rate, the misrepresentation, if any, can

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hot-beaded, unlearned tyrants. . . . . . . The Commissioners would, if they could, have hurled the Treasurer down a precipice" for "the gratification of rope yarn Lords, and "jolly-boat ministers of state.......... All sa; "vages possess a brutal thirst for blood, which "renders them, to a given point, as revolute "in combat as if they were really brave, "The first lord at the Ottoman Admiralty "Board may, in this way, be as brave as "Lord St. Vincent ... At the Admiral

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scientiously believe I have done the Com"missioners no sort of injustice." After this, the reader will not be surprised to hear the author conclude with recommending a caring fo: the backs of these Commissioners." In private life such violence and rudeness" [as the examining of Mr. Antrobus and Mark Sprout] would have been chastised "with a wholesome bit of baxle-tree, laid 66 on gently, up and down, under the win

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dows of the insulted parties. But, what "is done by Commissioners no man will "think to requite by a caning."———Such has been the language of the gentle partizins of the feeble and oppressed Lord Melville! There is, in such cases, nothing like coming to the proof; nothing like citing the instances. In the Oracle newspaper, of the 28th ultimo, there was something in the form of verse, accusing every distinguished person, supposed to be hostile to Lord Melville, of the most base and wicked motives, and concluding with an exhortation to them to find out some new

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falschood" wherewith to glut their "hel"lish rage." The Sun of 23d ultimo menaces those, who have written against Lord Melville, with the pengeance of the law. This, indeed, is clamour. This is, indeed, an attempt to intimidate; and, I de'y the partizans of Lord Melville and Mr. Pitt to point out anything resembling it in any pubLeation, which has taken the contrary side. The voice of the people! Has that been heard in a clamourous tone? The livery of London requested their Mayor to convene a Common Hall, in order to give them an opportunity of expressing their opinions

relative to the abuses that had been brought to light in the Treasurership of the Navy. Their Mayor made them wait three days tor an answer, and then postponed the convening of the Hall for ten or twelve day, longer, I has not yet been convened; but we have heard no clamour. A requisition has been made, it is said, to the Sheriff of Middlesex to call a county meeting. It has not been called; yet, can any man say, that there has been a clamour in Middlesex? If, indeed, no Melville and Pitt had been written upon the doors of the parliament house, and upon all the walls leading to it, as 1.0

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popery" was written immediately after the Roman Catholic petition was presented by Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox, then, inded, there might have been some ground for the complaint about clamour; then, indeed, it might have been said, that some dark, under-hand, cowardly hireling had been at work to prepossess the minds of the people, to mislead them, to raise a popular outery, to prevent the members of the parliament from following the unbiassed dictates of their minds, and thus, by the basest of all arts, to stifle the voice of truth and justice. But, by those who have espoused the cause of the nation, against its mighty plunderers, no such arts have been used. Appeals have been made to the people and to the parliament; but, the cause has been much too good to stand in need of the aid of misrepresentation. It has, indeed, been no party matter, either in or out of doors. Those amongst us, who have not felt that we had an interest in prolonging abuses, in protecting the plunderers of the nation, have, in truth, been pleading each of us his own cause; for, we all know, that if there be plunder, we must contribute towards it, every one in proportion to his means. Upon this part of the subject, Mr. Pitt did, indeed, receive a most seasonable rebuke from Mr. Wilberforce: If the right hon. gent." said he," really regards it as clamear, be "deceives himself most grievously. It is

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not clamour; it is the voice of the "sober, the honest, the thinking part of "the community, calmly, but, at the "same time, firmly, expressed." Sup pose, however, there had been a little, and even a great deal, of c'amour, upon this occasion, could the people have been blamed ? Must not some of them recollect the time when Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dandas were the champions of reform; of rigid integrity in office; of strict adherence to law; of economy even to pence and farthings? Nay, must they not recollect, that it was upon professions of this sort that

those two persons rose to the topmost heights of power and emolument? We have not clamoured. Not a man of us has clamoured. We have only demanded justice; and, we have, as we had a right to do, demanded security for the future. We have been, and we are, ready to make any sacrifice that the safety and honour of our country requires; but at the moment, when we are called on for those sacrifices, shall we be accused of clamouring, of indulging in "vulgar passion," if we complain, nay, if we bitterly inveigh, against conduct like that of which Lord Melville has been convicted? And, shall we be told this, too, by Mr. Pitt, the person who calls on us for those sacrifices, and by Mr. Canning, who does us the honour to receive a salary of four thousand a year as treasurer of the navy, and, probably, six hundred a year more for the sinecure place mentioned in the PLAIN REPLY," and whose sisters are, in that publication, stated to receive each of them a pension from the public exchequer ? -THE SECOND point to be remarked on is, the object of the proposed select committee. And, to know what the real object must have been, we have not much more to do, than to recollect, that it would have been composed of persons, to none of whom the ministers would have bad any objection. What could any committee have discovered to add to the reasons, upon which the House passed a censure on Lord Melville? Nothing. He had been guilty of a gross violation of the law. He acknowledged it. So far, therefore, the information was complete. Whether he had actually participated in the profits of Mr. Trotter was not quite proved: but it was not necessary to prove that, in order to justify the resolutions proposed to the House. But, the proposed committee would have been every thing to Lord Melville. It would have procured a long delay. Other objects of importance would have come before the public. Fresh pieces of chalk would, probably, have directed our attention to 65 popery" upon the doors of the Parliament House. In short, it is very likely we hold have heard no more of the Tenth Report, at least during the present session of parliament.THE THIRD point relates to the INTENTION of the violated law. The Master of the Rolls stated the main object of the committee to be, to inquire what was the real intention of the act of the 25th of the King, chapter 31, and whether that had been violated; and if violated, whether it had been done wilfully. Of this, too, Mr. Canning said much; and, it will be recol

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lected, that Mr. Pitt proposed to introduce, into the eleventh resolution, the words, "contrary to the INTENTION of the law," instead of the words, "gross violation of "the law, and high breach of duty." This is à most material point; for, if there were room to suppose it at all probable, that the law was misunderstood by Mr. Dundas, now Lord Melville, I should hold myself extremely unjust in expressing myself as I havė done respecting that person's conduct. But, if the reader will follow me through a brief sketch of the history of the act in question, I am persuaded he will entirely acquit me of having shown, in this respect, any want of that fairness which should ever distinguish discussions of this sort.--Towards the close of the American war, when the nation became sorely oppressed by the burdens occasioned thereby, petitions were, from all parts of the country, presented to parliament, praying for a reform in the expenditure of the public money. Some steps, towards accomplishing this object, were taken previous to the dismission of Lord North. In the year 1782, Lord Rockingham being prime minister, and Mr. Fox one of the secretaries of state, a set of resolutions were moved by Lord John Cavendish, and were passed by the House of Commons, of which resolutions the following related to the office of treasurer of the navy. "That it is the "opinion of this committee, that from hence"forward the paymaster general of His

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Majesty's land forces, and the treasurer of "the navy for the time being, shall not ap"ply any sum or sums of money imprested "to them, or either of them, to any purpose

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or advantage er interest to them clves, either "directly or indirectly." Observe, that this resolution was passed on the 18th of June, 1782, Lord Melville then being engaged in the correction of abuses in ludia, and Mr. Pitt being one of the loudest in the House of Commons against all sorts of malversation and of lavish expenditure. In the month of July, 1782, a change of ministry took place. Lord Shelburne became first lord of the treasury; and then came together, never to se. parate in this world, the Right Honourable William Pitt and the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, the former chancellor of the exchequer, and the latter treasurer of the navy. That administration did not last fo many months. It was followed by that of the Duke of Portland, Mr. Fox being one of the secretaries of state, Mr. Burke paymaster of the forces, and the Honourable Charles Townshend, now Lord Bayning, treasurer of the navy. The reader will remember, that that ministry was overset by

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Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas; and, that the chief means by which they effected their purpose, was, an opposition to the bill proposed by Mr. Fox relating to India, an opposition grounded on the assertion, that, if the bill passed the East-India Company would be reduced to a cypher; that very Company, which, as the Directors have now openly declared in parliament, bas been really reduced to a cypher by the measures of Messrs. Pitt and Dundas!To return to the Duke of Portland's ministry; short as its duration was, Mr. Burke found time for introducing the bill relative to the office of paymaster of the forces, which bill has been acted upon in that office ever since--I shall here in sert all that part of this bill which will apply to the present purpose; and I beg the reader to observe, that, in order to form a true judgment, it will be necessary for him to read, all these documents with great at tention.

"Acr XXII. GEO. III. CAP. 81. An act for the better regulation of the office of paymaster general of bis Majesty's forces..

made by the commissioners appointed to examine, take, and state the public accounts of the kingdom, that the paymasters of the forces have beretofore been accustomed to a cumulate large sums of public money in their hands, beyond what was necessary for carry ing on the services in their department, and to take and carry out of office with them, upon their resignation or removal, large balances of public money, which they have retained and kept in their bands many years after being out of office: and whereas it is highly expedient that a remedy should be provided for these in conveniences; be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, the paymaster general of his Majesty's forces for the time being, in all memorials to be by him presented to the treasury for money for army services, shall pray that such sum as he requires may be issued to the governor and company of the bank of England on his account, specifying, in every such memorial, the sum he requires, and for what particular service or services; and the commissioners of his Majesty's treasury for the time being, by their letter from time to time shall direct the auditor of the exchequer to issue to the governor and company.

of the bank of England, on account of the paymaster general of his Majesty's forces, naming such paymaster general for the time being, the sum for which such letter shall be drawn upon the unsatisfied order at the exchequer in favour of the said paymaster general, for which the receipt of the Cushier or cashiers of the said governor and company, shall be a sufficient discharge; and all sums for which such letters of the commissioners of his Majesty treasury shall be drawn, shall be issued to the governor and company of the bank of England, in like manner as they have been heretofore issued to the paymaster general of his Majesty's forces; and all such monies só to be issued to the governor and company of the bank of England, shall be placed to an account to be raised in the books of the governor and company of the said bank of England, and to be intituled, The Account ofa? the Paymaster General of his Majesty's Fore inserting the name of such paymaster ge neral for the time being.

II. And be it enacted, That no fees whatsoever shall be paid at the exchequer or

aforesaid, beyond the amount of what bath usually been paid upon imprests and accounts hitherto made, according to the former custom of transacting business between the exchequer, pay office, and bank severally.

III. And be it further enacted by the au thority aforesaid, That from and after the said first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, no money for the service of the army shall be issued from his Majesty's exchequer to the paymaster general of his Majesty's forces, or shall be placed, or directed to be placed, in his hands or possession, but the same shall be issued and directed to be paid to the governor and company of the bank of England, and to be placed to the account above-mentioned.

IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the paymaster general of his Majesty's forces for the time being, by himself or his deputy, or the person or persons in his office duly authorised by the said paymaster general, from and after the said first day of Januitry, one thou sand seven hundred and eighty-three, shall draw upon the governor and company of the bank of England for alt army services whatever, and shall specify in each and every draft the particular service for which the same is drawn; and no draft of the said paymaster, or his deputy, or the per son or persons authorized as aforesaid, shall

be deemed a sufficient voucher to the 'said governor and company of the bank of England, unless the same specifies the service for which it is drawn, and has been actually paid by the said governor and company of the bank of England.

V. And be it fürther enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the monies so to be issued to the governor and company of the bank of England, on account of the paymaster general of his Majesty's forces, shall not be paid out of the bank unless for the army services, and in pursuance of drafis or cheque papers, to be drawn on the governor and company of the Bank of England, and signed by the paymaster general of his Majests' forces for the time being, or his deputy, or the person or persons authorized as atoresaid: in which drafts shall be specified the heads of service to which the sums therein mentioned are to be applied; and which drafts so drawn shall be sufficient authority to the bank to pay such money to the persons mentioned in such drafts, or to the bearer of them.”

This act was, it will be perceived by the preamble, grounded upon the reports of a Board of Commissioners, appointed to examine, take, and state the public accounts of the kingdom, which commissioners have usually been denominated, the Commissioners of Accounts. These same commissioners, seeing that the parliament had adopted regulations, such as they had recommended, relative to the office of paymaster of the forces, recommended, in one of their subsequent reports, the adoption of similar regulations in the office of the trea surer of the navy. The words, which have been once before quoted by me, of the report are as follows: "The legislature have, in the last session of parliament, introduced into the office of the paymaster general "of the forces a regulation, which, as it "seems to us, may be applied as beneficially "to the office of the treasurer of the navy.

The custody of cash applicable to the "navy services may be transferred from the "treasurer to the Bank of England, and "the account only of the receipts and payments be kept in bis office; all the sums now received by him may be received "by the Bank; sums from the Exchequer ❝ may be imprested to the Bank; sums di"rected by the letters of the different boards "to be paid to him, may be directed to "be paid into the Bank; all bills as"signed upon him for payment may be "paid, and all extra payments may be made "by his drafts upon the Bank;. the payment of the seamen, the artificers and labourers

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"in the yards, and the persons in the hos"pital ships, and on the half-pay lists, must "be carried on in the same manner it is now: these men cannot be paid by drafts, "they must have cash, and with that cash "the pay clerks must be entrusted as they " are at present; and the treasurer must " continue to be responsible for them, as "for officers of his appointment, and under his controul; but this will be no obstruc.

tion to the regulation. The money may be "all issued to the pay clerks by the drafts of "the treasurer upon the Bank, according to "the requisition of the Navy Board, in like

manner as many of these soms are issued "at this day; and, upon the death or resig"nation of a treasurer, the balances of his

cash in the Bank, and in the nanes of his pay clerks may be struck immediately, and "carried over to the account of his succes

sor. In this situation, the treasurer, nei"ther receiving nor paying public money bim "self, can be neither debtor to, nor credi"tor of the public, except as far as he may "be responsible for bis clerks. On passing "his accounts, the bill indorsed, or requisi"tion of the Navy Board, is both his autho"rity and voucher for his draft; the draft

indorsed is the voucher for the Bank to

prove their payment. If these accounts "agree (and they ought frequently to be "compared together) it is highly probable "that they are both right."- -Now, I ask, if any man of common sense, supposing his intentions to be honest, had been required to found an act of parliament upon this, would he not have so worded the act, that it should have prohibited the Treasurer of the Navy, or any one for him, from ever holding any of the public money in his bands? Such is the object, which the Commissioners had in view; and, their reason for wishing to see this object accomplished, was, that, by preventing him from holding any of the public money in his hands, he, and all others, would, agreeably to the previous resolution. of the House of Commons, be effectually prevented from deriving any profit or advan tage from the use of the public money; and, so to prevent him was become quite just and reasonable, because his salary had been augmented to the clear sum of four thousand pounds a year. Under all these circumstances; with the sense of the nation, long and loudly expressed upon the subject; with the resolutions of the House of Commons; with the repeated reports of the Commissioners of accounts; and, lastly, with the Paymaster's bill, as a draft to engross from ; with all this before his eyes, Mr. Dundas himself sat down to prepare the act of the

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