VOL. VII, No. 21.] 769] LONDON, SÁTURDAY, MAY, 23; 90s. ¿PRICE JOD. "Oh! that such bulky bribes as all might see, id paber "Sull, as of old, encumbered villainy! " "Tis paper credit, 'last and best supply, "That lends corruption lighter wings to fly." **REFORM OF FINANCIAL ABUSES. LETTER IV. SIR-Before I proceed to point out a method, by which the expenditure of the public money may be conducted, without being liable to the "numberless opportunities of committing frauds that exist at present, and which frauds, when committed, are not under the form now in use of stating the public expenses, exposed to detection by Parliament, it is obviously necessary to make such a preparatory explanation of the proceedings now had in regard to the application of the public money, as will enable your readers to judge correctly, how far they are defective, and in what degree the reformation, which I am about to recommend, is calculated to correct abuses. From the fullest consideration that I am capable of giving to so extensive a subject, I am of opinion, that the discussion of it may be properly divided into four distinct parts. 1. The stating the accounts of the public expenses.. 2. The incurring of them. 3. The examining of the demands for payment; and, 4. The paying of these demands. According to this division, I shall proceed to point out, as briefly as possible, what the practice and the errors are of the system now in use; and then I shall proceed to propose one more consistent in its regulations, and more consonant with the acknowledged principles of finance.1. In looking into the annual accounts of the public income and expenditure, we shall, in the onset, find full cause for advancing some very strong objections. For in the eight annual papers that professedly contain these accounts, one of them No. 5, that is, according to its title, a statement of the whole publie expenditure, by no means answers this description; for, in No. 1, which is called an account of the public incorne, there are no less than eleven columns, expressing the expenditure of a very considerable portion of that income. Four of these are certainly carried forward to the expenditure paper, but the rest of them are wholly omitted; namely, "Repayments, Drawbacks, &c.; Irish Packet Establishment; Charges of Management; His Majesty's Forests; and Im posts for the Redemption of the Land Tax. Again, the expenditure paper does not mere» Port, Ep. [770 ly contain an account of sums of money adtually expended, but it likewise embraces an account of some of the resources of the pub lie income; for instance, the expenses for the establishments of the Secretaries of State's Offices; of the War Office; of the Treasury Ofice, and of other offices, charged in the civil list, are not the whole of the expenses incurred. The whole produce of the several fee funds in each office, are applied to defray these expenses, and the sum charged on this account in the civil list, are such sums as are wanting to make up with the fee funds the whole expense incurred by these establishments Again, the sale of old stores, and the droights of the Admiralty, are applied in a similar manner towards the payment of expenses incurred in the different naval and military departments; though, like the fee funds actual resources of revenue, and in propriety ought so to be received and accounted for. Such, therefore, is the inconsistency, and such the confusion in accounting for the public money, that you must look into the income account for the public expenditure, and into the expenditure account for the public income! The charges of management, &c. contained in the income paper, are as much items of, the nation's expenses, as the payments to the army and navy; and the fee funds are resources of its income, equally as to every principle and purpose of taxation as any specific tax. The fees are virtually taxes, and as such, now that salarjes have been given in lieu of them, they ought to be accounted for, and not left, as they now are, to be received and applied by the clerks in the offices of the state. If the principle was adopted of paying ALL the revenue, of every description, and from whatever source it might be derived, into the Exchequer, this commixture and confusion of accounts could never occur. There then could be no such absurdity, as a statement of the national income crammed with columns of the expenditure of, it; or such a thing as a statement of the expenditure diminished in its real amount by the entire suppression of productive sources of revenue. But what is of still greater consequence, there would not then present themselves so many opportunities of committing fraud. There is this the Exchequer receipt 8. The Ordnance 441,463 17,979,87% 1,827,040 11,299,416 10. Miscellaneous Services 112,800,500 11. From Income Paper, total venue payments out of Gross Re-e news by@gnefex 15,294,473 12. † From Do, on accounts of desk Militia 32 96,206 Do. his Majesty's Forests 16070 Do. for redemption of Land Lo Tax “; 164712 £56,812,199 In examining into the detail of this great expenditure, the first obvious distinction th presents itself is that between expenses which are fixed, and specifically ascertained and regulated in their amount by acts and further objection to the present method of 6. Payments in anticipation of stating the public expenditure, an objection of the greatest importance; viz. the want. of sufficient detail in explaining the items in the abstract sheet, to enable Parliament,to trace the application of the whole of the public money. Without the power of doing so, no system of accounting can be adequate to the proper object of it; the commission of peculation may pass undiscovered, as it has already, for years, together, and no correct opinion can be formed of the capability of the nation to maintain its present or to incur new expenses. To establish, therefore, an efficient plan for understanding in what manner the public money is expended, the present one must be radically altered, and such a plan must be substituted in its place, as will be in strict conformity with the true principles of stating accounts, and will be competent to convey a correct and satisfactory history of every shilling, which the sub ject pays, from the period of its first pay-votes of Parliament, and those which are not ment by him, to that of its repayment for a public service.- -2, 3, and 4. The discussion of the present practice of government in incurring, examining, and paying of the public expenses, involves matters of great variety and extent; and, from the circumstance of these duties being performed without any distinct arrangement, the discussion of each of them cannot well be separated. But, however complex this subject is, it is absolutely necessary that the principles, at least of this practice should be canvassed, in order that the errors of it may be sufficiently exposed to authorise the proposal of its entire abolition.If we find upon investigating it, that no general principle is allowed to govern the regulations of office; that there is no consistency in the regulations, and no consistency in the control of public accountants, we shall be warranted in condemning such a practice; and by acquiring a knowledge of what is defective, we shall attain the surest means of being capable of advising Improvement.- The following statement of the expenditure for 1803 *, will point out a ready arrangement for proceeding with the inquiry, 1. On National Debt 2. On Exchequer Bills 3 and 4. On Civil List and other charges on Consolidated Fund £24,264,424 1,346,043 79,502 so ascertained. When the public money made payable in particularly stated sons for express and defined objects, there evidently can exist but little difficulty in securing the public from fraud. Of this description of payments are those for the interest and re demption of the national debt, and a great proportion of the charges upon the consoli dated fund. As the arrangements made with the Bank of England by the Treasury secure the immediate payment of the interest on the national debt, to the persons entitled to receive it; and as all payments of a sim lar fixed nature, might be paid by the Tres sury in the same manner, directly to the per sons entitled to payment, there does not sp pear to be wanting any further regulation: in respect to the payment of expenses precisely voted and ordered by Parliament, the the general application of this principle of payment to all of them. It is, therefore, to those public expenses, that are not, and can not be defined in specifically stated sums, that our attention may be said to be parti cularly wanting. To those expenses, that are voted by the House of Commons upon estimates, and are eventually incurred at th discretion of the public officers of the seve ral departments. Of this description are s On comparing the charge in No. 5, dr militia and deserters warrants, and with the same charge in No. 1, it will appear to be in the former 108,4051, and in the latter 204,6711, making a difference of 90,200! How is such a shameful demonstration. great fraud or great inaccuracy to bee plained away? Boards of Commissioners, subordinate to the Board of Admiralty, "for conducting the d tail of the gravy expenditure, why should not the bifice of Secretary at Waz, and the Office of Barrack Master General be placed in com expenses of the navy; the ordinance, the ar my, and miscellaneous services; and, like wise, though not voted on estimates," the payments in anticipation of the Exchequer receipt, and the total payments in No. 1. out of the gross revenue for charges of manage-mission? The principle of confiding great ment, &c. It would be highly reasonable in a person-unacquainted with the practice of the several departments, to suppose that some one common system should regulate each of them; and that, an improve trusts in the hands of commissioners, is either a good or a bad principle. If we look to experience, we shall find that the adoption of this principle in every department, concerned in the collection of the revenue, has ment had taken place in one of them, it been attended with the best of consequences. Would be adopted in the others. It would If we refer to the reasoning that may be had likewise, be reasonable in such a person to respecting it, we shall find that it is perfectsuppose, that the great extent of the expen- ly consistent with sound reason, to look with diture of the country, would have occasioned greater certainty to the correct fulfilment of an entire abandonment of the plan and regu- a trust, when many are employed, than when lations that were in use, when a few millions confidence is placed in individuals. With only were sufficient to defray every expense. therefore, the concurrent testimony of both Such a person, however, would find his sup- experience and reason, to recommend the positions by no means supported by facts, if adoption of this principle in each departhe was to inquire into the detail of the sys- ment, that is necessary for managing the tem now in use. He would find in some in-public expenditure; the sooner it is adopted, stances, the power of conducting the expenditure vested in the hands of commissioners, in others, this power entirely left with a single individual; and even when improvements had been made, he would find them no where carried far enough to produce any degree of perfection in matters of regulation nor adopted by some departments where the most wanting. He would, in shorty discover that the system of management of the public expenditure, has been by no means altered in such a manner, as to render it adequate to meet the great alteration, that has taken place in the last thirty years in the amount of it; and he would be convinced, that a radical reformation is absolutely necessary, to secure the public from future violations of the law, and future peculationIs it not, Mr. Cobbett, the height of inconsistency to vest the expenditure of the navy in five Beards of Commissioners, and to continue the whole direction of the expenditure of army aid ordnance departments in two individuals? If it is wise to place the office of Lord High Admiral in commission, do not the same principles sugg the wisdom of placing the offices of Commander in Chief of the Army, and of Master General of the Ordnance in commisVous †?/If farther, it is wise to have four the greater will be the advantages which the public will derive from it. If then, the nature of the public expenses is such, that so great a proportion of them as amounts to thirty millions annually, cannot be brought before the House of Commons in such a manner, as to render it possible to fix the precise amount of the particulars of them; but, that this great sum must be left to the offices of the state, to be incurred and controled according to the discretion of those who fill them; both common sense and daily experience point out the policy of providing the most effectual guards, for securing the public from irregularities and frauds. As however, the principles of this policy have not been acted upon; as no regular principles for incurrit, examining, and paying the public expenses are pursued; nor as even, where the principle of acting by commissioners is followed, has, as the reports of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry demonstrate, a proper system of checks beeti formed over the conduct of the commissionérs, it must be a useful undertaking, even if it should fail of complete success, to point out any rational plan for so dividing and cotroling the various duties of conducting the expenditure of the public money, that each duty may be rendered simple and easy in performance, and that each person employed to fulfil it may inve no opportunity of be ** can do any act, which can otherwise, if he does not interpose, be done by the *Board.” (12 Rep. Com. Fin.) It is obvious, that the officers who compose this board, execute a power to which they ought to be subordinate. 2dly, That they impose a penalty on Romat Catholics not resorting to their place of wor ship on a Sunday. I now wish to call, the Serious attention of every reader to the for lowing extract from a letter (dated 7th April, 1805) that I received from a deputy lieutenant and justice of the peace for the county of Kilkenny. Nothing could give me greater pleasure than your passing some time here, when I could shew you "one of the finest circumstanced countries perhaps in Europe, for becoming rich and happy but, unfortunately, the country 66 66 MR. COBBETT,Until I had seen what turn the motions submitted to both Houses of Parliament, by Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox, on the petition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, had taken, I did not think it necessary to trouble you, or the public through your Register, on a point which would pro-is peopled with Papists! By way of giving bably have been discussed and remedied, had either House of Parliament gone into the proposed committees.You may remember, Sir, that in the year 1791, an act passed, which is recorded in the statutes at large, under the 31 Geo. III. chap. 32, and is intituled: "An Act to relieve, upon Conditions, "and under Restrictions, the persons there"in described, from certain Penalties and Disabilities to which Papists, or persons & professing the Popish Religion, are by law subject."- This act provides (III) that no Roman Catholic, who shall have taken the oath appointed by the act, shall be prosecuted for not resorting to some Parish Church, &c Nor can he (IV.), 'be prosecuted for being a papist; and then allows (V) public places of Roman Catholic worship, when certified to the quarter sessions. And, in order to oblige Roman Catholics to attend these places of worship the act proceeds thus:--IX. “ Provided always, and be it further enacted, That all the laws "made and provided for the frequenting of divine service on the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, shall be still in force, and executed' against all persons who shall offend against the said laws, unless such persons shall come to some con"gregation or assembly of religious worship 46 46 permitted by this act, or by an act passed in the first year of the reign of King Wil"Jian, and Queen Mary, intituled, An Act for exempting their Majesty's Protestant subjects, dissenting from the Church of ** England, from the penalties of certain 17 Laws." And the Irish act passed 1793, en 33, Geo. III. chap. 21,, runs thus: XI. And be it enacted, That no Papist, or per1 son professing the Popish or Roman Catholiq, Religion, shall be liable or subject to any penalty, for not attending Divine 1.Service on the Sabbath Day, called Sun*** day, in his or her Parish Church."-From these premises every reader must infer, 1st. That the laws of this empire allow the RoLan Catholic worship within these realms. some idea of the country, I will describe to you the state of this parish. Last year "they thought proper, much against my will, to appoint me one of the Deputy "Governors or Board of Lieutenancy of "this county (Kilkenny) to which they "have added the commission of the peace, a very troublesome office. In my former capacity I undertook to order a return of "this and the neighbouring parishes, and "in this parish I attended closely to the 66 66 ン correctness of the return under the da " fence act. The parish contains 4,500 "Irish acres, its population consists of "2,469 of both sexes, and all ages, of which "sixteen only are Protestants, and all the "remainder Papists. Of those 2,450 there are 640 men between 15 and 60 years of age, capable of being called out. The "whole population of the county amounts to about 139,300, of which the number "of all descriptions of religions except P "pists, is ascertained to be 5,238 (above 20 "to 1) Under the Army of Reserve Act, "this parish was required to furnish fis Churchy and this after they took the "bounty for general service, which at the "time I enlisted them, I advised them to "do. It is now impossible to get men to enlist in any part of this country, for any bounty, as the lower orders (from the knowledge of this breach of faith having "reached them) look upon entering the army equal to an apostacy from their religion. Surely a system of that Find could not be entertained by men in their senses, situated as the whole empire is 21 CU LUD OJ 1993 "cula ylas | to assubject, whichi, in my judgment, and I trope, after reading this statement, in their judgment; requires immediate redress. You are no stranger to the innumerable acts for augmenting our means of defence. There fore, you will certainly second the views of one who wishes to put the public: in posses 25,No1805 this moment? To reject the military asistance of so great, so athletic, and so pa tient a body of people," &c. &6.What may be the sensations raised in the breast of my readers, I shall not pretend to describe; but, if every spark of patriotism be not extinct in their breasts, I hope that one and all will call lidly for an explanation of this bision of nothing but the truth, and the whole gotted despotisin Indeed, but rcised over poor men, are generously exposing their lives against t the most formidable, and at the same time, most artful of despots (for he has found means of setting every religious dispute at rest, in the short space of five years.) These poor men are willing to give their lives for their country. Their country, as I have shewn, give them the free exercise of their religion; and, nevertheless, they are deprived of that consolation which they look for, in a religion professed by their progenitors from the first moment that christianity was known in their island. To my own personal knowledge, poor soldiers have been refused the ministry of the priesthood, while on their death beds; at the same period, the jail was open to the priest, and the thief of murderer at Newgate, was allowed those consolations which the soldier was refased in his last moments. This system, " truth.ALETHETA.May 16, 1805, DOMESTIC OFFICIAL PAPERS. PETITIONS, AGAINST LORD MELVILLE.Petition of the Borough of St. Albans, presented to the House of Commons on the 10th of May, 1805, and entered in the Votes as follows: A petition of the mayor, aldermen, recorder, freemen, and inhabitants, of the Brough of Saint Alban, in the County of Hertford, was presented to the House, and read; setting forth, that the petitioners beg leave to congratulate the House, and express their heartfelt satisfaction, at the resolutions which passed on the 8th and 10th of April last, respecting the Tenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry, and pray the House to pursue such measures as they may think just for effectually, exposing, and bringing to punishment, all public peculators and delinquents, and for securing in future the treasure of the nation from similar depredations; and although the petitioners most sincerely deplore the complicated difficulties of the present conjuncture, yet they confidently rely on the wisdom of Parliament for relief, Petition of the County of Surrey, presentea as you see, Sir, is now stopping the recruiting service, and though the penal laws drive me personally from those ranks in which my ancestors formerly fought, for they were at Cressy and Potiers, still I shall ever think it a duty to serve my country by whatever means I can. None, I believe, could be more effectual, at this moment, than to instigate an inquiry, whether any or- as above, on the 16th of May, 1805. ders, so contrary to the spirit of the A petition of the gentlemen, clergy, and above acts, have been issued? If none have freeholders, of the County of Surrey, was been issued, why are Roman Catholics presented to the House, and read; setting forced to the Protestant Church against their forth, that the petitioners beg leave to ex will? And, ir either case, whence is the press their unfeigned gratitude to the House power assumed. How different the con- for the measures they have taken towards deduct in the Austrian service, where the Ro-tecting, and bringing to justice, those serman Catholic faces towards his church, the Protestant towards his; and, at the word mirch, each proceeds to his place of worship. In France before the revolution, there existed two military rewards, the Crosses of St. Lewis, and of merit; the first for the Catholics, the second for the Protestants. I am sorry to t think, that this statement differs| With assertions of men supposed to be conversant with foreign affairs. Can this ignorance be attributed to our insular situation. It is to that situation indeed, that the advantage of having preserved the celtic language in a greater state of purity, than any other part of Europe, has been attributed by the. antipiary. But, to return, Sir, my object has been to call the attention of the public: vants of the Crown who have broken the law, violated their trust, and used the public' money for purposes of private emolument and ambition, and they implore the House not to desist from the prosecution of those inquiries which they have so honourably' and so successfully begun; and they intrest the House to bear in mind how patiently, the people of England hye sustained the im- · mense burthens imposed upon thitim,' the sufferings they have endured, and ate how enduring, the enormously advanced prizes of the necessaries of life, and, above all, their generous, unsuspecting confidence at all times in those in whose hands the chhings › of their industry were deposited and that, thankful as the petitioners are to the House |