After this the act was brought in, which it was now proposed to repeal, but which had not had full time allowed for its operation. He called upon a noble lord opposite, who had formerly opposed the repeal of this act, on the ground that it ought to have a fair trial, now also to oppose it on the same ground, as the act had not yet been sufficiently tried: it had now begun to be efficient, and this was the period

chosen to propose the repeal of it, without proposing any substitute.

Lord Sidmouth delivered an animated speech, in which he justified his own conduct, and declared himself an advocate for the repeal of the bill. His lordship was followed by several other noble lords; when the bill was read a second time. And on the 22d it was read a third time, and passed.

Τ THE

HE subjects most interesting in the following chapter, are, the motions made in the house of commons on the public unaudited accounts, and the motions made by Mr. Fox and lord Grenville, in the different houses, on the abolition of the slave trade. This subject will be renewed in the next volume; in which will be recorded the account of the abolition of that abominable traffic, so honourable to the British legisla. ture, and to every individual who embarked in this cause of humanity. Lord Henry Petty on the 21st of May, pursuant to his notice given upon a former day, of a motion for instituting a new commission of inquiry into the system of military expenditure in the West India islands, rose now for the purpose of bringing it forward. In calling the attention of the house to this subject, he should feel it necessary to advert to the modes by which the public accounts

were heretofore examined and controlled. Previous to the establishment of the board of commissioners for this purpose, instituted under the auspices of a late right honourable gentleman whom he had succeeded, the important office of examining and auditing the public accounts of the receipt and expenditure of the nation was vested in two officers of the crown, and so continued down to the year 1785. But those officers, like many others, were charged with duties so far beyond the reach of their exertions, and vested with powers so inadequate, that although their services were not to be deemed as entirely uscless, they were certainly very inefficient. The noble persons who had then, for some time, held those official situations (lord Bute and lord Sondes), although they remembered tolerably well that there were salaries to be received, yet, in process of time, forgot that there were also duties

to

to be performed; and though they never omitted regularly to receive the salaries attached to their situations, their official lassitude sunk at last into a total neglect of those duties. The consequence was, that, the business being now much in arrear, the accounts, which accumulated during the progress of the American war, became so complicated, and expanded to such an extent, as to impress strongly upon the minds of the legislature and the public the necessity of some more efficient plan of investigation. Foremost to participate in this feeling, the late right honourable gentleman, then at the head of the finances, formed the project of instituting commissioners to inquire into the public accounts; and he therefore brought in this bill to suppress the offices of joint auditors held by the two noble persons before alluded to, and to institute a new board of commissioners of accounts. But notwith standing the herculean labours encountered by the gentlemen who composed that board, and notwithstanding the immense mass of public accounts through which they waded; yet under the various vicissitudes in which the country had been since involved, such an arrear of unexamined expenditure had accumulated, as to render it absolutely necessary that some system of examination should be instituted, to draw the national accounts out of the confusion in which they now stood, and, if possible, to bring up the arrear which had been so long growing, and had at length arrived at a magnitude scarcely credible. Besides the five commissioners of accounts who were appointed under the bill to which he alluded, two other commissioners, totally distinct, were

appointed to investigate the mili tary accounts; but here again accumulation had so completely outstripped research and industry, that the principal share of the arrears had occurred under that head. But though it had appeared, that, under the plan instituted by a late right honourable gentleman, an endeavour was made to establish a control over the army expenditure, under the authority of persons appointed for that pur pose, yet the effect of that autho rity had, in a great degree, ceased; the persons intrusted with the duty very seldom reported the abuses which had accrued; and at length their authority fell so much into lassitude and negligence, that large issues of public money had been made for the service of the army, from time to time, which ought to have been submitted to them, according to the original rules of their institution, but of which they had no cognizance whatever. He alluded to sums issued for hospital stores and field works, which always form a very extensive branch of the military disbursements, and for which, during six successive years in the late war, a sem of not less than 700,000% annually was paid to a Mr. Trotter; and such were the zeal and industry of that ingenious gentleman, and such the variety of avocations in which he was desirous of, distinguishing himself for the service of the public, that he was at one and the same time the manufacturer of some of the articles of stores, the purveyor of other articles, the contractor for others, the comptroller of the expenditure, and finally the auditor of his own асcounts: besides, generously feeling that after so much zeal and industry exerted for the accommo

dation of the country in his own person, he was entitled to some remuneration beyond the ordinary class of contractors, he charges ten per cent. upon the whole expenditure, over and above all other profits upon the articles so furnished!!! Another head of account was that of barracks, in itself an immense field of expenditure, and on which no less than nine millions had been expended in the course of the late war, no part of which had been submitted to the cognizance of comptrollers; and though the military commissioners had it in charge to investigate this department, yet so embarrassed were they in their proceedings by the complicated mass of other accounts through which they had to struggle, that no part of the proceedings of the barrack depart ment had yet been looked into. It was found also, that by the principal persons in several departments, many large sums had been issued to clerks and inferior persons in office for minor disbursements, of the expenditure of which no account had been passed for years, nor any regular communication made to the chief officer. Such a state of accumulation in the unchecked accounts called loudly for the immediate adoption of some remedy; and the more so, as already at two different times thirtyfive assistant clerks had been added to the establishment of the commissioners of accounts, without attaining the end so much desired; and therefore partial remedies must now give place to a system more extensive and efficient. Not only in the expenditure at home and in Europe had these arrears accumu lated, but in the West Indies also, where the abuses were so glaring, that in 1800 it was found neces

sary to send commissioners thither for the purpose of investigation: but even then nothing effectual had been done, though the most enormous abuses were found to have prevailed. Last year an attempt was made to remedy the evil, by the appointment of new commissioners, by whom, though certainly much had been done, still not enough was done; for though much had escaped the inquiry of the old board, yet instead of fetching up the arrears, the new commissioners were plunged still deeper in accumulation, and most enormous sums remained still uninvestigated. What idea must the house feel of the state of accounts, under the head of pay to the army, when they should be informed, that the very last account of army pay, examined by the board of account, was for 1782, and that no account of that nature had been since audited; being a period of twenty-four years from the close of the American war. The navy accounts were also very greatly in arrear, and the store accounts lay over since the period just mentioned, without any examination; all the expe: ses of the last war were in the same predicament. The account of the expeditions to the Helder and to Egypt, and all the charges connected with them, as well as all subsidiary accounts with continental powers, were totally untouched to this hour. There were, beside, accounts under the examination of the old commissioners, to the amount of 167 millions, not nearly gone through, besides a sum of 58 millions, of which the account had not yet been explained. Add to this a sum of 150 millions, under the head of army pay, still untouched, as well as 80 millions of navy expenditure,

and

and there would appear an aggregate sum of no less than 455 millions sterling still unaccounted for, within the last twenty years, a sum greater than the whole national debt. These considerations, important and impressive as they were, had already called for the most serious investigation of his majesty's present ministers, and irresistibly argued the pressing necessity of a full investigation. Having gone through his statements, the noble lord next proceeded to submit the outline of a remedy for these glaring evils: in the first place, he said it was proposed to repeal both the act under which the present commissioners of accounts were constituted, and to appoint, under another act, ten commissioners, for the purpose of auditing and controlling the army accounts; and, the better to enable them to direct their investigations with effect, it was proposed to arm them with the authority, which the present commissioners had not, of compelling all persons, connected with the disbursements of public money, to furnish their accounts; these to be distinct from the West India commissioners, and also of another distinct board of comptrollers of military expenditure, constituted upon a plan similar to that established under lord Godolphin, whose duty it would be to examine, in the first instance, all army estimates and accounts; to watch over the expenditure of military funds; to act as the confidential advisers of the board of treasury, in all applications of money for military purposes; to report such frauds as they should be able to discover; to have the power of calling before them all persons in any degree connected with the military expenditure, and of examining them upon oath. With respect

to the ten commissioners of accounts, none of whom were to be members of parliament, it was proposed to separate them into three distinct boards, the one consisting of four members, and the other two of three members each; those boards to have communication with each other, as they might find necessary for the general advantage of the examinations referred to them; but by no means to mix the objects respectively committed to them. The whole body of accounts in arrear was to be separated into three distinct periods. One of these boards to commence with the public accounts from the first of December last, and to bring them up clear to the latest period; the next board to take up the investigation of the 167 millions now under inquiry; and the third to, take up the examination of all that body of other accounts that had never yet been called for. By this means, he trusted that the whole of that immense mass would be gone through with the utmost possible expedition, and the affairs of the country in these respects placed upon some regular and satisfactory footing. To the chief of each board, a responsibility would be attached for the correctness of each account audited; for the want of which responsibility in the members of other boards, considerable disad vantages had arisen to the country. Having now stated the measure which it was the intention of his majesty's government to adopt, with regard to the general accounts of the country, the noble lord proceeded to some observations upon the state of expenditure in the West Indies, the further investigation of which was the object of the motion of which he had given notice as for that day. In that quarter

of

of the empire, notwithstanding all the exertions which had been made by the two successive boards of commissioners already appointed to examine and check the progress of profusion and fraud, still the system had continued to be carried on by the delinquents under every species of crime that could be subservient to their purpose. For gery, perjury, bribery, and every stratagem which fraud could devise, had been resorted to; and not content with false charges, false returns, and flagitious embezzle ments, they had gone so far as to bribe the officers of his majesty's customs to sign false certificates, fraudulent invoices, and other such documents in aid of their purposes; proofs of which had been detected in one instance, to the amount of no less a sum than 80,000%, and in another to the amount of 30,000. actually applied in bribery, to conceal frauds of an enormous extent. The noble lord concluded by moving for leave to bring in a bill for the more effectual examination of public accounts in the West Indies, and the prevention of fraud therein."

Mr. Rose said, that the arrear of business began before the American war, and had been increasing ever since. The commissioners appointed for auditing the accounts, perhaps, had not discharg. ed their duty with that attention which they ought; but still it did not occur to the administration of that day, that it was necessary to change entirely the system of anditing them. It was certainly true, that the two auditors which the noble lord first spoke of, took very little trouble in the business, and left it all to their deputies; but after the commissioners were appointed for auditing the public Accounts, he saw no reason why

the comptrollers of the army, who had first examined the accounts, should not be admitted as mem bers of the commission for audit. ing them. Their knowledge of the business must expedite the proceedings considerably. The noble lord had stated the various situa tions Mr. Trotter stood in, and rather jocosely mentioned, that there was nobody to examine or audit his accounts but himself. If that was the case, his right honourable friend on his right hand (Mr. Windham) was much to blame; for it was his duty, when secretary at war, to have had these accounts properly examined. Of the five hundred millions that the noble lord stated to be unaccounted for, one half was in the pay-office, and the real stoppage in the examination of those accounts was at the war-office. There were 35 or 40 clerks there, whose business it was to examine the accounts. Three commissioners had already been appointed for the auditing of the public accounts. The noble lord now proposed to add three more; but if he were to add threeand-twenty, he should not oppose it, as long as the business was likely to be done. The barrack accounts, he hoped, would be examined and audited, as well as the rest of the public accounts. Although he thus stated, that half of the deficiency in accounts was chargeable to the war-office gene rally, he did not mean to impute blame to any secretary at war, but supposed the great delay proceeded merely from the increasing pressure of business.

After several other speakers had delivered their opinions, the ques tion was put, and leave given to bring in the bill. On the next day Mr. Rose gave notice of a motion on the subject, declaring that no

man