281] AUGUST 22, 1807.-England's Right of Search.-Westminster Election. [282 WESTMINSTER ELECTION. The Committee for conducting the late unparalleled Election for Westminster, having determined to present to Sir Francis Burdett the Car, Banners, and Flags, used during the Election and Procession, the following Letter was transmitted to him; dated Committee Room, Britannia Coffee House, July 4, 1807. SIR R ;- After the almost unexampled victory obtained by the Electors of Westmin ster in favour of the people, they can no where so properly deposit the memorials of their triumph as in your hands. The committee have, therefore, to request that you will accept them.--The Car and Banners used at the celebration of an event of so much importance to the country, the me mory of which will descend to our posterity, cannot fail to remind you of the great public principles by which it was produced. The Factions which have been so long contend ENGLAND'S RIGHT OF SEARCH. SIR, I cannot resist expressing to you the pleasure I felt as an Fnglishman, in reading your last paper upon the subject of the present dispute with America.---You have argued the case well, and I perceive intirelying for the government had both been tried. from your own excellent understanding; but give me leave to inform you, Sir, of what you need not be ashamed to be ignorant, that the vrey case now before us has happened over and over again in our history: that it has been argued and most solemnly argued by great lawyers and statesmen, and that cases precisely in point have been decided in a formal and judicial manner upon grave argument and great consideration; and that the decision has always been as you contend it ought to be. The orders to our admirals, from the earliest period of our maritime greatness, have been in conformity to this our ever asserted right, and the orders m the time of Oliver Cromwell, from a book of whose time, you have most appropriately taken your last motto, are stronger in point of expression, as they were more determined in point of action, than the orders in any other period of our history.Sir, if the councils of this nation had among them a mind like his, whom I have just mentioned, with the same regard to our internal prosperity, and to our foreign and naval greatness, we might laugh at the dangers with which we are threatened, and even at Buonaparté himself, who is become, as you feared and predicted, Hannibal again -"His Martello "Towers are his allies-Crowns and Scep"ters are the pallisadoes of his intrench"ments, and Kings are his centinels."Go on, Sir, and fearlessly maintain the glory and greatness of this our country abroad, and as fearlessly expose her shameful, but thank God, curable sickliness at home. A TRUE ENGLISHMAN. London, August 17, 1807. Eich, in its turn, had oppressed, plundered, and disgusted, the people. The virtues, both private and public, for which your character was revered, pointed out to the Electors of Westminster the man whom they should call to their aid. The name of "Burdett" was pronounced, and "Burdett and our Country" resounded from every part of this great city. "5134" Electors came forward, and secured, by an unparalleled "majority," "the triumph of Westminster" over the associated panders of venality and tools of corruption. "You were called from the retirement you had chosen," and returned with the utmost "Purity of Election," to advocate the cause of your country, as their representative in the senate.-You are sent to express the Sense of the People," and to lend your best assistance to restore to them those inestimable blessings of "the Constitution," of which they have been deprived by a long series of fraud and hypocrisy to restore to them "a full, fair, and free, representation in Parliament," and the use of trial by jury in all cases whatever. In short, to assist in restoring to them that constitution which their ancestors did not think dearly purchased with their blood.-The Car and Banners must remind you, at all times, of those great public principles, to support which you stand pledged to the country. They will animate you to your duty. You will perform it. And if the perishable materials, of which they are composed. permit them to be preserved beyond the period of your own existence, your children will look upon them with reverence and affection, as the highest honour they derive from their ancestor. But were you to fail, they would -remain a constant reproach upon your conduct, and your children would justly consider them the greatest blot in their escutcheon. By order of the Committee,(Signed) SAMUEL BROOKS, Chairman.-To Sir F. Burdett, Bart. M. P. for Westminster. ANSWER. Wimbledon, July 7, 1807. SIRI shall receive with pleasure and gratitude those memorials of the patriotism, spirit, and independence, of the Electors of Westminster, which the Committee propose to deposit in my hands. Amongst them, your excellent letter will not, in my humble opinion, be the least useful or the least esteemed. They will, I hope, not only serve to remind me and my children of the great duties all men owe their country, but also help to revive the ancient love of liberty in the heart of every Englishman, his children, and latest posterity.I remain, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,--FRANCIS BURDETT. Total Expenditure.. £1296 6 Amount of Subscriptions re ceived by the Treasurer to the 7th August.. ...... Balance due to the Trea surer 1215 14 3 W. ADAMS. Audited, FRANCIS PLACE. FIRST REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. Presented to the House of Commons, July 22d 1807. PAY-OFFICE. THE COMMITTEE, appointed to examine and consider what Regulations and Checks have been established, in order to control the several branches of THE PUBLIC ExPENDITURB in Great Britain and Ireland; and how far the same have been effectual; and what further Measures can be adopted for reducing any part of the said expenditure, or diminishing the Amount of Salaries and Emoluments, without Detriment to THE PUBLIC SERVICE; Having had referred to their consideration the proceedings of the committee which was instituted for the same purposes in the last parliament, began their inquiries, by prosecuting the examination of a subject, in which considerable progress had been made, but upon which they have delayed making an earlier report, judging it proper to suspend any statement of facts, until they could at the same time recommend the best mode, according to their judgement, of preventing similar abuses in future. The evidence received during the last session, contains an account of two transactions in the Pay Office, of a most irregular, and improper kind, which were disclosed on the examination of Mr. Thomas, accountant in that office; by whom it was stated, that a draft for £7,000. payable to the right honourable Thomas Steele, (at that time one of the Joint Paymasters) or Bearer, had been drawn by the cashier on the 11th May 1799, under the head of Extraordinaries of the Army, and entered in the cash account of the office, with Mr. Steele's receipt as a voucher; and that another sum of £12,800 was drawn for, precisely in the same manner, and a receipt given in the same terms, on the 3d of July 1800. Of these two sums, the first was not repaid until the 3d of February 1807; nor the latter until the 9th of April, with interest upon both sums, from the date of their issue to that of their repayment, amounting to £7,390. 13s. The correspondence between Mr. Steele and Mr. Thomas; letters of Earl Temple, (one of the Joint Paymasters in 1807) addressed to Lord Grenville, Mr. Steele, Mr. Rose, and Lord Harrowby; three minutes of the Lords of the Treasury, directing what steps should be taken for securing the sum remaining due (for the first sum had been repaid previous to any proceedings of the Board of Treasury); Minutes of the Paymaster General entered in the book of the office; and se veral other papers, are inserted at length in the Appendix, though not perhaps absolutely necessary for understanding the subject, that no circumstance which has reference to this business, may be withheld from observation. But the part to which the committee think it most material to direct the attention of the house, is the account given by Mr. Steele himself, when he desired to attend the former committee on the 20th of March 1907, and made his own statement of the circumstances relating to these transactions. He said, "the two sums mentioned by Mr. Thomas were issued by my direction, and I have no hesitation in stating that they were not issued for public service; I thought, as others did at the time, that I had full authority to direct those issues. I was urged to do so by private considerations of a very peculiar nature, which operated at that time upon my mind; and I thought that by directing them to be issued to myself, and making myself responsible for them, I could not by possibility incur the suspicion of concealment, or fraud. It was my intention that they should have been replaced in a very short time, but it was not in my power to accomplish it; they remained charged against me in the Pay Office Book till the beginning of the present year, when the formier of the two sums was repaid; and the whole subject having been brought lately under the consideration of the Board of Treasury, they have directed me to repay the remaining sum, with the interest due upon both sums, by instalments at stated periods, which I have engaged to do. I cannot take upon myself to defend my conduct in this instance, which I must admit to have been incorrect, but I console myself with thinking that the public will have suffered no loss." And being asked, whether he knew of any other transaction of the same kind, during the time he was in the Pay Office? He said, I do not," And being asked, whether he knew of any arrear of the like nature arising from the transaction of any former Paymaster? He said, "I certainly do not," And being asked, whether any notice was taken of this transaction by the Treasury, previous to the beginning of this year?. He said, "I apprehend it was not ever known to the Treasury, previous to this year,” And being asked, whether any notice was taken by any other Public Office? He said, Not to my knowledge." - On the 13th April, Mr. Steele again attended the committee; and a part of Lord Temple's letters being read to him (Appendix, No. 3,), and he being asked, whether he had any explanation to give in reference to this letter? he said, "This being a statement of what passed in different conversations at different times, of which, I made no memorandum myself, I certainly am not disposed to dispute the accuracy with which it is reported. I beg the committee at the same time to understand that I never have attempted to justify the issue of the two sums in question, upon the ground that they were applied directly or indirectly to public service, but that in my former evidence I acknowledged that they were not issued with any reference to public service, but I alone was responsible and accountable for them; and that I have, in fact repaid them both, principal and interest," And a part of Mr. Steele's former examination, and an extract from his letter to Mr. Thomas, being shown to him, he further said, "The persons to whom I alluded in that letter and in my examination, were the principal officers of the Pay Office, who had long been established there, and who uniformily contended that the power of the PayMaster General to direct the issues of money from the Bank remained unlimited by any of the provisions of the Act for regulating the Office of Paymaster General." And being asked, “ Did you consult any other person as to the operation of that Act, upon the issue of money to the Pay the auditors, the full knowledge of the disposal of the public money, and to facilitate the temporary application of sums to purposes of a different nature from those to which they are destined by the votes of parliament.--The money issued to Mr. Carey and the two others in 1797, was for the purpose of procuring a supply of specie for army services, from Hamburgh, at a time when there was great difficulty in obtaining it, owing to the restriction of payments in cash by the Bank. Mr. Boyd undertook to import a large sum, and the persons who received the money, which amounted to master?" he said, "I did not." And being asked, Whether in point of fact, in any part of this transaction, he acted upon the opinions of any other persons, conjointly with his own, or consulted any other person on the subject? he said, "No."-The conduct of Mr. Rose, who succeeded Mr. Steele in the Pay Office, being observed upon, in a minute of the Paymaster, dated 27th Februáry 1807, Mr. Rose attended the committee, for the purpose of explaining the knowledge he had of this transaction; and he stated, that the facts relating to the two sums issued to Mr. Steele were communicated to him on the 10th February, 1806, by Mr. Bradshaw, in the presence of Mr. Harmood and Mr. Thomas; but that, as he considered himself completely out of office at that time, he could not interfere officially, nor apply any possible remedy; that he had, however, desired Mr. Thomas to write to Mr. Steele, that he might insure his seeing him, and to let him (Mr. Rose) know, whether any interposition of his, with Mr. Steele, would be necessary; that he had also a personal interview with Mr. Steele, and afterwards wrote a letter to him, enforcing what he had recommended in conversation; the answer to which led him to rest satisfied that the whole matter would be communicated, without delay, to Lord Grenville, or the Paymaster General. As no entry was made of these two sums in the Extraordinaries of the Army presented to Parliament, it became an object of inquiry, for what reason they were not included; to which Mr. Wood, Deputy Cashier in the Pay Office, answered, that they were omitted by the express order of Mr. Steele; and upon being further examined, he said, that other sums had also been omitted in a former year (1797) by Mr. Steele's direction, which had been advanced to Mr. Carey, Pratburnon, and Bry-plete their purchases, and to pay their puran; adding, that without such particular direction he should have thought it his duty to include all those sums. In one of Mr. Steele's letters it is to be observed, that the reason which he assigns for this omission is, "that the sums so issued, being intended to "be replaced at an earlier period, could not "with propriety have formed part of the army extraordinaries." If such has been the rule of that office in making up the account of extraordinaries, and if it has been also usual that all sums so issued, if replaced before the delivery of the accounts to the auditors, should not appear at all in those accounts, your committee judge both these practices highly improper to be continued, because they tend to keep back from the house, in the first instance, and finally from 100,000 by the Paymaster's drafts on the Bank, were nominated by Mr. Boyd, for the purpose of keeping the transaction secret, which he judged necessary for its success. The service was not performed; and the principal sum so issued was paid by Mr. Royd, in the following year, by a similar am which he received on account of another service, (the remitting of money to the Cape of Good Hope for the payment ci troops) which he contracted with government to perform; in which he also failed. The question of interest upon the £100,000 was involved in the discussion of some claims preferred by Mr. Boyd, against government; and the repayment of the second sum is still in a course of legal proceeding, in consequence of the bankruptcy of the House of Messrs. Boyd and Co. when proper steps were immediately taken for recovering it, by direction from the Lords of the Treasury; and your committee are informed, that the principal difficulties which have prevented a satisfactory title from being made to purchasers (under this bankruptcy) are now nearly adjusted, and in the course of the next term, it is probable that the most considerable purchasers will be ready to com chase money into court-Upon the important subject of recommending measures which may prevent similar abuses in future, your committee observe with great concern, that the most obvious, and perhaps the only effectual remedy, has been found by expe rience hitherto unattainable; but they think it necessary to represent as their deliberate opinion, that without an earlier examination, and auditing of accounts, irregularities can hardly be prevented; and that temptation will never be wanting to make use of public money, while there exists a great probability of its being for a long time uncalled for. After the accounts come before the commissioners for auditing, no attention is wanting in requiring proper warrants in discharge for every payment, and no sum is allowed with out a voucher of that kind; but so slow has been the progress hitherto, that notwithstanding the observations made on the subject by the Committee of Finance in 1707 and 1798, not one account of any Paymaster General has been finally settled and declared, nor made ready for declaration, in the nine or ten years which have since elapsed.—Parts of the accounts and vouchers for the year 1782, were delivered to the auditors in 1788, 1789 1791, and 1798; parts of those for 1783 were delivered to them in 1792 and 1798; part of those for 1784, in 1794; and part of those for 1785, in 1797. It appears also that a supplementary account of the Paymaster General, from 24 April to 24 December, 1782, and a supplementary account for 1783, were delivered into their office, together with the attested accounts for 1784 and 1795, no longer ago than on 9th February last.-A letter from the chairman of that board affords a reasonable expectation that the account of the Paymaster General for the year 1782 will be finally audited, and ready for declaration about Christmas next; and that, provided there be no delay in the delivery of the subsequent accounts, the present arrear of the Pay Office accounts may be cleared at the Auditor's Office in the course of five or six years. It will be the duty of your committee, should they be reappointed, in the ensuing session, to make an early inquiry into the progress which shall have been made during the recess, and to consider how far the provisions of the act of 46th Geo. III. c. 141, under which the present Board of Commissioners for auditing the public accounts was appointed, have contributed to the object they were intended to answer, by facilitating the due examination and more speedy settlement of the public accounts; and whether any and what further regulations may be devised, for the attainment of so important and desirable an end.--Although some effectual improve ment in that system, would be the most radical and substantial remedy, there are other subordinate measures fit to be enforced immediately, for which the regulations of office may in a great degree be sufficient; and legislative provision may be added wherever it becomes necessary. Much of the delay, which occurs in procuring the clearing and covering warrants from the War Office, without which the paymaster's accounts cannot be examined by the auditors, may be removed, by making the transactions between these two offices more simple and methodi cal. It would be desirable in all instances to issue warrants at once, instead of transacting so much of the ordinary business by letters, which has formed a constant subject of complaint on the part of the paymasters; and it appears, that if warrants on account were granted by the Secretary at War for regimental services not completed within the year, the paymaster's accounts might be delivered soon after the end of every year to the auditors for examination.-The issue of money being in fact made originally upon the authority of the letter only, no other inquiry seems to be made in granting the subsequent warrant, than whether it agrees with the letter; and therefore any additional signatures to the warrant, which bear the appearance of further check and examination, add in reality no sort of security to the public, while the responsibility (which can never be desirable) becomes divided between two offices.-Your committee see no sort of necessity for every individual warrant being signed by his Majesty, nor for its being countersigned by the Lords of the Treasury, except where money is issued by their orders. In all cases where the Treasury is not concerned, the money is now actually paid upon the requisition of the Secretary at War, and his name alone ought to stand as sufficient authority for the warrant, making him, in whose department it is, responsible for the service and the expenditure.-It would be sufficient for his Majesty, in whom all money is originally vested by grant of parliament, to sign a warrant for large sums from time to time, leaving the detail of the application of them, as is the practice with regard to monies issued on account of the navy, and the ordnance, to the departnient under whose directions the particular service is performed. The delay occasioned by the warrants being taken up by army agents, instead of being directly returned to the Pay Office through their own officers, ought to be entirely obviated, as it seems already to have been in some degree, with regard to what are called clearing warrants for regimental services. No reason appears why they should pass at all into the agent's lands, who may have an indirect interest in withholding them, and for the passing of whose accounts they are in no degree requisite.-Another regulation proper to be adopted, is a different manner of making out the accounts of extraordinaries to be laid before parliament, which the present paymaster informed your committee that he had directed to be done Supplement to No. 8, Fol. XII.--Price 10d. Κ. |