Star. — London, England, 1822-06-25 00:00:00

4 : ~I , • • . those at whose will they held their places; that pen sioners would ,Look to their emolument ; that those who possessed powh would think of the means of re taining it, when they had to give a vote which went to support or destroy their various and combined in tereits. And he spoke the language of the Constitu tion, when he pronounced placemen, as such, to be objects of mistrust; and when be said that Parlia ment had proscribed them from receiving its confi dence as placemen. This squeamishness at hearing the known truth only rose up within memory—aye, within his own memory. The language of Perim mene had always been the very oeposite of it till within the last three or four years; and he feared that it was only from the increased justness in the application of the old language, that this modern sensibility had arisen. In the very worst times of the Constitution, it had been said that placemen were to be watched as to their conduct, and lessened as far as possible in their numbers. He need only appeal to the Resolution of 1780, to establish his proposition as to the manner in which Parliament had felt and .expressed itself upon this topic; but it was also de sirable that the House should have their memories refreshed, as to the manner in which it had been treated upon other occasions. The first one was a Re . atiution which immediately followed that of 1780, declarig the necessity of having yearly accounts of the expenditure laid before the House, " for the sake of preserving the purity and independence of Parlia ment ;" so as for that purity it tst to be corrupted, and for that independence not to be attacked by. the in fluence of the Croivn. He should then refer them' to, the statutes, and there would be found a law for ex cluding contractors, in order to preserve the inde pendence and freedom of Parliament. What was this but saying to every contractor, as be would say to every placeman—" You do not vote as you would if you were not a contractor, or if you were not a place man?" He next referred to the Act of Settlement, which provided, that as soon as the settlement should be established, and the accession of the House of Brunswick ensured, no placemen should be allowed to sit in Parliament. He was aware that this was afterwards repealed, and that the statute of Anne was substituted in its place, by which certain placemen were admitted. There was the Ist of George, the first also which extended the admission to a certain description of pensioners. He would not weary the House by enumerating the various Acts, to shew what had always been the practice of the best times of the Constitution, but go to the important Reso lution of 1693, which led to the first Place Bill. That Bill, having passed both Houses of Parliament, was lost by the refusal of the Royal Assent. A Resolu tion of the House was then carried by a very large majority, declaring that the persons who advised such a refusal were the worst enemies to their Ma- 1 jesties. Having thus endeavoured to justify his title to impeach the conduct of Members of Parliament who were placemen, as being influenced in their sup port of Ministers, as well by themselves as by their friends and relations; and to say that their admission' was a breach of the independence of Parliament, he should proceed to shew the increase in the influence of the Crown since the passing of the Resolution of 1780. lie knew of no other means of shewing that increase than by a reference to the enormous increase in the expenditure of the country. He must, there. fore, beg the House to look at what the establish- Merits were when that Resolution was come to, and compare them to those of the present time. The expense of the Civil Government in 1780, was £1,130,000. — That, it would be recollected, was a time of war, and the military and naval expenditure for this coun try and Ireland amounted to fourteen or fifteen mil lions. The collection and management of the Reve nue cost 2,22.5,0001. So that, including every par ticle of expense which-coold be incurred, the whole civil and military expenditure of the country amounted to no more than 18,000,0001. Now let the House see how the patronage of the Crown stood with regard to the comparative expenditure over which it exercised controul at the present period. 'The civil and military expenditure of the country, in dependent of the expense of the colonies, amounted now to twenty-seven millions and a half. The whole expenditure of the colonies could not be estimated at less than a million sterlieg, which made the whole expenditure at the present time 28,500,0001. instead of 18,000,0001. as in 1780. But it should be remem bered that this was a peace revenue and expenditure, and that the other was in a time of war. If, there. fore, they looked to what would have been likely to be. the peace establishment at that time, it would be found not to have exceeded, in all probability, the amount of seven millions. In fact, that was the per manent establishment agreed to after the close of the war in 1791. Taking then the permanent peace establishment at that time, and comparing it with that of the present period, the latter would be found to have increased tour fold. Alley were there fore to consider the influence of the Crown to be qua drupled in point pf money, and in the number of per sons holding places under the Crown, as their em ployer. How mtsch more were they called upon, if they valued the Isilance of the powers of the Consti tution, and if they valued the independence of Parlia ment—how much more were they called upon than their ancestors of 1730 to declare, that the increased influence of the Crown ought to be diminished? It might be objected to his calculation that the patron-I age of the same quantity of money was more valuable at that period than now. To prevent any cavil of that nature, he would say that one pound then was worth two now, and thus the Crown would have a double patronage now upon the increased amount of Revenue. If they took the number of men employed by the Government, they would find it doubled. They would find the proportion of increased influence going on in all its various branches. The number of men. raised in the year 1780 was 56,000 English troops: He 'was aware that there was a subsidiary army of 30,000; but influence could only be given by the appointment of British subjects. He appre hended that it could not for one moment be argued that paying the Landgrave of Hesse could be any source of support to the Crown. The number of Bri-1 tight Officers then employed was 2,000; new there were 8,800 Officers in the British service, and if he included the 10,800 upon the half-pay, the whole weed amount to upwards of 19,000. In P7BO, the Naval Officers were 1;800 rnow they were 800; but the half-pay there would be 7,000. be prepared to say that this was not i . • W they too k Would any 01 . an increase oF,the influence of thitCrown? And wlien they had. seen what bad •httelf been done to wards an Officer.on half-pay for conduct opposed to Ministers when out of eat House—And perhaps in that House—he Would ask whether a Government possess ing such a power of patronage, extending over all the principal families of the kingdom, without any controul over its conduct except the vague and un definable power of that House,. where th e placemen themselves sat, 'and many ofAse Officers, who were at the mercy of the same bee: and nod of the Mi nister, could be likely to preserve the balance of the Constitution? There was another head upon which he would :hew the immense increase of influence _which the Crown had acquired. The Colonies had increased from the period with which. he was corn piring the present to the number of twenty-nine. But he would say what the difference of the Colonial establishments was since the year 1791, when the permanent establishments were fixed. Twelve Colo nies had been added to our possessions since that time, and merely in taking the Staff appointments in those Colonies, it would be found that there had been added 150 places, to be holden at the pleasure of the Crown. The civil places had increased in proportion. In •six Colonies the civil places had been all added since 1791, and upon the whole they gave en increase of five hundred civil places.— Since the year 1780 the increase of civil and military offices together, exclusive of the common regimen tal appointments, amounted to 800 and upwards.— But this was merely upon' the Colonial patronage, independent of all other great sources arising from the collection and management of the Revenue.— This was only an off-set from the main trunk, and it placed under the unexampled controul of the Crown an amount of no less than 800 employments. He would venture to say that if this increase were com pared to any which had take place in 1780, even 'from the year 1680, the earliest period at which we 'had colonial possessions of any importance—the lat 'ter would shrink. into nothing. In this calculation of the increase of Crown influence he did not include any patronage of the offices under the East India Company ; because the Crown certainly did not pos sess the . full patronage of those places. But when he considered that the Company had been brought much more under the controul of the Executive, by the regulations made at the time of the American war, he could not consider it as being entirely inde pendent of the Government. The insfease of places in this department was enormous. Jn the year 1793, the whole number of appointments, including Cadets and Assistant Surgeons, was 123. in 18'20, they amounted to 52/. By the arrangements which had since been made, giving the Government greater . power over the department, it had obtained one-1 fourteenth of the patronage. Supposing this to have existed in 1791, which he believed it did not, the influence would have been increased from the pro portion of nine places to 38, being fourfold. This patronage of 38 places would seem very little after the 800 CO which he had alluded. But when it was considered that these were annual appointments, it would be seen that they were equal to 400 ordinary places. Therefore, in the East and West Indies the amount of the ma,s of new places created since the year 1780, amounted to 1,200 and odd. But the grand increase was undoubtedly at home. In the management and collection of the revenue there was' an increase of fourfold. In 1780, that expense was less than a million, whereas it . now amounted to foul. Another circumstance to which he should allude as tending materially to extend the influence of the Crown, was the Debt itself. The interest of the debt at the time he originally referred to, was only six millions; and now, including the charge of management, it was nearly fifty millions. The emo luments in the power of the Crown by this vast in crease were made to operate in many various ways. But without going into the particulars of those laws arising out of the debt, or those arrangements which behampered and be.et every branch of commerce itself, it was evident that (justify or excuse it as they would) the result was to place all traders, without a single exception, completely under the power of the Officers of the Crown. A trader might act prudently or warily in the course of his traffic, but be he ever so prudent or wary, he could not always avoid the snares laid by the legislative traps of the revenue.— Whatever might be his skill, he was most likely to come in contact with that frightful code which con tained so many pits literally yawning to receive him. This came within the experience of many in that House; but to gratify the curiosity of those who might not be acquainted with the subject, he would illustrate his statement by a few examples. He might almost take them at random. He would begin with the revenue laws respecting soap, and he would re fer to part of a section in an Act regulating the du ties upon that article. It would shew the prying eye, and the skilful though somewhat rude hand of the Government. And here he would remark, that the Excise Laws were generous in one respect, for they had little to do with fractions. They dealt in penal round numbers—( A laugh).—He found by the sec tion in question, that no maker of soap should, un der a penalty of 5001. have any pipe or other con veyance for the removal of lees; or use any cock, crane, syphon, or other means of conveyance of the lees from the copper. Nay, the lees was forbidden to perforate—( A laugh),—and the only means of conveyance allowed by the law was a pump. But by a singular regard for the soapmaker And his lees, the former was allowed the privilege of a ladle I Laughter).—There was a penalty of 5001. imposed for making a hole in the copper for the purpose he had mentioned. But this legislation led to a diffi culty which was no other than this:—the lees, if not allowed to escape in some way or other, would ex plode and disappoint the imposers of the tax. And therefore, by a singular degree of accuracy and of tenderness towards the soapmaker (who was treated just as a sort of funnel in aid of the Revenue), he was allowed to make small holes at the head of his coptler. Notwithstanding the previously exposed general abhorrence of holes, nature had successfully advanced her claim, and the soapmaker wasallowed to bore small holes, one eighth of an inch in dia meter—(A laugh),—hut this was only to prevent ex plosion—(—Laughter).—lt would be endless to attempt adducing instances upon all subjects connected with the Revenue, but he could not refrain from just mentioning the tax upon Salt ; in the collection of which there was mere oppression exercised than hod ever before been invented. The sacred corner-stone of the systens,was in laying dowlr pelsaltieEttlthrnw the burthen of exculpative proof as much se possible' on the accused. An informer, who, its all other. countries. was considered a suspected person, was in the Court of Exchequer, received very favoirably, and his evidence considered as a thing of course.— Another instance of the system of contrail' exercised by Government, was to be found in the Glass Law, for there was a separate code for almost every article.— That law, by a singular regard for mathematics, de dared that the plates sh oul d be made rectangular, with the sides and 'ends perpendicular ; for such was the mathematical accuracy of the Exchequer. And, under a penalty of £lOO the sides were also to be pa rallel with each other, in default of which the offender, who must have committed an impossibility to respect this law, would, as he before observed, incur a pe nalty of £lOO. This provision would be found in an Act passed in the fifty•first year of the reign of the late King. The greatest possible power was also given over persons who had offended, or were likely to of fend against the revenue laws. A Bill had, one morn ing at two o'clock, been quietly brought into that House, giving a power to relieve offenders against the revenue laws, even after conviction. This Bill had passed into a law, and had put the finishing hand to the system of confront he had alluded to. Another instance of this was to be observed in the Act against mixing ale and table beer intended for sale. He knew of an information on that Act which contained in one count a claim for 105 penalties of £lOO each— (Hear).—The changes had been rung five times upon twenty, and had thus threatened, to overwhelm the defendant. The number and amount of these penal ties were such that human nature could not stand the trial; and in nine cases out of ten the defendant gave in. He by no means intended to say that it was seri ously proposed to exact all these penalties; but the suing for them drove them into submission. Thus the increase of the revenue became necessary by the increase of the debt; and the threatening of the people with the infraction of revenue laws Which few of them understood, made almost every trader a suitor to the Crown, and sent many more Members of Parliament than were usual as applicants to the Treasury ; and, as a consequence, the direct influence of the Crown was increased in the worst possible way. The influence, too, was much better arranged than it was formerly ; the real weight of the revenue was considerably increased ; and the Treasury got' Its lofts arms into every public department. It interfered I more than it had ever done before; and in support this assertion he had only to refer to the shifting of , the Excise and Customs patronage to the Treasury; and the compensation, as it was called, to the two for: 1 mer in the shape of increased salary. It was• per feed), true that we had come down from an expendi ture of 182 millions, to the comparatively moderate, but, not insignificant, sum of 77 millions. But the close of the war had not brought a cessation of its ordinary effects ; for many people were still looking up to the Government as their first Ways and Means. Formerly the people of this country were not accus tomed to look for a part of their income from the pub lic purse. They were accustomed to look upon their industry as the source of their income; but they had acquired vicious habits in the pursuit of army and navy appointments, writer hips, cadetships, and si tuations of all kinds and sizes, from the highest, which were good enough to tempt the highest fami lies, to the lowest, which were accessible to those in the lower classes. This state of dependence, he was sorry to say, was deeply rooted in the higher classes. It had become.a _habit to look to the Court for the means of subsistence. Though the amount of our expenditure was a little diminished, the habit, the struggle, and the subserviency still continued. When all these were taken into consideration, he thought that if Parliament had reason to pass the Resolution of 1780, it had now much stronger reason to echo it. If those w ho adopted that Resolution were now alive, they would not be contented with re-affirming it ; but would follow it up with measures of a most search ing and decisive nature. Mr. Dunning had spoken of the corrupt pecuniary influence which prevailed within those walls." He had said that " he knew fifty Members of that House who held opinions in that House opposite to those for which they voted within the House." He added, "If you goad me I will name them ;" but nobody challenged him. The pre decessor of the Right Hon. Gentleman in the Chair had said, that he felt bound as an honest man to say, that the influence of the Crown had increased beyond the idea of that of a limited Monarchy. There was another opinion, and one of a man who was no ve hement patriot, or one who was particularly conspi cuous in obstructing the measures of Government— he meant Mr. Justice Blackstone, his opinion anterior to the American war. Blackstone stated that, in his opinion, the Bill of Right.; and other advantages we had obtained since the Revolution, were more than counterbalanced by the vast force of influence de rived from the Riot Act, the Standing Army, and the increased National Debt. At the present moment we had not only the Riot Act, but six other memo rable Acts ; an army, not of 17,000 men, which was its amount when Blackstone wrote, but of 90,000 men; and a debt of 800 millions, instead of 130 mil lions. Could the House, theref ore, l possibly doubt, that if Mr. Dunning, Mr. Justice Blackstone, and Sir Fletcher Norton had to revise their opinions, they would now hesitate to re-enact their former measures ? He now came to consider the answers usually given to those who contended that the influence of the Crown had improperly increased. The late Mr. Rose had admitted that 1500 new places had arisen, but then he urged that 500 had been abolished. The places increased, however, averaged £3OO a-year, while those abolished averaged but £5O a-year. Since Mr. Roie's time many augmentations had occurred in the number of places. The next answer was, that there were fewer placemen in that House then, than there were in 1780. At that time there were between eighty and ninety, he would say ninety, for the be nefit of the argument, to be held by tlaropposite side of the House ; by the returns laid before the House it appeared there were now about 80 in that House. He protested, however, against the argument to be drawn from this fact. It was not of the number of placemen actually in'Parliament that he complained ; it was .of the number of persons purchased at elections and county meetings: •To - him it was of little matter, whether the man who was :corrupted held the dies himself, or was influenced by one who did. l'heiipv plication at the Treisury in the morning was always accompanied by an understood promise of the rote in the "'ening, no matter en whote personal beh a lf the application was made. The number of placernen in Parliament had been considerably reduced h: fore the year 1780; but the House did not, on that u c . count, stop short when the Resolution of that day was offered for their consideration. The Lords had some time before the Acts limiting the number of placemen, declared that the number of them in th at Housewas not less than between two and three huiv. 'dred ; and'yet the Iltrusehad not hesitated to re sn h e that the influence of the Crown ought to be dimi. nished. The principle was still the same, and it ought to be followed by the same remedy. He no w came, and with some pleasure, to the last of the an. savers. given to the present argument. It wa s t h e often-repeated answer respecting the right worki ne . of the system." It was said, that notwithstanding all these facts, he enjoyed as much practical libe rty u was possible, and that Parliament was as rodeo: pendent as under all the circumstances was necessary ; But they had all witnessed the conduct of Parlia: ment. They knew that whoever was the Minister, and whatever he proposed, the House uniformly sup: ported the person and the measure. He (Mr. 04 laid down the proposition as broadly as possible.— The rule was almost without in exceptiOn. He would sap that anybody whom the Ctown might name its Minister, would find the support of Parliament, pro vided he were selected from the class of persons usually resorted to for the purpose of filling high of fices, and provided he offered to risk his situation on the measure proposed. With these two qualifications he would lay down the rule most confidently. Mr. Pitt, when in office, was supported generally by a majority of four to one; but it was said at that time, that this was owing to the hereditary greatness if his name, his own splendid talents, and his enimpeached personal integrity. When he went out of office, he was succeeded by one who resembled him in one little circumstance—it was that of being Chief Mi nister. It was then found that this circumstance was the greatest point in Mr. Pitts favour; indeed, the only one which rendered him desirable. For on the very first trial of stret;gth between him and Mr. Ad dington, the House of Commons was rudely put to the test. Mr. Pitt said to them—" No more flattery; no more songs in my favour out of doors, or tirades in my praise within it ; come to the vote ye majority. The question is, Addington or me?" What was the consequence? Why, that 333 out of 400 Membe:s r were free to co nfess thar they preferred Mr. Adding. ton-.-(Cheers from the Opposition).—Every th ing was •then forgotten —name, ancestry : popularity, grtti .tude—(Cheers)—the gratitude of his placemen and Contractors, his Honourable Baronets, his Knights the 'Shire, and rotten BoroLgh-holders. The men whom he used. to feed, to command, and drag to the vote, from the highest to the lowest, all, yea, all of them .forsook him on the first personal question of confidence between Mr. Adding ton and himself. The name and-unenvied popularity o f Mr.Addington were found to be an overniatch fur all Mr. Pat's great qua lities. There were bt't.ility-six faitlifui a , tiong the faithless ; and those soon fell down to thirty five.— A coalition was shortly formed between Mr. Pitt. Mr. Fox, and Lord Grenville, but Mr. Addingtca made head against it for upwar s of a year. A change then took place, but had hi, friends stood by Mr. Addington he might have ..een Prime Minister at that very moment. ft happened, however, that while Mr. Fox was out of office phrases were bestowe2 upon him accusing him almost of actual rebt:d•on.— it was hopeless for Mr. Fox to attem, against the Minister ;'but in 1806 a new lig;.t brolz in upon the House of Commons. Mr. Fox ca,i,e into office, an event which makes the fl ,, use always act warily when it is put in mind cf that cliatige nom a state of only being able to command a few pet sonal and independent friends, to having as great a nume rical force in his majorities as Mr. Pitt and Mr. Ad dington. In a question touching Lord Ellenborough's sitting in the Cabinet, and therefore involving the pure administration of justice, Mr. Fox had a majo rity of 222 to 63. Atter the death of Mr. Fox the House of Commons was in doubt about what was going on at Court, and the first thing was to have business in the country, and at home, to absent then.- selves from their duty in that House. On the P2zhef March, 1807, there was but 57 found in the minority; but in a few days that minority swelled into a ma jority of 267, to declare that they would have nothing to do with the king's late Ministers, or such men. This was done the moment they left office. Hardly had the House of Commons taken such an alacrity at finding out the Ministerial changes of the times, than the Learned and Reverend University of Oxford, at the time of theWalcheren Expedition, &c. led them to think it was likely tkat Lord Grenville should come again into power. In that calculation they were greatly out, and therefore they gave Mr. Percent their support in the Catholic Question, which he de clared to be the most dangerous question that had been ever agitated, as respected both the Church and State. In ten years after, however, a Bill was passed allowing Catholics to have rank in the Army and Navy. At the commencement of the Regency, Mi nisters were in a majority ; but the House did as it always would do; when it found that the Regent would not change his Ministers, they found themselves in a majority of one hundred, in three weeks atter they had found themselves in a minority. His Hon. Friend, the Member for Essex, obtained a majority in favour of a repeal of the Malt Tax ; but the Noble Lord threatened to resign, and in a moment he bad against the repeal a majority of forty or fifty. He himself got a majority for an Agricultural Cunt mittee, but the very next night he found a majority against his.proposition composed of many of those who had voted for it t he evening before. This :hewed how the independence of Parliament was sacrificed for offices . and favours from Government, though not amounting to places in the Government.-- It was on the ground that the conduct of Parliament only varied by Court favour, that he had brought this question before the House. He would be told that the voice of the country would find, and did find its way into that House: who denied it, as long as there was a free Press, an uncorrupt Bench, and an independent Bar-- r bs long as their doors were open .to the Public, and what was done by them was sent abroad to the world? In time the public voice must make its way into that House, but not quickly enough, until the groans of the People and humanity, after tweinntdyeopenrthdniertyt and y reformedears, prod Parliamen t ucedthose remedies wouldedi eswhich an have • brought About in as many mouths: This was the c:ise