The National Register. — London, England, 1808-06-27 00:00:00

408 . -~. JUNE 97. • THE NATIONAL REGISTER. dintely went to Mr. Dixon, a common slop-seller in Fenchurch street, and actually bargained with him to make them at from 135. 6,1. to 14s. a-coat,which he accerdingly did : and Mr. Pearse, for having merely the trouble of walking from his own house to the Horse Guards, and thence to Fenchurch-street, put upwards 61'3,5001. into his pocket. The Hon. Gentlemen proceeded; he observed that Messrs. Scott and Co. of St. Martin's-lane, had offered their services to the Treasury to contract for clothing, and to provide great coats for the army ; yet, although the Treasury again made efforts to have these bargains elected by public contracts, and fair competition, they could not succeed. Messrs. Scott were constrained to have recourse to private in fluence, and they lately, through that medium, got a contract privately for making 25,000, at 14s. each, when, had they been allowed to send in, under fair competition, their proposals, they would have made the same coats for lay. each. Upon the whole, ate calculated that a saving might he made of 101,0001. ; and if the saving on soldiers caps, and the other fantastic articles in which we saw some of our military dressed, were added, the amount of the savings would be nearer 200,000/. The Hon. Gentleman then moved three Resolutions, the purport of which was, that a great deal of unnecessary ex pence had been incurred In the army clothing ; that it should he conducted by open con tract ; and that a Committee he appointed far the' purpose of making the necessary inquiries into the subject. TUB SLCRETARV AT WAR said, as to the complaint, that atter the contract for great coats in 1803, whith specified, that .if the cloths fell the prices were to be reduced, he had been as sured. that the prices of the kerseys had continued much the same up to the present period. This was the only reason why there bad been no reduction of prices. As to the reference to the Commamler in Chief it mu-t he evidently of great importance, that whatever respected the clothing, and of ruarse the comfort of the army, should be referred to so high an authority. The great coats for the soldiers were to last three years, and were esteutially necessary to their comfort, particularly iu cold cli mates; it therefore became a matter of great importance that these should be made of the best materials, and it was certainly proper that no new plan, by way of contract, should be intro duced, by which the comforts of the soldier might be endan gered. As to the army clothing in general, it was entirely the private business of the Colonel of every reAiment to contract for the clothing of his regiment with whatever clothier he pleased. With this the Secretary at War had no connection, and had no *Merest whatever in the matter. The Treasury certainly deli *ered an opinion in favour of open contract; but still this opi nion was open to the representations from the Secretary at War and Commbrider in Chief. The Treasury recommended a cer tain system to be adopted wish regard to the great coats ; this wspi referred to the Duke of York and the Board of Geueral Officers, wbq made a strong representation on the subject. Tile recommendation of the Treasury was repeated, and a second re monstrance was delivered by the Board of General Officers, without effect, He believed, however, that a Report would speedily be'presented from the Committee of Military Inquire on this very subject, ' , commending; a new system on the subject of clothing, and this would render unnecessary the ap pototment of the new Committee proposed by the lion. Gentle man. Upon the whole, however, he thought the public would be a loser if the cinthint was taken out of the hands of the Co lonels, for,lt was a mistake to suppose that any emoluments arose to them from it, though it was attended with a great deal of trouble; and he believed that in general they would wish to get rid of it. The Right lion. Gentleman then concluded with moving the previous question on the several Resolutions. Ma. WARDELL shortly replied to what had been said, and at last consented to withdraw his Resolutions for the present. MR. PALMER:S CLAIM. THB CHANCELLOR OF TILE EXCHEQPER stated his reasons for moving that this grant be made in the form of a particular Bill, instead of being founded on a mere resolution of the House, and coming, among other grants, into the Appropriation Bill of the year. The Right Hon. Member reviewed at considerable length, a variety of precedents on the subjects, all going to chew tbat the House had been in the practice of making resolutions for the grant of money to individuals either part of the general Appropriation Act of the year, or the subject of distinct Bills. le referred to five different conditional grants of money to in dividuals for discoveries which they had made, all of which Were embodied iu separate Bills. There were various grants also blazonry for public works, among which he instanced the granti for the building of Westminster Bridge, which did not oppeeir is the tAppropriatioo Act of the year, bat which were passed in the form of separate Bills. From all these instances he col lected, as a general proposition, that these grants were passed either in the Appropriation Act, or by separate Bills, and there seldom appeared in all those cases ally reason why the House acted in one way than the other. And therefore, with so many precedents before them, it was perfectly in the option of the House to proceed either in the one way or in the other, either by putting the grant to Mr. Palmer in the Appropriation Act of the year, or by bringing in a distinct Bill for that purpose, which wv.s the mode he had now to propose. lie thought, that if ever there was a case for making the grant in the shape of a distinct Bill, it was the present; for he believed there never was an instance in which a prospective grant was put in the form of a Bill, whilst a retrospective grant, founded nn the same grounds, appeared in the shape ofa vote in the Committee of Supply. He should therefore move for leave to bring in a Bill pursuant to the resolution of the I.lth June last. PAihiro gave a brief detail of the proceediegs that had taken place respecting his father's claim. The appointment of the Committee—the Report—and the candid manner in which the Chancellor of the Lxchequer had conducted him-elf in the previous part of the proceedings. He did not wean to Mama the Right Hem Gentleman now, but he certainly found himself in an awkv and situation. Every , step seemed to remove him farther from his obiect.----Ile was referring to s hat ha , l ha the house of Lords, when lie was called to order hy Sneaker. • __ Mn. W 1.71311.431 17nm:ended the very proper conduct that had been observed by the lionour7ble Gentleman (Vr. Palmer) on Pit> whole of tail ilow , e, he remarked, hail al. ready determined that the rrant of arrears should ie, in the Ap propriation :let. Great numbers of the Members had gone to the comitr,y, aid now a separate Bill was proposed to an au dience in a great measure different. lf apossible diXercore of opinion la the Lords was to be considered, there ought to he no Appropriation Act at all. There never was a point car r i e d more cvmpletely, merely by the merits of the case, than this w:rs. Persans of ail panics concurred in it, and it was carried by a great majority against the Ministers. There might he rea son to suspect that the Duke of Athol's claim, which he still thought a most abominable job, might have been for warded by undue influence. The Duke of Athol had Assisttuts. lie re sembled the man who had laid a wager that he would eat a vast number e,f peaches in a given time, if he was allowed one assi, ant. lie produced his assistant, which was a lean sow.—( A laugh)—The Duke of Athol's lean sow was the Minister. tut here it was solely the influence of truth and reason that had prevailed. • The vidn.l, and the numbers were: Ayes, IS6—Noes, 63 Majority fur Ministers, 128.—Adjourned. FRIDAY ! JUNE 21. The Reprisal mu, and the Cinque Ports Bill, was read a Ctird time, and ordered to the Lords. A Nesseisger from the Lords informed the House, that 11y had agreed to the Brazil Trade Bill, and the White Fishery Bill. IMPORTANT INTERROGATORIEb. Ma. WILIRTON brought up the Report of the Appropriation Bill. On.the qttestion being put, that the amoximents he read a first time, MR. WINITURE4D said he would, on the Report being brought up on the Vote of Credit Bill, put a few que.tions to the R Wit Hon, Secretary (Mr. Cunning). and submitted to the courtesy of Ministers.to give hitn an answer, The present, he observed, had been a very laborious Session, several Committees were appoint ed, and though he objected to the measure adopted in conse quence of the Report of the Committee of West India Affair?, yet, as it was sonetioned by the vote of the HOW, he hoped it might he conducive to the relief that was expected. A Com mittee also sat on the affairs of the East India Company, and the country expected that the account between the Public and the Company was nor: tinally closed. It was his Intention early in the next Session, to call the attention of the House to the Report of the Lottery Committee, as it contained facts of a nature FO heinous nad disgraceful, that he was convinces: his Majesty's Mi nisters couid not rt,otemplate them without producing a due im pt The Cot»mi;tre of I inance had also man‘ lahorieus ittings, anti it appeared from what the. Chairman stated on a former nig!tt, that they were not likely to make any Report in the present Session. Ile could not say whether this disappoint ment to the Public arose from the construction of t'te Committee. that occasioned a collision among the Members, w hid) rendered their labours useless to the Public or not, but he trusted that the l '...:11:7'. ___