The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-25 00:00:00

PUBLIC MONIES.

THERE was a Select Committee last session on
Public Monies. It eat from the Ath of May to
the 21st of July. Its quentions and answers
were 4,647, occupying 449 pages of one of the
large Blue-books ; with fifteen appendices, oc-
cupying uearly 400 pages.

Sir FRANCIS BARING was its chairman, and it
had among its members the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER, Mr. HENLEY, Mr. WILLIAMS,
Sir JAMES GRAHAM, Sir HENRY WILLOUGHBY,
Mr. CARDWELL, and Mr. WILSON. So much for
the statistics and compositi on of the Com-
mittee. Its Report, after the 4,847 questions
and answers, is as follows :

Your Committee have proceeded on the inquiry con-
fided to them, and have taken much evidence, but advert-
ing to the importance and extent of the subject, the in•
complete state of the inquiry, and the advanced period of
the session, you.. Committee consider they will best dis-
charge their duty by laying the evidence before the
House.

It cannot certainly be said that this S elect
Committee, comprising so many able and ex
perienced men, after its two months' sitting,
has done much in its Report to direct or en-
lighten the public mind. Something more
satisfactory might perhaps have been antici-
Bated from the experience of Sir FRANCIS
ARING, the sagacity of Mr. HENLEY, the assi-
duity of Mr. WILLIAMS, the intelligence of Sir
JAMES GRAHAM.

But, as the Committee have not assisted us,
we must turn to the evidence. Lord MONT-
EAOLE, of Brandon, the Comptroller of the
Exchequer, we find occupies no less a portion
of the evidence than 213 pages ; or, wo ought
rather to state, the Monteagle interrogatories
and responses take up nearly one-half of the
evidence. Mr. ANDERSON, the financial clerk
of the Treasury, occupies 141 pages, with 1,616
questions and answers. The remaining 95
pages are modestly filled up by Mr. HOMY,
the Assistant Paymaster-General; Mr. VINE,
the Inspector of Naval and Military Accounts
in the Audit-office ; Mr. ROMILLY and Mr.
MACADLAY, the Chairman and Secretary of the
Audit Board ; MT. BATHURST, the Inspector of
the Accounts of Woods, Forests, and Works ;
and Mr. HoLutios, the First Clerk in the War
Department.
Before proceeding to deal with the im-
portant subject referred to this Committee,
we are desirous of noticing a practice very
prevalent in our Parliamentary committees,
and peculiarly to be observed in the proceed-
ings of this Committee—namely, that of the
examining member endeavouring not so
witch to elicit the opinion or statement of the
witness, as to place his own opinion on record
in the form of a question, and obtaining the
evidence of the witness simply in the shape of
an assent. This we hold to be an abuse of
the proper functions of a committee, and has
tended materially to swell the dimensions of
our Blue-books. It is further calculated to
mislead by misrepresenting the views or
opinions of the witness. Not unfrequently
the question is argumentative and compli•
cated. Sometimes it is unintelligible ; the wit-
ness has little time to deliberate ; he applies
his mind to a single branch of the question or
argument, and to that alone the assent or dis-
sent is directed, while it is taken down and
treated as an answer to the whole.

lli.

OCTOBER 25, 1856.

Saxon population. They treat secondary in-
stead of primary causes ; they do not touch
the root of the evil, and, like the teetotallers in
Ireland, led by Father MATHEW, they will fail
in the long run.
Indeed, the failure of teetotalism in Ireland
may be taken as a proof that the "United
Kingdom Alliance " must fail. Ten years age,
"Teetotalism" was enthusiastically embraced
by the people of Ireland. It spread through
all classes, and even O'CONNELL himself, in his
" Repeal year," took the teetotal pledge.
Public-houses were shut up ; coffee-shops were
established; temperance bands paraded the
streets ; and "an intemperate sobriety " pre-
vailad amongst the peasantry. The sanction
of religion helped the precepts of teetotalism.
The peasantry had a faith in teetotalism, and
their superstition on the subject was as cogent
as any " Maine Liquor Law." But the thing
could not last. The bubble burst. Extrava-
gance was tamed down, and, though something
of a public opinion against drunkenness was
created, teetotalism proved a failure in
Ireland.

It will not do to reply that the Irish are
excitable, enthusiastic, and not persevering.
The causes which create a desire for fermented
liquors operate as strongly in England as in
Ireland, and they cannot be overlooked.
First amongst these causes is climate. The
same man who enjoys his port wine, or his
" Guinness," in England, would not care much
for either in sultry latitudes. The influence
of climate on a variety of our social habitudes,
and on our public spirit, has been much
neglected by many observers. If MotirEs-
QUIECT went too far in making climate the
great master-cause of national and political
diversities, BENTHAM, and our " Liberal
philosophers, have erred in the opposite
direction. So, also, the " United Kingdom
Alliance" errs egregiously when it neglects
to see how eagerly a stimulant is sought for in
a humid climate, where the population is so
overworked.

On this point, also, we must observe that
the tone of the " Alliance," without reference
to its particular views, is extremely exagge-
rated. England is not that sink of pollution
which its platform speakers describe. Tell us
when or where was there ever so grand a
spectacle seen as twenty-two millions of people
crowded into one small island, and exhibiting
so much strength and comfort and bodily
health? We are not optimists, but we dislike
and distrust pessimists. The tone of the
"Alliance" in reference to morals is as morbid
and exaggerated as the sentiments of the
Chartists used to be in politics.
The overwork of the population at large,
both in England and America, has much to do
with the popular demand for drink. Even
medical men are constantly obliged to "fillip"
their jaded patients. We are the richest and
most powerful in the world, but we are alike
the most hard-worked amongst the nations ;
and there are many social reformers who look
more wistfully to " Ten-Hours Bills " and to
" Early-Closing Movements" as means for
bettering the working community than to the
empirical virtue produced by teetotalism or a
Maine Liquor Law.