The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-07-05 00:00:00

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In those whose success depended on their conduci ; and the
public was ill.s materiel', beriedted. lo the Customs, o• the
contrary, pertains were chorea to fin oiSres, not on the ground
of merit soul competency, het in too many instances that of
interest only. The Hon. Geatlemau then adduced, as ea
instance of this,' rectal appoiNinteot of a very yowler MIS,
witbont any experience in the loreirese, the son 4.f the Chare•
berlaso of Edinburgh, to the taffies of tandem surveys' .1
Aberdeen, over the head* of several etoperior officers, agree
of whom had lace retominsoled for promotion. He
was perfectly coorieced that it the petroNage in the Cu.
toms was vested a a body &wise, from the Trea•nry,
that there worth! be both • considerable revinz in the col-
lectiou of those duties, and ■ greet Nieces's,. of or heal
the superior ability of the officers. la 1810, whet, the
Act poised pernailing seperaerseatioe allowariees, et would
appear that the mussel ef them in lite Ceislonls *44
24,0001. No ember them the Act 51 George 11.1 s
giviug a discreleseary power to grist 16,00
p ties% than they became enormously asigni-iii••l
In 1817 they were advanced t 061,3351; In ISIS. Ist 71.00;1 ;
and in 1819, to upwards of 60,0001. Every person ob..
retired was a source of patronage to the Government. He
wished to guard the House 'gaited the idea that much had
been 'lone le the way of retrenchment by his Majesty's Mi-
nisters; the whole diminution this year-was S9')001. Their
was n reduction its the departnieut of the (:atoms of
101,0001. so that there must have been ass itteresse in ether
branches of near 40,0001. His object was to ',hew, that the
diminution is the charge of conecting the revenue war
not proportionate to the inrresse iu the total amount
of it. In Ireland sod Scotland it perticolarly called
for the atteutlou of his Majesty's Government. Large
redactions, be was coollitleut, could be effected by
note inquiry ; but if Me Majesty's Government seat
down soy ore for that perpose to Scotland, lie reconi.
mended that it should Not be a person conuccted wills
that part of the empire—(at hark)—Mr. Hume then ad.
vetted to the charges of managetecut of the lax on salsrie,
and argued that 7321. (and oothiNg, however small, was 111
the present circumstances of the country to be Neglected)
might be Ily saved by a reduction of the salaries equal
to the amount of the tag. He them made some observations
on the charge of maeaglog the tax on hackney coach...
which he considered too great. Those taxes alone ought
be continued which look the smallest sum from the pockets
of the people, and paid the most into the Exelseqntr. TibP
POICOGieII was the departesest which made the best returns,
precisely because the patrumage of it did not rest with the
Treasury. He now came to cousider the Resolutions is.
speciing the Receivers' General sod Distributors of Stamps,
which involved a two-fold subject—the expenditure of the
public and the patronage of Miuisters. %When it was kiiowil
that their object was to abolish 160 sinecure offices, they
would probably startle many Hon. Gentlemen. The Holt.
Gentleman thee read the sixth sad seventh Resulutious as

follow:
" That the office of Receiver General of the Land and
Assessed Taxes, is one of depusil, sod fur reminisce of the
Times from district collections to the Exchequer; and, its
the present stale of the fisimiees of the reentry, that ser-
vice may be ',tolerated at • lees charge to the public than la
wow incurred, with equal security against lure, sad with.
equal efficiency to the public service."
" That there are sixty-five Receivers' Geuersl of the Land
arid Assessed Taxer' ill England and Wale", who received ao
allowance of 40,7171. and 14,3481. in the years emoting the
Sib January, 1818 and 1819, for the duties of their offices
although the granter Number of these Receivers' General
performed that duty entirely by deputy, aad retained ba-
lmier' of cash in their bands, which, us •si average of three
years, exceeded 374,0001. sterling per masiont."
Tbis balance, the Hos. Geatleman canonised, was taken
at that part of the year wires it was lowest; the interrst
alone on that sum would be about twenty thousand pounds,
which certainly ought to be taken into cossaideratioi is de-
termining what should be the amount of remunerative. He
saw no reason whatever why the Receivers' General should be
only called on to pay the balances in their baud+ into the
Treasury quarterly, whsle all other receivers were obliged I.
do it weekly. The principals, who did nothing, not ouly re-
ceived all the puuudage granted by Government, but were
paid a fee by the deputies for the privilege of collecting the
tax. He insisted drat wee of two courses should be pursued,
either that a salary adequate only to the trouble and risk
should be assigned the ReceivereGeneral, or that proposals
should be publicly tirade, sad teraders received from indivi-
duals fur transferring to the Treasury the receipts of the
tax on the lowest terms. He pledged himself that indivi-
duals as respectable as any who at present held the offices,
would be ennui( to undertake the duties connected with
them, solely in consideration of the use of the balances which
would be in their hands. The post•horse duty had been for
many years collected without one shilling charge to the
public. The land tax was wholly received is the country
by the bankers, and its traaavissiuu was rendered in.
finitely more easy by the vast increase of banks, than
whew the poundage bad bees first granted. The arrears
in the God and assessed taxes, aetwubstanding the great
security required Gera the receivers, were greater than
in any other branch of the revenue. la the Customs at
present they were only 19,900!., and in the Excise, during a
great number of years, but 60,0991.; whereas its the land
aad assessed team the defalcation since the year 1790
was 304,337!. 12r. 4d,, of which amount a balance of
117,1181. ls. Id. now remained due to the public. The
Honourable Gentleman thee proceeded t• sail enfurced the
niuth and tenth Resolutions, stating that there were 9S
distributors of stamps in Great Britain, who received al.
luwances or poundage, anaituatiag to 83,303/. fur the year
ending the StbJaisuary, 1818; and 88,3171. for 1819; and
also retained balances of cash in their hands, which, on au
average of these years exceeded 110,01/01. per anti.; and Mt
the duty of the office might be performed at a less expense
to the public than that at present incurred, with equal secu-
rity against loss, and equal efficieticy to the public service.
He should propose to limit the security repined to the
greatest value of stamps in their hands in sup one quarter.
He thought the "abject of the remuneration and mode of
•ppoiutnseet of ibis and the preceding class of officers was
deserving of aileuitow in a coestitutional as well as a pecu-
niary point of view. After some further remarks, Mr.
Hume proposed his first Resolution
" That with a view of accelerating the period at whicht
relief may be afforded to the country hum a part of its
burdens, a continued and vigilant superintendence ought to
be exercised over the expenditure of the State in all its cc-
vend departments; and that • minute investigatiois should
be instituted into the mode and expense of mariagement anal
collection in the several breaches of the revenue, in order
that every redustiou may be made therein, which can be rf.
((cited without detriment to the public Mime."
The question having been put—
Mr. Lusittnovon said, that with regard to the pro-'
positions of the Honuttrable Gentleman, his objection
to them was, that the second was not funneled w feet,
and that in his calculations lie had bouipared years
together which were totally dissimilar. If she Honour-
able Member referred to a year by way of shewins the
comparative state of the revenue, and the rate of cultectui4
it, he should at least eerirsuly sake a year in ever 7 way
analogous, and, above all, take care in that year to compre-
hend every species of chat fe winch was included in the year
of his comparison. Now, 111 the year 1798, the expense of
collecting the Pod-uffice duties was nut included, so that us
his year of comparison the Hon. Member had uraitted keep-
ing in view the necessity of embracing the same heads of
collection. The Hues. Nlember should have also recollected
that since the year 1798 the salaries of officers bad been
fixed in lieu of fees, the great expense of the erarehoustill
system had bees incurred, also the super lie% esprit.
sea and allowances; there was, therefore, No fair croup.
oon begetter the years the Han. Member had gloried. He
(Mr. Lashingion) would therefore altogether exclude frosts
his comparison tie years 1798,1707, mid 1810. He should
also, before be went Grolier, allude to a material error is
the rate of calculation of per cestage select epos by
the Hon. Member. There werriie the details materially *c-
reweua isfereures deduced is nusequeues of such unseal-
culatioos. For instance, in the year coding theSiliJimaary„
1920, the per orange ea the gross receipt was sot 61. ls.3ed.
but !IL 13s. yd. The error arum Into the Hun. Member's
outing the,eirtitui line of /tunes in his caleislatioo.—(4
loop& )—The ins sod seeded heads of his caleolotaiiii
ought sot therefore to be plowed 'ass the Jammed% as they.
coatuised as egregious erne. The third sailboat, was It to.
be put ea record, aad therefore he should out object lan tar,