The Sun.
London, England, 1806-05-24 00:00:00

after the discussion, to which alone they referred, -
was already past. -; —•- ,
General TA iILETON replie4, that there was a
Paper relative to. eight West India Regiments main-
tained at a considerable- expence. He had asked the
Right Hon Secretary for the War Department whe-
ther these Negri)
.Regiments were to be inclUded in-
the limited service, but had got no answer.
The SPEAKER having observed that there was no
question before, the Hollsei -
General TARLETON moved that .Papersthebe'
printed.
ort this a short discussion arose:
Mr. PAULL said, that a Notice must be 'given of
the Motion..

Mr. S. BOURNE said that no notice was required
of a Motion for printing Papers.
The•SEcurrAßY AT WAR observed, that whether
the Negro Regiments Aeviments' were to be included in the
plan oflimitedservice would be a gubjeol of discus-
sion when the business came forward; but he could
not comprehend what the Estimatd had- to do with
that.

Mr. H-USKISSON contended that the Papers were
necessary to shewhow the grants were disposed of
and.whaber the expenditure corresponded with the
sums voted. .
, .

Mr. WHlTBlizab asked, whether, when he was
at the'Treasury Board, he had given in accounts of
the:disposition 'of grants, and whether. the Paper
presented on that subjeet was not a mereforin ?
Mr. IVINDIIAM prguecl against, the preposterous
and irrational proposition of printing Papers after
the discussion to which they referred ;was past.
There were important points to considered, but
the Papers did flat bear upon them at all. • The,
printing of the Papers would be of no use ;.vhatever.
The SECRETARY at WAR, Lord TEMPLE, 'Mr.
PERCIVAL., Doctor LAWRENCE, and Mr. C%.LCR AFT,
each said a few words ; after which-the question for
the printing 'was put, and negatived.
On the Motion of Lord ENRY PETTY, it was
ordered, that the House should, at its rising, adjourn
-Wednesday. . _ _

Lord HENRY PETTY mooed .that, after the hair
days, the House shguld go into a Committee to con-
sider of granting Salaries to the West India Com-
missioners of. Public Accounts, who might be ap-
pointed ,by an At of this Session, and also-to con-
sider of granting Salaries to their. Secretary and
Clerks, and of discharging their ineidental expences.
—Ordered.

THANKS TO THE MANAGERS OF. LORD MEL::
VII.LE's IMPEACHMENT, -
The SECRETARY at' WAR rosej pursuant to'
'notice, to .move the Thanks of the House to the
Managers of Lord Melville's- IMpeachment. In the
Motion which he was about to submit on this sub-
jed, he hoped he would meet with the unanimous
concurrence of thenouse. Theavliole Of the bu-
siness relative to Lord Melville was a matter of pe-
culiar importance. It was one to which the atten-
tion of the House and of the Country had been par=
ticularly dire&ed. The Impeachment which had
• been voted last session ;• the subseiVent Trial. Which
had taken place in Westminster-lAA and all the
proceedings cOnneaed- with this subjea, were of a
nature that most excite the greatest interest in the
Minds of 1111 those to WITOM the care of watching
over the Feapenditure' of Om Public Money was
chieftkentrusteil. That business-being now brought
to a conclusion, and it being .customary for the
House in this stage of the-business to express its
sense of the cOnduet of the persons whom it had
appointed to manage such matters, he now rose to
call the attention of Gentlemen, o the condu6l of
those who had the direction of the Proceedings in
the. Impeachment of .Lord Ile believed
that those who had attended, at Westminster-Hall,
and who had obserVed the (ondu6t of these Mana-
gers in every stage of the proceedings, N.vould.agree
with him, that hth.veverexcellently any former Im-
peachment might ' have been conducted; however
Judicious, skiltnl, and prudent the condo& Of. Ma-
nagers might have been on any former- Occasion, •
-none could ever have been ' condueted ivith more
ability, more zeal, more discretion, more. judici- .
ousness, more prudence, or more energy, that this
last had been. In the seledion of these Managers
the House had naturally given the preference to
those who, from their zeal,- ability, and attention
to the subjea, appeared ;best qualified to execute
. with fidelity, She duties which wereto be' imposed
upon them. Upon this principle, that per Son was
particularly fixed upon who had all along appeared
best conversant with the ad'air, and who had proe-
cuted the subjed with zeal and ability,, and becorn-
'iqg regard to the due _Expenditure of the Public
Money, with an energy and unremitting attention,
•
.which would for ever intitle him, to the gratitude
and veneration of his contemporaries,• and of poste
tity; In addition to that person, ;others had been
sele&ed, who seemed by their abilities .-and-. high
public charaEter, as.vell as from their attention to ;
Ole subjed,....to bp eminently qualified for the. task
'Which was to. be assigned them-. The manner in
which they bad executed that task', the House had
had an Oppoilunity of witnessing; aiid.therefore
was not necessary-for him to dwell 'at any -length
Upon that point. But whether-one considered the
able and argumentative manner in which the business
had been 'opened, the judicions arrangement which
had been made in bringing forward the evidence, •
the skill and ability in the examination of the wit-
nesses, the strong; clear, and impressive eloanence
with which the whole had been. summed up, or the
luminous exposition of the -Laws,' which had im-
pressed convi&ion on every mind, the Managers
were certainly intitled to the Thanks and Gratitude'
of this House; as well as of the Country in general.
But there was another point of view in which the
Managers were intitled to our Thanks. FrOin 'the
,delays and-difficulties which had before generally
_accompanied Impeachment,, it had. been regarded
by many as a mode of Trial which ought -scarcely
ever to be resorted to. Every lover of the Consti-
tution of his Country, every
,one who feels an at-
, tachment to the higliest, and most important powers
and rights of the Comm Ons, the ProteCiors of the
People and their property, must have witnessed with -
- • l • '•
f
sensations of no e sans a ion the. clear, speedy,
• and admirable management of tbe last -Itopeachs'
ment.' That embarrasstnents and 'difficulties had at-
• tended many 'former' Impeachments was not to be
quo:itioned, and that a great Many had felt
daspositioir to resort to this tnode'of Trial in ccinse•
etletice, 'was equally certain; it was not, therefire,
the least part of the Merit of the Managers can this

c,cisibn that they had wiped away the 'Stain which
hung over 'lmpeachments in general, and prove 1.
that these might, by proper skill and attention, be.
con duaed in a manlier as-little vexatious, clear of
difficulties and,ernbarrassnients, 661 as ekpeclitlously
and plainly, as any ordinary Trial. They had„ by
their care in avoiding extraneous Matter, and confin-
ing theMseives strialyto those- things which were
clearly -cortne6ted,with the subje6t, removed all !lie
obje6tions to the mode of trial by Impeachment and
he hoped they would never more be revived.. This,
then.; was the Manner in Managers had
performed the duties 'imposed *upoir-i them. by the
House; and it was on these grounds that' he cOnfi-
daftly expeEted there" be one dissenting
Voice,to the Motion which he, would now propose ;
that was, " That the Thanks of this.HoUse be giVn
to the,Mernbers-Who.were-appointed to manage the
Impt3achment of. Lord - MeWille,. for the zealous,
able, and faithful Manner irc Which .they had fulfilled
their duty."

• *Upon ~
the' question benig but,, one voice said
" No :" who it!was we-Conld,:notiearn.
• .
The Managers then -stonehp, and the SPEAK,R
addressed them 'nearly as follows :;: ‘. -

" _GENTI:EMENi

‘i This
_House has lately -had Occasion to enter
upon .a grave and important Inquiry into the-Admi-
nistration of the PUblic-ReVenue;arid in the course
of-that,lnquiry &has been -called upon to exercise
the most solemn funaions that belong to the Hotise
of Commons, and:that 'transeendant power by which.
.it brings: to the bar'of ju'st'ice the 'higher servants of
the Crown, and guards ilgairist all inroads upon the
liberties of..the People. That-power, Gentlemen,
't delegated, to you, in order -that yon might exa-
mine into,a 7,7ariely:of .complicated inattei; much of
.which WaS Ql*grei and difficult to be unravelled, -
and male good the charges of High Crimes and
Misdemeanors against a Noble-Lord, who, .from his
high situation in the State, and- the dignified nature
of the office which -he-held, must have been a sig7
nil example, either for good or for ei'il, fo. all per-
, sons who may be entrusted with the care of the Public
Expenditure,. Throughout the Trial, Genlemen, we
have witnessed your condu& with a high degree.
of approbation, We have observed your skill, your'
fidelity, and dispatch, which have rescued the-triode
of trial by Impeachme-nt from the, disgrace 'which
seemed to be attached- to it, and which -have re-
stored. t his• privilege and sacred ight,--of- the House
of Commons to its genuine lustre-4'l'nd purity. We
have witnessed that unwearied indawand.sagacity
which you- have exercised throrigh4athat bold-
ness so properly belonging to the 1-3Ouic of Cora,
mons—and that..learning, ludgment,-,an ' perspi,
cuity; which have spread .the,: light' of day over
transgtions before dark; 'secretaild'diflicult to .be
brought into open 'view. 'inc itiafter. 'rarityWith the Lords, bind this Circutnstan&o,'as liiraS any'
thing human can be relied on, alters-Jam fairest hope.
of ultimate substantial juStice. Gentlernen,;
whatever the issue. 'may be, yotv have dose your.
part—and I feel the highest -gratification in co:n-,
wunicating to you that Resolution Of 'Thanks
which the House his voted. That Itesolution is,
" That the Thanks," &c. he read, the.
motion.]
The•SECRET.IRY at Ir.,4lrOse. and Said, that:
though he was disappointed in his holies. of onank,n
tnity, on his f)rtner 24,yti9n,.-1,)- one dissentientl?oicp„:
yet 14e belieyed th-at in the ;.:..fotion- Avhich he was
now-to submit, he would not be opposed• by even
that one. The Mocion That Mr. SPEAKER
be destredto print •the Speech which he made to the
Managers of the Impeachment of Lord Melville, in
consequenCe of the Resolution :of the House.':
Qrdered. •

.117 x. PERCIVA L allowecithat the pre&dentS not
only justified, but eVen'called for-a Vote of Thanks
in this stage of the business. At the same time,
for 'a variety of reasons, '.which he would not now
enter upon; he thought that it‘might, be extremely
expedient to Consider whether these Votes of Thanks
ought to be passed till the final termination of the
busineSs'of Impeachments by the Judgment of the
Lcirds. 'fie would not enter now upon
,the subject
id detail, because this would be falling into the
evil which he deprecated ; but after ttieJudgment•
'of the Lords was given in this case he would certain-
ly. bring a Motion before the House to prevent
,any
consideratiOn of a case of Impeachment, by a Vote
of ThankS, while it was before the Lords, and before
they had given their decision.
A Message from the Lords announced their assent
to the Irish Bank Debenture Bill and another.

The SECRETARY At WAR moved for leave to bring
in a Bill for the increase of Subsistence Money to the
Innkeepers who had Soldiefs quartered upon them.
Leave given. *. ".";

PUBLIC ACCOUI‘ITS.

Mr. ROSE adverted to the Statement which had

been made by the Noble Lord opposite, on the Sub-
let& of the Public Accounts. From the manner
and tone of the Noble Lord, and indeed from his
•': words too, it appeared as if he considered: the late
• Government as highly blameable in this business.
He bad represented it in a tight.which would not
only have destroyed all confidence in that Govern-
ment, but which would have a powerful effea in
destroying all-confidence; in any Government what-
ever. Be said that Accounts-to aboit 450. millions
bad been- left unpassed. He (Mr, Rose) had exa-
mined, into the case, and the result was, that fitly
millions belonged to the Barrack Aeco-unts, and 220
millions to the Pay Office • now,
,consideringwho
were the persons' in that office for some years past,
be hoped that it -could' not . be readily .supposed that
-there was any remarkable error there. The only in-
stance of error waS in a sum of 22,4'001. for which
the persbns concerned were prosecuted; and one of
them severely punished. The fault, 'however, was
hot in thellay Office, but in the War:Office,. as he
had before stated. The Accounts fOr so many years
back were not at this moment transmitted to the
Pay Office, though he did not mean to blame any
particular person. The next sum 'Was in the Navy
Office, amounting to go millions. That matter
-rested With the Commissioners of the Navy—.they
- carried their Accounts to the Attetitots, but that was
-a matter of form. • The- riOxt.sum was 45 milliOns
. in the ,Seal Office, which ought to have been, au-.
cited there; and all these, with another sum ,c;1
24 millions, Which had nacome to the- Auditors,'
formed a total of '429 Millions out of the' 450 to
which his Lordship had; allnded. trd effittiidect% that,
in the expenditure of these 429 milligns pb.use,
could 'possibly have existed.: 4e .a4aitted.that thvy

were not atidifed--.he• did not deny this 7 Fut he said
that no part of the, stun had been,lost to -th, public.—
,He then considered the Auditors' Bill, which had
been brought in by his Right Hon. Friend how no
more; and contended, that full powers had been
given ,by that„Commission... He extolled the merit
of . his Right Hon. Friend who had brought in the
.13ill,against the opinion-of the Commissioners, and
in: opposition to . Gentlemen on that .side of the
House, who then argued., th-at -it was unneces-
:Sky. :He himself, had framed the. Bill, and every
necessary provision was put into it.that the Crown
LaWyers;,*could-devise. It empowered the Com-
missioners to examine Qn oath; and prohibited
theml-rom vouchcirsWithout , going - •to.,the ..Exche-
quer. It.ajso took .:away .the: discretionary power
from the. Treasury of maklucr allowances. to Ac-
countants. The Boardll,vas selled entirely from the
merit of the Member., . Thiee .of the Commis-
, sioners, Sir William Musgrave, and. other two; were
• men well known to be.eminently qualified for busi-
ness; and the remaining part -of the- Commission
was composed of the Army Comptrollers; who cer-
tainly were not prevented by a press of business at
th* time-from, attending to• this affair. He wished
the whole. of this bitsiness to b 9 probed to the hot-
torn. After. the Address which had been now made
to the Managers, all must be convinced that there was
no, duty more important than a .eareful examination
%into the Pnblic Accounts. He wished, therefore; •
that a Committee should be appointed to investigate
this buSitiess, and whip should report to„the. House
the names of those who shoUld be foußd to have
been deficient in their duty. This Act had_been in
force twenty-one years; and he had never, heard
that the posters were insufficient. 'Sums of the
public money were issued to persons who Were not
Accountants, and provision ought to be made for
this in the'new Bill.: He again adverted to the War
Office, which Was in the habit :of issuing about 10
millions,a yeir• without having' its ac..ounts -ex-
amined, The Nibble ~ord seemed to have intro-
duced many of 'his statements for the purpose of
stage elfeft,-ak he was pot warranted in some of
them. He ,mentioned the case of Trotter, hitt)
Iclitlitose;afiitir hehad inquired. The 1\:oble- Lord bad
stated, that he had supplied stores to the amount of
.700,0001, for which he -accounted to nobody. The
fact. was, that. this-had:ll4sta done in consequence of
an arrangement'of a Secretary at" War, Lt order to
save a great deatof .expenee. Trotter was, by this,
to give:in a statement of • the expellees of the ma-
terials, and scas.aliowed a profit'of in per cent. on
the whole, arid for his trouble in taking care of these
stores in 1 og. dept ti: Ile- heitrd that the present
Secretary at Warapproved that arrangement. ' He
seemed; bY bismanner-,.t0-say.ci" Na''-4-but he hoped
he would, have no ,objeakin to.roduce his Letter to
the Treasury on .111.0.. t subje.-.6t. He said again, that
his only desire: was to have this ,subjed fairly
aniined) and concluded by moving, " That
.a Re-
turn should -he made. of all the -Suais -.issued from
:the Exchequer to the principal Accountants; and
by them to the SO-accountants-, at•.-present out-
standing-7-:.shewing those, that lad -been deliver-
e4' in, those under examination, the progress that
'had -balances` due to the

. !Ltird HENRY- PETTrZediired,. that in what
fell•from him on' the Ginner niAlic he had no •Inten.-
.tiOn to convey. any inicnuations against any of the
persons formerly at•the head of the Departments.
The:Right Hon. Gentleman surely could not .sup-
pose that he meant to throw out any' insintlations
agairrict his Noble Friend at the Head 'of the Trea-
sury, and who formerly held the offiCi! of Aud4or
of the Exchequer, because his accounts had not
been passed and if so, het might be.allowed the.
credit ~of not having done so against others. He
had admitted that- there were impediments to the
settling of many .of the accounts, and he had ab-
stained from Making any personal insinuation what-
ever. There was another way, however, in which
he seemed- to have given offence to the Right Hun.
Gentleman ; and this was 4the tone and manner
of his statement, If there was any thing in hi.; tone
or manner which seemed to the House to be amiss,
he was sorry for it. But if, in making such obscrva-
tions as his duty Called forth on measures hi which
the Right Honourable Gentleman was a party, he.:
had only failed to please the Right Honourable
Gentleman, he did not feel so anxious to make any
apology. The Right Soriourabfe Gentleirian had
said, that no very, considerable part uf:any arrears
would be lost to the Public. He himself had grated
that he hoped that would be the case. 'But would
the Right Honourable, Gentleman venture to say,
that it was no loss to the Public that the AceiScittt,t
of the Barrack Daparanent—of the Public Stores
to an immense amount—of the Expedition to the
Helder—of the Expedition to Egypt-and o our
whole Foreign Subsidiary System during the last
War, had never been audited—all of which had
taken place while the Right Honourable Gentle-
man himself was at the Treasury Board ? This tieing
the fad, the House must agree with :him in -think-
ing, that,, though great part ofilie-•Sum granted._for
these services might be properly laid'Unt, trove was
every pOssibility of great frauds having • been com-
mitted. The Rie.t Honourable Gentleman had ac-
cused him of not dealing- titirly by .Mr. 'Fruiter. He
had only stated -the circumstances in which that
Gentleman stood. glut did .he impute any blame
to him ? No. however, he Ilan omitted it on
the former day, he should now ask, it' the Right Hon.
Gentleman thought it proper that the same person
should be the Purveyor, -Manufatturer, end- S-thre-
keeper' of Government, atid at the sat time the
Auditor of his own AccOunts Did the. Right
Honourable Gentleman mean to say- Ilia ten -per
cent was all that Mr. Trotter had: on these fur,.
nishings ? Ha had, - besides) -an additional five
per cent. for credit, and another five per cent. for
incidental charges, making it total of '2Ol. percent.
He had not said, however, that Mr. Trotter was
to blame in this,-,...probably be .might hate been
right to have -got' 50 per cent.,- if he contd.—.
In 1801, suspicions being entertained as to the Cot-
redness of his charge, a charge at prime cost was
demanded, when it was found that these were his
additional charges. He then reduced the 10 per
cent. charge to 4 per Cent. ;' the•eitra Charge. from
2b per.cent: and the'nther 5 per cent.'tOr intc-
. rest he gave -up entirely ;• ::sn thatlie •t heti began ' to
find the:Same articles tor TI-per cent. -which durit g
the whole War he •had charged at tiolesS than
per. Cent:: • The-:Noble Lbrdliad'fier lfe;ttation hi
ani.tw Trotter; -the jus tif* -to .44cClareo}rate franc