The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-31 00:00:00

tuna that coulii easily be approprilt, a to the tor:nation
of Regent-street, or the removal of Swallow-'tree
and other narrow streets in that reegbleeui hood ; and he
might here be allowed to obsei NT, that same of these
improvements paid well, even at the pie sent tiitts .11!,
saren rematek asteikt. atat;ly t:e tione
e7ter
cr'6ss, snit to int.'prov,enents in the park. 'fbm were
all effected out of these funds. And, in !ceil, he might say,
that, with the exception of the purchase of CI-ace-nut, and
a few other sums furnished for different p.urposes, the
revenue arising from this property. had, beenir ereVoeed to
improVenrie',ni. point of iact the lion. Member
had himself furnished a reply to his own observations. His
motion was needless, for the House :vas in possession of an
account of the receipt and expenditure of these seventies
ft ova the year 1815 up to the present time. These accounts
were regularly furnished, and Parliament kept a watchful
eye upon every branch of the department, a eircnnittanot
which he by in) means r.grettcd. When the Hon. Member
raid that there was a gross charge for the management of
these estates of 12 per cent. he was in error. It was not
12, hut 10 per cent., and it ought to be recollected that
this was a very different thing from the mariageMent of a
private estate, since it was necessa.ry thitt there should be
secretaries and other officers. There were also pensions
and annuities charged upon those funds, as well as provi-
sion for the clergy of certain schools, which had existed for
100 or 200 years. The Hon. Member had mixed up
these old • payments with transactions of a more modern
date, and thus he had endeavoured to swell out the expense.
The amount of expense at present was—salaries of ofliecte,
13,800/. ; rangers and woodmen, 6,200/. receivers of
land revenues, 4,2001. ; incidental expenses, 1,300/. The
necessity of reducing needless offices had long been felt ;
and, from 1815 to the present time, reductions were made
to the amount of 10,0001. a year. There were formerly
two secretaries, one for the woods and forests, the other for
the land revenue. 'I hey were consolidated into one, and a
saving was thus effected. When the forests were ordered
to be enclosed, or rather during the time when the enclo-
sure was in progress, there were a number of officers, having
50/. a year and upwards-, who were all reduced. The sie-
tuation of out-ranger of Windsor Forest, to which was at-
tached a salary of 1,2001. a. year, was also done away.
Formerly a sum of 5 per cent. was collected on lands held
by the Bishop of Rochester, for which two receivers had a
salary amounting to 5,000/. ; but, on the death of the
Bishop, one of them was removed, and a saving of 4,000/.
was effected. There were many other reductions, and the
board were determined to increase them still further.

Colonel DAVIES said, he knew not what impression
the speech of the Hon. Mover had made on the House,
but of this he was sure, that it would make a deep im-
pre-sion on the nation at large ; and he conceived that
every thinking man must come to this conclusion, that it
was a matter of very great importance that a very rigorous
investigation shout.' be instituted with respect to the pro-
ceedings of this Board. Ile thanked the Hon. Member
for the very able and clear statement lie had made, and for
the great research which he had displayed on this occasion.
The Noble Lord complained of the Hon. Mover for hav-
ing adopted so wide an extent of observation ; but, not-
withstanding that, he (Colonel Davies) would apply him-
Self to the triennial report of the Commissioners ; and be
thought he should be able to shew, that if abuses existed
formerly i❑ this department, they had not ceased when'
that report was brought out. He here wished it to be
he plainly understood, that in what lie was about to say,
lie meant not to cast any imputation on the Noble Lord,
because lie believed he might assume, that the Noble Lord
was not in office when that to which he was going to call
the attention of the House took place. Therefore, what
lie had to reprehend applied not to him, but to his prede-
cessors. From what appeared in that report, it was evi-
dent that the revenue of the Crown, as now managed, was
most unproductive; so far at least as the public interest
was concerned. There seemed to be a most improvident
expenditure, and not a single shilling was brought into the
Exchequer. He could shew that uo surplus of the land
revenue appeared for the last 15 years, but that, on the
contrary, an enormous debt had been incurred. By the re-
pot t of 1786, it was estimated that, in future, the amount
of revenue might be raised to 400,000/., but that expecta-
tion bad not been realized. The sum raised from the royal
woods and forests wasl 69,703/ per ann: which cost in collect-
ing the sum of 48,717/., or at the rate of no less than 2
per cent. In 1826 the income of the land revenue timber
receipts connected with the royal forests, &c., amounted to
330401 , and the charge of collection was 36,8561. In
the following year the receipts were 36,055/., and the ma-
nagement cost 345302/. In 1828 the receipts atnounted
to 34,9631., and the charge of collection to 36,043/.
When we found the expenses of collection exceeding the
produce of the receipts of this part of the revenue, surely
it was a subject demanding inquiry. If we did not grant
an inquiry, we might satisfy ourselves, but we should not
satisfy the country. He came next to the expenditure con-
nected with the Parks. In 1826 the ordinary expenses
of St. James's and Hyde Parks amounted to 10,000/.--
the expense of the Regent's Park in the same year was
6,000/.—of Richmond, Hampton-court, Bushy, and
Greenwich Parks 12,000/., and of Windsor Great Park
20,600/. But that was not all : the extraordinary ex-
penses of St. James's and Hyde Parks in 1826 amounted
to 56,3001.—0 f the Regent's Park to 10,0004 —and
there were also extraordinary expenses for the other Parke,
amounting with the preceding to a sum of 73,200/. The
total of the ordinary expenditure for the Parks in the Caine
yell- was 48,810/. In 1827 the expenditure, ordinary
and extraordinary, amounted to 92,200/. In 1828 it
was 116,143/. Were such sums as these to be annually
squandered away without inquiry?
Can such things be,
" And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
" Without our special wonder?"
So far from making an exaggerated statement, the Hon.
Member for Colchester had in fact greatly understated the
case when he observed that in the last three years the
country had not derived a single shilling from the branch of
revenue in question. The total expenditure of the land
revenue within the last three years was 1,338,306/, but
565,0001. of this did not belong to the ordinary revenue
of the Crown, for a sum of 265,0001. had been raised by
alienating Crown Lands, &r., and 300,0001. was raised
on account of Windsor Castle and other branches of ex-
penditure ; so that, so far from the account being balanced,
the land revenue had incurred a debt of 565,0001. s,
much as to the state of the account. The Noble Lord had
alluded to thenew street and the improvements at Charing-
cross. With respect to the former, it might be impossible
to say what was the total cost, but he believed that front
first to last it had been 1,833,000/., although the original
estimate was only 368,0001. The rents of houses did not
exceed 36,000/. being under two per cent. per annum on
the outlay. Ile thought Regent-street a great ornament to
the metropolis, but objected to the manner in which the
undertaking bad been conducted, and was of opinion, if it
had not been left in the bands of Mr. Nash, but had been
placed under proper superintendence, that instead of
36,000/. a year, we might have realized three or four
times that amount. We were going on in the same sort
of way with respect to the improvements at Charing cross,
the original estimate of 'which was 850,0001., but he
believed it now amounted to 1,117,000/. He fully agreed
with the Hon. Member for Colchester in the opinion that
the whole system required revision, elld that as matters
now stood it might easily be converted into the fertile
source of every species of job and abuse. He did not say
that such was actually the case; but if those in au-
thority did not use the power which they possessed
fur the purpose. of exercising improper influence, it
was attributable to other causes than the control of Par-
liament. The only proper mode of proceeding would be, in
pursuance of the motion of the Hon. Member for Colchester,
to appoint a Committee to investigate the subject. We
ought to adopt the resolution of disposing of the Crown
rents by the hammer to the best bidder ; and with respect
to the Royal Forests, we should reduce the amount of the
expenditure connected with them, and render them snore
advantageous to the public revenue. It was most un-
gracious in Government to refuse an inquiry into the sub-
ject. He had formerly shewn that leases of the Crown
lands were granted for inadequate considerations, and that
this had been done by individuals placed in situatioes di-
rectly with a view to prevent the occurrence of such trans-
actions. A gentleman, appointed to oversee these matters
had in one instance put 14,000/. in his pocket by these
means, and received an increased interest of 1,7001. a
year out of an estate in the Regent's-park. Last year be
had forced an inquiry into these matters, having stated
such facts as rendered it impossible to refuse it, but there
was no time to finish the investigation during the Session,
and now Government refused to follow it up. However,
he could assure gentlemen opposite, that he had not lost
sight of the subject. The Hon. Member again pressed
upon Ministers the propriety of an inquiry into the matter
under consideration. They were bound to institute one
lif they did not mean to admit that all their professions of
economy, inquiry, and reduction were mere idle nonsense,
intended to delude the country. He should only say that,
he for one, .had acted with a sincere desire this Session to
offer his support to Government as far as he could con-
sistently with the discharge of his duty. But if Ministers
chewed a disposition to refuse all inquiry, to support every
job and abuse—and he feared that the last two or three
nights' debate evinced such a wish on their part--they
would find that those who were desirous of offering them
an honest and independent support, must refuse it, and
thatprobably at a period when it would be most wanted.
Mr. ARBUTHNOT next addressed the House, but in
so low a tone of voice as to preclude the possibility'ef giving