The Sun.
London, England, 1806-05-22 00:00:00

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

Lord H. PETTY,.;--Though the immediate oh-
jest of the Motion he had to submit Was the repeal'
of the. Commission of Inquiry into the Public Ex-
penditure in the West Indies, he believed it would'
be agreeable to state generally the measures which
. the state of the Public Accounts at large rendered it
'adviseablefor his Majesty's Ministers to have recourse
-to. 'He would make no apology for calling.the atten-'.
tion of the House thus largely to one Of its Most iin
portant _duties. Every thing that cold facilitate a:"
stria and accurate Account of the Expenditure of the
Public Money would, from its own natde, suffi-,
• ciently recommend itself to the.,,whole attention of, '•
the House. The iniportant Oust
.of auditing the
Public Accounts was very:early committed to two?
111011 Officers. who from leaving .the duties to the
subordinate persons of the Establishment, without.
having
.sufficient coutroul over thorn, failed t,o Make:
the check as useful as from its constitution it,onglit ,to•
have been. The Noble, Persons \vho were at the head:
of the Department always remembeyed tb tal:e their.
salaries; but unfortUnately they forgot the .duties, and,
left them to the chanceOf being done by others.--
Hence the negle4t and abuses grew in time to such a
thee6igdletrtetdh.autie altiepypi a
forced themselves tiotte.r7aserli:ie3sealyntiondnispotiz,s aiibni.
ec.
This good office was rendered by the American V,`-er ;
,for the Public Accounts became then so complicated
and confused, that it was evidently impossible to keep
them in order without some pew regulations. The
.attention of the three short Administrations that
immediately followed that War was turned to that
obje&, and the Right . Hon. Gentleman who was
now no more (Mr. Pitt), on his first coming into
office, bent his-mind to the correction of the 'evils,'
that had grown up in it. TheAuditOrs of Imprest
had no poWer to call the Public Accountants before
them, and these Accountants were at liberty to chase
the Auditors by whom they would have' their ac-.
counts. examined. The fees of the Officer depended
on the number. of accounts passed ; and those
who passed ihem with the 'greatest,facility,ehat is
with the greatest neglizeoce and carelessness, were
most sought, and had the highest profit. Hence
-the Right Hon. Gentleman to _whom he alluded
found it necessary to make a'very great change; and,
accordingly, in 1785, he
.brought in a Bill to sup-,
press the Offices of Auditors-of Imprest, held by -.
Lord Bute and Lord Sandwich,- and to appoint five
CommisSienees, with power to call, all Public Ac-;
countants, befOre them,. and examine them, so. that
a perfed kno\vledge Of the.' matter of the account -
:may be attained beft-.).re: it, was decided upon. But
the two ..Comptrollers of the Arm;' were ,e:r officio-
t wo.of these .Com Missioners, :These .•Comptrollers
had been originally .appointed for very useful pur- ,
Poses. .We .ove,tl their appointment to-.the good
sense of Lord GodOlpiiiii,; when -he presided over
the 'Government,'.in frie•tiMe of Queen Anne. The,
instrtiaiousgive:tf to 't hem- 'Were .3u-useful, that he
would•make no apol4y for stating the nature of
them. shortly. Tkir firs t•'d'ilty was to keep. an
count of all Monies issued
,from the„ Exchequer to
the PaYmaster Of the Ariny, and:to require fro'm
that 04icer act:nth-it of.'the application of
those monies; they. Were to insped contrasts,
musters, .and regimental. -accounts; and to report to
the Treasury, and to 06 :Commander in Chief, all
negleds and abuseS thq'tnay discover in any part of
thisTeview ; and they herd the sum-general .powers
with respectto the."l\etny,•-Virhich any other Comp-
troller had with respes to any other branch of the
public service... Even at' the time when that corn.
mission of credit issued, its objeds were of the high-
est importance. It Was, therefere, rather a hasty
measure to include in this Board of final Revision,
two Comptrollets whose Own- duties made a Material
'part of the subjed 'of that revision, and who ought.
to be considered as sufficiently occupied by those
duties if .they were attentive to them. But the
Comptrollers-of the Army-had long ceased to aft up
to their instructions ; principally, perhaps, frt.= the
dislike all great Public Officers -had to aCt \viten they
were not sufficiently attended to. They had ceased
altogether to report abuses in the manner in which
they were tlireated. It would appear that very Lirge
issues of the Public Money, whith ought to' have '