The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-13 00:00:00

CITY OF LONDON PETITION.-DISTRESS,

Alderman WAITHMAN had a petition to present of a
similar tendency, from the Merchants raid Traders of the
City of London. It originated at a public meeting held
it the Guildhall, and earnestly prayed the House to enforce
upon Ministers a reduction of taxation as the sole remedy
for the present distress of the country. In supporting tl e
prdyer of the petition, Lite lion. Alderman was a willing

testitn6Ly to the respectability of the parties from whom
the pet:tion emanated, and of the correctness of the state-
ments. The Hon. Alderman then read the petition, which
was to the following effect :

TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.

THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE MERCHANTS, MA

NUFACTUR.ERS, TRADERS, SHIP-OWNERS, AND

OTHERS, OF THE CITY OF LONDON,
Showeth,—That under the present circumstances of the country
your petitioners feel themselves called upon to represent to your
Honourable 1-louse ":s great depression and consequent distress
that now exists in the mercantile, trading, manufacturing, and
shipping couesins of this city and the metropolis, and which bears
, with peculiar severity upon the industrious and labouring classes.
That they are concerned to state, that the existing distress is
not assignable to any temporary cause, or limited to any particu-
lar part of the empire, but extends to the agricultural and all the
productive classes of the community. That there has been, fur
some time past, an unprecedented and rapidly increasing depre-
ciation in all articles of manufacture and products of labour, to
such a degree, that thousands of hands have been thrown out of
employment, while others have only been able to obtain a preca-
rious and insufficient subsistence.
That your petitioners have no hesitation in declaring it as their
decided conviction, that a principal cause of all these evils is the
enormous and overw helming pressure of taxation, rendered mere
oppressive by the alteration in the currency, which has with-
drawn from general circulation and productive employment a
large amount of capital, and concentrated the same in compara-
tively a few hands, thereby causing the taxes to approximate to
the entire profits of the peop!e, and in defect of profits to their
capital, deranging the whole system of commercial enterprise,
and paralyzing the active industry of the country.
That your petitioners have also to state, that another promi-
nent cause of the present distress, by which these evils have been
greatly aggravated, are those laws which they were confidently
told would improve the trade and manufactures of the country,
by establishing a reciprocity of trade with other nations, but
which, as ,ther nations have not adopted a similar policy, have
operated most injuriously to several branches of industry, and
augmented the public distress by allowing foreign labour to come
into competition with British labour in the home markets of this
country.
That they feel it the more necessary to make their grievances
known to your Honourable House, as His Majesty's Govern-
ment seem to be unacquainted with the real state and condition
of the country ; and while they have admitted in the speech
from the Throne, " that distress existed in some places," they
have stated from fallacious Custom-house valuations an in-
crease of exports as " indications of active commerce," while it
is notorious that the actual value of exports has fallen otfto the
amount of several millions a year, for several years past, and
had often yielded no profitable return.
'That they have seen with no less surprise the retail trader re-
presented as in " a prosperous state," while melancholy proofs
to the contrary are weekly presented by the long list of bank-
ruptcies and insolvencies, and still more numerous compositions
with creditors.
That the unparalleled oppression upon the agricultural inte-
rests affects all classes of the people, and to the distress of this, the
leading interest of the coun,ry, a considerable portion of the em-
barrassment and losses of your petitioners may be attributed.
They submit to your Honourable House, that the diminished
means of the people cannot sustain the same weight of taxation,
pressing as it does upon all the necessaries of life. That the pre-
sent state of the country demands every po sihle reduction of the
national burdens, and the removal of the most oppressive taxes.
That the proposed reductions of the Chancellor of the ixchequer
are quittrinadequate to the alleviation of the present sufferin
and cannot satisfy the just expectations of the public ; and it is
with the deepest concern they find, after fifteen years of profound
peace, enormous civil and military establishments are still to be
kept up, a profuse expenditure in places, pensions, and appoint-
ments is still to be continued, many of them necessary only for
purposes of patronage and parliamentary influence.
Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting, the general and
overwhelming distress which now pervades all ranks and classes
in this country, who are not annuitants and who do not live upon
the taxes, originated in the long, bloody, and extravagant wars
waged and carried on against the liberties of the people of America
and of France during the reign of George the Third, which wars
were sanctioned and abetted by a very large majority of a corrupt
and self,elected House of Commons.
Your petitioners therefore most humbly pray of your Honour.
able House to direct an immediate inquiry into the extent and
causes of the general distress that now uohappily prevails through-
out the kingdom, in order that your Honourable House may be
enabled to apply those remedies which in your wisdom may ap-
pear best calculated to arrest and remove the evils above respect-
fully detailed.—And your petitioners will ever pray.
Aldermen ThomrsoN and \\roan, and Mr. \Vann,
bore testimony to the respectability of the petitioners,
though they cou!d not subscribe to all their opinions.
Mr. HUME was glad of an opportunity of exposing
a fallacy on which his Hon. Friend (Alderman Waithrnati)
had more than once rung the changes in that House and
elsewhere. His Hon. Friend declared, that though the
exports of the country had been yearly increasing in no-
minal amount, their actual value having since the alter-
ation in the currency system, and the introduction of free
trade principles, decreased 60 per cent., showed a bona
fide diminution of the value of our commercial dealings.
But his Hon. Friend forgot, that though the money value
of our manufactures had decreased—if he would 60 per
cent—the average money price of the raw materials of
those manufactures had, within the same period, dimi-
nished on an average 100 per cent.—(Hear)—and in some
cases even 200 per cent. It wes easy for the retail traders
of London to go into their merchants' palace, their Egyp-
tian-hall, and complain of free trade and the reciprocity
system, now that they came to feel the burthens of taxation

. -
pressing heavily upon them; but it could not be forgotten
all the while, that when th•-y were charging Is. for the
cotton they were now selling for 6d., they never came for-
ward and offered the difference as a contribution to defray-
ing the expense of that system under which they were en-
abled to reap such a monstrous profit.—(llear.)—He was
not surprised that the petition, which he rather surmised
was the Hon. Alderman's own, should be copied by the
people of Manchester, who, no doubt, looked upon it, as
coming from the city of London, as all gospel, and thus
the opinions of the lion. Alderman were as it were echoed
. . .

from the extretnities of the kingdom.—(Dear, and a laugh.)
Mr. ROBINSON, of Worcester, held it to be impos-
sible for the present system to go on without such a reduc-
tion of taxes as would raise the wages of labour and the
profit on capital.
_ _

Mr. "MAII ERLY contended in opposition to the oppug.
ter of free trade, that since its principles bad been ;tete(
upon, our exports and imports had annually increased
that the commercial interest had been extending its deal•
ings, and as he took it, their profits.

On the question that the p.tition be brought up_
Mr. Alderman WAITHMAN said, :that the Hon.
Members who had insinuated that the retail dealers had
not lowered their profits in the same degree as the ma-
nufacturers had reduced his prices, were grievously ig-
norant of retail transactions. Now he had been in busi-
ness 42 years, and therefore could speak practically, that
the reduction of price of traders in general had sunk to its
lowest pitch. In the cotton trade what used to bring
9,000/. was now to be had for 2,500/., so that all through
the retail trader had gone on diminishing his profits. Why,
at the present moment, the piece of cotton, on the manu-
facture of which the father of the Noble Secretary of State
had gained a clear profit of 1/., was now to be sold for
that 11. He was astonished that the Hon. Member
should have made such a mistake when lie cast this reflec-

tion upon traders, who were already suffering too severely
from the distresses of the times: he would give up to him
in anything but in matters of retail trade; for of these the
Hon. Member knew nothing, and like all men in that pre-
dicament, the more ignorant lie was the more obstinate he
became,—(Laughter.)—He (Mr. Waithman) is this
branch of trade had lost thousands, and had not got
half back again.
laugh.)—The Members of the Go-
vernment, of course, were well informed upon important
!natters above his comprehension ; but he begged to be
permitted to say that he had of necessity a greater practical
knowledge of the general retail business than any of them.

It was said, " Look at the exports and imports;" so did
he look at them, and tho very excess of these spe-
culations showed him how bail trade in reality was.—
When gentlemen referred to the rise and fall in prices, and
drew comparisons between them, they should remember
that the rise had been gradually advancing for SO years,
sometimes at so low g difference as one farthing on the

article ; and then when the revulsion came there was,
within six months, a fall in the price of cotton of 25 per

ceiit, What could tradesmen do under such ciretmstmiees
with their stocks ? What was Government to do ? Why,

not to let in thafo,rejgn merchant upon them as he had

been, who would bring everything and take nothing.
Either the Government should act let him in, or they

should reduce taxation, so as to enable the home trader to
compete with him.—(Hear, hear.).There were no two
courses—they mast cut down the list of placemen and
pensioners from top to bottom, and thereby save the people
from unnecessary taxation, or it was in vain to compete
'with the foreigner. The real strength of this country did
not consist in the growing of wealth in one or two places,
but in its general circulation through all the channels of
the community. Last year there were 1,600 bankrupt-
cies, but if gentlemen had seen as he had the breaking up
of families, growing out of these failures, the sending home
of the wife to her relations, and the children separated

and distributed among other connexions, they would feel
as strongly as he did this altered state of things. These
were scenes which were daily passing under his eye, and
therefore, when he alluded to questions of trade, he spoke
With confidence; upon others he hoped he always spoke
with bemmin; dialence.—(Laughter.)—Hon. Members
who know nothing upon the subject need not interrupt

him—he stood there upon a better footing than three-
fourths of them, for he was elected by 12,000 freemen to
represent them in that House, and his election did not cost
him a single shilling of expence.—(Hear.)—Let those, if
there were any, who had 11,000 or 12,000 voters say the
same if they could. This was then just the occasion in
which he felt himself called upon to stand forward for a
class of men in the community who appeared to have in
that House no other advocate. They were reduced to the
lowest ebb ; yet the Chancellor of the Exchequer would
give up nothing ; the higher classes would relinquish no-
, thing ; and all this time they were told that trade was irm
proving, and that the Government were practising every
degree of economy. He had net seen a King's speech for
the last half century in which the same far-fetched and ex-
, travagant declarations did-not abound. He felt himself in
some respects entitled to cast this reproach ; for he claimed
credit for being the first man who, in 1795, publicly ob-
jected to the war, and to the subsidizing of those Allies
who would not stir an inch themselves without payment.
He had 36 years ago, stood forward, though an humble
man, to oppose the desire of the Government to interfere
in the internal concerns of France, and had risked his per-
sonal safety in theattempt; for it was determined that :e-
-terfere they shenbl ; in fact, the British Ministers had a
happy knack of interfering in all the affairs of the world,
where aid could be given to tyranny and oppression ; but
when liberty called for help, then they were not only fasti-
dious in admitting such a claim, but abruptly repulsive to
the call.—(Hear.)—ln fact, this Government had never
fought for freedom—theylspent millions of money and oceans
of blood to replace the Bourbons on the throne, but so un-
grateful were these Bourbons afterwards, that they refused
to take a yard of their cotton.—(Hear, and a laugh.)—
This country had spent 15,000,000/. in one year to up-
hold the tyranny of foreign princes, and to put down the
people. When bad they ever spent so much in upholding
popular rights? They had saved, as it was called, the
Peninsula, and there was that monster Don Miguel under
their auspices, a successful usurper of the throne of Por-
tugal, and the other blessed sovereign wearing the crown
of Spain. We had paid well to produce these results.
He had always protested against this foreign interference,
and he had never seen it used except to promote the abuses
of unlimited power. In 1800 he had brought another
petition against carrying on a war for the aggrandizement
of foreign and dangerous allies, at the expense of the real
resources and energies of the People of England. Why
was this done?—because Ministers were allowed to he
arbitrary, and because a profligate expenditure suited a
corrupt House of Commons. The landed interest rejoiced
at the time because it suited their selfish views ; but the
re-action came amongst them, and it would not do to re-
cur to the old plan of aountlin:,`; national alarm. The peo-
ple were now enlightened, and knew their own interests,
and the fact was, that if the House of Commons did not
choose to do their business as it ought to be done, the peo-
ple would do it without them.—(Hear.)—The House
must reform itself within, or be reformed from without.
Could, he asked, the same system go on safely now,
with a population of 15 000,000 or 20,000,000 and
800,000,000/. of debt, as it did with a population of
5,000,000, and no debt at ail ? The worthy Alder-
man then referred, at some length, to the doctrines
of trade, and supply, and demand, which had of
late absorbed so much attention, and from which Ire dis-
sented. He condemned all these mischies ous theories—be
had read them all; but the more he read, the more he was
perplexed from them.—(Hear, and a laugh.)—Mr. Ri-
cardo, upon the bullion question, said one thing, and the
fact told the other. Mr. M‘Gull rch said that absenteeism
was no evil to Ireland ; for it signified nothing to the coun-
try whether the rents were spent in Lcartlon, Paris, or
Dublin ; because, he said, after all, the produce must go
to South America to buy gold for the commodities of Eu-
rope, and then it would come back to the people here.—
(A laugh.)---The Hon. Member reiterated sever 11 of the
topics of his speech, and insisted that it was in vain to do
justice to the people without economy arid retrenchment
going through all the ramifications of the State. He liked
free trade and sound principles when rationally applied ;
but as they were practised now, they were nothing else
than free and sound nonsense.—(Hear.)
Mr. MABERLY explained that his allusion was not
made to the value of the exports and. imports, but to their
quality and quantity.

- Mr: O'CONNELL thought this an exceedingly proper
opportunity to explain that the worthy Alderman's allu-
sions, strong as they were, could not apply to a reforxed
House of Commons.
TREASURER OF THE NAVY.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, looking
at the clock, suggested that it was time to proceed to the
Order of the Day, for the House to resolve itself into a
Committee of Supply. The Order of the Day was ac-
cordingly read, and on the motion being put,
Sir JAMES GRAHAM rose to submit the motion con-
cerning the Office cf Treasurer of the Navy, of which he
had given notice•. A very painful circumstance, he said,
of a domestic nature, had almost compelled him to abstain
from bringing forward his motion, and had it not been
that it would have seemed to be disrespect to the House
to postpone his motion a second time, he should not have
undertaken the task, which he felt he should perform im-
perfectly. He threw himself, however, on the indulgent
favour of the House, on which he thought lie might cal-
culate, and even on their sympathy. The object of his
motion was of a painful character, and it might seem even
invidious to complain of the appointment of his Right
Hon. Friend to an office—he said friend, and he hoped the
Right Hon. Gentleman, the Treasurer of the Navy, would
still allow him to use that name. But when he considered
the circumstances and wants of the people, and the profes-
sions made by the Government at the opening of the Ses-
sion—when he considered the calls made by the people
for economy and relief, and the engagements voluntarily
entered into by his Majesty's Ministers, that they would make
every possible saving which could be effected without detri-
ment to the public service, he was bound to proceed. They
had filled up the place of Treasurer of the Navy, acting in-
consistently with their voluntary engagements. On this
point he and his Majesty's Ministers were at issue, and he
sought the opinion of the House. He would first disem-
barrass the question of circumstances which did not belong
to it. The Right Hon. Gent. would first allow him to as-

sure him that he was not actuated in bringing forward the
question by any towards him. In common with
every man who knew that Right Hon. Gent., he entertained
for him a yery great respect ; be saw, however, a difference
in his conduct which might, perhaps, be accounted for
by a change of circumstances. He had resigned office in
1828, with his friends, and he had accepted office in

. - i 1829 without his friends; why he had done this t .night
be importinent in him to ask, and certainly it was foreign
to the object of his motion. He was bound, however, in
the outset to correct an error into which he had fallen.

He had understood that the Right Hon. Gentleman held a
patent office under the Customs, from which he received
some emoluments. It was an office which conferred the
exclusive privilege to publish a Shipping List, with a state-
ment of what ships cleared outwards, their cat goes, and
various other information of this description. He had
learned, however, that he was,in error, and that the Right
Hon. Genleman was not is possession of any emoluments
from such an office. The reversion he believed, had been
granted to him in 1817, but at present he did not enjoy
any emoluments beyond the 2,0001. a year belonging to his
office as Treasurer of the Navy. Having thus cleared his
ground, he would proceed to discuss the question. Not
being precisely acquainted with official btudness, he had
found it necessary to snk for information from others. He

would first refer to the statement made by Lord Goderich,

w'Aen he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1826, and
who had filled the office of Trea,urer of the Navy; and
knowing all the duties of the office to which the Right
lion. Gentleman had been appointed, he was contending
that it was improper to annex the office of Treasurer of the
Navy with that of President of the Board of Trade. In
his argument on the subject, he thus described the duties
of that office :—" The business of the Treasurer was not

merely the acceptance of bills drawn upon him by Com-
missioners of the Navy. It was also his duty to see that
the money was paid to the parties who had a right to re—
ceive it. He had also to attend to seaman's wills, which
was in itself no inconsiderable source of employment.
Until within a few years back, the law was very defective
as to seamen's wills, and frauds to a great extent had been
committed on individuals, and on the public, by the fa-
cility with which money was obtained under fictitious
wills. By the regulations which had now been established,
the Treasurer of the Navy was personally responsible
for any sums of the public money thus paid to indi-
viduals to whom they were not legally due. If then the
duties and responsibility of the Treasurer were thrown
upon the Paymaster, who had only 1,0001. a year, he
did not think that those duties would be efficiently per-
formed. Thus, the only difference between the office of Trea-

surer of the Navy and the Paymaster was the responsibi-
lity, the personal responsibility to which the former was
liable and the latter not." This was the great point in-
sisted on by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the
descriptio❑ given by him of the office in the year 1826.
The great principle of responsibility, however, as far as
respected security to the public from individuals, was
profed to be worth nothing when put to the test. The best

.
security for the public was short accounts simply arranged,
and to have them frequently audited. The responsibility
of indiviauals bound in sums of money was found on
emergency to be worth little or nothing. What was the
test of this responsibility ? A few days after the Chancellor

.

et

of Exchequer hai given "this description .e.f the dutiesv.of,,,
Treasurer of the Navy, he had stated that there had beeit
a defaulter in this office—a gentleman by the name, we
believe, of Tweedie—and then it came out that what Lord
Goderich called responsibility_ was irresponsibility. He
stated, " that on his entering the office, he found several
gentlemen in whom he was obliged to repose confidence,
although he had . not appointed them ; but he found, one
fine morning, that he had became legally liable for a sum
of between 30,0001. and 40,0001. One gentleman con-
nected with the office went off to America with 25,0001. of
the public money, and another soon after became a de-
faulter to the amount of 10,0001. ; on the discovety of
which that unfortunate person put a period to his exist-
ence." From one of those persons 15,000/. had been
recovered ; but another person had escaped with some of
the public money, and from his securities nothing
had been recovered. Again Lord Goderich stated " that
30,000/. had been made away with, but Government
having learned the raute of the defaulter, were fortunate
enough to catch him in America. They could not make
him a prisoner in that country, but after some threats
15,0001. or 16,0001. were refunded, and his securities
were obliged to pay largely ; but, notwithstanding, the
public lost by the transaction ; about 6,0001. was the sum
the other defaulter made away with, but nearly the entire
amount had been recovered from his securities. He (the
Chancellor of the Exchequer), however, had fully satisfied
the Lords of the Treasury that he was not to blame, and
that Right Hon. Board acquitted him accordingly. And,
in order to put a stop to similar transactions, a Bill was
brought into Parliament by which their recurrence was
prevented." Thus the responsibility which then existed
had been subsequently diminished ; and it appeared that if
the Treitsuret of the Navy were able to sati.fy the Lords
of the Treasury that he had dot acted carelessly, they
would not call on him to make good any deficiency. The
responsibil ty, therefore, was nothing. If evidence could
he produced that the Treasurer was a particeps
his responsibility was not even the shadow of a shade.
The Honourable Member then expressed his great
regret, that the Finance Committee had died out ;
and his hope, that the Member for Abingdom would, by a
motion, have an inquest held on it. He should be glad
to see it revived ; for he knew that would be acceptable to
the country, and would, he believed, he salutary in its
effects. He placed great reliance in the Chairman of that
Committee, of whose zeal and diligence they had already
received abundant evidence. The Hon. Member also
eulogised the Master of the Mint, for the clear statement
he had given before that Committee, of the financial state
of the country. He ha-1 made the public accounts intel-
ligible, which they never were before. He remetnbered,
too, particularly well, the evidence given by two Members
of the Board of Admiralty. They were to be found in
the Fourth Report of that Committee. The Hon. Mem-
ber then quitted from that Report the evidence given by
the Hon. Member for Dumfries (the lion. Keith Douglas)
and by the Gallant Vice-Admiral (Sir George Cockburn,
we believe), who still has a seat in the Admiralty, to
show that they did not think the Treasurer had any fixed
responsibility, though they regarded his office as an effec-
tive and useful one. He begged to be understood that it
was no part of his case to propose the abolition of the
office. Mr. Burke, in 1782, when he regulated the
offices of the country, and the Finance Committee of 1817,
had both left that office ; and it would he pre-
sumptions in him to call upon the House to affirm
that an offence ought to be abolished which had
been so recommended. His case was this—to ascertain
if the Treasurership of the Navy could be preserved
consistently with the pledge given by the Government
that the most rigid economy should be observed, or
if it oitild be cot-award with some other good office, and
the salary saved. He was disposed to rely a good deal on
precedent, and would shortly state to the House the pre-
cedents on the subject. He would not, however, go fur-
ther back than 1782, when Mr. Burke had regulated the
offices of the State. By looking through the whole period
since that date, it would be found that for about two-
thirds of the time the office had been held conjointly with
some other effective and responsible office, and only held
about one-third separately. In 1782, it was held by Mr.
Henry Duralas, afterwards Lord Melville, and he held it
from 1782, except for a short time in 1783, when it was
filled by Mr. Townshend, to 1800, or for twenty years,
and he held it part (If the time conjointly with some
other office, and received no salary. For the first ten
years he had a salary, but then a salary was attached
to his situation as President of the Board of Controul,
and that was supposed to be sufficient for him
while he was also Treasurer of the Navy. In
1791 he was appointed Secretary of State for the Home
Department, and still held conjointly with that office the
situation of Treasurer of the Navy. In 1794 he was ap-
pointed Secretary of War, and held the office of Treasurer
of the Navy conjointly with that. In 1800 Mr. Dundas
went out of office, and then the situation was held for a
time by the Earl of Harrowby and Mr. Brage Bathurst,
who held it separately, as did Mr. Tierney, Mr. canning,
and Mr. Sheridan, in 1806. From 1800 to 1806, there-
fore, it was held separately; and from 1782 to 1791 it was
held separately. In 1807 Mr. G. ltoie was appointed
Treasurer of the Navy, and he held the office conjointly
with the office of Vice-President of the Board of
Trade till 1812. Since that time the office had been
held by Lord Goderich, as Vice-President of the Board
of Trade, by Lord Goderich as President of the Board
of Trede, and subsequently by the Right Honourable
the Members for Liverpool and Inverness, and Mr.
Vesey Fitzgerald, who were at the same time Presidents
of the Board. Thus, for 23 years, since 1807, it had
been conjoined with some other office, and since 1782,
when the offices of the State were regulated, it load been
held in conjunction with some other effectual office about
two-thirds of the time. In support of the views he en-
tertained on this subject, he would, with the permission of
the House, read the opinions of men well calculated to
form a judgment on the importance of the office and the
extent of its duties. He would read to them, in the first
place, the opinions of Mr. Tierney, who had held office
himself, and who is reported to have expressed himself in
the following words, on the debate on the question of whe-
ther it was expedient to unite the office of Treasurer of the
Navy with that of President of the Board of Trade :-_
Mr. Tierney contended that although the office was one
which he should be sorry to see abolished, and " one
which required no inconsiderable degree of care and atten-
tion, the business to be done might be gone through by one
hour's application every day ;" and after paying a high
compliment to the efficient manner in which the Right
Honourable Gentleman, the Member for Liverpool, had
performed the duties of the office, he added—." As to
the incompatibi:ity of the two officei, will any Hon.
Gentleman in this House lay his hand on his heart, and
say that he verily believed any inconvenience has resulted
to the public service, or to the individuals holding these
offices, during the last six years." Having alluded to the
name of Mr. Tierney, he hoped the House would pardon
him for offering to the memory of that Right Hon. Gen-
tleman the tribute of respect and affection due to a well
... _ _

tried friend. Mr. Tierney and Lord Bexley had both held
office. One of the first acts of the economy of the pre-
sent Government was to confer a pension of 3,000/. a
year on Lord Bexley, who was already a rich man. Mr.
Tierney, on the contrary, was contented to retire to his
station in society, and live on his private fortune, the
surest means of preserving an honourable and virtuous in-
dependence. Of him it might be truly said, Regum
cequabat opes animis.—So►netimes alone, sometimes as-
sociated with or at the head of a band of well-tried friends,
he continued to support or uphold the Government as his
principles required him, and it is now the honest pride of
his friends that he lived without a pension, and the honest
boast of his family that he died without a debt.—( Hear. )
Sir Robert Walpole, who bad contributed more tha❑ any
man who ever preceded him to the destruction of the in-
tegrity of that House, was recorded to have declared that
in a time of general corruption and debasement, there was
at least one incorruptible man to be found. What Sir
Robert Walpole said of Mr. Skipper might with still
greater propriety be applied to Mr. Tierney—(Hear,
hear.)—He (Sir J. Graham) had listened with attention
to the explanations given by the Hon. Member (Sir G.
Clerk) the other evening; but he confessed he was quite
at a loss to find out any duties which the Treasurer of the
Navy had to perform now beyond those described by Lord
Sidmouth in 1826. It was true that the Right Hon.
Gentleman (Mr. F. Lewis) since his accession to the
office, had given notice of his intention to bring in a Bill
to consolidate and amend the Acts relating to the payment
of wages of seamen. The result of this, according to or-
dinary rules, would be, however, to diminish and not to
add to the duties of the office, and, therefore, no argument
of additional labour or responsibility can be brought for-
ward, beyond that which was urged at the time the subject
was formerly under consideration. In order, however,
to put the House in possession of the nature and ex-
tent of the duties required from the Treasurer of the Navy,
and of the manner in which they are executed, he would
take leave to read to them a few passages from the able
work which has been sent forth by the late Chairman of
the Finance Committee According to Mr. Abbot's
Report on the accounts of the Navy and Navy Pay Offices
it appears that there is a want of clear distinction be-
tween the duties of the account branches in the Navy
Office and those of the Treasurer of the Navy—that the
operations of one run perpetually into the other—and that
great labour is unnecessarily expended in filling up our
printed forms, cash-orders to be attached to original b►lls,