The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-03 00:00:00

defrayed under the distinct authority of acts of Parliament.
The present.plan, therefore, was no correction of an abuse,
but it was- ate isnproveusent in our system of public ac-
counts, the bill. provi4ipg that, instead of paying these
charges outs:Of-the revenue before it was received into the
Exchequer; they • should become charges ontheconsolidated
fund, and, of course, the moneys now applied to pay.thein
would henc,eforward gq into the consolidated fund in the
first instance. One small class of charges at present de-
frayed out of the revenue before it reached the Exchequer
was not comprised in schedule A, and the Government
proposed to leave it in its present condition for an obvious
reason. The class to which he alluded consisted of d very
limited number. of Pensions which, under various autheri-
ties, were paid to;.the representatives of various families,
who inherited them from times comparatively remote.
Wdli respect to. these pensions, it appeared dear—at least,
this had been lb* view taken by her Majesty's Govern=
went, and list.leught it would be approved by the house
—that the best .course would be to buy them up and so
dispose of them. (Hear.) He expected that, if judiciously
effected, this operation would be rather a profitable ar-
rangement to the publics than otherwise, and it would rid
them of an anomaly attended with some inconvenience.
(Hear, hear.) A certain portien of these pensions had
been already bought up ; in point of fact, substantially,
the whole matter was concluded so far as regarded the
most important pensions ; but, from one cause or another,
the arrangements in several eases was not yet ready to
ttake
effect. Until it did take effect he proposed to leave these
pensions precisely as they were at present, inasmuch as
the Government did not look upon them as permanentnewcharges, and it was not worth while to enter u
of the ar-
rangements respecting them. The next greatpdenscription
of charge with which this bill dealt was that The
very large
ex-
penses of the collection of the revenue.
1 amounting, he
outlay of public money under this.
believed, to nearly 4,000,000 i.— would, from the
exempted from the control of the house,
4,000,000 i heretofore been
present year forwards, be brought regularly under its con-
trol and cognisance. (Hear, bear.) It would be, however,
but fair to make two observations on this subject. In the
first place, t b
he form of the estimate had been prepared for
the present year in the manner that appeared to the Go-
vernment,.upon consideration, to be the best, and he had
emen thought it ca-
no doubt 'that, even
if
pable of improvement, it would e
bentl received with indul-
gence ; but, of course, the Government would co-operate
improvement upon it that might be devised,
in making any
either in form Orin substance. In the second place, if it
should be found that these estimates added materially to
the time which was, now occupied in Committee of Supply,
a serious public. inconvenience might arise, and the house
would have to nonsider of some means of meeting it, but he
did not at present intend to propose any arrangement with
respect to that subject, as it would be better that we should
feel our way.a little at first. The great practical advantage
which he expected would arise from bringing these esti-
mates before the hone was that a new security would thus
be afforded for the performance of its duty by the executive
Government. (Rear, hear.)- Although it would not be pos-
sible for the.house to enter much into the details of these
estimates, the advantage of voting money for the public
service in this particular form was, that it kept the different
departments of the State up to their work. -He believed
that this was the important result which would be effected
by the change he proposed to . make, and upon- which he
begged to cengratulate the house, and especially that hon.
gentleman who had so distinguished himself by his patient
recommendations in. former years upon this subject, when
they were less popular than at present. He had now spoken
of the various descriptions of charges with which they pro-
posed directly to deal • first, the various charges imposed' on
the revenue by Act oeParliament, which would be carried
to the consolidated fund ; secondly, the expenses of the col-
lection of the revenue,,which would be carried to the votes;
and, thirdly, the pensions, which would remain at present as
they were, as he expected shortly to get rid of them altogether.
But, as they had been led in the course of this operation to
carry certain, charges to the consolidated fund, they had
thought it was their duty, as a part of the operation, to
institute, as far as it wes in the discretion of the Treasury to
institute, a revision of the charges already upon the conso-
lidated fund, for it was his strong opinion that there was
no matter in which this house had been more apt to be led
into laxity in the discharge of its duty than in that of
laying upon the consolidated fund charges which it ought
not to bear. The practical consequence of their doing so
was, that those charges were placed beyond the control of
the Treasury, they were forgotten by this house, and there
was a great deal of neglect and abuse connected with this
part of the public service. He had no proposal to make
upon that subject at present, but he thought it would not
be a bad arrangement if some mode could be devised by
which thehouse could insure a periodical attention to the
state of the charges on the consolidated fund. In many
cases the question of whether a particular charge ought to
be laid on the consolidated fund or presented to the house
in the estimates was a political question of great impor-
tance. He would refer, for instance, to the charges con-
nected with the board of charitable bequests, and also to
those connected with the College of Maynooth, with re-
spect to which it was a most important matter of high
political concern whether they should be discussed in the
votes or laid upon the consolidated fund. He considered
that ho should have been going beyond the limits of his
duty in connexion with one public department if he had
proposed by this measure to interfere with 'any great poli-
tical questions, and, therefore, in the case of charges in-
volving any great political question, or appearing to involve
a question of good faith and of public contract, in which
vested interests, which might fairly be socalled, were con-
cerned, he had left upon the consolidated fund whatever he
had found upon it. He might also advert, under this head,
to charges of the kind of the salaries of judges. Of course,
with respect to the judges of Westminster-hall, he imagined
that no one, considering the important position they oc-
cupied as great constitutional officers, would wish to see
their salaries brought into the votes ; bitt with respect to
minor judges, although there were already certain cases
in which their salaries were voted by this house, yet he
thought the question was not one that ought to be dealt
with incidentally as a matter of fiscal arrangement, and
therefore, as a general rule, he had left upon the consoli-
dated fund all the salaries of judges which he had found
there, although he did not propose that certain salaries of
judges which he had not found there should be placed
upon it. There were, however, certain classes of officers
who discharged duties that might be called judicial, such
as revising barristers, whose salaries it was proposed to take
from the consolidated fund and place in the votes ; and,
although the salaries of judges would be left upon the con-
solidated fund, all the collateral, incidental, subordinate
expenses of courts of justice, great and small, they pro-
posed to bring into the votes, for there was no department
in which the control of the Treasury, apart from that of
the house, would be weaker and more ineffective than in
this. This was the principle upon which they bad pro-
ceeded ; they had dealt in the manner that reason and con-
venience appeared to dictate with respect to those descrip-
tions of charges with which they were obliged to deal ;
and as the state of the charges upon the consolidated fund
necessarily came under their review, in so doing they had
so far made a revision of those charges as they could make
revision a matter of fiscal arrangement. The bill was not
intended to alter the actual course of the public disburse-
ments, although it altered the machinery of the public ac-
counts. He now alluded to the matter of provincial pay-
ments towards the expenses of the revenue out of funds
which were locally collected. They did not propose to
make any- change in that respect. .For example, under
one authority or another, the collector of the Customs
at Liverpool at present defrayed out of the revenue he
collected there both the expenses of the Customs' esta-
blishment' and other public expenses, such as pensions,
&c., and they did not propose to alter the system, as it
would be retrogading instead of advancing, if they
had the money after it was collected transmitted to
head-quarters, in order that it might then be re-
transmitted to the provinces. - It was intended that in
those cases the disbursements should take place locally as
at present, but they would be subject to the same system
of accounts as all other departments of the public service
for which votes were taken. He might compare the pro-
posed system to the great number of services the expenses
cf which were now defrayed in the colonies out of the com-
missariat chest before any Exchequer grants had been
issued, but which were as much the subjects of votes as if
they had been defrayed by Exchequer grants. He thought
he had n w given a sufficient explanation of the general
objects of the bill. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. HUME had heard the right hon. gentleman's ex-
planation with great satisfaction, as the proposed altera-
tion was one which he had for many years advocated, al-
though he differed from the opinion he had expressed
with regard to the Crowu lands. He thought that ac-
counts of such important departments as the Customs and
Excise ought to be referred to a committee which could
report to the house; in order to prevent an unnecessary
loss of time, and he would recommend to the right hon.
gentleman's attention the satisfactory manner in which
those accounts were examined in Prussia. On the whole,
ho congratulated the house on the progress which had been
made with regard to this subject.
N
Mr. GLY expressed his acknowledgments to the right
holt gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the step
which he had now taken. For himself, he had been always
surprised that a Measure which had appeared to him to be so
easy to effect, had been so long resisted by the Treasury.
There was one other step. which he thought it would be very
adVantageous for the right hon. gentleman to undertake.
As for several years past the financial policy of the Govern-
ment heel been to take care that there should be a surplus
revenue over expenditure, there could not be any long
Period for which there could be any large balance owing by
.
lee
-IW:est nity to the Bank; and, indeed, the fact of the
Treasury ever requiring the smallest accommodation from
the Bank must be owing to the want of adjustment in the
Pa/ineeta'aud receipts of the country. Previously to 1844
the periodical
payments Til were confined very much to the
two half-years
riehon. gentleman the member for
Carnbridge-trai
but that relif; ti spisead'Unen aver four periods;
Y
the receipts of the great as it had been, was not so great as
of the required. If the Chancellor
Exchequer could
more generally over The manage to throw his payments
with the receipts, he wouciTn! of -the Year so as to tally
towards relieving the pi. adopt a most important step
country which sometimes re upon the cireulation of the
The CHANCELLOR of occurred (Hear, hear.)
the question to which his hon. LEXCREQUER said that
the greatest importance. He
not
had referred was of
say that it was
difficult one, but it had sow'
a very
the Government. (Hear, hear.). Ped the attention of
Mr. WILLIAMS expressed his approval
which the Chancellor of the Exchequer had of the plan
his thanks to the right hon. gentleman for propped, and
this most important step in improving the tine. Yak"'
ne am.
rangements of the country.
Mr. HADFIELD also approved the measure h
ut
thought that it had not been carried quite far enough,
and that it ought to include several public bodies which
would not at present come within its scope.
The clause was than agreed to. The remaining clauses
were also agreed to, the bill passed through committee, and
the house resumed.
THE MERCHANT SHIPPING BILL.
The house went into committee on this bill.
Mr. LINDSAY thanked the President of the Board of
Trade for introducing a measure calculated to confer much
benefit on,the commercial marine.
The clauses were agreed to, and the house resumed.
JURORS AND JURIES (IRELAND) BILL.
This bill was then read a second time.
• HOLYHEAD HARBOURS BILL.
This bill passed through committee.
REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS, Stn. (SCOTLAND),
BILL.
This bill was committed pro forma.
The house then resumed.
COUNTIES AND BOROUGH POLICE.
Viscount. PA.LMERSTON obtained leave to bring in
bills to render more effectual the police in counties and
b
boroughs, ,
England--. and
Wales, and to amend the law
relatiugsto youthful offenders-
The
ether businessbusinesshavin.
adjourned to Thursday next,
having been disposed of, the house

= We are 'requested to state that the grand ball to be
gtrenli? ifitioa.cbr Martreeeret-the Mansion-house, will
take pfailfoitqueaday, the 27th inst., judos(' of Tuesday,
the 20th, as previously lacked,