The Sun.
London, England, 1822-04-19 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The House • balloted- fur a-C4n-I,.mittee upon the West Looe
.Election Petition; and the gallery was not opened until half
'past tour.
Nr. CALVERT presented a Petition from certain inhabit-
ants of the parish of St. Southwark, against the Bill
for repairing London Bridge.
After a few words from Mr. 11. SuMNER, Sir W. DE CUES..
'2WaNY,-and Sir W. Cu Rtis, the Petition was ordered to lie on
t'se table.
Mr. N. CALVERT presented a Petition to the same effect
fiorn the parish of St. Olave's, Southwark.—Ordered to lie on
the table. • -

Mr. DYSON brought up the list of the Members appointed
-tor form the Committee for trying the merits of the Petition for
the borough of West Looe. The following are the names of
the Committee, who were sworn accordingly
W. Russell, Esq., W. Stewart (of Armagh), Esq., Right
Hon. W. C. Plunkett, M. G. Prendergast, Esq., F. W. Grant,
.E.sq., Right Hon. F. J. Robinson, J. B. Wildman, Esq., E. B.
Portman, Esq., Ron, W. Gordon, J. Bastard, Esq., Robert
Downie, Esq., K. Douglas, Esq., J. Pitt, Esq., H.
aernal,Esq., and D. Gilbert, Esq.
iLONDON BRIDGE.
Sir W. CURT,IS moved the postponement of the London
Bridge 'Water Works Bill to Friday se'nnight.
The second reading of the Scotch Juries Bill was postponed
to the 29th instant.
Upon the motion of Mr. Lusiir NG T ON, the further con-
sideration of the Report of the Receivers-General Bill was post-
poned to Wednesday next.
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER rose to move
. for a Committee to examine into the hest means of keeping the
Public Accounts, in pursuance of the notice which he had
given. The tone of voice in which the Right Hon. Gentle-
man • spoke rendered it-impossible to collect Ins observations in
the gallery. We understood him generally to • state that.the
accounts were at present made up under the provisions of seve-
ral Acts of Parliament, which might be altered with advantage.
He wished that the accounts should be simplified and brought
into a more mercantile shape ; that a statement should be laid
before Parliament, skewing the annual income and expenditure,
with a view of the debt, in one short abstract. The Right
I-lon. Gentleman moved for the appointment of a Select Com-
mittee to consider the best mode of simplifying the Annual
Accounts laid before the Houses of Lords and Commons, rela-
..tive to the National Expenditure and National Debt, and to
:the Trade and Navigation of the United Kingdom.
Mr. MABERLY did not rise to object to the motion, but
.to express his happiness at finding that the Right Hon. Gen-
, -tieman was at last alive to the fallacy of the system upon which
the Public Accounts had been hitherto kept. He thought they
were indebted to the balance sheet laid before the House last
year, for the present motion ; and if the accounts were kept
upon that principle, the change would be a very advantageous
one to the public. It would enable Country Gentlemen to see
at once the state of the public income and expenditure, which
they were now prevented from doing by the difficulty and the
trouble of investigating financial papers.
The CHANCELLOR Of the EXCUEQUER and Mr. MAUER-
"I" explained.
Sir H. PARNELL did not'obkct to the motion ; he only
, complained that it did not go tar enough. They ought not
merely to simplify the Annual Accounts laid before Parlia-
ment, but a simplification of the whole system upon which
Public Accounts were kept was necessary.
Mr. P. MOORE said that the first public account had
been given to the House in they ear 1797, and that was a mere
skeleton of an account, which the Finance Committee recom-
mended to be filled up and improved. This recominenda-
' -tion was acted upon in the following year, but never had been
since. It was necessary-, likewise, that the accounts ,should be
in the hands of Members in sufficient time for them to be
of use. He thought they might always be made up by the
31st of January.
Mr. LUSHINGTON was of .opinion that it would be highly
inexpedient not to confine the instructions for the Committee
to the annual accounts laid before Parliament. If they did not
• do so, there could be no report in the present Session, and a
year would be lost in consequence. With regard to time, there
was no doubt but that the proposed alteration would expedite
the making out of the accounts, and they would consequently
be before the House at an earlier period.
Mr. ELI.ICE confessed he could not see all the good that
JAMS expected from this motion by some of his Hon. Friends.
As to confining the attention of the Committee to this one class
of accounts, he saw no reason for such a course in the argu-
• ment offered by the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, because
--the Committee could, like the Committee upon*Foreign Trade,
report to the House, from time to time, upon the different
subjects which came under its consideration. There were va-
rious branches of the public accounts which equally required
investigaion. There was what was called-the Sinking Fund,
which only kept up useless establishments for paying money
out of one hand into the other. He understood from what had
fallen from the Noble Marquis opposite, that it was intended
to do away with the system of allowing the Sinking Fund to
:accumulate by compound interest. He thought it would be
.better to apply it to the extinction of debt at once, and not to
keep up useless clerks at the various establishments, as he
knew they now did, at a very large and unnecessary expence.—
.There was another point upon which the Committee ought to
.make an inquiry, namely, the valuations upon the exports and
imports of this country. lie hoped that the Right Hon. Gen-
.tleman would give at least a general assurance that the Corn-
Jnittee should be revived to go into the greater inquiries con-
nected with the subject.
Mr. J. MARTIN expressed a hope, that if it was found
.that the Session was too advanced for the Committee to termi-
nate its labours, provision would be made to renew its sittings
early in the next Session. , •
'Sir J. NEWPORT trusted that the Committee would enter
fully into the consideration of the distinct branches of the Pub-
lic Accounts, take up the investigation seriatim, and report from
time to time. -
The•CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER objected to
the course of investigation as proposed by the Hon. Baronet.—
'it would subject to the consideration of the Committee matters
which belonged to his Majesty's• Government.
Mr. GRENFELL hoped that it would he open to the Com-
mittee to take the question of-the Sinking Fund into considera-
•tiOn. When the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer
had intimated his intention of proposing this Committee, he
Grenfehl) had suggested the necessity of getting rid of the
whole of the machinery of that fund, so far as it went to a pre-
tended fund of 17,000001., wheredS the actual Sinking Fund
did not exceed 3,900,0001. Ile trusted, therefore, that there
would be no objection.to let that subjcct undergo the considera-
tion of the proposed Committee:
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, that he
had before stated that he had no objection to new-model the
law, but he never contemplated the new-modelling of the fund

itself.
Mr. GRENFELL could not consider it a new-modelling of
,the to expunge a machinery which assumed to exist that 1
which did not exist, and to keep to the precise amount of what 1
was really available as a Sinking Fund—(Hear, hear !)
The Committee was then appointed at the nomination of the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER; and on the motion
of Mr. ELLICE, the name of Mi. J. Martin was added
thereto. . . .
The Seditious Meetings Amendment Bill was read a second
time.—Ordered to be committed this day-fortnight, and the de-
' -bate to be taken on the Report.
The Report of the Irish MalrDuties Repeal Bill, after a
-short conversation; between .Mr. Spring Rice, the Chancellor
- of the Exchequer, and Sir John. Newport, relative to the al-
lowances to-Last, Distillers (Which as we understood from
.the low tone in which the Right Honourable the Chancel-
.lor of the Exchequer spoke, amounted .to a penny per quart),
was brought vp, And the further consideration fixed for Wed-
, -nesday- next. • .
Mr.,BERNAL gave notice.of a motion ,for to-morrow, re-
..lative to a Return, of •the Fees, received by British Consul
'Generals. • ,
The other Orders. of the Dili were then disposed of ;,After
:which alehouse adjourned.