The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-25 00:00:00

and declare the real cause why Snow and Paul were not
paid on the sth Nov. was an inefficient administration of
the county funds.
The debt on the county rates of Middlesex at this time,
26 April, 1836, is as follows
At £4 0 0 per cent.
4 7 0 " ............ . . 1,800 0 0
4 10 0 "
4 17 6 "
5 0 0 "

£239,2.97 17 0
This sum is the remaining portion unpaid of money bor-
rowed on mortgage of the county rates of Middlesex for
purchasing the sites, and building the County Pauper Lu-
natic Asylum, and the Westminster New Bridewell, Tot-
hill Fields. The above debt is of recent origin. Beyond
the sums annually required of the rate-payers of the county
to pay off the principal and interest of the above enormous
debt, there is required two thousand eight hundred and fifty
pounds per annum to pay the Middlesex Tontine for prin-
cipal money borrowed towards the expense of the House of
Correction between forty and fifty years ago. It was bor-
rowed in three divisions, commencing in the year 1790,
again in 1792 and 1795. Each annuity was granted to
; three classes of purchasers ; Ist, those under twenty years
of age ; 2d, those above twenty, and under forty ; 3d, those
above forty years. The whole sum borrowed in the three
years, was 62,000/. ; the sum paid by the County to the
present time (April, 1836) is one hundred and thirty-six
thousand, two hundred and fifty pounds. No one of the
classes of either of the three loans is yet extinct, the whole
interest being still claimed.
Your Committee have not touched upon the prospects
of a reduction in the county expenditure, as under the
present constitution of the Court of Quarter Session for
Middlesex, there is no chance of any material reductions.
Obvious improvement is opposed with the utmost tenacity.
A more striking illustration cannot be given than in the
repeated discussions which have taken place at the meet-
ings of the Middlesex Magistrates, on the subject of em-
ploying the prisoners in the House of. Correction, in grind-
ing wheat and making bread. A vote was granted on
one county day, to commence the plan—it was res-
cinded on a subsequent County day, and on some futile
objections, such as the following :
Because bread could not b made cheaper in the
Giltspur-street Prison, than it could be purchased by
contract, it could not be made anywhere cheaper. Ano-
ther Magistrate stated that he went to the Store-keeper
and asked him what he thought of the plan of snaking
Bread ; the Store-keeper, was sure it would be very
inconvenient, but he would obtain further informa-
tion. The Storekeeper then went to the Baker who
has the Contract. " Oh," said the Baker, " I am
obliged to keep five extra men, because your loaves
are all made eight ounces each." The Store-keeper came
back to the Magistrate with this important information,
and it decided that Gentleman's Vote against the plan.
Another Magistrate did not object to the plan, but
thought the present an inconvenient time, because the New
Inspectors of Gaols had not reported to Lord John Rus-
sell. But the whole Court of Magistrates did not, with a
with a view to reduce the County expenditure, avail them-
selves of the fact, which was then stated by themselves
publicly in Court, that at the Lunatic Asylum, at Han-
well, the Lunatics made all the Bread for the establish-
ment (about 670 persons) and the costs (January last) was
stated at 9s. per cwt.
The coot for the Contract Bread was 11s. 3d. per cwt. ;
the difference in favour of the Rate-payers of the County,
by making Bread in the establishment, being nearly thirty
per cent., and this on one of the largest items of expendi-
ture in the prisons of Middlesex, independently of the
cheaper plan securing to the Prisoners, pure, unadulterated,
Wheaten Bread.
Your Committee now beg leave to detail the course of
proceedings to the Middlesex Magistrates on the three last
County days of each Quarter Session, on the subject of
making the County Rates.
On the Rota Paper of the day's business, A County
Rite is to " be made for the next quarter of a year ;" that
is, from the County clay on which they assemble, to the
County day in the next Quarter Session.
According to the 10th Section of 3 George IV., cap.
107, the Treasurer must declare, " That three-fourths,
or more, of the monies actually received by the Trea-
surer, for the said County, have been actually and duly
ex7,ended."

Your Committee have shown particularly, the progress
of the money actually received during one of the recent
Quarters.

When the business of the day arrived at the point of making
the County-rate at each of the three last Quarter Sessions, the
making the rate was deferred for several hours because of
the large balances in the Treasurer's hands ; and in one of
the instances he left the court avowedly to pay away as
much money as would enable him to make the declaration
aecordin, to the Act of Parliament. The treasurer re-
turned, after several hours, state(: that he had paid away
five thousand pounds ; the question was then asked of him
" Arc we within the Act of Parliament ? " " Yes."
" Then who moves the rate ? "—and the new rate was
made.

Your Committee wish here to direct the attention of the
vestry to one of the great mistakes made by the Middlesex
Magistrates, which is, that under the 9th Geo. IV., cap.
40, sec. 14, they are to provide, in due time, for the pay-
ment of the bond debt and interest. This is admitted ; but
then the questio❑ turns upon what is " due time." The
money is to be raised in every Quarter, to meet the ex-
penditure from one county day to the following County
day, and therefore the Bond debts must be regulated by
the 9th Section of the 3rd of Geo. IV., cap. 107.
This mistake would not occur if the heavy debts were
arranged to be paid in the third month of each quarter, and
the parishes compelled to pay the current rate in each quar-
ter—according to the plain intentions of the Legislature.
Your Committee will submit a plan, before they close
their Report, which they think would, if adopted, give
greater security to the rate-payers of the county, and ob-
viate the evils of the existing system.

The Vestry will gather from the Report of your Com-
mittee, the very defective mode of assessing, collecting, and
expending the County rates. An event has recently oc-
curred by the resignation of the office of Treasurer of the
County of Middlesex, which may be turned to the great
advantage of the Rate-payers of the County, as there is
now no vested interest as an obstacle to the improvement.
Your Committee are aware that the Local Act of Par-
' liament for Middlesex is in the way, but that it is a difficulty
not insurmountable, because it can be amended.
Your Committee have shewn that the whole spirit and
the letter of that Act has been evaded ; that the Parishes
have been unnecessarily taxed ; that the Creditors of the
County have not been duly paid ; that large balances have
been allowed to accumulate ; and that for the year ending
on the 2d of April, instant, there has been a great increase
of the whole County Rate, compared with the preceding
year (5,8471. 15s. 11d.)
It appears to your Committee, that uniting the office of
Collector of the County Rates and the office of Treasurer
in one person, is one of the most objectionable plans ever
adopted. The Salary paid out of the County Rate to such
Treasurer being Seven Hundred and Fifty Pounds per
annum ; an office in the Sessions House, Clerkenwell, is ap-
propriated to the Treasurer. The Treasurer finds a Clerk,
to whom be pays a salary of One Hundred and Fifty Pounds
per annum ; this Clerk gives security to the Treasurer in a
sum of Three Thousand Pounds ; the Clerk collects the
extra Parochial Rates, and deducts from what he collects
Ten per Cent. for his trouble, which never appears in the
published accounts. The Treasurer has also to pay a per-
son for attending the Central Criminal Court during its
sittings, to pay the prosecutors' and witnesses' expenses ;
this occasions a cost to the County Treasurer of about 25/.
per annum. The Treasurer has to find heavy securities for
the due performance of his duty. The clear salary he re-
ceives is above 5501. per annum.
It is quite evident to your Committee, that the real du-
ties of the office are done by the Treasurer's Clerk ; and if
the Office and Clerk, as at present constituted, were put
under the direct control of the Magistrates, the office of
Treasurer might at once be abolished, and the Bank of
England appointed the Receiver of the County Rates of
Middlesex, and the funds in aid thereof—whereby at least
five hundred pounds per annum may at once be saved in the
Treasurer's salary.
The Finance Committee of' Magistrates could then pay
the bills monthly, by drafts on the Bank of England ; and
whon the quarters rate is made, the receipts of each pa-
rish's quota of that rate may be bound together as a Banker's
Check Book, and sent to the Bank of England ; the inti-
mation, accompanying the precept, to each parish to pay
the Rate into the Bank, and unless the same was paid in
the time according to Law, the Magistrates were deter-
mined at once to enforce it.

But your Committee, in the proposition they suggest,
have in view further important advantages as likely to arise
from the plan suggested, beyond the saving of five hundred
pounds per annum in the salary of the Treasurer. They
think that the Account of the Middlesex County Rate
would be a good one for the Bank of England, that the
undoubted security which an amended Act of Parliament
would afford that Corporation, would induce the Bank of
England (having always the balances in hand of the current
account) to advance a sum sufficient to pay off all the bond-
holders whose interest exceeds four per cent., and thereby
occasion a further saving to the county of nearly fifteen
hundred pounds per annum.

A still further most important advantage might be de-
rived by the rate-payers of the county, if the Bank of Eng-
land would advance a sum sufficient to pay off the whole
Bond debt ; because in that event, as the Bank would be
the only Bond creditor of the County, the arrangement
might be so made, that out of every quarterly rate, and in
the third month of each quarter, a fixed amount of the