The Sun.
London, England, 1805-05-22 00:00:00

The Irish Customs- and Excise 13i11 was read a
second citne, and ordered to,be cotntnitted to.tnur•

rQvia
Mr.'EsS y, from the Exchequer, presented an
Account of the Application of the Gams for gavel
Services,' from the year iBot to the latest periOd.
Ordered to lie on the Table.
Mr. MATTHEws moved the second reading of eke
General Turnpike Bill; which, after a few observe.
lions from Sir R. BUXTOI4 and Mr. HART, 'was
4greed to; and the Bill ordered tube committed to-
morrow.
Sir JOHN NEWPORT rose to make his pro.'
miseil Motion relative to the Expenditure of,the-
Secret Service Money in • Ireland. He said, the
Le-gislature had restricted 'that Expenditure; and ,
the Principles of the COostitutiOn required an Ac.
count of the Application of the Sums employed in
that Service. Rut no such Account had been given•
to Parliament, the contrent of which, in this. re..
spen, was nugatory, if he should fail in the Me-
Lion which he should submit to the House. There
were romburs of great abuses in this Expenditure;
and he was starry a Noble Lord who had been called
upon ors refute theta was not in his place to wipe off
the repriticli from himself (a general laugh, Lard
Castlereagh' being in his Feat). He begged the No.
ble Lord's parden, and hoped he would avail him.
.self of being present to clear himself. He carts.
phoned of the Expences of Criminal Prosecutions as
enormous, no less than t 10,0001. in four years.—
.. As his Motion might at first seem novel, he had a
',recede:mt to state to the House. In the eth of
William and" Mary the House appointed a Commit,
tee toinquire into this species of Expenditure; and
a Report was made of Members by name who re.
ceived bribes from the Government. He concluded
by moving, that a Secret,Committee be appointest„
consisting of 13 Members of that House, not hold.
ing Civil o(ficei during pleasure under the Crown,
'to inquire into the Distribution and Expenditure of '
Secret Service Money in' Ireland, from 1793 to
1,1804.,. inclusive, except such Money as had been
!. expended in the discovery of • Treasons, by the
direftions of the Att,of the 33.1 of the King.
Mr. PANS/TTARD saidethat it the Hun. Bart.
Merely 'wanted an Account of the Money . laid out
for Secret Service, there could be but one objection to
.
it, and that was, thatir was unnecessary, because
the amount of the Money to he to• expended was
limited and defined by MI of Parliament, But
the Hon. Bart. seemed to think tfiat there were
other Sums of Money so applied, over and above the
sum allakved bye taco : if that were thecase, if the Hon. I
Bart. could brink forward any fate of tkat kied, it
certainly would be will worthy of the attention of
Parliament. But it certainly appeared to him on.,
eeez,„„ry to go i„tta an logoiry until-some fad was
glated ti sheet the expediency of that Ingoiry.,-.
The ACt of .1 rj93, to which the, Hen. Bait. had al.
In led, foll Owed the pi inctple of Mr. Butkess Bill in
.this Country, nod 6ittiled the 'amount of Money to
be expended for Secret Service•to a small sum;
and he SurinnetLit would not be denied that it
would be impossible 'for, any GovernMent to be
carried ion without the power of disposing of some
Secret service Money ,without being obliged. af.
.terwards to matte public the way in which it had
been laid out. In the year 174.1 an attempt was
made in this Country to inquire nito the application
of Secret Scrviee Money. It
.Was admitted in the
Report of the Committee appointed upon that oc.
e torsion, that -it was absolutely necessary that Go. ,
verntnent should have the eoelication of .a certain
sum fOr Seeret Service Money, without being
obliged to explain the way in svhich it was ex.e
petaled, because that would defeat the very omr.
pose ttfit ;. but it was sliced that time Sums so. laid •
out appeared to be enormous. Afterwards, by the
Bill brought in by MrO Burke, the Sum to be so
expended by Government was limited to 10,0001.
a.year. In Ireland the suin Wes still more It.
suited—ie, wets fixed a't ear ; anti he be,
lieved the Hon. Bart. :week( find it difficult to
convince the House that such an expenditure'coulir
be applied 'to' the had putposes to which he had
alluded. But be trusted that Gentlemen would re.
collect the situatiotv in which Irelati'd hail stood
. fors some years, and he was sure they could not
for a moment contend that it would he prOper
to call upon Government to ceme before Per:
liament and explain' how every farthing of Se.
crer Service Money had ken laid out during
that period. There w;:e one head of Expenditure
called 's Secret Pees' ns ," and it must,he obvious
.to"the House, thatGoveroMent could not expose the
names of the Persona to whom they were paid with. I
out expositigthem to ruin. He Wished to observe,
that it was not the practice in this Countfy to keep
any ,Memorandurroof the disposal of Slcret Service
Money after it had once been approved of by, His
Majesty he del not knew whether this was the
practice icon Ireland, but certainly' a contrary one
,might lead to the most dangeraus consequences,
Mt. VANSITTART theo read the AO limiting the,
Secret Service Money to 5,0001. a year, and con.
tended, that it was evidently implied by the Ate,
that no. account loots tiebe rendered of the Expendi.
lure of that sum. The necessity), security was 01,),
gained,, not by having an, account published of the
mode in which tbeononey .had been expepded, but
by limiting the amount of, it. The money laid
out bad all been accounted for, in the way pre.,
scribed by Law, and the lion. Baronet might, if
he thought proper, trilve for' Papers, shewing 'the
time when the respeetive Secretaries had passed
their Accounts. With, regerd to what had fallen
.from the Honourable T 3 stoner -respeding Pensions,
it ,WateWholly unconnected with the present stihkid,
and therefore he wouldorot occupy the time of the
HOuse with any observations upon it at present,.
The Hon. Bart.• hall referred tU some proceedings
in the reign of Kill; ; but they Were of a
very different the Account now called
for,. because there.was now an Aceounuof the Sums
cizpendtd upon , the Talale `!'he Hon. Bart. had
also alluded to the Scum t-Ipended in State Pre.
beebtions ; this' certai.oly a subjett of tegrer,
but it could nut be matter of surprise, that such
Leal had beet? 'expended in four years, in a Country
it; whirl) 'there: had recently been a Rebellion, and
since that a serious Insurreelion, and where it insist
be confessed there still remained a great deal of lu*.
ing Jr had been said, that, the Secret
;;;c ► awe Money (41rehlfiticould not be laid out upon