The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The French for the last three years have been
committing the same kind of folly which we had
committed for so long a time before the termina-
tion of the war, and which we have since aban-
doned, with the full approbation of every sensi-
ble man in the country. They have been main-
taining a sinking fund for buying up dividends,
or the interest of their debt, with one hand,
while they have been borrowing money, or im-
posing the payment of' new interest, with the
other. Ever since the revolution of July, 1830,
their expenditure has exceeded their ordinary
income 6,000,000/. or 8,000,0001. sterling a
year, and yet they religiously abstained from any
diminution of their sinking fund. The amount
of this fund appropriated annually for the re-
demption of debt is 44,616,463 francs, or
Ndknewhat less than 2,000,0001. sterling, and
the Government has been obliged to borrow
annually 6,000,0001. or 8,000,000/. sterling.
Instead of applying the former 2,000,0001. to
reduce the necessity of borrowing in the first
instance, or, in other words, to diminish the
amount of new loans, they borrowed all the
sum required for the public service, or con-
tracted new debt, to be ultimately paid off by a
fund which, if applied in the first instance,
would, to the extent of its own value, have pre-
vented its creation. They thus maintained the
Juggle by which we were so long deluded or in-
sulted, implying the principle that a nation, or
hrt individual, may or can get rich, or pay off
debts, by borrowing. The present Minister of
Finance in the French Government has departed
from this absurd policy, and has appropriated
beady the half of the ordinary sinking fund to
the service of the ensuing year. He calculates
the supplies for 1834 at 1,019,000,000 francs,
or nearly 41,000,000/. ; while the ordinary
revenue, or the annual ways and means, at the
disposal of the Government, amount only to
about J 80,000,000. There would be thus a
ideittit of about 39,000,000 of francs, which he
proposes to cover by appropriating 20,000,000
of francs from the sinking fund, and by im-
posing an additional duty on wine and
spirits to the amount of 20,000,000 more.
France will still, therefore, have a sinking
fund of diminished amount, but it will
be a real one, arising from an excess
of income over expenditure. Besides the an-
nual sum of 46,000,0001. arising from the ori-
ginal per centage set apart for the reduction of
debt, the Finance Minister has at his disposal
49,383.539/. of redeemed dividends, which,
instead of being allowed to accumulate, may
either he cancelled or employed in diminution
of the ordinary charges of the year. If joined
to the original dotation of the fund, the whole
will constitute a surplus of nearly 3,000,000/.
sterling for the redemption of debt, even after
deducting the 20,000,000 f. to be applied
in 1834 to the service of the state. The
Finance Minister had expressed a hope to be
able in the course of' the present session to re-
duce the 5 per cents., of which the debt of
France mainly consists, to a stock at a lower
interest. This project he has for the present
abandoned, but as the 5 per cents. are now
above par, it would be absurd in the Govern-
ment to repurchase their own securities at a
higher rate than their nominal value, when they
can actually pay them off at par.—Times.
We select from a very brief pamphlet, but one
which has other merits besides that of brevity to
recommend it, some passages containing sugges-
tions for a new management of the public ac-
counts, which ought to command the attention
of official persons. Mr. Jones, of whose plans
this book of seven octavo pages discloses the
outline, has, it seems, attacked the colossus of
of economical method and reform, even Sir
Henry Parnell himself, in his citadel, but the
Right Hon. Baronet has shown himself disin-
clined either to make fight or to beat a parley ;
and failing the attention of the Right Hon.
Baronet on the one hand, and on the other that
of his Majesty's Finance Ministers, to his pro-
posals, Mr. Jones intends, by one means or
another, to get them laid before Parliament,
Indeed, it seems that no time ought to be lost
in putting the Legislature on its guard against
the adoption of the French scheme of bookkeep-
ing, so elaborately reported on, and so vehe-
mently though vaguely applauded, when, as the
pamphlet says, it was but a short time after M.
_Laffitte, himself an eminent banker, had pro-
nounced the French bookkeeping impregnable
to fraud, " that Kessner was declared a defaulter
to the amount of 450,000/. !"
" From remarks made by the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, it appears that be intends to bring into Parliament a
Bill, founded on a report of Sir Henry Parnell, to improve
the Exchequer. The King's commission empowers Sir
Henry Parnell, and other commissioners, to go through all
the departments of income and expenditure ; and if they
ake only the same time for each, it will occupy about 20
years, with the consequent expenses, to put the whole
merely on an altered, but still imperfect and false footing,
liable to defalcation and fraud ; because the Exchequer de-
partment and accounts, which are to be the filet to receive
the French and Italian dress, will still proceed on an im-
perfect and fallacious basis. Mr. Jones,* having read Sir
Henry Parnell's report on the Exchequer, offered to show
him wherein his plan is deficient, but obtained no attention.
Twelve years since Mr. Junes discovered an omission of
more than 29,000,000/. sterling in the annual Treasury
account laid before Parliament; and he has eversince been
endeavouring to draw the attention of the Government to
the false state of their accounts— but in vain. He has now
memorialized the Board of Treasury of a reformed Go-
vernment on the subject, and hopes he shall receive the
sanction of a reformed Parliament. Mr. Jones has, in
his memorial, given to the Board of Treasury a plan di-
rectly opposite to Sir Henry Parnell's, which awaits their
Lordships attention. The plan proposes to abolish the
Exchequer as a useless and expensive establishment, and
in lieu thereof to establish a Finance Board of Treasury,
to consist of Four Commissioners, in addition to the Pre-
mier and the Chancellor of the Treasury. The arrange-
ments of this Board would be, to receive daily, from each
department of income, audited returns, in brief, of duties
and taxes, &c., claimed from each district, and established
to be due, and also of the moneys received and expenses
thereon, and of moneys paid by etch collector and receiver
thereof, into the Bank of England to the credit of ti e Finance
Board of Tre..sury. knd also for the said 'Lard to have
daily sent to them, in brief, the audited returns of all
claims on each department of the Government expenditure
for loans, dividends, contracts, raw materials, manufac-
tured gi.ods, salaries, wages, pensions, interest, bounties,
&c. ; all which claims would be enteted in a diary on the
days they would respectively fall due ; and thus the Board
would know, from week to week, what moneys would be
required. The Finance Board of Treasury would then
have to sign, in the week previous to claims falling due,
distinct cheeks on the Bail( of England for each claim;
and the.e being issued to the treasurers and payma,ters of
their proper departments, to be by them countersigned, and
endorsed by the claimants, 'multi make the round hf regular
duties for the Board. This process would make the Board
practically acquainted with every circumstance as it pro-
ceeds...-would prevent the estimates for the year being ex
ceeded—and would give an opportunity of investigating
and controlling the whole income and expenditure of the
Government, in that most efficient manner which cannot
be done by any other mode now in operation or proposed
by the Government ; the Finance Board of Treasury
would tbrre.ore possess these and other important ad-
vantages, of which the. Exchequer can know nothing."
e have, unfortunately, not space to insert
more than one of the said enumerated benefits,

• Who has been above half a century constantly occupied in
extensive mercantile and other trading affairs, and in the bust.
ness of a public accountant. ;

but we have said enough to draw public notice
t o the subject.

" All cash hilances would he taken at once from the
hands of treasurer., paymaster, sub-accountants, and clerks,
ind placed at the Bank of England to the credit of the
Finance Board of Treasury: and thus all instances of
trod and defalcation would he prevented.
a 6 • • • •

" The question is of ioo great importance not to de-
mand the attention of a Committee of the House of Com-
mons, which should consist of merchants and others,
cntlemen of commercial knowledge, to investigate the
subject; and Mr. Jones should, of course, he instructed
to attend the Committee to give them information.
And if the Committee be composed of such gen-
tlemen as London, Bristol, .Merthyr, Birming-
ham, Durham, &c., have elected as their representatives,
and who, from their extensive engagements in com-
mercial affairs and matters of account, will be masters
of the question, there can be no doubt that the Chancelor
of the Exchequer will obtain a plan worthy of a re-
formed Parliament, and of the commercial knowledge of
the United Kingdom.
" High-sounding political names are not necessary to
the arrangement of the best mode in which the pecuniary
business of the public should be conducted ; but the ad-
vantage of Mr. Jones's practical knowledge, extending
through half a century (in which time he has given plans
to several hundreds of the first mercantile, banking, ma-
nufacturine, and trading houses in the kingdom), it must
he suopo-ed, does so outweigh the little experience which
Sir Henry Parnell can have had in such mattere, that it
becomes necessary that both these gentlemen's plans should
be most impartially investi;ited before a Committee whose
opinions would be formed from long practical knowledge ;
so that the plan which, in its combined operation, comes
ne treat to mercantile arrangement, supplying the most
fficient control over the whole pecuniary affairs of the
Government, and ending in the most complete system
of perfect accounts, may be adopted as a great national
benefit.

•• And the positive necessity of this cannot but be ad-
mitted by every Member of Parliament who will calmly
and impartially survey the subject. Fur whether we look
at the vast magnitude of the millions of property which is
annually passing, at great risk, through the hands of re-
ceivers, collectors, Measurers, paymasters, soh-aceountants,
and clerks, both as income and expenditure ; or whether
we look at the vast concerns of Governmaeot in carryine
on the most extensive at tnufactories in the world, or in
their daily extensive salts, with their ledger accounts
against their debtors, constantly liable to robbery and
fraud (which have actually taken pl ice), and all which
transactions are properly enough branched off into minor
departments for managing the detail—yet there is no
Beard the daily business of which is to become acquainted
with this vast business as a whole; which, from its
Own knowledge of passing events, can confirm or
countermand, as may be necessary, the transactions of
each revolving day, so that no carelessness in col-
lecting the income may pass unnoticed, and that the
estimates may be respected to which the Parliament
his agreed, and the expenditure reduced below the esti-
mates whenever it is at all practic ible. Besides, the ex •
istence of such a Board, by becoming the real treasurer
of the public income, would have prevented all the
frauds and defalcations which have taken place; some of
which have never come before the public, as we think
was the case of the 29,0001. taken from the Navy. office
a few years since. And such an efficient Board would
have taken care to being no false charge against the De-
puty Cashier at Greenwich, while it would in every va-
luable respect be equal to the partners in an extensive
mercantile establishment, whose important superintendence
and acquaintance with the whole cannot be dispensed with,
although they may divide the labour among various de-
p irtments suited to the circumstances. The necessity of
a total change from the pres-nt plan is admitted by the
Government, both in the existini, commission of the King
fur investigation, and by the seniiing of a deputation to
Paris to know how the French Government manages its
affairs—a mole which was estimated so highly, that a
report thereof, consisting of 161 folio pages, was printed
and laid before Parliament, commencing with a declara-
tion from M. Laffit•e that their mode was altogether so
perfect as to defy defalcation. And yet soon after issuing
that repor► Kessner was di Glared a defaulter of 450,000/.

Thus did this embassy end in great expense and us, ess •
ness ; because the new arrangement of Government trans-
actions was committed to politicians, instead of pracical
men of business. Practical men would not have been
guilty of so preposterous a measure as sending a deputa-
tion from this commercial nation to Paris for examples
how the transactions of levying taxes, duties, &v., and of
buying, selling, manufacturing, receiving, and paying
money should be conducted, and the accounts thereof kept.
Never were we, as a commercial nation, so degraded as in
that ridiculous proceeding. Practical men would have

looked at home, among men of commerce, for informa-

ti
on how such a business ought to be newly arranged and
conducted. And it is to be hoped that respecting a goes-
thin of such vast importance, the reformed Parliament
will not suffer themselves to be dictated to by gentlemen
who have thus shown, by their attempt to copy from the
French, that they are quite ignorant how such matters
ought to he conducted, and are consequently unequal to
the task which they have undertaken. Rather it is
hoped that the reformed Parliament, led by a reformed
Government, will no longer suffer the millions of money
hich are now annually placed in the hands of subor-
din,te persons so to continue ; but agree to place the same
in the hands of a Finance Board of Trea•nry, which
hail be a Board of positive business, responsibility, and
control."— Timex.

We alluded, on Monday, to the corruption
of the borough of Liverpool, and this case must
receive the earnest attention of the Government
and a reformed Parliament. If the notorious

iniquities of thefieenten of this borough escape
plmishment, if the Liverpool freemen are not

isfranchised, the new House of Commons will

he degraded in the eyes of the whole country.
The House of Lords may daily with the Staf-
ford Bribery Bill, but a i7eformed Parliament
can make no terms with election corruptions. The
Select Committee appointed to inquire into the
matters of the last election petition of Liverpool
reported, last month, " that cases of bribery and
corruption had been proved ;" but the Conserva-
tives rest their defence of the venal freemen on

the ground that the Committe equalified that re-
port by the assertion " that such cases did not
appear to have been with the authority of the
candidates, or to have been pursued systemati-
cally or extensively." When we consider the

nature of these defective tribunals, Election
Committees, we only wonder that any petitioners
succeed in proving bribery and corruption. The
Committees sit only on an average five hours a-
day. Each assignment of bribery or treating is
a separate issue, and occupies the time of a
civil action. The absurd rules of English evi-
dence and Parliamentary procedure protect
agents and offenders, and exclude all the testi-
mony most important to elucidate the case.
Counsel add their customary mystification and
superfluity of words, to the defeat of truth and
common sense. An enormous expense is in-
curred by the petitioners. All the municipal
authorities of a town, and frequently much
of its public funds, are appropriated to
defend corruption. A Committee, wearied out,
dies with anxiety to " report ;" and this re-
sult is deemed in common parlance " justice!"
Now, t+'itl► respect to bribery or treating being
" with the authority of candidates," every tyro
in electioneering takes good care to screen his
candidate, and the fear of the law induces ha-

bitual cunning and secret management in the
processes of corruption. In the last election
for Liverpool this was necessarily the fact. The
disgusting want of principle displayed at the
contest in 1830 was notorious throughout the
country ; a special report of the Commons'
Committee denounced the scandalous proceed-
ings of that election, and a Bill for the disfran-
chisement of the corrupt part of the constituency
(the freemen) was introduced by Mr. Benett,
read a second tune, and terminated only by the
dissolution of the l'ailiament. After this immi-

vent risk of their franchise, the Liverpool free-
men would of course be more circumspect, but
the venal spirit and " habit" of their elections
would unquestionably continue. The virgin
purity of a borough once violated can never be
restored in the same generation. Liverpool, also,

had been habitually corrupt. The municipal
elections for the office of Mayor have been long
profligate beyond example. The bribery at
elections of Members of Parliament was equally
open and notorious; its degree was always in
exact proportion to the wealth of the candidates
and their parties. A recent contest, it is well
known, cost upwards of one hundred thousand
pounds ! In 1827, the Grand Jury of the bo-
rough formally presented the bribery as a nui-
sance ! Its close corporation was not likely to
discourage or improve the practices of the free-
men.—Election, in Liverpool, is a farce. Poli-
tical principle is the last and least ingredient in
the poisoned chalice of corruption. Local fac-
tion—party interest—filthy lucre—are the sole
component parts of a Liverpool contest. We
have alluded to the excellent digest of the evi-
dence given before the last Committee. Not-
withstanding the difficulties attendant on " proof,"
the evidence distinctly establishes cases of bribery
—of refusal of the Bribery Oath, a significant
indication—solicitations for bribes and drink—
treating, in every sense—and beastly intoxication.
But do we want more than the fact of such a
numerous and respectable 101. constituency,
created under the Reform Bill, being over-
whelmed by the old freemen ; and such a waverer
as Lord Sandon returned instead of Mr. Thorn-
ley ? Whatever reasons might have existed in
1830 for the disfranchisement of the old rolen
freemen, they are ten-fold increased in 18323.
There are now about 12,000 electors entitled to
the franchise ; of this gross body nearly 5;000
are freemen. Without the freemen the new con-
stituency is now sufficiently numerous and intel-
ligent to return the representatives of the bo-
rough. A freeman unprotected by the ballot is
the worst description of universal suffrage. He
is not like the scot and lot voter, possessed of
some status and domicile ; but he is generally the
most ignorant, poor, and easily corru7ted elector.
The close corporation of a borough generally
use him as their ready and pliant tool. The local
charities are given in exchange for his vote. A
new coat, a Sunday loaf, a slice of an appren-
ticeship charity fund, employment in public
works, are irresistible temptations, and lead him
a willing slave to the poll—decoyed in buttered
ale, and generally with a month's wages in his
pocket. Thus the Reform Act has proved a
mockery and a dead letter in Liverpool. Will
the present Ministry allow such a stain and
blot on the reformed system of represen-
tation to remain ? Is a rising population
of 200,000 inhabitants—the second port in
the kingdom—to remain thus misrepresented—
thus contented with two Members, while Dover,
Harwich, and many insignificant seaport towns
enjoy the privilege of electing also the like
number of representatives ? If the Liverpool
"freemen" are to escape disfranchisement, let
them elect their two purchasers, and empower
the ten-pound constituency to elect their two
real representatives. The House of Lords, at
least, should have the credit of defending and
maintaining this corrupt constituency ; the re-
formed House of Commons, and the authors of
the Reform Acts, can never degrade themselves
by supineness in Such a ease. The whole country
is interested in the purification of Liverpool. A
commission of three intelligent men, authorized
by both Houses of Parliament to investigate in
the borough the habit of election, with power
to send for persons and papers, would in less
than one month give a retrospective and present
account of corruption, " as notorious as the sun
at noon-day." We repeat, that the Ministry
and the new Parliament will be severely judged
by their conduct in the cases of Liverpool,
Stafford, Hertford, Warwick, and Carrickfergus.
" By their fruits shall ye know them." If these
places are not to be purified by the special re-
forms of disfranchising the old corrupt consti-
tuency, and in some by enlarging the boundaries
of the boroughs, we would recommend to Lord
John Russell and his colleagues the straight-
forward course of a Bill to legalise bribery and
corruption in lieu of the Ministerial measure
now before Parliament, for putting an end to
corrupt practices at elections. ‘Ve do not
doubt that the Conservatives would afford their
hearty co-operation.—Morning Chronicle.

Colonel Evans is so far in advance of either
of his competitors on the first day's poll, that
his return appears to many almost certain. There
are electors remaining unpolled far more than
sufficient to secure the .return either of the late
Secretary for Ireland, or of Mr. Escott ; but we
do not believe that it is possible to induce the
real constituency of Westminster to declare its
sentiments. The gentry are active from attach-
ment to principle, the rabble are active from the
desire of plunder. But the. middle classes will
not exert themselves until the torch is thrust in
at their own window, or the knife drawn across
their own throats. We have the means of
knowing that to the friends of Sir John Hob-
house the success of that Right Hon. Gentle-
man appeared yesterday utterly hopeless. Every
leading Whig with whom you conversed, after
the close of the day's poll, was sure to amuse
you with a suggestion that it would be at all
events desirable to keep out that troublesome
Radical ; that, after all, the Whigs and the
Tories have a common object, the maintenance
of good government, though they pursue it by
different roads ; that it would be most unwise
to sacrifice the public good to vindictive passion
or personal antipathy. Let us at once speak
out on this point. If Mr. Bickham Escott's
chance of representing Westminster be not a
whit better than Lord Althorp's chance of ut-
tering two connected sentences in one night, or
Lord John Russell's chance of having his tra-
gedy read by a milliner twenty years hence, still
we say to Mr. Bickham Escott, persevere. It is
necessary for the character he values, and it is
necessary for the cause he defends, that he
should persevere. He came forward with a
gallant spirit, for which his worst enemies honour
him, at a time at which a perfect canvass of the
borough was impracticable. No such canvass has
been made. He went to the poll relying, not upon
the returns of agents, but upon the supposed
good sense and right feeling of the constituency.
He has no right to say that good sense and right
feeling do not exist until the period allowed by the
raw for the exhibition of them shall have expired.
What will be the consequence of his perseverance
in the contest ? In the first place, he may yet
he the successful candidate. In that case we
shall have an honest and able man placed where
honesty and ability are just at this moment sadly
wanted. In the second place, he will at all
events enable us to understand how many of the
Westminster electors desire a revolution, how
many esteem a renegade, how many love the
laws under which they live, and honour the man
who is ready to toil in their defence. In the
third place, he will teach the Whigs a whole-
some lesson. How did Mr. Charles Wood
write to his friend in Ireland ? " Any body but
a Tory 1" How did the Whigs vote in Maryle-
bone ? Sir S. Whalley sits by the help of the
Whigs. " Anybody but a Tory !" - It is time

they should know that we can make no dis-
tinction between Repealers and the supporters
by whom Repealers are returned,—between
Radicals and the supporters of Radicalism.
We speak in no vindictive feeling, when we
confess ourselves unable to perceive the
difference which the Whigs have laboured
so assiduously to obliterate. And, finally, he
will avoid the imputation of contributing by his
retirement to the election of either the" popular
and pelted" Secretary or the " Wellington" of
of Mr. Wakley. Do not let him affect, or ap-
pear to make a choice between the well-matched
rivals, between the mischief done and the mis•
chief meditated, between the Baronet's man and
the Doctor's apprentice. The scribes of
the Treasury began by abusing Colonel
Evans for bringing i❑ a Conservative ; they
conclude by abusing the Conservatives for
bringing in Colonel Evans. Colonel Evans
refutes the calumny they flung upon him by his
station on the poll. And for the Conservativess
so many grievous cherges are daily urged agains,
them that they need not be ashamed to coldest
the venial fault of liking the Colonel at least as
well as Sir John.— .11orninz Post.

COURT OF KI •G'S BENCH, MAY 9.

TILE KING V. ROTHERII Or AND OTHERS.

In this c4se, which was one of assault, and which
was not concluded yesterd ►y when we went to press,
the jury found the defendant, Charles Rotherham,
guilty, and the defendants Henry Rotherham and
George Marriott, not guilty. Char!es Rotherham
was.entenced to pay a fine of 5/.

Mr. Justice PATTESON then observed that the
case ought to have been disposed of at the sessions,
and on- being informed that the prosecutor had re-
moved it by certiorari, he added that he was very
strongly opposed to the mode in which writs of
that description wen! granted.
[This indictment would have only put the parties
to the expense of about N. at the sessions, but in tiT
King's Bench it must have cost them nearly 1001.1

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, MAY 9.