The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-17 00:00:00

ment.try • paper No. 101 of the last session. You are
not to 7.)elieve, however, that there has been a sav-
ing,
0
f three hundred thousand poands in ten
year a. There has been very little, if any, actual
ree.uction. The apparent decrease arises from a
tr ansference of the charges of one department to
anot'her department. For instance, the Admiralty
now bears the expenses of the Coast Guard, which
ten years ago were borne by the Customs ; while
the Customs superannuations formerly paid by that
department are now included in the Civil Service
Estimates voted by Parliament. Add these sums
to the Customs account, and there will appear no
actual reduction ; but the revenue during the last
10 years having increased 20 per cent., there has
been a large comparative saving. It has, in fact,
cost no more to collect the greater than the less re-
venue. That it has not, must be attributed in some
degree, to a healthy internal edministration.
There appears, indeed, on the surface, and one
must believe that there does exist in some of the
Government departments, a desire that the working
expenses should be retrenched. I have been espe-
cially struck with this on reading through the cur-
rency report of the Gommissioners of Customs. They
increased their establishment during the last year
by 124 officers at an annual charge of £22,831. At
the same time, by order of the Treasury, they have
abolished the office of controller in 23 outports, and
saved £5,000 by the abolition. The pages of ex-
planation and apology with which the net increase
of expense is accompanied were, one would think,
written and presented to the Lords of the Treasury
with bated breath and on bcnded knee, so tho-
roughly ashamed do the honourable commissioners
appear of having added a penny to the national ex-
penditure. There may be, as there often is, con-
scious guilt in such demeanour ; but on the whole,
as they no doubt Mae it for granted that their sys-
tem cannot be improved, there appears to be a de-
sire to conduct affairs with, as officials express it,
" a due regard to economy."
There are thirty-four ordinary departments of
the State in addition to the four above specified, the
salaries . and ordinary minor expenses of which
amounted last year to £924,108. These are the
Treasury, Foreign-office, National Debt-office, and
others, to enumerate which would be of no practi-
cal advantage, and would perhaps only irritate by
provoking tho question whether they are actually
indispensable to good government. I will, how-
ever, take three or four of the principal depart-
ments, and, lifting the veil from these, so that you
may literally see the way in which the public
money is spent, enable you to judge of the character
land the contents of the remainder. I cannot do bet-
ter than begin with the Treasury, the direct office
patronagd of which is worth £54,000, but the indi-
rect and ex-ollicial patronage almost any reason-
able sum within the total of the national revenue.
The following are the particulars of this establish-
ment :

TREASURY OFFICE.
Office.

Salaries

Officers.
1858.
1 FirsfLord £5,040 '
1 Chancellor of the Exchequer
3 Lords Commissioners £l,OOO each 3,000
2 Secretaries, £2,000 each

£17,000
1 Assistant Secretary
1 Auditor of Civil List and of Accounts ren-
dered to the Treasury.
1 Principal clerk for colonial business
1 Principal clerk for revenue business
1 Principal clerk for financial business
1 Principal clerk for legal and criminal business 1,100
9 First class clerks, £7OO to £9OO (one special, at
£1,000)
16 Second class clerks, at £350 to £6OO
7 Third class clerks, £lOO to £250 865
1 Accountant, £7OO to £9OO 725
1 Assistant to ditto, £350 to £450
21 Other clerks, £l2O to £SOO
Additional allowances to certain clerks on the
establishment :
Two private secretaries to First Lord, £3OO
AAA

each
One ditto to Chancellor of the