Star.
London, England, 1817-02-08 00:00:00

causes hi the tioliee=a C.oilmiitie in which the
people could repose full confidence, nothing could tend
more to quiet the fears of one part of the people, and
reconcile the rest to the Goiernment. But the fact
was, that the people placed no confidence in thtt
Gentlemen on the opposite ride of the House. pflitr
titularly whenever they spoke of rttrenchmept or
economy; because last year they made warm pike;
siors to that effect, and had not kept their word....
There was at that moment on the table of the House
a proposal for continuing a sinecure office of 14,00
a-year, which office a Finance Committee of that
House had described as one which ought not to 10
continued. When the people recollected that last
year A and scandalous job, under the name of
the Vice treasurership of Ireland, had been created
merely for the purpose of patronage, and when thh
year the) found that the useless and unnecessary of-
fice of Clerk of the Pells in Ireland was to be coati-
need at a salary of 114,000 a-year, what confidence
coullthey place in the professiens of Ministers who
committed such acts of profusion? The Honourable
Member concluded with moving an Amendment, chic
effect of which was to appoint a Committee, from
which all pons holding offices should be excluded,
and that the Committee should, from time• to time,
report their opinion to the House, as to the best means
of diminishing the public expenditure, and of le-
Geeing the country from its meant distresses.
Mr. GIPPS supported the Amendment.
Lord CASTLEREAGH. —The Amendment
mov ..1, Would, by excluding men in office from the
Committee, take away from ft all the practical bene-
fit the country might expect to derive from its labours.
Mr. TIERNEY thought it would be better to let
this Committee pass quietly, and appoint another
Committee hereafter, if it should be found necessary.
Mr. BROUGHAII said, the Noble Lord seemed
to wish to make it a Committee of Accounts, but
what the House and the country wanted was a Com-
mittee for inquiring into the means of reduction.—
The present was an attempt, under the mask of in-
laity; to extinguish inquiry. The Noble Lord had
resolved to embarrass and protract their proceedings,
by dining among them the enormous mats of the
whole expenditure of the last year, and the probable
expenditure of the year to come. It was an investi-
gation more fitted to occupy a Committee of Ao.
countants than of Legislators. He had already ren-
tondos a prediction, which was borne out by the
result ; and if he was how to hazard another, he
would pronounce, from the names before them, that
a difference would arise upon the very firu proposi-
tion between the Noble Lord and his Right Ho-
nourible Friend (Mr. Tierney) if he attended
the Committee—that, upon•that proposition a vote
would, coasequently, tabs place,;which would ter-
minate favourably to the Noble ,Lord. (Hear.)—.
The first matter for consideration would be, that they
should proceed to examine the voluminous accounts
submittted ; so that three months must elapse before
any report could be made, and then it would come
forth in the shape of a balance drawn out for the use
of the House. But that was not what the country
wanted s they wanted reduction—and they wanted
that the question of reduction should be kept clear of
any ether sobject.—(Heer, hear.)—To that view
they would continue fixed until the House thought
to meet and satiety their just expectations.—
11117ger eosld onlybe effected by a separate investigation,
carried on in another Committee. By that menus they
might hope to come to a fair decision how far sinecure
places, useless offices, and unmerited pensions, could
be dispensed withs 'and how far the patronage of the
Crown, increased to adangerous extent by the existence
of such abuses, might be' limited and controlled.—
The question of Patrodbge was one of considerable
importance, .particularly at this time, when the taxes
were wrung from the people with the utmost difficulty,
and when the patronage of the Crown was such as
to enable a bad Government to support itself under
circumstances in which even a good Government
would have found it difficult.—(Hear, hear.) It was
necessary that the people should be satisfied, and that
Parliament should redeem its pledge. The Noble
Lord had offered no argument to the contrary. Al-
lusion had indeed been made to the Committee of
1806, under the auspices of a Noble Friend of his
(the Marquis of Laasdown) not now a Member of
that House. It was knows to them all, that when
Mr. Biddulph first proposed the appointment of such
a Committee, his Noble Friend, who was then at the
head of the Finance Department, acceded to it imme-
diately, and Mr. Biddulph consented to give it out
of his own hands into those of his Noble Friend. The
objection. stated• against the manner in which his
Noble Friend proceeded was, that he did not choose
from among the Gentlemen on the other side, when
he nominated his Committee—that. be did not look
to 'that quarter for the friends of abolitioe, and the
enemies of • jobs.o•-(Lead cries of Hear, hear.)—.
If he had done so, he would have taken the most ef-
factual step to defeat the object of the mover. Mr.
Biddtdph would never bave.given up his claim to
make way for an arrangement of this kind directly
in the teeth of his proposition. His Noble Friend,
though then Chancellor of the Exchequer, had acted
candidly and honestly, and the Committee had done
its duty. If be wanted to pronounce their eulogium,
he could not express it with greater strength than by
stating that, when the present Ministers returned to
power, after having excited a base religious C 1403
they took care to put an end to that Committee, and
to appoint another-in its place. When the late Mr.
Perceval determined on reviving the Committee, the
appoiritnient, to say the best of it, took place under
the most suspicions circumstances. It was stated to
have been very fair. Six Gentlemen were, indeed,
taken from one side of the House, and six from the
other, so that numerically considered, they were equal,
but when they game to look a lijtle closer the equality
disappeared. The six from one side had no offices, the
six from the other were Ministers, and it was not diffi.
icult to determine by which of those parties the bilk
of the remaining nine were likely to be influenced.—
The Noble Lord had said that men in office ought
to be on the Committee for the purpose of affordi'g
information; but how was that necesy when the
Committee would have power to send tot persons,
papers, anchrecords 3—(lfear, hear, hear.) The Noble
Lotd would have to put the question, according to
the present coarse, whetger one 01 the individuals
sitting in judgment on the cases, should be deprived
of his office—(Hear. hoar.) —lt was necesss4r7, under
the circumstances of the country, to consider also
the propriety of reducing the salaries of all the gre.t