The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-12-07 00:00:00

Mit STANESMAN

tither acts it wiluld be desirable to substitute- fos
them.' This Inquiry necessarily branChed oat laid
'46ltrivot heeds of examination. The first point, to.
whith. the Committee felt k their .duty to direct
.theft attention, embraced the amount of expence
incbrretl foeinaintaining thse.two regiments of City,
fr to result of their inquiry as to this point
was, that these:pence of the two regiments was not
lessteban 50,0001. a year, istlependent• of various'
otlier citatges,Aucb as the charge for clothing, and
foe ,aupplying.inen in the place of those who may
haversiuserted or obtained -promotion. The Com..
ittittee thee directed their inquiry to what is 'called,
'ln the Acttfie regimental stock purse, a fund which
,Sonnovosildseppose must have been intended to pro.,
Ivichtfor,somet general pargdaesteonnected with the id.
tillteata ttteopvent6nce .6f thiArhole regiment. Under
.thisthead•of, inquiry the Consmittee Apand that in
•ont of tbeCity regiments this stpok. parse was kept
• whoa), under the contrOnl isf-the.Cslaustander, that
no account 'whatever had orbeen rendered, •of nits'
amount or application, and' that a considerablesum
must have accumulated and was to be accounted for
by that Commander. The next point on which the,
Committee proceeded to inquire resPeated the Mao.
•nor of raising men for the regiments ; and upon this
head they discovered that considerable abuses existed.
It appeared thatseven guineas per man was allowed,
but that this sum was never actually paid fdr the
men, 'who in most instances were. raised for one.
half that sum, and some men were got even fur a
guinea each. The consequence was; that whilst
tube City was put to a heavy expence, improper per.
sons were taken into the militia, whom it was after.
!.wards necessary to discharge, when the expence of
supplying their places fell upon the parishes. The
most important point in the whole report, perhaps,
sfailhat respecting the trophy tax ; and upon this
,subject the Committee hail been enabled to collect-
the greatest' number of facts. He well remem.
.bercd having, about ten or twelve years since, de.
flounced these abuses in ' that Court, and pledged
himself to. prove them, if they would at that time
grant • him a, Committee. lie remembered, too,
that by so :doing he had drawn upon himself
some heavy imputations of disloyalty from these
.who then denied. the existence of such abuses.-o-
Vbe persons who were at that period most active
Against him were now no niore, and he, was ready
to declare,,that all sense or feeling of resentment on
his part was gone with them.: Yet he must he per.
mitted to add, that after the heavy imputations cast
upon him by those who represented his ststtementa
and chargestiu. that 'native.° as unfounded, he do.
lived great and livelymatifaction in being ableith
AMOS thekCourytbstprenifer from being unfound:
dd, .theabelts he IlDosOlaiseckst existed to's much.
greeter Octane than Ire:ht, diet period either stated
or could eorteeive., it•weird, appear by the -re-
port. that. liorsuant to the lirovisions •of the Act
of Parliamemt, the Retells!• of the receipt. and
disburfement of•the trophy,taxehould be regularly
presented it-the bar of that Court, andietit sp.
+oared thab..considerahinAsehinces: remabted sear-
eeestelk fut. • ile*lted in• his. head an ,nbridgmest of
.the.aeaorats, which he should propose to be printed
with the report 'as an appendix. Ho should not
isiko,up 'the time of, the Court -by enumerating all
the abusetiondar, this,. bittelsoisld content himself
by drewint its etteatien.to one single enormity.. So
tar bid* as• 1795, it appeared. that this accosat was
orritinbisib to bb passed it •the Quitter Sesiions,
When it had been disallowed bytthat Court of Ses-
sions. That account had never since been pre-
sented sad' alldwid, though 'the tax had been inva.
riakly collected. In the following Year, 1799, no
account was offered to the Court of Quarter Ses.
aions, which had disallowed the account of the
preceding year, and might object to passing the ac.
count for 1799, till that for 1798 should be al.
lowed. An account, however, had been presented
at the bar of the Court of Common Council, which,
as the Magistrates of the. Court had allowed; he
should then forbear from commenting upon. And
here he must beg the attention of the Court to the
fact, that by an account presented to that Court
in 1799, which was disallowed, it appeared that
on the 2tl of October in that year there was ha-
lance in hand of 2541. 19s. In the year 1800, from
the account presented, several of the items which
had been objected to in the preceding year were
omitted, but the balancc amounted to 2,9531. 2s. 514.
No duplicate of this account with so large a ba.
lance had • been, as by the 'Act directed, pre-
sented at,the bar of that Court ; and in that omis.
gun, at it appeared to him, a most gross deception
had been practised upon that Court. The account
which had been previously disallowed had never
again beet' produced; nor had the balance been
brought forward or accounted for. What then could
the Court think of these transactions, now clearly
proved by the report of their Committee ? What
could they think of the agents in such transac.
Lions, who, at the time when 'he urged his charges
against them, had not come forward as men con.
scious of purity, and themselves called fur inquiry ?
In the next year the balance was 3981. 4s. Bd. and
the account was passed by the Magistrates at the
Court of Lieutenancy ; yet no account what.
ever was given in or passed respecting the former'
balance. But who, lie must ask, were the Ma-
gistrates of the Court that passed this account?
Were they not intersestcd persons ; three out
of the five Who were present having been Dili-
cers, who had thus placed themselves in a situa-
tion toe-pass, as they actually did pass, their own ac-
t oants4 Were they not aware of the balance re.
nulls/ unaccounted for ? Did they not know that
neratesaant bad been rendered of the balance ; cud
titarantil such an account should have been al.
lowed, they had no right to pass subsequent ac.
events ? Here, too, he must observe (and he was
hiPpy to take the opportunity of doing justice to
au-honest and upright inan, now no more, whose
' ehartaeter lurd suffered by calumny, but would not
fail to be Considered in its true light when justice
shotrld be done to it), that the late- Recorder of
London 'had protested; in face of the Magistrates,
against their inning .the account -; and ,vx.pressly
' on the ground that the former balance still remain-
ed unaccounted for. (Hear! hear!) Yet, not-
wit Wedding this proceeding ,on the part ofrthatup.
tight and /benost officer, the t.Marstrllior Oki 44"
MIR? Teslithp*,aecounts. head dmiptishaddi
lOW ' that period of 1803, ushelwisoca
)

. . . . ..
- had been.. brosighriorieard.- *boat 1111 fit IWO
things . had dtalntigi:ffv
il t. ' IliftthAlir
pelkireoodeeitatlifshetbilatikailiiphil
than received ; i
niot been. at any, tithe, omitted; ...? hinelifesiotil
balance amounted ateabove 4,000 h) al. Walriik
bsinly, a .'estratortanary, .that instil a liier. aetiikni
-werilatquired; to Ise 7 sligrn le ill AtlMPlCesenitlk
balances to which he had been aliodiMe
.never: bees brought) forward, a lay.allefeeoel •
would, be scent thee the bellows etieranesh
amounted ao. 8,1.5 al, 1 3s. /d. When orbbretioUeliii
of balances ayes considered on tint baulk aelfee
other,: that the aceotintsiiisd-been room to colthal
bringing this balances foravaietl; the *Wu wouldpvil
sent such sesysteme4wizquisitc, of. refined,- or ta.l
.ther triple.r4ned swearing, as . coo ld otlaveely. be
„exceeded. Ho felteeistrosigly tiPtin the stibjeatii
; that-be cm tild.odi -Sentare to trust himself la ants
enedeerting 'upon it, and should. therefhike Misted
I from making any further observations wpaseisoch
enndict. The. Visartergessions .he had
.beenaae.
customed to consider as some check upon there as.
I.countia and yet it was not to that Court, bet toll.
.Conet of lieutenancy, that the duplicates of this's
counts Were .Isiesentecl and allowed.. It( appoilitd)
also, that there 'were two othererniell. sbalarreili,
which carried the -whole assabunr:' now"aemaits-
ing to be accounted fur to 8,4001. Whilst these be-
lances remained unaccounted for, the• tax had been
regularly levied; so that the city had beein 'wrongfully
paying this tax for all this period, because donee
1 cue ld exist no right to-levy it, until the balancesshaehl
be accounted for. He had, therefore; thought it right
to give notice to the Recorder and the Magistrates,
that be should attend at the Sessionwerlienever these
accounts should he presented, in order to state such
-observations as appeared necessary ; .to chew, that
the accounts could not be allowed without a gross
violation of law. The Committee had, also, iltrected
their inquiries to the use of tho city regiments •
and the result was, that these regiments appeases,
to be of no utility whatever, whilst the expellee!
was immense, very nearly as much as the whole rale
venue of the City. It appeared to him, also, that:
there was much danger to he apprehended from re:
giusenteaso composed,e' of strangers and not inhabi.
tants. It was not so their ancestors bad provided"
for the security of this great metropolis, and of.
the nonsense property it contained. There was OW
loom eircunsttance, which, though not mentioned in
tho reportrhe thought it right testate to the Courts;
it-had come tiehis.knowledgdent; is manner which
rendered it dilliesilt for him to establish it before the'
Committee. If the circumstance was unfounded,
he suppaisol it would be contradicted—it was this,
that hc'. lsolieetaigits - the Mayoralty of Sir R. C. '
' Glynn, an application had been made to the Lords
of. the Treasurn: and .a loan of 50001. obtained,
which son had never been since rePaid. lie should,
not aresporloager on'thc time of. the Coma, but
conclude with -moving; that the Report be now
read. .The fteport'was then read, which agreedie
all the material points with the statement of M 4
Weithman. The Committee stated, that- the, its.
formation *required' was peremptorily refuied•bytNir'
Alums!, Eimer and;-Alderman Hunter, 'Who Yu*
thai they •were oniiit responsible 'to the Court of
Lieutenancy, which; was appointed by the Cooled,'
and of .which' they were members. The expellee;
of'tho two Militia regiments was not less' aheal
160,0001. per annum. There were besides considert
'able erpenees. feriae wives and families Of Omani:.
litiatrea. The Coluaels had been for a iong.time
allowed seven guineas a man as bounty -for the ea-
emits,' who were afterwards got at three or four
guineas, and sometimes at one pines: ,The Colonels.
were also alloWed for the clothing of the full cone.
' plement of men, whatever deficiencies there might Ms.
in the regiments. Their situation thus became muse
lucrative than that of any other Colonels of militiait
oreven of the regular regiments. In the West Lone'
don regiment there was abalance of more than WOOL
in a stock-purse, which the LientenautXolonil
offered to hand over, if Sir John Lanier woold-ta
like manner hand over the balance for his regiment'
of East London. Although Sir John Earner would
not state what was the actual balance, it me4t be
supposed to be much greater than that of the West
, London; fur the tiumberof promotions in his regi-
meat were three times as many, and the desertions
double. Besides, in Sir •Jobn . Earner's regiment
there was no all:mance for Mess; and if anrOene.
ral Officer were invited, every one was obliged to
. subscribe. • The sole and -entire controul of this
stuck.purse was exercised by Sir J. Earner himself,
who neither allowed the Lt..Cul. or Major to
fere. The Committek then proceed to report several
eases where sums of moneyhad been taken upon enlist.
ling and discharging. men. thief humas Lamb, who
had deserted and, was sentenced to be punished;
bought his discharge for fourteen guineas. Several
had enlisted at much less thin the bounty allowed,
and had been afterwatds discharged as unfit foraer.
vice.; whereas one William King, who was an ex-
cellent soldier, was not allowed to stay in thosegh
ment because he had asked for the whole of his
bounty-money. The Committee declared that the
bondun Militia, as it now stood, was a ears
job, beneficial only to certain individuals. • The
: Colonels . had insisted in passing their owq root
counts; and out of five persons before :whom
,hosts mounts , were' pierced, -three were otficiate
of the Militia. Thu late Recordei-prnsestod
in writing against the • passing.of .soine • ,of their
accounts; as .they did not alloSs. for the balances dote
The Committee could not conceive any reason ,fee
Sir John, Earner refusing to give them the infornagme
lion required; but a wish to conceal from the cilia
tens of London, who paid the tax, the yammer ice
which it was applied. -They stated' the result of
their enquiries, •that• thMei.wore how above 80091.
in the hands of the Cellonele.,ofahe tworregiesenta.,
which ought to be hancled oterte' the City Trea.
serer. They believed..that the iCity,aoebusilon
Militia, mit was nowitalsatituted, waerof eta. use
either to also:City oe to the Country ; thatthe Ga.
vil Power lOW been generally found sufficiewt for iti
protection, and that the ancient forme if Trained
Bands, or oflroltuiteorts was sufficient in nay eatraor-
I divary emergency... They-therefore reedminentnet
' an applicationeto Parliaineat to repeallhe lawliv.;
Bisecting the Militia of the City of Longue; and to
4'entka this form more available to. Lbelig,o4.lol.llllh
illatititrfr. .by_amtehsling tits *snakes,.. isdVl i',‘lnsi
gridtg W10401444' Aka" moved Ahab. Oil liepsetti