The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-05-06 00:00:00

iote; het the revenue arisinz out of t:se l l p'r Cent
had been severed in the Civil Lis: of King
mitient, had been taken from Queen Anne, and was
no ineiadefl in the Civil List 4.f the Sovereigns for the
per :ast successive reigns. If then the House had
wire them this usage of a revenue existing is the
hands of the Crown, wi.ich made no part of the Civil
lid, there was satheient precedent of the Crown grant-
pensions out of the funds from which it proormle4l.
1pt.,.,e11:1 it be for a niontent denied that the enstoni
sf steaming such pensions was co-existent with the
ire mention of our Parliamentary history ? A
,lidiurtion. lio.rever, hoot barn drawn between the -e
gad other funds by the ltonoitrable Gentleman, who
te,t whys pensions were asked on the part of the
Crown there was no difficulty in coming to Parliament
cl3inting them: but that titter funds were for parti-
:Oar purpooo, which it was deemed prudent to conceal.
mast singular character for the funds in
lae•tien' and one which most appear extraordinary
44the Moist.. that they had had as petitioners upon
?hem two men. who, of all others that ever existed,
f!se least 1119PZ•ell to ehtle strict inquiry.—These
e!v F. t-1 of t liatliam and Rthianad Iturke, names
.s !.. if ths• ,ylt de history of the country were tea-
were nat to be snrie.ssed, fur every thing assn-
, lated with public virtue and greatness of soul. It
was quite impossible for any Set of Ministers to he so
reismken as to expect court' al-tent from those men it pon
any salsject which coneeritee. the public interest.—
What! weeld it be said that the Earl of Chatham
um; in the coarse of his splendid career,
would rather have concealed I tults than led to their
04 would the settle be said of Edmund
ite-tir, who must live in the respect and admiration of
5:55, himself too a professed reformer? No; such an
,ertion mould never he nuiLl..•, anti he should leave it to
le rs to find consolation in defeat from attempts to de-
e,ade derailed virtne.—(Hear, hear! and cheers from
the Mieisterial Benclies.)—Hurke was now placed far
b:yond the reach of all human assaults ; he had well
earned what a grateful country had given him, and
hi' auth,,rity was the best that could be adduced to
show thet the fund out of which he had received a
pensi WAS not misappropriated. If, then, n • ques-
tion should remain hut with respect to the possibility
of abuse, inasmuch as there were no States which were
guano of Reform, when the Pension List taw, left
t entirely to the Crown, without any superintending
foamed. To this he should give the best possible
mower, naniely, that in future all disbursements fr
these funds, and the purposes to which they were ap-
ferd, should every year be submitted to Parliament,
Why a distinct motion, but as a matter of course.
It appeared to him very strange that the lion. Gent.,
if be wished these funds to he at all continued, had
sot explained how they were to be administered, un-
less by the Crown? It was certainly competent to
Parliament to see that they were properly applied ;
hut so it was to Parliament to watch user any other
of the prerogatives of the Crown. Ile now came to
consider the details of those fends, from which it
would appear how little had been expended hut for the
public service. In the course of the late reign the
fends had increased to 9,700,0001. and a sum of
6,700,0001. was paid to the captors of ships, out of the
Droits of the Admiralty, leaving a fund of 4,000,1'001.
of which sum 2,700,0001. had been paid in aid of the
41 per Cents., and the remaining suns, after haying
defrayed the charges of the Royal Physicians, the ex-
penses of entertaining Foreign Ambassadors, and other
incidental demands, would become matter of new ar-
rangement in future. He wished it to he distinctly un-
derstood, that it was intended, in the course of every
Session, to lay before the House an account of the
sums issued from these funds, as well as a distinct
statement of their application. He saw no reason what-
ever that could induce the House to depart from that
course, with regard to them, which was sanctioned by
the authority of the Constitution. The Hon. tient.,
while he proposed a change, had not offered any just
argument in support of it ; and, according to his state-
ment, it was rather to be a;aunted necessary from in-
ference than practice. The Hon.lientlernan said, that
if a pension was to be granted to a Nelson, a St. Yin-
cell, or a Wellington, there could be no difficulty
about it, as all must acknowledge it was well deserved.;
but the case was quite different with regard to political
services; where, in his opinion, Parliamentary inter-
ference was necessary before any pension was awarded.
Now, it was for this very reason that be (Mr. Canning)
!bought the existing practice the most consonant with
the principles of the Constitution. He desired rather
to see these funds under the care of a protecting
Monarchy, than at the disposal of a democratic as-
sembly, who should dole out their largesse, as the
spirit of faction or the influence of a successful canvass
dictated. Faction must necessarily sway the minds of
such an assembly, and there had been of late abundant
experience of what might he done by a successful can-
vass.—(A laugh.)—lf, on the one hand, the Crown was
the best judge of the application of the sums to be laid
out, so, on the other, it was the best trustee of the fund.
that remained. It must be perfectly known to the Hon.
tientleman himself, that the change he proposed was at
variance with the best principles of our Constitution,
though, if he could but succeed in getting the Crown
to abandon those funds, be would not hesitate, fur the
sake of a rhetorical flourish, to witness all the mis-
chief which would be consequent upon such a measure.
But if no change of this nature was called for by ne-
cessity, and If, after the experience of more than sixty
years, the Hon. Gentleman could prove only one in-
stance of abuse, the House would find that the sanction
of practice and experience was decidedly against any
alteration. As to the general argument that those
funds, being in the hands of the Crown, offered a
temptation to go to war ; he thought it had no foun-
dation whatever. He entreated the Hon. Gentleman
to give not the least credit to the views or intentions
of the Administration, but to look at them, even as
he did, on the Minister of Charles II.; let them do
this, bat let them, at the same time, take a view of hu-
man nature, add see if it was possible, that any set of
Ministers would place a twentieth part of the Droits
of the Admiralty as a set-off against an unjus' War.
commenced only in disgraceful motives? It could
nut, be was convinced, be denied, that the prac-
tice, which had hitherto been followed, had in
it something salutary. In the period, daring which
9,000,0001. of droits had accumulated, if they once
provoked war, they more than three or fear times