3 NOVEMBER 1832, Page 37

EIrpartmtnt of linanciaT Control.

THE annexed Summary, and the detailed accounts which follow it, ex- hibit the expense for the three departments of Control, so far as we have the means of giving them. Our faith with respect to the Trea- sury expenditure, is not very firm. We had given up the Audit Office in despair, when we unearthed the particulars, such as they are, in Num- ber 84 of the Finance Accounts, mixed up with charges for the Speaker's salary, the "Expense of Additional Ecclesiastical Establish- ments in the West Indies," "Expenses of the Clerk and Treasurer to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Lunacy," and other items of as

various a description. SUMMARY.

Treasury 63.147 Exchequer 49,477

Audit Office 31 369

£143,993

It should be observed, the " Commissioners of Public Accounts"' report, that an efficient Exchequer (which the present is very far front being) would cost for salaries 4,600/. ; being a saving of at least 40,000/, or four hundred per cent. During the busy and stirring period of 1797, the Treasury cost little more than 40,0001. If it were re- duced to its former scale, there would be a saving of 20,0001, or one third. Of the Audit Office expenditure, we have no sufficient means of judging. The business of the department depends altogether upon the form of the accounts it has to audit. Where they are complex and obscure, the task must of necessity be long and difficult, and would be proportionably, simplified and shortened were a proper system of public accounts adopted. Allowing two thirds of its present expen- diture to this office, it appears that, by a revision of the modes of doing business and keeping accounts, a saving of more than one half could be effected in those establishments whose leading function is to control the expenditure of all the others, and the establishments would be rendered more efficient.

TREASURY.

Salaries of the First Lord, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the 4 Junior Lords, the Secretaries and Clerks, and other persons on the establishment, chargeable on the Fee Fund . . . . 55,177 Paid by Fee Fund £24,217 Paid by a Vote 30,960 £55,177 Contingencies and Messengers Paid from the Consolidated Fund, and charged in an account for" Courts of Justice. Ireland."

Compensation to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in lieu of Fees as Sealer of Writs, &c: in the Court of Exchequer . .

Total for Treasury . £63,147 EXCHEQUER.

A very full account of the functions and practice of the present office, and of the plan on which the Commissioners of Public Accounts recommend that the new Exchequer should be established, will be found in Numbers 179 and 180 of the Spectator, for December 3 and JO. 1831. At present, it will be sufficient to render the following 'fable intelligible, if we observe, that it is the duty of the Auditor to certify the correctness of a demand ; this certification is afterwards checked in the Pells Office, and entered in the " Great Book of Exitus." The Tellers are presumed to be (though the Bank of

7,590 450

England really is) the Exchequer bankers. It is theirs to pay all demands which have been certified by the Auditor and the Clerk of the Fells. They are also supposed to receive (though in reality the busi- ness is done by the Bank clerks) all monies paid by the departments of receipt, or by any public debtors. These monies are subsequently ac- counted for to the Clerk of the Fells, and entered in the "Great Book of Introitus." It should be added, that there are .four Tellers, who hold their situations for life by the King's patent. These offices, and the office of Auditor, are complete sinecures. In the words of the Exchequer Return, " The Teller is empowered by his patent to ap- point a Deputy, who transacts all the business of the office. The Teller himself does not, nor has it been usual for him to execute any part of it whatever."

(Paid principally by Fees ; the Deficiency being made up by c Vote, or charged upon the Consolidated Fund.) Tellers, SisrEcvuss. Marquis Camden 2 700 Earl Bathurst 2,700 Right Honourable C. Yorke 2,700 Right Hon. Spencer Pereeval 2,700 Auditor, Lord Grenville 4 000 Total of Sinecures . 14,900 HEADS OF OFFICES.

4 Deputy Tellers at 1,000/. each 4 000 1 Clerk of the Pelts 1 400 1 Chief Clerk to the Auditor 1200 Total for Heads of Offices 6,600 Cumttcs, Sze.

16 Tellers' Clerks at Salariesaveraging 484/. per annum 7,744 12 Clerks in the ('ells Mice, averaging 512/. per annum 6,144 23 Clerks in the Auditor's Office 7,957 4 Money Porters in Tellers' Offices 1 020

3 Messengers in Pelts Office 220 Conthe_•eneies (excepting the Auditors, in which con- trolling office " no documents exist from which the

cuntingent expenses thereof can be shown") • 495 Total for Clerks' Contingencies . 23,530 (Annually Voted.) Messengers attending the First Lord of the Treasury and Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, the par patent Illessenym of the Court of Exchequer, and various ancient allowances to Officers of that Court 4 497 Tutal Expense of Exchequer . . . X49,477

The Exchequer is a specimen of the difficulties which beset the in- quirer into the national expenditure. The last item is the only one that appears in the Estimates; the whole or nearly the whole of the other expenses being paid out of the Office Fee Fund, or from other sources. It is only by means of the papers laid before a Committee of the House of Commons, some two or three sessions since, that we are enabled to present the above account ; and it is only from our having formerly examined the Report, for purposes beside the present inquiry, that we were aware of their existence.

AUDIT OFFICE.

Paid out of Consolidated Fund.

Chairman 1 500 Commissioners 6 000 Salaries and contingent expenses of ditto 23,569 Total of Audit Office . . . £31,369