On Tuesday next Mr. Dillwyn, M.P. for Swansea, will move
to submit the Civil Service Estimates to revision by a special Finance Committee, composed—not in any partisan fashion,— of the men most interested in finance on both sides of the House, before they are submitted to the House, in order that the House may come to the discussion duly informed beforehand of the nature of the chief issues that arise upon them. We trust this motion may at least be very seriously discussed by all those who have the financial credit of the House of Commons at heart. It is a most urgent case. At present the discussion of these Estimates in the House is a pure farce. The House does not check the votes in any way. It does not even succeed in securing that the Parliamentary officers of the Government who are responsible for these esti- mates, shall have given due consideration,—or any con- sideration,—to the objections raised by those who understand the matters affected by the votes. This is the sort of thing that goes on :—A few Members, who know something of the character of particular votes, put amendments on the paper. Thereupon these votes, as " opposed votes," are not taken in their order, but put off to a " convenient season," as the Government say. Only the unopposed votes, about which nobody in particular knows anything, are taken in order. Then the opposed votes come on late in the Session, when the House is getting impatient, and when probably large sums have already been voted on account. The Financial Secretary for the Treasury gets up, makes a polite speech, regretting he has not been able wholly to master the question in debate, but promising to look into it before it comes again before the House ; and then the critic is coughed and fidgetted down. And that is the respon- sibility of Parliament for the Civil Service Estimates !
