TOPICS OF - THE DAY.
VIGILANT GUARDIANS OF THE PUBLIC PURSE.
Islo period of the session is considered to be too late, no House too thin, when the public money is to be voted away by millions. Within a few days of the close of the session, when out of 658 members (every one of whom, if pledged to nothing else, is pledged to force economy on the Government) only between 80 and 90 were in their places, the Miscellaneous Estimates were brought forward in the House of Commons. These Estimates amounted to upwards of two millions, and embraced a mass of details, which should always be most jealously scrutinized by our Representatives, with a view to making every practicable reduction of unnecessary expense and undue patronage. It should be borne in mind, that although the savings to be made on the separate items appear trilling, yet they might form a considerable aggregate ; and, as we have stated several times, might enable Parliament to take off some one tax which presses upon the in- dustry or comforts of their constitucatt, or provide for some extra- ordinary disbursement. Thus, a saving of five per cent. only on the Miscellaneous Estiundes would have provided for the 55,0001. voted for the furniture sr Buckingham Palace, and for the interest of the Exchequer Bills to be issued fur the payment of the million loan to the Irish Clergy. But five sixths of our Representatives considered these economical calculations as beneath their notice.
The Morning Chronicle, however, is very complimentary to the Reformed House, and contrasts it favourably with the old Borough • Parliament, on the sulject of its vigilant guardianship of the :public purse. We find the following passage in the Chronicle of Monday last- " With respect to the great object for which in a more particular manner re- form was wished—the guardianship of the public purse—it is impossible not to perceive a remarkable contrast between this Parliament and the Parliaments which preceded the Reform Bill."
If the Chronicle were not a sworn supporter of' the existing powers, this might almost be taken for irony. Why, the great ma- jority of the Reformed Parliament are occupied in grouse-shooting, instead of guarding the public purse. As we have stated above, upwards of two millions were wanted at the close of last week for the Miscellaneous Estimates ; and six millions in addition were voted for other purposes on Monday, in a House of about a hun- dred members : yet this is the period selected as the most ap- propriate one for lauding the Reformed Parliament for its "guar- , dianship of the public purse !" We are far indeed from concur- ring in this unmerited and sycophantic laudation. On the coo- trary, we say, that between five and six hundred of the members of the Reformed Parliament have grossly neglected their duty, and violated their most solemn engagements to their constituents, by abandoning their posts, and leaving nearly every important mea- sure of the session in a half finished state. The fact is, our Re- presentatives have left us at the mercy of the Ministers, and ren- dered abortive any attempts to control improper expenditure. We recommend the constituents of every member absent during the last fortnight, to ask him, how it happens that, out of the fifteen millions required for the active service of the year, upwards of eight millions were voted without his knowing or caring any thing about the matter ?
Among the vast variety of sums voted in the Miscellaneous Estimates, there are some to which we arc desirous of directing the attention of our readers. For instance, 13,1501. was granted to defray the salaries, tmavelling expenses, &c. of the Charitable Commissioners. This grant was strongly opposed by Mr. TOOKE, Mr. HUME, and Mr. HARVEY. Mr. SPRING RICE thought that the Commissioners must have done a great deal of business, be- - cause they had travelled upwards of two thousand miles. Before, however, we admit this travelling test as decisive evidence in their favour, it ought to be noted that their travelling expenses are paid by the nation. Let us hear, too, what Mr. HARVEY says on this point- " He thought the Commissioners were more than paid for what they did ; for, in fact, in their circuits through the country, they consulted more their own bodily disorders than they did the business -Pr which they were pale!. There were already about sixty volumes of Reports,.and yet there were few if any counties in which the inquiry was completed. If one wished to examine into the charities of any particular county, he had to search for them through many volumes, where parts appeared. The cause of this was, that instead of taking one county and going through with it, they spread thimselves from time to . time over several counties, according as their bodily necessities or their tastes tEctated. When they met in London, one said, "I should like to be this year in the neighboulhood of Harrowgate, the waters of which will he good for my scrofula;' another desired to take advantage of the hot-wells of Buxton ; and a third would like to avail himself of the bracing air of Brighton. In this way the inquiries were disjointed, and would cost the country an immense sum be- fore they were completed. They had already cost the country a quarter of a The worst of it is. that these Commissioners are inefficient per- sons after all. The little that they do they do badly. We know of more than one instance where their inquiries have been con- ducted in so superficial and ill-informed a manner, as to excite at once the joy and ridicule of those into whose misappropriation of charitable funds it was their duty suspiciously to search. Lord ALTHORP had not a word to say in defence of the grant, : or the Commissioners ; but " was glad that this discussion bad .arisen, because the Commissioners would know. what the feeling -tbss House was:' Now if these nerds have any meaning, his this.—,"_The House of -Commons, Gentlemen Commissioners, thinks that you have not earned your salaries, and that they ought to be stopped." But if such was the opinion of the House of Commons, why was not the vote rejected? Lord ALTHORP would not have broken his heart, it is evident, had such been the case. The Chronicle says- " In the 'Unreformed Parliament, when Ministers were hard pushed on ac. count of some improper expenditure, it was no uncommon thing for them to say, we are more economically disposed than the majority of the House. Mr. Herries more than once stated broadly and distinctly, that Ministers were a check on the House instead of the House being a check on Ministers. The reason assigned for various Financial Committees was, that Ministers, without the sanction of a Committee, durst not propose the measures of economy which the distresses of the country imperiously called for."
But we thought that these times had passed away. The Chro- nicle affirms, that in regard to voting public money for unworthy purposes, "a great revolution has been wrought in our affairs. Here, however, the Minister gives an intelligible hint, that he knows the money ought not to be paid; but the House sanctions the payment notwithstanding; and acts no better, in fact, than the Rotten Parliaments. So much for the "great revolution in our affairs," which disposes our contemporary " to overlook the oc- casional imperfections which he thinks he sees in the proceedings both of Ministers and the Reformed ,House."
In looking through the Estimates, we strive in vain to discover the savings which have been forced on Ministers by the House of Commons. In fact, the credit of those which have been effected— as in the Printing department, for example—is due to the Go- vernment; not to what the Chronicle would have its believe to be the peculiar merit of the present House of Commons—its strict guardianship of the public purse. - Ministers, we observe. stoutly maintain, and the House of Com- mons sanctions, the principle on which Superannuations are made. Lord ALTHORP said- " There were two modes of getting rid of offices—one by death, and the other by superannuation. Where the offices were useless, he thought it better not to wait for the death of the person holding them, but to give an allowance in the way of superannuation."
This is Lord ALTHORP.S mode of relieving the public from the burden of supporting sinecurists. It never occurred to his official wisdom, that there was a third mode of effecting the same object— namely, by abolition of useless offices ; which, with Mr. HUME, we consider to be "equivalent to vacancy,"—in other words, that when an office is abolished as useless, the country should not be called upon to pension off its profitless former occupant. This at all events should be the rule ; although in some, but extremely few instances, after due investigation, it might appear equitable to de- part from it. But Mr. SPRING RICE said, "that would be a most dangerous principle." When artificers, however, are dismissed from the dockyards, and junior clerks on low salaries are turned out of public offices, this dangerous principle is the one acted upon. Precious guardians, truly, of the public purse, are this Whig Cl.ancellor and his factotum !'The men whose contributions enable Ministers to act upon their Superannuation principle, have no means of maintenance in poverty, sickness, and old age, except the hard earnings of their days of youth and vigour. They have no super- annuations to look to. The merchant, banker, shopkeeper, and all their numerous dependents, are turned upon the wide world, to struggle as they best may, whenever adverse circumstances have ruined their several callings. It galls these men to the quick to think, that they should be compelled, by those whose duty it is to protect them from such exactions, to contribute out of their poverty to the pensions of unemployed ci-devant Government offi- cials. The unanswerable question continually arises in their minds—" What is there in the nature of employment under Go vernment, which entitles its fortunate possessor to a provision for life from the public purse ?" Among the votes of money, we notice, that eight thousand pounds were granted for the Record Commissioners. This we consider an unjustifiable vote, under the circumstances of the case. Strong suspicions are abroad that this Record Commission is a vile job. Mr. Hums, indeed, asked what the Commissioners were about; he being as ignorant on that point as the rest of his fellow. subjects. Mr. RICE appears to have replied in general and most unsatisfactory terms. The " guardians of the public purse," had they done their duty, would at least have postponed this grant until some tangible evidence was adduced to prove that the money had been fairly earned. We are unable to discover what -"the Reformed House of Commons has really done to merit the encomiums on its rigid guardianship of the public purse, as contrasted with the profusion of former Parliaments, which have been so lavishly bestowed upon it. The whole management of the Miscellaneous Estimates is quite as bad as ever. They were brought forward at the fag-end of the session, and in very thin houses ; every vote which Minis- ters asked for was sanctioned; and even when, as in the ease of the Millbank Penitentiary, the salaries of certain officers were admitted by Mr. SPRING RICE to be too high, still the money was votedfor paying them. Where are we to look for evidence, in the votes and actions of a majority of the House of Commons, that they were desirous of forcing Ministers to be economical beyond their inclinations? The fact is, that the session is closing as it began, in blind subserviency to the Ministerial will.
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