Mr. Dillwyn has given notice of a motion on going
into Com- mittee of Supply which goes to the heart of our recent financial chaos, and deserves the most careful and weighty discussion. He is to bring before the House the complete, and indeed confessed, inadequacy of the recent discussions of the Estimates, and to point out that no remedy is possible if the present system, which requires these discussions to go on only in a Committee of the whole House, with so few evenings to spare for the discussion, is to c )n- t: nue. Of course, he will point to the great increase of the Esti- mates, not, we suppose, as condemning it, but as suggesting that it at least needs careful censorship and justification, of which the present system does not admit. The natural remedy, he suggests,— is to let these Estimates be minutely examined by a small financial Committee, composed fairly of men of various shades of opinion who take an interest in finance, and show competence for financial criticism, so that the House may at least know what such a Com- mittee think of the various votes, and whether they justify or condemn them. We do not presume to say, till we bear the dis- cussion, that so great a change is wise. But we do say that it is in the highest degree plausible, and that the House should examine Mr. Dillwyn's suggestion with the most scrupulous care.
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