pounds, were issued by the Navy Board to for naval services, of which five thousand pounds have been repaid to the Treasurer of the Navy on the oth October 1802, and the remainder of the imprest cleared and taken off by an order from the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, seventy thousand pounds of which sum were advanced between the 4th October and 22d November. 1799, during which period your lordship presided at the Board of Admiralty; was any part of this transaction known to your lordship? A. I apprehend the transaction was known to me at the time; but I have not now a sufficient recollection to speak precisely on the subject [Signed by EARL SPENCER and by the COMMISSIONERS.] No. XXIII. THE EXAMINATION OF THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF ST. VINCENT, K. B.; TAKEN UPON OATH, THE 2D OF NOV. 1804. - Q. It appears that between the 4th October 1799 and 9th April 1801, navy bills, amounting to one hundred thousand pounds, were issued by the Navy Board to for naval services, of which five thousand pounds have been repaid to the Treasurer of the Navy on the 9th October 1802, and the remainder of the imprest cleared and taken off by an order from the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, thirty thousand pounds of which sum were advanced on the 9th Apri', 1801, at which time your lordship presided at the Board of Admiralty; was any part of this transaction known to you? A. None whatever.- Q. It appearing that the sum of fourteen thousand pounds was advanced by the Navy Board to Messrs. T. Hammersley and Company, between the 18th of February and 21st of April, 1804, for a secret service; was the Comptroller of the Navy authorized by you to perform any secret service for which this money was advanced, or had you any knowledge of the transaction A. He was not; nor have I any knowledge of the transaction.[Signed by EARL ST. VINCENT and by the COMMISSIONERS.] REFORM OF FINANCIAL ABUSES. SIR, The Commons House of Parliament have expressed so honorable a determination, by their late conduct, to fulfil their duty to the public as guardians of the public purse, it is to be hoped that they will sift from the bottom the whole system of our finances. They can turn to no side but sufficient cause exists for their investigation, The method of stating the public accounts is a circumstance particularly deserving of their attention. I will defy, Sir, any man, however conversant he may be with ac counts, to say that the statement of the pub ic accounts as annually laid before parliament, in 8 papers, is such a statement as conveys an intelligible history of the reve nue of the country, from the period of its payment by the subject, to the period of its repayment by the government. How therefore can what is unintelligible be fair or secure from fraud in a matter where every thing should be fully explained and open to the capacity of every one? If you take any branch of revenue in No. 1, of the public annual accounts, you may find the total receipt of that branch, but if you endeavour to ascertain by whom it was received, and who are responsible for that receipt, your labour will be in vain. In the customs you may find that coffee paid so much, and tobacco paid so much; but this is of very little satisfaction to a member of the legislature who wishes and should know who received so much. Why should not the account state what each collector received, and the man. ner in which each collector applied what be received? The Commissioners of Customs will answer as they do to us: our accountant and comptroller-general are men of such unimpeachab'e character that parliament may confide in any abstract of an account which they may sign." I maintain, Sir, that parliament neglect their duty if they depend upon any man's character where such dependance may be avoided, by giving the clerks of the Custom-house a little mote trouble, and by a very trilling additional expense in the item of printing for parliament -Why should not the same system of keeping accounts.be adopted for the public, as is made use of universally by merchants? The universality of its adoption, is proof of its superiority-it may give some more trouble, and it may speak too much truth, and there may have been hitherto good reasons against it; but the time is now arrived when such reasons cannot hold. The public must have fair dealing, and they will have it. Let every man who receives money from the subject be obliged to keep a debior and creditor account with the state. And let every man's account be laid before parliament, so that the application of every thing of the subject's money may be seen and no longer hid in obscurity: Look at the sums annually paid for incidents, char ges of management, in anticipation of the revenue, for stationary, for coals and can far dles, for ministers' messengers; the whole system forms such a labyrinth, that it is beyond the reach of any individual member to produce an explication of it. He may move for the particulars of accounts, and under the present system of keeping them, the proper officer will always be able to provide a very satisfactory one; he may even detect fraud, but these will be easily convertible into clerical errors; but of what use is it to say more in proof of the inadequacy of the system on which the public accounts are kept, after what has so lately come to light? Is it possible, that any clerk in a regular mercantile house could have embezzled and made use of the funds of it without detectin, to the degree in which Mr Trotter has embezzled the public money? It certainly must be admitted that even the existing method of stating the public accounts is much more fair, than the method in use previous to the suggestions of Mr. Abbot having been complied with. But if Mr. Abbot was acquainted with the perfection, of the Italian system of book-keeping his patriotic spirit. would induce him to patronise it, as being equally well adapted to public as to private accounts. The carrying of it into effect would, in fact, be attended with infinitely less difficulties, than is experienced by many merchants in London, the whole accounts being confined to one description, namely, the cash account. The government should be charged as debtor for every farthing the subject pays, and should be made a creditor for every sum it legally pays; this account might be composed of abstracts of the re-. ceipts of the different branches of the revenue, and of the expenditure of the different departments; but each head so abstracted should refer to some page in the ledger, in which every item of which it is composed might be read. If folios are printed by parliament to enumerate the heroic fêtes of a governor-general of Bengal, why should not one folio be printed in a session to give the people an idea of what is going forward at home? This subject, Mr. Cobbett, should occupy the early attention of the legislature. I do not propose it to embarrass the government, but solely with a view of serving the public. If the government adopt my recommendation they will prove their intentions to be honest, and if those who compose, in parliament the opposition to the government, do not improve the method of stating the public accounts, their labor may be for the moment of great utility, but will not secure the purse of the nation from fature peculators.-I am, yours, &c.-VEBA.-April, 11, 1805. SOMERSET-HOUSE ECONOMY. SIK, I lately troubled you with an account of some of the ruinous hardships, sustained by West Indian proprietors (p. 417 of this vol.), and among other topics, I adverted to the extreme depression, which the price of rum had lately suffered, and to the indecent conduct of the victualling office in advertising for rum, or brandy, (in the alternative) when spirits were wanted for the navy. Much of the saccharine matter of the sugar-cane, as you very well know, is not sufficiently rich, to be capable of being converted into sugar. This, therefore, (except the very small portion of it, which can be disposed of in the form of molasses) must either be distilled into rum, or be altogether wasted. By the laws for regulating the intercourse between our islands in the WestIndies and the United States of America, the export of rum from the former to the latter is impeded most distressfully to the English planters; (and I may add most unwisely, but I shall not for the present enlarge on this latter subject). Under these impediments, surely the least that the planter can expect, is that every encouragement should be given to the consumption in the parent country of this article, which, by an injudicious application of the principles of the navigation laws, he is prevented from sending to its natural market. While the number of the Register, in which you inserted my observations on this head, was in the piess (March 22d), the victualling office was making a contract for 200,000 gallons of spirits. The spirits supplied to the navy are, you know, Sir, exempt from duty; so that the West Indian proprietor has in this competition no compensation whatever for the expensive transport of his rum, the high freight, insurance, and other charges attend. ing a voyage across the Atlantic: "he, therefore, never can enter into this competition on an equal footing with the importers of hostile spirits-the brandies of France and Spain. Accordingly, Sir, brandies were on this late occasion offered to the victualling officers of the navy at, I understand, 3s. Id. per gal. while rums could not be afforded for less than 3s. 2 d. And (will it be credited) while our enemies exclude us from nine-tenths of the ports of Europe-while they confiscate every ounce of our colonial produce, and every package of our domestic manufactures, on which they can lay their hands-will it be credited, that, in order to save the sum of 1,4581. 13s. 4d. (for that the exact calculator will find to be the gain upon this notable sample of enlightened parsimony), the contract has been made in the produce of our enemies, while that of our own subjects is doomed to remain in the warehouses of the importers. To any man accustomed to contemplate a national plan of sincere national economy, this must appear a gross, absurd, inconsi tent mockery: but by those, who are acquainted with the system of naval administration, develloped by the late reports-of securing the spiggot, while the liquor runs out at the bung-of straining at goats, and swallowing (no offence to Sir Home Pophain) swallowing cables-of sending back the holder of a bill for 191. 10s. without his money, while an upper clerk is gambling with millions of the public treasure-by those initiated into these mysteries, Sir, the sacrifice of the interests of our own colonies, of our own commercial navy as employed to bring home colonial produce, and the encouragement of the productions of our enemies, in order to effect a saving of 1,458l. 13s. 4d., will be seen to be perfectly in order, consistent, and of a piece.It seems not unlikely, that parliament will think some parts of our naval economy worthy its notice; and if so, I hope that branch, to which I have here called attention, will not be neglected. If the Victualling Office should be permitted to buy the spirits produced by our enemies in any case, (the propriety of which I think bighly questionable,) at least such purchases should be prohibited, whenever the price of rum does not exceed that of brandy, by a sum more than sufficient to give the West-Indian planter a liberal compensation for the cost of his longer voyage, dearer freight, insurance, ullage, and cost of casks.-X. X-London, April 2, 1805. Erratum in X. X's. former letter p. 419, 1. 30, for 1001. per cwt. read 100l. per cent. your AFFAIRS OF INDIA. SIR,-Allow me to trouble you with a few lines, in addition to my last letter, on the affairs of India.I am told, that I have misled you in two very material points. That the debts of India, which I state at thirty millions, are only twenty, as allowed by Mr. Francis, and that the revenues of India are above thirteen millions, instead of ten, the sum I give credit for.I shall be rejoiced if it turns out that I am indeed mistaken; for if there is an actual revenue in India of thirteen millions, a debt of twenty-one, even of thirty millions, may be paid off in a very few years - -But, Sir, I understand the revenues of India to be the sum received in one year, from the land, &c. from subsidies with foreign princes, and from the sale of exports. These various heads produce, as I think, ten millions. I do not call money borrowed, in any one year, or bills granted on England for money borrowed, a part of the revenues, though it will be part of the receipts of a year.--With respect to the debts of India, I meant to include all that is owing, in bond, certificate, or postponed payments, and from the information that I have received, I think the whole debt must, at this moment, be thirty millions sterling. I do not believe it was the wish of Lord Melville, while he was the minister of India, to with-hold any informa tion from parliament, and, I think, Lord Castlereagh is equally anxious to give the fullest information.--But, Sir, no man can look at the accounts presented last year, without discovering, in one moment, to what the vast increase of debt in ten years has been owing. The expenses of India, in 1793-4, were six millions one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds. They have progressively increased since 1793, and for the three last years they have been above ten millions each year. In these ten years, we have conquered Mysore, and we have a subsidy from the Nizam, and we have obtained cessions of territory from the Mahrattas.If, therefore, the establishment of 1793-4 was necessary, the additions which have been made to it since that period, are also necessary. I humbly contend, that the establishment of 1793-4 was higher than necessity required, and would now be sufficiently large. If so, Lord Cornwallis will be able to reduce the public expenses above four millions a year.--I am sorry to say, however, that my opinion is by no means the general opinion. I have often heard it said, that we ought at least to have twenty-tive thousand British troops in India, in addition to an army of above one hundred thousand native troops, that we have in India at this moment. Can the population of England afford the men? Will the revenues of India pay such an army? Impossible.--The prosperity of the East-India Company, and of England as connected with it, demands therefore, that in future the expenses of India shall be four millions less than its annual revenues, which will be the case if Lord Cornwallis can reduce the establishments to the amount at which they stood when he quitted the government of Bengal.ASIATICUS.--12th April, 1805. Printed by Cox and Baylis, No. 75, Great Queen Street, and published by R. Bagshaw, Bow-Street, Covent Garden, where former Numbers may be had; sold also by J. Budd, Crown and Mitre, Pall-Mall VOL. VII. No. 17.] LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1805. [PRICE 10D. "I know the ministers" [Messrs. PITT and DUNDAS] "will think it little less than an acquittal, that they are not charged with having taken to themselves some part of the money, of which they have made so liberal " à donation to their partisans, though the charge may be indisputably fixed upon the corruption of their "politics. For my part, I follow their crimes to that point to which legal presumptions and natural in"dications lead me, without considering what species of evil motives tends most to aggravate or to ex"tenuate the guilt of their conduct. But, if I am to speak my private sentiments, I think, that, in a "thousand cases for one, it would be far less mischievous to the public, and full as little dishonourable to "themselves, to be polluted with direct bribery, than thus to become a standing auxiliary, to the usury and "peculation of multitudes, in order to obtain a corrupt support to their power. It is by bribing, not so "often by being bribed, that wicked politicians bring ruin on mankind.”- -BURKE. Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts, 28th Feb. 1805. See his Works, Vol. IV. p. 314. 60g] SUMMARY OF POLITICS. MEETINGS OF THE PEOPLE. —- Under the above general head. several subjects, which were, and which still are, entitled to particular attention, would have been noticed within the last three or four weeks, had not the delinquency of the second person in the king's ministry rendered, for the time, every other subject comparatively unimportant. The conduct and the apparent views of the powers of the Continent; the critical situation of affairs in the East-Indies; the dangers to which our colonies in the West-Indies have become exposed, through the negligence or the ignorance and imbecility of those, whose duty it was to provide against the attempts, recently made by the enemy in that quarter; the distracted state of Ireland, and the imminent peril to the whole empire from the possible, and even the probable, effects of the discontents there prevailing these are all subjects, which require only to be named to command the most serious attention. Look which way we will, the eye is sure to light upon some circumstance of menacing aspect. But, as the mariner, on whose parclied and quivering lips death is contending with life, is totally unaffected by those conflicts of the elements, which, while he was in health, were wont to strike terror to his heart; so the people of England, smarting under the injuries which they have experienced, and do get experience, from those whose duty it was to watch over and protect their persons and their property, appear to be, as well might he expected, quite insensible to the dangers that threaten them from without. They were chearfully making sacrifices of every sort; zealously exerting themselves in every way, for the defence of their country, and the preservation of their government; but, in the midst of those sacrifices and exertions, circumstances arise, facts come to light, which lead them to doubt, not only whether their exertions will be useless, as to the producing of any good, but, whether [610 they may not produce evil, by prolonging the duration of that system of corruption, the secret springs of which have now been. exposed, and the tendency of which ob viously is the total annihilation of that throne and of those liberties, which it is the bounded duty as well as the anxious desire of the people to preserve. That such a doubt, and at such a time, is most dangerous no one will, I think, deny; and that it exists must be evident to all those who have either eyes or ears; for, the effect produced by the discoveries of the TENTH REPORT is seen in every countenance, and heard from every mouth. Reproach people with forgetting the dan gers to be apprehended from invasion, and they instantly remind you, that, if their earnings are to be taken from them and heaped upon upstarts, instead of being applied to the exigencies of the state; if the money they are compelled to pay in taxes is to be used for the advantage of those who handle it, and in defiance of all law; and, if, when men are accused, and are proved to be guilty, of misapplying the public money, those men find, even in the ministers themselves, advocates to palliate, not to say justify, their conduct: if such be our situation, say the people, it behoves us, before we think any more about the dangers of invasion, to ascertain whether this our internal situation is to be changed; to ascertain whether, in defending the country, we are really defending and protecting any body but the Melvilles, the Troiters, &c. &c. This is the language, not only of the hearts, but of the mouths of the people; and, that, at a moment so perilous, such a doubt should have been started must be matter of deep regret with every man who is anxious for the welfare of his country. But, it his beed started; the acknowledged delinquency, the clearly proved malversation of some men high in office, and the endeavours made by others to screen them, have excited this dangerous doubt in the minds of the pea in a temper of soberness, in a spirit of patriotism and loyalty. There has been nothing violent in any quarter; but, there has been, and there is, in every part of the kingdom, more firmness than, perhaps, ever was visible upon any former occasion. We hear, in fact, and His Majesty and the Parliament will soon hear, the unanimous voice of a loyal and dutiful people, but, of a people who deeply feel their injuries, and who are resolved to use all lawful and constitutional means in order to obtain redress. These are the proceedings, with respect to which the minister's paper, the SUN, has made the following remarks: "Such a conduct "is exactly conformable to the furious spirit "of the French Reformers. What a melan"choly reflection must it be to every man ple; and, whatever may be the hopes of impu-, dence and of hypocrisy, rendered confident by long uninterrupted success, till this doubt shall receive, in the measures of the legis lative and executive branches of the government, an unequivocal and satisfactory solu tion, the people will feel perfectly indifferent as to the dangers to be apprehended from without. Their attachment, not to the King and his royal house; not to the parliament; not to the Constitution; but, ge. nerally and indiscriminately, to all public institutions and all public persons, their attachment has received a rude and sudden shock. Their minds are troubled with doubts they are unsettled: they know not what to think of any body or of any thing and, if we look back but a very little way into history, we shall find, that the maxim of St. Francis will apply to politics as well as to theology, namely, that "when "the Devil finds a man without a creed, "he has always one ready to furnish him "with." To restore the public mind, therefore, to a settled state; to restore the government, not the ministry, for that were a trifle, but the whole government, to the confidence of the people, the correction of abuses, the detection of peculation, and the punishment of peculators, must proceed, till there be a real reform, till real redress be afforded. The ministerial prints, all of which, be it well remembered, insisted, previous to the decision of the House of Commons on the 8th instant, that both Lord Melville and Mr. Trotter were perfectly innocent, and which stigmatised all the publications against those persons, the report of the Commissioners not excepted, as gross libels; these hirelings of corrup tion are now endeavouring to represent the MEETINGS OF THE PEOPLE, and the proceedings in those meetings, as factious, and even as jacobinical! They have not, as yet, declared them to be absolutely seditious ; but, it would not be very wonderful if they were to declare them so in a very little time, and, accordingly, to recommend the suspension of the Ilabeas Corpus Act. The Common Hall of the City of London, whose resolutions will be found at length in a subsequent page of this sheet, was the most orderly and most respectable, as well as the most numerously attended, of any Com-vereign and their country. Yes, the enemy mon Hall that has been assembled for many years. Nothing of a factious spirit has any where made its appearance. No noise, no unruly behaviour; none of that "clamour "out of doors," that Mr. Pitt thought pro: per to talk of. Every requisition; every resolution and petition, has beea conceived who feels as Englishmen should feel, that "so much acrimony and party-violence "should exist while the enemy is at the door. "To that enemy such bitter and disgraceful "animosity must afford encouragement, and "induce him to think that he will find an "easy prey in people so much divided among "themselves." These writers always take care to close with a falsehood. The people are not "divided amongst themselves." The people are unanimous. Witness the Common Hall, where persons of any rank in the City of London, from journeymen thoemakers to Aldermen and members of parliament were assembled. If, therefore, the enemy looks at the people now, he will find them firmly united, and that, too, against the enemy's best friends, the peculators, the betrayers of the public trust, the wasters of the public treasure, the corrupt hypocrites, who, under professions of purity, have, for so many years, in conjunction with contractors, jobbers, and Jews, been squeezing out the resources of the country, and adding to that immense national debt, which the uninister, long before these peculations were discovered, denominated "the "best ally of France." So far, therefore, from affording the enemy encouragement by their present proceedings, the people will damp his hopes, especially if they succeed, and it were almost treason to suppose that they will not, in obtaining complete redress, and just punishment upon those, who have so long abused the confidence of their So is at the door: granted, though this same Pitt newspaper assured us, not a month ago, that all danger from invasion was now over. Granted that he is at the door; but, bad he got in; were he landed in Kent, there would be no reason why the people should not proceed in their constitutional |