with the reform of abuses, 
accounts bkefore the auditors. 
i HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
expect that any errors or malversa- 
ions would be detected by the 
New examination to which those 
accounts were proposed to be. sub- 
jected. He argued more suc- 
wessitily, because on better grounds, 
that the cause of this enormous 
accumulation of  inaudited ac- 
counts arose from the imperfection 
of the provisions for compeiling 
public accountants to produce their 
The 
new establishments he opposed with 
‘great violence, alledging that they 
were useless and unnecessary, and 
created for the sake of patronage 
alone. The public, however, dif- 
fered materially in this opinion from 
Mr. Rose. No measures of the 
‘treasury gave greater satisfaction 
during this session of parliament 
than those for expediting and se- 
_ cuing the regular settlement of the 
public accounts. Nor was ever 
surprise more general or more une- 
quivocally expressed, than when 
the negligence of the late adiminis- 
tration upon this subject was first 
made known to the house ef com- 
mons. 
The attention of parliament, 
during the present session, was cali. 
ed to another subject, connected 
arising 
out of the first report of the com- 
missioners of military enquiry, ap- 
‘ pointed in Mr. Pitt’s last adminis- 
tration. It appeared from the report 
ef these commissioners, that licut. 
general de Laucey, late barrack 
‘master general, who filled that office 
from 1793 to 1804, had been accus- 
_tomed, in making up his accounts 
with the public, to take credit to 
himself for one per ceat on the 
whole expenditure of the barrack 
department, under 
eontingencies fur additional charge 
the title of, 
79 
and responsibility upon unsettled ac- 
counts ; itappeared also that hehad 
charged the public twice in one year 
with his pay and allowances ; from 
the whole of which it followed, 
that, supposing his accounts, not 
yet audited, to be iv other respects 
correct, but subducting these 
charges, which on no account could 
be allowed, he was indebted to the 
public in the sum of 97,415 7. 
intead of 6865 /. which was the ba- 
lance he acknowledged to be due by, - 
him. The report containing these 
statements was laid before the house 
on the 2ist of March, and ordered 
to be printed; but no further 
notice was taken of it till the Sth 
ot May, when lord»Henry Petty, 
referring to it, assured the house, 
that not only would the suggestions 
contained in that report with res. 
pect to the mode of auditing the bar- 
rack accounts, be attended to, in 
the genéyal measure then under 
consideration for improving the 
mode of auditing the public accounts, 
but that immediate steps would be 
taken by government for recovering 
the balance that appeared to be 
due by the late barrack master 
general. Mr. Robson, whe seems 
.to have been absent from the house, 
when this declaration was made by 
the chancellor of the exchequer, 
brought forward the s ubject a 
second time on the 16th of May, 
and added that many other abuses 
existed in the barrack department, 
@% which he galled the attention of 
the house. He accordingly made a 
variety. of motions, ow that and 
subsequent occasions, for the pro. 
duction of papers connected with 
the barrack expenditure, some of 
which were granted, and others re- 
fused, on the ground that the ex. 
pence and trouble of preparing them 
would 
