GENERAL HISTORY. 



[71 



had been made, and it was the 

 duty of government that the refu- 

 tation should be as public as the 

 imputation ; and nothing could 

 clear the honour of the country 

 unless it were ample and satisfac- 

 torj'. As to the objection that had 

 been urged of the impolicy of such 

 disclosures as the production of the 

 papers would lead to, he wished 

 for none that would unnecessarily 

 affect the interests either of coun- 

 tries or individuals : and he was 

 willing to narrow his motion in 

 any waj" that would enable him to 

 obtain the specific information he 

 desired. 



The house then divided on the 

 motion : contents, 27 ; non-con- 

 tents, 73 : majority, 46. 



No further proceedings on this 

 subject took place in the House 

 of Commons during the present 

 session. 



Another attempt to lessen the 

 national expenditure, though of 

 small magnitude in its object, and 

 unsuccessful, deserves notice on 

 account of the doctrine held on 

 the occasion in the House of Com- 

 mons. 



On May 7th, Mr. Creevey rose 

 to call the attention of the house to 

 the two tellerships of the exche- 

 quer held by the Marquis of Buck- 

 ingham and Lord Camden. It was 

 his intention to consider this as a 

 mere question of private property 

 between those individuals and the 

 public. The places had been given 

 as rewards for the services of the 

 fathers of these noblemen, and he 

 did not mean to find fault with 

 their distribution ; but his objec- 

 tions were that their emoluments 

 •were indefinite in their amount, 

 and disproportioned to the circum- 

 stance* of the nation. The fees 



of these offices were of such a na* 

 ture that they rose exactly in pro- 

 portion to the distresses of the 

 country. From the report of the 

 commissioners of public accounts 

 it appeared that in 1782, when 

 they were granted, which was a 

 time of peace, they did not exceed 

 2,500/. per annum, which sum, 

 during the American war, was in- 

 creased to 7,000/. In 1808, such 

 had been the public expenditure 

 that the tellership had risen to 

 23,000/. per annum each, and there 

 was no doubt that the emolument 

 must now be considerably more. 

 This was a much greater sum than 

 had been granted as rewards for 

 all the splendid military services 

 that had been performed for the 

 country ; and he could not bring 

 himself to acknowledge the right 

 of these two noblemen to derive 

 such enormous emoluments from 

 the public calamities. He would 

 deny the principle so often con- 

 tended for in that house, that a 

 grant of an office bj' the crown 

 was as sacred as any ancient grant 

 of an estate, and could not be 

 touched by parliament. When the 

 crown formerly made grants of 

 lands, or even of taxes, out of its 

 hereditary revenue, it granted its 

 own property ; but now that the 

 whole public expenditure was 

 under the control of parliament, 

 he conceived that the crown could 

 not make a grant which was not 

 under the same control. The 

 honourable gentleman then read 

 extracts from the report of the 

 commissioners of public accounts 

 in 1782, which went to the asser- 

 tion of the right of control above 

 mentioned ; and he gave instances 

 of the present actual interference 

 of parliament in the fees of the 



teliert 



