94 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



eluded with moving the following 

 resolutions : 



1. That it appears to this house, 

 that to commit pecuniary trusts to 

 any persons whatever, without pro- 

 viding any check upon their pro- 

 ceedings, without calling for any 

 regular or periodical accounts, and 

 without setthng, during a long 

 course of years, the mode or a- 

 mount of their renumeration, is a 

 neglect which must inevitably lead 

 to the most prejudicial consequen- 

 ces, and a violation of the most 

 essential duty of government. 



2. That such neglect and devi- 

 ation have been proved to exist, 

 and might have been attended with 

 material loss to the public. 



3. That the commissioners upon 

 Dutch property have been guilty 

 of gross misconduct in violating 

 the act under which they were ap- 

 pointed, and appropriating to their 

 own use, without authority, sums 

 for which they ought to have ac- 

 counted to the public. 



4. That the accounts of the 

 commissioners be referred to the 

 auditors of public accounts, to be 

 examined. 



5. That all consideration of the 

 remuneration to be allowed to the 

 commissioners ought to be de- 

 ferred till their accounts are finally 

 settled. 



On the question 'leing put on 

 the first resolution, Mr. H. Thorn- 

 ton felt it necessary as chairman 

 of the committee who had made 

 the report, to state that he most cor- 

 dially concurred in every part of 

 the report. The remuneration to the 

 commissioners as recommended in 

 the report by the committee was 

 now 10,000^., no very inadequate 

 compensation for the light business 

 they had to perform. But this re- 



muneration would be still farther ' 

 reduced, by the sums the commis-' 

 sioners would have to refund by an 

 act of parliament, as interest on 

 the sums kept at 'private bankers, 

 or otherwise withheld from the 

 public. The committee had stated 

 its opinion with respect to the du- 

 ty of government, which was in 

 substance precisely the same, and 

 conceived in the same words with 

 Mr. Ord's first resolution. But 

 Mr. Thornton acknowledged a 

 distinction between commission- 

 ers such as these, and a govern- 

 ment. If the commissioners neg- 

 lected the business to which they 

 were appointed, their neglect must 

 be wilful, and consequently highly 

 criminal. But the members of a 

 government had various other im- 

 portant functions to attend to. 

 Besides, successive governments 

 might not always be aware of the 

 views of their predecessors. And 

 even the secretary of the treasury 

 has so much other business to at- 

 tend to, that he might inadver- 

 tently omit some part of his duty. 

 Upon these grounds he considered 

 the neglect of the government, 

 and the neglect of the commis- 

 sioners as meriting different pro- 

 portions of blame. 



The Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer said, that when gentlemen 

 considered that it was only on the 

 2.5th of March that the report had 

 been presented to the house; that 

 some delay had taken place in the 

 printing of it; and that it it was not 

 in the hands of gentlemen until 

 within a fortnight of the time when 

 the notice was given, they would 

 not think it surprising that no mea- 

 sures had been taken by the trea- 

 sury before the notice of this mo- 

 tion. The treasury, however, had 



applied 



