HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



123 



Cotncnittee, which was agreed to, 

 and the committee was, with 

 some alterations, re-appointed. 



House of Commons, March 19. 

 Upon the motion of Mr. H. Mar- 

 tin, the House resolved itself into 

 a committee, to take into con- 

 sideration the third report of the 

 Committee of Finance. He said, 

 among many other observations, 

 if DO recommendations had ever 

 been offered from the throne, if 

 no pledges had ever been given 

 by that House, it was impossible 

 to look at the amount of the pub- 

 lic revenue, and at the manner in 

 which it was disposed of, and to 

 hesitate about the propriety of 

 taking effectual steps for control- 

 ling the public expenditure. 

 When it was known that the 

 whole of the burthens arising out 

 of sinecures amounted to no less 

 a sum than 1 ,500,000/. per annum, 

 could any one question the pro- 

 priety of taking such steps ? He 

 did not mean to state that the 

 whole of this expenditure should 

 be done away : it was proper to 

 make good the several sums voted 

 by parliament. Adverting to a 

 late pamphlet of Mr. George 

 Rose's, he was astonished at the 

 position therein laid down, that 

 the influence of the crown had 

 not been increased since the adop- 

 tion of Mr. Dunning's celebrated 

 resolution on that subject. Having 

 taken a comparative view of the 

 public receipts and expenditure 

 at the period when Mr. Dunning's 

 resolution was adopted, with a re- 

 port of the grants and promotions 

 which had taken place in the in- 

 terval between that period and 

 the present, he put the question, 

 if it was possible that any man of 



common sense could subscribe to 

 the opinion that such an augmen- 

 tation of revenue, and such a va- 

 riety of appointments, would not 

 operate directly to increase the in- 

 fluence of the crown ? Mr. Mar- 

 tin concluded with moving the 

 resolution, " That it was the pe- 

 culiar duty of that House to pro- 

 mote economy in the public ex- 

 penditure." — The Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer proposed an amend- 

 ment, by adding the words, " of 

 all branches of his Majesty's go- 

 vernment." The resolution was 

 then proposed from the chair, as 

 thus amended, and agreed to. — Mr. 

 Bankesthen rose to state his object 

 in brinsing forward certain resolu- 

 tions. It waste shew m what spirit 

 the House came to the discussion of 

 the subject before them, what 

 principles it meant to adopt with 

 regard to the abolition or regu- 

 lation of the offices to which 

 the resolution of the House last 

 sessions referred. He stated the 

 considerations that had induced 

 him to think that it would be the 

 best way to abolish those offices 

 altogether, and to give his Majesty 

 the power of granting pensions to 

 a limited amount, in lieu of the 

 offices abolished. Besides the sine- 

 cures there was another descrip- 

 tion of offices which demanded 

 the attention of the House, name- 

 ly, those where the emolument 

 was large beyond all proportion to 

 the duty. "These also should be 

 regulated, and an allowance made 

 in every instance proportioned to 

 the services performed. There 

 was a third class of offices, and 

 that more numerous than any of 

 the former, namely, those exe- 

 cuted by deputy. With respect 



