2 10 LON 
cold fingers on Mr. Windham’s plan, It was producing 
at the rate of 24,000 men a-year, inftead of the >3,000 
fince produced by lord Caftlereagh’s.—The bill was then 
read a fecond time, and afterwards finally paffed, 
0 >n the ift of May, Mr. Ord rofe, in the lioufe of com¬ 
mons, to call the attention of the houfe to the fourth re¬ 
port of the committee of public expenditure ; and ftated, 
that commiffioners had been appointed in 1795 to manage 
and difpofe of the cargoes of Dutch fhips detained or 
brought in, in order to prevent thofe cargoes from being 
greatly injured, or totally deftroyed. They had general 
inftruftions as to the conduft of their tranfaftions from 
the lords of the privy-council, requiring them to make 
minutes of all their proceedings, and to keep their ac¬ 
counts in fuch form as the lords of the treafury fiiould 
$ 3 ireft and approve; and, in cafe of points of any diffi¬ 
culty occurring, they were to refer to the committee of the 
privy-council for inftruftions. Thefe commiffioners were 
five in number—James Crawford, John Breckwood, Allen 
Chatfield, Alexander Baxter, and John Bowles 1 a mem¬ 
ber of the fociety for the fupprejjion of vice, or rather, as 
appeared from the report, of pilfering from the public. 
Their Tales ceafed, and their tranfaftions were brought 
nearly to a clofe, in 1799. As no fixed remuneration had 
been aiTigned to the commiffioners, thefe gentlemen re¬ 
solved to remunerate themfelves, and charged a commif- 
fion of 5 per cent, on the grofs proceeds of their fales ; 
which commitllori, in the four fil'd years, amounted in all 
to 8o,oool. No regular accounts were furnithed to go¬ 
vernment ; and, criminal as this was in the commiffioners, 
Mr. Ord could not help faying, that the government was 
far more criminal in not calling for them. Only one ac¬ 
count was rendered to the privy-council, and in this it 
was remarkable that no mention was made of commiffion, 
which omiffion, the committee obferved, might lead the 
privy-council to imagine that no commiffion was charged, 
although, at that time, 25,000!. had aftually been divided. 
This was a molt extraordinary thing, Mr. Ord obferved, 
confidering the noife which Mr. John Bowles had made 
about falfe returns to the property-tax. It would be cu¬ 
rious to know what returns John himfelf had made to the 
property-tax at the time he was receiving this large profit 
from his labour. The aft authorizing the appointment 
©f thefe commiffioners required, that the proceeds of the 
fales fhould be paid into the bank of England : but, in¬ 
ftead of this, the commiffioners had opened accounts with 
private bankers ; and, inftead of applying the balances in 
their hands, during the years that preceded the comple¬ 
tion of the fales, in a way that might render them pro- 
duftive to the public, had employed them in difcounting 
private bills for their own emolument. If thefe balances 
had been veiled in exchequer-bills, between 40 and 50,0001. 
would have been faved to the public. The next point in 
the mifconduft of the commiffioners to which Mr. Ord 
adverted was, that, by the commiffion at 5 per cent, on 
the grofs proceeds, by brokerage and intereft on the ba¬ 
lances, it appeared, the commiffioners had taken for their 
labours the enormous fum of 133,198!. being at the rate 
©f 26,0001. for each commillioner. Mr. Ord farther pointed 
out a circumltance which feemed to have efcaped the at¬ 
tention of the committee; namely, that the commiffioners 
appeared to have charged the 5 per cent, commillion on 
the property which had been managed and fold by the 
Eaft-India company, in the management of which they 
had been, at no trouble whatever ; fo that, in point of 
faft, a commiffion of ia per cent, had been paid on much 
the largeft proportion of this property, inafmuch as the 
Eaft-India company had alfo a commillion of 5 per cent, 
on their fales. Some of the commiffioners were themfelves 
merchants; and tnuft have known that the higheft com¬ 
miffion among merchants, on the grofs proceeds, is 2! 
per cent. What are the real fervices of thefe commiffioners ? 
Their fales had been finilhed in four years and a half from 
thejfime of their appointment, and the important part of 
iheir labours had qx courle then cjofed. Though they 
DON. 
were retained nominally, as a law-fuit had commenced hi 
their names, in point of faft, during the ten years th» 
commiffion lafted after the completion of the bufinefs, the 
gentlemen found time enough to do a great deal of other 
bufinefs. John Bowles had been aftive in feveral elec¬ 
tions which had fince taken place, and had time befideS 
to write about thirty pamphlets about religion, morality., 
loyalty, and the duty of contributing faithfully and ac¬ 
curately to the property-tax. The employment of fuch 
men was a bounty on roguery, and an encouragement of 
abufes. Negligence in the feleftion of proper agents, and 
a profligate profufion in the public expenditure, had ever 
been the peculiar charafteriftic of the adminiltration under 
which thefe commiffioners had been appointed. 
Mr. Ord concluded with moving the following refoln- 
tions : 1. That it appears to this houfe, that to commit 
pecuniary trufts to any perfons whatever, without pro¬ 
viding any check upon their proceedings, without calling 
for any regular or periodical accounts, and without fet¬ 
tling, during a long courfe of years, the mode or amount 
of their remuneration, is a negleft which muft inevitably 
lead to the moft prejudicial confequences, and a violation 
of the inoft effential duty of government. 2. That fucli 
negleft and deviation have been proved to exift. 3. That 
the commiffioners upon Dutch property have been guilty 
of grofs mifconduft in violating the aft under which they 
were appointed, and appropriating to their own ufe, with¬ 
out authority, 1'ums for which they ought to have ac¬ 
counted to the public. 4. That the accounts of the com¬ 
miffioners be referred to the auditors of public accounts, 
to be examined. 5. That all confideration of the remune¬ 
ration to be allowed to the commiflioners ought to be de¬ 
ferred till their accounts are finally fettled. 
This gave occafion to feveral fpeeches in which Mr.Bowles 
was often held up to ridicule, contempt, and deteftation.— 
Mr. Hulkiffion endeavoured to defend the treafury; but 
neither Mr. Hufkiffon nor any one elfe attempted to de¬ 
fend the conduft of the Dutch commiflioners.—Mr. Henry 
Thornton, in order to obviate fome objections to the refo- 
lutions moved by Mr. Ord, propofed to confolidate them 
into one, and in fuch terms as fhould meet with general 
approbation. The refolution which he intended to fubfti- 
tute for the whole five was as follow's : “ That the com¬ 
miffioners appointed in the year 3795 for the difpofal of 
captured Dutch property, taking advantage of the negiePi 
of the government to enquire into their proceedings, have, 
without authority, appropriated to their own ufe large 
and unreafonable profits ; that they have privately taken 
intereft on large balances of money, which ought to have 
been lodged in the bank of England ; that they have re¬ 
frained from giving correct and explicit information re- 
fpefting the intereft fo taken to the committee appointed 
for inquiring into the public expenditure ; and that they 
had been guilty of a great violation of public duty.”—* 
This refolution was adopted, after fubftituting the word 
omiffion for negleft. 
Many other abufes and frauds of a moft extraordinary 
and fhameful kind were detailed during this feffion, arising 
from the reports of the commiffioners of naval reVHion 
and of military inquiry. But, as thefe arofe chiefly, like 
thofe we have noticed already, from the neglePl or omiffion 
of the msniftry in examining accounts, (fome of which 
appear to have been unaudited for feven-and-tvventy years,), 
the motions for inquiry were either negatived, or got rid 
of by the previous queftion. 
On the 12th of May, the houfe having refolved itftelf 
into a committee of ways and means, the fubjeft of the 
lottery, as one item of thofe ways and means, was brought 
up, and amply difcufled.—Mr. Whitbread thought it one 
of the world modes that couLd be reforted to. How many 
were the evils which lotteries occafioned ! what wretch- 
ednefs, defperation, and filicide ! He was aftonifhed that 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a devout man, and of 
Correft manners, fhould patronife fuch a meafure. 
The Chancellor of the Exchequer hud, it would be for- 
