fath report, refpecting the patent officers of the cuftoms, they were divided into claffes of illegal, ufelefs, thofe who exercifed their truft by deputies, and fuch as may be confolidated. To abolish thefe offices, was the intention of one of his refolutions. In the port of London there were, he faid, 61 in number, enjoying falaries to the amount of 26,000l. a year. In the outports there were 157 perfons of the fame defcription, with falaries to the amount of 40,000l. His fordship stated several abufes which exifted in thefe offices, and faid that in many cafes one perfon held two or three offices, which were intended as checks upon one another. Why the bill for the reform of patent offices had been fuffered to deep, he could not tell. In circumftances like the prefent, it was of the utmost importance to inveftigate and reform every abufe. Much reform, his lordship thought, might be made in the mint, and refpecting the crown lands. The fyftem of barracks, and the army in all its departments, his lordship confidered as proofs of the encreafed and encreafing influence of the crown. The commiffioners of accounts had reprefented the extraordinaries of the army likewife as an evil which called for remedy in the loudest terms. Minifters might fay, that in the papers on the table, there was no inftance of money loofely, extravagantly, or corruptly fquandered; but they were, in fact, fo myfterioufly drawn out, that it was impoffible to underftand them: upon the prefent fy ftem, any thing might be deemed extraordinaries. A great many fums were entered under the general title for the public fervice, and ditto ditto very frequently recur

red; the accounts, on the whole, inftead of being arranged and produced on the first day of the feffion, were obfcure and kept back till they were reluctantly torn from minifters at that late period.

Another article in the long lift of abufes was, his lordship stated, the appointment of a third fecretary of ftate. But, however minifters had neglected the fuggeftions of the committee relative to the abolition of old offices and boards, they had fcrupulously complied with their ideas refpecting new ones. Of thefe, the tranfpcrt-board, the treafury-board, and the victuallingboard, were, he conceived, useless and unneceffary; as one active man would do more bufinefs than a board. After enumerating feveral abufes, his lordfhip obferved, that time would fail him for mentioning all which had been introduced and fanctioned by the prefent adminiftration; and he was tired with infpecting the red book, that register of corruption. Yet all this had taken place under the conduct of two noble lords, who came into office abetting the principle that the influence of the crown had encreased, was encreafing, and ought to be dimi nifhed. His lordship further deprecated the patronage obtained by the India bill-that of government police in the city of Westminsterand, above all, the unlimited credit upon the bank, which, from its magnitude, was fufficient to swallow up the reft. This, his lordship obferved, had been voted to the minifter in a bill repealing a falutary ftatute of William and Mary, which restricted the credit of government upon the bank, and which would unnoticed have paffed the houfe, but for the vigilance of the earl of Lauderdale. By the repeal

of this act, the bank might stretch their credit to government at pleafure, and the minifter, without con fent of parliament, had an ample refource within his reach. His lordship profeffed that it was not his intention at that time to enter into any queftion of finance, as the papers were too voluminous to be gone through at a fitting; they opened, he faid, however, a more dreadful picture of our fituation than it was poffible almost for the imagination to conceive. The marquis concluded by moving, that, perceiving no effectual fteps taken to realize thofe measures of reform for which minifters at their entrance into office flood pledged, or those recommended by commiffioners appointed by parliament, it was neceffary to inquire into fo extraordinary an emiflion, as well as whether any new offices have been created?whether any old falaries had been encreafed on flight pretences? whether any falaries had been granted for fpecial purpofes, and continued when the reafon for them ceafed? - whether any warrant for beneficial grants had been directed? - and, on the whole, whether the public expences had encreased beyond the fupplies annually granted by parliament? His lordflip proceeded to cenfure the war as bloody and profufe beyond example, and our fituation on the whole as calling for the most accurate inveftigation; and concluded with moving for an inquiry into the feveral abufes which he had pointed out.

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Lord Grenville, in reply, faid that he never could affent to the principal points which had been adduced; fince, contrary to what had been ftated, feveral bills for reform had been brought in, and received the fanction of parliament.

Though these reforms might be thought neceflary by the commiffioners at the time, they might not, he obferved, apply to the prefent or future times. With refpect to confolidating fome of the public offices of revenue, if he was confulted, he fhould fay the plan was impracti cable, from the large encrease of the revenue; nor were there any men whofe abilities and alacrity entitled them more to public reward. As to the army extraordinaries, many regulations had been made by Mr. Burke and colonel Barré, which had afforded much falutary reform. With respect to what had been urged refpecting the myfterious mode of negotiating loans, and the lottery had been mentioned as one bad part of them, this was the first administration in which the lottery formed no part of thofe loans. It was next faid, that the unfunded debt ought to be af certained. Formerly, the navy, ordnance, and unfunded debt, ufed to lie over; but lately they had been laid upon the table of the house of commons within the year. As to patent offices, he obferved, they were held by legal tenure, and could not be withdrawn without reafonable compenfation; which would be a more confiderable expence to the public than the continuance of the patentees in office. Such as could, would be abolished on their becoming vacant; and none but one had been renewed. His lordship warmly commended minifters for the care they had taken in auditing the public accounts. With refpect to the crown lands, very much had been done by the perfon to whom they were trufted. Excepting thefe, the confolidation of the revenue boards, and the arrangements in a new coinage, recommended in the re

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ports, all the other objects had occupied the attention and been decided upon by parliament. With regard to barracks, the old fyftem allowed barracks for 20,000 men in time of peace, and the new for only 15,000. The extraordinaries of the army had occupied the attention of the committee of 1780, and they had stated that the unfunded debt fhould be afcertained when it could be done; but very frequently in war it could not, particularly in the articles of provisions and ftores; therefore a fpeedy audit of accounts, recommended by the commiffioners, was the most effential ftep that could be taken. As to the appointment of a third fecretary of state, it had been attended with great public utility, and he doubted not future advantages refulting from it! The tranfport board was, he contended, abfolutely neceffary in time of war. India he had always thought of the utmost importance; and he hoped the queftion, whether it was to be maintained or given up, would never be started. His lordfhip defended the Westminster police bill, and faid that the minifter poffeffed no power of defiring the bank to advance any fum wanted, as the governor and directors had a difcretionary power.

The earl of Lauderdale forcibly feconded the arguments of the marquis of Lanfdowne. He admitted that fome reforms had taken place in the pay-office, but faid great abufes ftill exifted. There was a claufe in a fubfequent act of parliament, that all money iffued from the treasury to the paymafter general thould be paid into the bank of England on his account: yet 600,000l. had been lately iffued by the first lord of the treafury to the paymafter of the forces, and it was treat

ed as a trivial overfight. He thought any defence of the loans lately made, a libel upon those by whom they were made. His lordfhip ridiculed the improvements faid to have taken place refpecting the unfunded debt under the prefent adminiftration. Exchequer bills had, he faid, been iffued at 5 per cent. intereft this year; and he wifhed to know how they could be fuffered to run to fuch difcredit, that twenty-five fhillings fhould be given to difcount one for five days only. If fuch improvements had taken place, the houfe fhould not have been told of 12,000,000l. of navy debt floating fince December, and extraordinaries befides to be provided to the amount of two millions for the army, and four for the navy. His lordfhip conceived the affertions made by lord Grenville, refpecting barracks, to be entirely erroneous, and contended, from the statements on the table, that the whole amount of men for whom they were erected, was more than 31,000; and exclufive of Guernsey and Jerfey, for Great Britain alone 24,000. He pointedly ridiculed the reafon given for a third fecretary of ftate, the encreafed bufinefs refulting from the war. If this axiom was adopted, the pay-office must be neglected, and the vast concerns of India, fince thefe places were held by another fecretary of state. The tranfport board was, he contended, highly expenfive, and no improvement in point of difpatch.

Lord Auckland entered into a very elaborate statement of the difference of our profperity in the years 1783 and 1795, to prove the great advantages on the fide of the latter! To evince this, his lordship produced comparative accounts of the 3 per cent. confols. and India ftock, and of the different value of

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prefsly appropriated by act of parliament. It alfo appeared that the fum of 31,0561. os. 3d. due to the general and ftaff officers for 1794, was paid out of the grants for 1796. If the neceffity for fuch a glaring violation of law exifted, minifters were bound to come to parliament for an act of indemnity as fpeedily as poffible, and to state the reafons for fuch a neceffity. On the contrary, however, how had they acted? They had endeavoured to conceal the infraction of the law by a falfe account, and thus encreased inftead of diminishing the crime. In 1711, by a refolution of the house of commons, a practice of this nature was reprobated as an invafion of the rights of the houfe; but had it been otherwife, precedent could certainly be of no avail, as the act of appropriation was irreconcileable with the authority of a practice it was exprefsly intended to prevent. Admitting even that extraordinaries were unavoidable, they were to be qualified by the degrees in which they were neceffary. Might not the minifter, with a vote of credit amounting to 2,500,000l. have made fuch an eftimate for the demands of public service as would leave little to be answered by extraordinary expences In the wide and continental war in the reign of queen Anne, and conducted by a person not diftinguished for economy, the extraordinaries fcarcely exceeded 200,000l. A perfon of high credit (Mr. Hatfell) had, in his book of precedents, obferved, that during the American war nothing could exceed the negligence of the houfe ia not limiting the fums charged as extraordinaries; and ftill higher authority cenfured the practice, namely the committee appointed to investigate the public accounts.

The practice of charging extravagant fums on this head had been alfo arraigned by the prefent minifter with the utmost severity at the end of the American war: yet his own extravagance far furpaffed that. It was faid, he observed, that money must sometimes be taken from the estimated fervices, to be applied to urgent fervices; but this juftification went only thus far, that when money was fo diverted, it was neceffary to come for. ward and apply, to the arrears incurred, the extraordinaries of the next year. In the prefent inftance, however, the deviation had not been fo far atoned for. By papers upon the table, it appeared, that to Auguft 21ft, 1796, for the quarter preceding, eight millions of the grants of the current year had been expended, and ftill thefe arrears remained due. Every argument in favour of this infraction of an act purpofely made to restrain the minifter equally applied in 1782, when the meafure was fo ftrongly condemned by him. The defence of minifters for the mifapplication of the fums appropriated by parliament, was not he faid, valid upon their own principles: he therefore fubmitted to the house fix refolutions founded upon the reafonings and facts he had already adduced. The next part of his refolutions, Mr. Grey faid, regarded the application of fums for the fervice of 1796, to the arrears of fervices in 1794 and 1795. A refolution was paffed in 1784, the fubftance of which was, "that, fhould a diffolution of parliament take place before the paffing of the act of appropriation, the houfe refolved, that any minister mifapplying the funds then granted, fhould be guilty of a high mifdemeanor." The application of the

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