Admiral Markham had declared that two thirds of the money granted by parliament would pay all the expences of the navy, and yet as much as ever was taken this year. This was absolutely laughing at the people. How long, he would ask, were these things to last?

Mr. Robson next moved: "That there be laid before the house, a return of the sales which have taken place at the several temporary barracks or buildings, rented or hired by government, and used as barracks, or as barrack storehouses, in the whole of G. Britain. That the said return do embrace all such sales of the description aforesaid, that have been made between the 1st of Jan. 1793, and the 24th June, 1806; and that it be exhibited in nine

Mr. Robson said, he was aware that grant ing motions for papers was attended with some expence, but all he had hitherto moved for, were comprised in two sheets and a half, and therefore he could not be much reproached on that head at present. He assured the house, and the right hon. secretary, he was sincere in his intention to proceed into the inquiry, and would be ready to begin to-morrow, for the more he looked into it, the more he saw it was an absolute refinement on peculation, and could not be stopped too speedily; and he wished only that he had one of those peculators before an honest jury. The report of the military board he looked upon as a hash, seasoned up with the account of the one per cent. charged by General Delancey, by way of shewing they had noticed some-columns in the order, and with the titles thing at the outset; but they had begun at wrong end. Instead of going back 13 years, so far as the year 1793, they should have begun with the present abuses. If they had begun right, a report would now have been before the house, by which half a million might have been saved; and he was determined, the system of plunder which had been so long carried on, should not continue. Every hour that was lost, was an injustice, and an injury to the public. He warned the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whom he now saw in his place, against neglecting to go into an immediate and bona fide inquiry, observing, that if he did so, he would have.to answer to him in the next session for the loss of half a

the

million of the public money. He had heard much of the talents of this broad bottomed administration. He wished to God he could persuade them to give up some of their enormous pensions and sine cure places, and thus bring their talents of gold and their talents of silver into the service of the public. Let them do this, and then he would allow them to talk of their sincerity. If ministers neglected enquiry, he would tell them, they had not a leg to stand on. They might, perhaps, go on for a year or two, but it was impossible they should last longer. If economy was not the order of the day, how long did ministers think that the country could go on? Would not extravagance force the people to accept an insecure peace, which they did not wish for at present? What the public wanted was economy, and a strict inquiry into the public expenditure; and covered as they were with taxes, how was it possible for them to have an opinion of that administration that did not follow up inquiry?

following. viz;-1. The name of the parish (or station) and the county where each sale respectively was made; the said names of the parishes (or stations) following each other in due alphabetical order. 2. The date of the sale. 3. The name of the auc tioneer, or person by whom the sale was made, and if the sale was a private one, stating that circumstance. 4. The names of the purchasers, if less than six in number. 5. A general description of the things sold. 6. The name of the barrack master, or other person, under whose immediate direction and superintendance the sale took place. 7. The gross amount of the sale, as credited to government. 8. The total amount of all sums expended by government in fitting up each building res pectively. 9. The number of men or horses usually quartered in each building respectively."

Mr. Secretary Windham observed, that ministers were placed in a disagreeable situation by the hon. gent.'s motions, since he seemed to consider persons who might on any account object to them as wishing to protect abuses and peculations. But it must be from the most gratuitous love of abuse, if ministers could object to the discovery of abuses which took place under their predecessors. In this observation, however, he could not include himself, for the present motion had some reference to him in an antecedent state. Here he could not but remark the inconsistency of the hon. gent. He had complained that all the work of the commissioners of enquiry had been retrospective, and had considered that as a most absurd way of proceeding, while he wanted to provide against present

and future abuses. He had also dwelt on the expence of the Barrack Department; and yet, notwithstanding all this, he now proposed to go into a detail of all that had happened for the last 13 years, which must necessarily be attended with great expence, and would require the employment of additional clerks. Now, the proper question was, would the motion, if agreed to, produce any thing adequate to the expence and inconvenience it would occasion? All the items of an auctioneer's paper, pots, pans, kettles, trenchers, and wooden bowls, were to be made up and laid before the house, and many other things of which it was probable no record or vestige now remained. The hon. gent. brought forth his motions as a sort of nostrum or recipe, which was to cure existing abuses all at once: and, indeed, if he could produce some little scheme of accounts of that kind, he would do great service to the country. He had taken a very wide compass, and laid a broad basis; but his objections to his motions arose from their probable inefficiency, and he would not be terrified from opposing the present, by the reproach of a wish to screen peculators. But he believed it would be a warning to the house to be cautious in assenting, not to judicious and necessary motions, but to such as would be tedious, troublesome, and expensive, without producing any adequate advantage. Mr. T. Jones said, he had no wish to give any opposition or annoyance to his majesty's ministers. He had every wish to respect their talents, to give them credit for the best intentions, and to be convinced it was by no means their wish knowingly to countenance or to screen wanion extravagance or peculation: but really and truly, the system of peculation of late years, in Sir William Elford, with every respect the department alluded to by his hon. friend for the hon. member, observed, that if he (Mr. Robson) was so glaring, so horrid, had been the first to discover the peculaand abominable, that he must say his hon. tion of which he now complained, and had friend was justified in pressing his motion, come down to the house and founded upon with a view to establish some effectual and his discovery a motion of enquiry, undoubtpermanent check upon this glaring system edly he would have deserved much populaof flagitious peculation. His majesty's pre-rity for his exertion. But, as this was not sent ministers had succeeded to power with the wishes and the warm approbation of the people, and certainly had shewn every disposition to follow up enquiry into public abuses, and to render the public force formidable for the defence of the country against a ferocious enemy: but he could assure those ministers, with every deference for their talents, that, without economy in the expenditure of the public money, with

out the most rigorous vigilance in the disbursement of every pourd for the public service, it would be in vain that they possessed talents; it would be in vain that they rendered formidable their armies or their fleets, with a view to our permanent safety. Economy in public, and in private life, under the peculiar circumstances to which this country was now reduced, he considered as the cardinal virtue upon which turned all our hopes of ultimately surmounting the dangers and embarrasments in which we were involved: it was to our want of this, that our ferocious enemy looked with eager hopes of his ultimate success in subduing us, more than to any opinion of our want of a formidable force, and a military spirit of resistance. But, from the nature of some expenditures of late, it would seem as if his majesty's ministers had believed that a guinea was really worth more than twenty-one shillings: however, he could assure them, nothing but the most strict economy and vigilance of the public expenditure would do. He thought it odd, that when a proposition was made with a view to investigate defalcations and peculations in another department, which was a perfect mine of peculation, it should be resisted on the ground that it would cause an extra expence in clerks, pens, ink, and paper. The objection to the expence of these accounts, he thought came with a bad grace from the ministers so soon after the Auditors bill which entailed great expences on the public, for little more than nominal appointments. He wished to see the system of economy general. It was equally advantageous in public as in private concerns. Give us, said he, but economy, and a fig for Buonaparte!

the case, as the house had already taken up the subject under the general head of military expenditures, and as the commissioners appointed by the house had been actually for a year past occupied in the investigation, the hon. gent. in every endeavour to add to his own popularity on this head, sought to detract from the merit of the commissioners, and of the house, by whom they were instituted, as well as very

bill unpaid by government. That motion, which was then refused by ministers, had done great good: it had given rise to the commission of naval enquiry, and this motion which he now had the honour of seconding, and which too was scouted by ministers, he would venture to say, would also be attended with great benefit to the public.-The question was then put and the motion agreed to.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

Tuesday, July 22.

considerably and unnecessarily to increase, friend (Mr. Robson) relative to the 191. 10s. that expenditure of public money for which he professed so much of vigilant concern. Mr. Robson contended, that the same abuses were still going on in the same manner as before, and as it seemed the commissioners could not conclude their inquiries for three or four years, he would ask, was he, as a member of parliament, to sit still all that time, and not attempt to check them? There should be in the Barrack Office, a regular account of the sale of all the articles, the names of the items, and the amount of what they respectively sold for; and it did not appear that the commissioners had called for it. There was a clause in the act, that the commissioners need not, unless they saw reason for it, inquire into any former abuses which did not still subsist, and thus the abuses escaped under this masking clause. The right hon. gent. (Mr. Windham) had talked to him of nostrums; all the nostrums he wanted, was to probe peculation to the quick, and to apply to it such a remedy as should cure it for the future. All he wished for was inquiry; but he found by the papers already presented, that the repetition of dittos, in many places were substituted for descriptions, as if there was a scarcity of pens, ink, and paper, in the office.

Lord H. Petty said, he had hitherto been extremely unwilling to resist any of the motions made by the hon. gent. for the papers he required on this subject, or to withhold any information which the hon. gent. or the house should think necessary; but really the document for which he now moved was of a nature so very complicated and impracticable, on a range of 13 years, as well as utterly useless towards the professed and leading object of the hon. gent. that he was inclined to oppose this motion, seeing it to be of no practical use. If the hon. gent. had any objection to the mode of inquiry by commissioners, already adopted by the house, and before whom the subject of Barracks was laid, as well as all other branches of the military expenditure, he ought to have come down to the house, and moved for a repeal of the bill under which those commissioners were appointed, in order to substitute any other plan of inquiry he should think more eligible. For his own part, he should in future be more averse to the granting of such general and expensive motions.

Mr. T. Jones said, that he had had the honour of seconding the motion of his hon.

[MINUTES] The royal assent was given by commission to the Consolidated Fund bill, the Lottery bill, the Royal Family Annuities bill, earl Nelson's Annuity bill, lord Rodney's Annuity bill, the Auditor's bill, the Warehousing bill, the Irish Postage bill, the Stage Coach bill, the Woods and Forests Regulation bill, the Windsor Forest bill, the London Additional Force Repeal bill, the Militia Officers Pay bill, the Public Harbours bill, the Irish Hops bill, the Bankrupt Laws bill, and some other public and private bills. The commissioners were the lord Chancellor, earl Spencer, and lord Walsingham. The Customs Regulation bill, the Oak Bark bill, the Scotch Forfeited Estates bill, were read a third time, and passed.-In the appeal Henderson v. Ramsey,' judgment was given, on the motion of the lord Chancellor, affirming the decree of the court of session.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Tuesday, July 22.

[MINUTES.] According to summons, delivered by the deputy gentleman usher of the black rod, the house proceeded to the house of Peers, and, on its return, the Speaker stated that the royal assent had been given by commission to several public and private bills.-On the motion of Mr. Hobhouse, a new writ was ordered for the borough of Bodmin in Cornwall, in room of John Serjeant, esq. who has accepted the office of the steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.--A message from the Lords announced their lordships assent to the Crown Leases bill, the Customs Regulation bill, the Scotch Exchequer Chambers bill, the Scotch Forfeited Estates bill, the Scotch Canal bill, the Public Harbours Preservation bill, the Grenada Loan bill, and the Oak Bark bill.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

Wednesday, July 23.

[MINUTES.] The House met about three o'clock.-Mr. Johnson, from the office of the chief secretary for Ireland, presented the third report of the commissioners of Inquiry in Ireland; which was ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed. The house was adjourned during pleasure, to robe.

"His majesty, being always anxious for the restoration of peace on just and honourable terms, is engaged in discussions with a [THE KING'S SPEECH] About a quar-view to the accomplishment of this most ter past three, the Lord Chancellor, earl desirable end. Their success must depend Fitzwilliani, and earl Spencer, took their on a corresponding disposition on the part seats in their robes, as his majesty's com- of the enemy, and in every event his mamissioners. Mr. Quarme, the deputy usher jesty looks with the fullest confidence to of the black rod, was sent to the House of the continuance of that union and public Commons, to require their attendance. spirit among all ranks of his people, which can alone give energy to war and security to peace."

The Lord Chancellor then, in his majesty's name, delivered the following speech:

"My Lords and Gentlemen,

"His majesty has commanded us to acquaint you, that the state of the public business enables his majesty to close this session of parliament.-We are, at the same time, directed to express to you the great satisfaction which his majesty has derived from your unremitting zeal and diligence, and from that attention to the most important interests of his empire, which has been so conspicuously manifested in all your proceedings.-The measures which have been adopted for the permanent improvement of the various branches of our military system, your attention to combine these arrangements with the great objects of public economy, and the regulations which you have established for the speedy and effectual audit of the public accounts, call for his majesty's particular acknowledgments.

His majesty's commission for proroguing the parliament was then read at the table, the same noble lords sitting as commissioners. After which,

The Lord Chancellor said:

My Lords, and Gentlemen,

By virtue of his majesty's commision under the great seal, to us and other lords directed, and now read, we do, in his majesty's name, and in obedience to his com mands, prorogue this parliament to Thursday, the 28th day of August next, to be then here holden, and this parliament is accordingly prorogued to Thursday the 28th day of August next."-The speaker and the commons withdrew from the bar, and the lords commissioners retired from the house.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Wednesday, July 23.

[MINUTES.] About half past three, Mr. Quarme, the deputy usher of the black rod, entered, and summoned the house to the house of peers, to hear the royal commission read for passing bills, and proroguing the parliament. The Speaker, with the whole of the members present, went up accordingly to the house of lords, and on his return, calling the members

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons, "We have it in command from his majesty to thank you for the provision which you have made for the exigencies of the public service, particularly by raising within the year so very large a proportion of the necessary supplies; a measure in itself highly advantageous, and which must create, both at home and abroad, the most favourable impression of our national re-round the table, read to them a copy of the sources, and of the spirit which animates the British people. You may be assured that the utmost attention shall be paid to the frugal administration of those supplies

King's Speech; after which the members separated. Thus ended the fourth session of the second parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

LIST OF PUBLIC ACTS

Passed in the Fourth Session of the Second Parliament of the United Kingdom of Gree Britain and Ireland, and in the 46th Year of the Reign of his present Majesty, George III. with the Date of their meeting the Royal Assent.

ture of preliminary articles of peace, vessels CHAP. 1. An act to empower the Audi-employed in the Greenland Whale Fishery tor of the Exchequer to constitute a trustee to complete their full number of men at for the execution of the said office in the certain ports. case therein mentioned.

2. An act for continuing and granting to his majesty certain duties upon Malt in Great Britain, for the service of the year

3. An act for continuing and granting to his majesty a duty on Pensions, Offices, and Personal Estates, in England; and certain duties on Sugar, Malt, Tobacco, and Snuff, in Great Britain, for the service of the year 1806.