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    303 THE Ii E A3) E E,. [No. 391, Septemb...

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    Viscount Canning. The Indian Intelligenc...

    [ Lord X / AJsnsfHsa is m a position , of extreme difficulty , no doubt . "We , tis responsible journalists , abhor the practice of levelling inconsiderate attacks against public men engaged in distant and dangerous service ; "but ought Lord Canning to be Governor- General of India ? Sis appointment was obtained by personal favour , and , since it became an arduous post , he has ( all letters and all voices assure us ) broken down . We are told © f his brilliant antecedents in England .

    What were they ? He was thrust into first-class classical honours at Oxford in 1833 , not by force of merit , but because he was a lord and the son of Cantstiito . Notorious ^ -, he was considered not up to the mark , but then it was urged that he was too good , a ' Second' ( for a lord ) not to be allowed a ' First . ' Thus ushered into a public career as a promising young man , IJord Cannin g ' s career

    of predestination was swift and sure . He became successively Uuder-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs , and Postmaster-General , and the world has not heard that he displayed any qualifications worth speaking of . A . polished , graceful , accomplished nobleman he is , of course , but without a suspicion , of administrative ability or of the vigour of mind aud will essential , according to the vulgar belief , to the command of States . It was not

    to prove himself an able ruler , however , that I / ord Can ^ idtg went out to Calcutta . But he was his father ' s son , and his father had ' almost' gone out before him . Unhappily for Iiord 0 annino-, his lease has not expired in the midst of tranquillity . He might have reigned in vice-regal opulence for six quiet years if there had been nothing to be done but' taking measures' in red-tape ; but for an emergency , an

    imperial crisis ., a tremendous conflict with legions of infuriated military rebels , a more incompetent lay-figure could not have been picked out of the House of Peers . The climax of incapacity is reached when we find Lord Canning- at Calcutta , Mr . Mangles in Leadenhall-street , Mr . Verkon Smith at Cannon-row , How many weeks is it since Mr . Mangles became aware that Delhi was

    a fortified city ? When did Mr . "Vezrnon Smith inform himself of the distance from Calcutta to the North-Western froixtier ? The Right Honourable President of the Board of Control is simply an exhausted receiver of official and accidental information , and Lord Canning little more than the elegant recipient of a gigantic salary . The noble lord himself , we dare say , was in happy ignorance when the mutiny broke out , how far it was from Government-house to ' the gates of Cawnpore . The Anglo-Indian community was alarmed when news of the Delhi massacre reached

    Calcutta ; but it was dismayed when the reflection followed that Lord Cannin g was to be entrusted with the work of suppression and pacification . It was at hast felt how . great an insult and an outrage it is to permit a languid and lisping impersonation of privileged incompetence in . a situation of such portentous responsibility . Yet there were some , in India , who imagined that he might rise to the level of the crisis . They memorialized him to disarm the Mohammedan population of Calcutta before the

    celebration of the great festival . He said he would ' take measures , ' and took none , until a panic had arisen—and then his tardy measures were partial . We have soldom had practical practical' first class' public men at the head of Indian affairs ; the Malcolms and Mictcaxites are , of course , set aside , to neb as subordinates of noblo nondescripts ; but if , in obedience to fashion , wo entrust Lord Canning with India in times of peace , lor Hcavon ' s snko let us lxave done with this ignominious respect ot jorBons in a convulsion of alarm and calamity ,

    THE PUBLIC MONEYS REPORT . The House of Commons has by degrees lost that thorough control over the public moneys which it had oiice established , and which the Crown has from time immemorial been constantly endeavouring to defeat . In our own day the struggle has not continued , because the Crown has so greatly the advantage , and also , we frankly confess , because the Crown and its Ministers do not court struggles with the popular assembly . The Ministers manage

    their objects in a different way . It is , indeed , a popular delusion that the House of Commons regulates the expenditure ; but the mistake has scarcely any foundation in fact . There is no account ever presented to tlie House of Commons ; the accounts are presented in form , but they are of no use , and might he nothing better than a cover for evasion . Some improvement has been effected in this branch of the subject , and has been , cheerfully assisted t > y the naen in office ; for , as in the case of the Administrative Eeform-, this last suggestion of reform , the most

    important since the Eeform Bill of 1832 , originated with men of the official classes ; and the fact confirms the general impression , that , however party feeling may divide ushowever the habits of class life may modify the national character—that character , after all , ia of stuff too stout to be really destroyed even by the intrigues of party . When there is a foreign war , all classes rally to the support of the Minister ; and a political reform , almost as complete as universal suffrage , originates in the class to which the old Parliamentary Lords and Baronets belong .

    A department exists for the very purpose of revising the accounts before the presentation to Parliament , but that department ia at preaerrfc powerless for any such useful purpose , except in a few of the public offices ; and this improvement is recent . The audit of expenditure was first applied to the grants for the naval services in 1832 , circumstances having conspired to excite great jealousy respecting our naval expenditure and the appropriation of the services . The reader will

    remember the monstrous misappropriation , amounting in some cases to embezzlement , by public offices in the naval department . The defrauding of Henry Cobt originated in that species of malversation . The United Kingdom had resources which enabled it to recover ; Henry Cout commanded no such resources , and ' the public' never feels compelled to do justice to individuals if the wrong has been of long standing . By the Act 9 and 10 Vic , chap . 92 , the appropriation

    check , or concurrent audit of expenditure , was atatutably extended to the Naval and Military expenditure , to the Woods and Forests , and to the Public "Works . The check , however , is still very imperfect , partly from , the bad manner of keeping the accounts , wliich present the whole subject in a confused form ; partly from the want of power

    m the Audit Office ; and not a little from the fact that the civil servants in the Audit Office , as in all others , are not taught to consider their promotion dependent on fulfilling their duties . An attempt has now been made to extend the provisions of the Act of 1846 to all the public offices , with a number of improvements of the greatest administrative aud political importance .

    The defunct Administrative Reform Association , indeed , 'is n fool' to tho Select Committoo which has been inquiring into this subject ; nnd one of tho most interesting political incidents of tho day is tho fact that that Committee should originate a reform of so great a political importance ; tho ntoro bo when wo consider who woro its members . Tho chairman was Sir li ka . nois Baring , the raombor for Portsmouth , long connected with

    the executive departments , a gentleman of very high character , but by the public usually considered to belong to the same class with Sir James Geaha . m , Sir Geoegke G-rey or any other men who are more at home in office than out of it . The other members TOJe Mr . Wii / mams , Mr . Bowyee , Mv .- Ka . skei Sir James G-eaham , ILord Stanley Mr ' Henley , Mr . "Wilsof , Mr . Eliice' the

    Chanceieob of the Exchequer , Sir Hekut Wiilottghby , and Mr . G-eorge Alexander Hamilton . The committee was appointed ' to inquire into the receipt , issue , and audit of moneys in the Exchequer , the Pay OJG . ce and the Audit Department . ' It had been standing for some sessions , and was renewe d on the opening of a new Parliament . Let us now see what , the plan of the Committee is

    At present , the only expenses t hat can be legally paid out of the public re venues are drawbacks , bounties , repayments , and discounts ; that is , positive abatements upon the payment of the money as it is handed in by the tax-payer . Recently departments paid their own expenses , and accounted for them , only handing the net revenue into the Exchequer ; but the admiuistrative reformers in

    office amended that plan , and the gross revenue is now paid in . jThere are exceptions ; for example , the land revenue of the Crown is not paid in on that principle . There are also very serious confusions in the manner of squaring and adjusting the accounts ; for example , the aceouut of moneys on hand is mixed up "with the ' moneys on deposit' in the Pay-OISce , which form no real part of the ways and means , any more than caution money does .

    Every quarter , if the amount of money aceruing should not be sufficient for the current expenditure , the Chancellor of the Exchequer winds up by issuing what he calls deficiency bills ; and this is done notwithstanding the fact that the revenue is known to be coming in quite in time to meet the liabilities theoretically accruing in the same quarter . The hills are discounted by the Bank of England , gratuitously , as a jnere form ; but the very operation creates confusion . These and all similar complications the

    Committee propose to abolish . They recommend that the puhlic accounts shall be kept by tho . commercial system of double entry , in a uniform method , ¦ throughout all the public departments . They advise that the payments authorized by the Paymaster should be checked in each department every day ; that the accounts of every department should be adjusted monthly ; that the public aceounts should be squared every quarter ; and that even the civil contingencies , -which

    aro now suffered to ran on to next year , should , by a very simple method , virtually bo wound up within the year . Tho same principles would be applied to tho Treasury Chest Fund , a fund employed for carrying on the public service abroad . Thus the whole mass of tho gross revenue flowing through different channels would be exposed to viewby one uniform method of account , the Audit searching into every department ; nnd the honest appropriation of tho whole would ho distinctlperceived ,

    y . , Iii order to carry out this now method ot business , tho Committee propose s <» no changes in tho administrative organization . They recommend that the paymaster-goni- 'ral should perform his dutios in person ; »» d that ho should no longer bo a political oHiccr of tho Government removable with tho Cabinet , hut a permanent ofUeor- They m'Oininond that tho Board of Audit almuM uo i

    strengthened , both in number * nnd po ^ ' -s ; that fclio Commisniouers HhouM have blu ? appointmoiifc or removal of all flnbonlma -esi entirely within their own control ; aud tlia

    303 The Ii E A3) E E,. [No. 391, Septemb...

    303 THE Ii E A 3 ) E E ,. [ No . 391 , September lft , 186 * .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 19, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19091857/page/14/