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    926 THE LEADER. [No. 392, SEPTsrMPBEit 2...

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    PROGRESS OF THE INDIA.N REBELLION. From ...

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    Public Moneys. Political Effects Of The ...

    vice . The inventor , however , was for a long time debarred from employment avowedly by the routine of the Admiralty , whose engineer set his face against novelties . HN ~ ow , if the account of the public expenditure were rendered uniform , simple , and perfectly intelligible , instead of being complicated by all kinds of diversities in the different departments and utterly unintelligible , then any official auditor , any member of the Government charged with the duty of checking the

    expenditure , any select committee of the House of Commons , any Joseph Hume , would be able to lay his finger on evidences either of investment prevented , or of needless outlay continued ; and the very "body of the national expenditure would be diminished . The same principle applies to everything which is bought for the public service ; , applies , indeed , to a large part of the outlay of 600 , 000 , 0002 . annually . By degrees , also , economy would push its inquiries into

    compartments of the taxation which are now precluded from scrutiny . For example , no small proportion of the sum expended ui clothing for the army and in officers' salaries is created not only by expensive equipments , which are unnecessary , but by the customary payment , of prices that are in their nature arbitrary , fictitious . A year ' s income is expended on a suit of clothes for an officer , and no small proportion of the price is entirely gratuitous , not represented by value received . The sash , for example , to go across his

    shoulder , which may coat 4 Z . or 51 ., or more , is in reality , as almost any handloom weaver of Stockport ; could inform the Chancellor of the Exchequer , not worth , in the silk , excellent as it is , nor the work , excellent as that is > more perhaps than 25 s . or 30 s . The very first step towards saving ' some millions annually to the tax-payers of this country is the uniformity of accounts , the want of which has prevented this country , like many a country gentleman , from knowing either its income or its outlay .

    But large as that reform would be , it sinks into insignificance when we compare it to the first political consequence of the system proposed by the committee . It would naturally alter the financial relations of the Government to the Parliament and the people . At present , Government communicates " with the Parliament through the Treasury , Avhose subordinate is the Chancellor of the Exchequer . There are functionaries whose business it is

    to check the receipt , transfer , payment , and audit of the public moneys ; but of what value are they ? The business of the Controller of the Exchequer is purely routine ; ' Ministerial , ' as it is sarcastically called . The Paymaster-General is a political officer , who really does his duty by deputy ; and a largo amount of his work ia routine , much of his account being bo completely in arrears that it is a matter of history rather than business . The Audit Office also arrives at its work so

    long after date , and under such checks and control by th & superior departments—for it is inferior in grade as it is in power—that its work , too , is simply Ministerial , formal , —the labour of filling up forms and writing signatures . The Treasury , which rides over the whole of these inferior offices , is the depository alike of official patronage and of

    supremo executive power in the person of its ' First Lord . ' Hero , then , are tho means of check and account , sill under tho thumb of tho principal Executive officer of the Government , —tho man wlio communicates with Parliament , who can pay ita members with patronage , an d whoso whipper-in does exercise very persuasive influences . That is tho present state of things . The plan proposed by the select committee , of which & ir iVtANCis Thobnhii . x

    Bauik g was chairman , and Sir James Gteahaji a very active member , is entirely different . The value of the public moneys , without any confusion of account , would be paid into the Exchequer , which would be responsible for the right transfer of those moneys to the Paymaster-General . The Paymaster-General would not do his duty by deputy , would not be a political officer , but would be bound to execute the work of his

    department with strict regularity , under the check of a daily account within each department , of a monthly adjustment , a quarterly account , and a complete winding up at the end of the year . The Audit-office would have for its President a permanent Minister of the first rank ; and instead of presenting its reports to the Treasury , it would communicate direct with Parliament , laying the accounts before a select committee appointed by the Speaker . The Board of Audit would have the appointment and removal of its own officers . It would thus constitute a

    branch of the Executive to a considerable extent independent of the political Executive , and in strict relations with the Elective Chamber . The first result would be to remove from the Treasury a money responsibility which is not very compatible with its public functions ; but while the change would diminish the power of the Treasury for evil , it would unquestionably render that department much more independent of the drudgery of the executive business , much more free to shape its measures on purely political grounds , and much stronger in position , to discuss its measures on their own merits with both Houses of Parliament .

    Still we have scarcely attained the full measure of the reform . Any bill based upon the report of the committee would restore to the House of Commons a powder of which it has long been deprived ; would reconstitute it for financial purposes the'supreme inquest of the nation . Through the Select Committee appointed by the Speaker— -the Speaker himself being independent offche party—the House of Commons would recover the right of entering the offices of the Executive

    devoted to finance ; of overhauling the accounts , and checking the receipt , transfer , appropriation , and expenditure of every farthing of the public money . The office of Member of Parliament would itself be a more important trust than it now is . The Speaker would be a . more powerful functionary than the present Chairman of the Commons . The constituencies would he more careful in selecting members that might receive such independent power . The memhers themselves would more deliberately

    view the qualities of a Speaker thus enabled to select financial inquisitors to control the Executive Government . And through the House of Commons , this samo power , recovered from the portion of the Government which is more immediately under the royal and noble influence , would be restored to the great body of tho Commonwealth . It appears to us that no point in ' the People ' s Charter , ' except the extension of the suffrage to every frceborn Englishman , equalled in importance this seventh c point' constructed by the select committee .

    926 The Leader. [No. 392, Septsrmpbeit 2...

    926 THE LEADER . [ No . 392 , SEPTsrMPBEit 26 , 1857 .

    Progress Of The India.N Rebellion. From ...

    PROGRESS OF THE INDIA . N REBELLION . From Calcutta upwards the Sepoy insurrection , throwing out branches westwards and southwards , follows a curving lino to Delhi , n , distance of about thirteen hundred miles ' . Beyond that capital it had originally extended into the Punjab ; but tho Punjab lino been tranquillized , and a largo weight of troops gathered from- beyond the Sutlej must lmvo pressed hy this timo upon tho ins urgent forces

    below . If , then , we trace the struggle from its nearest point towards the sea , up the valleys of the Ganges and the Jumna , the public will be enabled to take a bird ' s-eye view of our military progress and that of the rebels . It is quite useless to write odes and palinodes ' and it is puerile to persist in carving every item of intelligence so as to fit it into ' the

    views we put forward a fortnight ago . All mere speculating , whether encouraging or gloomy , is useless . "We are calculating upon total uncertainties . Ife is as rash to declare that Imcknow must have fallen ere this , a 3 that , ere this , Delhi must have been captured . "Whatever happens , the gamblers in prophecy will deserve no credit on account of their predictions .

    The lower valley of the Ganges , when the last intelligence left Calcutta , was free from the actual presence of the rebellion . Over four hundred miles of country , as far as Patna , there were no regiments in mutiny ; but the rebellion had been brought within the limits of Bengal Proper by the neglect of the Government and the unaccountable conduct of the Brigadier-General at Dinapore and Arrah . At the latter town , after the night repulse of the little English force that had been led into ambush , were about twelve Englishmen and forty Sikhs , who defended a house against a swarm of mutineers . After

    several days of heroic resistance they were relieved by Major Eyre , who , after a long and brilliant march , came up with the enemy , defeated them , rescued the forlorn garrison at Arrah , and , to some extent , retrieved tlie fatal blunders committed at Dinapore . We may now hope that Patna has been secured against aix attack . Passing on to Dinapore it-self , we find that the English had turned the scale , for the time , against the mutineers , and were in a position of strength and safety . Nevertheless , there were the remains of four regiments in rebellion , portions of which were on tlie march towards Allahabad and

    Benares , where a plot had been discovered , and where the armed Hindoos were ready to plunge into the insurrection . " We await with anxiety the next intelligence from that quarter , especially as we are not clearly informed of Major Eyre ' s movements after his distinguished achievement at Arrah . He seems to have come down from Bnxar—on the highway guarded by Chunar — and if determined upon rendering assistance at Benares , "would have to retrace his steps in

    that direction . Beyond Benares , where Rajghat had been fortified , tho next station of importance is Allahabad , which baa escaped outrage , and where vast accumulations of military materials exist . An entrenchment had been constructed for tho defence of tho town ; stores of all kinds had been collected in abundance , and so far the lino of

    communication , if reunited between Patna and Dinapore , would bo unbroken , Further up , we come upon the traces of HateIiOCk' 9 inarch , which , not only by the Conimander-in-Ohief , but by independent military men of all ranks , is acknowledged to have been a splendid operation . His conduct may bo traduced by personal animosities , but avo shall hold him in honour xmtil all that ~\ ve have

    already heard has been discredited by irrcfutablo evidence . Whether upon a grand highway , or among tho rice-fields or tmipcswamps , by night or nfc the scorching Indian noon , Kavkt . ook , like another 11 annhsax , Icept hia column together , fought and advanced , advanced and fought , and dvavo bo Core him tho inmionsoly superior niunbora of tho enemy , l ^ ollowing him beyond ( Juwn .-\) ova , twonty-two miles distant from liiiclcaiow , -wo are lost in . an inexplicable m : i / , o of dates and rumoura . He was in l " ull niurcn for Luck now when tho sickness of hia men >

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 26, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26091857/page/14/