On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Lord GAXTEToro is in a position of extreme fliffictiltry , no doubt . " we , as responsible journalists , abhor the practice of levelling inconsiderate attacks against public men engaged in distant and dangerous service ; but ought SJord Cainning to be Governor-General of India ? His 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 P He was thrust into first-class classicalhonours at Oxford in 1833 , not fcy force of merit , but because lie was a lord and the son of CANmira . . Notoriously , 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 ' Pirsfc . ' Thus ushered into a public career as a promising young man , Xord Cannin g ' s career
of predestination was swift and sure . He became successively Under-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 and will essential , according to the vulgar belief , to the command of States . It was not
to prove himself an able ruler , however , that Xiord Canning went out to Calcutta . But he was his father ' s son , and his father had ' almost' gone out before him . Unhappily for Iiord Canning , 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 . Vernon Smith at Cannon-row . How many weelcs is it since Mr . Mangles " became aware that Delhi was a fortified city ? When did Mr . Veiwton SmitS inform himself of the distance from Calcutta to the North-Western frontier ? The Uight 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 last ielt how great an insult and an outrage it is to permit « , languid and lisping impersonation of privileged incompetence in a situation of Buch portentous responsibility . Yet there " were some , in India , who imagined that lie might rise to the level of the crisis . They memorialized him to disarm tlio Mohammedan population of Calcutta before tho celebration of tho great festival . He said he
would ' take measures , ' and took none , until a panic had arisen—and then his tardy measures were partial . Wo have seldom had practical practical' first class public men at tho head of Indian affairs ; the Malcolms and Mktclvlfes are , of course , set nside , to act ais subordinates of noblo nondescripts ; but if , in obedience to fashion , -we entrust Lord Canning with India in times of noaco , for Heaven ' s sake lot us tave done with , this ignominious respect oi persona in a convulsion of alarm and calamity
Untitled Article
302 THE L E A PII T& . [ No . 391 , September 19 , Igsg .
Untitled Article
THE PUBLIC MONEYS REPORT . The House of Commons has by degrees lost that thorough control over the public moneys which it had once 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 the House of Commons ; the accounts are presented in form , but they are of no use , and might be nothing better than a cover for evasion . Some improvement has been effected in this branch of the subject , and has been cheerfully assisted "by the men in office ; for , as in the case of the Administrative Reform , this last suggestion of reform , the most
important since the Reform 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 , is of stuff too stout to be really destroyed even by the intrigues of party . When there is a foreigu 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 is at present powerless for any such useful purpose , except in a few of the public offices ; and tins 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 aud 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 Com originated in that species of malversation . The United Kingdom had resources which enabled it to recover ; Henry Cort 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 Tic , chap . 92 , the appropriation check , or concurrent audit of expenditure , was statutably extended to the Naval aud 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 , which present the whole subject in a confused form ; partly from the want of power in 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 tho provisions of the Act of 1846 to all tho public offices , with a number of , improvements of the greatest administrative aud political importance .
The defunct Administrative Reform Association , indeed , ' is a fool' to the Select Committeo which lias been inquiring into this subject ; and one of tho most interesting political incidents of tho day is tho fact that that Committee should originate a reform of so groat a political importance ; the more so when wo eonsidcr who were its members . Tlio chairman was Sir Fitjusrois Baring , tho member 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 G-baham , Sir G \ eob . ge G-bey , or any other men who are more at home in office than out of it . The other members were Mr . "WruiiAMS , Mr . Bowteb , Mt . Hankey ' Sir James G-baham , Iiord Stan-let Mi Hejtxey , Mr . "Welsoit , Mr . Bihoe ' the CHAKCEI . I . Ott OF THE ExCHEQUEB , Sir HjENHY WiDLOtraHBT , and Mr . Gteokge Alexander
Hamilton . The committee was appointed c to inquire into the receipt , issue , and audit of moneys in the Exchequer , the Pay Office and the Audit Department . ' It had been standing for some sessions , and was renewed on the opening of a new Parliament . 3 Let us now see what the plan of the Committee is . At present , the only expenses that can be legally paid out of the public revenues are drawbacks , bounties , repayments , and discounts j that is , positive abatements up on 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 administrative reformers in office amended that plan , and the gross revenue is now paid in . There 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 a . nd adjusting the accounts ; for example , the
account of moneys on hand is mixed up with the ' moneys on deposit' in the Pay-Office , which form no real part of the ways and means , anymore than caution money does . Every quarter , if the amount of money accruing should not he sufficient for tie 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 bills are discounted by the Bank of England , gratuitously , as a mere form ; but the very operation creates confusion . These and all similar complications the Committee propose to abolish . They recommend that the public accounts shall be kept by the 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 accounts should be squared every quarter ; and that even the civil contingencies , which a . re now suffered to run on to next year , should , by a very simple method , virtually be wound up within the year . The samo principles would be applied to the Treasury
Chest Fund , a fund employed for carrying on the public service abroad . Thus the whole mass of the gross I'evenue flowing through different channels would be exposed to viow hy one uniform method of account , the Audit searching into every department ; and thehonest appropriation of the whole would be ? distinctly perceived . , « method oi
In order to carry out this new business , the Committee propose ao ' changes in tho administrative organization-They recommend that tho paymaster-genera l should perform his duties in person ; JM " that ho should no longer be a political ofticer of tho Government removable with tho Cabinet , but a permanent officer . They recommend that tho Board of Audit should bo
strengthened , both in numbers and powers ; that the Commissioners should have the appointment or removal of all subordinates entirely within their own control ; and tliati
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 19, 1857, page 902, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2210/page/14/
-