—Lord H. Petty rose pursuant to his notice, to move for certain accounts of the public income in Scotland, and of certain grants out of that income. The reason of his making these motions was, that as there was an acknowledged necessity of inquiring as much as possible into every abuse in every department of the government, those papers seemed to him well worthy of the attention of the house, as connected with that object. He stated, that it had been the practice in Scotland, originating at the union, to draw money, by anticipation, out of the hands of the receiver-general of Scotland, by the authority of warrants from the barons of the exchequer in that country, signed by some of the lords of the treasury here. This mode of drawing the money, which had been originally designed as a security against abuse, seemed, however, to have bean lately made the means of it. From 1783 to 1790, on an average, 186,000l. a year had been drawn in this way; from 1790 to 1797, it had increased to 223,000l. according to the report of the committee of finance. That committee had suggested the propriety of limiting this issue, sis there was no certainty that the revenue from which it was taken could be counted upon for any certain product while it was liable to be so drawn upon without any regular account. The practice, however, had been suffered to continue, and the mischief of it may be conceived from one instance; the grant of 1500l. a year to lord Melville annexed to his office of lord privy seal for Scotland. This grant he considered a violation of the appropriation act, of the act respecting the revenue of Scotland also, and of Mr. Burke's act restricting the crown from granting pensions above 1200l. without the consent of parliament, for this grant was 1500l. If this grant had been directly made as an addition to the salary of the first lord of the admiralty it would not have been for life. If it was intended as a grant for life, the proper mode would have been, an application to parliament, stating lord Melville's merits as the grounds on which the claim was made. The noble lord concluded with moving, "that there be laid before the house an account of all monies paid under warrants of the barons of exchequer in Scotland, directed to the receivers of the customs and excise in that country, stating the persons to whom such grants were made, and the purposes for which, from 1797 down to the latest period they were made." This ac- 542 count was ordered, with some others of the same nature. The noble lord then moved for an account of another grant to lord Melville, of the arrears of the stewardship of Fife. This was necessary, as there was a report that the grant had been made in a surreptitious manner, and not on ground satisfactory to the lords of the treasury when it came afterwards to be considered.
§ Mr. Bond—It is true my name appears upon the warrant; and I subscribed it without any hesitation, upon the authority of what appears at the beginning of that document, that the business was done with the concurrence of the barons of the exchequer in Scotland. I certainly take no blame to myself in the affair, since it was done with their acknowledged advice and approbation. But I think it due to this house, and to the public, on the present occasion, to advance one step farther. It was not known to me, nor, I believe, to any of my colleagues who signed the instrument, that it had reference to arrears to an amount of any consideration, Some small sum, we thought, might be comprised under that head, but that it should cover an item exceeding 3000l. I believe none of us entertained the most remote idea.—This account was also ordered.