§ Mr. Parnell, in requesting the Chancellor of the Exchequer to give to the House some explanation of the motives which had led to the arrangemet by which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to hold the office of Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, did not intend to express an opinion against it. He should wait to form his opinion upon the explanation that might be given. He could not help, however, viewing it with some suspicion, because it seemed to be altogether inconsistent with that principle, which ought to govern the finances of Ireland; the principle of a superintending control of a board of treasury. It had been an object for many years in the Irish parliament to acquire such a control. The Bill which established it was termed the Responsibility Bill, a name implying that so long as the management of the finances was in the hands of the lord lieutenant, there was no adequate responsibility.—Now, this proceeding of making the lord lieutenant's secretary Chancellor of the Exchequer, looked very like a recurrence to the old system; and as if it was intended to put aside the board of treasury. If this was the case, it would be as well to say so, and then the public might be saved the expence of paying salaries to a number of useless lords of the treasury. As the chief secretary for Ireland was in that capacity subordinate to the lord lieutenant, and would be in the capacity of Chancellor of the Exchequer, subordinate to the right hon. gent. opposite, (Mr. Perceval) from his being first lord of the Irish treasury; the question to which he more immediately required an answer was this; whether the communications that would hereafter be made to the several boards of Commissioners in Ireland employed in the collection of the Revenue, would be made in the name of the lord lieutenant, or in the name of the treasury, and with the concurrence of the right hon. gent? The answer to this question would decide whether or not the finances of Ireland were to 761 be under the constitutional and proper control of aboard of treasury. If it should turn out that every thing was to be done in the name of the lord lieutenant, then he should say that the arrangement was in every respect one that ought never to have been made; because, as far as he was acquainted with the deficiency of the Irish revenue, and could form an opinion as to the remedy of the great abuses in respect to it, he was sure, that so far from taking away the whole control of the treasury the measure which of all others was most wanting was the rendering of that control mote effectual, and more predominant. For this reason, he would rather have wished the office of Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, if to be joined with any other, to be consolidated with that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer of England, because such an arrangement would take the control of the finances of Ireland wholly out of the hands of the lord lieutenant, and contribute very essentially to deprive him of that influence, to the improper exercise of which was to be attributed almost all the abuses which so generally existed in Ireland in respect to the collection of the revenue.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reply, said, he, did not well know how to answer the question of the hon. member. He did not see why the duties of the respective offices might not be discharged in the same manner as they had hitherto been, though held by one person. Whatever business belonged to the office of Chief Secretary would be done just as if the Chief Secretary was not Chancellor of the Exchequer, and whatever belonged to the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer would be done as if the Chancellor of the Exchequer was not Chief secretary The arrangement was merely an experiment, which need not be persevered in if it was not found to succeed. For his own part, he could not understand what was meant by a control of a board of treasury over the executive government.
§ Mr. Parnellwas glad to find the measure was merely an experiment, because he was sure, after what had fallen from the right hon. gent. that it was an impolitic one, inasmuch as the constitutional control of a board of treasury over the finances of Ireland was to be set aside. Such a control over the lord lieutenant was absolutely necessary; because it was the influence and patronage which the lord lieutenant derived from the revenue department that 762 was the cause of all the abuses which prevailed in the collection of the Irish revenue.