Mr. Baringrequested to be informed of the circumstances under 166 which Mr. Vincent, after the death of the late deputy remembrancer, Mr. Steele, had been appointed to this office.
The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, that Mr. Vincent's appointment was temporary. The law which came into operation at the death of Mr. Steele, did not provide for the abolition of the office of deputy remembrancer, or fix the manner in which the duties of that office should henceforward be performed. It only required that, whenever that event took place, the lords of the Treasury should determine what should be the future duties of the office, and what should be the extent of the emolument arising from it. The lords of the Treasury, accordingly, upon the death of Mr. Steele, lost no time in calling upon the barons of the Exchequer and on the chancellor of the Exchequer, to report to them as to the nature of the office; but the fact was, that the duties of it, from the nature and constitution of the Exchequer, were absolutely necessary to be continued until some new system could be arranged; and it was not very easy to decide by what system the business would be best done, and with least expense to the public. Pending this inquiry, however, Mr. Vincent had been appointed. He was required himself to perform the duties of the place, and allowed no deputy; and he was directed to receive the accustomed fees for the present, not keeping them for himself, but paying them into the consolidated fund; the lords of the Treasury of course reserving to themselves the power of giving him an adequate compensation for his labour. For himself, he was most anxious to regulate the office in that way which should be most conducive to the public service; and, whatever difficulty there might be in determining the precise mode in which the necessary duties should be executed, there could be no doubt they would be performed at a considerably less expense than they had been heretofore.
Mr. Baringprofessed himself satisfied with the explanation, and trusted that the new arrangement would amount to a complete remodelling of the Exchequer. It was high time that the country should get rid of a system of keeping accounts so cumbrous and so inefficient, that it might almost disgrace a tribe of Indian savages.