Mr. Herries, before going into Committee wished to call the attention of the noble Lord to a point connected with the new financial system which he proposed to introduce. The votes now to be passed were, to extend to the 31st of March, 1833, being four quarters. One quarter for this year had been already voted, making five quarters' supply; and, as there was one quarter's supply left in the Treasury from the grant of last year, over and above what was expended for the year, six quarters' supply would be actually placed at the disposal of the Treasury.
§ Lord Althorpsaid, it was true, that the 330 votes passed in the year ending the 5th of January had hitherto been actually applied to carry on the service to April, but, though, they had been granted for that quarter, they were not legally applicable to its expenses. The Ministers, therefore, had thought it necessary to come to the House to vote a supply for the first quarter separately, intending afterwards to come for a vote for the year commencing the 1st of April, 1832, and ending the 31st of March 1833. The financial year being thus altered, the irregularity which had hitherto occurred, of applying to the first quarter of a year, part of the money which had been voted by Parliament specifically for the expenses of the preceding year, would be avoided. Such being the case, he did not see how the right hon. Gentleman could assert that six quarters' supply had been placed at the disposal of the Government.
§ The House resolved itself into a Committee.