Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/70

which had been committed, in the first place to the mistaken policy of Lord North, and in the second place to his reckless administration. He then proceeded to work out the latter topic in detail, using the papers which he had recently purchased at the sale of Mr. West, late Secretary of the Treasury, and pointing out how, especially in the Admiralty and War Office, there was no real system of account. Those offices drew on the Treasury to any amount they pleased; warrants were struck in consequence of their requisitions; but when the Treasury asked for vouchers for the expenditure of the money, the answer was that they had not come to hand; the consequence being that accounts in some cases were fifteen or twenty years behindhand. The supplies were perpetually exceeded; supplementary estimates containing gross accounts were then presented, and the money was voted without anybody being informed how it had been expended. Certain flagrant cases however had recently come to light, notwithstanding the efforts of Ministers to suppress them. The contractors were known who by their corrupt influence in Parliament were a curse to the country, and had amassed immense private fortunes by public rapine and plunder. There was Mr. Stuart who had cleared £70,000 by contracting for a supply of beads, tomahawks, and scalping knives for the Indians; there was Mr. Atkinson who had taken a liquor contract at exactly double the price which it cost him. In connection with these contracts new places had been invented: for example, there was now a Taster of Rum with a salary; and £40,000 had been paid to a superintendent at Cork, for doing nothing except the duty belonging to the merchant contractor himself. These facts were notorious; although Lord North had succeeded in so composing the Committee of the House of Commons which examined into them, that their inquiries had led to nothing. To remedy these enormous evils he wished to have a Commission of Accounts instituted, similar to those which had existed from the Revolution to the year 1715. Parliament would then know that the money which it had voted and ap-