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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 266: REJECTION OF LORD SHELBURNE’S MOTION FOR A COMMISSION OF ACCOUNTS.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

REJECTION OF LORD SHELBURNE’S MOTION FOR A COMMISSION OF ACCOUNTS.

On the same day that Burke gave notice of his plan of economical reform, the Earl of Shelburne gave notice that he would, after the Christmas recess, move for a commission of accounts. In accordance with this professed intention, on the 8th of February the noble earl, therefore, moved for the appointment of a committee, to consist of members of both houses, possessing neither employments nor pensions, to examine the public expenditure and the mode of accounting for the same, and especially to inquire into the manner of making all contracts; and at the same time to take into consideration, what saving could be made, consistent with public dignity, justice, and gratitude, by an abolition of old and newly created offices, etc. In support of his motion the Earl of Shelburne exposed the profusion pervading all branches of government, and declared that his main object was to destroy that undue influence which pervaded both houses of parliament. The motion was seconded by the Earl of Coventry, who described the country as being in very reduced circumstances: rents were fallen, he said, the value of land was sinking, and farmers were on the high road to ruin. The Duke of Grafton and the Marquess of Rockingham followed on the same side; the latter declaring that a system had been established at the accession of his present majesty, for governing the kingdom under the forms of law, but really to the immediate influence of the crown, which was the origin of all our national misfortunes. The motion was opposed by Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and Lords Mansfield and Chesterfield, with other peers, who urged that the motion was a violation of the inherent, exclusive privilege of the other house to control the public expenditure. When put to the vote it was lost by a majority of a hundred and one against fifty-five.