1000l. a year appears to be sufficient. The office of Lord Justice-General. Your committee recommend, that after the termination of the existing interest in this office, the President of the Court of Sessions, for the time being, should assume the title, rank, and privileges of Lord JusticeGeneral, and that the salary now annexed to this office should be discontinued. Keeper of the Signet.-All the duties of this office may be annexed to that of Lord Register, and the fees should be carried to the public account; and with respect to the office of Lord Register, a fixed salary of 1500l. a year appears to be an adequate provision. Knight Marshal.-The office to be retained, but the salary discontinued. Vice Admiral.-Ditto. Governor and other offices in the Mint may be abolished. The buildings of the Mint in Scotland should be disposed of in such manner as may appear to the Lords of the Treasury most advantageous to the crown. Receiver-General of Bishops' Rents. Auditor of Exchequer. Assistant Surveyor General of Taxes. Comptroller-General of Cus toms. These offices may be abolished. The Cashier and Receiver-General of Excise-Your committee cannot too strongly express their opinion that this office ought to be executed in person; and even taking into consideration the amount of the security required, which is stated to be 30,000l. they are of opinion that a salary of 1000l. a year would be ample to insure the regular attendance of a responsible person competent to give security to that amount. Three old Inspectors of Wheelcarriages, Gazette Writer, and Inspector-General of Roads, are offices to be abolished; the last being added to this list as included in the army estimates. IRELAND. Clerk of the Pells. The necessary duties attached to these offices must continue to be performed; but the salary and emoluments now receivable by the principals should become, as in the English Exchequer, a saving to the public. Keeper of the Privy Seal. This office is now held for life; but it should, after the termination of the existing interest, be granted during pleasure only, and always annexed to the office of Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant. Surveyor-General of Crown Lands. Keeper of Records, Birmingham Tower. Keeper of the Records of Parliament. Clerk of the Paper-office. These officers have charge of public documents, which may be transferred to the building which has been constructed for the custody of the public records of Ireland; and the several appointments above enumerated may be abolished. Accountant to the Board of General Officers. Secretary Secretary to the Board of Gene- to the bill of 1813, in the Cusral Officers. Corrector and Supervisor of his Compiler of the Dublin Gazette. nors. Accountant-General (an office paid from the civil list.) Supervisor of Accounts, Barrack Department. Barrack Master of the Royal Barracks. These offices may be abolished, or if in any instance they have powers or functions attached to them which it is necessary to retain, they may be transferred to other effective offices, without any addition whatever to their emoluments: as the transfer cannot impose any additional labour or responsibility. toms and Excise departments of the revenue, the duties of which were not performed in person. Your committee have learnt with satisfaction, that to any of these offices which have become vacant since the passing of that bill by the House, no appointment has been made by the Irish government; and that the salaries attached to them have been saved, by removing the individuals holding them to other effective offices. They therefore have only to express their opinion that such of the offices enumerated in the table as yet remain, should be abolished as opportunities occur, and to recommend generally that the duties of all offices, of whatever description, connected with the collection and receipt of the public revenue, should be performed in Constable of the Castle of Li- person, by those who hold them, merick. Ditto, Dublin. Ditto, Castlemain. The salary payable to these offi cers out of the civil list should at reasonable rates of salary. ENGLAND. of the Crown. become a saving to the public. Offices in Courts of Law in the Gift The offices may, if necessary, be retained without salary. Clerk of the Council. Muster-master-General (held by two persons). Pratique Master of the port of Dublin. Storekeeper of the Customs. The duties attached to these offices ought to be discharged in person by those who hold them, and the salaries now paid to the principals to become a saving to the public. There were several other offices enumerated in the table annexed The appointment to the under mentioned offices in the Court of Exchequer having been stated to your committee not to belong to the judges of that court, but to be in the gift of the crown, and it appearing that the duties of them are executed by deputy, there ap pears no reason for their being continued, except upon such an establishment as may afford an adequate remuneration to the proper officers hereafter appointed to discharge the duties in person. EXCHEQUER, therefore, within the principle of regulation or abolition after the termination of the present interests. It is however necessary to observe, with respect to the offices of Director of the Court of Chancery, Presenter of Signatures, and Register of Seisins in Scotland, that as the duties of these three offices are stated to be highly important, and not only intimately connected with each other, but with the legal forms and proceedings on which the titles and security of real estates es-entially depend in that part of the united kingdom, your committee would, upon every principle, abstain from interfering with any of those legal forms and proceedings; and all which they have to submit with respect to the offices in question is, that the emoluments of them ought to be so regulated, as to ensure the due execution in person of their respective duties, by individuals competent by their professional knowledge to discharge those duties, and by their station in society to give such security as may be deemed adequate to the extent and nature of the trust appertaining to each of them respectively. IRELAND. All the offices in the courts of law in Ireland, included in the list annexed to the bill of 1813, with the exception of those which have hitherto been in the gift of the chief judges of the courts of law in Ireland, ought, in the opinion of your committee, to be regulated on on such principles as shall ensure the performance of their duties in person, by those who hold them, at such just and reasonable salaries as shall hereafter be determined on. The following are the offices enumerated in that list, which are understood to have hitherto been in the nomination of the crown:Public Registrar of Deeds, Clerk of Crown and Hanaper, Chief Remembrancer, Clerk of the Pipe, Comptroller of the Pipe, Chirographer, Prothonotary, Common Pleas, poser, Clerk of the Report Office, Register of Forfeitures, membrancer, Exchequer. The right of appointment to the Clerkship of the Pleas of the Court of Exchequer has been contested by the Chief Baron of that court; and the right is not yet finally determined. The duties of the AccountantGeneral of the Court of Chancery are now performed in person by the individual who holds the office; a vacancy in the office having occurred since the passing of the bill of 1813. The same observation applies to the office of Comptroller of the Pipe. COLONIAL OFFICES. Upon the colonial offices sufficient materials have not been laid before your committee for presenting them fully and satisfactorily to the view of the House; but the general principle to be applied in dealing with them appears to be, in the first place, that of enforcing, to the utmost, residence within the colonies, or foreign possessions to which those offices belong, and personal performance by the principal of the duties annexed to them the second object to be attained ought to be the reduction of the salaries to such a rate, as may afford a fair and sufficient recompense for the services to be performed; and any saving which can be derived from such regu lations should be applied (as the case may be) in aid of some of the public burdens incidental to the civil government of such colonies or foreign possessions: observing farther, that in the old colonies any such application of savings must be made at the recommendation of the governors of such colonies, with the consent of the local legislatures of each. It is difficult to state, with accuracy, the aggregate annual value of all the offices which have been mentioned. Those which depend upon fees fluctuate considerably in their amount from various circumstances; and there are several others (particularly those belonging to the colonies) of which the income has never been exactly returned. Referring, therefore, to the statements already before the House in the Third Report of Public Expenditure, and in the Reports Reports upon Sinecure Offices, and taking also into account the regulation or abolition of some offices since that period, your committee see no reason to doubt that the annual income now derived from the offices which are thus brought under the observation of the House, as being at the disposal of the crown, and fit to be abolished or regulated, may be estimated at from 90,000l. to 100,000l. REGULATIONS Applicable to Offices, the Duties of which are necessary to be continued. The inquiries now made have fully confirmed the observation contained in the First Report of the committee upon sinecure offices appointed in 1810: "That the number of offices which have revenue without any employment either of principal or deputy, is very inconsiderable, and that by far the greatest number of offices which are commonly described as sinecure, fall properly under the description of offices executed by deputy, or offices having revenue disproportionate to employment." The only situations, in England, of any considerable emolument which can be considered as perfect sinecures, are the two offices of Chief Justice in Eyre, North and South of Trent; upon which your committee have only to state, that there will be no difficulty in transferring any formal duties belonging to these offices (if any such still remain) to the Commissioners of Woods and Land Revenue and that by this arrange ment the present salaries may be wholly saved, whenever these offices shall become vacant. These salaries, as well as that of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, being paid out of the English civil list, and the salaries of several offices in Scotland and Ireland being in like manner charged upon the respective civil lists of those parts of the United Kingdom, your committee recommend, that a general rule should be laid down for carrying to the consolidated fund these and similar savings, as they may arise, after the termination of the interests now existing in any offices charged upon those funds. In Scotland there is one office of high rank and emolument, that of Lord Justice-General, which appears to come under the same description as having no employment either of principal or deputy, and to the salary of which the same principle of reduction would consequently apply, in the event of the office being annexed by law to that of Lord President of the Court of Sessions. One or two other offices enumerated in the schedule, but of inferior rank and emolument, have not, as far as your committee have been enabled to ascertain, any duties or responsibility annexed to them; they therefore should be abolished altogether, as soon as they may become vacant. With respect to all the remaining offices included in the schedule of the bill of 1813, being those which are not altogether without employment, but which have either emoluments greatly disproportionate to such employment, or are wholly |
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