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,
Prothonotary, King's Bench,
Crown Office, King's Bench,
Transcriptor and Foreign Ap-
poser,

Clerk of the Report Office,
Pursuivant, Court of Exche-

quer,

Register of Forfeitures,
Usher of the Exchequer,
Register, Court of Chancery,
Accountant-General, ditto,
Serjeant at Arms, Pleas Office,
Lord Treasurer's, or 2d Re-

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 regulations 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 Reyenue: 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 existing in any offices charged upon those funds.

now

wholly executed by deputy, your committee do not feel themselves competent to recommend any general regulation by which the proper scale of salary in any of them may be settled, as soon as the proposed reductions can be accomplished. They do not possess all the information necessary for this purpose; and, even if they did, it is possible that an establishment, which might be now adequate for any particular office, might cease to be so before the termination of the existing interest.

Your committee are therefore of opinion that it should be left to the judgment and responsibility of the Lords of the Treasury for the time being, as vacancies occur, to place the several offices proposed to be regulated upon such

an

establishment with respect to the number and rank of the persons requisite for the discharge of the efficient functions of such offices, and the amount of salary to be assigned to each person, as may appear to them adequate, after a full inquiry into the nature and extent of the duties to be performed, and the degree of official and pecuniary responsibility which necessarily attaches to some of them. If it should be thought proper in any act to be passed, with reference to the subject of this report, to enact, that whenever any of the said offices shall be reduced and regulated, there should be laid before both Houses of parliament a comparative statement of the number, duty, and emolument of the respective officers under the old and new establishments, your committee conceive that the parliamentary check,

created by this arrangement, would be sufficient to prevent any abuse of a power which seems properly to belong to the Lords of the Treasury, as the official and responsible advisers of the crown, upon all matters which relate to the superintendence and control over the public expenditure.

It may not be improper, in treating this part of the inquiry, to call the attention of the House more distinctly to some peculiar circumstances before alluded to, which are connected with offices of great emolument in the courts of law in Ireland.

An

It appears, that upon a vacancy which recently occurred in the office of Clerk of the Pleas in the Court of Exchequer, by the death of the Earl of Buckinghamshire, a claim to the appointment to that office was preferred by the Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, and an individual was appointed by him, and was sworn in before the Court of Exchequer. A proceeding, by quo warranto, was instituted on the part of the crown, and the judgment of the Court of King's Bench was adverse to the claim of the Chief Baron. appeal, however, has been made to the Court of Error; and may hereafter be made, by either party, to the House of Lords. In the mean time, by an act of the legislature, 56th Geo. III. c. 122, the emoluments of the office are paid into the treasury, and the due discharge of all the official duties provided for. It is not impossible that claims, similar to those which have been preferred in this instance by the Chief Baron, may be preferred to the appointment to other offices in the law courts

of

of Ireland, of great and disproportionate emolument, which have hitherto been considered as at the disposal of the crown.

Your committee cannot, however, avoid submitting to the House, whether it would not be perfectly consistent, both in justice and sound policy, to provide for the regulation of all such offices after the expiration of the legally vested interests, upon the principle on which it is proposed to regulate other offices partaking of the nature of sinecures.

The duties attached to many of the principal offices in the courts of law in Ireland appear indeed to be so various and important, and to be necessarily performed by so many persons, that it would be extremely difficult, without the most mature consideration, and probably without inquiries instituted on the spot, to suggest any arrangement for the future conduct of the business of these offices, when the existing interests in them shall have terminated.

Your committee understand, however, that there is at present a commission in Ireland, appointed in consequence of an address of the House, to inquire into the state of the courts of law in that part of the United Kingdom. It would be very desirable that the members of this commission should be required by the Executive Government, to examine, with as little delay as possible, into the circumstances under which the several offices in the courts of law, which have hitherto been considered in the disposal of the Crown, stand, with respect to the performance of the duties attached to them; and that they should also

be required to suggest such a plan for the future regulation of these offices, as shall provide for the respective duties being discharged in person, at such salaries as shall be deemed a just and reasonable compensation to the individuals discharging them.

An act of the legislature will be necessary to give effect to any plan which may be suggested by the commissioners; it will therefore be competent to Parliament to adopt generally the suggestions made by the commissioners, or to depart from them according to their discretion.

In the supposable event of a vacancy occurring in any of these offices before the commissioners make their report, it is of course understood, that a temporary arrangement will be made for the performance of all the necessary duties, which shall not in any way interfere with the immediate regulation of the offices, on the principles above recommended.

MODE OF REWARDING HIGH AND EFFICIENT POLITICAL SERVICES.

Your committee would have found themselves under considerable difficulty in submitting to the House any specific plan for enabling the Crown to reward high and efficient political services, if they had not taken for their guidance the principles and regulations established by the bill so often referred to, as the basis of the suggestions which they have to offer under this head.

After an attentive consideration of the mode proposed in that bill for enabling the Crown to recompense the faithful and meritorious discharge of high and efficient