REDUCTION OF SALARIES OF PUBLIC OFFICERS, ETC.
Throughout the discussions on the state of the nation, the necessity of reducing taxation, and curtailing the public expenditure, had been insisted on with great force. On the 12th of February, Sir James Graham moved for a reduction of all the salaries paid to official, persons. The foundation of his motion was this:—that, subsequently to the Bank Restriction Act, all salaries had been increased, because the expense of living had increased; and he argued, therefore, that, as the restriction had been removed, and we had returned to cash payments, the salaries ought to be diminished. Justice, he said, demanded such a change High prices, produced by a depreciated currency, had brought them high salaries; low prices, produced by curing that depreciation, must bring them low salaries He did not, however, mean to include in his resolutions the privy-purse and the royal establishment, as these stood upon arrangements entered into at the beginning of the reign, and were hence inviolate. Neither would he interfere with the regular pay of the navy, which had been fixed in 1798, when prices were about the same as at the present time; or of the army, into which our soldiers had entered for a term of years, at a stipulated rate. He meant, however, to include military officers holding civil situations, such as colonial governments, because in many cases their salaries had been augmented without sufficient reason, and because some of these officers being removable at pleasure, their allowances might be altered without difficulty. Sir James Graham enumerated examples in which the salaries of governors had been raised; and stated that there had been an addition of one-third to the number of employés, and an increase of fifty per cent, on their salaries in 1827 as compared with 1797. He concluded by moving this resolution:—“That, whereas, subsequently to the act of the 37th George III., by which a suspension of cash-payments was effected, large augmentations had taken place in the salaries and pay of persons in civil and military employments, on account of the diminished value of money; and whereas the alleged reason for such augmentations had ceased to operate, in consequence of the passing of the 59th George III., which restored a metallic standard of value, resolved that in order to relieve the country from its extensive load of taxation, it was expedient to revise our present system of expenditure in respect of all such augmentations, for the purpose of making every possible reduction that could be effected without violation of good faith, or detriment to public justice.” The motion was opposed by Mr. Dawson, the secretary of the treasury, chiefly on the ground that government had done all that as yet had been possible in the way of reduction, and felt a sincere desire to carry the spirit of economy to every practicable extent. Almost every recommendation of reduction, he said, suggested in the reports of committees, or by commissions of inquiry, had been carried into effect; and the recommendation of a committee which sat in 1797 to abolish sinecures and reversions had been acted upon as far as it was found possible. Government had, indeed, already acted upon the course which Sir James Graham recommended; it had been desirous to adopt the scale of 1797, and though that object had not been fully accomplished, yet, looking at the extent of public business now, and in 1797, he thought the house would see that salaries had been brought as near as possible to the rate of the latter year. After demonstrating the truth of his assertions by appealing to facts and figures, he said, that he trusted the house would negative the motion, in which case, in order to show that he was not desirous to get rid of the question, he would himself move the following resolution:—“That whereas his majesty was graciously pleased, in answer to an address of the house, to assure the house on the 27th of June, 1821, that his majesty would cause an inquiry to be made into all the departments of the civil government, with a view of reducing the number of persons employed in the various offices, and the amount of salaries paid: Resolved, that an humble address be presented to his majesty, that his majesty might be graciously pleased to lay before the house an account of the progress which had been made in such inquiry, and of the measures that had been taken in consequence. Also, that it was the opinion of that house, that in every establishment of the state, every saving ought to be made, consistently with the due performance of the public service, and without the violation of existing engagements.” Sir James Graham thought this proposition of the secretary of the treasury better than his own, and he therefore withdrew his motion, and the house agreed to that of the minister.
This motion regarded the civil establishments only. On the 15th of February, Mr. Hume proposed a similar resolution in regard to the military and naval establishments, by moving an address to the crown, recommending a repeal or modification of all taxes required for the support of all the naval and military, as well as civil establishments, in order to afford immediate and effective relief to the country. Mr. Hume maintained that the scale at which the army and navy were kept up was much greater than necessity required, or the country could bear; and that they ought to be brought back as nearly as possible to what they had been in 1792, when the whole cost of the civil and military government was little more than one-fifth of the present cost. In his speech, he treated of every possible topic connected with taxation and expenditure. The taxes he proposed to reduce were numerous; and he insisted that all the reductions he proposed were practicable, if government would only apply the priming-knife to our overgrown establishments. The chancellor of the exchequer declined following Mr. Hume over the field in which he had expatiated, but he objected to the motion as irregular and inexpedient. It was a motion, he said, recommending a reduction of our civil, naval, and military establishments, without waiting for the estimates of those establishments which was to be laid before the house—without waiting to see whether any and what reductions might be proposed in them by ministers. How, he asked, would parliament determine the amount or practicability of any reduction, till it had inquired into the necessity and general bearing of the several branches of the expenditure? And how could that inquiry be instituted before ministers had laid before the house the responsible official statement of the amount of the several estimates for the year, so as to enable the house to decide upon the economy or extravagance observed in the management of the public money? He objected to the motion, therefore, as a departure from the usual practice of parliament. It was opposed by Messrs. Western and Grant, on the ground that it would be better for ministers first to produce their plan, and then to deal with it as the house might think fit. The house was already pledged to the full extent of this motion, which was, generally to reduce expenditure, and the next step ought to be to point out in what particular manner the reduction ought to be made. Lord Althorp said, that he felt every confidence in the economical disposition of ministers; but still it was desirable that the house should express its opinion that the taxes ought to be reduced in proportion to the reductions in the expenditure, although he did not conceive it possible that the taxes ought to be reduced to the extent proposed by Mr. Hume: his duty was to vote, therefore, for the motion. On a division, however, the motion was lost by one hundred and eighty-nine to sixty-nine.