Source.—The Case of his Grace the D—— of M., to be Represented by him to the Honourable House of Commons, in Vindication of Himself from the Charge of the Commissioners of Accounts in Relation to the Two and Half per Cent. Bread and Bread Waggons (published 1712). Acton Library Pamphlets, No. d. 25, 100112.
[The following extract deals with Marlborough's "commissions" on the bread supplied to the Army on the Continent. The Tories alleged that he had defrauded the Exchequer by taking his 2½ per cent. commission.]
The first Article, in the Report, is founded on the Deposition of Sir Solomon Medina, by which you are Informed of a yearly Sum paid by him and his Predecessor, Contractors for Bread and Bread-Waggons, to myself. This Payment, ... I have called a Perquisite of the General or Commander in Chief in the Low-Countries; and it has been constantly apply'd to one of the most Important Parts of the Service there, I mean the procuring Intelligence, and other Secret Service.
The Commissioners are pleased to observe, That these Sums cannot be esteemed legal Perquisites, because they don't find 'em Claim'd or Receiv'd by any other English General in the Low-Countries. But I must take leave to affirm to this House, That this Perquisite or Payment, has been allowed to that General or Commander in Chief, in the Low-Countries, both before and ever since the Revolution, to enable him to carry on such Secret Service. The like Allowance was made to Prince Waldeck, whilst he was General of the Dutch Army in Flanders; it was made during the last War as well as this; and for your further Satisfaction in this matter, I am content to refer my self to Sir Solomon Medina, who cannot but own, that when he made this Allowance, he knew it to be the constant Practice during the former Wars in the Low-Countries, and particularly when Prince Waldeck commanded there. And if it be a Circumstance worth your notice, he must Inform you also, That the Allowance of Waggons, which the Report takes Notice of, is usual likewise; that he has allowed the like, or near the like Number to Count Tilly, though he was not Velt-Marshal, and that there is a proportionate Allowance of the same kind to other Officers. The Report may have observed very rightly, that the strictest Enquiry the Commissioners could make, they cannot find that any English General ever receiv'd this Perquisite. But I presume to say, the Reason is, that there never was any other English General besides my self, who was Commander in Chief in the Low-Countries. I crave leave then to say, That this Observation in the Report was Occasion'd through the want of due Information in the Usage of the Army. In receiving this as an established and known Perquisite, I have follow'd and kept up that Usage which I found in the Army when I first enter'd upon that Service; And upon this Ground alone, I hope that this House will not think I was Unwarranted in taking it.
But that no doubt may remain with you, I will State, as well as I can, what I have learnt, and during that time I have been in the Service, have been always understood to be the Ground, as well as the Design of this Allowance. The Contracts of Bread being of necessity at the same Rates for the whole Army, and it being for the Security of the Service that those Contracts should be in the fewest Hands; the certain Gain upon so large a sum as a Contract for the whole, or even part of the Army, even at the lowest Prices, makes this yearly allowance to have been thought not Unreasonable from the Contractor. This being an Allowance generally arising from Contracts that concern a variety of Troops, all under the same General, must naturally fall under the Direction, and come into the Hands of the Commander in Chief, as an Allowance to enable him to carry on such Designs which could not be foreseen, but yet necessary to be put in execution, and which chiefly depend upon Intelligence.
I thought it more needful to give you this Account of the Nature and Design of this Allowance, because I observe from the Report, that the Objection is to the Justice and Reasonableness of the Perquisite it self, without having regard to the Application or Use for which it is intended.
But the Commissioners apprehend this not to be a Justifiable Perquisite, because they say, the Publick or the Troops, necessarily suffer in proportion to every such Perquisite.
If these Observations were well grounded, I should think them good Reasons to put an end to the Allowance, and at the same time to blame those who first introduced it: But I take upon me to affirm, that this neither is nor can be the Cause. I have never heard a Complaint either of publick or particular Injury from this Allowance; nor does the Report assign any particular wherein it may be judged to be so.
This Allowance to the General can have no Influence upon the Contract it self, which is annually made and signed at the Treasury, and the Price regulated by what the States have agreed to pay for the Bread for their Forces. I appeal to all the Officers who have served with me in Flanders, whether the Forces in Her Majesty's Pay have not all along had as much, and as good Bread, as those of the States, and at the same Prices; which every Body will believe to be the Lowest, that consider the Frugal Economy of the States, and the small Pay of their Troops. And therefore I may safely conclude, that if the English have had their Bread as Cheap as the Dutch, they have had it as Cheap as was possible. Nor indeed can it be imagined to be otherwise; for the very supposition of two different Prices paid by different Troops in the same Army, for the same Quantity of Bread, would occasion a Mutiny.
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