The Government of England Part 12

[115:2] This did not apply to the hereditary revenues of the Crown until, with the exception of the revenues belonging to the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, they were surrendered by George III., in return for a fixed Civil List.

[116:1] 27 Geo. III., c. 13.

[116:2] The rule had not been absolutely without exceptions, for the Mercantile Marine Fund, derived from port charges on vessels, was used to defray part of the expenses of the Board of Trade without going through the Consolidated Fund. _Cf._ 2d Rep. Com. on Civil Estab., Com.

Papers, 1888, XXVII., 1, Qs. 18211-26. In 1898 this process was restricted to the maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons. It may be observed, also, that the Act of 1891 concerning "appropriations in aid" (54-55 Vic., c. 24, -- 2) declares that it merely gives statutory authority to an existing practice. Such appropriations are now regularly granted by Parliament in aid of the votes for the services in which they occur. The amount in aid of each vote is fixed, and listed in a separate column in the schedule to the Appropriation Act, only the excess above that amount being paid into the Consolidated Fund.

[116:3] Ilbert, "Legislative Methods and Forms," 294-95; Glen, "Law of Public Health," 1343, 1344.

[116:4] This innovation has been vigorously criticised as tending to confuse the national accounts. See a memorandum by Sir E. W. Hamilton, Com. Papers, 1902, VII., 15, App. 12.

[117:1] 29-30 Vic., c. 39.

[117:2] 54-55 Vic., c. 24.

[117:3] The sums paid to the Local Taxation Account not being included.

[118:1] These license fees go into the Local Taxation Account, not into the National Exchequer.

[119:1] It is noteworthy that from 1858 to 1895 the amount of money raised by taxation for national purposes was never less than 2 4_s._ 5_d._ and never more than 2 9_s._ 11_d._ per head of population. Of late years it has shown a steady tendency to increase. In 1899, the year before the war, it was 2 13_s._ 6_d._; and in 1902 it was 3 8_s._ 8_d._, the expenditure being 4 13_s._ 11_d._ Between 1857 and 1900 the national debt was reduced by gradual payments from 837,144,597 to 628,978,783. In 1902 it had increased in consequence of the South African War to 747,911,107.

[119:2] For the history of this rule see Todd, "Parl. Govt. in England,"

II., 44-46.

[119:3] Rep. of the Com. on War Office Organisation, Com. Papers, 1901, XL., 179, p. 6. But see 3d Rep. Com. Pub. Accounts, Com. Papers, 1901, V., 47, p. iv.

[121:1] 29-30 Vic., c. 39, ---- 13, 15.

[121:2] _Ibid._, -- 13.

[121:3] For the provision made for such cases, see page 126, _infra_.

[121:4] The Finance Accounts give only the issues to the departments from the Exchequer, not the actual expenditures. These last are contained only in the Appropriation Accounts of the Auditor General.

Except for certain departments, like the Navy, where Sir James Graham began the practice of submitting them as early as 1832, the actual expenditures were not submitted as a whole to Parliament until the Act of 1866. Memorandum by Lord Welby, Com. Papers, 1902, VII., 15, App. 13.

Hatschek, _Englisches Staatsrecht_, I., 495-502, gives an interesting description of the influence of French methods upon the English system of keeping public accounts, including the introduction of double-entry bookkeeping.

[122:1] Fifteen or sixteen relate to the Navy; as many more to the Army; something over one hundred to the various branches of the civil service, grouped into seven cla.s.ses; and five to the revenue departments.

[122:2] 29-30 Vic., c. 39, -- 27, and see Todd, II., 53-67.

[123:1] For the history of this matter, see Todd, II., 31-42.

[123:2] See, for a history of the question, Todd, II., 27-43, 543-45, and for recent collections of evidence the 2d and 3d Reps. of Com. on Civil Serv. Exp., Com. Papers, 1873, VII., 391, 415; 2d Rep. of Com. on Civil Estabs., Com. Papers, 1888, XXVII., 1; Rep. of Com. on War Office Organisation, Com. Papers, 1901, XL., 179; Reps. of Com. on Nat.

Expenditure, Com. Papers, 1902, VII., 15; 1903, VII., 483.

[123:3] Rep. of Com. on Civil Estab., Com. Papers, 1888, XXVII., 1, Evid. of Sir R. E. Welby, Perm. Sec. of Treas., Qs. 10704-9, 10713, 10721-26, 10766.

[124:1] This was true, for example, of the Act creating the Board of Agriculture (52-53, Vic., c. 30, -- 5).

[124:2] For clerks of the second division by Order in Council, March 21, 1890, ---- 3-6, Com. Papers, 1890, LVIII., 167. Positions of higher grade are regulated "by the heads of the departments to which they belong, subject to approval by the Commissioners of the Treasury;" Order in Council, Feb. 12, 1876, -- 3, Com. Papers, 1888, XXVII., 1, p. 571; but no vacancies in these positions can be filled or new appointments made until the Treasury is satisfied that the number of officers in the department with salaries higher than those of the second division will not be excessive; Order in Council, Nov. 29, 1898, -- 4, following Order of Feb. 12, 1876, -- 4. The evidence before the Committees of 1873 and 1888 was, however, conclusive on the impotence of the Treasury in forcing reductions, whatever its actual power might be in preventing an increase of establishment.

[124:3] _Cf._ 3d Rep. Com. on Civil Serv. Exp., Com. Papers, 1873, VII., 415, Qs. 474, 4902-03; 2d Rep., Com. on Civil Estabs., Com. Papers, 1888, XXVII., 1, pp. xi, xii, and Qs. 10957, 14090-91, 14918-20, 18088; Rep. Com. on Nat. Exp., Com. Papers, 1902, VII., 15, Q. 1429.

[124:4] Rep. Com. on Nat. Exp., Com. Papers, 1902, VII., 15, Q. 1425.

[125:1] Rep. of Com. on War Office Org., Com. Papers, 1901, XL., 179, Qs. 3038-41. An excess on the subheads for food and forage, for example, would be met as a matter of course by a saving on fuel or rents.

_Ibid._, p. 425.

[125:2] Memoranda on Treasury control by F. T. Marzials, Accountant General of the Army, _Ibid._, pp. 424-26; and by Robert Chalmers, Rep.

Com. on Nat. Exp., Com. Papers, 1902, VII., 15, App. 3.

[125:3] The control of the Treasury over expenditure connected with the courts is less than it is in the case of other branches of the civil service; but the salaries of the clerks are fixed as a rule by an understanding between the judges and the Treasury. 2d Rep. Com. on Civil Serv. Exp., Com. Papers, 1873, VII., 391, pp. vi-viii.

[126:1] Rep. Com. on Civil Estabs., Com. Papers, 1888, XXVII., 1, Qs.

18076, 18088, 19150, 19165, 19171-75, 19178-82. As Lord Farrer, formerly permanent under-secretary of the Board of Trade, expressed it, "We can cheat them in big things; they may bully us in little things." _Ibid._, Q. 20,021.

[126:2] Rep. of Com. on War Office Org., Com. Papers, 1901, XL., 179, p.

8; Rep. of Com. on War in South Africa, Com. Papers, 1904, XL., 1, p.

143.

[126:3] _Cf._ Sir R. E. Welby, Rep. Com. on Civil Estabs., Com. Papers, 1888, XXVII., 1, Qs. 20382-83.

[126:4] The real sanction of the control of the Treasury lies in the support it is almost certain to receive from the Committee on Accounts of the House of Commons. In 1901, for example, in a case where the War Office, without exceeding its total vote, but before seeking the approval of the Treasury, paid to a contractor an addition of 1000 upon a contract for which no item appeared in the votes of the year, the Committee of Accounts remarked, "Your Committee deprecate in the strongest manner any diversion of Parliamentary funds without Treasury sanction." 3d Rep. Com. of Pub. Accounts, Com. Papers, 1901, V., 13, pp.

iv-v.

[126:5] Public Accounts and Charges Act, 54-55 Vic., c. 24, -- 2 (3).

[127:1] Todd, II., 545.

[128:1] The organisation of all these offices, and their relation to the Treasury, has been described at great length in Gneist, _Das Englische Verwaltungsrecht_, 3 Auf., Buch III., Kap. 4.

The office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues collects the revenue from the Crown lands, except those belonging to the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the revenues from these last never having been surrendered to the nation, and being still enjoyed by the King and the Prince of Wales respectively. It collects also some other bits of hereditary revenue; but the total amount of its receipts is small, and the commissioners are only two in number. The Customs Establishment, which collects all duties on imports and exports, is managed by a chairman, a deputy chairman and one other commissioner; and, finally, the Inland Revenue Office, which collects the excises, and all the other national taxes, is a huge concern, and has at its head a chairman, deputy chairman and two other commissioners. This department was formed by uniting the boards of Excise, of Taxes and of Stamps; and it has been suggested that the departments of Customs and of Inland Revenue should be combined, but that has been thought inadvisable. (_Cf._ 3d Rep. Com. on Civil Estabs., Com. Papers, 1889, XXI., 1.)

[129:1] The Chancellor of the Exchequer is also _ex officio_ Master of the Mint.

[129:2] The Ecclesiastical Commission manages the episcopal estates and other church property, using the revenues to pay the income of the bishops, and to promote the work of the Established Church in poor and populous places. It is not connected with any department of the government, and in fact is rather an inst.i.tution belonging to the Church than a branch of the public service. The commissioners include all the bishops, several cabinet ministers, and a number of other laymen, of whom a couple sit in Parliament.

The Charity Commission, a body possessing semi-judicial powers in the regulation of charitable trusts, occupies a position more like that of an administrative department. Of the four commissioners one is unpaid, and represents the body in Parliament.

These two commissions are, therefore, in the anomalous position of having been deliberately provided with spokesmen in Parliament, who are not responsible ministers of the Crown. The British Museum, the National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery are in this respect in the same situation.

CHAPTER VI

MISCELLANEOUS OFFICES

[Sidenote: The Government and the Administration of Law.]