England and Napoleon (1801-1815). Various
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of debts due from Public Accountants.
4. Stamps.—After a previous investigation by the Treasury, and personal conference repeatedly with the Commissioners.
Establishment settled on the British model, and report upon the building purchased for the use of this Office before the Rebellion.
Consignments to distributors, and the appropriation of their receipts new modelled.
Debts from deceased and dismissed distributors called in; securities of distributors raised.
Inspectors-General ordered upon survey throughout Ireland, and to make quarterly reports; and two new inspectors added at inferior salaries, with prospect of succession to the higher, if merited.
Revision and amendment of the Stamp Laws prepared.
N.B.—Last summer, in the counties of Wicklow and Wexford, several Justices of Peace refused to convict in penalties for evading the Stamp Duties.
5. Crown Lands.—A report upon their state, extent, and value ordered to be made out in thirty-two books for the thirty-two counties.
6. Board of Works.—Appropriation of issues between May 1801, and August 1801, viz. 20,000l. having been called for, and no account being produced of time or place, of articles supplied, or work done, nor any check appearing; an inquiry directed for settling an efficient system of checks for the future; report made and instructions issued to take effect prospectively from 5th January, 1802.
N.B.—By Comptroller of Accounts (who has controlled the Barrack Accounts), and two Privy Councillors.
All the old accounts ordered to be balanced and closed to 5th January, 1802, where a debt stated in November to be 11,000l., was stated in January to be a debt of 37,000l.; though no new work was ordered or executed in the interval. And it appeared also that no final accounts had been settled with the tradesmen for [1] years. How many years?
N.B.—During the period within which this debt was incurred, there was an annual issue to the Board of from 25,000l. to 32,000l. a year. No new building, except one house, which cost 3,000l., was erected. The Castle or public apartments are worse furnished than any private gentleman’s house in England.
Note.—The First Commissioner of the Board, consisting of seven, is also sole Barrackmaster-General; and has the sole expenditure of nearly 300,000l. a year. And the latest of his accounts delivered in to be audited, viz. March, 1800, did not come down to a later period than 25th March, 1796.
N.B.—Lord Tyrawley, from a very moderate beginning, is reputed to have made a landed property of 10,000l. a year, out of private trusts (viz. law arrears, &c.), and out of public offices, viz. the Board of Works and Barrack Office.
As to the economy of his department, ex uno disce omnes. Ready-made sentry-boxes sent in carts from Dublin to Cork. Extravagant expense of carriage, and destruction of the articles themselves.
GOLF AND FOOTBALL (1801).
Source.—Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, 1801. Pp. 93 and 97 of Methuen’s edition, 1903.
There are many games played with the ball that require the assistance of a club or bat, and probably the most ancient among them is the pastime now distinguished by the name of golf. In the northern parts of the kingdom golf is much practised. It requires much room to perform this game with propriety, and therefore I presume it is rarely seen at present in the vicinity of the metropolis. It answers to a rustic pastime of the Romans which they played with a ball of leather stuffed with feathers, called paganica, because it was used by the common people: the golf-ball is composed of the same materials to this day; I have been told it is sometimes, though rarely, stuffed with cotton. In the reign of Edward III. the Latin name cambuca was applied to this pastime, and it derived the denomination, no doubt, from the crooked club or bat with which it was played; the bat was also called a bandy, from its being bent. Golf, according to the present modification of the game, is performed with a bat, not much unlike the bandy: the handle of this instrument is straight, and usually made of ash, about four feet and a half in length: the curvature is affixed to the bottom, faced with horn and backed with lead; the ball is a little one, but exceedingly hard; being made with leather, and, as before observed, stuffed with feathers. There are generally two players, who have each of them his bat and ball. The game consists in driving the ball into certain holes made in the ground; he who achieves it the soonest, or in the fewest number of strokes, obtains the victory.
Football is so called because the ball is driven about with the feet instead of the hands. It was formerly much in vogue among the common people of England, though of late years it seems to have fallen into disrepute, and is but little practised. I cannot pretend to determine at what period the game of football originated: it does not, however, to the best of my recollection, appear among the popular exercises before the reign of Edward III., and then, in 1349, it was prohibited by a public edict; not, perhaps, from any particular objection to the sport in itself, but because it co-operated, with other favourite amusements, to impede the progress of archery. When a match at football is made, two parties, each containing an equal number of competitors, take the field, and stand between two goals, placed at the distance of 80 or 100 yards the one from the other. The goal is usually made with two sticks driven into the ground, about two or three feet apart. The ball, which is commonly made of a blown bladder, and cased with leather, is delivered in the midst of the ground, and the object of each party is to drive it through the goal of their antagonists, which being achieved the game is won. The abilities of the performers are best displayed in attacking and defending the goals; and hence the pastime was more frequently called a goal at football than a game at football. When the exercise becomes exceeding violent, the players kick each other’s shins without the least ceremony, and some of them are overthrown at the hazard of their limbs.
SHERIDAN FOR ADDINGTON, CANNING FOR PITT (1802).
Source.—Stanhope’s Life of Pitt, 1862. Vol. iii., p. 415.
The great speech of Sheridan was, however, reserved till the 8th of December, when the Army Estimates came forward. They were moved by Mr. Charles Yorke as Secretary at War. “I was much surprised,” said Mr. Yorke, “when, on another evening, I heard an Hon. gentleman (Mr. Fox) maintain that there was no reason why a larger establishment than usual in former periods of peace should be maintained in Great Britain; and that there were reasons why even a smaller force would suffice everywhere but in the West Indies.” It was no hard matter for Mr. Yorke to argue against this proposition, or to point out the dangers that impended from the Continent of Europe. He could reckon on the support of the House for the proposal which his speech contained—to provide for a regular force of nearly one hundred and thirty thousand men, counting officers, and including the regiments in India. This was an increase on the establishment voted on the first conclusion of the peace.
Then and after some other speeches Sheridan rose. He referred to Fox as to the man whom of all men upon earth he most loved and respected. But these sentiments did not withhold him from some keen animadversions, although in covert terms, upon the course which Fox had latterly been seeking to promote. He approved of the King’s Speech. He approved of the large establishments. He approved of Addington as Minister. What (he asked) had other members really to allege against that Right Hon. gentleman? Theirs was a mere capricious dislike; for no better reason than is given in an epigram of Martial, or in an English parody upon that epigram:
“I do not like thee, Dr. Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this I’m sure I know full well,
I do not