the expenses of the civil government, for the half year
ending in May, 1822. He called upon the House for re-payment. The reply
was pertinent. The House would at once have authorised the Receiver
General to return the money out of the sum of L100,000, the balance of
the public money which should have been in his hands, if it could have
been done, but a balance being due to the province, the Assembly could
only look upon the accommodation afforded to the Receiver General as a
personal favor to that officer. Indeed the Assembly voted all the sums
required for other public purposes, without taking into any account
whatever the emptiness of the public chest. The financial affairs of
the province were in a curious condition. "My earnest entreaties," says
Lord Dalhousie to Mr. Vallieres de St. Real, "to ascertain the state of
our finances, have been unavailing. Whilst the legislature has been
contending about forms, the substance of the treasury has been used,
and the province now stands without any funds which can be called its
own, or, worse than that, it has incurred a debt to the military chest
of L30,000, advanced in 1822, and L30,000 more advanced this summer of
1823, to which must be added the amount of all unpaid appropriations in
last session, a sum not less than L240,000, exclusive of the grant of
the Chambly Canal:

Our debt contracted is L 60,000
Appropriations of 1823 unpaid 24,000
Our necessary expenses for 1824 70,000
Our probable appropriation, including the
award to Upper Canada 25,000
---------
L179,000
And our revenue to meet this 90,000."

The recent declaration and exposure of the Receiver General undoubtedly
did shew the evils arising from not annually settling the public
accounts. The Receiver General had not, however, positively wasted the
public revenue. Largely engaged in business he had built sawmills,
dammed rivers, and constructed viaducts. He was an enterprising man of
business, and doubtless his enterprise had indirectly enriched the
province, although as far as the immediate recovery of the money was
concerned, for the payment of the civil expenses of the government, the
investments had been somewhat selfish and rather injudicious. The
Receiver Generalship should not have been in the hands of a person
engaged i