ftating, examining, and paffing the accounts: this fum, in the account before us, is 16;1. of which, one third is 551. that is 271. 10s. a year, which makes the profit to the deputy, 1271. 1os. a year. Thefe emoluments to the paymaster and his deputy, amounting to 8081. 108. a year, are a charge upon the public.

The two clerks are paid in a different manner. The war-office clerk has a falary of 921. a year from the fecretary at war, befides which, he receives a moiety of two kinds of customary payments from the widows; each pays two guineas when the first receives her penfion; and at the rate of 6s. a year, that is, 25. for each four months payment afterwards. These two fees are equally divided between the two clerks, and the moiety of them, together with the odd pence, forms the whole of the profit accruing to the pay-office clerk from this employment.

The office of paymaster of the widows penfions appears to us, from this defcription, to be an unneceffary office. The public derives from it no utility whatever; it is a perfect fiecure; and the office of the deputy is not much more: he only ferves as a channel, and that not wanted, to convey the money for this fervice from the paymasters of the forces and marines to the pay clerk, whofe attendance is three entire weeks, and one day in every other week in the year.

The payment of this bounty is an army fervice; it is made out of money voted for army fervices, and by a clerk in the pay-office. If the measure of voting upon eftimate a distinct fund for this fervice fhould be adopted, the whole muft be iffued from the exchequer to the bank, and placed to the account 1785.

of the paymaster-general of the forces. What then forbids that the whole of this bufinefs fhould be tranfacted at the pay-office by a fingle clerk, to be appointed to that particular branch? Thefe penfions may all be paid, as many of them are now, and as the other army payments are required by act of parliament to be made, by drafts upon the bank; and the accounts of the payments for this service may be incorporated and paffed with the other accounts of the mafter-general of the forces.

pay

The proper payment for this clerk is a falary only. The acceptance of any fee, gratuity, or other reward, ought to be ftrictly prohibited. It is not for the honour of government, that his majefty's bounty fhould be curtailed by grataities and fees of office: no part is to be intercepted; it should pass to the object as liberally and as entire as it flows from the royal benefi

cence.

Since then these penfions may be paid without the intervention of fo many officers, and at a much lefs expence to the public, that principle of public oeconomy, pointed out to us as the rule to direct our judgment, a principle this nation feels mot fentibly the neceffity of attending to, leads us to be of opi nion, that the office of paymaster of the widows penfions is a useless and unneceffary expence to the public, and ought, therefore, no longer to be fuffered to fubfift; and that all the bufinefs of this oftice thould be transferred to the payoffice of the army.

The other officer, who accounts annually for the money iffued to him by the paymatter-general of the forces, is the agent for the outpenfioners of Chelfea hofpital.Wiliam Brummell, efq. who holds (H)

this

this office, and Charles Harris, efq. who acts for the deputy-treasurer of the hofpital, gave us an ac count in what manner this business is tranfacted.

The office of agent for the outpenfioners of Chelsea hofpital, was created by the act of the 28th of George II. chap. 1. for the purpose of receiving the money for this fervice from the treasurer of the hofpital (that is, from the paymaster-general of the forces), and of paying or remitting it to the out-penfioners. The fund is a fum voted annually by parliament upon eftimate.

Twice in the year a requifition is fent by the fecretary and register of the hofpital to the treafurer, Rating the number of out-penfioners, and the fums to be advanced them for the fucceeding half year. After the treasurer has received money from the exchequer, a warrant iffues from the board of commiffioners for the government of the hofpital, figned by three or more of them, to the treasurer, requiring him to iffue to the agent for the out-penfioners, fuch fums as fhall be due to them for the fix months enfuing. In confequence of this warrant, the treasurer iffues to his deputy fuch a fum as he thinks proper. A lift of the outpentioners is made out every half year by the fecretary and register, and tranfmitted to the agent: he copies it, and applies to the deputy treasurer, who iffues to him upon account fuch a fum as, in his judgment, will be fufficient to fatisfy the payment of that lift, retaining out of it 12d. in the pound, according to the directions of the act of parliament.

There are three forts of out penfioners; the common men, who are paid 5d. a day; the nine-penhy

men, who have 9d. and the letter men who have is. but from all thefe payments the 12d. in the pound is deducted: they are all paid half yearly, fix months in advance, and are difperfed over Great Britain and Ireland, and a few of them live in the islands of Guernfey and Jerfey; confequently it becomes neceffary for this officer to employ deputies and agents, in various parts, to affift him in tranfacting this business. His last settled account, tranfmitted to us by the auditor of the impreft, was declared before the chancellor of the exchequer upon the 28th of June 1781; it is for one year, ending the 24th of December 1775; and comprehends the payment of about 15,900 penfioners. The total charge upon him in that year, is 112,4401. 6s. 3d. his total difcharge is 105,4951.

6s. 2d. The accounts of the three fucceeding years are in the office of the auditor; and two years more will be ready to be delivered in about three months. The difficulty of procuring and adjusting the vouchers, retards the accounts from being made up in the office to a later period.

This officer is paid by a falary of 1000l. a year; which, by the payment of taxes, deputies, clerks, contingent expences and fees, is reduced to 380l. a year.

As the fund for this fervice is a fpecific fum voted every year by parliament, which paffes from the exchequer through the hands of the treasurer to his deputy, and from him to the agent who distributes it, we traced its progress through these feveral channels.

We extracted from the Votes of the House of Commons the grants for the out-penfioners, from the year 1775 to the year 1782 inclu five; we procured from the payoffice

office of the army, an account of the grofs fums received by the paymafter-general of the forces, for this fervice, from the exchequer we learned from the deputy-trea furer what portions of thofe fums had been iffued to him by his principal, and what portions he had iflued to the agent during the fame period; and from the agent we received an account of his grofs receipts and payments every year, from 1775 to 1780: and that the ftate of these fums, as they paffed to the different officers, may appear at one view, we have brought them together into one account; which fhews what portion of each fum ftopped in each ftage of its progrefs; and what proportion the total of the balances, unapplied in the poffeffion of thefe officers at the end of each year, bore to the fum voted.

The furplus in the hands of the deputy-treasurer arifes, in part, from the favings out of the poundage: this, like the rest of the fums granted for army fervices, is made liable to a deduction of 12d. in the pound, to be applied in the manner which his majefty fhall, by warrant under his royal fign manual, direct. This deduction is not blended with the army poundage: a distinct account is kept of it; and it has been applied to the annual payments of 1000l. falary to the agent, and of two allowances, 600l. to the deputy-treasurer, and 300l. to the fe cretary; together, 1900l. a year. No other payments appear to have been made out of it; and therefore this fund has far exceeded the charges upon it.

So much of the favings as accrued to the 24th of December 1773, was paid back to the paymafter-general of the forces: fo much of them as accrued from that

time to the 24th of December 1780, amounting to 22,6451. 28. 7d. was, in October last, purfuant to his majefty's warrant, paid into the exchequer, to be applied towards the fupply of the year 1782. The balance of his deduction, remaining in the hands of the deputy-treafurer upon the 24th of December laft, was 30211. 158. 2d.: but as the money, applicable to the general fervice of the hofpital, is not paid by government at the time it becomes due, the deputy-treasurer having received nothing for that fervice to a later period than the 24th of June laft, has been obliged to apply part of this balance in defraying the current expences of the hofpital.

The fame reafons upon which the abolition of the army poundage is grounded, weigh equally againit keeping up this deduction: it is of no utility; it ferves only to generate a balance in the hands of an officer, for no other purpose than that of paying it back again when required by proper authority. Neither the falaries, nor any other fervice, to which this poundage is now applicable, require the exiftence of any fuch fund: they may all be defrayed out of the grofs fum voted for the fervice. The fum estimated for the payment of the out-penfioners, may, as it is wanted, be iffued to the agent by the draft of the treafurer upon the bank; and the agent will continue to pay them the fame fums they receive at this day.

The iffues to the agent feem to have been more abundant than was neceffary. The average balance in his hands, for the four first years in his account, was 49991. 148. in the year 1780 it was reduced to 16571. 98. zd. As this may be prefumed to have been a fum futfi(Hz)

cient

cant fubfiftence, and the non-effective fubfiftence that may be cafually iffued, when a vacancy happens between the return of the mufter and the iffue of the fubfiftence; but this will not be fufficient to carry on the recruiting fervice, which requires a fum in advance, ready for immediate application. To fupply this deficiency, we have fuggefted the creation of a specific fund, to be voted annually, and a diftinct account to be kept of the iffues.

An examination every year into the state of this recruiting fund in the hands of each agent, will be the means of keeping it within its proper bounds; and a punctual payment by government, of fervices as foon as they are incurred, will take away every pretence for having in his hands more money than is neceffary for the service.

The public accountants are numerous; and as the public is deeply interested in preventing the accumulation of balances in their hands, it would be a ufeful and neceffary regulation, that in all cafes where money is iffued from time to time upon account to carry on a fervice that has continuance, the officers intrufted with the difection of the iffue fhould be enjoined, as a duty upon every iffue, to examine into the ftate of the money remaining in the hands of the accountant, and the demands it is fubject to, and to regulate the fum to be iffued accordingly: by these means the fervice will be fupplied with no more than it wants, and that tendency which every balance has to increase, will be checked.

The remaining clafs are the army fub-accountants, or thofe perfons who receive money on account from the paymafter-general of the forces for extraordinary fervices of At the end of every

the army.

year's account of a paymafter-general is added a lift of the infupers of the year; and to his final account is annexed a lift of the infupers during the whole time of his being in office. All the perfons thus fet infuper remain accountable to the public for the fums fet oppofite their names, until they are cleared by the auditor of the impreft; and, in order to their being cleared and obtaining their quietus, they must pafs their accounts in his office, except in one particular inftance, that is, where the fervice has been performed abroad, and the account has been allowed by the director-general of control, and figned by a commiffary-general, and the balance paid by the deputypaymaster-general, puriuant to a warrant of the commander in chief. Upon the production of this warrant by the paymaster-general, with the stated account annexed, so allowed and figned as his voucher for the payment of that balance, the auditor will clear the infuper, though the account has not been paffed by himself; but in every other cafe pathing the account in the office of the auditor is effential to obtaining the quietus.

The further we proceed in our investigation of the army accounts, the greater we found the increase of this infuper account. We thought it a part of our duty to examine into its prefent ftate as far as we were able.

Upon infpecting the schedules. annexed to the writ of diftringas ad computandum, tranfinitted to us by the theriffs of London and Middlefex, we obferved, among others, two lifts of army infupers; the one upon the final account of the late Earl of Chatham, ending the 24th of December 1755, and declared the 7th of January 1769; the other upon the final account of the lare (H 3)