place, the account of the year 1758, (which was not delivered to the auditor until 1768) and continue to be omitted in every fucceeding account, until the last of that paymaster-general, the account of the year 1765, and not even there inferted until the year 1782 ? twenty-four years after they were entered as charges upon that paymafler-general in the books of the office.

The account is fent to the auditor, with blanks for fums in the body of it after he has examined it as far he is able, it is taken back again to the pay-office, the blanks filled up, and corrections and additions made to it at their pleasure, without the knowledge of the auditor; and this, frequently, in the progrefs of the examination. This practice is inconvenient and dan gerous it increases the trouble of the officer; it confounds the articles he has examined with those he has not; alterations may be made in the former to the prejudice of the public, and pafs unobferved by the auditor. We are of opinion that the account, when once delivered to the auditor, ought to remain in his office until it is completed, and all additions and corrections after the delivery, be made at his office, and with his privity.

There are fome articles in the voluntary charge, of whofe accuracy the auditor cannot judge for want of sufficient materials: these are profit on exchange and remittances, fome of the payments to the deputies, and fome of the ftoppages. The vouchers produced to the auditor for these charges, are accounts made up and figned by the accountant of the pay-office. A voluntary charge is an admiffion of the receipt of a fum on account, as far as it goes; but it may be erro

neous or defective, or fums receiv ed may be fuppreffed; and the account of an officer in the same office can be no check by which fuch errors may be difcovered. The auditor fhould be furnished with the fame materials from which the accountant collects the charge. Had not Peter Taylor's own account of profit and lofs by exchange, been at laft produced to the auditor, the error of 8,5771. 135. Icd. had never been brought in queftion, and the right of the public might have been fo far violated.

In the account of the additions to the charge in Lord Holland's final account returned to us from the pay-office, is the fum of 4000l. received of Major Gates by Mr. Mortier, a deputy-paymafier: the fum had been iffued to him by warrant from General Monckton, and confequently Major Gates must be fet infuper for that fum in the account of Lord Holland. Major Gates paid it back to Mr. Mortier, who gave him a receipt for it: unlefs Major Gates paffes his account of this fum in the office of the au ditor (an event not very probable) this receipt which is the only evidence to charge Mr. Mortier, can never appear against him; and confequently this fum might have flept in the hands of the deputy, or upon his charging himself with it, in the hands of the paymaster-general, without being difcovered by the aus ditor. We are therefore, of opinion, that no money fhould be paid into the hands of the paymafter-general, or his deputy, unlefs by warrant; and that a copy or extract of fuch warrant, if it proceeds from a commander in chief, fhould be tranfmitted to the treafuty, as the evidence of the charge upon the paymaster-general of the forces.

The

The bufinefs of the auditor of the impreft, to be collected from his commiffion, is to audit the accounts of most of the receivers, and of all the officers and perfons entrusted with the expenditure of the public revenue. Polibly this office might formerly have been able to accomplish this duty; but fuch has been the increase of the revenue within these few years, that the accounts are grown to a number, magnitude, and extent, greatly beyond what could have been foreseen. The accounts, which at this day remain for the audit of the exchequer, are 74,000,000, the iffues of twenty-one years, for the navy fervice; 58,000,000, the iffues of eighteen years, for the army fervice; near 39,000,000 if fued to fub-accountants; together, 171,000,000; the receipts and if fues of all the provifions for the fupport of the land forces in America and the Wett Indies, during the late war: all thefe accounts must be paffed. The public have a right and good caufe to demand it. If, according to the prefent conftitution of the exchequer, they can be paffed no where but in the office of the auditor, that conftitution fhould be altered. Such of the accounts as may appear the most proper to be removed, fhould be transferred from his office to fuch other offices as may, from their peculiar circumstances, and the relation they bear to the fubject matter of the accounts, be prefumed to be the best qualified for the examination of them.

Wherever an office is inftituted for the purpose of examining and controlling accounts previous to their examination by the auditor, and that office is fo formed as to answer the ufe intended, and the officers do their duty, it feems to us to render any fubfequent ex1786.

amination fuperfluous, and an unneceffry expence to the public. Upon this principle we fuggefted the exemption of the accounts of the treasurer of the navy from the jurifdiction of the auditor. The fame principle leads us to relieve him from the accounts of the army. Parts of thefe accounts, and thofe very confiderable, the execution of the contracts, and the expenditure of the extraordinaries,-according to the prefent ufage, pafs the office of the controller of the army accounts previous to their examination by the auditor. As far as appears to us, the examinations by the controller are fufficient, and confequently thofe of the auditor may be difpenfed with. If the office of the controller is fo conftituted, that thefe fpecies of accounts may fafely rest upon his examination (and the treafury rely fo much upon it, that they direct payments upon his reports without waiting for the confirmation of the auditor) he must be equally qualified to pafs the rest of the accounts of the army: the latter are not more difficult than the former; nor does it require greater talents to examine the one than the other.

By

Though the bufinefs of the controller is at prefent confined to thefe particular branches, yet he feems to have been originally intended for a more extenfive employment. his commiffion, in the 2d year of queen Anne, he is created controller of all accounts relating to the forces; and, by the last inftruc tions for the conduct of the office, dated the 28th of April 1704, he is to keep an account of all monies iffued to the paymaster-general of the forces, and to take care he is charged therewith.

The time seems to be come when the ftate of the bufinefs in the office of the auditor renders it necef

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fary to carry into execution the intention of queen Anne in the inttitution of this office, and to extend its duty to all the accounts of the army. The two offices of controller and paymaster-general are fo unconnected and independent of each other, that the firit may be with fafety placed as a check upon the other. One entire fpecies of public expenditure will be the employment of one office; which, though but one fpecies of expenditure, is yet, from the number and variety of its branches, and from the long arrears fuffered to be incurred, fully fufficient to engage the continual labour of any one office for a time not eafily to be defined. Should the treafury be diffatisfied with the report of the controller upon any particular account or article, or require farther inform ation, it will continue to be, as it is now, in their power to refer it to the auditor for his examination and opinion.

For these reafons we are of opinion, that the auditing the accounts of the paymaster-general of the forces fhould be transferred from the office of the auditors of the impreft to that of the controller of the accounts of the army; that the pay-office of the army fhould complete fuch accounts of the paymafter-general of the forces, as have been already delivered into the of fice of the auditor, and that the auditor fhould proceed without delay to finith and pafs fuch accounts; and that all army accounts, fubfequent to thofe already delivered into the office of the auditors, and all future accounts of paymasters general of the forces fhould be sent to the office of the controller of the accounts of the army, and be examined and audited by him, and inrolled in the office of the king's remembrancer in the exchequer.

We required from the auditor of the impreft, a lift of the fees on paffing the account of the year 177 (the year that had been under our exan ination) with the rate at which fuch fees were raken. We required, likewife, from the controller of the accounts of the ar my, an account of the falaries, fees, and gratuities, received by the officers and clerks in his office. From the state of the fees returned to us by the auditor, it appears that he is paid at the rate of ten fhillings a-year for every troop and compa ny, and a fee of 150l. a year, for the account of the paymaster-general, and of cl. a year for the account of the treasurer of Chelsea hofpital. The deputy had 100 guineas, and the clerks 541. 125. The amount of all the fees, for thefe two accounts of the year 1767, payable to the auditor, was 7061. 9s. rod; and of those payable for paffing them through the exchequer offices, 1381. 9s.

In the office of the controller of the accounts of the army, the two controllers have each a falary of 7491. 19s. id. reduced, by the army deductions and the land-tax, to net 5581. 16s. d. a year. They have no other emolument, except fuch faving as may be made out of their contingent allowance. The fecretary and clerks received until very lately, falaries, fees, and gratuities, which in the year 1781 amounted to the net fum of 31931. 9s. 4d. but this mode of payment has been changed to an allowance of one eighth per cent. upon the fum contained in the account, in lieu of fees and gratuities: this is allowed the contractor in his account, and is confequently a charge upon the public.

Should the auditing the ac ounts of the paymafter-general of the forces be transferred to this office,

it will be a faving to the public of fome part, though not the whole of the expence now incurred in the office of the auditor; for fo great an increase of the bufinefs in the office of the controller will, probably, require fome addition to the establishment in that office.

The compenfation to the controllers themselves for the execution of this office is a certain fixed falary only. Why the fecretary and clerks are not paid in the like manner does not appear. The one eighth per cent. allowed them on the fum contained in the account, does not seem to be grounded on any rule of proportion between the labour and the reward; for this poundage, may, from the magnitude of the contract, amount to a very confiderable fum, without a proportionable increase in in the trouble arifing from the examination of the account, and therefore, we see no reason why the rule of fubftituting one certain falary, in lieu of all fees, gratuities, and emoluments whatever, adopted in the cafe of the principals, fhould not be extended to all the fubordinates in this office. Office of Accounts, SurreyStreet, ft of July, 1783.

T. ANGUISH,

A. PIGGOTT,

(L. S.) (L. S.) RICHARD NEAVE, (L.S.) SAMUEL BEACHCROFT, (L. S.) GEORGE DRUMMOND, (L. S.)

The Eleventh Report of the Commiffioners appointed to examine, take, and ftate the Public Accounts of the Kingdom.

IN our enquiries into the manner of paffing the public accounts in the office of the auditors of the impreft, we find, upon the certificate of accounts depending in that

office, the chief cashier of the bank of England among the public accountants.

In the acts of parliament for raifing the fupplies by public loans, the cashiers of the governor and company of the bank of England are appointed the receivers of the contributions to thofe loans. They are ordered to pay the fums fo received into the exchequer, and to account duly for the fame in that office: thefe contributions are received at the bank in the name of the chief cashier.

The fhares or interests of the contributors, or their affignees, in the capital ftocks of annuities created by thefe acts, are made transferable at the bank of England; and the money appropriated to anfwer the annuities, and other payments therein directed, is ordered to be issued at the receipt of the exchequer, to the chief cashier, by way of impreft, and upon account; and he is enjoined to pay the annuities, and render his account thereof, according to the due course of the exchequer.

Hence the chief cashier has, every year, on the part of the bank, an account to pafs of the receipts and payments of the feveral fpecies of annuities payable at the bank of England; and, for fome years laft past, he has had also another annual account to pafs, of the contributions to the loans to government, received at the bank.

We required from the auditors of the impreft the last declared accounts of Abraham Newland, efq. chief cashier of the bank of Eng land, of money received and paid on the feveral fpecies of bank annuities, and of contributions to an nuities and a lottery, with the materials from which thofe accounts were feverally made out.

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