truffed by the legislature to fettle the quantum of the compenfation best know how closely the intereft and credit of the nation are connected with those of the companies, how frequently they stand in need of each other's affiftance, and what intercourfe is neceffary between them, and, confequently, in making their bargains with the companies, can take into their confideration every circumftance, and preserve an even balance between them

and the ftate.

The other branch of annual expence, incidental to the public debt, is the fees and other charges paid at the public offices upon the iffue, and for auditing and paffing the accounts of thefe annuities: the total of them for the two years, ending the 5th of July 1779, as itated in the bank memorials above alluded to, and confirmed by the report of the auditors of the impreft, is 22,8131. 16s. 6d. of which 21,6931. was paid to the auditors of the impreft; the remainder being 1120l. 16s. 6d. to the other offices. Should the fubftitution of falaries in the place of fees and perquifites, in thefe offices, become the fubject of confideration, the reasonablenefs and propriety of the fees enumerated in thefe accounts will come under the difcuffion of thofe perfons to whom the power fhall be intrufted of fettling the quantum of the equivalent; but the fum paid to the auditors of the impreft To far exceeds the reft, as to require our immediate attention. This payment is grounded upon a war rant of the lord high treasurer Godolphin, dared the 4th of July 1704, a copy of which was tranfmitted to us by the auditors of the imprett. This warrant confirms the report of Henry Boyle, efq. chancellor and under-treasurer of the

exchequer, and William Lowndes, efq. fecretary to the treafury, concerning allowances to be made to the auditors of the impret on paffing accounts; in which report there is this article" Lottery penfions. For every year's account of the payment of the lottery penfions, commonly called the Million Lottery, hereafter to be declared, the fum of 100l. and in that proportion as aforefaid, during the continuance of the faid penfions." These lottery penfions were annuities granted in the year 1694, by the act of the 5th of William and Mary, chapter the 7th, for raifing 1,000,000: they were for fixteen years, at the rate of 141. per cent. An officer was appointed for the payment of them at the exchequer, who was to pafs his accounts before the auditors of the impreft. 100l. being thus allowed for auditing the annual account of thefe annuities, amounting to 140,000l. a year, purchafed with 1,000,000, the annual allowance to the auditors has ever fince been calculated, at the rate of 100l. per million on the capital. Hence this payment has kept an even pace with the public debt: it amounted, upon the bank accounts for the year 1781, as appears by an account of them procured from the bank, to 14,8331. 7s. 4d. and will amount this year, and continue for every fucceeding year, if no alteration is made in the annuities, to 19,6821. 3s. 8d.

The bufinefs for which this fum is intended to be the compenfation, is the examination of the dividend and other warrants; comparing them with their correfpondent entries in the lifts; cafting up the items; reducing the account inte the official form; and ingroffing it.

It is true, in general, that where money is iffued from the exchequer,

to

to be applied to certain public purposes, an account fhould be paffed of that money, that the publi: may know and be fatisfied as to the application; but circumftances may create exceptions to this, as well as to every other general rule: the truit may be fo well guarded by the mode of execution, as to render a mifapplication or abuse hardly practicable; or the expence of taking the account may be fo heavy, as to outweigh every poffible advantage to be derived from it.

A fum equal to a half year's annuity is iffued from the exchequer to the bank, to be divided among the proprietors of that annuity, in proportion to the interest of each in the capital, the making this divifion is the truft which the bank engage to execute the man ner in which they execute it, we learn from the information of Mr. William Edwards, deputy accountant of the bank.

:

When the transfer books of any annuity are fhut, for the payment of the dividend, the fhare of every proprietor in the capital ftock is extracted from his account in the ledger, and fet oppofite to his name; a dividend warrant is filled up for each proprietor, with his fhare in the capital, and annuity attending it a dividend book is formed, comprehending the name of every proprietor, the folio of his account in the ledger, his fhare in the capital and annuity, and the number of his warrant: a duplicate is made of this dividend book: the original, duplicate, and warrants are all compared together: that the warrants may be correct, and correfpond with the dividend books, they undergo various for malities and examinations by different clerks; and, after being figned by the proper officer, they are de. 1786.

pofited in the office where the annuity is tranfacted, until the proprietors apply for payment. The perfon receiving it figns the dividend book, oppofite the name of the proprietor, and the receipt at the bottom of the warrant, which is witneffed by the clerk who delivers it. The teller pays it, enters it in his book, and cancels it; after which it is entered in a cash book in the dividend warrant office, and in the check ledger in the check office; where all the paid warrants are ranged in numerical order, and the total of them compared with the total of the unpaid lift made out at the annuity office : from thence they are tranfmitted to the auditor of the impreft.

This tranfaction is fimple;-the divifion of a certain fum among a number of perfons, in proportion to their interes. to their interetis. Many perfons are employed in this divifion; and it feems well fenced against fraud or error. The company can mifapply no part of this money, for the whole annuity is diftributed in the dividend warrants; and the entries of the fhares in the dividend books, which are transcribed into the warrants, are caft up to fee that they comprehend the whole. Whatever abufe or error may be committed, muft immediately affect the proprietor; as by forging a receipt, or obtaining-it from him by fraud, or refuting him payment, or by an erroneous calculation of his fhare; but against thefe the auditor's examination is no fecurity: the injured proprietor must apply to the company for relief; and, if refufed, he has his legal remedy. Thefe circumstances cannot come before the auditor: all he requires is a formal receipt for every payment; and he allows it to the company without further enquiry: his bufi(K)

nefs

nefs is merely a comparison of the different entries of the fame fums, and cafting up a number of articles -the employment of inferior clerks: he is a check upon the formality of the warrant, and the accuracy of the cafting; and for this the public are to pay, if the prefent fyftem of accounting is continued, near 20,000l. a year. Since then this trust repofed in the public companies, being fimple in its nature, and guarded in its execution, is not, as appears to us, open to abufe; nor the public money iffued for this fervice liable to mifapplication; we are of opinion, that the public derives no benefit whatever from the examination of the bank and South Sea annuities in the office of the auditors of the impreft; and, confequently, that fuch examination ought to be difcontinued, as a heavy and unneceffary expence to the public. We are warranted in this opinion by ufage in a fimilar inftance: no account of the old and new South Sea annuities is rendered at the exchequer being originally part of the capital South Sea ftock, they were, as fuch, exempt from account: the annuities paid by government upon all the capital trading ftocks, the bank, the South Sea, and the East India stock, are iffued from the exchequer without account the reafon feems to be this; the annuity is granted to the company in their collective capacity, as a body corporate, and paid to them as one entire debt to one perfon after the officer appointed by them has received it, government has no more to do with it, it lies upon thofe to whom the company have entrusted the direction and management of their affairs, to take care that a jutt divifion of it is made among their members; but upon the feparation

of the old and new annuities from the capital ftock, the proprietors of thofe funds no longer continued members of the company: they quitted all fhare both in the direction and the profits: they became diftinct bodies of men, like the proprietors of any other govern ment fecurity; the proportional fhares of the original annuity, which they became entitled to upon the feparation, continued to be iffued, and are now iffued from the exchequer to the company; blended with the ftock armuity; but the acts expretly fay, thofe thares fhall be iffued in truft for the proprietors; and therefore, from the time of the feparation, the company became refponfible to government for the payment of thefe annuities, just as the governor and company of the bank of England ftand at this time refponfible for the payment of the dividends upon any capital they tranfact; and the mo ney for fuch payment ought, in confiftency, to have been iffued from the exchequer, by way of impreft and on account; and yet, ever fince the year 1722, the fum of 357,2241. 28. the prefent annuity attending the old South Sea annuities; and ever funce the year 1732, the fum of 254,8441. 185. 16. the prefent annuity attending the new South Sea annuities; and larger fums, during the time the rate of intereft was higher, have been paid every year by the South Sea company, as truftecs employed by the public, and no account of thefe payments whatever rendered at the exchequer; very much to the emolument of the public, by a faving in fees, to the auditors of the impreft only, of above 120,000).

As the payment of these annui ties has, for fo many years, been intrusted to the South Sea compa ny, without account, and without

any

any inftance of abufe or mifapplication that has hitherto been difcovered; every reafon feems to concur for extending the fame exemption from the jurifdiction of the auditor of the impreft to the annuitics of the year 1751, and to thofe tranfacted at the bank of England.

The duty, however, and bufihefs of the cashier ought, in our opinion, to be continued without alteration. It is expedient that go vernment should not be ignorant of the annual state of thefe accounts; and therefore the cashier of each company should, every year, tranfmit to the lords commiffioners of his majesty's treafury, an account current, fimilar to that now tranfmitted by them to the auditors of the impreft, containing the receipts and payments of all the annuities tranfacted by them, including the old and new South Sea annuities, with the balance of the unclaimed dividends and stock remaining in their hands, figned by the cashier, and attested by him on oath, before a baron of the exchequer.

We have fuggefted the exemption of thefe accounts from the jurifdiction of the auditors of the impreft, as a regulation proper and neceffary to be carried into immediate execution: we do not mean to violate, in the flighteft degree, any right vested in an officer by virtue of his office. The principles which fecure the rights of private property are facred, and to be preferved inviolate they are landmarks to be confidered as immovable but the public have their rights allo; rights equally facred, and as freely to be exercifed.That we may purfue the line of juftice, without invading the rights of the fubject on the one hand, or facrificing thofe of the public on

the other, it becomes neceffary for us to endeavour to develope these official rights, and define, if we can, their precife boundaries. If a ufelefs and expenfive office cannot be fuppreffed, nor the redundancies of an office curtailed, be the neceflities of the flate ever fo urgent, without intrenching upon. the right of the poffeffor, and violating the public faith, the evil must be endured, until the power of the legiflature can, without the imputation of injustice, be exerted for the relief of the state.

The principle which gives exiftence to, and governs every public office, is the benefit of the state. Government requires that various branches of bufinefs fhould be tranfacted, and perfons must be found to tranfact them. The acceptance of a public office implies an engagement to do the bulinefs, and a right to a compenfation: the officer has powers delegated to him neceffary for the execution; but he has no other right than to the reward of his labour: he has no right to any fpecific quantity of bufinefs; that quantity must fluctuate according to circumstances, or may be regulated by the convenience of the ftate: if the good of the community requires a diminution or annihilation of the bufinefs of his office, or the transferring it elfewhere, the officer cannot oppose to the regulation, the diminution or annihilation of his profits; because not the emolument of the officer, but the advantage of the public, was the object of the inftitution: to fuppofe in him a right to make fuch an objection, would be to fup. pofe the office created for his benefit; that is, to fuppofe it to origi nate in a violation of public trust, an abuse of power, and an offence against the flate. Where law of (K 2)

ufage