397 nearly equal to what fapported an entire office of equal expenditure for the whole year. The net actual receipt of the Cafhier alone, in the Pay Office of the Army, was 71751. 19s. 6d. The net receipt of the whole Pay Office of the Navy, was 79381. and it would have been inferior to that of the Cashier, had he at the time of his examination received the whole of his income for that year.

Since then, on the one hand, the improvements of the age have taken away the foundation upon which this fpecies of reward was built, it is but reasonable the fuperftructure fhould fall with it; and, on the other hand, the exigencies of the age having converted what was defigned to be the reward of industry, into the means of rendering fome offices lucrative to excefs, and of fupporting others that are useless to the public, the fubject has a right to be relieved of that burthen; and therefore we are of opinion, that all poundage fees, of every kind foever, fhould be fuppreffed and totally abolished; and of this opinion was the Privy Council; who, by their order in the year 1695, above alluded to, fhewed their fenfe of a poundage, by directing it, in inftances therein mentioned, to be fuppreffed in the office of the Treafury of the Navy.

The remaining head is that of gratuities; a fpecies of emolument very liable to abufe. It may be a reward for civility, favour, or extra fervice; it may be alfo the produce of undue preference, expedition, and, in fome cafes, of procraftination; flowing, at first, from the liberality of opulence, the oftentation of vanity, or the defign of cunning, it very foon affumes the name of cuftom, and becomes a claim, fubmitted to, to avoid the imputation of meannefs, and frequently to the great inconvenience of contracted circumftances: Nor is it confined to individuals only; the public pay their fhare. In the payments out of the deductions of twelve pence in the pound, there are two articles, making 6531. 128. 8d. diftributed by the Paymaster General of the forces in gratuities. The public voice unites with that of individuals, in demanding a fuppreffion of a fpecies of emolument fo eafily perverted to purpofes injurious to the interest of both.

But there is one other fort of gratuity that requires particular obfervation; that is, what is paid to the officers and clerks in the Pay office of the navy and army, for carrying on and making up the accounts of the Treafurer and Paymafter-general after their refignation. It fhould feem, that in every office of accounts, the balancing the books every year, and as foon as poffible after the expiration of that year, is a duty incumbent upon the perfons employed in that office; or difficulty, confufion, or ignorance of the real ftate of their accounts, muft enfue; it is an effential part of their conftant yearly bufinefs, for which their annual ftipends are or fhould be an adequate reward; and the prefiding officer is bound to fee that this bufinefs is done; but in thefe two offices a different fyftem has prevailed: During the time the Treasurer or Paymafter-general has continued in office, not one of his year's accounts has ever been made up; and it has been the intereft of the officers not to make them up; if they had, it must have been confidered as part of their official business, and paid for by their yearly emoluments; but, by delaying it for ten or fifteen years, they crave, on the ground of custom, and obtain of the treafury a special allowance for this bufinefs, as for extra fervice they were not bound to perform. The final accounts of Lord Holland, ending in June 1763, are at length near being closed, and the Treasury allowance for making them up has been craved, and allowed ;

this recent tranfaction, completed fince the iffuing our precept for an account of these allowances, confifts of the memorial to the Treatury by the acting executor of Lord Holland; † the diftribution of i1,32öl. amongst the officers, and the fum of 36651. 10s. 6d. for incidental charges, craved by the me morial; and his Majefty's warrant authorizing thefe allowances. If the profits of this office laft year equalled the profits of the preceding year, as they probably did, the addition of this allowance would have increafed the actual net receipt of the whole office to 34,8811. is. Ed. and that of the Cafhier only to 98251, 195. 68. and, if he had received all his fees, to 11,0391. 1

155. The memorial ftates thefe accounts to be intricate and voluminous, and te amount to above 45,900,000l.; notwithstanding which, they have been made up by the officers and clerks inentioned in the diftribution, without any expence to the public for additional affiftance or allowance." If they have been made up in the courfe of thefe laft years, the load of annual current bufinefs in this office, during the time of Lord Holland, could have been no impediment to their being made up at that time, or foon after his refignation, and with much greater eafe, whilft the tranfactions were recent and fresh in their memories.

There ftill remain to be made up the accounts of four Treasurers of the Navy, to the amount of 58,944,5881.: || and of three Paymfters General of the forces, amounting to 4,666,8751. ;** exclufive of the Treasurer and Paymafter General in office, to the firft of whom has been ifiued, to the 30th of September 1780, 16,781,2171. and to the latter, to the end of the fame year, 43,253,9 1 1 l. and not one year's account of either are completed: fo that of the money iflued to the Navy, 75,725,05l.; and of the money iffued to the army, 47,920,1861.; together, 123,646,5911. (not including 10,647,1881. ifiued to the navy, §§ and 8,121,000l. to the army, to the end of the last year) is as yet unaccounted for; and for the making up of thefe occounts, if this cuftom is fuffered to continue, nine more gratuities are to be craved of the public. How much then does it behove them that this evil fhould be corrected! an evil that furnishes another weighty reason, in addition to thofe urged in our former Reports, for proceeding immediately to bring forward the long arrears in the acceunts of thefe offices, in order for their speedy completion.

Having thus ftated the mifchicfs attending the prefent éftablishment, both to the public and individuals, and the reafons for abolishing the multifarious emoluments, by which thefe offices are now fupported, it remains for us to propofe fuch a regulation as appears beft calculated to avoid the like mifchiefs, and moft beneficial to the public fervice.

We are of opinion, that in the place of all these falaries, fees, and gratuities, there fhould be fubftituted and annexed to each of thefe offices, of whatever rank or denomination, one certain falary, paid to the officer by the public quarterly, and free of all deductions; this falary fhould be an ample compenfation for the fervice required; and the quantum eftimated by the various qualifications and circumftances neceffary for the execution, and which together form the title to reward.

Appendix. No. LXXI.

By

Appendix, No. LXXII. Appendix, No. LXXIII. Third Report, No. XXIX. ** Fourth Report, No. XIX. ft Third Report, No. XXIX. # Appendix, No. LXXIV. §§ Appendix, No. LXXV,

By this regulation, the officer will know his income, the public will know their expence; and uniformity and equality will be introduced in the provifions for officers of equal rank and station in fimilar offices. The industry of fome perfons requires the fpur of profits continually flowing in, or the hopes of increafe; others prefer the certainty of a known, fure income, paid at stated times no arrangement can fuit the difpofitions or occafions of alt men; but time and ufage will foon reconcile one reasonable rule, extended through thefe departments of government.

Notwithstanding this regulation throws upon the public the whole expence of thefe offices, which are at prefent fupported in part by individuals, yet, by adopting it, that whole expence will become lefs than the fum it now cofts the public; for that fum is fo great, as to afford every liberal falary, and yet leave no inconfiderable faving: nor that this is the only faving propofed by the regulation; the public at prefent bear a much greater fhare of the burthen than is obvious at the first view: befides fees and gratuities paid by public offices, and refunded to them out of public money, many payments, though made by individuals, are charged by them ultimately to the account of the public. For instance, the Contractor, when he calculates the terms upon which he may fafely engage with Government, muft cftimate every article of profit and lofs, confequential to his bargain; to the account of the latter, he places all his charges, and amongst them, the long catalogue of facs certain and uncertain; the first he knows, the laft he will calculate not to his own disadvantage; and if, by them, he can procure credit, or preference, or expedition, he will charge them to government at their full price; if this head of various expences was blotted out of his column of charges, by fo much would the terms of his contract be more favourable to the public.

But, befides this, fo very various and extenfive are the operations of Goverment, that the number of perfons employed in their fervice conftitute a very confiderable body of the people; and their relief is a public concern. If, by difcharging an office, at prefent paid by a falary from thofe fees and deductions to which it is now fubject, that falary fhould become greater than the office ought in reafon to have annexed to it, it may eafily be regulated and reduced to its proper ftandard.

We have faid, the falary fhould be paid free of all deductions; that is, as far as is confiftent with the laws in being. The falarics and fees of office are at prefent fubject, by three acts of Parliament, to the land tax, the fixpenny, and the one filling duties; whoever takes a view of the above ftate of the official profits, will not wonder they fhould be deemed by the legislature a ft fubject of taxation; and, under the fyftem then in ufe, no other mode of taxation could well be contrived but that adopted in those acts, though attended with inequality, and, in many cafes, with hardship; had one known falary been at that time the pay of office, and the neccffitics of the ftate required the aid of every fubject, in proportion to his faculties, it is poffible a dimuuition of the falary, before it iffued, might have appeared a more eligible, more equal, and lefs expenfive mode of taxation, than paying it intire out of the Exchequer, and then bringing back again a part of it, delayed and defalcated by a variety of deductions in its circuit; but, as it is, the fums at prefent affeffed upon thefe offices must continue to be paid; becaufe, otherwife, in the land tax, it will ccafion a deficiency in the fum to be raifed by that divifion in which the

office is affeffed; and in other duties, it will diminish the funds created by thofe acts, and confequently, the fecurity of the creditors upon those funds. The land tax and duties are now paid by the officers, at stated times, to the collectors and receivers: if the mode of payment by a clear falary is adopted, the total fum now affeffed upon all the officers in one office, may still continue to be paid as one fum, in like manner, out of the fame fund with the falaries themselves.

We have said, the falaries fhould be annexed to the office; it ought to be a full and competent recompence for the execution, and no more; the whole of it ought to be paid to the perfon who executes, independent of the officer who prefides, but who should still retain the fame power of appointment, and the fame control, that he now exercises over the inferior officer. Where the profits exceed what the officer is in reafon entitled to, the overplus fhould be abolished, and the public reap the benefit, not a perfon who earns no part of it.

In the Pay office of the army, fome of the offices of deputy Paymafters abroad are finecures: though deputies themselves, they execute thefe offices by their deputies; being themselves engaged in very different employments under government.

Inftances are not wanting, in all these offices, to warrant this regulation of payment by a falary; the Treasurer of the Navy, and his Paymaster General of the forces, the Paymasters of Exchequer bills, and their officers, are all paid by falaries only; and why the fame rule may not be extended to the reft, no fufficient reafon has hitherto occurred to us. It might feem too fanguine, to suggest how far this rule may be applied to other offices, without a previous examination into their peculiar circumstances; and yet the advantage it holds out to the public, its fimplicity, and aptitude to be accomodated to all offices, however diftinguished, afford great reason to believe it may be applied to every department of government.

The principal of economy, by which we have been guided, has led us to the conclufions we have formed, and the regulations we have fubmitted to the wisdom of Parliament; conclufions ftrictly deduced from that principle; and regulations made neceffary by the preffing exigencies of the times.

APPENDI X.

NUMBER I.

ACCOUNT of the Sum Total of the Fees paid by the Paymafter-general of his Majefty's forces at the Exchequer, for the Year 1780; diftinguishing the Fees paid for the ordinary Service from those paid for the extraordinary ones. Prepared purfuant to a Precept from the Commiffioners of Accounts, dated June 26, 1781.

EES paid at the Exchequer, id. per pound on three

FEE

million three hundred thirty-two thoufand nine hundred fifty-fix pounds thirteen fhillings and fix-pence halfpenny, being fo much received for the ordinary fervices of the army, from 31st of December 1779, to 31st of December 1780

Fees paid at ditto, at id. per pound on four million four hundred forty-nine pounds and one halfpenny; being fo much received for the extraordinary fervices of ditto from ditto to

ditto

£. s. d. 20,830 19 11

Pay-Office, Horfe Guards,

6th July 1781,

APPENDIX. No. II.

Treafury Office of the Navy, in Broad Street, 6th August 1782.

IN pursuance of a precccept from the Commiffioners for examining, taking, and stating, the public accounts, the underwritten and enclosed contain the exact fate of the falaries, fees, and gratituities, received by the officers and clerks in the office of the Treafurer of his Majefty's Navy, from the 24th December 1779 to the 25th December 1780; with the amount thereof received by each officer and clerk during the faid period, viz.

The Treasurer of the Navy hath an annual falary of 20001.

He hath no

fee or gratuity; and received, from 24th December 1779 to 25th December 1789, net 18501.

VOL. VI.

G gg

The