ter than it was conceived to be: according to Mr. Powell's account (whofe duty it was, and who, as accountant in the pay-office from June 1765 to March 1776, and cafhier ever fince, and as the only acting executor of Lord Holland, must be prefumed to now with precition) the total debt to the public upon the 27th of September 1780, was 256,4561. 25. d. What the balance of the account in the office of the auditor might be at that time, was totally immaterial; the debt to the public was the fame, however incomplete that account was, or whatever entries might be wanting to the charge or the difcharge. After the payments into the exchequer in the year 1781, this debt was reduced to 23,940l. 178. 8d. In February last the account in the auditor's office states an increase, in confequence of an agreed and pencilled balance, and of additions (except in two fmall articles) voluntarily made to the charge in the pay office, to 114,7361. 6s. 10d. In March latt Mr. Powell paid into the exchequer in part of his balance 20,000l. which reduced it to 94,7361. 6s. 1od. a fum to which the public has at this time confeffedly an undoubted right: but this fum too may be varied by two articles not yet decided, the one in the charge, the other in the difcharge. In the charge upon the final account of Lord Holland, there is an article of 29,6551. 11s. 6d. profit on exchange made by Peter Taylor, efq. his deputy in Germany. In order to check this article, the auditor has frequently required from the pay-office the materials from whence this fum was computed and made out. He was furnished about Christmas laft with a book dated the 12th of May 1764, under the fignature of Peter Taylor, intituled, "Account of profit and lots to the public on all payments made by Peter Taylor, deputy-paymifter in Germany.'" The auditor has examined this book, and difcovered in it variety of errors to the amount of 5771. 135. od. in favour of the public: he fent his obfervations upon thefe errors to Mr. Powell the 23d of February; in con equence of which, fome of the articles objected to, have been examined on the part of Lord Holland, and found to agree with the computations of the audi ditor: the rest are as yet un-examined. In the discharge, the article of 28451. 1 s. 1cd. is under the confideration of the lords of the treasury: they have not decided, whether they fhall admit or reject the claim of Mr. Powell to be allowed this fum among his payments. Should this article be difallowed, and the errors in the profit and lofs account be found to be real, the fum due to the public will be 106,159l. 18s. 6d. Hence appears the prefent ftate of the debt due to the public from the reprefentatives of Henry Lord Holland as paymafter-general of the forces. The public have, at all events, an undoubted right to the fum of 94,7361. 6s. 1cd. and, there fore, in obedience to the act that regulates our conduct, we report it as our opinion, that the reprefentatives of Lord Holland ought, without delay, to pay into the receipt of his majesty's exchequer, upon the terms mentioned in the act of the 21st of his prefent ma jefty, chapter 48th, the fum of 94,7361. 6s. 10d. to be applied to the fervice of the public; and, as it is highly expedient, as well for the quiet of the perfons interested as for the fatisfaction of the public, that that an account fo long depending, and of fo remote a period, fhould be brought to a conclufion, we are of opinion the doubtful articles fhould forthwith be examined and decided upon, and the balance struck between the public and the accountant, and this account be prefented for declaration. In the states of the accounts of the paymasters-general of the forces, in the office of the auditors of the impreft, the accounts ftanding next after the final account of Lord Holland, are thofe of the right honourable Richard Rigby. It appears from these ftates, that two of his accounts, the one for half a year ending the 24th of December 1763, the other for the next year ending the 24th of December 1759, are balanced and attefted. An objection made by the auditors, relative to omiffions in the civil lift deduction, retards their declaration. Since the 16th of November 1780, four more accounts of the four fucceeding years have been delivered into the auditors office they are under examination, and in different ftages towards their completion. The auditor does not appear to have received any account from the pay-office of a year fubfequent to that of 1773. He proceeds upon the pay-office accounts as foon as they are fent to him. When objections arife from mistakes, omiffions, articles that require explanation, or want of vouchers, thofe objections are tranfinitted to the pay-office to be corrected, explain ed, or fupplied. Anfwers are returned, fometimes fhortly after the obfervations are fent, fometimes not until long after; and the auditor is retarded in completing the accounts for want of a regular attention to his applications. The firft step muft certainly be taken by the pay-office, that is, the delivery of the account to the auditor, with the vouchers. By the dates of the delivery, as they are stated by him, they have not been fent to him until long after the year of the account has been elapfed. The ac counts of the years 1768 and 1769 were not delivered until ten years after. We do not, therefore, find that the imputation of delay lies in the office of the auditor. The pay-office feems lately to have been more attentive to this duty: we fee by their lift of accounts delivered into the office of the auditor, that five accounts, down to the year 1769, were delivered in the year 1779; two, for the years 1770 and 1771, in the year 1780; and two, for the years 1772 and 1773, in the year 1782. Confidering the account, as drawn up in the pay-office for the purpose of being examined and checked in another office, there feem to be, in the flate in which it is transmitted to the auditor, fome defects that require correction. The entries of many of the articles are without dates and authorities: these are the diftinguifhing marks of fimilar articles, and the omiffion of them tends to confound the auditor, and may be the means of fraud or concealment. Every article both of receipt and payment, fhould be entered, with its date and the au thority which directs it, in the account of the year in which the fum is actually received and paid. It is not the account of the year it purports to be, unless it comprehends all the known receipts and payments of that year. Can any good. reafon be aligned, why fums, received by the deputies and entered in the books of thofe deputies in the pay-office, in the year 1758, should be left out of their proper place, neous or defective, or fums receiv ed may be fuppreffed; and the account of an officer in the fame office can be no check by which fuch errors may be difcovered. The auditor fhould be furnished with the fame materials from which the ac 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 latt of that paymaster-general, the account of the year 1765, and not even there inferted until the year 1782 ?countant collects the charge. Had twenty-four years after they were entered as charges upon that paymaster-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 thofe 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. not Peter Taylor's own account of profit and lofs by exchange, been at laft produced to the audi tor, the error of 8,5771. 139. 1cd. had never been brought in quef tion, 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-paymafter: 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 : un lefs 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 coufequently this fum might have flept in the hands of the deputy, or up on his charging himfelf with it, in the hands of the paymaster-general, without being discovered by the auditor. We are therefore, of opinion, that no money fhould be paid into the hands of the paymaf ter-general, or his deputy, unless by warrant; and that a copy or extract of fuch warrant, if it pro ceeds from a commander in chief, fhould be tranfmitted to the treas fury, as the evidence of the charge upon the paymaster-general of the There are fome articles in the voluntary charge, of whofe accuracy the auditor cannot judge for want of fufficient materials: thefe are profit on exchange and remit tances, fome of the payments to the deputies, and fome of the ftoppages. The vouchers produced to the auditor for thefe 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- 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. Poffibly this office might formerly have been able to accomplish this duty; but fuch has been the increafe of the revenue within these few years, that the accounts are grown to a number, magnitude, and extent, greatly beyond what could have been forefeen. 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 West 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 anfwer the ufe intended, and the officers do their duty, it feems to us to render any fubfequent ex1786. amination fuperfluous, and an unneceffary 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 those very confiderable, the execution of the contracts, and the expenditure of the extraordinaries,-according to the present ufage, pass 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 reft 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 pass 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. Though the business of the controller is at prefent confined to these particular branches, yet he seems to have been originally intended for a more extenfive employment. By his commiffion, in the 2d year of queen Anne, he is created controller of all accounts relating to the forces; and, by the last intruc tions for the conduct of the office, dated the 28th of April 1704, he is to keep an account of all monics iffued to the paymaster-general of the forces, and to take care he is charged therewith. The time feems to be come when the state of the bufinefs in the of fice of the auditor readers it necef. (I) fary fary to carry into execution the intention of queen Anue in the intitution of this office, and to extend its duty to all the accounts of the army. The two offices of control. ler and paymafter-general are fo unconnected and independent of each o her, that the first 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 easily to be defined. Should the treafury be diffatisfied with the report of the controller upon any particular account or article, or require farther information, it will continue to be, as it is now, in their power to refer it to the auditor for his examination and epinion. For thefe 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 com plete fuch accounts of the paymafter-general of the forces, as have been already delivered into the of fice o the auditor, and that the auditor fhould proceed without delay to finih 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 paymatters general of the forcs fhou'd be sent to the office of the controller of the accounts of the army, and be examined and audited by him, and inFolle in the office of the king's remembrancer in the excheque.. We required from the auditor of the impreft, a lift of the fees on palling the account of the year 1707 (the year that had been under our exa ination) with the rate at which fuch fees were taken. 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 paymatter-general, and of cl. a year for the account of the treasurer of Chelfea hofpital. The deputy had 100 guine s, and the clerks 541. 125. The amount of all the fees, for thefe two accounts of the year 1707, payable to the auditor, was 7061. gs. 1od; and of thofe payable fr paffing them through the exchequer offices, 138. 95. In the office of the controller of the accounts of the army, the two controllers have each a falary of 7491, 9s. id. reduced, by the army deductions and the land-tax, to net 5581. 16s. d. a year. They have no other emolument, except fuck faving as may be made out of their contingent allowance. The fecretary and clerks received until very lately, falaries, fees, and gra tuities, which in the year 1781 amounted to the net tum of 31931. 9s. ad. but this mode of payment has been chúng d 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. hould the auditing the ac ounts of the pay mafter-general of the forces be transferred to this office, |