: 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 2,000l. a year. Since then this truft 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 imprett; 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 stocks, 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 just 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 diftin&t bodies of men, like the proprietors of any other government fecurity; the proportional flares of the original annuity, which they became entitled to upon the feparation, continued to be iluted, and are now iffued from the exchequer to the company; blended with the stock annuity; but the acts exprefly fay, thofe fhares 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, juft 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 traniac; 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. 2s. the present an nuity attending the old South Sea annuities; and ever fince the year 1732, the fum of 254,8441. 188. id. 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 truffecs 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 imprest only, of above 120,000l. As the payment of thefe annuities has, for fo many years, been intrufted to the South Sea company, 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 annuities of the year 1751, and to thofe tranfacted at the bank of England. the other, it becomes neceffary for us to endeavour to develope thefe official rights, and define, if we can, their precife boundaries. If a ufelefs and expenfive office cannot be fuppreffed, nor the redun dancies of an office curtailed, be the neceffities 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 injuftice, be exerted for the relief of the ftate. The duty, however, and bufinefs of the cafhier ought, in our opinion, to be continued without alteration. It is expedient that go vernment should not be ignorant of the annual state of these accounts; and therefore the cafhier of each The principle which gives excompany fhould, every year, tranfiftence to, and governs every pubmit to the lords commiffioners of lic office, is the benefit of the state. his majesty's treafury, an account Government requires that various current, fimilar to that now tranf- branches of bufinefs fhould be tranfmitted by them to the auditors of acted, and perfons must be found the impreft, containing the receipts to tranfact them. The acceptance and payments of all the annuities of a public office implies an entranfacted by them, including the gagement to do the bufinefs, and a old and new South Sea annuities, right to a compenfation: the officer with the balance of the unclaimed has powers delegated to him necefdividends and ftock remaining in fary for the execution; but he has their hands, figned by the cashier, no other right than to the reward and attested by him on oath, before of his labour: he has no right to a baron of the exchequer. any fpecific quantity of butinefs; that quantity muft fluctuate according to circumftances, 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 oppofe to the regulation, the diminution or annihilation of his profits; becaufe 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 fuppofe the office created for his benefit; that is, to fuppofe it to originate in a violation of public trust, an abufe of power, and an offence against the ftate. Where law or ufage 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 flightest 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 justice, without invading the rights of the fubject on the one hand, er facrificing thofe of the public on (K 2) ufage has annexed terms to the grant, which limit the right of the executive power to refume or take it away, the reafon feems to be the expedience of leaving the officer in the exercife of the duties of his of fice, independent of the influence of that power, which might other wife, at pleasure, remove him: but when it is no longer for public convenience that fuch duties fhould be exercifed, or when the exercife of them becomes an unneceffary expence to the public, it would be an invertion of the principle that governs fuch establishments, to fuffer that private emolument, which was no motive for the intitution, to prevent or retard the abolition of them. It matters not what the duration or condition of the intercit may be, whether for life or years, during good behaviour or pleafure; all are equally fubject to that governing principle for the fake of which it was created-the good of the public: hence, in every propofed official regulation, the advantage or difadvantage of the officer can never be properly a fubject of difcuffion; the only queftion is, whether the neceflity or good of the fate actually requires it? This decides the propriety of the regulation; and the determination of it belongs only to the fupreme power that watches over the public good, for its improvement as well as protection. The regulation we have here fuggefted affects the auditors of the impreft, by a diminution of their bufinefs, and confequently of their profits: it is neceffary therefore to examine particularly, whether it interferes with any right vested in that officer by virtue of his office. We have procured, and inferted in the appendix, a copy of the last patent for the grant of this office, omitting 6 the recital of the then fubfifting patents: this patent defcribes his of fice, with its objects and emoluments. The power of auditing the bank and South Sea house accounts, feems to be derived from the general words of "auditing and determining all accounts of all perfons whatfoever, being accountable for any fums received by the name of impret." The iffue, therefore, by way of impreft, is the circumflance that gives the auditor the power to examine the expenditure. Whether a fum shall be iffued by way of impreft, or not, depends upon the authority that directs the iffue; which is either the royal fign manual, or an act of parliament; and, confequently, the exercife of this power of auditing muft depend upon the will and pleafure either of the crown, or the legislature. The office of the auditors of the impreft exited before the mode of borrowing upon funds was first adopted. Upon the creation of annuities, the legislature thought proper to direct that the money to be iffued for the payment of them fhould be accounted for according to the due course of the exchequer; and thereby gave the auditors a new object. Should the legiflature fee good reafon for altering the mode of iffue; fhould they find by experience that the examination of the accounts by the auditors of the impreft is unneceffary; or the advantage of it in no degree adequate to the expence; can there be a doubt of their having a right, without injuftice, to take from them again that object, and to direct the iffue for the future to be without account? There is another limitation alfo, upon the power of the auditor, inferted in his patent; that is, the confent confent of the treafury: he is "to audit and determine, by and with the advice, authority, and co fent of the high treafurer of Great Britain, or the commiffioners of the treafury, chancellor, and under treasurer of the exchequer for the time being." This neceffarily implies a power in the treafury, if they fee reafon, to with-hold their affent; and, confequently, renders the exercise of the power of the auditor dependent upon their difcre tion. If this mode of reafoning be folid and conclufive; if the propriety of continuing an othice, or particular branches of the bufinefs of an office, be tried by the advantage it produces to the community if the officer can have no right in his office, independent of the public good; we fuggeft the infringement of no private right, when we deliver it as our opinion, that the money for the annuities payable at the bank of England and South Sea houfe, ought for the future to be issued without account from the exchequer and we have not violated any private right, by fuggefting the neceffity of an immediate abolition of ufelefs and expenfive offices, and reduction of unneceffary and redundant expences; convinced as we are, by the irrefiftible evidence of the flate of the national debt exhibited to us, of the abfolute and indifpentible neceffity of an immediate attention to every practicable ret enchment. This account of the public debt being tranfmitted to us from the exchequer in the ufual official form, required fome explanation; with which we were fupplied by the examination of Mr. John Hughfon, clerk of the debentures in the office of the auditor of the receipt of his majesty's exchequer. The fums inferted in the column This under the head of principal debt, oppofite to the firft, fecond, third, and fifth articles of annuities payable at the exchequer, are the purchafe money originally paid for them into the exchequer. purchafe money does notieem to us to confiitute a part of the public debt; the public are in no event bound to pay it: they are bound to pay the annuities purchafed with thefe fums for the duration of the terms, and the existence of the lives tor which they were granted; but upon the expiration of the annuities, either by effluction of time, or death, the debt is at an end; an event that has happened, as to the fecond article, of annuities for lives with the benefit of furvivorship, fince the fince the 5th of july laft, the date of the account. This annuity is now expired, by the death of the laft nominee; and therefore we have omitted this article, as well as thofe other principal fums, in our ftate of the public debt. The first article of 131,2031. 12s. 8d. annuities for long terms, being complicated, we obtained an account of the annuities that compofe it. This fum confits of annuities for years, granted for different terms, at feven different periods, between the years 1692 and 1708; and they will all expire between the years 1790 and 1807. The annuities in the third article, for two and three lives amounting to 8,207!. 12s. were finally granted in the year 1703, by the act of the 2d and 3d of queen Anne, chap. 3. the lives were all named by the 1st of May 1704. The original fum of thefe annuities was 37,0131. 1s. 7d.: the number of orders was 1701; of which 440 are now continued upon the books at the exchequer, as containing lives in being; notwithstanding most of these (K 3) may may be, and probably are, expired. The act directs, that the contributor, or his reprefentatives fhall, within one month after the death of the nominee, certify it to the auditor of the receipt of the exchequer; and, within three months after notice of the determination of the annuity, deliver up his tally and order into the exchequer; and until this is done the life is continued upon the books as exiting. Many of the contributors, and perfons named in thefe orders, were foreigners, and might be ignorant of, or inattentive to, the directions of the act. Every nominee now living must be at leaft feventy-nine years and an half old: that 440, out of 5103 perfons, fuppofing originally three lives in each order, fhould attain that age, is not probable upon any calculation. In order to obtain the payment of this annuity, a formal certificate must be produced of the life of the nominee: the last life that was certified was upon the 1ft of January 1781. But notwithflanding the probability that the greatest part of thefe annuities are expired, they cannot, upon that ground only, be omitted they must be continued as part of the public debt, until the auditor of the exchequer has an authority for leaving them out. The fourth article of 22col. exchequer bills, made out, for intereft of old bills, has been inferted among the public debts ever fince the year 1727: the old bills were then cancelled; and this intereft upon them was fuppofed to be due in the year 1719: it no where appears that any fuch bills were ever made cut, or to whom this intereft belongs: no demand has been made for them at the exchequer; and therefore we think this fum may fafely be erafed from among the debts of the public, and have omitted it accordingly. The million raifed in the year 1726, not having been paid into the exchequer, but applied in cancelling exchequer bills iffued for the discharge of the civil lift debts, has never been inferted among the debts of the public, ftanding out at the exchequer ; but it feems to us as if the public have made themfelves liable to the payment of this debt. By the act of the 7th of George I. chap. 27. 500,000l. was raifed by annuities. to difcharge the debts of the civil lift they were made a charge upon the hereditary revenues, and to be redeemed by the crown, To enable the crown to reimburse itself the fums to be paid for thefe annuities, and for their redemption, the fix-penny duty was granted, and appropriated. By the 11th of George I. chap. 17. a million was raised by exchequer bills, for the fame purpofe; and 500,00cl. of it applied in the redemption of thefe annuities: the bills were charged upon the hereditary revenues; the fix-penny duty was continued; and the furplus exprefsly appropriated for the cancelling them. The next year, by the 12th of George I. chap. 2. a million was raised by a lottery, and converted into annuities, at 31. per cent. and applied in cancelling 990,000l. of the exchequer bills. The king was empowered to continue the fix-penny duty; and out of it 30,0col. a year was made a fpecific fund for the payment of the annuity; the king was empowered alfo to redeem them, but out of what fund is not mentioned: the whole produce of the duty was appropriated towards paying and difcharging the faid annuities; and, fhould it produce a furplus, it was to |