part; he corrects the errors in the account; he ftates his doubts, and reports his opinion to the lords of the treafury, who form their judgment upon his report, and direct payments accordingly. Iffues directed by the treafury upon these contracts, may be either previous to the execution of any part of the contract, or in confequence of either a part or the whole having been performed: the first is without the intervention of the controller or the treasury clerk, and must be upon account: the other two are in confequence of the reference to one of them, and may be directed to be made, either upon, or without account; but they are ufually upon account. Hence we may collect the fituation in which the fub-accountants under our confideration may at prefent fland. To fome of them the fums they are charged with, may have been iffued on account, and no ex. amination whatever had of the expenditure. To others, fums may have been iffued, either upon, or without account, in confequence of the reports of the controller of the army accounts, or of the examinations of the clerks of the treasury; and the auditors of the impreft have feen reason, according to the rules of their office, to fet them all infuper, though fome of the warrants may have been filent, or have even directed the iffues to be made without account. There can be no doubt that thofe perfons whofe accounts have never been examined, are bound to pass them: but thofe to whom payments have been made in confequence of accounts examined and approved by officers duly authorized, ftand upon a different ground. If fuch an examination be liable to no fufpicion of careleffnefs, partiality, or collu fion; if it has fuch credit as to warrant the actual payment of the demand, any farther check feems to be unneceffary. The auditor follows exactly the steps of the controller; he re-computes, re-cafts, and re-examines the fame or funilar vouchers. It is true, he may correct the errors of the controller, as the latter has corrected his errors; for the statements of the auditor have been referred to and corrected by the controller; but if the poffibility of error were a ground for re-examination, checks would be endless. If two perfons competent in accounts do their duty; if each examines, and they both agree, the probability is they are both right, for it is highly improbable they fhould both err exactly alike; and, therefore, if an office for the examination of accounts be faithfully executed, there is no neceffity for the interpofition of any other office by way of check. The paffing thefe accounts in the office of the auditor is not only ufelefs, but attended with very confiderable expence, and the public pays it. The fees paid for paffing an account of extraordinaries in the office of the auditor, are in proportion to the length and period of the account, and the trouble it gives to the office. Where the account comprehends a number of years, the auditor is paid from ten pounds to twenty-five pounds for each year of the account. All the fees for paffing a fhort account through all the exchequer offices, amount to about 40!. and a long one to 120l. Elimating the expence of paffing the accounts of 664 infupers (the number in these lifts) in the auditor's office, one with another at a medium of 801. each, it will amount to 53,120l. a fum to be paid for bufinefs unne ceffary, neceffary, and which ought, efpecially in the prefent ftate of its finances, to be faved to the public. It will not be difficult to diftinguifh which of thefe accounts have been examined, and which not. The controller keeps entries of all his reports in his office. The treafury can certainly with eafe find out what accounts have been fettled by their clerks; and by the publication of thefe lifts of infupers, they who are alive, and the reprefentatives of thofe who are dead, will fee the fums for which they ftand accountable to the public; it nearly concerns them all to examine into the state of their accounts, and to be ready to produce them when called upon by proper authority. We are of opinion, that all these Jifts of fub-accountants fhould forthwith undergo a fcrutiny in the treafury, and in the office of the controller of the accounts of the army; that fuch of the perfons therein named, or the reprefentatives of those who are dead, whofe accounts have been either imperfectly or not at all examined, fhould be compelled to produce their accounts in the office of the controller of the accounts of the army, in order for their examination; and that thofe perfons whofe accounts fhall appear to have been fufficiently examined, either by the controller or the clerks of the treasury, fhould be relieved from the neceffity of paffing their accounts in the office of the auditors of the impreft, and fhould, by fpecial warrants to be granted for that purpofe, have their infupers cleared in the final accounts of the paymasters-general of the forces, from whom they received the fums with which they ftand charged, and be enabled to obtain their quietus. The next fubject to which we di rested our attention, was the flate of the accounts of the paymastersgeneral of the forces in the office of the auditors of the impret. The account we had been examining, was the last declared account of a paymafter-general of the forces, and of the year 1767; only one account more of a fubfequent year, which is that of Mr. Cooke and Mr. Thomas Townfhend, ending the 24th of June 1768, has been declared. An arrear of 14 years in the accounts of an office fo important and of fo extenfive a public expenditure, was a fubject that called for inquiry. We required from the auditors of the impreft the state of the accounts of the paymasters-general of the forces in their offices, diftinguishing the times when the feveral parts of the accounts were delivered in, and the progress made towards completing the fame. In the return to this requifition from the office of Lord Sondes, the first article is the final account of Henry Lord Holland, for fix months, ending the 24th of June 1765 it is ftated to have been delivered to the auditor in 1772. The accounts of three fucceeding pay mafters, for the three fucceeding years, have been declared; but this account is neither declared, nor ready for declaration. It was incumbent upon us to enquire into the causes that obftructed the completion of an account of fo remote a period. This account had been under our confideration in the beginning of the year 1781, as far as regarded the balance then due from the reprefentatives of Lord Holland to the public: what farther progrefs had been made in it fince that time, both in the auditor's office and in the pay office, we learned from Jofeph Hughes, efq. one of the deputy auditors, auditors, Mr. Thomas Gibbes, one of the clerks in the office of Lord Sondes, and Mr. John Colborne, an alliant in the pay-office, who has been the principal perfon employed in making up the accounts of Lord Holland. This account has been ready for declaration, as far as the auditor has been enabled to proceed with it, ever fince the year 1778; the two parts have been engroffed for above two years, and it has waited only for the acting executor of Lord Holland to strike the balance, and atteft the account. Since it has been ingroffed, feveral additions have from time to time been made to the book of account in the pay office fuch as were made before Christmas last have been entered in the ingroffments. Some time about Christmas, the book of account was taken from the office of the auditor to the pay-office, for the purpofe of adding two articles to the charge, amounting to 13681. 9s. 3d. arifing from errors in the account pointed out by the auditor. At this time the balance (including these two articles) agreed by the pay-office, and by them pencilled into the book of account, was 68,0081. 6s. 6d. Soon after Christmas the book was returned to the auditor, with feveral o: her articles, amounting together to 48,7991. rcs. 11d. added to the end of the charge, and inferted next before the two pointed out by the auditor; and upon the 12th of February, in confequence of a letter from Lord Sondes to Mr. Powell, an addition was made of three more articles; amounting to 7741. 78. 3d. which are the laft additions to the charge. An allowance was alfo claimed of 28451. 17s. 10d. in addition to the difcharge. Suppofing this claim to be well founded, the balance due on the 12th of Fe bruary laft from the reprefentatives of Lord Holland, as paymaster-general of the forces, to the public, was 114,7361. 6s. 10d. The balance of public money in the hands, cuftody, or power of the reprefentatives of Lord Holland, as paymafter-general of the forces, upon the 27th of September 1780, returned to our precept by John Powell, efq. his only acting executor, and attefted by him on oath before us upon the 28th of March 1781, as being, to the best of his knowledge, the whole balance then remaining upon the account of the faid Lord Holland, was 256,4561. 28. 4d.; of this balance he paid into the exchequer in November 1781, pursuant to the act of the 21ft of his prefent majefty, 232,5151. 4s. 8d. which reduced the balance in his hands to 23,940l. 17s. 8d.; this being deducted from 114,7361. 6s. 10d. his balance upon the 12th of February, leaves 90,7951. gs. 2d.; of which 39,8531. 1s. 9d. was included in the charge before Christmas laft, and 50,9421. 78. 5d. was added to it between Christmas and the 12th of February. Such appeared the increase of the debt due to the public from the reprefent. atives of Lord Holland, fince the 27th of September 1780. By what means this balance could accumu late to fuch a degree fince Mr. Powell's examination before us, and and fifteen years after Lord Holland had reigned the office of paymastergeneral, was a difficulty that wanted explanation. We required from the auditor of the impreft a copy of the additions made to the charge and discharge of the final account of Henry Lord Holland, as paymatier-general of the forces, between the 27th of September 1780, and the 5th of October last, and also a copy of the like additions fince the 5th of October laft. It was not in the power of the auditor to comply with our first requifition, nor were we able by any means, to difcover either what the particular additions were, or at what times any of them were entered upon the account prior to the 5th of October laft; for the entries upon the account are without date, and no memorandum or minute of the time, or fubject matter of the entry is kept in the offices either of the auditor or of the paymaster-general. It has been ufual for the pay-office to leave, in different parts of the body of the account blanks for fums not afcertained when the account is first drawn out, and to fill them up afterwards at fuch times when they take the book back to the office. It was in the power of the auditor to anfwer our other requifition; for all the additions fince the 5th of October, were entered together at the end of the charge in the account. He returned to us a state of them; but the entries of thefe articles being alfo without the 'material circumitance of dates and authorities, we annexed a copy of this return to a precept to the pay. office, requiring an account of the times when, and the warrants and authorities by which, the fums contained in that return were refpectively paid into the hands, or placed to the account of the paymafter-general of the forces, with the dates of fuch warrants, and by whom granted. They returned to us this itate completed as we defired; it confifts of a variety of articles which may be claffed under five heads: fums paid to deputies of Lord Holland, amounting to 19,2551. 6s. 11d-two articles of profit on re.nittances, 9,5181. 45. 7d-Stoppages made by deputies, 20,0251. 198. 5d.—the two articles pointed out by the auditor, 13681. cs. 3d.-and the three articles added the 12th of February, 7741. 78. 3d. the total of these additions is 0,9421. s. 5d. The dates of all of them, except the two dif covered by the auditor, are comprehended between the year 1758 and 1765 inclufive; feveral of the fums are directed to be paid to, and most of the stoppages to be made by the deputies, pursuant to warrants of commanders in chief; for the payment of others of them no authority appears. All the articles that were charges upon Lord Holland, have been feveral years ago felected from his ledger accounts, and at different times all inferted in his book of account: the additions which were entered about Christmas laft, and the three entered the 12th of February, complete the charge againft him. It refted now with Mr. Powell alone to explain to us the reafon why near 90,000l. the difference between his balance in September 1780, and the prefent balance of the account in the office of the auditor, was not included in his return to our precept upon the 27th of September 1780; and for this purpofe we required his attendance. Upon our informing him, at his defire, of the fubject we intended to examine him upon, he begged the indulgence of a few days for confideration. Upon his next attendance he delivered to us, in writing, a request, that his examination might be deferred; alledging, that he was informed it was under confideration, whether a criminal profecution fhould not be commenced against him, 'on account of his examination upon oath, taken by us in February and March 1781, left queftions fhould be put, the answers to which might tend to accufe himfelf. Upon producing to us, at his next attendance, a copy of an extract of a minute of the lords commiffioners of the treafury, dated the 27th of February, and being informed by William Chamberlayne, elq. the folicitor to the treafury, that a criminal profecution was in their contemplation, we poftponed the examination of Mr. Powell. But we did not defift from purfuing fuch other means of information upon this fubject as were with in our reach. We had recourfe to the official books of the paymastergeneral of the forces (now declared by the legislature to be the property of the public) in the payoffice of the army. We directed the attendance of Mr. Powell, Mr. Bembridge, and Mr. Colborne, at the pay-office, that they might not be ignorant of our proceedings, and might be ready to give us fuch in formation relative to the accounts, as we might think proper to require in their prefence we infpected thofe books of Lord Holland's accounts, from whence the articles added to the charge in his final account, and included in the return made to us from the pay. office, had been extracted. From this infpection, and from the examination of Mr. John Colborne, we find, that fuch of thofe articles as conft of payments made to deputy-paymafters, had long ago been entered in the proper books belonging to each refpective deputy, as charges against him. It is ufual for the deputies abroad to return to the pay-office in London, as often as they have opporrunity, accounts of their receipts and payments, down as low as to the date of their accounts, with the vouchers. The accounts are immediately examined in the office, and entered in the books of each refpective deputy; and when the account of the year to which these receipts and payments belong, is made up for the auditor, these articles are pofted to their feparate accounts in the ledger. The two articles ftated in the return as profic on remittances, were made up, one of them about the year 1764, under the direction of Mr. Nicholls, the then accountant of the payoffice; the other, about four or five years ago, under the direction of Mr. Powell. The stoppages are taken from the accounts of the deputies, and entered in their refpective books. All the articles, compoling the fum of 20,0251. 198. 5d. the amount of the ftoppages, were pofted into the ledger, to the accounts of the proper deputies, previous to the year 1772, when the final account was fent to the auditor, and one of these articles in this lift is 68541. 7s. 6d. confifting of stoppages by Mr. Powell, as deputy-paymaster at Quebec. All the deputies mentioned in this return are dead; and all their accounts have been long fince made up, except that of Mr. Barrow, and that appears now to be finished. We required a state of the balances of the deputies to Lord Holland, as they now ftand between fuch deputies and the acting executor of Lord Holland. By this return, the fum now due from them amounts to 41,6261. 195. 4d. bur for which the acting executor is anfwerable to the public. The circumstance in this inquiry that materially concerns the intereft of the public, is their claim upon the estate of the late Lord Holland: this claim is much great er |