mount to 1,620l. which is paid out of the public funds.

From the account of the contingent expences of this office, they were 1691. 175. 7d. paid alfo by the public; fo that the grofs expence of this office to the public, was 1,791. 45. 7d.; the net produce to the officers, was 1,4781. 75. That the total amount of the expences attending the receiving and iffuing of the public money at the receipt of his majefty's Exchequer, may appear at one view, we fubjoin, in the appendix, an account of the totals of the grofs and net receipt by the officers and clerks in each of thefe branches of the Exchequer, with the deductions paid thereout during the year 1780. From whence it appears, the grofs fum received by all of them, in falaries, fees, and gratuities, was 82,519l. 16s. 63d.; and the net fum 75,8631. 19s. 34d. The fum of 51,7511. 18s. 51d. was paid by the public; 8,0081. 5d. out of the civil lift; 22,929l. 155. 3d. by individuals; and 3,8671. 125 54d. for taxes.

Such is the ftate of the falaries, fees, and gratuities; and fuch the authority under which they are paid and received in thefe offices. But the act enjoins us a ftill farther duty; it commands us to report fuch regulations, as, in our judgment, fhall appear expedient to be established, in order that the duties, taxes, and monies, granted, received, and appropriated for the public fervice of this kingdom, may hereafter be received and iffued in the manner the most beneficial and advantageous to the public."

Regulations to this end have, in the progrefs of this enquiry, offered themselves to our judgment; regulations tending to introduce that

fyftem of frict economy in the administration of the public revenue, which the legiflature has, by the act, determined to be neceffary. By

ftrict economy," we apprehend, is not meant fuch as either derogates from the honour and dignity of the-crown, or abridges the fervant of the public of the due reward of his industry and abilities; we mean an economy that steers between extreme parfimony on the one hand, and profufion on the other; that is confiftent with juftice as well as prudence; that gives to all their full due, and to none more; that fupports every useful and neceffary establishment, but cuts off and reduces every fuperfluous and redundant expence. Some regulations, built upon the principle of œconomy thus defined, have for their objects the offices, the officers, and their emoluments.

An office of the highest antiquity, that has fubfifted for ages under its prefent form; that has the receipt and cuflody of the public treasure, upon the due adminiftration of which depends the national credit and fafety of the realm; an office of fuch a defcription is entitled to the utmost respect, and alterations in its eftablishment fhould be well weighed, and propofed with caution and diffidence: but, as a change in the manners, cuftoms, and, above all, in the finances of this nation, fince the origin of this office, together with peculiar circumftances of the times, may render regulations neceffary, we have judged it a part of our duty to examine into the receipt of the Exchequer, with a view to an ce conomical reform.

The office of the chamberlains

of the Exchequer, however important

portant in ancient times, is, at this day, occupied principally in the bufinefs of the tally; which is the official acquittance to perfons paying money into the Exchequer. This acquittance has various formalities, all calculated to prevent the poffibility of a forgery, by which the accountant might, on paffing his accounts, be difcharged of a fum he never paid.

The teller is obliged, as foon as he receives money, to tranfmit the bill by which he charges himfelf with that receipt, through the pipe into the tally court; where the following officers attend: it, the tallywriter; who is the officer of the auditor, and takes an account of the fum, and writes it on both fides of the tally delivered to him, with the fum cut upon it in notches by the tally-cutter. 2dly. The clerk of the introitus; who is the officer of the pells, and records the receipt and 3dly, the two deputy chamberlains on the receipt-fide; who split the tally, examine and compare the two parts with each other, and with the entry made by the clerk of the introitus. The tally is delivered to the accountant; the foil is delivered to, and kept by, the deputy chamberlains on the court-fide, until the accountant, being about to pafs his accounts, brings to them the account. of his payments into the Exchequer, with the tallies: thefe chamberlains examine the account, join the tallies with the foils, mark both, certify upon the account that the tallies are received and joined, de liver back his account to the accountant, keep the foil in the of fice, and fend the tally to the clerk of the pipe. In this operation nine perfons are concerned

VOL. XXVIII.

It is undoubtedly true, that the public revenue cannot be too fafely guarded against fraud of every kind; but if a mode of receipt can be fubftituted, fimilar to what is practifed in other offices, equally fecure, and at but little expence, fuch a mode demands attention.

If, instead of the tally court, the clerks of the auditor, and of the pells, were to attend the office of the tellers, as the bank clerk does now, and take an account of the fums, as they are received; if an indented check receipt of each fum was made out, compared with the entries, and marked with an intratur by the one officer, and a recordatur by the other; if this receipt was produced with the account, before it is paffed and examined with the counterfoil, and the account compared with the entries in the office, either of the auditor, or the pells, and the truth of it certified by that officer; a check thus fenced feems to be as effectually fecured against forgery as the tally, is a mode more fimple, and can be tranfacted by a fingle clerk. Nor is this check unknown in the Exchequer; the bills that are iffued every year, to a great amount, both in number and value, are guarded by the check indenture and counterfoil.

The other bufinefs of this office may, without injury to the public, be eafily transferred elsewhere: the cuftody of one of the keys to the tellers chefts, the number of which ought not to be diminished, may be committed to the auditor; and the cuftody of the ftandard weights and measures, and of the standard pieces of gold and filver, caufing little trouble, and that but feldom, to any other office in the Exchequer.

Seeing,

Seeing, therefore, no utility accruing to the public from the office of the chamberlains, beyond the labour of a fingle clerk, but, on the contrary, a confiderable charge incurred annually, in fupporting two chamberlains, and a tally-cutter, three finecures, at the expence, in the year 1780, of 1,4121. 2s. 10d.; and the whole office at the expence of 3,0641.9s. 6d.; we are of opinion, that public prudence requires the fuppreffion of this office, and the fubftitution of another kind of receipt in the place of the tally.

The chief, if not the only, prefent duty of the ufher, is to fupply the Treafury and Exchequer with ftationary and turnery ware, and a variety of other articles, and the Exchequer with coals, and to provide workmen for certain repairs; he is, as it were, a factor to thefe of fices for particular neceffaries; on all which he has a profit. The amount of the four liberates, which contained all the articles provided by him, with the bills for repairs in the year 1780, was 14,440l.3s. 6d.; out of which the profits to the usher were 5,2521. 85. 4d.: fo that, fuppofing all thefe articles could have been purchased, and the repairs done, as cheap without the intervention of the ufher (and no reafon appears why they might not) the public paid 14,440l. 3s. 6d. for what was really worth but 9,1871. 15s. 2d.; that is, near forty per cent. more than they would have paid, had no fuch office exifted as that of the usher.

As whatever is wanted for public ufe, fhould be purchased at the first hand, and at as cheap a rate as may be, we think it neceffary for the public intereft, that the office of the ufher of the Exchequer fhould

be difcontinued, as expenfive and unneceffary; and that every principal officer fhould procure all articles requifite for his own department, and for that purpose be paid by the public an annual allowance proportioned to the wants of his office; a method now practifed in the paymafter-general's and in various other offices.

The teller's is one office, at the head of which are placed four officers, independent of each other, each prefiding over his own diftinct divifion, but none of them contributing to the execution of any part of the bufinefs. It is expedient, that in an office of this importance, fome perfon of rank and refponfibility fhould prefide, to fuperintend, direct, and controul, the execution, with an appointment adequate to his confequence and ftation in the official scale, leaving to fubordinate officers and minifters the laborious detail of the execution; but no advantage is derived to the public from placing four inoperative officers at the head of this one office.

Judging then, as we must do, folely by the rule of public frugality, and fuppofing the nation to ftand in need of every practicable retrenchment, and confequently to require the reduction of every ufelefs and expenfive office, we are led neceffarily to conclude, that, as the public fervice receives no affiftance or advantage from the labours of the tellers, and the public treasure will find a confiderable increase from their emoluments, the public intereft requires their number fhould be reduced.

Whatever reafons there may be for continuing these, and other offices mentioned above; whether

I

drawn

drawn from policy or expedience; as a refource for the reward of fervices, in preference to penfions; or from juftice, for continuing them during the lives of the prefent pof feffors only, in favour of the rights of private property; or whether it would be proper to change them again from offices for life to offices during pleafure; all thefe are topics not within the limits of our commiffion, but for the difcuffion of the legislature; whofe deliberations comprehend arguments drawn from every fource. But, in whatever fhape they may be permitted to continue, every reafon of prudence demands the reduction of their emoluments, from an excefs to a reasonable limited standard.

There are likewife in this office of the tellers, four officers, under the denomination of fecond clerks, who are merely nominal, without attendance, without bufinefs, care, or trouble; but they have fees, and to no inconfiderable amount. In the year 1780, the total of them was 5,5181. 8s. 4d. and were either paid to, or to the ufe of, the perfons named to thefe offices, or increased the profits of the tellers themselves. Whatever pretenfions a fuperior officer may have to an exemption from duty and fervice, a finecure is repugnant to the idea of the condition of a clerk in office; and therefore we are of opinion, that common fenfe requires the fuppreffion of the offices of the fecond clerks to the tellers.

We have ranged the emoluments ofthefe offices under the heads of Salaries, Fees, and Gratuities. From our examination into the ftate of the Salaries, many of them appear to be made up of a variety, and fometimes of very small payments,

arifing out of different funds. Of the inferior clerks, feveral pay over, either the whole or portions of their falaries, or fees, to increase the profits of other clerks; all which is contrary to that fimplicity and regularity that ought to be obferved in every office, and may be eafily corrected by a regulation we fhall hereafter propose.

The Fees are either fums paid for tranfacting particular kinds of official bufinefs, or a poundage; the first fort of fees fall, in many cafes, very heavy upon individuals: in fome cafes they fall upon the public: it would be much for the benefit of both, as well as for the honour of government, that all perfons employed in the public fervice, and who muft of neceffity have recourfe to offices for inftructions, inftruments, and other official bufinefs, effential to the execution of their employments, fhould be furnifhed with all neceffary materials, and have their business done in every office, without fee or reward: the regulation hereinafter fuggefted will, if adopted, be attended with this good effect.

The poundage is the most fruitful fource of fees to most of the fuperior, and to fome of the inferior officers; it is a payment, after fome certain rate in the pound, upon the fum received, or iffued, or contained in fome official inftrument made out in the office, and delivered to the perfon applying.

In ancient times, when the tranfaction was an actual delivery of money, and that money confifted of coin of various denominations and value, and poffibly clipt, or of doubtful weight, the trouble and attention of the perfon employed in the receipt or payment in

O 2

creafed

creased with the fum; and therefore the poundage was a mode of reward that bore a proportion to the labour: but in thefe times, when all money tranfactions are carried on, not by the medium of cash, not by the tale or weight of current coin, but by the fubftitution of paper, by cafh notes, draughts, or bills, to any amount; fince the clear and concife method of the debtor and creditor account has been fo univerfally introduced to practice, an increase in the magnitude of the fums, though to a vast amount, is the addition of a few figures, or of a few entries, only; and the increase of trouble arifing from it is too inconfiderable to be eftimated. The examination of Mr. Cowper, who attends daily at the Exchequer on the part of the Bank, fhews us with what eafe, perfpicuity, and exactnefs, the various and most extenfive receipts and payments of the public revenue are tranfacted there, by the intervention of the Bank, with whom the principal offices of receipt, and feveral of the greater accountants, keep their cah: the tranfactions there, of each day, are carried on, not in coin told or weighed by the tellers, but by the interchange of cafh notes, or by the bare entries of the fums received and paid; and that account being made up when the tranfactions of the day are finished, the balance only is either taken out of, or depofited in, the teller's chefts, in exchequer bills, or labelled bags of cash, according as that balance turns out in favour of, or against, the Bank.

Befides this facility in conducting money transactions, a course of years has introduced, and very rapidly within these few years, an

other alteration, moft fenfibly felt, in this payment by poundage. In its first establishment, the revenue of this kingdom was not confiderable, and the profits of the poundage exceeded not the earnings of the officer; but in thefe later times, the neceffities of the state have required a revenue far beyond the imagination of our ancestors. In the year under our contemplation, the receipt of the Exchequer was 31,821,195 1.; the iffue, 30,384,8381.: on near 16,000,000!. was a poundage paid to different branches of that office, amounting, as much of it as we could extract from the returns, and which is not the whole, to 62,225 1.; of which much the greateft part was paid to officers for tranfacting either very little, or no bufinefs at all. The total of the emoluments accruing in that year to the ineffective officers of the Exchequer, amounted to 45,3321.

But the excess of this poundage reaches beyond the fuperior class; it fwelled the profits of a fingle officer, not the principal in the department, to a fum nearly equal to what fupported an entire office of equal expenditure for the whole year. The net actual receipt of the cashier alone, in the pay-office of the army, was 7,1751. 19s. 6d.: the net receipt of the whole pay-office of the navy was 7,9381.; 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