> 
3244] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
and fixty drivers, at 1s. 2d. each 
per day, there remains the fum of 
87,9517. The prime coft of the 
waggons and horfes, at the highett 
price, is 44,150/.; this fum being 
deducted from 87,951/. leaves .the 
clear profit of 43,801 /. for the firft 
year: this being added to the fum 
of 197,889/. two years and one 
quarter’s clear profits, after deduct- 
ing the hire of the drivers, gives the 
fum of 241,690 /. paid by the pub- 
lic, beyond what it would have coft 
them had the property of thefe wag- 
gons and horfes belonged to govern- 
ment: and, if the fame fyftem of 
management has been continued to 
the prefent time, the public have in- 
curred a ftill further expence of 
175,902/. for two years more, to 
the 31{t of March lait; that is, the 
public have paid 417,592/. for the 
jingle article of the hire of waggons 
and horfes; the whole of which 
might have been faved, had the 
mode contained in the orders of the 
23d of December 1780 been at firit 
adopted. 
From the circumftances thus dif.’ 
elofed, it can hardly be doubted that 
this practice, of letting out for hire 
to government, has been highly lu- 
crative to the officers engaged in it. 
The officer is a truftee for the pub- 
lic; as fuch, he is bound to hufband 
the public money committed to his 
eharge with as much frugality as if 
it were his own: what he faves or 
what he gains, he faves and gains 
not for himfelf but for the public. 
He ought not to be permitted, by 
any Management or contrivance, to 
€arve out for himfelf-an intereft, in 
the execution of a public truft: if 
that intereft has ‘een productive, 
how far fuch profit belongs to the 
public, and whether, by bills of dif- 
covery filed by the proper officer of 
. 
the crown, or by what other ni®ana, 
it may be difcovered, and reclaimed 
for the public, are for the wifdom of 
parliament to decide. 
It is of public concern this evil 
fhould be fpeedily ecorrefted: it 
ows from permitting a truft to re- 
fide, with an intereft, in the fame 
perfon. The remedy is, to take 
away the intereft, and by that means 
to reftore the traft and control to 
its full force, that it may freely 
operate for the benefit of the public, 
uninfluenced by private confidera- 
tions. 
But the remedy may be extended 
fill farther: it fhould feem as if it 
would be more-beneficial to the fer- 
vice, if the officers were relieved en- 
tirely from the trouble of making the 
payments, When their military 
duty calls them to the field, they 
muit neglect their duty as pay- 
mafters, and leave that branch to 
be conduéted entirely by their in- 
ferior officers and clerks. It feems 
to be a hardfhip upon a quarter 
matter general, to be fubject to ac- 
count for very large fums, no part 
of which he paid himfelf, but merely 
becaufe they were paid in his name, 
and at his office, whilft he himfelf 
was abfent upon other duty. 
There is no neceflary connection 
between the military duty of thefe 
officers and the expenditure of mo- 
ney for military fervices : this latter 
belongs properly to a civil depart- 
ment, and may be executed by a 
civil officer. Major general Wil- 
liam Roy, who, during the laft ‘war 
in Germany, was in the depart- 
ments both of the quarter mafter 
genera) and chief engineer, -in- 
formed us, that no public money 
was iffued to him in either of thefe 
capacities: he was no accountant; 
but all the expences incurred in 
thefe 
