326] 
to the commander in chief for his 
infpection and approbation, and in 
order to obtain a final warraat for 
the amount of the abftraé&t. The 
vouchers are ready for his infpec- 
tion if he requires it. This is the 
firft check to which the account is 
fubmitted. It is not to be imagined, 
that the many important objects, 
that: muft continually engrofs the 
attention of the general of an army, 
will afford him either leifure or pa- 
¢ience to examine voluminous bun- 
dies of vouchers: he may fometimes, 
upon a tranfient view of the abftraét, 
find fome article that excites -his 
“curiofity to call for an explanation ; 
but he cannot poffibly enter into the 
detail, or'min:tely examine into the 
circumftances of a complicated re- 
ceipt; and therefore, unlefs fuck an 
inftance occurs for infpeétion, the 
vouchers are left unexamined in the 
hands of the accountant, and the 
commander in chief depends upon 
his honour that he has them in his 
pofleffion. 
After the final warrant is ob- 
tained, this abftract and the vouch- 
ers are fent home to be examined, 
that the ‘account may be pafled in 
the office of the auditors of the im- 
preit. It is utterly impoflible the 
vouchers can be fufiiciently feruti- 
nized in this office, for want of 
evidence: the accountant is. the 
proper perfon to give them inform- 
ation ; and he, very poffibly, is not 
privy to the payment, or to any one 
circumftance ftated in the voucher. 
Charles Harris, efq. one of the 
deputy auditors of the impreft, tells 
us the’grounds upon which a vouch- 
er, fora payment for the extraor- 
dinary fervice abroad, is, and of 
neceffity muft be, allowed in: that 
office: if it contains a certain num- 
ber received, the fignature of a per- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
foh receiving, and a juft computa- 
tion, and agrees with the abftrac, 
it is deemed and admitted as a fair. 
voncher: for the truth of it, they 
rely upon the oath taken by the ac- 
countant before the: barons of the 
exchequer, when he pafles his ac- 
count. In faé, in thofe accounts, 
which have been already pafled in 
this office, no inquiry feems to have 
been made into the truth of the 
vouchers, whatever queftions might 
arife upon the face of them. By the 
form of this oath, which we ob- 
tained from the office of the audi- 
tors of the impreft, the accountant 
fwears that the account is juft and 
true, according to the bett of his 
knowledge and belief: thefe latter 
words muft, as we conceive, be in- 
terpreted by him fo to qualify the 
oath, as to enable him to fwear 
with fafety to thofe items of his ac- 
count, of the tranfacting of which 
he has no other: knowledge than 
what the vouchers themfelves give 
him, and where he knows nothing 
of the perfons- who tranfaét them, 
except probably their general cha- 
racters : no great reliance, then, Can 
be had, for the truth of the voucher, 
upon the oath of the accountant; 
becaufe that oath, fo worded, is no 
additional evidence of its truth. 
From thus tracing the voucher, 
from the pay office of the depart-. 
ment in North America to.the of- 
fice of its final examination in Eng-. 
land, it appears that the public may 
be defrauded in a tranfaction, and 
yet the voucher of that tranfaction 
may pafs through all its ftages of 
examination unfufpeéted and unim- 
peached, and be fworn to by the ac- 
countant without the violation of 
his oath. Various are the ways and 
means by which the fraud may be 
committed; the agreement or pur~ 
chafe 
€ 
