340] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
felves nor their reprefentatives ever 
be profecuted with any hopes of 
fuccefs. The names and fchedules 
of the latter fhould all be taken from 
the writ; the former only fhould be 
annexed ; and upon all ngmed in the 
fchedules annexed, the writ fhould 
be executed, and they fhould be 
compelled to appear upon the re- 
turn, and give the reafons for the 
delay before the proper judges, the 
barons of the exchequer. 
The certificates of the accounts 
depending in the office of the audi- 
tors of the impreft require the like 
correction. Public inftruments fhould 
not be incumbered with ufelefs mat- 
ter: nothing fhould be inferted in 
them but what tends to anfwer the 
purpofe defigned by them; but thefe 
certificates are filled with ftale ac- 
counts that have been depending, 
many of them, for a century, the 
accountants forgotten, the line of 
their reprefentation not to be traced, 
no vouchers to be found, no vetftiges 
of them whatever remaining, fave 
what are preferved, to no purpofe, 
in thefe inftruments; they puzzle 
and confound the officers they are 
intended to inform; they engage 
the time of clerks that might be 
ufefully employed, and for which 
the public pay. 
The power of difcharging ac- 
counts of long ftanding has been 
exercifed by the legiflature for the 
quiet of the fubjeét. In the land 
tax act of the year 1759, all infu- 
pers fet in the accounts of the re- 
ceivers general of the land tax be- 
fore the year 1746 are abfolutely 
difcharged. 
Other delays arife in the office of 
the treafurer of the navy, and flow 
in a great meafure from the prefent 
conftitution of that office. As the 
auditor of the impreft cannot pafs 
the account until he has received 
all the materials of which it is com-' 
pofed, we required from him a ftate 
of the order of time in which the 
feveral parts of Mr. Grenville’s ac- 
count for the year 1759 were deli- 
vered into his office. By this ftate 
it appears, that the firlt fetions of 
this year came to the auditor in 
May 1763; that the voluntary 
charge, and fome other papers, 
which were the parts of the account 
that came the laft, were not received 
until December 17813 that is, 
eighteen years after the fections, and 
near twenty-two years after the ex- 
piration of the year to which the 
account belongs. We required, 
likewife, from the auditors a ftate 
of the accounts of the treafurers of 
the navy, now depending in each of 
their offices, with the times when 
the feveral parts of the accounts were 
delivered into each. Thefe ftates 
fhew, that the accounts for the 
two’ next iucceeding years, 1760 
and 1761, are ready for-declara- 
tion; that the accounts of none of 
the fubfequent years are complete 
in the office, little more than the 
navy and victualling fections of thefe 
years having been as yet received 
from the treafurer’s office. 
One of the principal caufes 
affgned for this delay, and the only 
one that feems to have a foundation, 
is ftated in our third report; it is 
the neceflity of keeping open the 
fhips books for many years, even 
after the treafurer, in’ whofe time 
they were firft opened, is out of of- _ 
fice, for the purpofe of compleating 
the payments upon each book, that 
fuch treafurer may have his proper 
voucher for the payment of each 
fhip, and to prevent the difficulty 
that would arife in diftinguifhing 
the payments by each, if the fame 
book was paid upon by more trea- 
furers than one. 
Keeping 
