STATE PAPERS, 
number, the quality, the times of 
- entry and of difcharge, with from 
three to five catual defiications; 
for though there are fourteen co- 
jumns for cafual defaications, yet 
there are feldom entries made in 
More than five of them; and thele 
are ufually for cloatis of different 
kinds, tobacco, and the two months 
advance. The name’ of the fhip 
likewife, to which the claimant be- 
Jonged, is entered upon the lift; 
and, to prevent overpayments, the 
fhip’s book j is marked, oppolite the 
name, as paid by lift of arrears. 
From inthe entries arifes all the ad- 
ditional trouble to the pay clerks, 
and delay to the eamen, by the fub- 
ftitution of the lift of arrears in the 
place of the thip’s books. 
' As there are now, at every pay- 
ment upon recalls, befides the com- 
miffioner, his clerk, and a fecond 
clerk in the treafurer’s office, three 
pay clerks, with each a fhip’s book 
in which the fame entries are made; 
fo at a payment upon a lift of ar- 
rears there mutt be the like number 
of clerks and lifts, and the fame 
entries made in each lift; but tran- 
feribing i into che tye lifts will take 
up no more time than the tranfcrib- 
ing into one, if an attending clerk 
reads thé entries in the fhip’s books, 
whilf the other three tranfcribe 
them into their lifts. Where the 
pumber of claimants is not great, 
the time it takes to tranfcribe thefe 
articles cannot be very confiderable, 
Where the payment is in confe- 
quence of a lilt {ent from the fhip, 
which is the usual courte, and where 
extraéts are to be procured, there 
is always time enough to tran{cribe 
the entries before the lift is returned 
§o the captain; and’ in this cafe the 
actual payment is more eafily tranf- 
[345 
aSted; for where the claims arife 
upon different fhips, as all are en- 
tered upon the lift of arrears, the 
rouble of turning to each fhip’s 
book is avoided. In payment ef 
thefe lifts care mu‘t be taken that the 
captain fends on fhore to be paid all 
who are returned to him capable 
of being paid, that the payment 
upon the lift of arrears may be com- 
plete. A fick man may be paid af- 
terwards, or if a man is prevented 
from ‘coming at all, his name may 
be ftruck out of the lift. 
There is one inftance, and the 
only one that cccurs to us, in which 
the time taken up in tranfcribing 
may be material; that is, where, 
upon a fhip’s being paid off, a num- 
ber of her men are turned over to 
a fhip under failing orders, and the 
captain applies for their immediate 
payment: in this cafe, at prefent, 
the commiffioner goes on board with 
his pay clerks, and pays the men 
that are turned over upon the fhip’s 
book; was he to pay them upon a 
lift of arrears, it might poffibly take 
up near double the time, and the 
fervice would be fo far retarded. 
This cafe can happen only in time 
of war; and where the fervice 
prefles, and the captain has not time 
to fend on fhore a liit of the fea- 
men who are to be paid; and where 
the vacancy of the treafurerfhip 
happens between the pay day of the 
fhip’s book and the time when the 
men turned over call for their wa- 
ges. 
As fo many circumftances muft 
concur, and confequently the cafe 
can rarely exilt, we do not think the 
inconvenience that may arife in this 
one accidental event, counterba- 
lances the mi public advantages 
that certainly: ‘attend it in every 
other 
