346] 
other event; and confequently, that 
the propofed regulation ought not 
therefore to be rejected. 
But the time employed in paying 
the feamen upon the fhip’s books, 
as well as upon lifts of arrears, may, 
im our opinion, be shortened, and 
the pay clerks be relieved from fome 
part of their trouble. The fums 
applicable to the cheft, and the *hof- 
pital, the three pence in the pound, 
and the marine ftoppages, are de- 
duétions, after a certain rate, out of 
the wages of the officers, feamen, 
and marines: we applied to the 
commiffioners of the navy, to know 
by. what authority thefe deduétions 
are made: from their-returns to our 
requifion, we colleé& the following 
information. 
The copy of an inquifition taken 
at Rochefter in the fifteenth year of 
James‘the firft, before commiffioners 
of charitable ufes appointed to en- 
quire into the ftate of the fund be- 
longing to the cheft at Chatham, 
recites the origin of the payment of 
the fix perice (part of the deduction 
of one fhilling) to the cheft at Chat- 
ham: an extract of fo much of it as 
relates to the fubject matter before 
us, we have inferted in the Ap- 
pendix; and from thence it appears, 
that this deduction commenced in 
the year 1590, and was a voluntary 
gift and tontribution of a certain 
portion of their refpective wages, by 
_ the mafters, mariners, fhipwrights, 
and feafaring men, then employed” 
im the fervice, to be a perpetual re- 
lief for hurt and maimed mariners, 
carpenters, and feamen. 
The four pence to the chaplain, 
and the two pence to the furgeon, 
which. are the remaining parts of 
the one fhilling dedution under the 
' title of the cheft, are very ancient. 
‘The commiffioners ofthe navy have 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
not been able to trace them to their 
origin. One thilling was the abate- 
ment in the cheft column in the 
year 1685. 
' The deduétion of fix pence under 
the title of the hofpital, is ordered, 
by the act of the 7th and 8th cf 
William the third, chap. 21it, to be 
made from the wages of the feamen, 
and applied for the better fupport 
of Greenwich hofpital. An order 
of the board of admiralty, dated 
3d September 1696, direéts the 
navy board to carry this at into 
execution. : 
His late majefty king George the 
fecond, in confequence of a volun- 
tary agreement of the officers of the 
navy, by a commiffion dated the 
30th Auguft 1732, diretts that 
the three pence in the pound fhall 
be from that time abated from the 
perfonal pay and half pay of officers 
therein deicribed, for the relief of 
poor widows of commiffioned and 
warrant officers of the navy, and 
appoints commiffioners for conduét- 
ing this charity: this commiffion 
was carried into execution by an 
order of the board of admiralty 
dated 29th September 1732, di- 
rected for that purpofe to the com- 
miffioners of the navy. 
The marine ftoppages are direct- 
ed by an order of the fame board, 
dated 2d September 1756. _ 
Where a fund is to be created 
and eltablifhed for apublic purpofe, 
a grofs-fum is better calculated for 
it, than a fum compounded of va- 
rious deductions: the one is fimple, 
eafy, and certain; the other com- 
plex, troublefome, and uncertain. 
‘The-commiffioners of the admiralty 
and of the navy muft have full 
| 
—< ss" _. 
knowledge what fums have been — 
iffued every year out.of the fea pay, 
to ‘the chef at Chatham, Green- 
with 
