STATE 
his fees alone (omitting thofe to 
the deputy and clerks) one hun- 
dred pounds for every year fince 
1761, that is, 2,100/. for every 
100,000/. on above 70 millions, 
which are yet to pafs his office 
(exclufive of what the voluntary 
charges of the treafurers may a- 
PS meat 
a 
= 
cei i ial 
mount ‘> in thofe years) that is, 
together, upwards of 16,000/. de- 
_ ducting a reafonable compenfation 
for the trouble they have had in 
examining thofe parts of the ac- 
counts otf the years fubfequent to 
the year 1761, which have been 
delivered into the office. The an- 
nual faving for the future will de- 
pend upon the navy eftablifhment 
of the year. 
Thus have we endeavoured, by 
fuggeiting fuch regulations as ap- 
_ pear to us beft calculated for the 
purpofe, to remove the caufes of 
delay that have hitherto retarded 
the accounts of the treafurer of the 
navy. 
The benefits intended to refi 
from them are—to fecure the public 
money from mifufe ;—to reduce the 
outftanding balances for the navy 
fervices;—to enable the treafurer 
to end his bufinefsS with his office, 
and to pafs his accounts with 
reater facility and expedition; 
_ and, fhould he retire in difguft, to 
| déprive him of the power of dif- 
turbine the pay of the navy, by a 
refufal to carry on the payment of 
_ the fhips ;—and, finally, to further 
the plan of ceconomy, by lopping 
| off fome branches of expence. 
| The annual faving propofed by 
_ the regulation does not appear very 
_ confiderable; when compared with 
©) the fupply of the year, it vanithes ; 
but fuzh is the ftate of the public 
®, finances, that favings comparatively 
PAPERS. — [agg 
minute are not to be neglected: to 
reduce an enormous. public debt, 
indifpenfably requires a fyftem of 
general ceconomy ; an ceconomy co- 
extenfive with the receipt and ex- 
penditure of the public revenue, and 
that pervades every branch of both; 
and, though the favings in each 
branch, feparately confidered, may, . 
to minds accuftomed to the con- 
templation of millions, appear be- 
neath attention, yet of fuch favings 
is compofed an aggregate, that 
grows to. an obje&t, and conftitutes 
the fund for redemption. 
Powerful and eifeétual may be 
the operation of a principle univers 
fally diffufled, and fteadily adhered 
to;’ and upon fuch an operation 
only depends the charaéter of na- 
tional juftice, the fupport of national 
credit, and the prefervation of the 
public welfare. 
Every reform muft proceed by 
degrees; it fpreads wider and fafter, 
in proportion as regulations are 
formed, adopted, and carried into 
execution. ‘The exigency of thefe 
times demands that every regula- 
tion, if approved, fhould, as foon 
as it is formed, be applied to its 
proper object, that a ftop may be 
put, as foon as pofible, to every 
unneceflary and improper expence. 
The weight of debt prefles; and 
procraftination both increafes the 
prefiure, and more and more @m- 
barraffes the means of relief; and, 
for this reafon, we have thought it 
incumbent upon us not to defer our 
report until we had proceeded fur- 
ther in the inveltigation of the of- 
fice of the auditors of the impreit; 
but to fubmit to the wifdom of par- 
liament the regulations that have 
thus far occurred to us, applicable 
to the office of the treafurer of the 
navy, 
