104 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1S09. 



lie accounts, it appears, that the 

 unexamined accounts of expendi- 

 ture in St. Domingo alone, before 

 the West India Commission- 

 ers, reach the enormous amount 

 of seven millions seven hundred 

 thousand pounds ; and that this 

 sum was expended in less than 

 four years, on a few spots of an 

 island in ruins, under circumstances 

 of a very suspicious nature, foui- 

 teen yeais ago. 



It appears from the ninth report 

 of the commissioners, that in the 

 year 1791, a deputy pay-master- 

 general was appointed for the 

 West Indies, with express orders 

 to proceed thither, and with clear, 

 positive, and well-defined direc- 

 tions in what manner to execute 

 the duties of his office. These di- 

 rections he scarcely in one in- 

 stance obeyed. Instead of acting 

 himself, he appointed, as his depu- 

 ties, a succession of persons, who 

 derived gain from the public mo- 

 ney in every possible way: of which 

 sum, the paymaster-general receiv- 

 ed a moiety at one period secured to 

 him by a regular indenture. Pub- 

 lic bills to the amount of about 

 165,000/. were remitted by those 

 who acted for the pay-master, 

 either for the purpose of supply- 

 ing funds for mercantile pursuits, 

 for drawing private bills with ad- 

 vantage, or for speculations of some 

 other nature. And the loss upon 

 these bills so remitted for private 

 use, was uniformly charged to the 

 pubUc. The commissariat depart- 

 ment did not yield to the pre- 

 ceding, in the systematic nature, 

 or extent of its peculations. The 

 agents of the commissary-general 

 were proved to be in the habit of 

 applying to the merchants, to 

 grant them receipts to vouchers 



for articles which the}' had never f, 

 supplied. By one transaction, in 

 which the age and quality of the 

 rum bought for the use of the 

 troops, as well as the real price 

 of it, and the names of the per- 

 sons who actually sold it, are dif- 

 ferent from what the vouchers re- 

 present, the public are stated ia 

 the report to have been defrauded 

 of nearly 10,000/. And yet, in 

 this and similar transactions, in 

 the words of the commissioners, 

 " the vouchers appear to have 

 gone through the form of a certi- 

 ficate signed by the commissary of 

 accounts." 



In one of the reports of the 

 West India commissioners we find 

 the following summary of the con- 

 duct of Valentine Jones. " It ap- 

 pears to us that Valentine Jones 

 very early framed and established, 

 by means of combinations and in- 

 tricacies almost impervious, an 

 over-ruling and highly injurious 

 influence over the whole trans- 

 actions of the public connected 

 with the pay and extraordinaries 

 of the army, in this part of the 

 world. This influence was dis- 

 seminated in various directions 

 through every branch of the de- 

 partment, and embraced persons 

 of even the lowest description em- 

 ployed therein. And this influ- 

 ence matured into a far-extended 

 system, produced an immediate 

 loss and injury almost incalcula- 

 ble ; and its remote consequences 

 have been Uttle less prejudicial by 

 furnishing examples and precedents 

 that are to be clearly traced since 

 that period in nearly all transac- 

 tions of a similar description." 



When the commission of 1800 

 was appointed, it was expressly 

 declared, that the principal reason 



for 



