440 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



eJ, may form, in some cases, a suf- 

 ficient motive for suspending the 

 determination of both the amount 

 and manner of an allowance. But 

 no circumstances have appeared 

 which furnish a justification of the 

 delay of no less than li years, 

 which in this instance has taken 

 place. It belonged to the govern- 

 ment, after the lapse of a moderate 

 period, to take up the consideration 

 of the remuneration due to the 

 commissioners, with a view to its 

 being submitted to parliament ; and 

 when the subject had manifestly 

 escaped attention, the commission- 

 ers ought to have given notice of 

 tire omission. But they have to 

 tJMs day held no communication 

 with any branch of the government 

 on this question. Under these cir- 

 cumstances they had, in the judg- 

 ment of your committee, no right 

 to appropriate any sums to them- 

 selves as compensation ; indeed the 

 terms of their commission, already 

 quoted, direct them to dispose of 

 the Dutch property intrusted to 

 them only " according to such in- 

 structions as they should receive 

 from the king in council," and tiie 

 instructions accordinglygiven, since 

 they merely authorize allowances 

 to crews in payment of wages, do 

 not appear to your committee in 

 any degree to sanction such appli- 

 cation of their funds. The 26th 

 clause of 35 Geo. 3, authorizes the 

 payment of " the expences of the 

 sales out of the proceeds,'' but the 

 term " expences" cannot, in the 

 judgment of your committee, be 

 construed to include the payment 

 of remuneration to the commission- 

 ers, since neither the mode nor the 

 amount of it had been sanctioned 

 by the government. 



Jt appears, however, that the 



commissioners, at a very early pe- 

 riod, proceeded both to determine 

 in the first instance for themselves 

 the rate of compensation due, and 

 also actually to apply it to their 

 own use, intending to make mention 

 of this point only on the final settle- 

 ment of their affairs, though they 

 have from time to time had to com- 

 municate with the secretary of the 

 treasury on other matters, and have 

 transmitted to the lords of theprivy 

 council some general statements. 

 The compensation which they have 

 taken has been a commission of 5 

 per cent on the gross produce of 

 the sales, a subject on which your 

 committee will offer some further 

 remarks toward the conclusion of 

 this report. It has been charged 

 on the principle of a mercantile 

 transaction ; but it is here observa- 

 ble, that they have deviated from 

 the custom of merchants, by taking 

 large sums for commission before 

 they had either received or paid 

 over the whole nett proceeds of the 

 cargoes, on the gross produce of 

 which the commission was charged, 

 and also before they had rendered 

 up their accounts. 



Your committee deem it neces- 

 sary to animadvert on the length of 

 time which has been suffered to 

 elapse without rendering any regu- 

 lar accounts, and without their be- 

 ing called for by the government. 



The chief object of examination 

 in such cases is the detection and 

 rectification of errors, and the reco- 

 very of sums improperly withheld 

 from the public ; but when any 

 considerable period has passed, the 

 elucidation of accounts is rendered 

 difficult, as your committee have 

 experienced in the course of the 

 present investigation, and the reco- 

 very of money becomes a measure 



of 



