442 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



time to time have been necessarj', 

 themoney paid into the Bank under 

 the direction of tlie act being no 

 longer subject to the call of the 

 commissioners. They further state, 

 that being authorized by the 23rd 

 clause of the 35 Geo. 3, c. 80, to re- 

 store all goods wliich should be 

 proved to belong to neutrals, and 

 having sold most of such goods be- 

 fore the decision of the claims, they 

 deemed it necessary to retain cash 

 sufficient for this purpose. 



Your committee nevertheless 

 cannot approve of the construction 

 which the commissioners havegiven 

 to the law. Their payments into 

 the bank appear to have been large 

 payments made with a view to their 

 immediate transfer from thence into 

 the exchequer; but the terms used 

 in the act are, tliat the proceeds, 

 after payment of the duty and ex- 

 pences of sale, were to be paid into 

 the bank, " and remain there ;" an 

 expression which implies, that the 

 cash was not merely to pass through 

 the Bank in its way to the exche- 

 quer, but was to be lodged in the 

 Bank as a place of safe custody, in 

 order to await the direction of the 

 privy council. The legislature, 

 however, seems not to have anti- 

 cipated the circumstance of cer- 

 tain sums being necessary to be 

 withdrawn from the amount of the 

 proceeds in hand, with a view both 

 to the payment of charges and to 

 the restitutions of property due to 

 neutrals ; and, by not providing 

 very specifically or conveniently for 

 these objects, it has afforded some 

 countenance to that interpretation 

 of the law which has taken place. 



Your committee think, that the 

 difficulty which opposed the adop- 

 tion of a strict construction of the 

 act, has been much overstated by 



the commissioners. At the com- 

 mencement of their transactions, 

 having no money inhandforcurrent 

 payments, they obtained an order 

 of council, directing 20,000/. to be 

 advanced to them in order to supply 

 their immediate occasions, which 

 sum was to be replaced by the sub- 

 sequent proceeds of sales. — They 

 miglit afterwards have obtained 

 successive orders of council for 

 similar purposes, as well as for the 

 satisfaction of claimants, without 

 anygreat inconvenience; and in this 

 case the lords of the privy council 

 would have had the opportunity of 

 exercising their judgment as to the 

 amount of the money proper to be 

 placed at the disposal of the com- 

 missioners. A less objectionable 

 mode of proceeding, though not 

 conformable to the act, would have 

 been to keep two accounts with the 

 Bank; the one, an accountof money 

 paid in under the act, and conse- 

 quently subject only to the orders of 

 the king in council; the other a se- 

 parate account, subject to the con- 

 trol of the commissioners. This 

 expedient was resorted to after the 

 first twelve months, but there was 

 still no relinquishment of the prac- 

 tice of keeping a large balance with 

 private bankers. On the supposi- 

 tion of any uncertainty as to the 

 construction of the act, the subject 

 ought to have been distinctly sub- 

 mitted to the lords of the privy 

 council in pursuance of their in- 

 structions, which had directed an 

 application to themselves " in all 

 cases of doubt or difficulty." 



Your committee are further of 

 opinion, that if the act had been si- 

 lent on this topic, the commissioners 

 ought to have lodged their cash in 

 the Bank of England, and with a 

 view to future cases they think that 



it 



