448 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



for keeping down the rate of com- 

 mission. This principle was urged 

 in the report of the committee on 

 public offices upon the Bank, with 

 a reference to the allowance made 

 for the management of the public 

 debt, and has been since acted up- 

 on ; and it no less evidently applies 

 to the present case. 



But the grounds on which the 

 commissioners have preferred their 

 claim to a commission of five per 

 cent on the gross proceeds in their 

 more recent statements, have chief- 

 ly been, a precedent for that allow- 

 ance, supposed to have been af- 

 forded in the case of a similar com- 

 mission issued in the war of 1756, 

 and the general practice of prize 

 agents. 



The commissioners state them- 

 selves to have derived their intelli- 

 gence on the former of these points 

 from a conversation with the late 

 Mr. Aufrere, one of the commis- 

 sioners in 1756, but their informa- 

 tion is very imperfect and incor- 

 rect : and the commissioner who 

 gave evidence before your commit- 

 tee, professed not to know whether 

 the commission was charged on the 

 gross or on the nett amount of the 

 proceeds of the sales. It appears 

 by some authentic documents on 

 this subject, of which copies are 

 annexed, that a commission of two 

 and a half per cent on the nett 

 proceeds having been granted, out 

 of which various undefinedexpences 

 were to be defrayed, the commis- 

 sioners represented these expences 

 ( which, accordingto their construc- 

 tion of the term, included broker- 

 age and various other charges be- 

 sides those of their establishment) 

 to amount to more than their com- 

 mission ; and that a commission of 

 two and a half per cent on the nett 



proceeds of sale?, independently af 

 all expences, was consequently sub- 

 stituted. A copy of the entrj' in 

 the account presented to the trea- 

 sury bj' the auditor, after the ter- 

 mination of the transactions under 

 this commission, is inserted in the 

 appendix, by which it appears that 

 the total sum paid for commission 

 was 14,768/. 3s. 



It was divided among i^ com- 

 missioners. 



The rate of commission charged 

 by prize agents has been fixed by 

 long usage at five per cent ; and 

 has lately been applied by the law 

 to the nett proceeds of sale, having 

 before been charged on the gross 

 proceeds. It appears by the evi- 

 dence, that the excess of the com- 

 mission of prize agents above that 

 of merchants is justified chiefly b}' 

 the peculiar trouble imposed on the 

 prize agent in the distribution of 

 the proceeds of his sales among the 

 crews of the capturing vessels, a 

 trouble from which the commis- 

 sioners for the sale of Dutch pro- 

 perty were exempt. If also the ca- 

 pital employed by the prize agent, 

 and the responsibility and risk to 

 which he is subject, are taken into 

 consideration, little disparity be- 

 tween the two charges will be 

 found. 



Your committee will now present 

 an estimate of the remuneration, to 

 which the commissioners would be 

 entitled according to each of the 

 three principles which have been 

 mentioned. — First, if the commis- 

 sion usual among merchants of two 

 and a half per cent on the gross 

 proceeds of sales should be granted, 

 about50,000/. would be the amount 

 of the allowance, out of which the 

 expences of the establishment (inall 

 about 17,000/.), would be to be 



defrayed 



