STATE PAPERS. 



447 



eluded all suspicion, either at the 

 Admiralty or Navy-Office, of any 

 improper accumulation of money 

 in his hands. 



In the printed regulations and 

 instructions relative to the royal 

 marine forces while on shore, the 

 seventh article directs " that the 

 paymaster is to pass an account 

 with the Commissioners of the 

 Navy at the end of every year ; he 

 is to deliver a general account of 

 all money received and paid within 

 that time." If it was the duty of 

 the paymaster to pass, it became 

 the duty of the commissioners of 

 the navy to examine ; and your 

 committee cannot view without 

 great dissatisfaction the delay 

 which has prevailed in the delivery 

 of the general annual accounts ; 

 the causes of which will be noticed 

 hereafter. 



The practice of the office with 

 respect to the accounts of the pay- 

 master of marines, appears to have 

 been this : The monthly accounts 

 already alluded to, which are trans- 

 mitted by the Admiralty to the 

 Navy-Office, receive no particular 

 examination, and indeed, do not 

 admit of being checked, as before 

 stated, except in the articles of 

 imprest and balances brought 

 over from the preceding month ; 

 but an examination of these items 

 alone would obviously not ascer- 

 tain the correctness of the balance 

 remaining. 



The general annual account 

 when delivered is examined with 

 the impressed ledger on the one 

 side, and with the accountant's 

 vouchers on the other, by one or 

 more of the clerks in the office of 

 bills and accounts; by them the 

 balance stated by the paymaster 

 IS confirmed or corrected. A 

 Btatement is then made out by the 



person who has examined the ac- 

 count, of the disbursements only, 

 detailing the nature of them and of 

 the vouchers, with observations on 

 any irregularity in either, on the 

 authority under which the pay- 

 ments were made, or on any other 

 circumstance deserving notice. 

 The statement so made out by the 

 examining clerkshould bechecked 

 bythe chief clerk, and is then sub- 

 mitted to the Committee of Ac- 

 counts ; and it is their duty, after 

 due consideration, to direct the 

 sums disbursed and properly 

 vouched to be allowed towards 

 clearing such imprest as may be 

 standing out against the account- 

 ant. To what sum this imprest 

 may amount, is not however 

 brought under the notice either of 

 the Committee of Accounts or the 

 Board (unless especially called for) 

 the statement itself not containing 

 the imprest, or the balance remain- 

 ing : and the original annual ac- 

 count never undergoing their re- 

 vision. And here your committee 

 cannot but express their surprise, 

 that the general practice of the 

 office should have sanctioned so ex- 

 traordinaryan omission in the state- 

 ment of any account as that of the 

 sum owing by the accountant to 

 the public : and that,in this particu- 

 cularinstance, the examining clerks 

 should not have deemed it their 

 duty to bring under the immediate 

 notice of that committee an article 

 ofsuch magnitudeandimportance. 

 They trust this practice has been 

 at length effectually corrected by 

 a minute of the Navy-board, dated 

 the seventeenth of January, 1810. 

 In other respects it appears to 

 your committee, froin the inspec- 

 tion of many of the^e statements 

 which have been laid before them, 

 that the disbursCiTtients in the pay- 



