STATE PAPERS. 



327 



WAR OFFICE. 



Ondlrecting their attention to the 

 official establishment of the War 

 Office, your committee could not 

 avoid remarking several articles, 

 which, althongh sanctioned by the 

 estimates of former years, ajipear 

 to them to call for observation. 



The extra allowances made to 

 clerks for preparing the annual 

 estimates seem unfit to be conti- 

 nued, as the duty performed con- 

 stitutes a part of the regular and 

 ordinary business of this office. 



The numlier of messengers is 

 also very large, amounting to 29, 

 several of whom receive aljove 

 100/. a year. 



But your committee wish par- 

 ticularly to observe on the retired 

 allowances possessed by two clerks 

 in this office on accoimt of tlteir 

 having filled the situation, in 

 succession, of Trivate Secretary 

 to former Secretaries at War, 

 by authority from those Secre- 

 taries at AVar themsel-ves, when 

 they ceased to fill that office. Such 

 allowances are certainly unusual, 

 if not without example ; and there- 

 fore, on account of the precedent, 

 wholly unfit to be continued, more 

 especially as those two individuals 

 still retain their sttivation in the 

 office. 



Your committee oViserve that 

 these two cases have l>een remark- 

 ed upon in the 6th Repoit of the 

 Commissionei's of Military Inqui- 

 ry, pp. ^93 and ^94 ; and the 

 practice of making such grants has 

 been discontinued in pursuance of 

 the suggestions contained in that 

 Report. 



Your committee conceive, that 

 in any future ap[K)intment to the 

 office of Deputy Secretary at War, 



a salary of l,bOOl. jjer annum, 

 with an increase of 500/. a year, 

 after a contini}ance in bis office of 

 10 years, will be sufficient; and 

 tliey also venture to recommend 

 1,000/. as a proper salary for the 

 first and principal ckrks. 



Jn addition to the establishment 

 of this depai-tment, which, in- 

 cluding 1 9,526/. the charge of the 

 branches employed in the exami- 

 nation of accounts for the period 

 in arrear, amounts to 60,802/.; 

 the compensations and retired al- 

 lowances, enumerated in p. 67, 

 and forming the sum of 6,77 !/• 

 must be regarded as a very large 

 burden incidental to the charge of 

 this office. 



Your conmiittee, however, have 

 considerable satisfaction in con- 

 trasting the state of the current 

 accounts of this office with that of 

 the period when the Committee on 

 Public Expenditure, in the year 

 1811, noticed "the disordered 

 and disgraceful state in which the 

 accounts of this great branch of 

 public expenditure has been for so 

 many years suffered to remain." 

 In the current accounts the arrear 

 is inconsiderable, and by the more 

 modern and judicious arrange- 

 ment, a considerable portion of 

 the establishment had been trans- 

 ferred (without any interruption 

 of the current business) to the 

 examination of the perio<ls in ar- 

 rear ; by which mean.s nearly the 

 wlmle of the outstanding accounts 

 from the year 1/84 to the year 

 1797 have been settled ; and tlie 

 committee have reason to expect 

 that the settlement of those now 

 outstanding for the period be- 

 tween the years 1797 and ISIO 

 will take place witlv M mjch ex- 

 pedition 



