ments, falaries, rent, and workmanfhip. Of thefe heads it has been the ufage of office to enter upon the account each particular article; and for this reafon; it enables the auditor to refer with greater facility to former accounts, and guard against a fecond credit of the fame payment. He does not range the articles under each head exactly in the order they stand in the abstract; he difpofes them as beft fuits his own ideas and convenience. The fees for paffing the account, and the balance due from the treasurer, conclude the account of the year; unlefs it be his final account, and then the voluntary charge contains feveral other articles of a fimilar kind, copied into the account in like manner with the reft; and there is also added at the end a lift of the infupers, that is, of thofe perfons to whom fums have been if fued upon account, but which have not been cleared during the time of the treasurership, with the fums and dates of the impreft bills. The treafurer has no credit in his annual account for the fums imprefted and not cleared by him in each year; they are referved for, and entered in his final account, where he has credit for them all, and the refponfibility is transferred to the perfons themfelves who have received the fums, and they are returned accountable. This lift, in a long treafurership, fwells to a great fize; it is tranfmitted from the pay-office of the navy, figned by three commiffioners, and admitted upon the authority of that fignature. The names on the tranfmitted lift are entered in the order of time in which the impreft bills were paid; but they are tranfpofed upon the account into an alphabetical order, for two reafons; that all the fums imprefted to the fame perfon may be brought

together; and, that each article may be more eafily found hereafter, to be marked in the margin, when it is cleared in a fubfequent account; but in the final accounts that are now making up in the treafurer's office, the mode of ranging the names of the infupers alphabetically is adopted. The last step is, comparing the balance ftated by the auditor with the balance of the treasurer ; and, if it agrees, the account is completed. A fhort state of this account is drawn up in the auditors' office; this ftate the accountant fwears to, or, if a peer, attests, before the barons of the Exchequer, or commiffioners appointed by them. The total charge upon Mr. Gren ville in this account, for the year 1759, is fix millions fix hundred feventy-four thousand two hun dred twenty-fix pounds; the total difcharge, four millions five hun dred fifty-five thoufand one hundred and five pounds.

Of every account two parts are made out in the auditors' office; the one on paper, called the declare ed account, or declaration; the other on parchment, called emphas tically the account; both of them are figned by the deputy auditors, prefented to the lords of the trea fury for declaration, figned by the chancellor of the Exchequer, by two other lords of the treafury, and by the chief baron of the Exchequer. The declaration is preferved in the auditors' office; and the account is carried to the offices of the King's remembrancer, and of the lord treafurer's remembrancer, and then to the pipe; where it remains, and from whence the trea furer receives his quietus.

Such is the progrefs of an account of a treasurer of the navy through the office of the auditors of the impreft.

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As

As none of the vouchers, except thofe for the extra-payments, are produced to the auditor, but he relies for the existence, as well as for the truth of them, upon the fubfcription of the three commiffioners of the navy, we thought it neceffary to enquire what is the examination given in the navy-office to thefe accounts, that warrants the commiffioners in flamping fo great a credit upon thefe entries. To this purpose we examined the officers who are employed in those branches of the navy, victualling, and fick and hurt offices, through which these accounts pass.

In the navy-office, we examined Mr. Ofborne Standert, chief clerk to the controller of the accounts of the treasurer of the navy in the bill-office, and Mr. William Paynter, his chief clerk in the ticket office; Mr. Benjamin Holl, chief clerk to the controller of the navy in the branch for the payment of feamens' wages, and Mr. Thomas Davies, his chief clerk in the office for bills and accounts; Mr. Robert Gregfon, chief clerk to the clerk of the acts; and Mr. Jofeph Poole,. chief clerk to the controller of the victualling accounts. In the vic tualling-office, we examined Mr. Denham Briggs, the accountant for cafh; Mr. William Sayer, chief clerk for clearing imprefts; and Mr. John Smith, chief clerk for keeping the charge on the treasurer of the navy and in the fick and hurt of fice, Mr. Nathan Crow, chief clerk to the commiffioners, together with George Swatfield, efq. cafhier of the victualling in the office of the trcafurer. From them we are fupplied with the following informa

tion:

The year's account of a treasurer of the navy is made out in the three branches of his office, each

branch attending to that part of the account which relates to its own bufinefs, and tranfmitting it to the office of the auditors of the imprest. The vouchers both for the charge and difcharge, and the entries of thofe vouchers in the fections, all receive an examination, check, and correction, in fome branch or other of the navy, victualling, or fick and hurt offices, previous to their being figned by the commiffioners of the navy, and to the tranfmiffion of the fections to the office of the auditor.

The charge is checked in the following manner :-as to the imprest part, the exchequer every month, and the treasurer immediately after his receipt, tranfmit to the navyboard certificates of all the fums imprefted to him: twice in every month he certifies to them all his receipts and payments in general: the contents of these certificates are entered in the navy-office; with these entries his impreft charge is compared, as well as verified by the im preft-roll obtained by him from the Exchequer.

As to the other part, which is the voluntary charge, much the greatest part of it is directed into his hands by letters from either the navy or victualling boards; of which let ters entries are made in the refpective offices; and as he receives the fums mentioned in thofe letters, be inferts them in his next certificate; befides which, the fums received by him from imprefts cleared, and from abatements on bills or books, appear upon the face of the bills and books themfelves, and every bill is registered in its proper office. The voluntary charge confifts of three parts, and is made out, one part in each branch of the treasurer's office. That made out in the pay branch, confifting of abatements on fhip and yard books and half pay

lifts, is checked and examined in the office of the controller of the navy, by a ledger kept there for the fpecial purpose of entering every one of the articles contained in that charge, and which entries are taken from the books themselves, the fums there inferted having been calculated, examined, and compared in three different offices. That made out in the caflier's branch, confifting of imprefts cleared in for mer treasurerfhips, abatements from bills, money produced by the fale of old ftores, and received from the fucceffor, is examined and checked by entries made of every article that compofes it in the office of the controller of the treasurer's accounts. That part made out in the victualling branch, confifting of imprefts cleared, abatements from bills, fums arifing from the fale of old ftores, fees of oxen and decayed provifions, is examined with the entries in the ledger, kept in that branch of the victualling-office for keeping the charge upon the treasurer; in which ledger every article of this charge is entered, either from the letters directing the payment, or from the bills themfelves: a copy of this charge is figned by three commiffioners of the victualling, which is the warrant for the fignature of the three commiffioners of the navy, upon that copy which is fent to the auditor's office.

The discharge is checked in this manner:-every bill paid by the treasurer is made out in fome branch or other of the navy, victualling, or fick and hurt offices, or in the yards or out-ports: if made out in one of the offices, it undergoes one, or, if neceffary, more examinations in that office: if made out at the yards, it is fent to, and examined by two clerks in the office of the controller of the navy if made out at the

out-ports, it is fent to, and exa. mined in the office of the accountant for cafh in the victualling-office, All bills, wherever made out, are entered in registers; the navy bills in the controller's office; the victualling-bills in the office of the controller of the victualling; and the fick and hurt bills in the fick and hurt office; and when affigned for payment, they are entered again in afligning-books, kept for thofe purpofes in the feveral offices. The treasurer's fections, with the origi nal bills themselves, are fent to these feveral offices, to be compared and examined with the entries made in their books: the navy fections are examined with the entries in the affigning book in the office of the controller of the treasurer's accounts, and afterwards compared with the original bills themselves; the victualling fections are examined with the entries in the affigningbook in the office of the controller of the victualling; the fick and hurt fections, with the entries in the affigning-book in the fick and hurt of fice, and they are afterwards compared with the original bills in the office of the controller of the treafurer's accounts.

For every fhip five books are made out, copies of each other, lodged in three different departments of the navy-office, one in that branch of the office of the controller of the treasurer's accounts, called the ticket-office, two in the office of the controller of the navy, one of them for the commiffioner who controls the payments, the other for the controller's clerk who attends him; and two in the office of the treatur er: this book contains the names, the times of fervice, and the defalcations of every perfon belonging to that ship, together with the full and nett wages of all perfons who

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are