upon a lift of arrears is longer than the payment upon a fhip's book, by the length of time it takes to tranfcribe thefe entries. Upon infpection of a fhip's book made up, and of a lift of arrears, the entries tranfcribed appear to be, the name of the claimant, the current number, the quality, the times of entry and of difcharge, with from three to five cafual defalcations; for though there are fourteen columns for cafual defalcations, yet there are feldom entries made in more than five of them; and thefe are ufually for cloaths of different kinds, tobacco, and the two months advance. The name of the flip likewife, to which the claimant belonged, is entered upon the lift; and, to prevent over-payments, the fhip's book is marked, oppofite the name, as paid by lift of arrears. From these entries arifes all the additional trouble to the pay clerks, and delay to the feamen, by the fubftitution of the lift of arrears in the place of the fhips' books. As there are now, at every payment upon recalls, befides the commiffioner, his clerk, and a fecond clerk in the treafurer's office, three pay clerks, with each a fhip's book in which the fame entries are made; fo at a payment upon a lift of arrears there must be the like number of clerks and lifts, and the fame entries made in each lift; but tranf cribing into three lifts will take up no more time than the tranfcribing into one, if an attending clerk reads the entries in the fhips' books, whilst the other three tranfcribe them into their lifts. Where the number of claimants is not great, the time it takes to transcribe thefe articles cannot be very confiderable. Where the payment is in confequence of a lift fent from the hip, which is the ufual courfe, and where extracts are to be procured, there is always time enough to transcribe the entries before the lift is returned to the captain; and in this cafe the actual payment is more eafily tranfacted; for where the claims arise upon differ. ent fhips, as all are entered upon the lift of arrears, the trouble of turning to each fhip's book is avoided. In payment of these lifts care must be taken that the captain sends on fhore to be paid all who are returned to him capable of being paid, that the payment upon the lift of arrears may be complete. A fick man may be paid afterwards, or if a man is prevented from coming at all, his name may be truck out of the lift. There is one inftance, and the only one that occurs to us, in which the time taken up in tranfcribing may be material; that is, where, upon a fhip's being paid off, a number of her men are turned over to a fhip under failing orders, and the captain applies for their immediate payment in this cafe, at prefent, the commiffioner goes on board with his pay clerks, and pays the men that are turned over upon the ships book; was he to pay them upon a list of arrears, it might poffibly take up near double the time, and the fervice would be fo far retarded. This cafe can happen only in time of war; and where the fervice preffes, and the captain has not time to fend on fhore a list of the feamen who are to be paid; and where the vacancy of the treasurerfhip happens between the pay-day of the fhip's book and the time when the men turned over call for their wages. As fo many circumstances must concur, and confequently the cafe can rarely exift, we do not think the inconvenience that may arife in this one accidental event, counter balances balances the many public advantages that certainly attend it in every other event; and confequently, that the propofed regulation ought not therefore to be rejected. But the time employed in paying the feamen upon the fhip's books, as well as upon lifts of arrears, may, in our opinion, be fhortened, and the pay clerks be relieved from fome part of their trouble. The fums applicable to the cheft, and the hofpital, the three pence in the pound, and the marine ftoppages, are deductions, after a certain rate, out of the wages of the officers, feamen, and marines we applied to the commiffioners of the navy, to know by what authority thefe deductions are made from their returns to our requifition, we collect the following information: The copy of an inquifition taken at Rochester in the fifteenth year of James the First, before commiffioners of charitable ufes appointed to enquire into the state of the fund belonging to the cheft at Chatham, recites the origin of the payment of the fix pence (part of the deduction of one thilling) to the cheft at Chatham: an extract of fo much of it as relates to the fubject matter before us, we have inferted in the appendix; and from thence it appears that this deduction commenced in the year 1590, and was a voluntary gift and contribution of a certain portion of their refpective wages, by the mafters, mariners, fhipwrights, and feafaring men, then employed in the fervice, to be a perpetual relief for hurt and maimed mariners, carpenters, and feamen. The four pence to the chaplain, and the two pence to the furgeon, which are the remaining parts of the one fhilling deduction under the title of the cheft, are very ancient. The conniffioners of the navy have not been able to trace them to their origin. One fhilling was the abatement in the cheft column in the year 1685. The deduction of fix pence under the title of the hofpital, is ordered, by the act of the 7th and 8th of William the Third, chap. 21ft, to be made from the wages of the feamen, and applied for the better fupport of Greenwich hospital. An order of the board of admiralty, dated the 3d of September 1696, directs the navy board to carry this act into execution. His late majefty king George the Second, in confequence of a voluntary agreement of the officers of the navy, by a commiffion dated the ́ 30th of Auguft 1732, directs, that the three pence in the pound fhall be from that time abated from the perfonal pay and half-pay of officers therein defcribed, for the relief of poor widows of commiffioned and warrant officers of the navy, and appoints commiffioners for conducting this charity; this commiffion was carried into execution by an order of the board of Admiralty, dated 29th September 1732, directed for that purpofe to the commiffioners of the navy. The marine stoppages are directed by an order of the fame board, dated 2d November, 1756. Where a fund is to be created and established for a public pur pofe, a grofs fum is better calcu lated for it, than a fum compounded of various deductions: the one is fimple, eafy, and certain; the other complex, troublefome, and uncertain. The commiffioners of the admiralty and of the navy muft have full knowlege what fums have been iffued every year out of the fea-pay, to the cheft at Chatham, Greenwich hofpital, and the fund for the relief of poor widows, ever face fince their inftitution. They may conjecture from the experience of many years, what will be the wants and fupplies of thofe charities, in every poffible fituation of the navy. The wages of the officers and feamen is the fund for them all. No reafon, then, occurs to us, why, on fettling the navy establish ment every year, certain portions of that fund fhould not be appropriated to the fupport of thefe charities, to be iffued, from time to time, by the treasurer of the navy. At prefent, he advances to all of them fums on account, and upon calculation: neither the commiffioners, nor trustees for thefe charities, can know their income from the fea-pay for any one year, until feven or eight years after that year is expired. They cannot know it, until the books of all the flips paid in that year are made up; and the books are now in arrear as far back as the year 1775. The fame boards muft likewife be acquainted with the incomes of the chaplain and furgeon of every fhip, of whatever rate in the navy; at leaft they know what is a proper and adequate com penfation for their feveral fervices. What objection, then, arifes to the allowing to each of them, inftead of thefe deductions, one ftated, certain, annual falary, according to his ftation, payable out of the fund of wages? It appears, in our judgment, a general, ufeful regulation, whereever it is practicable, to take away the diftinction between nominal and real wages and falaries, that the reputed compenfation for fervice may be the fum actually received, that every man may know the price of his labour and abilities. Where the nominal exceeds the real, an ignorant mind fufpects fraud, and a weak one is deceived by an imaginary income. As the modes fuggefted of providing for these charities, and of paying the chaplains and furgeons, appear to us to be practicable, they ought, in our opinion, to be fubftituted in the place of the modes in ufe; one confequence of which will be, that the four columns of the cheft, the hofpital, the three pence in the pound, and the marine ftoppages, are rendered ufelefs, and may be left out of the fhips' books. There is another defaleation, which, in our opinion, ought to be omitted for the future, as not anfwering the end propofed; that is, the deduction under the title of venereal cures. This is a payment to the furgeon of fifteen fillings for every cure; and is directed to be charged againft their wages by an order of the board of admiralty, dated 9th of April 1756. Before that year, the mulct upon the seamen was one pound ten fillings for every cure; the order reduces it to fifteen fhillings; and states, among reafons for the reduction, "that this great charge on the feamen did not prevent the evil." If a certain pecuniary mulet was not fevere enough to prevent the of fence in the year 1756, half that mult can hardly be fuppofed more efficacious in the year 1782. A punifhment that neither corrects the offender, nor deters others, is in itfelf an evil, from which the fubject fhould be relieved; and therefore, we think the furgeon fhould attend to every difeafe of the feamen at the public expence, and be allowed a certain compenfation adequate to his kill and trouble. The omiffion of these five coTuinns in the fhips' books, will acce lerate lerate the payments, both upon the books and upon the lifts of arrears, by as much time as is now taken up in making the calculations and entries in thofe columns. The calculations (however eafy they may be to perfons accustomed to them) and the entries, though fhort, yet being numerous, muft, like the tranfcripts into the lifts, take up fome time. A book of a first rate, for fix months, has contained the names of fifteen hundred eighty-fix perfons: upon the payment of as many of thefe men as are feamen, fums must be calculated and entries made in two columns at leaft. Where time is fo valuable, every portion of it is worth faving. From this examination into the effect that the fubftitution of the lift of arrears, in the place of the fhips' books, will have upon the payment of the feamen, we are led to be of opinion, that if, upon the death or refignation of a treasurer, all the fhips books paid by him are immediately clofed, the fucceffor may pay all the after-claimants left unpaid upon thofe books, by lifts of arrears, without creating either delay or disturbance in the pay of the feamen; efpecially if the number of entries upon the lift of arrears be reduced, by the omiffion of the five columns of defalcations above-mentioned. It remains to be feen, whether this alteration will caufe any confufion in the accounts of the treasurer. A fhip's book, paid by him, will be made up in the fame manner it is now. It will be paid upon by one treasurer only, and will be his voucher for the total fum contained in the column of full wages; for which fum he will have credit in his account of that year in which the book was paid. The account of his payments by lifts of arrears will be varied. At prefent, the books being kept fo long open, the after-claimants are few; and one entry ferves, in his final account, for the whole fum paid by him for arrears during the time of his treasurership; and one lift of arrears fuffices for his voucher; but if he pays upon lifts of arrears, all the perfons left unpaid upon all the books by all his predeceffors, thefe payments must become fo very numerous, that inftead of one item in his final account of the total fum paid by him for arrears in the courfe of his whole treasurership, he muft infert in his account of every year the total fums paid by him during that year for arrears, at every port where he has a lift; and the lift made up, annually, at every port, will be his voucher for the fums paid at that port: but this alteration will ftill leave his accounts clear and undisturbed. In one branch, this mode will be of advantage to the pay-office by fhortening their accounts. At prefent the pay clerks at each port tranfmit every month to the navyoffice an account, containing the fums paid by them upon the recalls of every fhip during that month at their refpective ports, diftinguishing the treasurer by whom paid, in order that each fum may be posted to the account of the ending of each fhip's book in the ledger. From thefe returns the paymafter of the navy makes out monthly certificates of thefe payments. The places where payments are made upon recalls be ing four, and the hips' books of three treafurers being open, for payment, thefe certificates for the month of Auguft last were twelve ; that that of Mr. Ellis contained the pay ments upon three hundred fiftytwo fhips; that of colonel Barré, upon one hundred and ten; befides that of the treasurer in office. Had thefe payments been made upon lifts of arrears, they would have been all made by the treasurer in office, and there would have been four returns only, each containing a single article, being the amount of all the payments upon the lift of arrears at that port during that month, and pofted in the ledger to the account of payments on lifts of arrears; fo that, instead of four hundred fixtytwo feparate articles inferted in the returns, entered in the certificates, and pofted into the ledger, four entries only would have been made in each, and confequently twelve entries would have ferved instead of thirteen hundred eighty-fix, for these payments in that month on-ly. If the fhips' books of a treasurer may be closed upon his death or refignation, that which is affigned as the principal caufe for the delay in making up his accounts is removed: not that this caufe is wide enough to cover the delay. The fhips' books are in arrear seven years only, but the accounts are in arrear above twenty years; and this delay refts with the office of the treafurer; for the materials which compofe the accounts of the year 1762, are not complete in the office of the auditors of the impreft; the reafon given for it is, a want of officers and clerks properly qualified to make up the accounts in arrear; for which the remedy is obvious. This examination has enabled us to form an opinion upon another point of moment to the public. The legiflature have, in the laft feffion of parliament, introduced into the office of the paymafter-ge neral of the forces a regulation, which, as it feems to us, may be applied as beneficially to the office of the treasurer of the navy. The cuftody of the cafh applicable to the navy fervices, may be tranf ferred from the treasurer to the Bank of England, and the account only of the receipts and payments be kept in his office. All the fums now received by him may be received by the Bank: fums from the Exchequer may be imprested to the Bank: fums directed; by the letters of the different boards to be paid to him, may be directed to be paid into the Bank: all bills affigned upon him for payment may be paid, and all extra-payments may be made by his drafts upon the Bank. The payment of the feamen, the artificers and labourers in the yards, and the perfons in the hofpital flips, and on the half-pay lifts, must be carried on in the fame manner it is now: these 'men cannot be paid by drafts; they must have cafh; and with that cafh the pay clerks must be entrusted, as they are at prefent, and the treasurer must continue to be refponfible for them, as for officers of his appointment and under his controul; but this will be no obstruction to the regulation. The money may be all iffued to the pay-clerks by the drafts of the treasurer upon the Bank, according to the requifitions of the navy-board, in like manner as many of thefe fums are iffued at this day; and upon the death or refignation of a treasurer, the balances of his cafh in the Bank, and in the hands of his pay-clerks, may be ftruck immediately, and carried over to the account of his fucceffor. In this fituation the treafurer, neither receiving nor paying public money himfelf, |