of the common interefts of both countries not to remember, in the midft of fuch a conteft, that the only point to be aimed at by us is to raise a difpofition in the councils of the Republic to return to our ancient union, by giving us that fatisfaction for the paft, and fecurity for the future, which we fhall be as ready to receive as they can be to offer, and to the attainment of which we fhall direct all our operations. We mean only to provide for our own fecurity, by defeating the dangerous defigns that have been formed against us. We shall ever be difpofed to return to friendship with the StatesGeneral, when they fincerely revert to that fyftem which the wifdom of their anceflors formed, and which has now been fubverted by a powerful faction, confpiring with France against the true interefts of the Republic, no less than against thofe of Great Britain. St. James's, December 20, 1780. G. R. house, that it may be embarked without any hindrance. As foon as this is done, the faid veffel will fail for Margate, whither 1 fhall repair by land with the Countess of Welderen. I alfo beg your excellency to furnish me with the neceffary poffports for my voyage, and likewife with two paffports for two Dutch expreffes, named J. Paux, and Augent Kohler, by the way of Harwich. I cannot help at the fame time, to exprefs my furprise to your lordship, in receiving back from your excellency's office the letter which I had the honour to fend there: nor was I lefs aftonished when my fecretary, whom I had fent to your lordship's office, to inquire the reafon of returning the faid letter without being opened, acquainted me therewith. Give me leave to obferve to your lordfhip, that it is impoffible to know whether a propofition is admiffiole or not, before it has been seen and examined. Their High Mightineffes have given me express orders to deliver unto the British Letter from Count Welderen to miniftry, before I fhould withdraw Lord Stormont. from this court, the papers which I had the honour of addreffing to your excellency yesterday morning. How can I execute thefe orders, if you will not permit me to fee you, nor accept any letters from me? I flatter myfelf that, convinced of the judice of my remarks, you will be pleated to accept the letter which I fent yefterday, and to fend me a line in anfwer, informing me of your intentions in that refpect. I have the honour to be, &c. V. WELDEREN. Letter kingdom, being paffed, we enter Letter from Lord Stormont to Count ed immediately upon the execution SIR, Welderen. of the powers thereby vefted in us; we took the oath prescribed, and fettled the neceffary arrangements Upublic had broken the ties of office and forms of proceed of friendship which fubfifted between the two nations, and which the king has constantly defired to preferve, I have always been, as you know very well, Sir, ready and willing to confer with you on all occafions, and upon all objects concerning your miniftry; and have always received what came from your part with due attention. But fince all connection between the two nations is broken off by the aggreffion of your's, and fince I have officially notified unto you the king's manifefto, and orders given in confequence thereof, I can no longer behold you as the minister of a friendly power. You cannot, therefore, Sir, attribute the return of your packet without my opening it, but to the execution of indifpenfable duty in the prefent circumstances. After an open rupture, all minifterial communication between us must necef farily ceafe: and anterior orders I have the honour, &c. STORMONT. ing. to our difcretion, which of the vaThe legislature not having left rious subjects referred to our confideration we should begin our enquiries with, but on the contrary having exprefsly directed us, in the first place, to take an account of the public money in the hands of the feveral accountants; and for that purpose to call upon them to deliver in a cash account; and to confider what fum it might be proper to leave in the hands of each accountant refpectively, for carrying on the fervices to which the fame is or might be applicable, and what fums might be taken out of their hands for the public fervice;' we, in obedience to the act, immediately applied ourselves to that fubject. The public accountants may be diftinguished into three claffes. Ift, Those who receive public money from the fubject, to be paid into the Exchequer. zdly, Those who receive public money from the Exchequer by way of impreft, and upon account. 3dly, Thofe who receive public money from certain of this class of accountants, fubject to account, and who may be called fub-ac countants. laft certificate of the remains of the land-tax. By that certificate it appeared, that of the land-tax, window, and houfe-tax, to Ladyday laft, the arrears in the hands of the Receivers-general, upon the 14th of July Taft, amounted to the fum of three hundred and ninety-eight thoufand feven hundred and forty-eight pounds nine fhillings and five-pence half-pen ny. As this certificate was grounded upon returns not made to us, but to the tax-office, we iffued our precepts to every Receiver-general of the land-tax, and to the reprefentatives of thofe who are dead, requiring them forthwith to tranfmit to us an account of the public money in their hands, cuftody, or power, at the time they fhould each of them receive our precept. Returns were accordingly made to all our precepts; and from these it appears, that the balances for the taxes on land, windows, and houses, fervants, and inhabited houfes, remaining in their refpective hands upon the days therein mentioned, amounted together to the fum of fix hundred and fifty. feven thoufand four hundred pounds thirteen fhillings and fourpence. We proceeded in the next place, purfuant to the directions of the act, to enquire to what fervices thefe fums were or might be applicable, in the hands of the reIpective accountants. And we find, that by the militia act of the fecond of his préfent majefty, the Receiver-general of the land-tax for every county is required to pay to the commanding officer of every company of the militia of that county, Being or dered out into, or being out in actual fervice, one guinea for each private man belonging to his company, upon the day appointed for marching; and that by the act of the twentieth of his prefent majefty, for defraying the charge of the pay and cloathing of the militia, he is ordered to pay to the clerk of the general meetings five pounds five fhillings for each meeting, and to every of the clerks of the fub-divifion meetings, one pound one fhilling for each meeting: and, except the charges of collecting, receiving, and accounting, we do not find, that, when the militia is embodied, the duties collected by these receivers are liable to any payments, or applicable to any other fervices whatfoever. In the returns made to us by Receivers-general, fuch fums as are ftated to have been paid for thefe fervices of the militia, for the year 1779, are different in different counties; but, as thefe payments cannot, from the nature of them, amount in any county to a confiderable fum, we conceive they may be made out of the current receipts of these taxes. As the Receiver-general is required by the land-tax act, within twenty days at fartheft after he has received money for that duty, and by the ads which grant the duties on houfes, windows, fer. vants, and inhabited houfes, within forty days after he has received thofe duties, to pay the fame into the Exchequer; it becomes neceffary for us to enquire upon what grounds, and for what purposes, the Receivers-general retained in their hands fo confiderable a part of thefe duties, fo long after the fame fame ought, according to the directions of the feveral acts above mentioned, to have been paid into the Exchequer. To this point, amongst others, we examined George Role, Efq; Secretary to the Tax-office; John Fordyce, Efq; Receiver-ge. neral for Scotland; William Mitford, Efq; Receiver-general for the county of Suffex; Thomas Allen, Efq; Receiver-general for part of the county of Somerfet; Thomas Walley Partington, Efq; Receiver-general for the counties of Northampton and Rutland, and town of Northampton; and George Rowley, Efq; Receivergeneral for the county of Huntingdon. In these examinations, two, reafons are affigned for this detention of the public money; one is the difficulty of procuring remittances to London, efpecially from the diftant counties; the other is, the infufficiency of the falary of twopence in the pound, allowed the Receiver by the land-tax and other acts, upon the fums paid by him into the Exchequer, to answer the trouble, rifk, and expence, attending his office; to fupply which, and to render the employment worth having, he has been accuftomed to retain in his hands a confiderable part of thefe duties, for the purpose of his own advantage. As an examination into the manner and charge of collecting end remitting, in an office of receipt, fimilar in its circumftances, might enable us to form fome judgment of the validity of thefe reafons; we directed our enquiries to the collection and remittance of the duties of excife. For this purpose, we examined Goulfton Bruere, Efq; firft General Accountant; Richard Paton, Efq; fecond General Accountant in that office; Mr. Richard Richardfon, Collector of Excife for the Hertford collection; Mr. Thomas Ball, Collector of Excife for the Bath collection; and George Rowley, Efq; who is Collector of Excife for the Bedford collection, as well as Receiver-general of the land-tax for the county of Huntingdon; and George Lewis Scott, Efq; one of the Commiffioners of Excife. We procured too, from that office, an account of the grofs and nett produce of the Excife, received by each collector for the year 1779; in which it appears, that the grofs produce amounted to the fum of three millions feven hundred and fourteen thoufand feven hundred and fe venty-one pounds fixteen fhillings and an half-penny, exclufive of the receipt at the Excife-office in London, paid in by the perfons charged, without the intervention of a collector: which grofs fum, being, as we apprehend, confiderably more than the amount of the duties paid to the Receivers-general, is collected in England and Wales, by fifty-three collectors, being only two more than the number of Receivers-general of the land-tax, including Scotland. From thefe laft examinations we learn, that each collector of Excife goes his rounds eight times in the year; that he remits the whole of his nett collection in every round to the Excife-office, chiefly by bills at twenty-one days after date, in the counties near London; at thirty days, in the more remote coun counties; and at fifty or fixty days in the most diftant, and none at a longer date; that he is continually remitting during his round; and, within a week after it is finished, fends up by a balance-bill all that remains of the duties collected by him in that round; that he finds no difficulty in procuring bills; could return more money by the fame method; and is never fuffered to keep any money in his hands. Each collector is paid a falary of one hundred and twenty pounds a year, fubject to deductions amounting to one fhilling and nine-pence in the pound; and is allowed perquifites to about one hundred pounds a year more; and gives fecurity for five thousand pounds. We endeavoured to form fome computation of the lofs, fuftained by the public, from the detention of the money by the Receivers-general, and for that purpose we called for an account of the quarterly returns made by them to the tax-office; from whence it appears, that the average fum in their hands, from the 5th of July, 1778, (when the mode was adopted of tranfmitting the account on oath,) to the 7th of July laft, amounted to three hundred thirtyfour thoufand and fixty-one pounds, the interelt of which, at four per cent. being thirteen thoufand three hundred fixty-two pounds a year, we conceive the public have been obliged to pay, for want of the use of their own money. But the lofs has been, not of intereft only, the revenue itself has fuffered for by an account of the arrears and defaulters of the landtax, and other duties, from the year 1756, which we called for from the tax-office, thofe arrears in the hands of the defaulters, not included in the firft certificate, appear to amount to one hundred and thirteen thousand one hundred and fixty-one pounds feven fhillings and two-pence half-penny, of which twenty-four thoufand two hundred and fifty-feven pounds feven fhillings and two-pence three farthings is actually loft upon compofition; of the remainder, part is in a courfe of legal proceedings, and the recovery of a great part doubtful; whereas, by a return which we required from the Commiffioners of Excife, for the fame period, we find there have been no arrears or defaulters among the Officers of Excife, except in one inftance, to the amount of three thoufand fix hundred pounds. From this comparative view of the modes of collecting and remitting thefe different duties, and of the advantages accruing to the receiver and collector from their feveral employments, we are induced to think, that the Receivergeneral of the land-tax is not warranted in his detention of the public money, either by the difficulty of procuring bills, or by the insufficiency of his falary. Suppofing, however, the difficulty of procuring bills really to exift, though it might occafion fome delay in the remittance, it yet is no juftification of the Receiver for conftantly keeping a large balance in his hands; and, admitting the poundage not to be an equivalent for his pains, yet we are of opinion, that the prefent mode of fupplying the deficiency, by permitting him to |