The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1809-05-17 00:00:00

with which Mr. Woodford stands charged under
the head of bills of exchange only.
The third paragraph of Mr. 11'enclfard's Memo.
rial not containing any thing ...octhy of our obser-
vation, we pass ii,over in silence.
It is for your Lordships to judge, :Fier receiving
this Report, whether Mr. Woodford rensiiiss w
public accountant, amenable to this Lloanl, or not;
and if your Lordships shill decide that he is so
amenable, we are r. ady, whatever. 31v. Woodford
may think of us, to -ant him all reasonable ex-
tension of time for ape -.twin at th;roilace in order
to be examined.

The assertions contained in the tiftia partgrriph
of the Memorial, wherein Mr: Woodford Antes,
as That the Auditors are as jet uninformed of the
commission, instructions, and stipulations, under
which the Memorialist was appointed and acted,
and that his account is not before them, and that
.hey have never yet beard his stll.-gations in respect
thereto, or hare seen the approval and confirmation
of his accounts by the Secretary at Win, under
whose authority he mettal ;'' it is udutitted, are for
the most putt nue. We are indeed as yet unin-
formed us to many of the particulars qputed in this
paragraph, and the want of such information may
tin nu small degree be attributed to the extraor-
Jittery delay that ha. taken place in preparing co-
pies of commissions, &c. ir. die Foreign Depart-
ment °jibe War Office, where a relation of Mr.
Woodford presides, and to the resistance which
has been coustriitly made by the Memorialist him-
self to reudesing his account, or to aasweiltsg any
questions relating to it. So long since .as ou the
21st of November last, such papers were desired
by this Board froh: the IVar Offwe, a very WM
Ina only of which liuve beets received within a few .
days past ; why the rest are kept (nick we commt
sty. though we may perhaps conjecture, when we
recollect that they are to he furnished from a de-
partment in which Mr. Woodford himself was once
the Chief, and in which the accounts, which hr
shewa such reluctance to produce, were examined,
approved, and confirmed ; a sanction which, al-
though it could not protect Mr. Lultin, the prin-
cipal accountant, from rensleiing an accoont its
Office, Mr. Woodford, it seems, thinks' should
cxcinpt him, a sub-accountant, from beieg farther
questiored as to the Minn use subs of public mo-
ney which passed through his hands.
Lest the principle upon which we have called nn
Mr. Woodford to account specifically ter the sum
of 062,91`2.1. 19s. id..m!tourd net be chstioctly un-
derstood, it mey not he improper its this place to
say, or rather to rep?at, that it is for the assouut
of bill of exclian.Ae cnially, but not wholly; drawn
by !tir. Woodford from the Cootiuent on the priu•
cited Acconntant, Mr. Lakin, in like nictiner as
Ooveroma. Connnanders-its-Chief, &c. draw bill.
for public services on your LOrdships' Board, which
are accepted litc one of your Lordships' Secretaries,
paid at the Bank. and, in general, finally taken op'
by the Paymaster-Ceneial of the Forces, and in-
eluded
in his accounts, under the authority of war-
rants signed by His Majesty, and countersigned by
• your Lordships, which uniformly contain the fol.
lowing words : as charging the said sums srevertbe-
less on the drawers of the said bills, that they may
respectively account, &c. ficc."
lii addition to what is above said, we take leave
further to state to your Lordships, that the act.
enthrals of Mr. Lukin cnntain the strongest isrierna
evidence of the propriety mad necessity of the ac-
counts of Foreign Corps receiving a more efficient
examination than they y t appear to have under-
gone.

Not only are seriml of the Warrants under the
royal sign manual relative to those accounts grant-
ed without any account of particulors owed, as
the foundation of such warrants, but even such of
them as have accounts of particulars annexed to
them will by seen to have been meek out 013 grounds
the most unsatisfactory, the accounts annexed to
them being so general turd • telligi'de as in many
inststeees to afford little pr nw inforrtetion concern-
ing the nature mud particulars of those ezpetises
which the warrants wete intended to cover. This
wilt more fully apprer to your Lordships by the
abstract annexed.

On these grounds roc may with confidence rest
the vindication of our conduct in requiring from
Mr. Woodford an account upon oath ; a requisition
conformable both to she ancient and the modern
practice of the Auditor's office; agreable, as we
conceive, to the reaosi, propriety, and necessity of
the case ; and lastly, roa.sotinut to ll.r duty ee owe
to the public in the satiation we hoid as Commis-
sioners for auditing the public accounts of the king-
dom. lint we will advance one step further, and
demonstrate that the question, where the account
of Mr. Lukin (*lnch involves that of Mr. Wood-
ford and other.) is to be audited, lino already been
decided by your Lordships' board.
in the month of June, 1795, the Secretary at
War (the "recounts of Mr. Lukiii, es Agent to Fir
reign Corps, being then under.. examination at amp
Wisisoffiee) " suspended"' that examination, in
consequence of this Board's requisition for the de-
livery of those accounts into this office for exami-
nation ; and on the Bth of the same mouth, he ad.
dressed a letter to Mr. Secretary Long, desiring
him to lay before their Lordships one which he Lad
received from Mr. Lukin, requesting to know how
he ass to act, " whether his accounts were to be
examined in the Wrr-office, or by the Commis-
sioners for auditing the public accounts ;" and ou
the !!st of the same mouth, Mr. Long signified
by letter to the Secretary at War the pleasure of
their Lordships, vie. " that they were of opinion
that Mr. Lukin's account should be audited by the
Commissioners for auditing the public accounts."
This letter of Mr. Long, we have good reason to
know, miscarried, or possibly was suppressed by
some persons interested in suppressing it, so as not
to have reached the hands of the Secretary at War.
The circumstance of such an official letter, written
at so critical a time, not having reached its desti-
nation, is certainly remarkable ; and it is rendered
more so when your Lordships consider, ail the fay
that the " suspension" of the examination oft
the accounts of Mr. Lakin in the Wan Office was
about that time taken off, or, what is more pee-
-1 bable, dieregardad by the superiors in the Foreign
Depurtruent, Mr. Woodford arid Mr. G./Miner,
the principal sub-accountants in the account of
Mr. Lukin.
Tii;s suspension having been got rid of, the 'ix-
ifiliWitin WWI proceeded on, the account/were past.