The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-10-07 00:00:00

'PIiC BAITISii PRESS.

portitnee to the present inflect, ft Was found, on looking lobo the
bill of coats above alluded to, and whit& embraced the period when
the :SOL was received, it did not credit the payment, nor contain any
entry respecting It.
This circumstance auffieiertly shows the necessity of waiting the
arrival of the remainder of the bids before the balance claimed on
this year's hill was discharged. In the. December of 1818, Mr.
Breliner wan suspended from office. and re rcinsinctl till 224 July,
1819., When he we, replaced. On the very day of his restorivion
to office, the following Letter you forwarded to him by the Se.
crater, t

" July 22. 1819.
" I am directed by the Commissioners to &tire you will imme-
diately melte out and send up to this Baird, without loss of time.
your bills of costs to the end of iast year.
" 1 am, &c. " WM. KAPPEX."
This application produced no efflct. Tot Board waived in vain
for twelve iimaths, and at length the following letter was forwarded
to Mr. Bremner, by their Secretary

"July 12, 1820.
" I am directed by the Commissioners to desire that you will in.
form them. by return of post. in what state of forwardness your
bills of costs now ate, that r:rre called for lam July.
" I am, &c. " Wm. }Corvette."
Finding it was wholly witless to make farther • ntleavoues to pro-
core any eurther bills' the Board. in the following mouth, August,
1923, sent the will of 1814 en the Deputy Remenihraieer, in Scot.
land, to whom they furl= directed the remaining b:!14 to be re-
ferred.

After this statnnent, it wmild be superfluous to observe, that it
furnishes the revers: of any thing like a justification of 31r. Brem-
ner's neglect is delivering in his subs• quent bills, Is arising nut of
ant. apparent neglect on the part of the Board, as to his bill of

The next circumstance adverted to by the Comm i,si•oter, of In.
einiry, in defence of Mr. lfrentner's delsy, in delivering his bills of
costs. is quite untintuded.
" TLIe Autliun of the Coast of Session Ins reipested. that Ma
Illinois of the bill of July. 1814, and do delivery to him of the
subsequent ones, may be delayed until be saall have audited a
similar bill of Alr. Renny's, who was the grneral Solicitor during
Mr. Bremm is suspensim anti is now the Solicitor of the Legacy
D.martment, whose bill is open to Pie mime °Nee-lions ns ir:re mode
by the Dsputy flernembranmr to Mr. Bremnrr's Bill, and until
the question as to Pic proprrtn of allincing Vic miscellaneous
charges be determined, it seems clear that none of Mac accounts
can be sett! ,d."
_ .

The objection on the part of the Auditor, as it respected certain
charges in Mr. Bremner's bill, was this—that as Mr. Bremner IC-
ceivctl a fixed salary of lOW. a year for rolecelloneous businesa, he
thought him no; entitled to make charges which that salary, in his
opinion, was meant to include. So fir as respected Mr. Brenmer's
bill, the objection wan well founded, but the Control:emitters of in-
quiry are not correct in stating, that the bill of Mr. Benny,
the interim Solicitor, is open to the same objection, because, to
his bill the objectio i Roes not apply. Me Really receives no
such salary. On toe contrary, we discovered to our great sur-
prise. that the Head Distributor, Mr. Ilatiburne, without the
knowledge of the Board, paid Mr. Bremner this salary during his
'suspension, and that the Coirptmller, Mr. Lender, knowing the sa-
lary bill to contain such payment, signed it as con eta. At this fact
was known to the Commissioners of Inquiry, how can we account
for their urging the necessity of first deciding on the propriety of
allowing the miscellaneous charge,' in Mr. Renny'a bill of costa,
before Mr. Bremner's account could be settled I think, more-
over, that this unauthorised payment of the public money, witheut
any previous communication with the Board, deserved their severest
animadversion; as showing the utter disregard of authority, and
the absence of ail official- control with which the public business
In the Stamp Office in Ediaborgh was conducted ; but ihe Corn.
nibritioners not only pass it over without remark, but, referring to
this fixed salary of lON. for mieeellanious business, they metal it
as their opinion, that it is insufficieri, and that he has a just claim
to extra remuneration. On this point, it need only be observed,
that the emolument of Mr. Bremner's situation, as Solicitor of
Stamps, cannot be much below 2,09/. a year exclusive of this an-
nual salary of 100/. ; and that the manner In which Mr. Bremner
has conducted the duties of it (of which neither Mr. Sykes nor Mr.
Forbes can have any knowledge) has been emit, as so tar from au-
thorising this auggerion of increased reward, would have justified
a very different recommendation.
The Commissioners of Inquiry, in flintier palliation of Mr.
Bremner's delay, in not rendering his accounts, represent the Board
of Stamps as not having urged him to deliver theist
" From the terms of our instructions, we should suppose that
repeated orders had been given to Mr. Iltemner by the Camniis-
'tonere, to render his acc mots ; we do not, however, find any such
onler previous to the delivery of the first account, on the 23th of
February. 1818. .We hove examined all the letters from the Com-
missioners of Stamps, handed to Ira* Mr. Bremner, since Febru-
ary 1014, and the first, relating to the bills, appe iris to he one from
the Secretary to Mr. Bremner. dated 22d July, 1019 desiring him
immetlately to make out and send up to the Board, without loss of
time, his bill of costa to the end of last year."
If, from the terms of their instriietiins, the Commiesioners of
Inquiry had reason to suppose that orders had been repeatedly given
by the Board to Mr. Bremner to deliver in likaccounts, in proceed-
ing to ascertain the fact, May shoot,' not have tiottented themselves
with the sight of such 'letters from he Troiiil alt might please Mr.
Breniner to show them, but have requested the Board itself to fur-
nish them with copies of such letters (if say) in which such appli-
cation was made.
The following application to Mr. Bremner, from the Secretary,
on this head, will be found sufficient testimony of his tidier disre-
gard of the Board's authority, and will show that rere,tcit ,:irec-
tions had been given to him to deliver in his accounts, and that
when the Board desisted from further application, it was because
they found all application

" 17th March, 1817•

" The Board also feel themselves called tipori to insist upon jour
making out your bills of costs in arrear forthwith, and upon your
delivering your bills annetill:,, in future. And the Board, preguni-
lag that your bills in arrear must be already is some degree ct' for-
wardness, desire to be ittfortned vriseetahey may exrect to hear of
their being delivered to the Comptroller fur examination.
" I am, &c.
" War. KAPPEW."
" April 22, 1817.
SlR.—The Commissioners rot having heard from you, in an-
leer to my letters of the 17th and 31st of March, on the subj-ct of
your bills of costs, and of the legacy duties payable out of the
estate of John Ballantine, dcceastd, I am directed to desire that
you wilt inform the Beard whAter the letters came to your hands,
and what has preventi.d your making some communication thereon.
" I ant, &c.
" Wax. KAPPEN."
[Extract of a Letter:l
" 24th May, 1817.
" Sin,—l am further directed to advert again to toy letters of
the I7th and 3lit March, on the subject of your bills of costs, sod
of the legacy Duties payable out of the caste of 31r. John4lal-
lantine, and to express the surprise of the Board at your long ne-
glect in not acknowletl.4ing the receipt of thous letters, and giving
some answers to them.-1 am, &c.

" KaPPEN."
[Extract of a Letter.l
" 18th July, 1817.
" am further directed to take this nppottutrity of inform-
ing you, that the Ccnituissioners are. highly dissatisted that you
have not thought proper to answer their letters of the 17th and 31st
March laat.—l um, &c.
" Wat. HAPPEN."
I have no wish to do more than to show that the Board actually
did all in their power to obtain those bills of costs from M. Brem-
ner, and that no reliance was to he placed on soy information re-
ceived exclusively from him. I therefore pass Irmo this subject
without further observation.
A detailed &scrip:inn is given by the Commissioners of Inquiry
of the duties of Mr. Bremner's office; but as this Commission
could only be ihstituted by your Lordships with a view to examine
• '• be found to exist in the