The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-22 00:00:00

NAVAL AND MILITARY
DEPARTMENTS.
There has just been issued in a printed form, by order
of the House of Commons, an extract from the sixth
report of the Committee of Inquiry into the system of
account and audit iu the Ordnance Department, dated

tae Gth of December, 1845, relative to the preparation,

audit, ano. ' presentation to Parliament of annual accounts
of the receipt and expenditure of the naval and military
departments, together with Treasury minute thereon.
The following is the more material portion of the said
Treasury minute, dated 13th of January, 1846:
" tinder these circumstances, their Lordships are of
opinion that tho time has arrived for applying to the
fiaval and military departments, in a uniform and
consistent manner, those principles of account which
have b2OO reootArnondeci by the bighe2.t, authorities an
the subject, and have stood the test of a practical trial,
anti for giving them the force of positive rule. and my
Lords wilt prec..4.21 to state, as briefly as possible, what
those principles are, and in what manner they should he
applied,
" 1. According to the immeranrial practise of this Go-
vernment, as explained and enforced by the Treasury
minute of 13th of March, 181 s, only such services are to
be included in the estimates to be laid before Varliament
by the executive departments as have been approved by
the Treasury or financial department, either a the re-
sult of previous correspondence, or on a consideration of
the estimates themselves, which are laid before the
Chancellor of the Exchequer previously to their being
submitted to Parliament,
2. No executive department is authorised to exceed
the sum appropriated by Parliament under each general
head or vote in their respE,ctive estimates, or to apply
any surplus which may exist under one vote, to supply
the deficiency on others, without the express previous
Treasury, to be given on a written re-
presentation sanction
of
t the
Circumstances which render the
adoption of such a course indispensable for the public
service.
__

" 3. All the votes, including that for works and re-
pairs, are in future to be taken for sums to be expended
during the last year ; and on the last day of the financial
year the annual account is to be closed, and the balance
is to be struck at all the stations at home and abroad ;
and any unappropriated balance that may appear when
the accounts shall have been made up to that day, to
have remained on the aggregate of the votes of any de-
partment, shall revert to the Exchequer, to be reported
to Parliament for the purpose of being applied as way's
and means.
" 4. Provided the expenditure for each work included

in the Admiralty and Ordnance estimates, is confined
within the amount of the total estimate for its comple-
tion, submitted to Parliament in the first column of the
form applicable to this vote, the Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty and the Master-General and Board of
Ordnance, will, after the new form of estimate for works
and repairs shall have been fully adopted, be at liberty
to apply the aggregate of their respective votes for
works, iu such proportions for each work as the exigen-
cies of public service may require.
"5. The annual account having been closed as above
described, on the last day of the financial year, eight
months are allowed, according to the existing naval sys-
tem, for the arrival from the different stations abroad of
the accounts of the preceding financial year, and for
making them up previously to the general account being
delivered to the commissioners audit. Whatever period
may be necessary for receiving and consolidating the
subordinate accounts, must in like manner be allowed
to the War•office and ordnance Departments, but it is
very desirable that the period fixed should not be longer
than is indispensably required for the object in view.
The cause of the great delay which has hitherto taken
place in closing the Ordinance accounts, which renders
the accounts, when furnished, of little avail for any
practical purpose, and the proper means of remedying
it have been already pointed out in their Lordships'
minute, dated 3d of December, 1841, as one of the most
important points for thc consideration of the Com-
missioners of Inquiry.
" 6. The appropriations credited on the estimates in
aid of tise vots are to be the sums actually realised, and
brought to account during the year preceding the esti-
mate, instead of the prospective rcci ipts expected to be
realised in the year for which the estimate is voted.
" The Credits in Aid' have already been placed on
this footing in the Navy, Ordnance, and Commissariat
estimates, and when a similar change shall have been
made in the War office estimates, there will be nothing
left to be desired on this point.
" 7. That detailed audit, the object of which is to
allow or disallow the different items of expenditure,
according as they are or are not conformable with
departmental rules, or are or are not supported by proper
authorities and vouchers, will continue to.be conducted
by and on the responsibility of each department ; but
that higher and more general description of audit, the
object of which is to ascertain and report whether the
grants of Parliament have been duly applied to the pur-
poses to which they have been appropriated by the An-
nual Appropriation Act, as explained by the annual es-
timate upon which that Act is founded, will be conducted
in future by the Commissioners of Audit under the
superintendence of the Treasury.
"8. A detailed account will be annually prepared by
each department for the information of the Treasury,
according to the form in which the annual army account
is now prepared, including, in addition to a comparison
of the expenditure with the grants under each of the
general herds stated in the Appropriation Act, a
statement of the result of the actual expenditure, as
the same a
compared with the estimates, under the subordinate
heads into which the votes are divided into the depart-
mental ledgers ; and also an explanation, ,similar to that
given in the War Office account, showing what the
balances consist Of. This account will be transmitted
by each department to the Commissioners of Audit on
or before a date hereafter to be fixed.
"In making their report on this account, the Com-
missioners of Audit will call the attention of the Trea-
sury to every considerable deviation between the esti-
mated amount and the actual expenditure under the
several subordinate heads into which the votes are
divided in the estimates; submitting at the same time,
any explanations that may have been furnished to them
of the circumstances: which rendered such deviations
necessary.
" 9. An abstract account will be annually prepared by
each department for the information of Parliament,
according to the form in which the annual navy account
is now prepared, showing the results under the general
votes or heads into which the expenditure is divided in
the Appropriation Act, which account will be transmitted
by each department to the Commissioners of Audit at
eeiwhimeoepcwroeicmtehmdiitnshgseipomnareoarrsgeraodpfehtAdit will refer to the
asi.
o.
led account adverted
to in th
n
any question that may arise in the course of
Audit
Treasury
the examination of the accounts which may appear to
require their Lordships' authority or decision.
" Their Lordships concur in the opinion expressed by
the members of the Committee of Inquiry and by the
Commissioners of Audit, that the audit check of the
accounts of the four departments of the army, navy,
and ordnance and commissariat, the object of which
is to secure the legal appropriation of the Parliamentary
grants for those services, ought to be established under
the authority of an Act of Parliament ; and as the An-
nual Appropriation Act appears to be the proper place
in which to make the necessary provision for this duty, it
is requested that the Committee of Inquiry will prepare
and submit to this Board a draft of such clauses as they
may consider best calculated to accomplish the object in
view, in order that they may be submitted to Parliament
as part of the next Appropriation Act."

CITY OF LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.-011
Monday night an interesting lecture was delivered to the
members of this institution in their lecturing hall, Gould-
square, Cratchedfriars, by IL W. Detnpsay, Esq., chemical
teacher at the City of Westminster Literary and Scientific
Institution. The subject chosen by the lecturer was carbon,
the properties and combinations of which were illustrated
by numerous brilliant experiments. The lecturer com-
menced by remarking that in almost every case one-half of
the solid substances of the animal and vegetable kingdom is
composed of carbon. This element is seldom found in a
state of purity, and then only in one form, that of the
" diamond," and no doubt it appeared strange that this
beautiful sparkling gem was the same in chemical compo-
sition as the black porous mass known as charcoal. The
diamond was found capable of being burned, by concen-
trating the sun's rays upon it, as early as the year 1694, but
the real nature of its combustion was not known till
Lavoiser burned a diamond in a vessel of oxygen gas, when
carbonic acid gas was produced in weight exactly eqnal to
the consumed diamond. The lecturer remarked that the
most common form in which we find carbon is that of char-
coal. Carbon may also be obtained from bones, by burning
them in close vessels, which produce what is called " ivory
black." Another form of carbon is coke. The lecturer then
went into the various combinations of carbon, illustrating his
observations by experiments—alarming his audience with an
occasional explosion, similar in kind, but differing in degree,
to those which take place in mines, through the escape and
ignition of gases, into whose composition carbon largely
renters.estina
mialitteer's‘ Dgoan
vye
into,iAam pwas described, and other inte-
illustrating" the various properties
of carbon under the different forms and combinations in
which it is presented to us. The whole went off remarkably
well—the lecturer receiving at the conclusion the well-
merited plaudits of his audience.
favourable, hop
some of the most forward plantations
Hor INTELLlGENCE.—FARNllAM,pAickUiCnUgSwTilll.c—omSmhoeunlecle
Several growers, we are told, anticipate
toalrni
around
11
niweatherodntdhaiys
np
lepaxrcot: prove n
a crop of twenty to twenty-five cwt. per acre. At Hale, near
Farnham, the hops are generally very good. At Crondall
they are not so tall on the poles, which is accounted for by
the land not being so rich nor of so deep a soil as about
Farnham ; but still many plantations look exceedingly pro-
mising compared with their appearance in the early part of
July last. At Bentley the hops look exceedingly well, if we
except two or three spots or gardens, such till recently were
condemned as not likely to be worth picking, yet now are
very much altered for the better. At Froyle Sir Thomas
Miller has some excellent plantations of h;ps, expected to
yield double the quantity produced from the same number
of acres last year ; picking is expected to begin next Monday.
At `Vermeil, near Alton, there are some very fine plantations
only waiting for tine weather to enable the pickers to begin
work. The duty is laid at Farnham, and also at Alton, from
160,0001. to 170,0001., and the produce around is expected to
exceed that of the famed year 1836.
TEE CHINESE NiEDAL.—Our readers have already
perceived by the Gazette announcement that the medals to the land
and sea forces which took part in the Chinese war, are being dis-
tributed : the last notice bore reference to particular vessels of war.
The same pattern medallion was struck for the army as for the navy.
It is about the size of a crown piece, perhaps a little heavier, and is
composed of solid silver. On one side is a representation of her
Majesty, similarly wrought as upon the current Coin of the empire,
and the reverse displays various national and naval and military
emblems, &c., including a cannon, anchor, &c. &c. These are ap-
propriately represented beneath the spreading branches of the palm.
The whole is surmounted by the words 'Emirs exeo scire pacem (I quit
arms for the enjoyment of peace), and
finished by the words, China,
1842. The clasp connecting the ribband is of German silver. The
ribband, it is understood, will be crimson, fringed with yellow and
blue. The medal is from the design of Mr. Wylde, of her Majesty's
Mint, where it was executed, and somewhat resembles those issued
on the occasion of the victories at Gliumiee and other places in our
Oriental territories. A different design for the reverse was at first
executed, namely, the British lion trampling on the Chinese standard,
but it was abandoned for the appropriate one above described.
Mr. Charles Warner had an interview with Earl
Grey yesterday,at the Colonial-office.