The Sun.
London, England, 1826-09-19 00:00:00

TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 19, 1826.

THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, No. LXVIII.
will be published on the 26th Instant.

WATLING-STREET.

PO BE LET, by 'the Parish of ST. AUGUS-
TINE, upon a Lease fur 21 years, a DWELLING-
HOUSE and WATIF,IIOUSE, in complete repair, eligibly si-
tuated in the preferable part of WATLING-STREET, No. 96.
Further Particulars may be obtained by application to Messrs.
Millard and, Son, at their Office in. Great Distaff-lane, Friday-
street, Cheapeide. Persons desirous of treating for the Premises
are to leave their Proposals sealed up, with Messrs. Millard and
Son, before the SOth of September instant, on which day a
Vestry Meeting will be appointed for taking such Proposals into
consideration.,—Sept. 18, 1826.

CABINET-MAKERS' SOCIETY.--
CHEAP-CABINET and UPHOLSTERY, at the LON-
DON REPOSITORY for the CABINET-MAKERS' SO-
CIETY, being the only real one now existing in London, No.
71, corner of LEADENHALL-STREET, opposite Aldgate
Pump, and which has been established upwards of Six years..
For Ready Money, and no Abatement.
The Trustees and Committee respectfully inform the Nobility
and Gentry, that they still conduct the above Establishment for
the Benefit of industrious and ingenious Mechanics (who have
large families), by offering their Manufactured Articles in the
Cabinet Line of the best workmanship, and cheaper than by any
House in London, no other profit being required than to satisfy
.the warehouse rent and incidental expellees ; being satisfied with
constant. employment to enable them to support their familiee,
the number of whom appear by the Books of the last Quarterly
Meeting to be 145. From the great patronage the Committee
have received, they are in hopes of increasing that number.
The Mewing is a Specimen of the Low Prices a.,ked ; all
Goods warranted:— £. "s. :1.
Five feet Mahogany Bedstead, four-post 4 10 0

Tent ditto

1 6 0

Bordered Mattress to fit -
Mahogany Drawers with solid ends -
Eight Mahogany Chairs -
Mahogany Pembroke Table
Feather Bed free from dust and smell,

1 1 0
3 6 0
6 JO 0
2 0 0

from £2 12 0 to 8 8 0
Drawing-room Sofa, from £5 5 0 to 7 7 0
Sofa Bedstead - 3 8 0
Mahogany Horse-Hair Sofa - - 610 0 upwards
A quantity of Paper Hangings for Bed, Dining, and Drawing-
rooms, at nearly Half-price. The Trade will find it worth their
attention. ' . .

Houses Furnished at a few days' notice, Ind Apartments in a
low hours.--Goode packed froe of expellee except the matting.

COMMITTEE.
T; Corder J. Wilson
I
T. Haider J. Unett
THURNELL, Agent.

J. Carter
W. Washorn
,ASLER, Secretary

PANORAMA OF MADRID,

THE. ARMY.

-The 56tb, (West Essex) Regiment of Infantry arrived, on the
15th iust., at Hull, from Portsmouth.
The Depot of the 23(1 ; (Royal Welch Fusileers) embarked, on
the 14th inat.,, at Guernsey, for Newport, on route to Brecon.
Detachments belonging to the 3d, 44th, 54tli, and 59th Regi-
ments of Foot, have received orders to embark, this day, on board
a steam vessel, in the River for 'Gravesend, on route to Chatham.
Detachments belonging to the 6th and 36th Regiments of In-
fantry, have received orders to embark, this day, on board a steam
vessel, in the River, for Gravesend, on route to Canterbury.
A Detachment of the 6.3 d Regiment of Foot, marched yester-
day, from Westminster, for Windsor.
A Detachment of the 43d Regiment of Infantry, marched, yes-
terday, from Westminster, for Bristol, on route to Ireland.
A Detachment of the 23d Foot marched yesterday, from West-
minster, for Brecon.
A Detachment of the 95th Regiment of Infantry, embarked
yesterday, on board a vessel in the river, for Sunderland.
A Detachment belonging to the Royal Staff Corps, under the
command of Major H. Du Vernet, has received orders to embark,
on Friday next, on board a vessel in the Commercial Docks, for
conveyance to Quebec.

THE COUNTY FIRE-OFFICE AND THE
COMMISSIONERS OF REVENUE INQUIRY.

TO THE EDITOR OF TUE SUN.
Silt—lt was only three days since, while on a journey
n ,the North of England, that, in looking over a London

Newspaper, I cast my eye on an extract from the Report

of the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, in which the
animadversions on' the Stamp-office are varied into an at-
tack on the County Fire-office.
That attack is so injurious to the honour of the Direc-
tors, and to the interests of the Office, that t think it ne-
cessary to adopt the earliest means of exposing its untruths,
and demolishing its insinuations. Considerable difficulties,
it is true, lie in my way, for to OR day I have been unable
to learn who are the accusers of the County Fire-office?

what are the specific filets alleged ? and what is the evi-
dence received in support of those facts ? Every necessary
preliminary in the a(iministration of justice is hero inverted,

•
and yet the Comnissioners have thought fit to proceed to
a public condemnation of one of the most respectable esta-
blishments of its kind in the country. Their Report at
length throws some light on the accusation; but here, al-
though profuse in cruninatory assertions and insinuations,
the Commissioners are very guarded in disclosing the evi-
dence. But to the accusation.

It is first made matter of complaint against the County
Fire-office, that it "is in the habit of debiting itself in the
quarterly accounts, for the amount of duties due, or sup-
posed to be due, on all policies issued, or expected to be
issued, for the ensuing quarter; and then in the succeeding,
or some subsequent quarterly. account, the -Mice took cre-
dit for all payments on account of duties or policies not
taken up. It is added, " the principle of payiug the
amount of duty as above -described, was, in appearunee,
contrary to the interests of the County Fire-office, by in-
ducing a considerable advance of money; and it would be
difficult to account for such deviation from the general prac-
tice, if it bad not had the effect of giving to that Office
the appearance of doing more business than it really
(lid." Now this is untrue. The Office does not debit
itself With policies expected to be issued for the ensuing
quarter, Ric.; nor is there -any such effect aimed at, or pro-
duced, as is stated.
What We. have done is this :—:-The Act of Parliament
requiring that the duty on all policies, and renewals of poli-
cies, issued from a Fire-office, should be minutely account-
ed for, and paid into the Stamp-office within a certain
number• of days after the end of the quarter in which- they
are issued, under heavy penalties, advice was taken nearly
twenty years ago, as to the proper mode of complying with
this direction, and it was determined, as the only safe mode,
at the end of every qUarter to pay to the Stamp-office the
amount of duty on all policies and renewals issued
from- the office during such quarter; hot as it would hap-
pen that many of the renewals issued to agents would pot
be taken up, the office took credit, m a subsequent
quarter, for such renewals us the agents had not received
payment for.

The present practice of the Fire Offices generally

uow apiears,is-not to charge themselves to— the Sta.

Office)s-ith the duty on renewals ofipolicies issued through
agents, till after they have accounts from the agents of
their having actually received the duty on such renewals ;
but these accounts freqeently do not reach them Until half
a year, or longer, subsequent to their being issued, I there-
fore think, with others, that under this practice, the diree-
floes of the Act are not, and cannot be complied with ;
and 1 knoW not how, if informations for the penalties were
filed against the Offices, they could answer them.
Be this as it may, our mode of prompt payment for
every policy and renewal we issued evinced any thing but
a desire to avoid payment of duties, and gave an advantage
to the Revenue of not less than 5004 a year in the value •
of interest on our prompt payments. Yet, strange as it
may seem, this is made the ground-work of the accusation
raised against the Office. The Commissioners even go
out of their way so far as to assign, for our motive in pay-
ing immediately, that "it had the effect of giving to the
Office an appearance of doing more business than it really
did." But the amounts of duty quoted, to shew the
amount of business, are the nett payments only, i. e. after
deductin# returnr ; and it requires no great knowledge of
arithmetic to see, that if we pay for the duty on all the po-
licies or renewals issued from the Office at the end of every
quarter, and, in succeeding quarters; deduct the amount of
duty for such policies and renewals as are not, in fact, taken
up and paid for to the Agents, it will amount to just the
same thing at the end of a year, as if we had deferred pay-
ing the duty till such time as the Agents' accounts were
collected, and we then paid for no more than had been ac-
tually received. This misrepresentation is the more unac-
countable because Mr. Wallace, the Chairman, in examin-
ing me—for I was examined by these Commissioners at
my own particular desire—advanced the same idea, viz.—
that the County Fire Office paid more in advance than the
other Offices, to make a show of more business than it
really did. This notion I disproved in my evidence, and
one of the Commissioners present repeated and enforced
my argument to Mr. Wallace, who then seemed satisfied
that he was wrong, and' was silent. In consequence, how-
ever, of the misrepresentations on the mode of prompt pay-
ment adopted by the County Fire Office, the Office has,
since Midsummer, 1825, reserved its payments of duty,
till accounts from the Agents were received, and in come-
, quence paid in about 12,000/. short of its usual amount of
duty for the last year. This alteration will be a loss to the
revenue, and a saving to the County Fire Office of upwards
of 5001. annually in the value of interest.
:It is difficult to conceive how the Commissioners could
reconcile the two contradictory propositions; first, that the
County Fire Office was making the above sacrifice to in-
crease the amount of duty for :the effect aforesaid; and,
secondly, was at the same tithe instructing its clerks to
claim returns of duty paid, to which the office was not en-
titled, and which would lessen that effect.; a course too,
which could produce a saving of only a few pounds, and
was certain to involve it in a prosecution and heavy penal-
ties. In these two propositions, however, the whole of
the accusation against the County lire Mee is contained.
office
Countyte n
The investigation of the latter eharge•the Commissioners
entered into with energy and determination ; and they bad
could desire at their command, to prove
The dismissed Clerk who bed made the questionable
ethveercyvillelealsoluligthilteYto be established,. if it had had existence.
lures
removedof e
toO flitheee,C
eist
theirera
The Clerks
akion 1
remaining
in
the
g
om
Fire Office, were repeatedly and severally examined on
information or documents sought
oath k the .Cemmissieners, fir hours together. The
oerittriieevse‘nviulyeathoe.ir
their hands for nearly a week ; and
far Was not produced. The investigation at Edinburgh,
books and
l
so much allotted to in the report, shows the keenness with
ic order,4iis
iiii.):tini::lll:l,evtgeer
de keptolat irl
which the enquiry was followed up of of
udoors.--
The „hole' of the ninths of the Office for
nearly twenty
y e015......the entries of a million of Policies and renewals of
the Insurances of 90,000 persons—Of - ,
013, mem* of Duty to
the amount of several hundred thousand
pounds, were be-
fore them—and yet, with all this mass of '
materials Ind the
Feat labour and pains besiowed
Oat non so
far
froth thcri
being any fraud established, it doer
not appear that the
Office, or any agent' with th k
uowlodgo of thO