The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-26 00:00:00

ceeding'was termed in the technical ldrigtitigt, of
the Exchequer), and to another Clerk, calk d
the Accountant-General, before whom the Co!-
lectors accounted. Tile Officers were perma-
nently stationed at Dublin ; and they respec-
tively made out their charge and settled their
accotintt ht.the Records in the King's Auditor-
General's Ofhce, to which the farmers by their
patents had free access.
On the determination of the farms in the
reign of James 11., it was judged expedient to
adhere to the course of collection established by
the farmers, and accordingly new officers were
appointed, under the same titles of Clerk of the
Quit Rents and ACcountant-Gentral and the
rents were put in charge with the Collectors of
the other Revenues, all of whom were permanent
officers, subject to the controul and directions of
the Commissioners of the Revenue, whose ac-
counts of the several Revenues under their ma..
nagement were examined by the Auditor-Gene-
ral, and, on his allowance, passed in the Court
of Exchequer.
On the abolition of the General Board of Re-
venues and distribution of their functions among
the new and distinct offices then created, the ma-
nagement of the land revenue devolved on the
Commissioners of Excise, by whose officers the
rents were thenceforth collected. The official
regulations for the transaction of the business
have been occasionally altered ; but the- mode of
collection, and the establishment of officers in-
trusted with the immediate superintendence of it,
and with the conduct of the proceedings relating
to the demised estates of the Crown, remained
nearly on the same footing from the periods at
which they were first placed under the controul
of the General Commissioners of Revenue.
One of the objects desired to be obtained by
the transfer of the Management of the Land
Revenues to this Board, was to relieve the Excise
Department from the duty of collecting them,
which the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry
had represented to be attended with material im-
' pediments to the due execution of the more im-
portant services entrusted to the Collectors of
Excise in Ireland, and to an assimilation of their
duties with those of the same class of Officers in
Great Britain, and otherwise productive of much
inconvenience and prejudice to that branch of the
Public Revenues.
To obviate these evils, we are empowered by
the Act of Parliament to appoint as many per-
sons as shall be necessary to collect and receive
the Crown rents, under the like regulations, as
are in force in England. But after our discovery
of the imperfect condition of the Crown rentals,
to which we have already adverted, and mature
consideration of other circumstances bearing on
a due collection of this revenue, we felt doubtful
of the expediency of an immediate appointment
of such Receivers, and therefore on our sugges-
tion a clause was introduced into the Bill, au-
thorizing the Collectors of Excise to continue to
receive the rents arising within their respective
districts, under the regulations in that behalf
contained in the Act, until we should appoint
proper receivers of the same. Further inquiry
confirmed us in the opinion that it Would be ad-
visable to defer an exercise of the power of ap-
pointment, until we should be put in possession
of the perfect and authentic rent-roll and parti•
cular of the Crown possessions, in course of
compilation under the direction of the Commis-
sioners of Public Records, and also be enabled
to make such new official arrangements as would
be necessary to assure the performance of the
duties required to be executed by the Receivers ;
otherwise it appeared to us, however diligently

CROWN LANDS, REVENUES, &c.
SIXTH REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONERS.
(FURTHER EXTRACTS•)
OFFICES IN IRELAND TO BE REDUCED OR ABOLISHED.
As some of the functions of the officers at-
tached to the former administration of the land
revenue would be superseded by the new regu-
lations, and perhaps the maintenance of some of
their respective offices become unnecessary,
clauses were inserted in the Act of Parliament,
whereby the Lords of the Treasury are em-
powered to abolish or reduce any office con-
nected with the management of the Crown estates
and land revenues in Ireland, and to discharge
the officers filling the same, whether their ap-
pointment shall have been by Letters Patent,
Warrant under the Sign Manual, or otherwise;
and also, to cause any records or other muni-
ments, belonging to such offices, to be removed
to and preserved in any other office or place
which their Lordships may appoint for that
purpose.
The powers thus vested in the Treasury have
been, on our suggestion, already exercised in
the case of the Forfeiture Office, to which we
shall presently advert ; and there are other
offices which, with a view to public economy,
and the facilitation of the business of this depart-
ment, may hereafter call for a further exercise of
them. But we have thought it prudent to defer
any definitive proceedings towards such changes,
until we shall have had sufficient practical
knowledge of the functions discharged by the
officers in question, to enable us to form a cor-
rect judgment on the expediency of the altera-
tions contemplated.
In the case of the establishment of officers in
the department called the Forfeiture Office, which
appeared to be wholly unnecessary for any prac-
tical purpose connected with the management of
the few fomfeited estates remaining vested in the
Crown, we recommended, in a report we pre-
sented to the Lords of the Treasury in Septcin-
ber last, that it should be immediately abolished,
and the custody of the records and other !miniments belonging to it transferred to the Clerk of
the Quit Rents. The proposed measures being
approved of, their Lordships, in pursuance of,
the powers and authority vested in them as above
mentioned, formally abolished the said office, to-
gether with the several offices composing it, and
discharged the officers by whom they were re-
spectively filled, from the performance of any
duties theretofore conaected therewith. At the
same time their Lord Ships signified to us, that
on consideration of the nature and tenure of
those offices, and the period during which the
officers had respectively enjoyed the emoluments
annexed to them, they were of opinion that the
offices were sinecure situations, the emoluments
of which the possessors might reasonably expect
to retain during their lives, and therefore, that
it would be just and proper that pensions should
be granted to those persons, equivalent to their
Salaries, abating fractions of a pound, viz.:—
Per And.
To Dugald Campbell, Esq., Register of
Forfeited Estates of Ireland.
Mr. Charles Taylor, Clerk of ae For-
feiture Office, Ireland
Robert Reeves, Esi., Solicitor for For-
kited Estates in Ireland
And we werc accordingly authorized to pay to
them respectively such pensions out of the re-
venues under our management.
These measures took effect from the 10th of
October last. A few days afterwards Mr. Tay-
lor, the late clerk, died, and the pension al-
lowed to him ceased.

13esides the Solicitor for Forfeited Estates,
we found another Law Officer, called the Soli-

and zealously those officeis might endeavour to
collect the rents now in regular course of pas-

citor for king's Rents, placed on the establish-
ment for the "i‘lanagement of the Land Revenue.
Being further informed that several years had
elapsed since the last settlement of that officer's
account, in the course of which period consider-
able sums had been paid to him on account of
the Revenue ; and adverting to those parts of
the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry, in
which they had taken notice of the proceedings
in that Department, and likewise to a schedule
of suits for the recovery of rents in arrear, and
other cases relating to the Crown estates, which
had been long depending at the period of our
own inquiries ; we requested the Commissioners
of Excise, in August, 1827, to require the said
Solicitor forthwith to state and render his ac-

tent, advantage would very generally be take►►
of their want of information as to the estates
and persons respectively chargeable with them,
which it would not be in our power to commu-
nicate to them as occasion should require; and
there would consequently arise a new and large
arrear, involving not only an immediate loss of
Revenue, but also ultimately expensive legal
proceedings, to enforce the payment of such part
of it as might be found recoverable.
On the passing of the Act, therefore, we en-
tered into an arrangement with the Co►nmis-
sioners of Excise, for the continued collection
of the rents by their officers, until receivers
should be appointed by us ; and by maintaining
the same channel and form of communication

counts for the business transacted by him under
their authority, up to the end of tl►e last pre-
ceding term, in order that they might be duly
examined and settled by them ; and we thought
it expedient, in the meantime, to suspend his
proceedings in the suits be had commenced until
we could investigate the matters to which they
related, and ascertain whether it would be pro-
per to prosecute them. Some of those causes
have since been brought to a satisfactory con-
clusion, without further expellee to the Crown,
by the ordinary course of official communication
with the parties ; but we have hitherto been un-
able to come to any decision on the greater
number of them, for want of full information
of the state of the proceedings, the documents
and papers relating to them being still retained
by the Solicitor, to enable him to prepare his
bills of costs, and to be exhibited to the proper
taxing officer as vouchers and authorities for the
business therein stated to have been transacted by
him. We are, however, quite satisfied that the
office in question is an unnecessary appewdage
to this Department, and attended with useless
expence to the Revenue ; and thergfore we pro-
pose to recommend that it be abolished, as soon
as the accounts of the present officer shall be
finally examined and settled, and the muni-
ments, proceedings, &c., in his keeping delivered
over to us, and which, we are informed, may
now be expected to be shortly effected.
MODE OF COLLECTING LAND REVENUE IN IRELAND.

with the Excise Collectors as were formerly used,
and for subjecting all new and special instructions
to those officers, relating to the Land Revenue,
to the previous inspection and sanction of the
Local Board of Excise, we have effectually pre-
cluded the inconvenience which might have
resulted from a distinct exercise (as would
otherwise have been occasionally necessary),
of the powers of control and direction over
those officers now vested in the respective
Boards.
Under this temporary arrangement, the rents
continue to be collected by the Local Officers of
Excise ; and by the unremitted zealous exertions
of the Clerk of the Quit Rents (Mr. Burke) a
considerable amount of long outstanding arrears
has been lately recovered, and the accounts in
that Department are brought into a more regular
state than they appear to have been during a long
series of years previously.
COURSE OF REMITTANCE OF RENTS COLLECTED.
According to the Excise Regulation, the Col-
lectors remitted the Crown rents, with the Excise
Duties collected by them periodically, to the Re-
ceiver General of Customs and Excise in Dub-
lin ; by whom the particular amount of the sums
arisen from Land Revenue was ascertained, and
then paid into the Bank of Ireland, where it was
placed to the credit of the proper Exchequer
account. The same course of proceeding was
continued until a few months ago, when the
Office of Receiver-General was abolished, and a

All the Land Revenues of the Crown were new mode of remittance of the Excise Revenue,
anciently collected by the respective Sheriffs of through the Agents of the Provincial Bank of
the Counties in which the premises were situ- Ireland, was established ; and it therefore became
ated, who accounted for the same, on oath, to immediately necessary to provide for the general
the Courts of Exchequer. In Ireland, this receipt of the Land Revenue. We accordingly
mode of collection was changed in the year instructed our Chief Clerk in this department,
1699, when the whole of the hereditary reve- who was then in Dublin, to ascertain whether it
nues of that kingdom were put in farm, and the might not be practicable, with due regard to the
farmers divided the country into a certain num- security of the revenue, to dispense with the
ber of districts, to each of which they appointed services of an intermediate receiver, by the adop-
a collector of the rents payable to the Crown.— tion of the same mode of remittance as the. Board
The Collectors were all subordinate to a Prin- of Excise had sanctioned, or by some other
cipal Clerk, called the Clerk of the Quit Rents, means equally eligible, and, if so, to make the
who made out the rentals or charge (as the pro- requisite official arrangements for carrying the