Star.
London, England, 1805-03-20 00:00:00

THE SECOND TREASURERSHIP Or THE RICHT ROHOIHt

MILE LOAD •IfCOVNT MELVILLE.

Lord Melville was re-appointed on the oh of tr.-
nuary 5784, and continued in office until the skof
June atoo.
In (peaking of this T.reafurerfhip, it will be :tees=
fary to divide it into two parts, as, from the t ;r.
nuary t 786, the bufinefs was conducted ander re
provifions of the 25th of his prefent
31, which inftitoted a new mode of Account for dr.
Office of Treafurer.
The old mode of Account of condi ceafed nn rl,e
35ft of December 1783, at which time Lord
(tool charged with taro hundred and feverrtt-C
thoufand eight hundred and twenty pounds
'billings and eleven•pence, out of which firm,
others advanced to him, he has continued to rozi
payments as an Es-Treafurer.
The late Mr. Andrew Douglas having alio AOC.
as Paymatter to Lord Melville during thi.
his fecond Treafurtrfhip,we queltioned
whether he had derived any profit or advantage fr ors
the ufe or employment of the money ►lfued fcrrcarr
on the current fervice of the Navy, between the tit fir
Fel:unary 1784 and the 3111 of December 1785, witids.
queaion his Lordfhip objeaed to, ani-wereng under
the provifions of the fifth claufe of the Aa by which
we are con (tit uted, and upon the ground before Mato
alluded to in. his letter

We hive entered in the appendix an account;,
mewing the annual amomx of his receipts and pay-
ments, and of the balance remaining on the salt of
'December in each year, from 1786 to an. The
balance of th: latter period, amounting to the fora c.
five thoufand fix hundred and forty-feven pounds and,
eleven-pence, has not been pais! over to Lord Melville.
A part thereof, two hundred and twenty-nine pounds
Ifne !billing and eight-pence, has been paid to peal,.
nated feamen ; the fum of four hundred and fixoy-
fix pounds four Shillings is in the hands of the Sub-
Accountant ; and the remainder, four thotsfand
nine hundred and fifty-one pounds fifteen /killings
and three-pence, 4 in the hands of Mr. Alexander
Trotter, who was appointed Paymafter in January,
1786 by Lord Melville, and has held that office tin-
der the fevers! fileceecling Treafurers, except MT.
Tierney. This difpofition of the Treafurer's Balance
appears to us more exceptionable than if it were in
the hands of the Treafurer, becaufe the Pays:miler
has the general conrroul of every branch of the.
Navy Pay Office, and it is part of his duty to bring
forward the Treafurer's Accounts, which the sae of
the money may incline him to delay.
The Accountant's branch, confiding of a Principal
and eight Clerks, having been eflabli&ed by order in
Council in Augur/ 1786, for the exprefs impure of
bringing up the old, and keeping up the new ac-
counts of the Treafurers of the Navy. we were fit:-
priced to learn that the accounts of the three Er-
Treafurers before noticed had not long face beat
made up and paired; hut we find that all the Clerks
in the Acconntant's branch. as well as the Accost'.
tans himielf, inllead of being employed in bringing up
the old, and keeping up the new accounts ofte
Treafurerst.had been engaged, by the direction of the
Paymatler, to the current bufinefs tithe Pay Office;
in confequence, as he (later, of the great increaft
of bufinefi during the late war, and to avoid as
much as poffible the neeelfity of applying for ads.
tional Clerks.

We difapprove this miftmployment of a branch ef;
tablithed for an exprefs purpofe, and that of much
importance to the public, as well as the fal fe econo-
my in not augmenting the eßablilhment of Clerks
in proportion to the increafe of baffle& If the
Accountant's branch had been employed for the
purpofes for which it was eftablifhed, and the necef-
fay affillance had been rendered from the Navy
Office, it is 'rated, that the accounts of the Ex•Trea-
torus (,a hole balances on the 31(1 of December 181)5,
amounted to fourteen thoufand nine hundred and
eightylcven pounds fevcn (billings and twopence
halfpenny) would have been made up at lealt tour
Weary

THE SLCOND PART OF THE SECOND TRISASVIMISHII. OF
THE RICHT MOH. LOED VISCOUNT Mi-LVILLE, OFFI-
CIALLY ENTITLED " HIS •CT OF PIIALIAME.HT

ACCnu NT."

The AP. of the 25th of his prefent Majefly, cap.
31, hir better regulating the Office of the freafurer
l‘fajefly's Navy, direded, That the feverxl
provilion. therein contained timid take pleas on the
tll of pily, 1785, but they were not carried into
effca till the, tit of Jamul y, 1786 ; we underftand
the delay was occafioned by the neceffity of making
form previous official arrangements.
In that month, Alexander Trotter, Efq who htd
teen lately a Clerk in the Navy Pay Office, was ap-
pointed Paymaster by Lord Melville, and he flares,
that he aged as a Deputy to the Treafurer, in all the
duties attached to the fit*ation, except the appoint-
ment of officers and clerks.

As the dirdtions -of the Ad are pofitive, that the
iffues of money for navy fervices that! be made to the
Bank, and that the money !hall not be drawn from
thence but for navy fervices, it appeared to us, that
if the dirdlions of the aft had been obferved, the cif-
cum fiance which we have before noticed. that the form
Itanding in the name of the Treafurer at the Bank,
were lets than his unappropriated balances, could not
have exited.

We theretOre deemed it our duty to enql:re mi-
nutely into the cat& of filch deficiencies, ..nd with
this view we firit.examined Mr. Trotter, and after-
wards Lord Melville.

- Mr. Trotter, when firfl called upon to account fnr
thefe deficiencies, faid he could not preciftly explaia
the caufe of them ; hut afterwards acknowledged,
that he had been in the praclicc of drawing- money
from the Bank in large films, and lodging it in the
hands of private Bankers, previonfly to its being if-
fued to the Sub-/keen() R tants for the public fervice.
This practice, he Rates, was introduced about the
year 1786, with the knowledge and approbation of the
'Creafurer. Lord Melville admits that he did permit
Mr. Trotter to lodge the public money in his private
Banker's hands, but not as it would teem to the ex-
tent underllood by Mr. Trotter.
Mr. Trotter, on being quellioned whether he had
derived any profit or advantage from the moneywit: -
drawn from the Bank, refilled to anfwcr, under ti.e
provifions of the fifth claufe of the Act, by %OIL !.
we are conftituted, and he availed hitnfeli of

••.. , • . ,
cianfe in every mullion which here any Madam tai
b the tile or employment of the public money, either
by himfelf or Lord Melville, urging in the latter cafe.
that as he had drawn all the money from the Bank
in the firtt inflanee, he conceived himfelf implicated
in its fubfequent appropriation.
Mr. Trotter gave tit to underßand.that money ap-
plicable to Navy Cervices, which had been ads anced
by him to Lord Melville, was employed by his
Lordflip in the public fervice of the State, and that'
he was led to this concluflon in coniequence- of a
confiderable fum fo advanced. having been returned
to him by Mr. Long, one of the Secretaries to the '
'l'reafury.
Upon this Ratetnent we ;Cued our precept to Laid
Melville, for an account of monies received by him. nt
any petfon on his account, or by his artier, from the
l'ay mailer of the Navy, between the i It of July, 1785,
:Ind the 301 of Decensber, tBoca. Rating when fuch
monies were received, end the times when,. and
-.he perfons by whom the !sine were returned to the
1 ink or the Payntafter.
• In anfwer to that precept ewe received (ran his
Lordtbip the following letter i
MIN, WilAbiedens so& Jane. tam.
I hive received your regulation, et data the oak bast It la
lopnabic for me wand& you with tote meow yemdt. kls
more than four years (once I left the meted Treacles! the Mao
vry, and at the road et doing fo, having ecommeed Armory t
lopreffed isle my honk I transferred the whole minks balance
to the amount d toy itteceirer. Frew dm dust I nmercepOdoe.
ed any me paper of somber that remained in my hawk sad the
await tie to ms (elf Of MT ghee .and conforently, today
east in the pradtke, Once I te Seabeds of cw#sybsy oe
nasally foots time in earthy my mom semi deeming ads
that were mfebia. I am foaled 'hoodoo an esti way emq ma-
terial which I could ache ep hick as mecum as yes fipeally.....
but yof that circoollance. I tbiakk risk to reload
yet. that daring a great pan of the time I was Tresilmeld the
Navy. I held other very cenidentiel amass in Oevermmemt,
Sod was intimately causedled man. So awed. I dlit not
decline skin mahout Wan the fonds is die
Treafurer's Bads to ether ferviceslet econated with my Mt, I
Oteation as Ttealker at the Navy. If I had waselials to Make
up loch an account as you require, I meld net dolt whitest Melo-
,* delicate and ceahlential tremhelisso of Goveliamene, width
soyduty to the public waft have realised me from Masai.
(Mimed) steivisse.
Defimos of being fumiesed with In account of the
Menu iCaed to the Bank for the fervice of the Navy,
which bad been drawn front thence and appropriated
to aoy other public fervice, and judging that Come
note or record of Inch wanfaaions ought to have
been.preferved in the Navy Pay Office, we iffued our
precept to the prefent Trealurer, for the account of
the (urns of money which had been advanced or lent
by the Treafurers of the ?levy, or by their direftions,
to any public department, or applied by them to fer-
Vices not connetied with their official fituationasTrea.
hirers of the Navy, betweso the tit of January, :786,
mad the 3t ft of December, 1803. la anfwer to which
be informed us, that there were no Remounts in the
office which enabled hint to retorn any fuels account.
We did not apply in the Navy &WO for information
vefinaing the !urns which bad been fo appropriated,
as dusk traufaltions are Rated so have taboo plate
without the knowledge of that Board.
Lead Melville, in his esansinatioe, objeited anfwer-
iog any quettion on this fubjea. relying on the fifth
chalk of the Aft by which we an eonflituted, and
alto upon the cirentaasces alluded so in his letter
before recited.
He alto declined, and upon the fame groands, to
Worm us whatim be had derived any profit or ad-
vantage from the eh or emptoynsent al money iffised
for carrying On the carnal (treks of the navy. bt.
• tween the 34..0f January, 5786. ands tft of May,
stioo ; that is, from the time of the operation of the
Ad for lodging money in the Bank to the time of his
quitting dice.
However the apprehenfiona of difelofing delicate
:end confidential tranfaaions of Government might
operate whit Lordblelville in withholding 4:Format:on
Tepee:Mg advances to other departments, we lo not
perceive how that apprehenfion can at all account for
his refufing to Rate whether lie derived any profit or
advantage from the ufe or emplov mentor money iffued
for the firvices of the Nary. if his Lordfisip bad re-
ceived into his hands filch monies only as were advan-
ced by him to other department; and bad replaced
them•as loon as they were repaid, he could not have
derived any profit or advantage from loch tranfac•
—dons, however repugnant they might be• to the pro-
%Anna of the Legidature for the fife cuttody of the
public money.
' Although we were not able to afcertain what mo.
aim were 'mitt over or advanced so Lord Melville,
yet, independent of Inch advances, bk. Trotter ad.
mite in the latter part of hie, esasinesion, that, in
following his Lorcithiph infirstaices„ t* in, iraiog in
his affairs as his primate agent, he had occaforoally
Laid out for his ufe or benefit, from tan so twenty
thoufand pounds without condd=hather he
was ptevioufly is advance to his • or whe•
tiler fuch advances was evade Rom biapnblic or pri-
vet, balances.
Mr. Trotter not only drew money frOm the Bank
in large fours, which he depofited with his private
bankers, Mars. Thomas Courts and Co. bat he alto
• prevailed with the Cub•accountants to depth the
greeter part of their balances with that honk. One
of them, indeed, the Caibier of the ifiaualling, ac-
qtdefced with reluctance, having always, before that
time, kept his balance at the Beni', and winking Min
to keep it there : he Rated it to us, that it was by
direCtion of Mr. Trotter be opened an account with
/lefts. Thomas Courts and Co. where he tenk credit
44 the fume advanced to hien by Mr. Trotter's drafts
:n :hat houfe ; but that be drew out thole fonts as
.1. • public fervid, required, and kept the retitle part
of ice. balance at the Bank, where be depofited loch
Curs as were advanced to him by drafts on the Bank.
Mr. Trotter Rates, that between the years 1791
and 1790, the greater part of the monies drawn, by
him from the Bank, paSed through the hands of
Melts. Thomas Courts and Co.; that the monies fo
drawn were fonsetinses placed to his credit in his ac-
counts with them, and at others were carried itorne•
eliately to the credit of the refpeaive fob-accountants;
and that the content of the Treafurer to this meafure
was fignified to him in a cenverfation, is which he
eeprefinted the facility that would be afforded to the
public bufinefs, and the additional lanky to the
Treaftwer, by the drafjs being left with the beakers,
inked of their being Cent to the Bank. and the money
' hr Ought from thew*, at his Mk, by the Mefengers
of the Office.
Lord Melville Rain, that he certainly did permit
Mr. Trotter to lodge any money drawn from the
baulk fat Rohde purports in his pirate bagkees bands,