9* Appendix, N* 26. Appendix, N ® 27. Appendix, & Ci22 & 24. Appendix, ft" 28 & 29. . Appendix, N° 30. Appendix. N° 31. ( Ireland.") Eighth REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS [ Excife his Abftraft for fuch Bills only as were aftually difpatched within the week, and that the prefent praCtice of giving credit for the Bills in the Receiver General's hands, 011 the fourth day after the clofe of the week, fhould be difcontinued, as it affords the means of applying part of the produce of a fucceeding week to pay off the balance of the preceding, and large Cafh Balances may thus be retained, without being ( hewn by the Accountant General's AbftraCt. But the ftate of the Collector's - balances continues to require the ferious and unremitting attention of Government. After the directions relating to this fubject, fo recently given in Mr. Secretary Elliot's letter, dated 31ft January 1807, and the determination expreifed by the Commiffioners of Excife in their General Order of 22c! OCtober following, " of effecting a progreffive reduction « of the ColleCtor's balances," ftated, " to be in almoft every inftance " difproportionately and unnecelTar ly large, fo that by the 5th January " 1808, they might be reduced in ; very cafe below the fum of 100." We cannot account for their being permitted, with only a few • exceptions, fo greatly to exceed that amount, unlets we fuppofe the Board to be ignorant of the true ftate of the ColleCtor's Accounts. - Certainly, however, the important confide rations then urged " of render- " ing the produce of this Revenue applicable to the public fervice as 45 foon as poffible, after it was colleCted, and of preventing the great * l loffes which had been fuftained by permitting large balances to accu- 44 mulate in the hands of the Collectors," ought to have induced more • prompt and efficacious measures than appear to have been adopted for carrying the orders of Government into effeCt. The effeCts of permitting large fums to accumulate in the hands of the ColleCtors, are apparent in the i 11c re ale of the balances due by deceafed and difmiffed Collectors of Cuftoms and Excife. Thus we find that a fum of £. 52,082. 15/. 3f has been added to the amount of fuch balances, in the three years ending 5th January 1808, while in the fame period only £. 10,774. 4s. 1 \ d. feem to have been recovered, nearly one- half of which fum appears to have been paid 011 account of a balance due by a ColleCtor recently dilmiffed. We annex a Return, containing the particulars of the fecu- rities given to the Crown by the prefent Excife ColleCtors of Ireland, and have only to recommend, as we did in our Report 011 the Cuftoms, that every ColleCtor fhould be ftriCily enjoined to report periodically to the Board, whether all his fureties are living and folvent, and upon the death or infolvency of any one of them immediately to provide another. I11 our firft Report we ftated, that the feveral Duties of Cuftoms and Excife, were paid by the refpeCtive ColleCtors to the fame Receiver General, whole functions we alfo particularly defcribed, and detailed the manner in which this Officer's receipts were paid into the Bank of Ireland to the credit of the Exchequer ; while we were eno- ao- ed in profecuting our enquiries into that fubjeCt, we were informed that* from tne creation of the office of the Receiver General in 1795, until the year 1804, arrangement had been made for auditing and paffino- the Accounts of that Officer, but that fome time in the courfe of the Litter year, an order had been iffued by the Lords of the Treafury, directing that his Accounts, from the eftablifhment of the office to the date of jfuch order, and quarterly in every fucceeding year, fhould be audited by the