Duties.] ON F E E S , G R A T U I T I E S , & c. Notwithftanding an encreafing Revenue may have occafioned an encreafe of Law bufinefs, and that other caufes may have incidentally • operated to produce fome portion of the excefs in the amount of the Taw Charges in the laft three years, we apprehend that the true fource of 1b profufe an Expenditure will be dilcovered in an erroneous and < defe6tive lyftem, which we fhall endeavour as briefly as poffibie, to defcribe. Each Board has its own Solicitor, at a falary of JT. 2 50 per annum, and common to both Departments there are two Counlel, who hold their refpective appointments during pleafure, and have each a falary of 100, payable on the Cuftom Eftablifhment, exclulive of their falaVies, for which they do not appear to perform any fpecial duty ; the Counfel, when employed in traniaCting the ordinary Law bufinefs of the Cuftom and Excife Revenue are paid by Fees, according to an accuftomed and not immoderate rate, fubjeft however to be varied at the difcretion of the relpettive Solicitors. It is the regular courle and conftant praCtice to conlult and employ both Counlel in the fame cafe, and upon every proceeding connected therewith ; and, if either be fent on Revenue bufinefis out of Dublin, his travelling exj) ences are paid, and notwith- ftanding he receives, while 1b employed, eight Guineas per day, his Fees are regularly allowed him for all bufinefs tranfaCtecl in his abfence, in like manner as if he were prefent. Befides the Board's Counfel, it has likewife been the praCtice to employ fome of the fuperior Crown Lawvers in fuch Revenue proceedings as are carried 011 in the Law and Equity Courts, and in the Court of Appeals, and alio to confult them in all cales involving queftions of • difficulty or importance. But notwithftanding the advice and affiftance of two Counfel generally feleCted, we prefume, out of perfons eminent in their profeffion, might in ordinary cafes be fuppofed more than fuffi- cient, we find, that in the vear 1803, in confequence of the recommend- ation of Government, the Solicitors of both Departments were dire& ed to employ the King-' s Attornev General in all Revenue cafes, in like 1 J O J ' manner as the Board's Counfel; but as his profeffional fervices continue to be in faCt only required on occafions of import and moment, while in purfuance of thefe directions, he receives all the emoluments that accrue in Dublin appertaining to fuch an appointment, we cannot avoid concluding that other motives than thofe of promoting the interefts of the Revenue, induced an arrangement apparently lb unnecellary. On all fuch plain and obvious points as may occur in the ufual courle of Revenue bufinefs, it is a part of the duty of the Solicitors, in confideration of their lalaries, to afford legal advice to their refpeCtive Boards; and it is the practice of both Boards to refer to their refpeCtive Solicitors, in ths firft inftance, every cafe appearing to involve any legal queftion, and, if recommended bv them, to direCt that the opinion of Counfel fhould be J • t • /•* taken therefon ; but as each Solicitor is entitled, in addition to his falary, to certain ufual and accuftomed allowances for drawing and copying all Revenue briefs, ( except fuch as relate to proceedings in the Courts of Law or Equitv, for which they charge in their Law Bills of Cofts), it becomes their intereft, thus at variance with their duty, to multiply the number of references to CounfeL • j A s; reat O 105 Appendix, N" 66, 67, & 63. Appendl'":, Nos 69 & r 70. Appendix, Koi' 66 Sc 67.