25, 25- j OTJ F E E S , G R A T U I T I E S , Scc.~( Excifc Duties.) ISI No. 25. The Examination of Mr. ROBERT COOPER ; taken upon Oath, the 29th of April and 12th of May 1808. " This Examinant faith, ^ That he is at prefent aCting Clerk of the Abftrafts in the Office of the Accountant ' General of Excife. In the making up the Accountant General's weekly AbftraCt the praCtice is, when the ColleCtor's weekly AbftraCt has not been returned, to ftate the Balance for the preceding week, and to give credit to the ColleCtor for Acquittances, and Bills unacquired in the hands of the Receiver General, by which means a Col- lector often appears to have over remitted, when in faCt he is confiderably indebted; for inftance, the Collector of Cork appeared, from the Accountant General's weekly AbftraCt of the 12th of March, to have over remitted 10,610. ; whereas, by his owjn AbftraCt, the over remittance was but £. 828. 19J. 6d. and on the 26th of March, when it appeared by the Accountant General's weekly AbftraCt, that the ColleCtor had over remitted £. 4,480., the ColleCtor aCtually owed a net Cafh Balance of £. 6,030, and on the id of April the ColleCtor was ftated to have over remitted £. 4,520, on which day he failed, owing a balance to the Crown of £. 24,500. Since this event occurred, an order has been made by the Board, that all AbftraCts of the preceding week fhould be with the Accountant General by the fubfequenc Wednefday. This Examinant fees no objeCtion to the CollcCtor's weekly AbftraCts being difpatched ro the Accountant General's Office as foon as they can be made up, in confequence of which, by their arriving in fucceffion, there would be more time given the Accountant General to make up his Weekly Abftradt. Robert Cooper. J. S. Roehfirt. Fred- Geale. • • Robert Alexander. • Charles Saxton„ No. 26. ExtraCt from Copy of a LETTER from the Right honourable William Elliott; on the fubjeCt of Collectors' Accounts ; to the Commissioners of Excife; 31ft January 1807. « That the produoe of this Revenue may be applicable to the Public Service . as foon as poffible after it is collected, and to prevent the great loffes which have been fuftained by permitting large balances to accumulate in the hands of the Col- leCtors, his Grace defrres you would, agreeably to the recommendation of the Com- miffioners of Enquiry in refpeCt of the Port ColleCtors, exaCt from the ColleCtors of Excife a ftriCter compliance with your ftanding InftruCtions to them on this fubjeCt, and from this time obtain a progrefTive reduction of their Balances, which, in almoft every inftance, is difproportionately and unneceffarily large, fo that by the 5th January 1808 they may be reduced in every - cafe below the fum of one hundred Pounds, . and never afterwards fuffered to exceed that fum in any of their Weekly Abftrafts." \