Office.] ON FEES, GRATUITIES, & c. ,3 Waterford and Donaghadee, and to its credit, the remittances made during the montn; on this Account a balance fhould be ftruck, and a return of the amount due by each Deputy Postmafter made monthly to the Poft matters General The only new document requisite to enable the Accountant General to make up this check account, would be a monthly inftead of fas at prefent) a ouarterly return of the Postage to be charged against the Deputy Poftmafters for Britifh Letters by Waterford and Donaghadee. Befides the before mentioned Accounts, the Account- Appendix, N- ant General makes up two quarterly Accounts, in both of which the Irifh Poft Office is made Dr. and Cr. The one is a ftatement of the Account with the Poft Office of Great Britain, the other a general . Account of the Poft Office Revenue of Appeadix, Ireland. The forms of thefe Accounts are given in the Appendix. N^ 22, 23. Notwithftanding the importance of this branch of the public Revenue, and the ftrict attention neceffary to prevent errors accruing in Accounts compofed of fuch minute particulars as thofe of the Poft Office, we do not find an inftance of their having been referred to any Officer, for the Purpofe of being examined and audited, previous to the month of September in the year 1804, when a ftatement thereof Appendix, N' was by order of the Lords of the Treafury laid before the Commiffioners of Ac- count?, which however, after much labour employed in inveftigating it, having been found incorrett, was withdrawn, and it was then confidered neceffary to go into an examination of the whole of the Accounts of the department from its eftablifhment. At the clofe of this inveftigation in 1805, it was difcovered, that errors to the amount of £ 11,960. 3. 5^-. affecting both the charge and difcharge fides of the Accounts for the Irifh Revenue had been accumulating fince the year 1784, and a balance to the amount of £ 7,571. 1. 84. appearing thereon to be in favour of the Revenue, was brought into the general Account in the quarter ending 5th April 1806. A great proportion of thefe errors arofe from credit being given to the General Poft Office in the Irifh Account for the Poftage on Britifh Letters mif- fent to the country parts of Ireland and afterwards returned to London, and for repayments of overcharges on Britifh Letters called Rebates, made by De- puty Poftmafters, the former amounting to £ 1,203. 9* tbe latter to £ 4,949. 7. 10. In excufe for fo great an irregularity as taking credit in the Irifh Account for Returns that belonged entirely to the Britifh, it is alledged that the Accounts were made up according to a printed form which contained no head for deducting from the Sums claimed by Deputy Poftmafters for refufed and unknown Letters, the Poftage on mif- fent Britifh Letters and the fums paid for Britifh Re- bates. But this reafon is by 110 means fatisfa& ory, as in making up the Britifh Account, credit was regularly taken for thefe items ; and we cannot conceive how an Officer intelligent in Accounts, could have thus continued to make up both Accounts without detecting fuch an error; befides Mr. Murphy, the Officer alluded to, afted as principal in the Treafurer's Office as well as that of the Accountant General, and the accumulating ftate of the cafh in his hands beyond the demands appearing againft him, which could only proceed from fome irregu- larity in the Accounts, muft have been conftantly in view, and ought to have induced an examination of them long before it actually took place. In conducting the inveftigation of the Accounts, Mr. Murphy certainly dif- covered great ability, and the General Poft Office is indebted to him for forming a fyftern of Book- keeping, from the adoption of which, in our opinion, much advantage may be derived. The old form of Account, however, after correcting the errors difcovered in the Mode of making it up, has been continued in ufe, and if intended as a ftatement of the Irifh Poft Office Revenue, and of the payments and deductions thereout, is ftill incorrect. In every fuch Account, the Britifh Poftage received in Ireland on poft- paid Letters for Great Britain, is charged againft the General Poft Office, as if it formed a part of the Irifh Revenue, while a like fum is taken credit for on the difcharge fide of the Account; thus, though the balance is not affected, both fides of the Account are overftated. A fimilar obfervation applies to two items in the Irifh Poft Office Account, as made up according to Mr. Murphy's new plan of Account, viz. Britifh Rebates made at Country" Offices, and the Poftage on refufed and infolvent Letters returned to I ondon, being ftated on both fides of the Account; neither does the annual Account laid before Parliament always exhibit the real ftate of the Poft Office Revenue; thus in the Finance Account N° 1, for the year ending 5th January 1808 the Poft Office Balances in the hands of the different Collectors are ltated to amount to £ 6,117. i3r. ad. while the actual Cafh Balances of the Deputy ( 54.) F>