< b-) 9- 1 Commiffioners on FEES, GRATUITIES, & c. cxxxiii Have you any Accounts of your receipts and payments on account of your Road at that period ? L never kept any regular Cash Accounts, but I have my Correspondent Rook, which contains entries nf tb^ namns: nPtl-> o AT i_. <- . i , Paper. _ Does that book enable you now to ftate the fums actually received by you in any year?— It does not; as when a Paper appears to have been ordered in one year and difcontinued in the fucceeding, I have have no means of diftinguifhing in what year my Correfpondent paid for it; but the produce of the Road might be afcertained with tolerable corre& nefs by ftating the receipts for a number of years. Did you, on your appointment to the Road, require advanced payments from your Corre- fpondents or give them credit ?•— I was under the neceftity of giving credit to a great extent, owing to the infolvency of my predeceftor, who having died without leaving funds fufticient to fupply Newspapers to thole who had paid him for them in advance, the Public was appre- henfivc that the like would occur again, and for the moft part refufed to pay for their News- papers in that way. Is the Account you have produced to us, containing your receipts for the year and a half ending 5th January 1801, truly extracted from your books, and from what documents have you made up the amount of your payments as there fet forth ?— i extracted from my books the receipts for Newspapers circulated in the period referred to as correctly as 1 could," but not having kept any regular Account of my difburfements, the payments to Printers are calculated according to the quantity of Papers that appears to have been fo circulated. Does the Account of your receipts for the l'even years, ending 5th January 1809, contain the whole of your receipts as Clerk ofthe North Road during that period?— It does, to the beft of my knowledge and belief. Do you know of any fums having been received for you on account of the produce of your Road in that period, and which are not ftated in that Account ?— I do not. Are the fums ftated in this Account to be paid to Printers the adlual or eftimated amount thereof?— Except the payment to Printers in the laft year of the period; they are computed according to the eftimated quantity of Papers in each year. What quantity of Papers were you informed your predeceffor circulated, and from whom did you receive l'uch information?— I was informed by his Clerk, whom I alfo employed as mine, that he circulated from 22 to 30 quires a night in the year 1798; when the Paper called The Prefs was publifned, he circulated, as I underftood, 30 quires a night. Did you continue to give credit in fubfequent years to the lame extent as when you were firft appointed to the Road?— Latterly I gave credit to a much greater extent; my ill ftate of health preventing my attending to the number of Accounts belonging to the Road, fufticient pains were not taken to call for payment of the fubleriptions, and the oppofition of the Printers to the Clerks of the Roads by circulating their own Papers, particularly that of the Printer of The Correfpondent, a Paper much in demand, rendered the giving of credit unavoidable, in order to retain Subfcribers 011 my books, and when they were in my debt I found it neceftary to give them further credit to induce payment. Can you form any idea of the extent of your losses by giving credit?— I cannot ftate parti- cularly the amount, but I think they cannot be lefs than £. 1,500. Informing the Eftimate of your income, did you take into your confideration the loftes to which you were liable from the necefiity of giving credit to tiie great extent you fay you have done?— 1 certainly did, and confidered it was my duty to the Public to do fo ; for my application in common with that of the other Clerks, was for compenfation on account of a deficiency of actual income. Do you confider that your predeceflor received a greater or nearly the fame profit that you did, in proportion to the quantity of Newspaper circulated by him ?— I Ihould think his rate of profit was higher than mine, as he did not give credit to the fame extent that I was - obliged to do, and consequently was not lubjedt to the fame loftes ; but I have no means of - alcertaining the rate of his profits. In making your annual claims, did you attend to the amount of your a& ual payments?— I never did; 1 confidered that I had fulfilled my duty in corre& ly afcertaming the number of Papers iftued, and charging the profit as 1 have already ftated, and never calculated my actual profits. Did you ever refer to your payments to Printers with a view to afcertain the number of Papers iftued ?— I never did ; and if 1 had I fhould have been led into error by them, as I am certain I conftantlv paid for more Papers than were ifl'ued to my Correl'pondents, in confequence of the fraudulent practices of my Clerk, and at one time, as 1 believe, to the extent of 48 Papers per week. ... „ , In what manner did you afcertain the number of Papers ftated in your Returns to have been ifiiied in each year fubfequent to 1802?— The circulation of Papers being then principally confined to the General Poft Nights, the calculations of profit in the original Returns claiming compenfation, fubmitted to the Postmasters General in 1802, were made on a fuppofed ifi'ue of Papers upon three nights in each week ; but as there was then an liiue of Six Day Papers, it was the mode adopted at that time, and it has always been adhered to, in the fublequent Returns, to take the iilue of two nights ( a general and bye night) ot the higheft circulation combined, as the ifi'ue of one night, and alio m the like manner to take the iftue of two other fuch nights ofthe loweft circulation as the ifi'ue of one other luch night, and to give the average of thofe combined numbers, as the ifi'ue of the Road for three nights . a week diroughout the year. ^