8 iO REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON f " of the corporation of the city of Limerick are vested in the whole cor- " porate body for the public uses of the city." This resolution was agreed to by the House, and was acquiesced in by the Privy Council of Ireland, on the 13th March 1762, a most important letter from which body to the Earl of Egremont, secretary of state, is subjoined in the Appendix. Your Committee are therefore of opinion, that these revenues are intended for public purposes only, and that an application of them to other uses is wholly without justification. At present so far are the roads and bridges from being repaired out of these funds, that a very oppressive tax is raised by Grand Jury Present- ments upon the inhabitants for these purposes ; amounting, in the ten years ending 1820, to above 50,000 /. This tax falls almost exclusively on the poor inhabitants of the old city, and on the landholders of the liberties; and inasmuch as it is applied to purposes for which the cor- porate funds were originally intended, Your Committee consider it as a burthen unwarrantably cast upon those from whom it is collected. As the grand juries are composed of the leading members of the corporate body, as they are, in fact, the corporation itself, in another form, the House will ob- serve, that the very same individuals first sanction the diversion of the re- venues from the public purposes for which they were intended, and next impose taxes to supply the amount of this misapplication. Your Committee, following the precedent of the Irish House of Com- mons in 1723 and 1761, - when the abuses of the corporation of Limerick were made the subject of parliamentary inquiry, called for an account of the corporate income and expenditure during the last ten years. This account has, after a very considerable delay, been produced, but at a mo- ment when Your Committee were on the eve of closing their Report, and when, from the late period of the session, it was wholly impracticable to enter into a minute investigation of their contents. The difficulty under which Your Committee labours, is increased in consequence of the neglect of the chamberlain to comply with the order given for the produc- tion of these accounts in the hands of some person qualified and authorized to explain them. Under such circumstances, Your Committee can only make a few general observations upon the accounts as produced, without expressing any opinion on their accuracy. They are certified, it is true, by the chamberlain, the proper officer of the corporation, but they are unaccompanied by vouchers, or any document sufficiently explanatory. The total revenues, during the last ten years, are stated to have amounted to 25,947 I• 17 s. 7d. consisting of tolls and customs, producing 19,670/.; casual income 2,428/. 3 s. Id. and real property 3,849/. 14 s. 6 d. During the same period the regular annual expenditure has amounted to 16,382 I. 14 s. 1 d.; but the balance which would have remained to the credit of the corporation, and, consequently, applicable to the public uses of the city, is stated to be more than covered by a contingent expenditure of 14,356 /. 9 s. d.; to this contingent expenditure, Your Committee feel it their duty to direct the attention of the House. It is not given with as much precision as Your Committee might have expected; the dates of payments are not set forth, and the transactions of several years are blended together in a manner utterly subversive of all clearness, and inconsistent with the ordinary principles of public accounts. It consists also of items, which, when compared with the public purposes for which the revenues were granted, appear of very questionable propriety. An expenditure of. above 1,000/. has taken place in payments for the stamps on the admission of freemen, and this not on such admissions generally, but on the admissions of freemen connected with one particular interest. In 1812 and 1813,