troller and inspector of lottery offices in Ireland, for two years to 24 June 1807, and for paying the salaries of the commissioners for certifyingoutstanding lotteryprizes, for 22 months, ending 24 June 1807......

Erection and completion of a pier in Dundrum bay on the coast of the county of Down ....

PUBLIC BOARDS,

from 5th Jan. 1807, to 5th Jan. 1808. The trustees of the linen and hempen

manufactures, for one year to the 5th January, 1807

The board of first fruits; for building new churches, and re-building old churches, in such parishes as no public service has been performed in for 20 years past, and for the encouragement of building glebe houses The Dublin society, for promoting husbandry and other useful arts in Ireland, 2,000l. whereof to be applied in aid of the funds of the institution at Cork, for the application of science to the common purposes of life, and the remaining 10,000l. for completing additional buildings, supporting the botanic gardens, promoting husbandry and useful arts, and other objects of the said society........... Expence of the farming society of Ireland

23,270 0 0

23,270 0 0

The select committee appointed to inquire into the present state of the affairs of the East-India company, and to report the same, as it shall appear to them, to the house, with their observations thereupon, and also to report their proceedings from time to time to the house; and to whom several accounts and other papers presented to the house, respecting the revenues and charges, and the commercial concerns of the East-India company; and also the petition of the united company of merchants of England, trading to the East Indies, were severally referred :-Have, pursuant to the orders of the house, examined the matters to them referred, and have agreed upon the following report.

TH

HE utmost diligence which your committee have been enabled to bestow upon a subject of such extensive detail, as an inquiry into the present state of the affairs of the East-India company," would not have been sufficient for its full investigation within the period which has elapsed since their appointment, even if many of the most necessary documents, as to the state of the company's affairs in India, had not been received so recently as to preclude the possibility of their being examined with that degree of accuracy, care, and attention, which the complicated nature, not less than the importance of the subject, indispensably requires: your com

sideration of the various matters comprehended in the general object of their inquiry, and will from time to time submit their observations thereupon to the house; but in consequence of the petition which the company have presented to the house, and which has been referred to your committee, they have deemed it advisable, in the first instance, to advert to the allegations of that petition, including not only those which refer exclusively to the balance claimed by the company as owing to them by the public, but also such as relate to the general state of their affairs, and to report upon the same, as far as the progress which your committee have been enabled to make in their inquiry, has, in their apprehension, justified the observations which they now offer to the consideration of the house. Your committee, finding it stated in the petition from the company as one of the causes from which the present embarrassment in their pecuniary concerns had arisen, that a large balance of debt remained due to them from the public, on account of various expenses incurred for expeditions to the French, Dutch, and Spanish settlements in the Indian seas, and to Egypt, have proceeded, in the first instance, on the investigation of the account between the public and the company. Your committee find, that in the report made by a former committee upon this subject, on the 26th day of June 1805, and now referred to your committee, the several heads of charge upon which the claims preferred on behalf of the company were founded, are arranged in the following manner, in three classes, according

to

to the nature of the circumstances and transactions out of which they have respectively arisen. The first class composed of such heads of charge as should fall, in the opinion of the committee framing that report, exclusively on the public; the second, of such as should be borne exclusively by the company; and the third, consisting of charges to be divided equally between both. parties. First class, chargeable to the public." An account of expenses incurred by the East-India company in India and England, for the intended expedition to the French islands, and for the expedition against and supplies to the Cape of Good Hope. An account of expenses incurred by the EastIndia company, for the intended expedition against Manilla. An account of the expenses incurred by the East-India company, for the purchase of vessels for his majesty's navy, repairs to king's ships, &c. &c. An account of the expenses incurred by the East-India company, by the capture of the Danish settlements in India, in 1801. An account of the extraordinary expenses incurred by the East-India company, by the expedition to Egypt, over and above the charge of the troops in India. Ceylon balance of property, December 1801, and remittances from India subsequent to that date; also the expense of the capture of the said island." Second class, chargeable to the company," An account of the expenses incurred by the East India company, in consequence of various captures made from the French and Dutch, on the peninsula of India, including subsistence of prisoners. An ac

count of the king's troops in India, beyond the number authorized by acts of parliament." Third class, to be equally divided." An account of the expense incurred by the capture and maintenance of Malacca and the Moluccas, and for the maintenance of Ceylon, deducting the profit on spices."-The said report further states the determination of that committee, concerning the rates of interest to be allowed upon the several sums appearing on the different sides of the account, as follows: "Your committee have thought it reasonable, that the company's claims, so far as they arise from an expenditure carried on in India by loans raised there, should be made up with the rate of interest paid by the company abroad for the loan of the year in which the expense was actually incurred; and that the paymaster-general's account should bear interest according to the rate paid by the public for money in Europe, in the several years in which the demands have accrued; credit is given on the other side of the account on all payments hitherto made by the public in discharge of these demands, at the same rate of Indian interest as that debited by the company."The report then states the opinion of the said committee, that, as far as they can judge, a balance of about 2,300,000l. would be owing by the public to the company, according to the mode of stating and making up the account therein prescribed, and that the sum of 1,000,000. might safely be voted by the house on account. But it was observed in the said report, that the accounts on which the opinion of the said committtee (in reN 2

gard

gard to the amount of what might prove due to the company had been founded), would require revision; and it was recommended, that an accountant should be nominated on the part of the treasury, and another on the part of the company, to examine and make up the accounts according to the principles therein specified, previous to the final balance being discharged: and it was also recommended, that frequent and early adjustments of accounts should take place between the public and the company.-Your committee find, that the sum of 1,000,000l. was accordingly voted in that session of parliament, and paid to the company, and that in conformity to the recommendations contained in the said report, accountants were named on the part of the public and the company respectively, for the purpose therein mentioned, who appear to have entered without delay upon the duties assigned to them.Your committee find that, in the session of 1806, another sum of 1,000,000l. was voted and paid to the company on account; it appearing by a letter from Mr. Witwer, the accountant named by the lords commissioners of the treasury on the part of the public, to George Harrison, esq., dated on the 25th of June 1806 (which letter is referred to your committee), that although, for reasons therein particularly detailed, no final adjustment of accounts could at that time be made between the public and the company, the ultimate balance due to the latter would be found to exceed that sum.-Your committee find, that additional claims and demands have arisen between the pub

lic and the company, subsequent to the report of 1805, above alluded to, some of which have accrued from a continuation to a later period of accounts and heads of charge then existing, and others from different circumstances and transactions which have since occurred.-Your committee have applied to those of the former description, the principles which they found laid down in the report of 1805. The following charges, which have grown out of new matter since that report, they have agreed, after due consideration, to include in the first class, as payable by the public: Expenses incurred in India on account of the Chinese settlers at Trinidad.-Expenses incurred on account of the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in 1805. Supplies for the expedition against Buenos Ayres.-Your committee are also of opinion, that the charge of prisoners of war taken at sea by his majesty's ships, which does not appear to have been particularly noticed by the committee of 1805, ought to be defrayed by the public, especially as the principle on which this claim is founded, seems to be recognized and admitted in the act of 1793, chap. 52, sect. 127.-Your committee find that a new demand has also been brought forward on the part of the public against the company for victualling stores furnished for the company's service by the commissioners of victualling, or their agents.-Your committee find, that the gross demand of the company on the public, drawn up in conformity to what has been stated, with interest computed to the first of March 1808, amounts, according

to