under the act nine and ten Victoria, chapter
ninety-two.

The disadvantage and expense attendant on
a subdivided form of audit managed in so
many unconnected offices—the want, in fact,
of compact organisation, which is still felt more
or less in all departments of the government—
led from time to time to fresh consolidations.
In the year eighteen hundred and thirteen
one of the commissioners for auditing the
public accounts was appointed auditor- general
of accounts in the Peninsula. He
returned from Lisbon six years afterwards,
and his establishment was then reduced.
The extraordinary expenditure arising out
of the famine in Ireland, in eighteen
hundred and forty-seven, rendered it necessary
for the commissioners of audit to send
two officers to Dublin, to examine the
accounts of the relief commissioners during
the progress of the expenditure. It was also
at about the same time considered necessary
by the government to appoint a special
commission to sit in Dublin, to examine the
accounts of the expenditure for the labouring
poor in Ireland.

Various duties have from time to time
been assigned to the commissioners for
auditing the public accounts by the Lords of the
Treasury, thereby making them general
advisers of the government in matters of
account, in addition to their duties as
auditors. The duty of making up and preparing
an annual account of the transactions
of the commissariat chest has also been
assigned to the commissioners of audit, by
treasury minute dating nine or ten years
back. The Lords of the Treasury have
expressed an opinion, that all accounts of the
expenditure of public money should be
audited by the commissioners for auditing
the public accounts, ami there are now not
many exceptions to that rule.

The board of audit now consists of five
commissioners; there were once nine. The
chairman has a salary of fifteen hundred
a-year; the four others, twelve hundred
a-year each. They are appointed by the
crown; but, with a view to secure their
independence, the appointment is a patent one,
and, having once been made, can only be
revoked on an address from both Houses of
Parliament to the Crown. The salaries of these
national auditors are, for the same reason,
settled as fixed charges upon the consolidated
fund. Before entering on his duties, each
commissioner swears that he will faithfully perform
them; and he is, in his turn, authorised to
administer to all subordinates oaths in assurance
of their true and faithful demeanour in
all things relating to the performance of the
trust reposed in them. No audit commissioner
can sit in parliament. Down to the
year last expired, the cost of the whole
establishment was charged on the consolidated
fund. But, with a view to the annual revision
of the main expenses of the department
by the House of Commons, it has now to be
provided for by annual estimate and vote of
that assembly. The estimate voted last
year was nearly fifty thousand pounds. The
cost of the department, including the salaries
of the commissioners, being about fifty-four
thousand a-year.

The board, attended by its secretary, meet
at least three times a week for the transaction
of the higher kind of business. But, in addition
to board meetings, the commissioners
divide themselves into committees of two, for
the despatch of details not requiring general
consideration. Each of these committees takes
under its more immediate control one or two
of the interior departments into which the
work is distributed, and the heads of those
departments attend, to bring before the committees
to which they are subject, all questions
of doubt and difficulty.

The establishment consists of a secretary
with eight hundred a-year rising to a thousand;
an inspector of naval and military
accounts with six hundred a-year, rising to
eight; ten inspectors with five hundred
a-year rising to six hundred and fifty; fifteen
first-class senior examiners with four hundred
a-year rising to five; one book-keeper, with
four hundred a-year rising to five hundred
and fifty; one supernumerary first-class
senior examiner with four hundred a-year
rising to five hundred; twenty second-class
senior examiners, and two supernumeraries,
all with salaries of three hundred rising to
three hundred and fifty pounds; moreover
thirty junior examiners and two supernumeraries
whose salaries amount from a hundred
and fifty to two hundred and fifty pounds;
finally, thirty assistant examiners and one
supernumerary, whose salaries rise from
ninety pounds a-year to one hundred and
forty.

The patronage of these officers is with the
treasury; but, with two exceptions, all enter
in the lowest rank, as assistant examiners,
and rise according to a rule laid down by the
commissioners. The exceptions are the
secretary and the inspectors in charge of naval
and military accounts. These two officers
receive a direct appointment from the treasury,
and do not rise by gradations through
the lower ranks. The whole establishment
is divided into twelve branches or
departments:—

1. The secretary's department. This conducts
the general business of the board, such
as the preparation of minutes, reports,
correspondence, and is the department through
which all the business transacted by the
other departments may be said to be filtered
in its passage to the Board. The appropriation
audit of the commissariat chest account,
for presentation to parliament, is compiled
under the secretary's superintendence.
This leading branch consists of the secretary,
the book-keeper, the chief clerk, three senior
second-class, and six assistant examiners.