8 Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1761-1769.

Lib. J. R.
& U. S.

the said Order and Bills were not paid, and that therefore
the Ballance due from the said Officer to the Year 1757: is
£63 1.. 1 4.. 6; as appears by the above Account, And your Com-
mittee take Leave farther to report to the honourable House,
that they cannot find that the said Naval Officer has rendered
any Accounts for the 15^d per Hogshead for the years 1758,
1759, 1760, or that the Trustees have credited the Province
with any Monies or Bills remitted by the said Officer for the
said three last Years; which your Committee think a great
Breach of Duty in that Officer, and a great Injury to the
Province.

p. 305

Your Committee cannot find that the Naval Officer of
Pocomoke District has rendered any Account for the 15^d per
Hogshead for the Year 1755: but that the Naval Officer of
the said District has rendered Accounts for the Years follow-
ing (to wit.)

For the Year 1756 amounting to £22.. 8..9
For the Year 1757 ......... to 31.. 5..0
For the Year 1758 ......... to 17..15..0
For the Year 1759 ......... to 50..17..6
For the Year 1760 ......... to 8.. 0..0

£130.. 6..3

Amounting in the Whole to one hundred and thirty Pounds
six Shillings and three Pence as appears by the above Ac-
counts, but we don't find any Payments made by the said
Naval Officer in Discharge of that Sum, so that the same
is still due from him, And your Committee think it their
Duty to observe that the Naval Officer aforesaid did not
render the above Accounts 'till the 21^st Instant, which we
humbly conceive is a Breach of Duty the Naval Officers being
by Law directed to render Accounts yearly.
Your Committee also find by the said Trustees' Accounts,
that they did not buy in or convert any of the Monies re-
mitted by the Naval Officers, or received as Dividends from
the Interest on the Capital in the Bank from September 1755,
till September 1759, and February 1760, and until the Sum to
be converted from the best Purchase amounted to £6000,
sterling or upwards, and for their Justification they write to
the Commissioners the 10^th of March 1757 as follows "You
may wonder at the Sum lying dead, that we have not invested
it, or some Part thereof as we have from Time to Time here-
tofore done but as the Times lately, and still are so precarious,
we thought it better to defer it as we have done notwithstand-
ing the Loss of the Interest: The Price of the Stock is at 119
per Cent; and doubt will shortly be lower. We shall act to the
best of our Judgment for the Country's Interest at all Times,"