liv Introduction.

Loan Office for monies which they have collected (pp. 677-678). The com-
mittee further declared that the accounts of the Loan Office, as had been re-
ported by former committees, were still kept in such irregular manner that
the committee did not have sufficient time during a meeting of the Assembly
to make a satisfactory examination of them, and again urged that the trustees
be required to keep their accounts by the "Italian Method" [double entry],
and to close their books immediately following each session, (p. 534)

AGENTS APPOINTED UNDER THE SUPPLY ACTS

Agents were appointed under the various military Supply acts for His
Majesty's Service who had charge of all expenditures authorized under these
several acts. The agents during this period were William Murdock, James
Dick, and Daniel Wolstenhome, the first-named an anti-Proprietary member
of the Lower House. Funds were supplied to the agents, apparently in the
form of paper currency, by the Loan Office under orders from the Governor;
and expenditures of these funds by the agents could only be made when
authorized by the Governor. An inspection, or audit, of the office of the
agents was made from time to time by a committee of six members of the
Lower House, and not by a joint committee of the two houses, as in the case
of the Loan Office. To the student of colonial military affairs of this period
these reports are of considerable interest as they show among other things the
expenditures upon forts Frederick and Cumberland, pay to soldiers and officers,
enlistment bounties, payments for arms and ammunition, hospitals, Indian
scalps, quartering troops, provisions, messengers and sundry other items. The
committee severely criticized many of the military expenditures made by the
agents, acting under orders from the Governor, as unauthorized under the
several supply acts, but one cannot help feeling that most of these criticisms
were captious and made not in good faith, but for the purpose of discrediting
the Governor. The committee reports made at the September-December 1757
session (pp. 209-210, 213-214, 257-262), and at the March-May 1758 session
(pp. 611-620) are especially full. While criticizing certain expenditures, such
as the employment of women as cooks and nurses, the committee reported that
the books and accounts of the office of the agents appeared to have been
well kept. Perhaps the objection to paying for " 4 Women to each Company "
(pp. 263, 619) may refer to " camp followers ".

THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTS

It will be noted that at none of the four sessions of the Assembly held during
the period covered by this volume was there passed the customary " Journal
of Accounts ", which made provision for the payment of the ordinary expenses
of government due to its sundry creditors specified in the Journal. It will be
recalled that at the February-May, 1756, session, the Lower House had held up
approval of the Journal of Accounts because it contained certain items which
this body disputed, but had finally, and with great reluctance, agreed to its
passage with the reservation that it would never again approve a journal which
included the payment of a fixed salary to the clerk of the Upper House, who,