Page:An Act for Extending and improving the Trade to Africa (1750).djvu/12

 officers and servants employed by the and of all other matters or thing whatsoever which shall be transacted by the said committee.

XXIV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said committee, out of the monies they shall receive, shall deduct annually a sum, not exceeding the sum of eight hundred pounds, for defraying, in the first place, the salaries of their clerks and agents at London, Bristol, and Liverpool, the house-rent of their office in London, and all other charges of management, commission or agency, in England; and the residue of the said eight hundred pounds shall be shared and divided amongst themselves, as they shall judge proper, as a compensation for their trouble and attendance in the said office of committee-men; and the rest of the monies which the said committee shall receive for the admission of persons into the freedom of the said company, or otherwise, shall be applied and appropriated wholly to the maintenance, support, and improvement of the forts and settlements already built, or which hereafter shall be built, on the coast of Africa, which shall be in the possession of the said company; and for keeping them in good repair ; and for providing ammunition, and other stores, and officers and soldiers to defend the same; and for paying the said officers and soldiers; and to and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.

XXV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That she said committee shall, within one month after the expiration of the year for or during which they shall have been chosen committee-men, lay before the cursitor baron of the court of exchequer, an account of all the money received by the committee during the preceding year, and of the application thereof, upon oath; and the said cursitor baron shall, within one month after the said account shall be laid before him, examine, pass, and audite the same; and for the better discovering of the truth of such account, the said cursitor baron is hereby impowered to examine any of the said committee-men, and such other person or persons as he shall judge necessary, upon oath, touching the articles or particulars in such account expressed, or such of them as the said cursitor baron shall think fit; which account, so audited and passed by the cursitor baron, shall be final and conclusive, and shall be a full and absolute discharge to the said committee-men, without their being compelled to give or render any further or other account thereof; and the said committee shall, every session of par-