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 as may be necessary to add to the economy of the departments and the accountability of their officers;” but this Committee stood as the only committee of audit for but two years. It was not then abolished, but its jurisdiction was divided amongst six other Committees on Expenditures in the several departments, to which was added in 1860 a seventh, and in 1874 an eighth. There is thus a separate Committee for the audit of the accounts of each of the executive departments, beside which the original single Committee on Public Expenditures stands charged with such duties as may have been left it in the general distribution. The duties of these eight Committees are specified with great minuteness in the rules. They are “to examine into the state of the accounts and expenditures respectively submitted to them, and