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department has been created for checking the delivery and returns of ſtores, medicines, and neceſſaries of every ſurgeon in the navy, as well as of the ſurgeons and agents of hoſpitals at home and abroad.
The relief thus afforded to the Navy Board, by removing the tranſport buſineſs from under their control, ſtill left their eſtabliſhment unequal to providing for the widely extended operations of this war, which rendered a conſiderable increaſe to it abſolutely indiſpenſable. The number of commiſſioners of the navy was found altogether unequal to checking the expenditure in its various branches, providing at the ſame time for a firſt and cloſe examination of accompts, as well of the receipt and expenditure of ſtores as of caſh; eſpecially as, on foreign ſtations in particular, opportunities were afforded for abuſes to an immenſe extent, from the want (of a ſuperlntending and controling authority on the ſpot: the beſt remedy for which it was conceived would be the appointment of reſident commiſſioners at certain places abroad, where there had been none before. On the whole, between 1798 and 1809, there were added eleven principal officers and commiſſioners of the navy at home, including
