Mr. Callender is Mr. Finlay's Agent without whose knowledge and concurrence, We have taken no one step of late in this business, nor sent out any dispatch to Mr. Finlay that Mr. Callender has not previously seen and approved.
He will be able to satisfy you Sir, whether our conduct towards Mr. Finlay has been grounded upon severity or upon forbearance, more than perhaps our duty strictly speaking, would justify.
In the mean time that we may do away any erroneous impression, which Mr. Finlay's letters may have made upon your mind, as well as upon Govr: Clarke's, We shall shortly put together the points which Our correspondence will prove, and We shall rely upon your justice to transmit copy of that correspondence to Govr: Clarke, that He may have full and correct information upon the subject.
There is and has long been a considerable balance due from Mr. Finlay, to this Revenue, for the payment of which he has given no security, which balance We have repeatedly but in Vain called upon him to pay.
He is in possession from us not as He tells Governor Clarke, of a Salary of £300 per Annum, but of a Pension of £150 p. Annum, a Salary of £150 more, and a Commission of £20 per Cent on the net produce of letters within the province of Canada, which he assured us in May 1789 produced to Him a nett receipt of £130 p. Annum, but previous to his receiving any net produce, all charges, dead letters, under Deputies Salaries, and other allowances are by the Words of his Commission, to be first deducted.
Instead of this he has charged the Office £20 per Cent upon the Gross, the dead letters only deducted, and not upon the net produce and claimed to be allowed for sundry of those Articles of Management, which by His Commission on the Articles which are to be deducted before the Net Produce is paid to him.
He also charges his Pension for several quarters, which he must know, was paid to his Agent in this Country during a part of the time he claims it in Canada.
In an account amounting to several Thousand Pounds and for several Years, He has sent us home the particulars of no one Article of expenditure whatever, & one Voucher only which is but for £27.
His accounts from the length of time and the manner in which they have at different periods been stated, are in a confused and contradictory state, and radically wrong, from his having taken considerable credit for Money received by his Agent here on Account of his Pension, and the whole of the Articles of his disbursements being destitute of Vouchers, up to the Period of the 10th of October 1792, without which they cannot pass this, or the Auditors' Office, together with his having taken a Credit for his £20 p. Cent on false principles, and contrary to the words of His Commission, which says it shall be on the Net and not on the Gross Produce. The Accountant General therefore thought it more adviseable, and Mr. Finlay's own Agent strongly recommended the measure, of Mr. Finlay's coming to England to adjust in person, the whole, and render an Account capable of being incorporated in the Annual Accounts of this Office, for the Auditors in which the true balance must be ascertained.