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4 closed on the first of February, instead of the first of March, and that these' accounts be printed and circulated with the March Meeting warrant. The custom which has long pre- vailed, is for the Highway Surveyors, Overseers of the Poo; and other disbursing officers to obtain money from the treasury on account, by orders drawn by the Selectmen, and at the end of the year to render a detailed account of their expenditures, with their vouchers to the Selectmen, who after a full examination, have adjusted the accounts by receiving and passing over to the treasury, if the party had overdrawn, or by drawing from the treasury, if the balance was in favor of these officers respectively. Nor do we ,see perfect safety in any other course. The Selectmen are in a manner held responsible for the safety and use of the public money. They are, the present year, intrusted with the power of drawing more than $135,000 from the treasury; and nearly one half of this sum is drawn on account with the Overseers, Surveyors, and School Committee ; and common prudence would seem to require, and fidelity to the town to demand, that these officers should submit a detailed account of their expenditures to the Selectmen from whom they received their funds ; and that these accounts should have the indorse- ment of the Selectmen before they are submitted to the town. Any departure from this long established custom would open a door to abuses, and render the public funds more insecure. The vote of March last could not have been designed to supersede this salutary custom. Nor is this custom annulled by any subsequent action of the town. At the meeting in November last, it was voted, " Tliat a board of Auditors be chosen to audit the accounts of the town the current year, and that said board consist of two members ; " and two Auditors were accordingly chosen,---- though it is understood that one of them declines serving. This vote repeals nothing, but Ieaves the vote of March last in full force ; so that the town officers are to have to the first of February to make up their accounts, when they will settle with the Selectmen, as heretofore, and then these accounts and reports are to be put in form for the press, so as to be printed and be in the hands of the Constable by the middle of February. The practical question arises whether two weeks will afford an opportunity to go through this process, 6 and give the Auditors time to audit the accounts. Whenever we have had a board of Auditors appointed, they have entered upon their work with zeal, and with a sort of pledge that the work should be completed at once, and that their report should Boon be in the hands of the citizens. But after weeks, and even months of delay, the report has appeared; and this fact, with a charge of from fifty to sixty dollars for their services, shows that they found a task more laborious than they ex- pected. No board of' Auditors can' take the accounts and examine them thoroughly, and arrange and prepare them for the press short of a week's labor. It is manifest, therefore, that if the Selectmen settle with the several classes of town officers, it will take them several days into February ; and if they should turn these accounts over to the Auditors then, it is evident that the reports cannot be printed and be in the hands of the Con- stable fourteen days before the March Meeting. Any printer would require ten days to get out five or six hundred copies of a pamphlet containing five or six forms of rule and figure work. The town officers feel themselves instructed to make their re- ports in print ; and while they are willing to do anything to aid the auditors, they see no way in which this can be done, except by preparing the accounts, as far as practicable, beforehand, and arranging all the matter for the press, and submitting the mere figuring to the Auditors in different ipstalments as they make. up the accounts. This, though it imposes all the labor of audit- ing upon us, the Selectmen are willing to do. They sec the awkward position in which the Auditors are placed ; and though no time is fixed when they are to make their report, it would seem desirable that they examine accounts or vouchers before the reports are printed.* We are willing to do anything we can to relieve them from an embarrassment imposed upon them by those whose machinery has more friction than they contem- plated.. We confess that we do not see the wisdom in the proposed change. The oft -repeated statement that the Selectmen should not be allowed to audit their own accounts, however true in * We have arranged with Mr. L. A. Saville, who was chosen as one of the Auditors, who has kindly taken most of the tabular matter in ]land, and revised the same, and pointed out all errors be could discover, which have been few, and unimportant, except one of ten dollars in one footing.