Commonwealth of Massachusetts. SECRETARY'S OFFICE, Boston; January 8th, 1845. To the Honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives: SIR,-I have the honor here with to transmit, for the information of the two Houses, the Annual Report of the expenses of this office, required by the Resolve of 1819, chap. 268. I have the honor to be, Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, JOHN G. PALFREY. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. SECRETARY'S OFFICE, BOSTON; Jan. 8th, 1845. To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives: Agreeably to the provisions of the Resolve of 1819 (chapter 268), I have the honor to submit to the Legislature the following statement of the amount of salary and allowances made to the Secretary, and the number, names, and periods of service of the clerks employed by him during the last political year, with the amount allowed them, and all the expenses attaching to this office. Being the allowance established for that officer by the Act of 1843, chap. 9. The two permanent clerks have received respectively $1,000 and $800, agreeably to provisions of the Act of 1843, chap. 9. By the resolve of 1838, chap. 81, the Secretary is authorized to employ from time to time such clerical assistance, in addition to the permanent clerks, as may be necessary for the despatch of the public business; and by the 13th section of chapter 13 of the Revised Statutes, he is authorised to make to assistant clerks a compensation not exceeding the rate of $900 a year. The names, terms of service, and amount of compensation of assistant clerks, employed at different times during the past year, have been as follow, viz: 30 75 S. E. Guild (District Attorney's Report), 12 days, A. A. Gould (Registration Tables), himself and assistant, 82 days, Jesse Chickering (Registration Tables), 122 days, A. A. Gould, (Registration Tables,) himself and assistants, 64 days, S. F. Clampit, writing 2 days, 205 305 172 00 4 00 $2,788 25 The bill of A. A. Gould for $172, paid after the present Secretary came into office, was part of the expense of preparing the Registration Tables of 1843. Most of the assistant clerks, employed for only a few days, were engaged in engrossing and other business incident to the session of the General Court. During about three quarters of the year, one clerk has been kept constantly employed on searches of the Revolutionary Rolls, with a view to establishing claims for pensions; and during two months it has been found necessary to allow him an assistant at a lower rate of compensation. Even with this force, it has proved impossible to keep up with the numerous applications for evidence of revolutionary services, considerably more than a thousand of these applications having been made within the past year. Part of this increase in the number of applications, has without doubt been owing to the increased facilities for examination afforded by the improved Index. In the absence of any law upon the subject, I have not felt at liberty to charge fees for the searches and certificates. The Secretary pays the postage-bills of the government. These have amounted in the past year to $573 72. I estimate the expense of stationery used in this office at $100, as has been done for several years past. I am unable to state it with exactness, for the same reason that has been presented by my predecessors, viz: that a large part of the stationery sent here is used by the Executive Council, and by the Legislature and its committees. I consider the estimate to be a large one. By a Resolve of the last General Court, (chap. 117,) the Secretary was authorized and directed to cause twenty-two volumes of the Continental Rolls to be re-bound, and to cause those indexes of the Rolls which had been defaced and worn to be copied. This has accordingly been done, at an expense of $75. By the same Resolve, the Secretary was authorized and directed to cause certain volumes of Rolls, returned from Washington in the year 1843, to be fully indexed. As to all the Rolls regarded as containing useful evidence of service, this has accordingly been done, so far as to take off all the names, borne upon those Rolls, under their respective initial letters; and considerable progress has further been made in arranging the names belonging to each initial letter, in strict alphabetical order, an arrangement which will conduce greatly to the facility and certainty of reference. Of the $1500 appropriated for making this index, the sum of $923 only has as yet been expended. The utility of this index has far exceeded the expectations which I had formed when I submitted to the last Legislature my views of the expediency of making it. In numerous instances, known to me, it has brought to light evidence which |