Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
The last year that Coll. Barber was in the Naval Office, He proposed to me, That we should give you an equal share with us of all Seisures. I then thought the Proposition hard on my part, as the amount of his Fees, I knew, were much greater than my Commissions—Besides He paid no Clerk, & I paid two—But I consented.
When Mr. Lovell came into office I said nothing to him of the matter—and the other Day when I went to make a Division of the Molasses Seisure, He said He could by no means consent to such a Deduction, For the Court had taken away Seven twelfths of his Fees, & out of the remaining five He had to pay a Deputy five hundred Dollars per annum, besides other Expenses. And one argument made use of by the members of Court when they secured to Government 7/12th of his Fees, was the benefit of Seisures to the Naval Officer. But the benefit will be very small, in ordinary seisures, to the officers, after paying the Informer his part—and an Informer we have to pay for every Seisure yet made, except the molasses.
Mr. Lovell consented that I should send you an equal Share of the money from Bartlet & Stevens—But in all other Cases, we shall expect to Fee 356 you as any other Persons would do, & dispose of the money arising from Seisures as the Law directs.