A motion was made by Mr. WOLCOTT and Mr. DYER, to refer the half-pay to the states, little differing from the late motion of Mr. Gilman, except that it specified five years whole pay as the proper ground of composition with the officers of the respective lines. On this proposition the arguments used for and against Mr. Gilman’s motion were recapitulated. It was negatived, Connecticut alone answering in the affirmative, and no division being called for.

On the question to agree to the report for a commutation of five years’ whole pay, there being seven ayes only, it was considered whether this was an appropriation, or a new ascertainment of a sum of money necessary for the public service. Some were of opinion, at first, that it did not fall under that description, viz., of an appropriation. Finally, the contrary opinion was deemed, almost unanimously, safest, as well as the most accurate. Another question was, whether seven or nine votes were to decide doubts; whether seven or nine were requisite on any question. Some were of opinion that the secretary ought to make an entry according to his own judgment, and that that entry should stand unless altered by a positive instruction from Congress. To this it was objected, that it would make the secretary the sovereign in many eases, since a reversal of his entry would be impossible, whatever that entry might be; that, particularly, he might enter seven votes to be affirmative on a question where nine were necessary, and if supported in it by a few states it would be irrevocable. It was said, by ethers, that the safest rule would be to require nine votes to decide, in all cases of doubt, whether nine or seven were necessary. To this it was objected, that one or two states, and in any situation six states, might, by raising doubts, stop seven from acting in any case which they disapproved. Fortunately, on the case in question, there were nine states of opinion that nine were requisite; so the difficulty was got over for the present.

On a reconsideration of the question whether the duty on wine should be on the quantity or on the value, the mode reported by the committee was reinstated, and the whole report recommitted, to be included with the five per cent., ad valorem, in an act of recommendation to the states.

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