Paymaster-general — Chambers's Encyclopaedia

Paymaster-general, an officer of the British ministry, but not of the cabinet, who is charged with superintending the issue of all moneys voted by parliament, but has no control over the sums issued, paying merely on the order of the department concerned. He is always either a peer or a member of the House of Commons, and changes with the ministry. Sometimes the paymaster-general's post is unpaid, as in 1891. The paymaster-general is assisted by a treasury remembrancer, and deputy-paymaster for Ireland, and a staff of clerks.