have communicated it to a very few fi I mean a regulation, substantia give to the public service 200,00 a quantity of influence equal to t of parliament. I rely more or means of corruption than upon used to prevent its operation, fered to exist. Take away the render disqualifications unnece disqualifications can ever whol parliament. My plan stands in the way on the contrary, it tends exce attempts towards that great a careless minister an econo find the use of it; and it worst. For its main purpo digal constitution of the ci kingdom; and unless this nister whatever can possib into the administration of As to my limits: the fi tice, and therefore I do private man holds by a le to at I 11 of -pring s more from our shadow of arts of our to the inmost fibre of my frame. I feel, that I engage in a business in itself most ungracious; totally wide of the course of prudent conduct; and I really think, the most completely adverse that can be imagined, to the natural turn and temper of my own mind. I know, that all parsimony is of a quality approaching to unkindness; and that (on some person or other) every reform must operate as a sort of punishment. Indeed the whole class of the severe and restrictive virtues are at, a market almost too high for humanity. What is worse, there are 'very few of those virtues which are not capable of being imitated, and even outdone in many of their most striking effects, by the worst of vices. Malignity and envy will carve much more deeply, and finish much more sharply, in the work of retrenchment, than frugality and providence. I do not, therefore, wonder that gentlemen have kept away from such a task, as well from good nature as from prudence. Private feeling might, indeed, be overborne by legislative reason; and a man of a long-sighted and strong-nerved humanity, might bring himself, not so much to consider from whom he takes a superfluous enjoyment, as for whom in the end he may preserve the absolute necessaries of life. But it is much more easy to reconcile this measure to humanity, than to bring it to any agreement with prudence. I do not mean that little, selfish, pitiful, bastard thing, which sometimes goes by the name of a family in which it is not legitimate, and to which it is a disgrace-I mean even that public and enlarged prudence, which, apprehensive of being disabled from rendering acceptable services to the world, withholds itself from those that are invidious. Gentlemen who are, with me, verging towards the decline of life, and are apt to form their ideas of kings from kings of former times, might dread the anger of a reigning prince; they who are more provident of the future, or by being young are more interested in it, might tremble at the resentment of the successor: they might see a long, dull, dreary, unvaried visto of despair and exclusion, for J 344 Me any treaty of peace, completely disgraceful. if dawnings of success hey are good; if they tend ney are worse than defeats. a then be as promising as any ve it: it is, however, but proect, that with but half of our naeat war against confederated powers heatened us with ruin: we must recolwe are left naked on one side, our other by any alliance; that whilst we are alancing our successes against our losses, ating debt to the amount of at least fourteen he year. That loss is certain. o wish to deny, that our successes are as brilsay one chooses to make them; our resources too e me, be as unfathomable as they are represented. ...they are just whatever the people possess, and will to pay. Taxing is an easy business. Any procan contrive new impositions; any bungler can add e old. But is it altogether wise to have no other ads to your impositions than the patience of those who e to bear them? All I claim upon the subject of your resources is this, that they are not likely to be increased by wasting them. I think I shall be permitted to assume, that a system of frugality will not lessen your riches, whatever they may be. I believe it will not be hotly disputed, that those resources which lie heavy on the subject ought not to be objects of preference; that they ought not to be the very first choice to an honest representative of the people. This is all, Sir, that I shall say upon our circumstances and our resources. I mean to say a little more on the operations of the enemy, because this matter seems to me very natural in our present deliberation. When I look to the other side of the water, I cannot help recollecting what Pyrrhus said on reconnoitering the Roman camp, "These "Barbarians have nothing barbarous in their discipline." When I look, as I have pretty carefully looked, into the proceedings of the French king, I am sorry to say it, I see nothing of the character and genius of arbitrary finance; none of the bold frauds of bankrupt power; none of the wild struggles and plunges of despotism in distress; no lopping off from the capital of debt; no suspension of interest; no robbery under the name of loan; no raising the value, no debasing the substance of the coin. I see neither Louis XIV. nor Louis XV. On the contrary, I behold, with astonishment, rising before me, by the very hands of arbitrary power, and in the very midst of war and confusion, a regular, methodical system of public credit: I behold a fabric laid on the natural and solid foundations of trust and confidence among men, and rising, by fair gradations, order over order, according to the just rules of symmetry and art. What a reverse of things! Principle, method, regularity, economy, frugality, justice to individuals, and care of the people, are the resources with which France makes war upon Great Britain. God avert the omen! But if we should see any genius in war and politics arise in France to second what is done in the bureau! - I turn my eyes from the consequences.. The noble lord in the blue ribbon, last year, treated all this with contempt. He never could conceive it possible that the French minister of finance could go through that year with a loan of but 1,700,000l., and that he should be able to fund that loan without any tax. The second year, however, opens the very same scene. A small loan, a loan of no more than 2,500,000l. is to carry our enemies through the service of this year also. No tax is raised to fund that debt; no tax is raised for the current services. I am credibly informed that there is no anticipation whatsoever. Compensations are correctly made. Old debts continue * This term comprehends various retributions made to persons whose offices are taken away, or who, in any other way, suffer by the new arrangements that are made. I do not, Sir, lay before you for any invidious purpose. It is in order to excite in us the spirit of a noble emulation. the lieutenant-comptroller-general of furniture belonging to the crown; the office of comptroller-general of the stables, of lieutenantcomptroller-general of the plate, household amusements, and affairs of the king's chamber; and of the two offices of comptroller-general of the queen's household; with the establishment of a general office for the expence of the household.-Given at Versailles, in the month of January, 1780. LOUIS, &c.-Having reflected, that, without essential alterations in the direction of the expences of our household, we should hardly be able to establish a permanent improvement in the conducting of them, we have begun by reducing the great number of coffers and treasuries to one only. We have, by our edict of this day, united all the officers of our household with the casual revenues; and now, to render the plan we have prescribed to ourselves more complete, we have thought proper to suppress the offices of comptroller-general of our household, and of the money-chamber; that of the lieutenant-comptroller-general of the furniture belonging to the crown; the offices of lieutenants and comptrollers-general of our stables, those of lieutenants and comptrollers-general of the plate, the household amusements, and affairs of our chamber; the two offices of comptrollers-general to the queen's household, our dearest wife and companion; and we will that all these offices shall be paid in ready money after their liquidation. At the same time we have thought proper to establish a general office for the expences of our household, which shall be composed of two magistrates taken from our chamber of accounts, and five commissioners-general which shall be thrown out by this arrangement, and who, in uniting their different knowledge, will be very capable of conducting, with spirit and uniformity, the whole expences of our household. This office is to be immediately employed in a full examination of every part of it, in order to produce the greatest perspicuity, for the purpose of introducing all the improvements of every kind, which the business is capable of; and shall render an exact account of their operations both to the minister of our household, and that of finances, for the better introducing in this establishment every alteration which shall be found useful, and to the execution of which there yet remains every obstacle; that they may thus be immediately known and removed, and that our general administration being thus drawn into one common office, may receive all the lights necessary for accomplishing the plan we have approved. We keep our high and chief officers in the honourable situation of receiving our orders immediately from us, transmitting them, and watching that they are put into exe |