The gorging a royal kitchen may stint and famish the
negotiations
of a kingdom.
Edmund Burke
When Henry the Fourth from
that stair ascended the throne, high-minded as he
was, he was not willing to kick away the ladder. To
prevent that principality from being extinguished in
the crown, he severed it by act of Parliament. He
had a motive, such as it was: he thought his title to
the crown unsound, and his possession insecure. He
therefore managed a retreat in his duchy, which
Lord Coke calls (I do not know why) "par multis
regnis. " He flattered himself that it was practicable
to make a projecting point half way down, to break his
fall from the precipice of royalty; as if it were possible for one who had lost a kingdom to keep anything else. However, it is evident that he thought so.
When Henry the Fifth united, by act of Parliament,
the estates of his mother to the duchy, he had the
same predilection with his father to the root of his
family honors, and the same policy in enlarging the
sphere of a possible retreat from the slippery royalty of the two great crowns he held. All this was changed by Edward the Fourth. He had no such
family partialities, and his policy was the reverse of
that of Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth. He
accordingly again united the Duchy of Lancaster to
the crown. But when Henry the Seventh, who chose
to consider himself as of the House of Lancaster,
came to the throne, he brought with him the old pretensions and the old politics of that house. A new act of Parliament, a second time, dissevered the
Duchy of Lancaster from the crown; and in that line
things continued until the subversion of the monarchy, when principalities and powers fell along with
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the throne. The Duchy of Lancaster must have been
extinguished, if Cromwell, who. began to form ideas
of aggrandizing his house and raising the several
branches of it, had not caused the duchy to be again
separated from the commonwealth, by an act of the
Parliament of those times.
What partiality, what objects of the politics of the
House of Lancaster, or of Cromwell, has his present
Majesty, or his Majesty's family? What power have
they within any of these principalities, which they have
not within their kingdom? In what manner is the
dignity of the nobility concerned in these principalities? What rights have. the subject there, which they have not at least equally in every other part of the
nation? These distinctions exist for no good end to
the king, to the nobility, or to the people. They
ought not to exist at all. If the crown (contrary to
its nature, but most conformably to the whole tenor
of the advice that has been lately given) should so far
forget its dignity as to contend that these jurisdictions and revenues are estates of private property, I am rather for acting as if that groundless claim were
of some weight than for giving up that essential part
of the reform. I would value the clear income, and
give a clear annuity to the crown, taken on the medium produce for twenty years.
If the crown has any favorite name or title, if the
subject has any matter of local accommodation within any of these jurisdictions, it is meant te preserve them, --and to improve them, if any improvement
can be suggested. As to the crown reversions or titles
upon the property of the people there, it is proposed
to convert them from a snare to their independence
ilto a relief from their burdens. I propose, there,
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fore, to unite all the five principalities to the crown,
and to its ordinary jurisdiction, - to abolish all those
offices that produce an useless and chargeable separation from the body of the people, - to compensate
those who do not hold their offices (if any such there
are) at the pleasure of the crown, --to extinguish
vexatious titles by an act of short limitation, - to sell
those unprofitable estates which support useless jurisdictions, - and to turn the tenant-right into a fee, on
such moderate terms as will be better for the state
than its present right, and which it is impossible for
any rational tenant to refuse.
As to the duchies, their judicial economy may
be provided for without charge. They have only to
fall of course into the common county administration. A commission more or less, made or omitted;
settles the matter fully. As'to Wales, it has been
proposed to add a judge to the several courts of
Westminster Hall; and it has been considered as an
improvement in itself. For my part, I cannot pretend to speak upon it with clearness or with decision; but certainly this arrangement would be more than sufficient for Wales. My original thought was,
to suppress five of the eight judges; and to leave the
chief-justice of Chester, with the two senior judges;
and, to facilitate the-business, to throw the twelve
counties into six districts, holding the sessions alternately in the counties of which each district shall be
composed: But on this I shall be more clear, when
I come to the particular bill.
Sir, the House will now see, whether, in praying
for judgment against the minor principalities, I do
not act in conformity to the laws that I had laid to
myself: of getting rid of every jurisdiction more sub
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servient to oppression and expense than to any end
of justice or honest policy; of abolishing offices more
expensive than useful; of combining duties improperly separated; of changing revenues more vexatious
than productive into ready money; of suppressing. offices which stand in the way of economy; and of
cutting off lurking subordinate treasuries. Dispute'the rules, controvert the application, or give your. hands to this salutary measure.
Most of the same rules will be found applicable to'my second object, - the landed estate of the crown. A
landed estate is certainly the very worst which the
Icrown can possess. All minute-and'dispersed possessions, possessions that are often of indeterminate'value, and which require a continued personal attendance, are of a nature more proper for private management than public administration. They are fitter for'the care of a frugal land-steward than the state. Whatever they may possibly have been in
other times or in other countries, they are not of
magnitude enough with us to occupy a public department, nor to provide for a public object. They are
already given up to Parliament, and the gift is not of
great value. Common prudence dictates, even in the
management of private affairs, that all dispersed and
chargeable estates should be sacrificed to the relief of
estates more compact and better circumstanced.
If it be objected, that these lands at present would
sell at a low market, this is answered by showing
that money is at a high price. The one balances the
other. Lands sell at the current rate; and nothing
can sell for more. But be the price what it may, a
great object is always answered, whenever any propoerty is transferred from hands that are not fit for that
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property to those that are. The buyer and seller
must mutually profit by such a bargain; and, what
rarely happens in matters of revenue, the relief of
the subject will go hand in hand with the profit of
the Exchequer.
As to the forest lands, in which the crown ha
(where they are not granted or prescriptively heldj
the dominion of the soil, and the vert and venison
that is to say, the timber and the game, and in whicl
the people have a variety of rights, in common of
herbage, and other commons, according to the usage
of the several forests, --I propose to have those
rights of the crown valued as manorial rights are
valued on an inclosure, and a defined portion of
land to be given for them, which land is to be sold
for the public benefit.
As to the timber, I propose a survey of the whole. '
What is useless for the naval purposes of the kingdom I would condemn and dispose of for the security of what may be useful, and to inclose such! other parts as may be most fit to furnish a perpetual
supply, -- wholly extinguishing, for a very obvious
reason, all right of venison in those parts.
The forest rights which extend over the lands andl
possessions of others, being of no profit to the crown,
and a grievance, as far as it goes, to the subject, --
these I propose to extinguish without charge to the
proprietors. The several commons are to be allotted
and compensated for, upon ideas which I shall hereafter explain. They are nearly the same with the
principles upon which you have acted in private inclosures. I shall never quit precedents, where I find'
them applicable. For those regulations and compensations, and for every other part of the detail, you
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will be so indulgent as to give me credit for the
present.
The revenue to be obtained from the sale of the
Sorest lands and rights will not be so considerable, I
1elieve, as many people have imagined; and I con-,eive: it would be unwise to screw it up to the utmost,
)r even to suffer bidders to enhance, according to
their eagerness, the purchase of objects wherein the
3xpense of that purchase may weaken the capital to
ce employed in their cultivation. This, I am well
%ware, might give room for partiality in the disposal.
EIn my opinion it would be the lesser evil of the two.
But I- really conceive that a rule of fair preference
might be established, which would: take away all sort':f unjust and corrupt partiality. The principal rev3nue which I propose to: draw from these uncultivated wastes is to spring from the improvement and population of the kingdom, -which never can happen withJut producing an improvement more advantageous bo the revenues of the crown than the rents of the
best landed estate which it can hold. I believe, Sir,
it will hardly be necessary for me to add, that in this
sale I naturally except all the houses, gardens, and
parks belonging to the crown, and such one forest as
shall be chosen by his Majesty as best accommodated
to his pleasures.
By means of this part of the. reform will fall the
expensive office of surveyor-general, with all the infiu3nce that attends it. By this will fall two chiefjustices,
n -Eyre, with all their train of dependants. You need:,e under no apprehension, Sir, that your office is to be
touched in its emoluments. They are yours by law;
mnd they are but a moderate part of the compensa-.
Lion which is given to you for the ability with which.
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you execute an office of quite another sort of importance: it is far from' overpaying your diligence, or
more than sufficient for sustaining the high rank you
stand in as the first gentleman of England. As to
the duties of your chief-justiceship, they are very different from those for which you have received the
office. Your dignity is too high for a jurisdiction
over wild beasts, and your learning and talents too
valuable to be wasted as chief-justice of a desert. I
cannot reconcile it to myself, that you, Sir, should be
stuck up as a useless piece of antiquity.
I have now disposed of the unprofitable landed
estates of the crown, and thrown them into the mass
of private property; by which they will come, through
the course of circulation, and through the political
secretions of the state, into our better understood and
better ordered revenues.
I come next to the great supreme body of the civil
government itself. I approach it with that awe and:
reverence with which a young physician approaches
to the cure of the disorders of his parent. Disorders,!
Sir, and infirmities, there are, - such disorders, that;
all attempts towards method, prudence, and frugality(
will be perfectly vain, whilst a system of confusion remains, which is not only alien, but adverse to all economy; a system which is not only prodigal in its veryrl essence, but causes everything else which belongs to it
to be prodigally conducted.
It is impossible, Sir, for any person to be an econo-l
mist, where no order in payments is established; it isl
impossible for a man to be an economist, who is not,
able to take a comparative view of his means and of!
his expenses for the year which lies before him; it
is impossible for a man to be an economist, under
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whom various officers in their several departments
may spend - even just what they please, - and often
with an emulation of expense, as contributing to the
importance, if not profit, of their several departments.
Thus much is certain: that neither the present nor
any other First Lord of the Treasury has been ever able
to take a survey, or to make even a tolerable guess,
of the expenses of government for any one year, so
as to enable him with the least degree of certainty, or
even probability, to bring his affairs within compass.
Whatever scheme may be formed upon them must
be made on a calculation of chances. As things are
circumstanced, the First Lord of the Treasury cannot
make an estimate. I am sure I serve the king, and I
am sure I assist administration, by putting economy
at least in their power. We must class services; we
must (as far as their nature admits) appropriate
funds; or everything, however reformed, will fall
again into the old confusion.
Coming upon this ground of the civil list, the first
thing in dignity and charge that attracts our notice
is the royal household. This establishment, in my opinion, is exceedingly abusive in its constitution. It is
formed upon manners and customs that have long
since expired. In the first place, it is formed, in
many respects, upon feudal principles. In the feudal
times, it was not uncommon, even among subjects,:ox the lowest offices to be held by'considerable persons,- persons as unfit by their incapacity as improper from their rank to occupy such employments. They
were held by patent, sometimes for life, and sometimes by inheritance. If my memory does not deceive
me, a person of no slight consideration held the office
of patent hereditary cook to an Earl of Warwick:
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the Earl of Warwick's soups, I fear, were not the
better for the dignity of his kitchen. I think it was
an Earl 9f Gloucester who officiated as steward of
the household to the Archbishops of Canterbury. Instances of the same kind may in some degree be found in the Northumberland house-book, and other
family records. There was some reason in ancient
necessities for these ancient customs. Protection was
wanted; and the domestic tie, though not the highest, was the closest.
The king's household has not only several strong
traces of this feudality, but it is formed also upon the
principles of a body corporate: it has its own magis
trates, courts, and by-laws. This might be necessary
in the ancient times, in order to have a government
within itself, capable of regulating the vast and often
unruly multitude which composed and attended it.
This was the origin of the ancient court called the
Green Cloth,-composed of the marshal, treasurer,
and other great officers of the household, with certain
clerks. The rich subjects of the kingdom, who had
formerly the same establishments, (only on a reduced
scale,) have since altered their economy, and turned
the course of their expense from the maintenance of
vast establishments within their walls to the employment of a great variety of independent trades abroad. Their influence is lessened; but a mode of accommodation and a style of splendor suited to the manners of the times has been increased. Royalty itself has
insensibly followed, and the royal household has been
carried: away by the resistless tide of manners, but
with this very material difference: private men have
got rid of the establishments along with the reasons
of them; whereas the royal household has lost all
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that was stately and venerable in the antique manners, without retrenching anything of the cumbrous
charge of a Gothic establishment. It is shrunk into
the polished littleness of modern elegance and personal accommodation; it has evaporated from the
gross concrete into an essence and rectified spirit of
expense, where you have tuns of ancient pomp in a
vial of modern luxury.
But when the reason of old establishments is gone,
it is absurd to preserve nothing but the burden of
them. This is superstitiously to embalm a carcass
not worth an ounce of the gums that are used to preserve it. It is to burn precious oils in the tomb; it
is to offer meat and drink to the dead: not so much
an honor to the deceased as a disgrace to the survivors. Our palaces are vast inhospitable halls. There
the bleak winds, there " Boreas, and Eurus, and Caurus, and Axrgestes loud," howling through the vacant
lobbies, and clattering the doors of deserted guardrooms, appall the imagination, and conjure up the
grim spectres of departed tyrants, - the Saxon, the
Norman, and the Dane, --the stern Edwards and
fierce Henrys,- who stalk from desolation to desolation, through the dreary vacuity and melancholy succession of chill and comfortless chambers. When this tumult subsides, a dead and still more frightful silence would reign in this desert, if every now and
then the tacking of hammers did not announce that
those constant attendants upon all courts in all ages,
jobs, were still alive, - for whose sake alone it is that
any trace of ancient grandeur is suffered to remain.
These palaces are a true emblem of some governments: the inhabitants are decayed, but the governors and magistrates still flourish. They put me in
VOL. II. 20
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mind of Old Sarum, where the representatives, more
in number than the constituents, only serve to inform. us that this was once a place of trade, and sounding
with "the busy hum of men," though now you can
only trace the streets by the color of the corn, and
its sole manufacture is. in members of Parliament.
These old establishments were formed also on a
third principle, still more adverse to the living economy of the age. They were formed, Sir, on the principle of purveyance and receipt in kind. In former
days, when the household was vast, and the supply
scanty and precarious, the royal purveyors, sallying
forth from under the Gothic portcullis to purchase
provision with power and prerogative instead of money, brought home the plunder of an hundred markets,
and all that could be seized from a flying and hiding
country, and deposited their spoil in an hundred caverns, with each its keeper. There, every commodity,
received in its rawest condition, went through all the
process which fitted it for use. This inconvenient receipt produced an economy suited only to itself. It
multiplied offices beyond all measure, - buttery, pantry, and all that rabble of places, which, though profitable to the holders, and expensive to the state, are almost too mean to mention.
All this might be, and I believe was, necessary at
first; for it is remarkable, that purveyance, after its
regulation had been the subject of a long line of statutes, (not fewer, I think, than twenty-six,) was wholly
taken away by the 12th of Charles the Second; yet
in. the next year of the same reign it was found necessary to revive it by a special act of Parliament, for
the sake of the king's journeys. This, Sir, is curious,
-and what Mwould hardly be expected in so reduced a
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court as that of Charles the Second and in so improved
a country as England might then be thought. But so
it was. In our time, one well-filled and well-covered
stage-coach requires more accommodation. than a royal progress, and every district, at an hour's warning, can supply an army.
I do not say, Sir, that all these establishments,
whose principle is gone, have been systematically
kept up for influence solely: neglect had its share.
But this I am sure of: that a consideration of influence has hindered any one from attempting to pull
them down. For the purposes of influence, and
for those purposes only, are retained half at least of
the household establishments. No revenue, no, not
a royal revenue, can exist under the accumulated
charge of ancient establishment, modern luxury, and
Parliamentary political corruption.
If, therefore, we aim at regulating this household,
the question will be, whether we ought to economize
by detail or by principle. The example we have had
of the success of an attempt to economize by detail,
and under establishments adverse to the attempt,
may tend. to decide this question.
At the beginning of his Majesty's reign, Lord Talbot came to the administration of a great department
in the household. I believe no man ever entered into
his,Majesty's service, or into the service of any prince;
with a more clear integrity, or with more zeal and
affection for the interest of his master, and, I must
add, with abilities for a still higher service. Economy was then announced as a maxim of the reign.
This noble lord, therefore, made several attempts towards a reform. In the year 1777, when the king's
civil list debts came last to be paid, he explained very
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fully the success of his undertaking. HIe told the
House of Lords that he had attempted to reduce the
charges of the king's tables and his kitchen. The
thing, Sir, was not below him. He knew that there
is nothing interesting in the concerns of men whom
we love and honor, that is beneath our attention.
"Love," says one of our old poets, "' esteems no office
mean,"- and with still more spirit, " Entire affection
scorneth nicer hands. " Frugality, Sir, is founded
on the principle, that all-riches have limits. A royal
household, grown enormous, even in the meanest
departments, may weaken and perhaps destroy all
energy in the highest offices of the state.
The gorging a royal kitchen may stint and famish the negotiations of a kingdom. Therefore the object was worthy of his, was worthy of any man's attention.
In consequence of this noble lord's resolution, (as
he told the other House,) he reduced several tables,
and put the persons entitled to them upon board
wages, much to their own satisfaction. But, unluckily, subsequent duties requiring constant attendance,
it was not possible to prevent their being fed where
they were employed: and thus this first step towards
economy doubled the expense.
There was. another disaster far more doleful than
this. I shall state it, as the cause of that misfortune
lies at the bottom of almost all our prodigality.
Lord Talbot attempted to reform the kitchen; but
such, as he well observed, is the consequence of having duty done by one person whilst another enjoys
the emoluments, that he found himself frustrated in
all his designs. On that rock his whole adventure
split, his whole scheme of economy was dashed to
pieces. His department became more expensive than
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ever; the civil list debt accumulated. Why? It
was truly from a cause which, though perfectly adequate to the effect, one would not have instantly
guessed. It was because the turnspit in the king's
kitchen was a member of Parliament! * The king's
domestic servants were all undone, his tradesmen
remained unpaid and became bankrupt, - because the
turnspit of the king's kitchen was a member of Parliament. His Majesty's slumbers were interrupted, his
pillow was stuffed with thorns, and his peace of mind
entirely broken, -- because the king's turnspit was a
member of Parliament. The judges were unpaid,
the justice of the kingdom bent and gave way, the
foreign ministers remained inactive and unprovided,
the system of Europe was dissolved, the chain of
our alliances was broken, all the wheels of government at home and abroad were stopped, --because
the king's turnspit was a member of Parliament.
Such, Sir, was the situation of affairs, and such
the cause of that situation, when his Majesty came a
second time to Parliament to desire the payment of
those debts which the employment of its members in
various offices, visible and invisible, had occasioned.
I believe that a like fate will attend every attempt at
economy by detail, under similar circumstances, and
in every department. A complex, operose office of
account and control is, in itself, and even if members
of Parliament had nothing to do with it, the most
prodigal of all things. The most audacious robberies or the most subtle frauds would never venture
upon such a waste as an over-careful detailed guard
against them will infallibly produce. In our estab* Vide Lord Talbot's speech in Almon's Parliamentary Register. Vol. VII. p. 79, of the Proceedings of the Lords.
? ? ? ? 310 SPEECH ON THE PLAN
lishments, we frequently see an office of account of
an hundred pounds a year expense, and another office
of an equal expense to control that office, and the
whole upon a matter that is not worth twenty shillings.
To avoid, therefore, this minute care, which produces the consequences of the most extensive neglect,
and to oblige members of Parliament to attend to public cares, and not to the servile offices of domestic
management, I propose, Sir, to economize by principle:
that is, I propose to put affairs into that train which
experience points out as the most effectual, from the
nature of things, and from the constitution of the
human mind. ' In all dealings, where it is possible, the principles of radical economy prescribe three
things: first, undertaking by the great; secondly,
engaging with persons of skill in the subject-matter;
thirdly, engaging with those who shall have an immediate and direct interest in the proper execution of
the business.
To avoid frittering and crumbling down the attention by a blind, unsystematic observance of every
trifle, it has ever been found the best way to do all
things which are great in the total amount and
minute in the component parts by a general contract.
The principles of trade have so pervaded every species of dealing, from the highest to the lowest objects, all transactions are got so much into system, that we may, at a moment's warning, and to a farthing value, be informed at what rate any service
may be supplied. No dealing is exempt from the
possibility of fraud. But by a contract on a matter
certain you have this advantage: you are sure to
know the utmost extent of the fraud to which you
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are subject. By a contract with a person in his own
trade you are sure you shall not suffer by want of
skill. By a short contract you are sure of making it
the interest of the contractor to exert that skill for
the satisfaction of his employers.
I mean to derogate nothing from the diligence or
integrity of the present, or of any former board of
Green Cloth. But what skill can members of Parliament obtain in that low kind of province? What pleasure can they have in the execution of that kind
of duty? And if they should neglect it, how does it
affect their interest, when we know that it is their vote
in Parliament, and not their diligence in cookery or
catering, that recommends them to their office, or
keeps them in it?
I therefore propose that the king's tables (to whatever number of tables,. or covers to each, he shall think proper to command) should be classed'by the
steward of the household, and should be contracted
for, according to their rank, by the head or cover;
that the estimate and circumstance of the contract
should be carried to the Treasury to be approved;
and that its faithful and satisfactory performance
should be reported' there previous to any payment;
that there, and there only, should the payment be
made. I propose that men should be contracted with
only in their proper'trade; and that no member of
Parliament should be capable of such contract. By
this plan, almost all the infinite offices under the lord
steward may be spared, -to the extreme simplification, and to the far better execution, of every one of his functions. The king of Prussia is so served.
He is a great and eminent (though, indeed, a very
rare) instance of the possibility of uniting, in a mind
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of vigor and compass, an attention to minute objects
with the largest views and the most complicated
plans. His tables are served by contract, and by the
head. Let me say, that no prince can be ashamed
to imitate the king of Prussia, and particularly to
learn in his school, when the problem is, " The best
manner of reconciling the state of a court with the
support of war. " Other courts, I understand, have
followed him with effect, and to their satisfaction.
The same clew of principle leads us through the
labyrinth of the other departments. What, Sir, is
there in the office of the great wardrobe (which hasthe care of the king's furniture) that may not be executed by the lord chamberlain himself? He has.
an honorable appointment; he has time sufficient to
attend to the duty; and he has the vice-chamberlain
to assist him. Why should not he deal also by contract for all things belonging to this office, and carry his estimates first, and his report of the execution in
its proper time, for payment, directly to the Board of
Treasury itself? By a simple operation, (containing
in it a treble control,) the expenses of a department
which for naked walls, or walls hung with cobwebs,
has in a few years cost the crown 150,0001. , may at
length hope for regulation. But, Sir, the office and
its businest are at variance. As it stands, it serves,
not to furnish the palace with its hangings, but the
Parliament with its dependent members.
To what end, Sir, does the office of removing wardrobe serve at all? Why should a jewel office exist for the sole purpose of taxing the king's gifts of plate?
Its object falls naturally within the chamberlain's
province, and ought to be under his care and inspection without any fee. Why should an office of the
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robes exist, when that of groom of the stole is a sinecure, and that this is a proper object of his department?
All these incumbrances, which are themselves
nuisances, produce other incumbrances and other
nuisances. For the payment of these useless establishments there are no less than three useless treasurers: two to hold a purse, and one to play with a stick. The treasurer of the household is a mere
name. The cofferer and the treasurer of the chamber receive and pay great sums, which it is not at all
necessary they should either receive or pay. All the
proper officers, servants, and tradesmen may be enrolled in their several departments, and paid in
proper classes and times with great simplicity and
order, at the Exchequer, and by direction from the
Treasury.
The Board of Works, which in the seven years preceding 1777 has cost towards 400,0001. ,* and (if I
recollect rightly) has not cost less in proportion from
the beginning of the reign, is under the very same
description of all the other ill-contrived establishments, and calls for the very same reform. We are
to seek for the visible signs of all this expense. For
all this expense, we do not see a building of the size
and importance of a pigeon-house. Buckingham
House -was reprised by a bargain with the public.
for one hundred thousand pounds; and the small
house at Windsor has been, if I mistake not, undertaken since that account was brought before us.
The good works of that Board of Works are as carefully concealed as other good works ought to be:
they are perfectly invisible. But though it is the
* More exactly, 378,6161. 10s. lad.
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perfection of charity to be concealed, it is, Sir, the
property and glory of magnificence to appear and
stand forward to the eye.
That board, which ought to be a concern of builders and such like, and of none else, is turned into a
junto of members of Parliament. That office, too, has
a treasury and a paymaster of its owQ; and lest the
arduous affairs of that important exchequer should
be too fatiguing, that paymaster has a deputy to partake his profits and relieve his cares. I do not believe, that, either now or in former times, the chief managers of that board have made any profit of its
abuse. It is, however, no good reason that an abusive establishment should subsist, because it is of as
little private as of public advantage. But this establishment has the grand radical fault, the original sin,
that pervades and perverts all our establishments:
the apparatus is not fitted to the object, nor the workmen to the work. Expenses are incurred on the private opinion of an inferior establishment, without consulting the principal, who can alone determine
the proportion which it ought to bear to the other
establishments of the state, in the order of their relative importance.
I propose, therefore, along with the rest, to pull
down this whole ill-contrived scaffolding, which obstructs, rather than forwards, our public works; to
take away its treasury; to put the whole into the
hands of a real builder, who shall not be a member
of Parliament; and to oblige him, by a previous estimate and final payment, to appear twice at the Treasury before the public can be loaded. The king's gardens are to come under a similar regulation.
The Mint, though not a department of the house
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hold, has the same vices. It is a great expense to
the nation, chiefly for the sake of members of Parliament. It has its officers of parade and dignity. It has its treasury, too. It is a sort of corporate body,
and formerly was a body of great importance, -- as
much so, on the then scale of things, and the then
order of business, as the Bank is at this day. It was
the great centre of money transactions and remittances for our own and for other nations, until King Charles the First, among other arbitrary projects
dictated by despotic necessity, made it withhold the
money that, lay there for remittance. That blow
(and happily, too) the Mint never recovered. Now
it is no bank, no remittance-shop. The Mint, Sir, is
a manufacture, and it is nothing else; and it ought
to-be undertaken upon the principles of a manufacture,- that is, for the best and cheapest execution, by a contract upon proper securities and under proper regulations.
The artillery is a far greater object; it is a military
concern; but having an affinity and kindred in its
defects with the establishments I am now speaking of,
I think it best to speak of it along with them. It is,
I conceive, an establishment not well suited to its
martial, though exceedingly well calculated for its
Parliamentary purposes. Here there is a treasury,
as in all the other inferior departments of government. Here the military is subordinate to the civil, and the naval -confounded with the land service. The
object, indeed, is much the same in both. But, when
the detail is examined, it will be found that they had
better be separated. For a reform of this office, I
propose to restore things to what (all considerations
taken together) is their natural order: to restore
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them to their just proportion, and to their just distri
bution. I propose, in this military concern, to render
the civil subordinate to the military; and this will
annihilate the greatest part of the expense, and all
the influence belonging to the office. I propose to
send the military branch to the army, and the naval
to the Admiralty; and I intend to perfect and accomplish the whole detail (where it becomes too minute
and complicated for legislature, and requires exact,
official, military, and mechanical knowledge) by a
commission of competent officers in both departments.
I propose to execute by contract what by contract
can be executed, and to bring, as much as possible,
all estimates to be previously approved and finally to
be paid by the Treasury.
Thus, by following the course of Nature, and not the
purposes of politics, or the accumulated patchwork of
occasional accommodation, this vast, expensive department may be methodized, its service proportioned to its necessities, and its payments subjected to the inspection of the superior minister of finance, who is
to judge of it on the result of the total collective exigencies of the state. This last is a reigning principle through my whole plan; and it is a principle which I
hope may hereafter be applied to other plans.
By these regulations taken together, besides the
three subordinate treasuries in the lesser principalities,, five other subordinate treasuries are suppressed. There is taken away the whole establishment of detail
in the household: the treasurer; the comptroller (for
a comptroller is hardly necessary where there is no
treasurer); the cofferer of the household; the treasurer of the chamber; the master of the household; the whole board of green cloth;- and a vast number of
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subordinate offices in the department of the steward
of the household,- the whole establishment of the
great wardrobe,- the removing wardrobe, - the jewel
office,- the robes, - the Board of Works, --almost the
whole charge of the civil branch of the Board of Ordnance, are taken away. All these arrangements together will be found to relieve the nation from a vast weight of influence, without distressing, but rather by
forwarding every public service. When something
of this kind is done, then the public may begin to
breathe. Under other governments, a question of expense is only a question of economy, and it is nothing more: with us, in every question of expense there is always a mixture of constitutional considerations.
It is, Sir, because I wish to keep this business of
subordinate treasuries as much as I can together, that
I brought the ordnance office before you, though it is
properly a military department. For the same reason I will now trouble you with my thoughts and
propositions upon two of the greatest under-treasuries:
I mean the office of paymaster of the land forces, or
treasurer of the army, and that of the treasurer of the
navy. The former of these has long been a great
object of public suspicion and uneasiness. Envy, too,
has had its share in the obloquy which is cast upon
this office. But I am sure that it has no share at all
in the reflections I shall make upon it, or in the reformations that I shall propose. I do not grudge to the
honorable gentleman who at present holds the office
any of the effects of his talents, his merit, or his fortune. He is respectable in all these particulars. I
follow the constitution of the office without persecuting its holder. It is necessary in all matters of public
complaint, where men frequently feel right and argue
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wrong, to separate prejudice from reason, and to be
very sure, in attempting the redress of a grievance,
that we hit upon its real seat and its true nature.
Where there is an abuse in office, the first thing that
occurs in heat is to censure the officer. Our natural
disposition leads all our inquiries rather to persons
than to things. But this prejudice is to be corrected
by maturer thinking.
Sir, the profits of the pay office (as an office) are
not too great, in my opinion, for its duties, and for
the rank of the person who has generally held it. He
has been generally a person of the highest rank,that is to say, a person of eminence and consideration in this House. The great and the invidious profits
of the pay office are from the bank that is held in it.
According to the present course of the office, and
according to the present mode of accounting there,
this bank must necessarily exist somewhere. Money
is a productive thing; and when the usual time of
its demand can be tolerably calculated, it may with
prudence be safely laid out to the profit of the holder. It is on this calculation that the business of banking proceeds. But no profit can be derived
from the use of money which does not make it the
interest of the holder to delay his account. The
process of the Exchequer colludes with this interest.
Is this collusion from its want of rigor and strictness
and great regularity of form? The reverse is true.
They have in the Exchequer brought rigor and formalism to their ultimate perfection. The process against accountants is so rigorous, and in a manner
so unjust, that correctives must from time to time
be applied to it. These correctives being discretionary, upon the case, and generally remitted by the
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Barons to the Lords of the Treasury, as the best judges
of the reasons for respite, hearings are had, delays
are produced, and thus the extreme of rigor in office
(as usual in all human affairs) leads to the extreme
of laxity. What with the interested delay of the
officer, the ill-conceived exactness of the court, the
applications for dispensations from that exactness,
the revival of rigorous process after the expiration
of the time, and the new rigors producing new applications and new enlargements of time, such delays happen in the public accounts that they can scarcely ever be closed.
Besides, Sir, they have a rule in the Exchequer,
which, I believe, they have founded upon a very
ancient statute, that of the 51st of Henry the Third,
by which it is provided, that, "when a sheriff or
bailiff hath begun his account, none other shall be
received to account, until he that was first appointed
hath clearly accounted, and that the sum has been
received. " * Whether this clause of that statute be
the ground of that absurd practice I am not quite
able to ascertain. But it has very generally prevailed, though I am told that of late they have began to
relax from it. In consequence of forms adverse to
substantial account, we have a long succession of
paymasters and their representatives who have never
been admitted to account, although perfectly ready
to do so.
As the extent of our wars has scattered the accountants under the paymaster into every part of the
globe, the grand and sure paymaster, Death, in all his
* Et quaunt viscount ou baillif eit comence de acompter, nul
autre ne seit resceu de aconter tanque le primer qe soit assis eit
peraccompte, et qe la somme soit resceu. - Stat. 5. Ann. Dom. 1266.
? ? ? ?
that stair ascended the throne, high-minded as he
was, he was not willing to kick away the ladder. To
prevent that principality from being extinguished in
the crown, he severed it by act of Parliament. He
had a motive, such as it was: he thought his title to
the crown unsound, and his possession insecure. He
therefore managed a retreat in his duchy, which
Lord Coke calls (I do not know why) "par multis
regnis. " He flattered himself that it was practicable
to make a projecting point half way down, to break his
fall from the precipice of royalty; as if it were possible for one who had lost a kingdom to keep anything else. However, it is evident that he thought so.
When Henry the Fifth united, by act of Parliament,
the estates of his mother to the duchy, he had the
same predilection with his father to the root of his
family honors, and the same policy in enlarging the
sphere of a possible retreat from the slippery royalty of the two great crowns he held. All this was changed by Edward the Fourth. He had no such
family partialities, and his policy was the reverse of
that of Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth. He
accordingly again united the Duchy of Lancaster to
the crown. But when Henry the Seventh, who chose
to consider himself as of the House of Lancaster,
came to the throne, he brought with him the old pretensions and the old politics of that house. A new act of Parliament, a second time, dissevered the
Duchy of Lancaster from the crown; and in that line
things continued until the subversion of the monarchy, when principalities and powers fell along with
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the throne. The Duchy of Lancaster must have been
extinguished, if Cromwell, who. began to form ideas
of aggrandizing his house and raising the several
branches of it, had not caused the duchy to be again
separated from the commonwealth, by an act of the
Parliament of those times.
What partiality, what objects of the politics of the
House of Lancaster, or of Cromwell, has his present
Majesty, or his Majesty's family? What power have
they within any of these principalities, which they have
not within their kingdom? In what manner is the
dignity of the nobility concerned in these principalities? What rights have. the subject there, which they have not at least equally in every other part of the
nation? These distinctions exist for no good end to
the king, to the nobility, or to the people. They
ought not to exist at all. If the crown (contrary to
its nature, but most conformably to the whole tenor
of the advice that has been lately given) should so far
forget its dignity as to contend that these jurisdictions and revenues are estates of private property, I am rather for acting as if that groundless claim were
of some weight than for giving up that essential part
of the reform. I would value the clear income, and
give a clear annuity to the crown, taken on the medium produce for twenty years.
If the crown has any favorite name or title, if the
subject has any matter of local accommodation within any of these jurisdictions, it is meant te preserve them, --and to improve them, if any improvement
can be suggested. As to the crown reversions or titles
upon the property of the people there, it is proposed
to convert them from a snare to their independence
ilto a relief from their burdens. I propose, there,
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fore, to unite all the five principalities to the crown,
and to its ordinary jurisdiction, - to abolish all those
offices that produce an useless and chargeable separation from the body of the people, - to compensate
those who do not hold their offices (if any such there
are) at the pleasure of the crown, --to extinguish
vexatious titles by an act of short limitation, - to sell
those unprofitable estates which support useless jurisdictions, - and to turn the tenant-right into a fee, on
such moderate terms as will be better for the state
than its present right, and which it is impossible for
any rational tenant to refuse.
As to the duchies, their judicial economy may
be provided for without charge. They have only to
fall of course into the common county administration. A commission more or less, made or omitted;
settles the matter fully. As'to Wales, it has been
proposed to add a judge to the several courts of
Westminster Hall; and it has been considered as an
improvement in itself. For my part, I cannot pretend to speak upon it with clearness or with decision; but certainly this arrangement would be more than sufficient for Wales. My original thought was,
to suppress five of the eight judges; and to leave the
chief-justice of Chester, with the two senior judges;
and, to facilitate the-business, to throw the twelve
counties into six districts, holding the sessions alternately in the counties of which each district shall be
composed: But on this I shall be more clear, when
I come to the particular bill.
Sir, the House will now see, whether, in praying
for judgment against the minor principalities, I do
not act in conformity to the laws that I had laid to
myself: of getting rid of every jurisdiction more sub
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servient to oppression and expense than to any end
of justice or honest policy; of abolishing offices more
expensive than useful; of combining duties improperly separated; of changing revenues more vexatious
than productive into ready money; of suppressing. offices which stand in the way of economy; and of
cutting off lurking subordinate treasuries. Dispute'the rules, controvert the application, or give your. hands to this salutary measure.
Most of the same rules will be found applicable to'my second object, - the landed estate of the crown. A
landed estate is certainly the very worst which the
Icrown can possess. All minute-and'dispersed possessions, possessions that are often of indeterminate'value, and which require a continued personal attendance, are of a nature more proper for private management than public administration. They are fitter for'the care of a frugal land-steward than the state. Whatever they may possibly have been in
other times or in other countries, they are not of
magnitude enough with us to occupy a public department, nor to provide for a public object. They are
already given up to Parliament, and the gift is not of
great value. Common prudence dictates, even in the
management of private affairs, that all dispersed and
chargeable estates should be sacrificed to the relief of
estates more compact and better circumstanced.
If it be objected, that these lands at present would
sell at a low market, this is answered by showing
that money is at a high price. The one balances the
other. Lands sell at the current rate; and nothing
can sell for more. But be the price what it may, a
great object is always answered, whenever any propoerty is transferred from hands that are not fit for that
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property to those that are. The buyer and seller
must mutually profit by such a bargain; and, what
rarely happens in matters of revenue, the relief of
the subject will go hand in hand with the profit of
the Exchequer.
As to the forest lands, in which the crown ha
(where they are not granted or prescriptively heldj
the dominion of the soil, and the vert and venison
that is to say, the timber and the game, and in whicl
the people have a variety of rights, in common of
herbage, and other commons, according to the usage
of the several forests, --I propose to have those
rights of the crown valued as manorial rights are
valued on an inclosure, and a defined portion of
land to be given for them, which land is to be sold
for the public benefit.
As to the timber, I propose a survey of the whole. '
What is useless for the naval purposes of the kingdom I would condemn and dispose of for the security of what may be useful, and to inclose such! other parts as may be most fit to furnish a perpetual
supply, -- wholly extinguishing, for a very obvious
reason, all right of venison in those parts.
The forest rights which extend over the lands andl
possessions of others, being of no profit to the crown,
and a grievance, as far as it goes, to the subject, --
these I propose to extinguish without charge to the
proprietors. The several commons are to be allotted
and compensated for, upon ideas which I shall hereafter explain. They are nearly the same with the
principles upon which you have acted in private inclosures. I shall never quit precedents, where I find'
them applicable. For those regulations and compensations, and for every other part of the detail, you
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will be so indulgent as to give me credit for the
present.
The revenue to be obtained from the sale of the
Sorest lands and rights will not be so considerable, I
1elieve, as many people have imagined; and I con-,eive: it would be unwise to screw it up to the utmost,
)r even to suffer bidders to enhance, according to
their eagerness, the purchase of objects wherein the
3xpense of that purchase may weaken the capital to
ce employed in their cultivation. This, I am well
%ware, might give room for partiality in the disposal.
EIn my opinion it would be the lesser evil of the two.
But I- really conceive that a rule of fair preference
might be established, which would: take away all sort':f unjust and corrupt partiality. The principal rev3nue which I propose to: draw from these uncultivated wastes is to spring from the improvement and population of the kingdom, -which never can happen withJut producing an improvement more advantageous bo the revenues of the crown than the rents of the
best landed estate which it can hold. I believe, Sir,
it will hardly be necessary for me to add, that in this
sale I naturally except all the houses, gardens, and
parks belonging to the crown, and such one forest as
shall be chosen by his Majesty as best accommodated
to his pleasures.
By means of this part of the. reform will fall the
expensive office of surveyor-general, with all the infiu3nce that attends it. By this will fall two chiefjustices,
n -Eyre, with all their train of dependants. You need:,e under no apprehension, Sir, that your office is to be
touched in its emoluments. They are yours by law;
mnd they are but a moderate part of the compensa-.
Lion which is given to you for the ability with which.
? ? ? ? 302 SPEECH ON THE PLAN
you execute an office of quite another sort of importance: it is far from' overpaying your diligence, or
more than sufficient for sustaining the high rank you
stand in as the first gentleman of England. As to
the duties of your chief-justiceship, they are very different from those for which you have received the
office. Your dignity is too high for a jurisdiction
over wild beasts, and your learning and talents too
valuable to be wasted as chief-justice of a desert. I
cannot reconcile it to myself, that you, Sir, should be
stuck up as a useless piece of antiquity.
I have now disposed of the unprofitable landed
estates of the crown, and thrown them into the mass
of private property; by which they will come, through
the course of circulation, and through the political
secretions of the state, into our better understood and
better ordered revenues.
I come next to the great supreme body of the civil
government itself. I approach it with that awe and:
reverence with which a young physician approaches
to the cure of the disorders of his parent. Disorders,!
Sir, and infirmities, there are, - such disorders, that;
all attempts towards method, prudence, and frugality(
will be perfectly vain, whilst a system of confusion remains, which is not only alien, but adverse to all economy; a system which is not only prodigal in its veryrl essence, but causes everything else which belongs to it
to be prodigally conducted.
It is impossible, Sir, for any person to be an econo-l
mist, where no order in payments is established; it isl
impossible for a man to be an economist, who is not,
able to take a comparative view of his means and of!
his expenses for the year which lies before him; it
is impossible for a man to be an economist, under
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whom various officers in their several departments
may spend - even just what they please, - and often
with an emulation of expense, as contributing to the
importance, if not profit, of their several departments.
Thus much is certain: that neither the present nor
any other First Lord of the Treasury has been ever able
to take a survey, or to make even a tolerable guess,
of the expenses of government for any one year, so
as to enable him with the least degree of certainty, or
even probability, to bring his affairs within compass.
Whatever scheme may be formed upon them must
be made on a calculation of chances. As things are
circumstanced, the First Lord of the Treasury cannot
make an estimate. I am sure I serve the king, and I
am sure I assist administration, by putting economy
at least in their power. We must class services; we
must (as far as their nature admits) appropriate
funds; or everything, however reformed, will fall
again into the old confusion.
Coming upon this ground of the civil list, the first
thing in dignity and charge that attracts our notice
is the royal household. This establishment, in my opinion, is exceedingly abusive in its constitution. It is
formed upon manners and customs that have long
since expired. In the first place, it is formed, in
many respects, upon feudal principles. In the feudal
times, it was not uncommon, even among subjects,:ox the lowest offices to be held by'considerable persons,- persons as unfit by their incapacity as improper from their rank to occupy such employments. They
were held by patent, sometimes for life, and sometimes by inheritance. If my memory does not deceive
me, a person of no slight consideration held the office
of patent hereditary cook to an Earl of Warwick:
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the Earl of Warwick's soups, I fear, were not the
better for the dignity of his kitchen. I think it was
an Earl 9f Gloucester who officiated as steward of
the household to the Archbishops of Canterbury. Instances of the same kind may in some degree be found in the Northumberland house-book, and other
family records. There was some reason in ancient
necessities for these ancient customs. Protection was
wanted; and the domestic tie, though not the highest, was the closest.
The king's household has not only several strong
traces of this feudality, but it is formed also upon the
principles of a body corporate: it has its own magis
trates, courts, and by-laws. This might be necessary
in the ancient times, in order to have a government
within itself, capable of regulating the vast and often
unruly multitude which composed and attended it.
This was the origin of the ancient court called the
Green Cloth,-composed of the marshal, treasurer,
and other great officers of the household, with certain
clerks. The rich subjects of the kingdom, who had
formerly the same establishments, (only on a reduced
scale,) have since altered their economy, and turned
the course of their expense from the maintenance of
vast establishments within their walls to the employment of a great variety of independent trades abroad. Their influence is lessened; but a mode of accommodation and a style of splendor suited to the manners of the times has been increased. Royalty itself has
insensibly followed, and the royal household has been
carried: away by the resistless tide of manners, but
with this very material difference: private men have
got rid of the establishments along with the reasons
of them; whereas the royal household has lost all
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that was stately and venerable in the antique manners, without retrenching anything of the cumbrous
charge of a Gothic establishment. It is shrunk into
the polished littleness of modern elegance and personal accommodation; it has evaporated from the
gross concrete into an essence and rectified spirit of
expense, where you have tuns of ancient pomp in a
vial of modern luxury.
But when the reason of old establishments is gone,
it is absurd to preserve nothing but the burden of
them. This is superstitiously to embalm a carcass
not worth an ounce of the gums that are used to preserve it. It is to burn precious oils in the tomb; it
is to offer meat and drink to the dead: not so much
an honor to the deceased as a disgrace to the survivors. Our palaces are vast inhospitable halls. There
the bleak winds, there " Boreas, and Eurus, and Caurus, and Axrgestes loud," howling through the vacant
lobbies, and clattering the doors of deserted guardrooms, appall the imagination, and conjure up the
grim spectres of departed tyrants, - the Saxon, the
Norman, and the Dane, --the stern Edwards and
fierce Henrys,- who stalk from desolation to desolation, through the dreary vacuity and melancholy succession of chill and comfortless chambers. When this tumult subsides, a dead and still more frightful silence would reign in this desert, if every now and
then the tacking of hammers did not announce that
those constant attendants upon all courts in all ages,
jobs, were still alive, - for whose sake alone it is that
any trace of ancient grandeur is suffered to remain.
These palaces are a true emblem of some governments: the inhabitants are decayed, but the governors and magistrates still flourish. They put me in
VOL. II. 20
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mind of Old Sarum, where the representatives, more
in number than the constituents, only serve to inform. us that this was once a place of trade, and sounding
with "the busy hum of men," though now you can
only trace the streets by the color of the corn, and
its sole manufacture is. in members of Parliament.
These old establishments were formed also on a
third principle, still more adverse to the living economy of the age. They were formed, Sir, on the principle of purveyance and receipt in kind. In former
days, when the household was vast, and the supply
scanty and precarious, the royal purveyors, sallying
forth from under the Gothic portcullis to purchase
provision with power and prerogative instead of money, brought home the plunder of an hundred markets,
and all that could be seized from a flying and hiding
country, and deposited their spoil in an hundred caverns, with each its keeper. There, every commodity,
received in its rawest condition, went through all the
process which fitted it for use. This inconvenient receipt produced an economy suited only to itself. It
multiplied offices beyond all measure, - buttery, pantry, and all that rabble of places, which, though profitable to the holders, and expensive to the state, are almost too mean to mention.
All this might be, and I believe was, necessary at
first; for it is remarkable, that purveyance, after its
regulation had been the subject of a long line of statutes, (not fewer, I think, than twenty-six,) was wholly
taken away by the 12th of Charles the Second; yet
in. the next year of the same reign it was found necessary to revive it by a special act of Parliament, for
the sake of the king's journeys. This, Sir, is curious,
-and what Mwould hardly be expected in so reduced a
? ? ? ? FOR ECONOMICAL REFORM. 307
court as that of Charles the Second and in so improved
a country as England might then be thought. But so
it was. In our time, one well-filled and well-covered
stage-coach requires more accommodation. than a royal progress, and every district, at an hour's warning, can supply an army.
I do not say, Sir, that all these establishments,
whose principle is gone, have been systematically
kept up for influence solely: neglect had its share.
But this I am sure of: that a consideration of influence has hindered any one from attempting to pull
them down. For the purposes of influence, and
for those purposes only, are retained half at least of
the household establishments. No revenue, no, not
a royal revenue, can exist under the accumulated
charge of ancient establishment, modern luxury, and
Parliamentary political corruption.
If, therefore, we aim at regulating this household,
the question will be, whether we ought to economize
by detail or by principle. The example we have had
of the success of an attempt to economize by detail,
and under establishments adverse to the attempt,
may tend. to decide this question.
At the beginning of his Majesty's reign, Lord Talbot came to the administration of a great department
in the household. I believe no man ever entered into
his,Majesty's service, or into the service of any prince;
with a more clear integrity, or with more zeal and
affection for the interest of his master, and, I must
add, with abilities for a still higher service. Economy was then announced as a maxim of the reign.
This noble lord, therefore, made several attempts towards a reform. In the year 1777, when the king's
civil list debts came last to be paid, he explained very
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fully the success of his undertaking. HIe told the
House of Lords that he had attempted to reduce the
charges of the king's tables and his kitchen. The
thing, Sir, was not below him. He knew that there
is nothing interesting in the concerns of men whom
we love and honor, that is beneath our attention.
"Love," says one of our old poets, "' esteems no office
mean,"- and with still more spirit, " Entire affection
scorneth nicer hands. " Frugality, Sir, is founded
on the principle, that all-riches have limits. A royal
household, grown enormous, even in the meanest
departments, may weaken and perhaps destroy all
energy in the highest offices of the state.
The gorging a royal kitchen may stint and famish the negotiations of a kingdom. Therefore the object was worthy of his, was worthy of any man's attention.
In consequence of this noble lord's resolution, (as
he told the other House,) he reduced several tables,
and put the persons entitled to them upon board
wages, much to their own satisfaction. But, unluckily, subsequent duties requiring constant attendance,
it was not possible to prevent their being fed where
they were employed: and thus this first step towards
economy doubled the expense.
There was. another disaster far more doleful than
this. I shall state it, as the cause of that misfortune
lies at the bottom of almost all our prodigality.
Lord Talbot attempted to reform the kitchen; but
such, as he well observed, is the consequence of having duty done by one person whilst another enjoys
the emoluments, that he found himself frustrated in
all his designs. On that rock his whole adventure
split, his whole scheme of economy was dashed to
pieces. His department became more expensive than
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ever; the civil list debt accumulated. Why? It
was truly from a cause which, though perfectly adequate to the effect, one would not have instantly
guessed. It was because the turnspit in the king's
kitchen was a member of Parliament! * The king's
domestic servants were all undone, his tradesmen
remained unpaid and became bankrupt, - because the
turnspit of the king's kitchen was a member of Parliament. His Majesty's slumbers were interrupted, his
pillow was stuffed with thorns, and his peace of mind
entirely broken, -- because the king's turnspit was a
member of Parliament. The judges were unpaid,
the justice of the kingdom bent and gave way, the
foreign ministers remained inactive and unprovided,
the system of Europe was dissolved, the chain of
our alliances was broken, all the wheels of government at home and abroad were stopped, --because
the king's turnspit was a member of Parliament.
Such, Sir, was the situation of affairs, and such
the cause of that situation, when his Majesty came a
second time to Parliament to desire the payment of
those debts which the employment of its members in
various offices, visible and invisible, had occasioned.
I believe that a like fate will attend every attempt at
economy by detail, under similar circumstances, and
in every department. A complex, operose office of
account and control is, in itself, and even if members
of Parliament had nothing to do with it, the most
prodigal of all things. The most audacious robberies or the most subtle frauds would never venture
upon such a waste as an over-careful detailed guard
against them will infallibly produce. In our estab* Vide Lord Talbot's speech in Almon's Parliamentary Register. Vol. VII. p. 79, of the Proceedings of the Lords.
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lishments, we frequently see an office of account of
an hundred pounds a year expense, and another office
of an equal expense to control that office, and the
whole upon a matter that is not worth twenty shillings.
To avoid, therefore, this minute care, which produces the consequences of the most extensive neglect,
and to oblige members of Parliament to attend to public cares, and not to the servile offices of domestic
management, I propose, Sir, to economize by principle:
that is, I propose to put affairs into that train which
experience points out as the most effectual, from the
nature of things, and from the constitution of the
human mind. ' In all dealings, where it is possible, the principles of radical economy prescribe three
things: first, undertaking by the great; secondly,
engaging with persons of skill in the subject-matter;
thirdly, engaging with those who shall have an immediate and direct interest in the proper execution of
the business.
To avoid frittering and crumbling down the attention by a blind, unsystematic observance of every
trifle, it has ever been found the best way to do all
things which are great in the total amount and
minute in the component parts by a general contract.
The principles of trade have so pervaded every species of dealing, from the highest to the lowest objects, all transactions are got so much into system, that we may, at a moment's warning, and to a farthing value, be informed at what rate any service
may be supplied. No dealing is exempt from the
possibility of fraud. But by a contract on a matter
certain you have this advantage: you are sure to
know the utmost extent of the fraud to which you
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are subject. By a contract with a person in his own
trade you are sure you shall not suffer by want of
skill. By a short contract you are sure of making it
the interest of the contractor to exert that skill for
the satisfaction of his employers.
I mean to derogate nothing from the diligence or
integrity of the present, or of any former board of
Green Cloth. But what skill can members of Parliament obtain in that low kind of province? What pleasure can they have in the execution of that kind
of duty? And if they should neglect it, how does it
affect their interest, when we know that it is their vote
in Parliament, and not their diligence in cookery or
catering, that recommends them to their office, or
keeps them in it?
I therefore propose that the king's tables (to whatever number of tables,. or covers to each, he shall think proper to command) should be classed'by the
steward of the household, and should be contracted
for, according to their rank, by the head or cover;
that the estimate and circumstance of the contract
should be carried to the Treasury to be approved;
and that its faithful and satisfactory performance
should be reported' there previous to any payment;
that there, and there only, should the payment be
made. I propose that men should be contracted with
only in their proper'trade; and that no member of
Parliament should be capable of such contract. By
this plan, almost all the infinite offices under the lord
steward may be spared, -to the extreme simplification, and to the far better execution, of every one of his functions. The king of Prussia is so served.
He is a great and eminent (though, indeed, a very
rare) instance of the possibility of uniting, in a mind
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of vigor and compass, an attention to minute objects
with the largest views and the most complicated
plans. His tables are served by contract, and by the
head. Let me say, that no prince can be ashamed
to imitate the king of Prussia, and particularly to
learn in his school, when the problem is, " The best
manner of reconciling the state of a court with the
support of war. " Other courts, I understand, have
followed him with effect, and to their satisfaction.
The same clew of principle leads us through the
labyrinth of the other departments. What, Sir, is
there in the office of the great wardrobe (which hasthe care of the king's furniture) that may not be executed by the lord chamberlain himself? He has.
an honorable appointment; he has time sufficient to
attend to the duty; and he has the vice-chamberlain
to assist him. Why should not he deal also by contract for all things belonging to this office, and carry his estimates first, and his report of the execution in
its proper time, for payment, directly to the Board of
Treasury itself? By a simple operation, (containing
in it a treble control,) the expenses of a department
which for naked walls, or walls hung with cobwebs,
has in a few years cost the crown 150,0001. , may at
length hope for regulation. But, Sir, the office and
its businest are at variance. As it stands, it serves,
not to furnish the palace with its hangings, but the
Parliament with its dependent members.
To what end, Sir, does the office of removing wardrobe serve at all? Why should a jewel office exist for the sole purpose of taxing the king's gifts of plate?
Its object falls naturally within the chamberlain's
province, and ought to be under his care and inspection without any fee. Why should an office of the
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robes exist, when that of groom of the stole is a sinecure, and that this is a proper object of his department?
All these incumbrances, which are themselves
nuisances, produce other incumbrances and other
nuisances. For the payment of these useless establishments there are no less than three useless treasurers: two to hold a purse, and one to play with a stick. The treasurer of the household is a mere
name. The cofferer and the treasurer of the chamber receive and pay great sums, which it is not at all
necessary they should either receive or pay. All the
proper officers, servants, and tradesmen may be enrolled in their several departments, and paid in
proper classes and times with great simplicity and
order, at the Exchequer, and by direction from the
Treasury.
The Board of Works, which in the seven years preceding 1777 has cost towards 400,0001. ,* and (if I
recollect rightly) has not cost less in proportion from
the beginning of the reign, is under the very same
description of all the other ill-contrived establishments, and calls for the very same reform. We are
to seek for the visible signs of all this expense. For
all this expense, we do not see a building of the size
and importance of a pigeon-house. Buckingham
House -was reprised by a bargain with the public.
for one hundred thousand pounds; and the small
house at Windsor has been, if I mistake not, undertaken since that account was brought before us.
The good works of that Board of Works are as carefully concealed as other good works ought to be:
they are perfectly invisible. But though it is the
* More exactly, 378,6161. 10s. lad.
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perfection of charity to be concealed, it is, Sir, the
property and glory of magnificence to appear and
stand forward to the eye.
That board, which ought to be a concern of builders and such like, and of none else, is turned into a
junto of members of Parliament. That office, too, has
a treasury and a paymaster of its owQ; and lest the
arduous affairs of that important exchequer should
be too fatiguing, that paymaster has a deputy to partake his profits and relieve his cares. I do not believe, that, either now or in former times, the chief managers of that board have made any profit of its
abuse. It is, however, no good reason that an abusive establishment should subsist, because it is of as
little private as of public advantage. But this establishment has the grand radical fault, the original sin,
that pervades and perverts all our establishments:
the apparatus is not fitted to the object, nor the workmen to the work. Expenses are incurred on the private opinion of an inferior establishment, without consulting the principal, who can alone determine
the proportion which it ought to bear to the other
establishments of the state, in the order of their relative importance.
I propose, therefore, along with the rest, to pull
down this whole ill-contrived scaffolding, which obstructs, rather than forwards, our public works; to
take away its treasury; to put the whole into the
hands of a real builder, who shall not be a member
of Parliament; and to oblige him, by a previous estimate and final payment, to appear twice at the Treasury before the public can be loaded. The king's gardens are to come under a similar regulation.
The Mint, though not a department of the house
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hold, has the same vices. It is a great expense to
the nation, chiefly for the sake of members of Parliament. It has its officers of parade and dignity. It has its treasury, too. It is a sort of corporate body,
and formerly was a body of great importance, -- as
much so, on the then scale of things, and the then
order of business, as the Bank is at this day. It was
the great centre of money transactions and remittances for our own and for other nations, until King Charles the First, among other arbitrary projects
dictated by despotic necessity, made it withhold the
money that, lay there for remittance. That blow
(and happily, too) the Mint never recovered. Now
it is no bank, no remittance-shop. The Mint, Sir, is
a manufacture, and it is nothing else; and it ought
to-be undertaken upon the principles of a manufacture,- that is, for the best and cheapest execution, by a contract upon proper securities and under proper regulations.
The artillery is a far greater object; it is a military
concern; but having an affinity and kindred in its
defects with the establishments I am now speaking of,
I think it best to speak of it along with them. It is,
I conceive, an establishment not well suited to its
martial, though exceedingly well calculated for its
Parliamentary purposes. Here there is a treasury,
as in all the other inferior departments of government. Here the military is subordinate to the civil, and the naval -confounded with the land service. The
object, indeed, is much the same in both. But, when
the detail is examined, it will be found that they had
better be separated. For a reform of this office, I
propose to restore things to what (all considerations
taken together) is their natural order: to restore
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them to their just proportion, and to their just distri
bution. I propose, in this military concern, to render
the civil subordinate to the military; and this will
annihilate the greatest part of the expense, and all
the influence belonging to the office. I propose to
send the military branch to the army, and the naval
to the Admiralty; and I intend to perfect and accomplish the whole detail (where it becomes too minute
and complicated for legislature, and requires exact,
official, military, and mechanical knowledge) by a
commission of competent officers in both departments.
I propose to execute by contract what by contract
can be executed, and to bring, as much as possible,
all estimates to be previously approved and finally to
be paid by the Treasury.
Thus, by following the course of Nature, and not the
purposes of politics, or the accumulated patchwork of
occasional accommodation, this vast, expensive department may be methodized, its service proportioned to its necessities, and its payments subjected to the inspection of the superior minister of finance, who is
to judge of it on the result of the total collective exigencies of the state. This last is a reigning principle through my whole plan; and it is a principle which I
hope may hereafter be applied to other plans.
By these regulations taken together, besides the
three subordinate treasuries in the lesser principalities,, five other subordinate treasuries are suppressed. There is taken away the whole establishment of detail
in the household: the treasurer; the comptroller (for
a comptroller is hardly necessary where there is no
treasurer); the cofferer of the household; the treasurer of the chamber; the master of the household; the whole board of green cloth;- and a vast number of
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subordinate offices in the department of the steward
of the household,- the whole establishment of the
great wardrobe,- the removing wardrobe, - the jewel
office,- the robes, - the Board of Works, --almost the
whole charge of the civil branch of the Board of Ordnance, are taken away. All these arrangements together will be found to relieve the nation from a vast weight of influence, without distressing, but rather by
forwarding every public service. When something
of this kind is done, then the public may begin to
breathe. Under other governments, a question of expense is only a question of economy, and it is nothing more: with us, in every question of expense there is always a mixture of constitutional considerations.
It is, Sir, because I wish to keep this business of
subordinate treasuries as much as I can together, that
I brought the ordnance office before you, though it is
properly a military department. For the same reason I will now trouble you with my thoughts and
propositions upon two of the greatest under-treasuries:
I mean the office of paymaster of the land forces, or
treasurer of the army, and that of the treasurer of the
navy. The former of these has long been a great
object of public suspicion and uneasiness. Envy, too,
has had its share in the obloquy which is cast upon
this office. But I am sure that it has no share at all
in the reflections I shall make upon it, or in the reformations that I shall propose. I do not grudge to the
honorable gentleman who at present holds the office
any of the effects of his talents, his merit, or his fortune. He is respectable in all these particulars. I
follow the constitution of the office without persecuting its holder. It is necessary in all matters of public
complaint, where men frequently feel right and argue
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wrong, to separate prejudice from reason, and to be
very sure, in attempting the redress of a grievance,
that we hit upon its real seat and its true nature.
Where there is an abuse in office, the first thing that
occurs in heat is to censure the officer. Our natural
disposition leads all our inquiries rather to persons
than to things. But this prejudice is to be corrected
by maturer thinking.
Sir, the profits of the pay office (as an office) are
not too great, in my opinion, for its duties, and for
the rank of the person who has generally held it. He
has been generally a person of the highest rank,that is to say, a person of eminence and consideration in this House. The great and the invidious profits
of the pay office are from the bank that is held in it.
According to the present course of the office, and
according to the present mode of accounting there,
this bank must necessarily exist somewhere. Money
is a productive thing; and when the usual time of
its demand can be tolerably calculated, it may with
prudence be safely laid out to the profit of the holder. It is on this calculation that the business of banking proceeds. But no profit can be derived
from the use of money which does not make it the
interest of the holder to delay his account. The
process of the Exchequer colludes with this interest.
Is this collusion from its want of rigor and strictness
and great regularity of form? The reverse is true.
They have in the Exchequer brought rigor and formalism to their ultimate perfection. The process against accountants is so rigorous, and in a manner
so unjust, that correctives must from time to time
be applied to it. These correctives being discretionary, upon the case, and generally remitted by the
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Barons to the Lords of the Treasury, as the best judges
of the reasons for respite, hearings are had, delays
are produced, and thus the extreme of rigor in office
(as usual in all human affairs) leads to the extreme
of laxity. What with the interested delay of the
officer, the ill-conceived exactness of the court, the
applications for dispensations from that exactness,
the revival of rigorous process after the expiration
of the time, and the new rigors producing new applications and new enlargements of time, such delays happen in the public accounts that they can scarcely ever be closed.
Besides, Sir, they have a rule in the Exchequer,
which, I believe, they have founded upon a very
ancient statute, that of the 51st of Henry the Third,
by which it is provided, that, "when a sheriff or
bailiff hath begun his account, none other shall be
received to account, until he that was first appointed
hath clearly accounted, and that the sum has been
received. " * Whether this clause of that statute be
the ground of that absurd practice I am not quite
able to ascertain. But it has very generally prevailed, though I am told that of late they have began to
relax from it. In consequence of forms adverse to
substantial account, we have a long succession of
paymasters and their representatives who have never
been admitted to account, although perfectly ready
to do so.
As the extent of our wars has scattered the accountants under the paymaster into every part of the
globe, the grand and sure paymaster, Death, in all his
* Et quaunt viscount ou baillif eit comence de acompter, nul
autre ne seit resceu de aconter tanque le primer qe soit assis eit
peraccompte, et qe la somme soit resceu. - Stat. 5. Ann. Dom. 1266.
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