94 Notes of the Month [JULY, 



Of the 113 Privy Counsellors, who were thus receivers of the public 

 money, 30 were pluralists, or persons holding more offices than one, 

 whether as sinecurists, or civil and military officers. The amount received 

 by the pluralists was 221, ]33/. annually amongst them all, or 7>321/. on 

 an average to each annually. (Hear.) The whole number of Privy 

 Counsellors who were members of both Houses of Parliament was 69, 

 and of those 17 were Peers, whose gross income from the public purse 

 was 378,846 (hear, hear), or upon an average to each, 8,065/. a-year. 

 (Loud cries of ( ' hear.") The remaining 23 were of the House of Com- 

 mons, and the gross amount of the receipts was 90,849/. or, upon an 

 average to each individual, 4,130/. a-year. (Hear.)" 



Documents like this account for all the phenomena of British legisla- 

 tion. Out of 169 Privy Counsellors, who of course comprehend the most 

 influential persons connected with parliament and public affairs, 113 are 

 pensioned by the public money ; every man of them having incomes 

 besides, and the pension being neither more nor less than a retaining 

 fee j the fifty-six who receive nothing (at present), being for the most 

 part connected with Opposition, and only waiting the opportunity of a 

 change to lay hold on similar emoluments, the pensions of the chosen 

 amounting to more than half a million of pounds sterling, which sup- 

 plies those pure, independent, and high-principled personages with 

 average allowances of above 5000/. a-year each. 



No wonder then that men should like to push themselves into the way of 

 government ; no wonder that politics should be a regular profession ; no 

 wonder that elections should be contested ; no wonder that the minister 

 for the time should be applauded to the skies, as the brightest, best, 

 wisest, most everything that ever minister was or will be. No wonder 

 that great politicians dine on gold plate, and keep race-horses, and worse 

 things than race-horses, by the dozen j that the wives of great politicians 

 have opera boxes, flourish in britchskas and barouches round the town, 

 and fill the columns of the Morning Post with gazettes of the parade of 

 ministers, princes, and moustached monsieurs that crowd their " at 

 homes." 



But of all this there must be an end. The nation which pays for this 

 extravagance has a right to inquire for what services it is lavished? The 

 investigation must come; and we shall rejoice to see patriotism, then only 

 worthy of the name, defying the clamour of the whole host of " Gentle- 

 men-pensioners," pauper Lords, and Treasury alms-seekers, probing the 

 evil to the bone, and curing the most fatal disease of the country. 



" The Steam Engine. In the steam engine the self-regulating prin- 

 ciple is carried to an astonishing perfection. The machine itself raises 

 in a due quantity the cold water necessary to condense the steam. It 

 pumps off the hot water produced by the steam, which has been cooled, 

 and lodges it in a reservoir for the supply of the boiler. It carries from 

 this reservoir exactly that quantity of water which is necessary to supply 

 the wants of the boiler, and lodges it therein according as it is required. 

 It breathes the boiler of redundant steam, and preserves that which 

 remains fit, both in quantity and quality, for the use of the engine. It 

 blows its own fire, maintaining its intensity, and increasing or diminish- 

 ing it, according to quantity of steam which it is necessary to raise ; so 

 that when much work is expected from the engine, the fire is propor- 

 tionally brisk and vivid. It breaks and prepares its own fuel, and 



