246 Europe, and the British Parliament. [MARCH, 



acted. But his double resignation shews that he has found some reason 

 for doubting the chances of Polish liberty. The armies of the revolt 

 are on paper, while the Russian troops are actually in the field ; and if 

 they have paused hitherto, appear to have done it warily, to give the 

 insurrection time to dissolve away, and thus achieve an easy triumph. 

 Unless some extraordinary interposition occur, whether of France, or 

 of those accidents which have before now broken up the designs of the 

 most powerful empires, the Polish insurrection must perish, and Russia 

 derive new power from this attempt at its diminution. 



But we have a more important and anxious topic in the State of 

 British Affairs. On the accession of the present ministry the strongest 

 hopes were entertained of their applying themselves vigorously to the 

 correction of all the abuses of the country. England was weighed down 

 by taxes, and it was fully acknowledged that the personal expenditure 

 of government, the pension list, the sinecures, the places in the different 

 departments of office, the diplomacy, and the colonial appointments, were 

 exorbitantly overstretched, and must be reduced, or extinguished 

 altogether. The expences of Ambassadors were stated by the ministry, 

 when in opposition, to be enormous, as such they undoubtedly were ; 

 for it was monstrous to see the services of such men as generally held 

 the chief embassies, paid at the rate of 12,000. a year, which, in those 

 cheaper countries to which they were commissioned, was at the rate 

 of thirty or forty thousand pounds a year in England. It was 

 proposed that the highest diplomatic salary should be reduced to about 

 a sixth of the sum ; and that by selecting men capable of the situation, 

 not noble lords, whose whole merit consisted in their being the relatives 

 of a minister, or creatures of a court ; but men of capacity and expe- 

 rience, the whole expence, which amounted, with retiring pensions, &c., 

 to upwards of halt* a million a year, might be reduced within 50,000. 

 No one took up the subject with more vigour, or pursued it with more 

 keenness, than Sir James Graham. 



The next topic was the Sinecures : it was found that they burthened 

 the country with an inordinate expence, without even the excuse of the 

 diplomatist, that of having something to do. The sinecurists were 

 gentlemen, who, having been the sons, cousins, or menials, of other 

 gentlemen, who had the opportunity of handling the public purse, and 

 whose conscience was not included among their principles, lived plea- 

 santly upon handsome sums, drawn quarterly from the treasury, without 

 more trouble or care than the lilies, that neither sow nor spin. It was 

 declared in the strongest language that this abominable abuse should 

 insult common sense and defraud the country no longer, but that 

 lazy noble lords, and lazy commoners, should be taught that state 

 pauperism was at an end, and that another shilling of public money was 

 not to be sunk in the private pocket. 



Yet the majority of the sinecures seem to be left in precisely the 

 same situation in which they were found, and the whole generation 

 of noble paupers are exulting in having a renewed lease of public 

 charity. 



The Pension List was another abomination. It is idle to tell us that, by 

 touching it, we are touching the royal interests. The very assertion 

 throws disrespect upon royalty. The true interest of a British king is 

 identified with that of his people. A nation degraded by visible corrup- 

 tion, no matter where that corruption may originate, is not worthy of a 



