CHAP. XXXIX.] THE THIRD HOUSE. 351 



they had written. Some time before this conversa 

 tion, a merchant of Boston, who wished me to look 

 only on the bright side of their institutions, and who 

 was himself an optimist, had said to me, &quot; Our poli 

 ticians work in a glass hive, so that you always see 

 the worst of them ; whereas your public men can 

 throw a decent veil of secrecy over much that may 

 be selfish and sordid in the motives of their conduct. 

 Hence the scandal of your court and cabinets is only 

 divulged to posterity, a hundred years after the events, 

 in private memoirs.&quot; Unfortunately for this theory, 

 a glance at the Mackenzie letters was enough to 

 teach me, that, if the American bees work in a glass 

 hive, the glass is not quite so transparent as my 

 friend would have led me to believe. The explana 

 tion of the satirical motion made in the house at 

 Albany, then proceeded thus : &quot; The patronage of the 

 State of New York is enormous ; the Governor alone 

 has the appointment of two hundred and sixty civil 

 officers, and the nomination of more than two thousand 

 places is vested jointly in him and the senate. Some 

 of these are for two, others for five years, and they 

 are worth from two hundred to five thousand dollars 

 a-year. Among the posts most coveted, because the 

 gains are sometimes very high, though fluctuating, 

 are those of the inspectors, who set their mark or 

 brand on barrels of exported goods, such as flour, to 

 bacco, preserved pork, mackerel and other fish, to 

 guarantee their good quality, and guard the public 

 against imposition, in cases where the articles would 

 be injured if opened and examined by the purchaser. 

 It is scarcely necessary to state, that where the prey is 



