The Sun.
London, England, 1810-05-18 00:00:00

cure, and ifistatteccl-The ca,ie nf tl.e Chit)ct-llor I,i
the .Erchegtit4r who first 14)1%14)f-the l'rea,.

sury, and llancellor, of the Dtichy of Lancaster,
although that Right Hon. Gentleman, very much to.
his credit, declined receiving a salary as Chancellor
of the Exchequer, yet it'.'was improper that the
Chancellorship of the Duchy- of Laucarter (which'
was a sinecure) should be tacked to his efficient
situation. He objeCted to the mitt propos,ition of -
the Lion. Mover of the Resolution, and wktfed that,
the two component parts of it had.been
.ke; t
tindt. He.was perfealy ready to vote for the abo.
litiou of sinecures,- but he was- not so read• to vote
for the adoption of that which wus erroneously
called a substitute, but which in faa, Would be a,
new creation. Adverting to the dein h-blow.which
had that night been given to the Reversion Bill in -
-.'nother place, he trusted that the Hon. Geuther►*an
in whom it *had originated, would not be .discourag-
ed by that circumstance, but that he would steadi
ly persevere, persuaded as he was that the impor.
taut object which he had in view must ultimately
be attained.

Mr. WHARTON and Lorao explained.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, that
no man could be more convinced than he was that, •
the interests of the Crown and of the People were
identified, but he could not discover how either tile
interests of the one (Sr of the other would belene-
fir ted by the adoption of the measure now proposed.
It seemed to be admitted by the Gentlemen'on the
other sidtt of the House, that there shoul4 exist the -,
means of granting a liberal remuneration for long
and faithful public services, and his Hon. Flieod
(Mr. Bankes) thought that the power of bestowing -
that remuneration should be vested in the Crown;
while other Gentlemen were of opinion that that .
power should be exercised by Parliament. Wait
respect t to the latter, proposition, he would say a ~
word or two before he sat down. Het wisLed at
present to dire his observations to what had fallen
from his Hon. Friend, who had admitted that there
should be -a power of remuneration, and that that
pow er should be vested in the Crown, but who bad •
so strenuously contended that the remuneration, in- •
stead of tieing by.a sinecure office, should be by pen, -
sion. He begged, in the first place, to state, that
he could not conceive, if the pensions to be greeted
were to be equivalent in point of value to the offices
that were to be taken away, that any advantage in
point Of economy could accrue to the country by
the adoptionof this plan, nor, if the pensions were -
to be equally at the disposal of the Crown, would u
tend in any degree to diminislathe prerogative of the
Crown. But it appeared that his Hon. Friend had •
some particular abjection to the mode of temunerae-
liOn by. sinecure office; and other Gentlemen agreed
with hitn in that opinion. One of the great objec-
tions which had been urged was, the uncertain and
fluctuating nature of the ernoluMents of sinecure
offices; but this did nut appear to him to-be a •fair
way of arguing _the question, because it was founded
upon the circurrraance that there were certain sine-
cure offices of 1 irge and even immoderate. amount ;
but it should be recollected that it was agreed on all
hands that the value of these office, ought to be di-
minished on the termieation of the interests of those
to whom they were flow grantee in polsession or re-
version,.• This principle therefore being admitted,.
that these offices Ought to be reducA, a mesa to
obvi..us that the DrODUSC4 mode of remunerating by
pens .n would have no adVantage over that of sloe.-
osi: .1 places, on the ground of the cancer air aria
euctuating Value of the latter. 2-.. pother ground of
objection, • which lead been urged by his ficiaoutable
•nd against the naude of remuneration by way
of sinecure offices was, that they were. trequentlY
bestowed without any previous merit of service in.
the person to whom they.were to be granted. ;Now'
if it were necessary that any such condition, should
be annexed to the grant of any remuneration, sure
ly it was quite as easy for Parliament to. annex that
'condition to the grant of a sinecure office as to that
•of -a pension, arid therefore in that point of via!'
the proposition of his Honourable Friend' would be
attended with no partiCular advantage. A, third
ground, of obje&ion to the system of remuneration
by sinecure offices was, to adopt an expresaio4
which hatl been used, that the coin was debased, or
in other words, that there was something degrading
in the acceptance of a sinecure office. The Gen"
tiemen on the other side proposed to lemcate this
supposed disgrace, by substituting a pension in the
room of a Smecure.office, and they concluded that
this imaginary degradation would be removed, and
that a man having taken a pension;, might enter int°
society without airy of that kind of _stigma which
would attach to his .character if be accepted a sine-
cure-office. And this was the way in which Getr
tlemen on_ the otlibr side sertoesly and gravely pr"-
posed, to'gratify what they reeresented as the wishes
of the people, and to allay the clamours which were
said to prevail ! But did any Gentleman really sup-
pose that it the proposed plan were adopted, theta
would be less clamour than there was •at peeseer,
from` the . description of people by whom that cla-
.mour -was raised ? Or did any one suppose that
there -would not be in that Case, as there were at
present, persons in that House who (with very good
intentions, no doubt,) would gi‘e every possible de-
gree of encouragement to that clamour ? When
the sinecure office was removed, and the pension
substituted, he was convinced-that some of the very
Gentlenien now opposite to hiin, :who so strenn-
ously urged this measure, would be quite as loud rn
their objections to grant a pension, and as'eager to
attack the person upon whom it • was conferred, as
they were now in the case of a. Right Hon. Friend
of his (Mr. Yorke), who had recently accepted a3f
office lof the description alluded to.—(A cry c`
," hear, hear," on the Opposition side (1 the Hausa)'.
Gentlemen might, if they pleased, cry " hear,
hear," but he was convinced the grant of 11'3
office to Mr. Yorke was as easy-to be defeneei "4
any grant that had ever been made. A man- of int)Le
honourable private character, or %-% hose service? to
the country while he was in office were more Ive:,
ritorious, did not exist: He did riot know wba' ,
length of service Gentlemen requircdas a qualifica-
lion for a remuneration—whether three, five, ern,
or twenty years; and he could not but compl,11;
that his Honourable Friend had not given the, H,:uet.
any tutermation_ of his intention upon that subjee,
It had "been said, that Mr. Yorke had, by hit ;lc
1,30
ceptairce of , the. office, brought offices of that 0.1
seription into disgraCe. How such an assert""
could be advanced, he could not conceive. It 1;
pearcd. to hint that the ugly thing that Jr. Yol