The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1870-07-02

uphold dynasty Of foreigners as
narrow in their souls as IN their
petty ancestral domains, and as de-
praved in their morals as they were
repulsive in their manners-that
great minister took for his we'll
known maxim that Every man has
his price, Apparently that price
was rarely too high in Wapole's S
market to hinder him from getting
such and as many men as he want
ed. Who we're the men whom he
bought A Barebones Parliament
swept from the purlieus Of Lodon?
Not at all They were the coun-
try gentlemen of England-the old
long-descended lines of the squire
arches of her rich counties.
AS Walpole vanishes another
succeeds. 1t is that young Mr.. Pitt
who entered upon public life an
ardent patriot and lofty declaim-
er against Hanoverian subsidies
and court oppression. To the Or
fords hal succeeded the Pelhams
in the business of corruption
Newcastle was the master in that
school, the Raphael of his art who
eclipsed the Perugino who preced-
ed him. If Pitt stood haughtily
apart from the drudgery of political
intrigue, he did not hesitate to EN-
rloy the votes the motive of which
he could hardly have failed to
know,
A little later on and another
great statesman, when the fate OF
British India and his own were
trembling in the balance, bought
Sir Elijah Impey, chief-justice Of
the supreme court Of Bengal, and
with convenient tool broke the ca
bal of Francis and Clavering
and put to death the Brahmin Nun
comar. That Hasting, actually did
all which Fisk and Drew have G er
been accused of attempting, is un-
questionable yet he has found no
less an apologist than Loid Macau-
lay. More than this, it was not
the careless or questionable lend
ibN oA JtioiClsSl stlu to lullII
doubtful transaction of the mark et
that 1mpey engaged in. He used
his high office to put to death the
native of a conquered country
over which he was the sworn pro-
tector. and that by a violent con-
struction of a British statute as ut
terly foreign to the moral code OF
Hindostan as the retaliatory laws
of Moses 10 the social life of to-
day.
Pages might be cited of instan-
ces to the same effect. Yet out of
this sea of official vcnality, out of
this pool OF judicial prostitution,
out of this age of parliamentary
frallty, there has emerged q judi,
ciary whose integrity is only equal
ed by its ability a Parliament
which no Premier would dare ap-
proach with corrupt suggestions
and civil service which, if dilato-
ry, is very far from dishonest.
But it is said that our American
government, once pure, is rapidly
becoming more corrupt. The fact
is yet to be proved. Photograph
your smoothest PEN stroke into a
twenty times magnified copy, and
what spots and ragged out lines
not before discernible We have
to deal with hugely magnified in~
terests, and the microscopic devi-
alton expands into a blur when
applied to the distributor of rev.
enue now reckoned in millions
where it once was counted in hun
dreds.
Some readers of this paper may
recollect The charges poured out
against the administration of Mr..
Van Buren-the alleged extrava-
gance in the Seminole war. and
the tabled luxury of the White
House as described in the gold
spoon philippic of Mr.. Oglc. We
should laugh at them now.
Another point must be consider
ed. The financial disturbance of
the war, SO greatly affecting all
valu es, left it really uncertain what
were just prices. Men took what
they could get, especially in GOV
ernment contracts, being in hon.
est doubt whether they were like
ly to receive even a fair RETURN
1t was fairy money which they
pocketed, that might at any mo-
ment, it seemed, turn to stones
and dried leaves. And men gems
orally, if they reasoned at all up
on the point, felt that since the
government was bound to provide
a sufficient currency, the loss of
depreciation should fall on the
State rather thar on the citizen.
This is not given as q sound ar
gument for the practices complain
ed Of 1t is only 10 show that
what we have been calling absolute
disregard Of right and wrong may
have been no more than confusion
of the moral sense. 1t is the eth
les of the cloak-rOom after an in
ball, according to which
one seizes any hat and any umbrel,
la, because ones own are hope
lessly gone. 1t does not follow
that this sullied virtue will present.
ly take to filching from private
halls and reaping the outer gar
ments it has not sown. We agree
that better is catarrh with integrity
than a clear larynx with larceny.
but we do rot feel that such doings
necessarily imperil the general
laws Of neeun, and tuuns
Now, as to official peculation.
The public is not without sin. 1t
toIos tho Spryices of ita oHiooro