Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1880-11-18
WHOLE NO. 1884
The British Unreformed Civil Service.

Inc British UNIFORMED Civil Service.
Macaulay's nephew and blographer, Mr.
Trevelyan, has been writing the Early Histo-
ry of Charles James Fox. In it he gives the
following sketch of the British CivilService be-
fore its reformation:
! ''The utmost that a modern statesman can
! do for son or nephew is to nominate him to
the privilege OF competing with dozen other
lads in history and modern languages, with
| the prospect that in case of success he will OBJ
| tain an income which would not have paid the
wine bill of placeman in the days of Wey-
mouth and Sandwich. Even the Duke Of
| Newcastle would have scorned to put in his
claim for the disposal of such patry patronage
| as that to which his degenerate successors
| have limited themselves -
| "But it was worth a mans while to be Sec
rotary OF state under tile Georges. At time
when trade was on SO small scale that a Lam
| cashire manufacturer considered himself fairly
| well of on the income which his great-grand-
son now gives to hiscashier, cabinet Minister,
over and above the ample salary of his Office,
| might reckon confidently upon securing for
himself and for all who belonged to him and
who came after him, a permanent mainten-
ance, not dependent upon the vicisstudes of
party, which would be regarded as handsome,
and even splendid, in these days of visible and
| all pervading opulence.i One nobleman had
| eight, thousand a year in sinecures, and the
| colonelcles of three regiments. Another, as
auditor of the exchequer, inside which he
| never looked, had eight thousand pounds in
| years OF peace and twenty thousand in years
| of war. A third, with nothing to recommend
him except his outer graces, bowed and whis-
pered himself into four great employments,
| from which thirteen or fourteen hundred
British gulneas flowed month by month into
| the lap of his Partisan mistress. And the
| lucrative places which statesman held in his
own name formed but part, and often the
| least part, of the advantage that he derived
| from his position. All the claims on his purse
| were settled, and all services rendered to him,
honorable and dishonorable alike, were recon-
pensed by fresh and ever fresh inroads upon
| the exchequer. The patron of his borough,
| II he was commOner his mouthpiece in the
Lower House, if he was a peer; the gentle
man OF the bedchamber who. stood his friend
at court /; the broker who, when the last loan
was brought out, had got to know more than
was pleasant about the allotment of the scrip;
his racing friend, who had nothing left to
| lose; his French cock, his chidren's tutor, his
| led captain, his hired poet, and his inspired
| panlpheteer, were all paid with nominations,
| or pacitied with reversons. If comfortable
| berth was already occupied at any late the
| succession to 1t might still be worth the hav-
klng aApaymaster of the works. or an audit
| or of the plantations, with plenty of money to
buy good liquor and plenty of time to drink
| it, did not live forever. and a next appoint
| ment to the civil service in the last century
might be discounted as freely as q next pre-
sentation to living in our own.
"When every desirable Office was filled two
deep, there still remained the resource of
/ penslon-a resource elastic and almost unlim-
tied under monarch who was never afraid of
| appearing before his Parliament in the char
acter of an insolvent debtor. These recipients
OF what-with an irony which the taxpayer
was beginning to understand was styled the
royal bounty, who were too disreputable to
| figure on the English civil list, were quietly
and snugly quartered on the Irish establish
| ment. Decent men were not always willing
| to see themselves enrolled in a column of
names which, appropriately headed by the
| Queen of Denmark, recalled the successive
| scandals of three reigns; but squeamishness
| was not the failing of the age, and the Irish
pensions were trebled in the first thirty years
of George the Third. The English pension
| list grew steadily and silently, with occasional
| periods of sudden and very perceptble ex-
pansion. 1t was reckoned that every change
of government (and changes of government
| were far more frequent then than now cost
| the country from nine to fifteen thousand a
| year. A minister who was true to his order
ed, or degraded. or even promoted, without
| getting something for himself, his wife, or his
| n-in-law. Whenever the political cards
were shuffied the people paid the stakes, and
dozen pensions had generally been distrib-
uted, and half dozen increased, be-
| fore the seals, the key, and the sticks had got
| into the hands where they were to remain for
the next twelve month. When Lord North
| ingtOn ceased to be chancellor in order to be-
| DrncHont M hn oOnonil bo IuO,,lH mt
leave the woolsack till he had secured an i'm
mediate pension of two Thousand wear, u
| prospective pension of four Thousand year.
| and the reverson for two lives of the cerkship
Of the hanaper and this although he had al
ready provided for his daughters by vesting a
rich sinecure with trustee for their benefit.
There were times when dsagreeable man
| who knew his own powers of annoyance, or
| even weak man who bad fathomed his own
worthlessness, could make almosth any terms
be chose with those who desired to get rid of
him; and there was nothing whatever which
a strong man, by watching his occasion, might
| not obtain as the price of his services"
| "When Britain had been drained dry and
there was nothing more to be squeezed from
| Ireland, Minister'S in an evil hour for them
selves, remembered that there were two NIL
| lions of Englishmen in America who had
4 struggled through the difficulties and hard
ships which beset the pioneers of civilization,
and who, now that their daily bread was as
sured to them, could afford the luxury of
maintaining an army of snecurists. The sug-
gestion cannot be said to have originated on
the other side of the Atlantic 1T was not
| said Junius. 'Virginiv that wanted Cover
nor, but a court favorlte that wanted SAL
ary.' Virginia, however, aud her sister colo
MES. we're not supposed to know what was
| best fOrthelr own interests. or. at any rate.
| for the interests of their masters; and plenty
Of gentlemen were soon drinking their claret
and paying their debts out of the savings of
the fishermen of New Hampshire and the
| farmers of New Jersey, and talking, with that
perversion of sentiment which is the ineyita-
BILE outgrowth of privilege, about the cruelty
OF Secretary of State who limited that they
would do well to show themselves occasion
| ly among the people whose substance they de-
vonred. And yet in most cases it was fortn-
| nate for America that her placemeD had not
enough public spirit to make them ashamed of
| being absentees Such was the private char
acter of many: among her official staff that
their room was cheaply purchased by the
money which they spent outside the country.
| The best things in the colonies generally fell
| to bankrupt members of Parliament, who
were as poor in political principle as 10 world
/ ly goods; and the smaller posts were regard
ed as their special inheritance by the riffraff of
| the election committee. room and the bad bar
| gains of the servants hall. FA4
The Age Of Miracles I'd.