The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-01-06
A CORRUPT AGE.

From Trevalyan's Life OF Fox.
1t was worth mans while to be Secre-
tary of State under the Georges. At a time
when trade was on SO small scale that a
Lancashire manufacturer considered him
self fairly we'll off on the income which his
| great grandson now gives to his cashier, a
Cabinet Minister, over and above the am
pie salary of his Office, might reckon conf
IDENTIFY upon securing for himself, and for
all who belonged to him and who came
after him, permanent maintenance not de-
pendent upon the vicissitudes of party,
| which would be regarded as handsome, and
| even splendid, in these days Of visible and
all-pervading opulence. One nobleman
had eight thousand year in sinecures, and
the colonelcies 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 out
ward graces, bowed and whispered himself
into four great employments, from which
thirteen or fourteen hundred British guineas
flowed month by month into the lap Of his
Partisan mistress. And the lucrative places
| which a statesman held in his own name
formed but part of the advantages that he
derived from his position.
When every desirable Office was filed too
deep, there still remained the resource of u
pension, resource elastic, and almost un-
! limited, and Monarch who was never afraid
of appearing before his Parliament in the
character of an insolvent debtor.
The English pension list grew steadily and
silently, with occasional periods of sudden
and very perceptible expansion. It was reck-
oned that every change of Government
(and changes of Government were far more
frequent then than now cost the country
from nine to fifteen thousand year. A
Minister, who was true to his order, new
er allowed himself to be shelved, or
shifted, or degraded, or even pro-
himself or his wife, or his sen-in-
law. Whenever the political cards were
shufied, the people paid the stakes; and a
dozen pensions had generally been distrib-
uted, and half dozen increased, before the
Seals, the Key, and the Sticks had got into
the hands where they were to remain for
the next twelvemonth. AS were
the leaders so were the followers. IF any
noble lord challenged me to assert that
there is much corruption in both Houses, I
would laugh in his face, and tell him that
he knows it as well as l." So said Lord
Catham, plainly and openly, in his place
among the Peers; and there we're few noble
Lords, and not many honorable gentlemen,
whose personal experience was such that
they would have had the right OF the face
to contradict him. Parliament, chosen by
corrupt constituencies, was correctly inau-
enced by corrupt Ministers, of whom Ju-
MUS told the literal truth when he said that
they addressed themselves neither to the
passions nor to the understanding, but sim
ply to the touch. The arguments by which
Grenville and Grafton persuaded their sup
porters were bank bills for 200 pounds and
upwards, so generously dealt about at a
Premier's levee that sometimes they were
shipped into hand which were ashamed to
close upon them; tickets for State lotteries,
sold to members of Parliament in parcels of
five hundred, and resold by them at profit
of two pounds ticket; Government loans
subscribed for by the friends of the Gov
eminent at par, and then thrown on the city
at a premium of seven and even eleven
per cent. Lord Butte and his adherents, by
one such transaction, robbed the country Of
nearly four hundred thousand pounds, an
ample share of which (as was roundly as
serted, and may with no breach of charity
be believeG found it's way into Henry Fox
capacious pocket. Then there We're favora-
BILE contracts for honorable members con-
aecCeQ Win cOluMciCc, VI VIII "o1o "AAiA6
to be connected with commerce when they
had a chance of supplying the fleet with
sailcloth and salt pork at exorbitant
rates, and of quality which was
left pretty much to their own sense Of pa
toritic obligation, And a gentleman who
liked to get his price without sacrificing his
ease might have his choice of pensions, Sc
cret and acknowledged; and Of highly en-
lowed posts in every climate Of the globe,
whose functions could be performed while
seated at the whist table Of Brooks, by any
one who had proved his fitness for public
employment by buying borough, briblng
a corporation, or swapping country with
fictitious votes. George Selwin, who re-
turned two members, and had something to
say in the election of third, WAS at one and