their several
departments may spend--even just what they please,--and often with an
emulation of expense, as contributing to the importance, if not profit
of their several departments. Thus much is certain: that neither the
present nor any other First Lord of the Treasury has been ever able to
take a survey, or to make even a tolerable guess, of the expenses of
government for any one year, so as to enable him with the least degree
of certainty, or even probability, to bring his affairs within compass.
Whatever scheme may be formed upon them must be made on a calculation of
chances. As things are circumstanced, the First Lord of the Treasury
cannot make an estimate. I am sure I serve the king, and I am sure I
assist administration, by putting economy at least in their power. We
must _class services_; we must (as far as their nature admits)
_appropriate_ funds; or everything, however reformed, will fall again
into the old confusion.

Coming upon this ground of the civil list, the first thing in dignity
and charge that attracts our notice is the _royal household_. This
establishment, in my opinion, is exceedingly abusive in its
constitution. It is formed upon manners and customs that have long since
expired. In the first place, it is formed, in many respects, upon
_feudal principles_. In the feudal times, it was not uncommon, even
among subjects, for the lowest offices to be held by considerable
persons,--persons as unfit by their incapacity as improper from their
rank to occupy such employments. They were held by patent, sometimes for
life, and sometimes by inheritance. If my memory does not deceive me, a
person of no slight consideration held the office of patent hereditary
cook to an Earl of Warwick: the Earl of Warwick's soups, I fear, were
not the better for the dignity of his kitchen. I think it was an Earl of
Gloucester who officiated as steward of the household to the Archbishops
of Canterbury. Instances of the same kind may in some degree be found in
the Northumberland house-book, and other family records. There was some
reason in ancient necessities for these ancient customs. Protection was
wanted; and the domestic tie, though not the highest, was the closest.

The king's household has not only several strong traces of this
_feudality_, but it is formed also upon the principles of a _body
corporate_: it has its own magistrates, courts, and by-laws. This might
be necessary in the ancient times, in order to have