s rule, like every other, may admit its exceptions. When a great man
has some one great object in view to be achieved in a given time, it may
be absolutely necessary for him to walk out of all the common roads,
and, if his fortune permits it, to hold himself out as a splendid
example. I am told that something of this kind is now doing in a country
near us. But this is for a short race, the training for a heat or two,
and not the proper preparation for the regular stages of a methodical
journey. I am speaking of establishments, and not of men.

It may be expected, Sir, that, when I am giving my reasons why I limit
myself in the reduction of employments, or of their profits, I should
say something of those which seem of eminent inutility in the state: I
mean the number of officers who, by their places, are attendant on the
person of the king. Considering the commonwealth merely as such, and
considering those officers only as relative to the direct purposes of
the state, I admit that they are of no use at all. But there are many
things in the constitution of establishments, which appear of little
value on the first view, which in a secondary and oblique manner produce
very material advantages. It was on full consideration that I determined
not to lessen any of the offices of honor about the crown, in their
number or their emoluments. These emoluments, except in one or two
cases, do not much more than answer the charge of attendance. Men of
condition naturally love to be about a court; and women of condition
love it much more. But there is in all regular attendance so much of
constraint, that, if it wore a mere charge, without any compensation,
you would soon have the court deserted by all the nobility of the
kingdom.

Sir, the most serious mischiefs would follow from such a desertion.
Kings are naturally lovers of low company. They are so elevated above
all the rest of mankind that they must look upon all their subjects as
on a level. They are rather apt to hate than to love their nobility, on
account of the occasional resistance to their will which will be made by
their virtue, their petulance, or their pride. It must, indeed, be
admitted that many of the nobility are as perfectly willing to act the
part of flatterers, tale-bearers, parasites, pimps, and buffoons, as any
of the lowest and vilest of mankind can possibly be. But they are not
properly qualified for this object of their ambition. The want of a
regular educat