s
will give the reader some notion of the nature and extent of the evil,
and of the efforts of Peel to reduce it:--

'How is it possible,' he wrote, 'to propose that a shilling should be
granted to a general officer on the staff in Ireland when sixpence is
granted in England? This is called a modification in official phrase,
but it ought to be called doubling the allowance. Set your face
steadily against all increase of salary, all extra allowances, all
plausible claims for additional emolument. Economy must be the order
of the day--rigid economy.'[19] 'When English members hear that the
sheriff appoints the grand jury, that the grand jury tax the county,
that the sheriff has a considerable influence at elections, and that
the sheriff is appointed openly on the recommendation of the member
supporting the Government, they are startled not a little.... I know
that this is a most convenient patronage to the Government, but I know
also that I cannot hint in the House of Commons at such a source of
patronage, and I confess I have great doubts on the legitimacy of
it.... After Lord Redesdale's declaration ... that the mode of
appointing sheriffs "poisons the sources of justice," and witnessing
the general feeling among the English against making the nomination of
a most important officer in the execution of justice dependent on the
will of the county member, I thought it highly expedient to give a
positive assurance that the Government would revert to the ancient
and legal practice of appointing sheriffs in Ireland.... With a pure
Bench--and time will, I hope, purify it--the change would be an
essential change for the better.'[20] 'Foster says that the abuses
discovered in the office [of Clerk of the Pleas] are enormous, that
the amount of fees exacted from suitors is not less than 30,000_l._
per annum, of which the principal clerk did not receive more than
one-third. A Mr. Pollock, the first deputy, is in receipt of 8,000_l._
or 9,000_l._ a year as his own share of the profits; other deputies
and persons unnecessarily employed have profits amounting to 1,200_l._
or 1,400_l._ a year each. Foster thinks that every possible difficulty
will be thrown in the way of an early decision in the Irish Courts....
In the meantime, the Chief Baron is receiving the enormous profits
arising from these enormous abuses.'[21]

The practice of buying and selling public offices, and the practice of
dividing the salaries of a single office betw