d, was not confined to the superior orders of the state; it had
insinuated itself into every section of the community. Scarcely a
family in all England was so hidden or lost in the obscure recesses of
society, which did not feel that it had something' to hope or to fear
from the favour or displeasure of the crown. Government, he argued,
should have force adequate to its functions, but no more; for if it had
enough to support itself in abusing or neglecting them, they must ever
be abused or neglected. Men would rely on power for a justification of
their want of order, vigilance, foresight, and every other virtue or
qualification of statesmen. The minister then might exist, he said, but
the government was gone. He continued:--"It is thus that you see the
same men, in the same power, sitting undisturbed before you, although
thirteen colonies are lost--thus the marine of France and Spain
has grown and prospered under their eye, and been fostered by their
neglect--thus all hope of alliance in Europe is abandoned--thus three
of our West India islands have been torn from us in one summer, while
Jamaica, the most important of all, has been neglected, and every
inquiry into that neglect stifled--thus Ireland has been brought into
a state of distraction which no one dares to discuss." The disease of
government, Burke remarked, was a repletion; the over-feeding of the
stomach had destroyed the vigour of the limbs. He continued, that he had
long ascertained the nature of the disorder, and its proper remedy; but
as he was not naturally an economist, and was averse to experiment, he
had not made hitherto any attempt to apply that remedy. Now, however, he
was assisted by the temper of the times, and though he would not at that
time disclose all the particulars of his plan, he would, nevertheless,
state its end, objects, and limits. He proposed a regulation which would
give L200,000 per annum to the public service, and annihilate a portion
of influence equal to the places of fifty members of parliament, which
would effectually remove the sources of corruption. This was the end
and objects of his resolution. As regarded its limits, nothing, he said,
which was held by any individual under a legal tenure would be invaded.
Equity and mercy would be remembered in those cases where innocent
persons had been decoyed into particular situations through the
prodigality of parliament: the alterations would chiefly affect those
who held offices from