( 25 )
My proposal (or, if you will, my Nostrum) is this: Let the king, than whom never better prince ruled over a free people, have a royal allowance; and out of that let him not have one farthing to pay but what he pays to his menial servants: but let all the other servants of the crown, who ought more properly to be called the servants of the public, be paid by the public; but let none of their salaries, not even that of the first lord of the treasury, exceed one thousand pounds per annum, and let all the others be reduced in proportion: your own, Sir, then will very probably be brought down to one or two hundred. And if the settled salaries ought thus to be reduced, the perquisites ought, of consequence, to be entirely abolished. Perquisites! why really, Sir, this is a word of a very suspicious meaning: a plain homespun man, I’m afraid, would give it a much coarser name; perhaps no gentler a one than that of p—c—l—t—n. Suppose your servant should contrive to ex-
