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amounts to about 400,000l.[1] And this augmentation of revenue is accompanied by a material deprivation of influence, as above alluded to, which the miniſter formerly derived from the power he exerciſed over the property of the Sovereign. To what an extent that might be available to him, fome judgment may be formed by obſerving, that of the perſons holding Crown leaſes when the act was paſſed, upwards of eighty were members of one or the other Houſe of Parliament; and it is hardly neceſſary to add that, in the caſes of other leſſees, the parties, who might have the means of doing ſo, would naturally reſort to ſolicitations of friends for obtaining the miniſter's favor. The profit from this arrangement is already, as ſtated above, annually 59,611l.
There remains ſtill one other head of expence and influence, that has been retrained within the period on which we have been obſerving: we allude to the Home Secret Service, limited now to
- ↑ See Report of the Surveyor General of Crown Lands, dated the 1ſt of Dec. 1797. Printed copy in the Houſe of Lprds, p. 20.
