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its ſervants:- it is the advantage, and ought to be the condition, of a fair, open, and liberal reward for public ſervice, through all its gradations, to ſuperſede every other ſource of remuneration. The firſt is an encouragement to honeſt and honorable merit in the performance of that ſervice with zeal and fidelity; the laſt has an evident tendency to taint the purity of office, and to turn into other channels than thoſe of the public intereſt the exertions of its officers. Nor is it poſſible for any ſervant of the public to impoſe too ſtrict a guard upon himſelf againſt deriving the ſmalleſt advantage from his ſituation by any indirect means whatever.
It has been ſhewn how far there is a ground for the call for further retrenchments, and the extent to which the utmoſt poſſible ſtretch of theſe would lighten the burthens of the people. It is, in truth,, one of thoſe clamours where loudneſs is ſubſtituted for force, but of which the found is much more powerful than the juſtice. The retrenchments which have been ſuggeſted on more ſober grounds, though occaſionally by perſons not the moſt converſant either with the reſources or the neceſſary expenditure of the ſtate, have been of two kinds; either of mere
