date

[cvi. 312] 1823 Jany 24[?]
[cvi. 312]

1823 Jany 24[?]

Economy as to Office

J.B. to Ternaux Inserenda - proposed but discarded

The less a man will take with it or the more he will give for it, the greater is his relish for it and the greater his relish for it, the greater the probability of his being fit for it. If the income the functionary has, is not sufficient to enable him to make a decent appearance in it, he will have recourse to mischievous expedients, it has been said, for the augmentation of it. Likely enough and if he thinks /in his expectation/ he can escape /evade/ punishment, so he will be his income ever so enormous, and the more enormous his income, the more easily will it be for him to escape punishment. The more ample and influential will be the circle of his adherents and protectors.

To know whether in addition to the necessary pay, any over pay is attached to an office, note the pay attached to an office of the same functions among the lowest-paid that are to be seen any where: for example in another part of your own country or in any foreign country, whose Institutions have grown out of yours, such as the Anglo American United States, not that even in that seat of comparatively good economy the maximum of good economy has in any of the States been reached. To reach it, attaching or not attaching to each office an income regarded as constituting a maintenance to the functionary invested with it, put up to auction the office with its power and emolument, and knock it down to the best bidder. Bondsmen in so far as pecuniary trustworthiness, and Public Examinations in so far as appropriate intellectual aptitude are requisite for the Office are here supposed.
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