date

[160-430v] 1821. Nov r. 28th.
[160-430v]

1821. Nov r. 28th.

Codification Offer

'.8. Draughtsman gratuitous

Taken out the sheet about Emp. Alexander

Cause 4. On the part of this work, aptitude probably diminished, by diminution of the number of the works which there would otherwise have been to choose out of.

A man who looks upon himself as having in the common phrase interest enough to afford him a sufficient prospect of success will accept the invitation, and apply himself to the task: a man who knows he has no interest at all, or thinks he has not enough, will not apply himself to the task: the number of these last, whatever it be, is the number of those, on whom the pay puts an exclusion. To which groupe shall the greatest number be assigned? to which groupe, number for number, the greatest aptitude? The claim of the excluded groupe seems the strongest.

The case being a case of patronage, those evil effects, will have place, whatever be their amount, in whatever hands the power of patronage be lodged.

It may be lodged in that branch of Government which is purely legislative. It may even be lodged in the branch stiled the executive branch: for, by the supposition, the draught can not receive the force of law, but from the hands of the branch stiled the legislative. If in the legislative, the hands it is lodged in, will be either those of the President of the Assembly, those of a Legislation Committee, or those of the whole body of the Legislature: if in the executive branch, the hands in which the appointment, (or under the Monarch the recommendation) is lodged, may be those of a Chief Minister, those of the Minister of this particular department, those of the Assemblage of Ministers, or those of some Council of State. The choice may thus be made by appointment, or it may be made by vote: but whether it be made in the one way or in the other, still the case is a case of pay and patronage: as between the mode of choice and the other, no sensible difference will have place.

To the influence of these causes of inaptitude, so long as specially appointed reward in any shape bestowed, an encrease of the public expence has place, the nature of the case admitts not of any tolerably effectual correction. The patron or patrons at whose hands the reward is looked for, let them be, with relation to the whole body of the people, in a state of

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    On