[xxxvi. 29]

1821. April 25.

First Lines

Constitutional Finance.

Gratification to Monarch's pride.

Master of the Horse knows nothing about Horses but employs those who do.

As to the remainder of the most noble servant's salary, the good economy with which it is employed is not manifests itself in a different shape.

Of the appetite to which, in the case of the Monarch, gratification is sought to be afforded, one, nor that the least voracious, is - that appetite for /or/ desire of esteem, respect, love, or at least the exterior evidences, true or false, of the existence of those inward sentiments - those accompaniments and securities for general obsequiousness - that desire which, notwithstanding the complicatedness of its object, is in one word commonly designated by the appellation of pride. Proportioned to the depth to which the humiliation of the individual at whose expense this gratification is afforded descends, is the intensity of the humiliation. But, proportioned to the antecedent elevation of this individual in the scale of dignity, natural or factitious or both together is the relative depth of the humiliation to which, on any given occasion, for any particular purpose, he is capable of lowering himself. By the holding the bridle of a favourite horse while the Royal Master is in the act of munting - by this or any other act done /performed/ in the execution of his office, the utmost length of the descent capable of being made by the man the magnitude of whose salary was determined by no higher mark of value than that which corresponded to the skill possessed and exercised by him in the field of this particular office and profession, would /could/ not at the utmost be any greater than that which corresponds to the difference between the salary /pay/ of this official functionary and the pay of an ordinary groom: say a quantity of a pay equal to ten times the amount of the pay of the groom, and the quantity of pay exactly equal to the amount of that lowest pay. But the amount of the salary /pay/ which, in consideration of the exalted station occupied by the titled and most noble though unskilled attendant upon horses, is ten times the amount of the salary /pay/ which it would be convenient and advisable to give /good management /economy/ would require to be given/ to the untitled but well-skilled functionary, and thereby a hundred times the amount of that which good economy would require to be given to the untitled and unskilled attendant.