[036-172v]

1821. Nov r. 9th.

Codification Offer

Abridgm t.

' 9. Draughtsman gratuitous

'.1. Gratuitous what.

Reward factitious - what

Abstractedly considered, reward in this shape may seem capable of being ranked under the denomination of factitious reward: but, considered in its application to the sort of service here in question, presenting itself without need of promise, as it will naturally be apt to do to all eyes, - it may on this account be referred to the head of natural reward. Unexpensive, if not strictly speaking gratuitous, may the service be stiled, at any rate: because, from remuneration given in this shape no additional expence to government, no additional burthen to the people, is the result.

As in Spain and Portugal, so in every other country in which the business of legislation is in the hands of a body of Representatives chosen by the people, that part of the business, which consists in the preparation of any such body of proposed law for the consideration of the whole Assembly, will be in the hands of a select few, under the name of a Commission or Committee. In any such hands, attaching to the exercise of this function, any specially appointed factitious reward, in the shape of pay, or in any other shape, is as far from being customary, and thence from being probable, as it is from being eligible.

But it has been shewn that in hands so situated, the business, of preparing a proposed Code in the first instance for the consideration of the whole body, could not, although in appearance ever so gratuitously performed, be lodged without the most serious inconvenience.

The hands so situated being supposed rejected, hence the necessity of looking out for others. To these extraneous hands, factitious reward, in some shape or other, at the expence of the public, will either be given, or not. If it be given, the case is a case of patronage; and the number of those by whom it shall be capable of being received, must of course be limited: if it be not given, reward being in the natural shape offered to view, but in no other, the number of those to whose eyes the prospect of it is opened, and whose service in the shape in question may be obtained, is naturally unlimited: and in this case patronage bas no place.

On