29 Jan y 1808

Appeals

that when to the delay produced without any arrear came to be added the delay produced by an arrear /and that a quantity/, destined to unlimited increase, every thing which before was as it should be became /was destined to become/ better and better still ad infinitum; and the fund of reward waiting to be poured into the lap of official merit had no longer any bounds.

Under these circumstances, the thing desireable in the first place was /before all things was/that on this ground nothing should be done: but surprising this situation of undisturbed reform untenable, then came the next point of policy, that whatsoever came to be done under the notion of reducing the delay should be as much as possible in demonstration, as little as possible in effect.

Hereupon came the plan devised by Your Lordship learned reformer: a plan of which /[...?]//on the subject of which/, considering the consideration of the state of elegance[?] in which it lies for the present, renders it happily unnecessary for me to expatiate /to particular at present/.

But from what I have had occasion already, your Lordship can not but perceive /understand/, that in my humble view of the matter, it was on the ground here in question not merely an exemplification of the sort of doing nothing, but a very considerable improvement on that agreable and useful art.