234

HISTOKY OF ENGLAND.

CIIAP.

XVIII.

I GDI.

were falling: trade was languishing: every man who lived- either on what his ancestors had left him or on the fruits of hisown industry was forced to retrench. The placeman alonethrove amidst the general distress. “Look,” cried the in-censed squires, “ at the Comptroller of the Customs. Ten yearsago, he walked, and we rode. Our incomes have been cur-tailed: his salary has been doubled: we have sold our horses:he has bought them; and now we go on foot, and are splashedby his coach and six.” Lowther vainly endeavoured to standup against the storm. He was heard with little favour by thecountry gentlemen who had not long before looked up to him asone of their leaders. He had left them: he had become a cour-tier: he had two good places, one in the Treasury, the other inthe household. He had recently received from the King’s ownhand a gratuity of two thousand guineas.* It seemed perfectlynatural that he should defend abuses by which he profited. Thetaunts and reproaches with which he was assailed were insup-portable to his sensitive nature. He lost his head-, almostfainted away on the floor of the House, and talked about right-ing himself in another place.** Unfortunately no member roseat this conjuncture to propose that the civil establishments ofthe kingdom should be carefully revised, that sinecures shouldbe abolished, that exorbitant official incomes should be re-duced, and that no servant of the State should be allowed toexact, under any pretence, any thing beyond his known and

* This appears from a letter written by Lowther, after he becameLord Lonsdale, to his son. A copy of this letter is among the Mackin-tosh MSS.

** See Commons’ Journals, Dec. 3. 1691; and Grey’s Debates. It is tobe regretted that the Report of the Commissioners of Accounts has not beenpreserved. Lowther, in his letter to his son, alludes to the badgering ofthis day with great bitterness. “What man,” he asks, “that hath broadto eat, can endure, after having served with all the diligence and applica-tion mankind is capable of, and after having given-satisfaction to the Kingfrom whom all officers of State derive their authoritie, after acting rightlyby all men, to be hated by men who do it to all people in authoritie?”