STATE OP ENGLAND IN 1685 -

every clerk in every department imitated, to the best of hispower, the evil example.

During the last century no prime minister, however power-ful, has become rich in office; and several prime ministershave impaired their private fortune in sustaining their publiccharacter. In the seventeenth century, a statesman who wasat the head of affairs might easily, and without giving scandal,accumulate in no long time an estate amply sufficient to sup-port a dukedom. It is probable that the income of the primeminister, during his tenure of power, far exceeded that ofany other subject. The place of Lord Lieutenant of Irelandwas supposed to be worth forty thousand pounds a year.*The gains of the Chancellor Clarendon, of Arlington, ofLauderdale, andofDanby, were enormous. The sumptuouspalace to which the populace of London gave the name ofDunkirk House, the stately pavilions, the fish-ponds, the deerpark and the orangery of Euston, the more than Italian luxuryof Ham, with its busts, fountains, and aviaries, were amongthe many signs which indicated what was the shortest road toboundless wealth. This is the true explanation of the un-scrupulous violence with which the statesmen of that daystruggled for office, of the tenacity with which, in spite ofvexations, humiliations and dangers, they clung to it, and ofthe scandalous compliances to which they stooped in order toretain it. Even in our own age, formidable as is the power ofopinion, and high as is the standard of integrity, there wouldbe great risk of a lamentable change in the character of ourpublic men, if the place of First Lord of the Treasury or Se-cretary of State were worth a hundred thousand pounds ayear. Happily for our country the emoluments of the highestclass of functionaries have not only not grown in proportionto the general growth of our opulence, but have positivelydiminished.

* See the Travels of the Grand Duke Cosmo.

Macaulay, History. 1. 20