to improve this branch of local influence,
and to transfer it to the fund of general corruption. I have on the seat
behind me the constitution of Mr. John Probert, a knight-errant dubbed
by the noble lord in the blue ribbon, and sent to search for revenues
and adventures upon the mountains of Wales. The commission is
remarkable, and the event not less so. The commission sets forth, that,
"upon a report of the _deputy-auditor_" (for there is a deputy-auditor)
"of the Principality of Wales, it appeared that his Majesty's land
revenues in the said principality _are greatly diminished_";--and "that
upon a _report_ of the _surveyor-general_ of his Majesty's land
revenues, upon a _memorial_ of the auditor of his Majesty's revenues,
_within the said principality_, that his mines and forests have produced
very _little profit either to the public revenue or to
individuals_";--and therefore they appoint Mr. Probert, with a pension
of three hundred pounds a year from the said principality, to try
whether he can make anything more of that very _little_ which is stated
to be so _greatly_ diminished. "_A beggarly account of empty boxes_."
And yet, Sir, you will remark, that this diminution from littleness
(which serves only to prove the infinite divisibility of matter) was not
for want of the tender and officious care (as we see) of surveyors
general and surveyors particular, of auditors and deputy-auditors,--not
for want of memorials, and remonstrances, and reports, and commissions,
and constitutions, and inquisitions, and pensions.

Probert, thus armed, and accoutred,--and paid,--proceeded on his
adventure; but he was no sooner arrived on the confines of Wales than
all Wales was in arms to meet him. That nation is brave and full of
spirit. Since the invasion of King Edward, and the massacre of the
bards, there never was such a tumult and alarm and uproar through the
region of Prestatyn. Snowdon shook to its base; Cader-Idris was loosened
from its foundations. The fury of litigious war blew her horn on the
mountains. The rocks poured down their goatherds, and the deep caverns
vomited out their miners. Everything above ground and everything under
ground was in arms.

In short, Sir, to alight from my Welsh Pegasus, and to come to level
ground, the _Preux Chevalier_ Probert went to look for revenue, like his
masters upon other occasions, and, like his masters, he found rebellion.
But we were grown cautious by experience. A civil war o