faithful and satisfactory performance should be
reported there previous to any payment; that there, and there only,
should the payment be made. I propose that men should be contracted with
only in their proper trade; and that no member of Parliament should be
capable of such contract. By this plan, almost all the infinite offices
under the lord steward may be spared,--to the extreme simplification,
and to the far better execution, of every one of his functions. The king
of Prussia is so served. He is a great and eminent (though, indeed, a
very rare) instance of the possibility of uniting, in a mind of vigor
and compass, an attention to minute objects with the largest views and
the most complicated plans. His tables are served by contract, and by
the head. Let me say, that no prince can be ashamed to imitate the king
of Prussia, and particularly to learn in his school, when the problem
is, "The best manner of reconciling the state of a court with the
support of war." Other courts, I understand, have followed his with
effect, and to their satisfaction.

The same clew of principle leads us through the labyrinth of the other
departments. What, Sir, is there in the office of _the great wardrobe_
(which has the care of the king's furniture) that may not be executed by
the lord chamberlain himself? He has an honorable appointment; he has
time sufficient to attend to the duty; and he has the vice-chamberlain
to assist him. Why should not he deal also by contract for all things
belonging to this office, and carry his estimates first, and his report
of the execution in its proper time, for payment, directly to the Board
of Treasury itself? By a simple operation, (containing in it a treble
control,) the expenses of a department which for naked walls, or walls
hung with cobwebs, has in a few years cost the crown 150,000_l._, may
at length hope for regulation. But, Sir, the office and its business are
at variance. As it stands, it serves, not to furnish the palace with its
hangings, but the Parliament with its dependent members.

To what end, Sir, does the office of _removing wardrobe_ serve at all?
Why should a _jewel office_ exist for the sole purpose of taxing the
king's gifts of plate? Its object falls naturally within the
chamberlain's province, and ought to be under his care and inspection
without any fee. Why should an office of the _robes_ exist, when that
of _groom, of the stole_ is a sinecure, and that this is a proper obj