of expense
there is always a mixture of constitutional considerations.

It is, Sir, because I wish to keep this business of subordinate
treasuries as much as I can together, that I brought the _ordnance
office_ before you, though it is properly a military department. For the
same reason I will now trouble you with my thoughts and propositions
upon two of the greatest _under-treasuries_: I mean the office of
_paymaster of the land forces_, or _treasurer of the army_, and that of
the _treasurer of the navy_. The former of these has long been a great
object of public suspicion and uneasiness. Envy, too, has had its share
in the obloquy which is cast upon this office. But I am sure that it has
no share at all in the reflections I shall make upon it, or in the
reformations that I shall propose. I do not grudge to the honorable
gentleman who at present holds the office any of the effects of his
talents, his merit, or his fortune. He is respectable in all these
particulars. I follow the constitution of the office without persecuting
its holder. It is necessary in all matters of public complaint, where
men frequently feel right and argue wrong, to separate prejudice from
reason, and to be very sure, in attempting the redress of a grievance,
that we hit upon its real seat and its true nature. Where there is an
abuse in office, the first thing that occurs in heat is to censure the
officer. Our natural disposition leads all our inquiries rather to
persons than to things. But this prejudice is to be corrected by maturer
thinking.

Sir, the profits of the _pay office_ (as an office) are not too great,
in my opinion, for its duties, and for the rank of the person who has
generally held it. He has been generally a person of the highest
rank,--that is to say, a person of eminence and consideration in this
House. The great and the invidious profits of the pay office are from
the _bank_ that is held in it. According to the present course of the
office, and according to the present mode of accounting there, this bank
must necessarily exist somewhere. Money is a productive thing; and when
the usual time of its demand can be tolerably calculated, it may with
prudence be safely laid out to the profit of the holder. It is on this
calculation that the business of banking proceeds. But no profit can be
derived from the use of money which does not make it the interest of the
holder to delay his account. The process of the Exchequer colludes wi