f merit is
a negative and loose thing;--one might be led to derange the order of
families founded on the probable continuance of their kind of income; I
might hurt children; I might injure creditors;--I really think it the
more prudent course not to follow the letter of the petitions. If we fix
this mode of inquiry as a basis, we shall, I fear, end as Parliament has
often ended under similar circumstances. There will be great delay, much
confusion, much inequality in our proceedings. But what presses me most
of all is this: that, though we should strike off all the unmerited
pensions, while the power of the crown remains unlimited, the very same
undeserving persons might afterwards return to the very same list; or,
if they did not, other persons, meriting as little as they do, might be
put upon it to an undefinable amount. This, I think, is the pinch of the
grievance.

For these reasons, Sir, I am obliged to waive this mode of proceeding as
any part of my plan. In a plan of reformation, it would be one of my
maxims, that, when I know of an establishment which may be subservient
to useful purposes, and which at the same time, from its discretionary
nature, is liable to a very great perversion from those purposes, _I
would limit the quantity of the power that might be so abused_. For I am
sure that in all such cases the rewards of merit will have very narrow
bounds, and that partial or corrupt favor will be infinite. This
principle is not arbitrary, but the limitation of the specific quantity
must be so in some measure. I therefore state 60,000_l._, leaving it
open to the House to enlarge or contract the sum as they shall see, on
examination, that the discretion I use is scanty or liberal. The whole
amount of the pensions of all denominations which have been laid before
us amount, for a period of seven years, to considerably more than
100,000_l._ a year. To what the other lists amount I know not. That
will be seen hereafter. But from those that do appear, a saving will
accrue to the public, at one time or other, of 40,000_l._ a year; and
we had better, in my opinion, to let it fall in naturally than to tear
it crude and unripe from the stalk.[40]

There is a great deal of uneasiness among the people upon an article
which I must class under the head of pensions: I mean the _great patent
offices in the Exchequer_. They are in reality and substance no other
than pensions, and in no other light shall I consider them. They ar