rtain great offices.
The change, however, was apparently of importance as removing the
chief apology for sinecures, and the system with modifications still
remains. The marquis of Camden, one of the tellers of the Exchequer,
voluntarily resigned the fees and accepted only the regular salary of
L2500. His action is commended in the _Black Book_,[64] which
expresses a regret that the example had not been followed by other
great sinecurists. Public opinion was beginning to be felt. During the
subsequent period the cry against sinecures became more emphatic. The
_Black Book_, published originally in 1820 and 1823, and afterwards
reissued, gave a list, so far as it could be ascertained, of all
pensions, and supplied a mass of information for Radical orators. The
amount of pensions is stated at over L1,000,000, including sinecure
offices with over L350,000 annually;[65] and the list of offices
(probably very inaccurate in detail) gives a singular impression of
the strange ramifications of the system. Besides the direct pensions,
every new department of administration seems to have suggested the
foundation of offices which tended to become sinecures. The cry for
'retrenchment' was joined to the cry for reform.[66] Joseph Hume, who
first entered parliament in 1818, became a representative of the
Utilitarian Radicalism, and began a long career of minute criticism
which won for him the reputation of a stupendous bore, but helped to
keep a steady pressure upon ministers.[67] Sir James Graham
(1792-1861) was at this time of Radical tendencies, and first made
himself conspicuous by demanding returns of pensions.[68] The
settlements of the civil lists of George IV., William IV., and
Victoria, gave opportunities for imposing new restrictions upon the
pension system. Although no single sweeping measure was passed, the
whole position was changed. By the time of the Reform Bill, a sinecure
had become an anachronism. The presumption was that whenever an
opportunity offered, it would be suppressed. Some of the sinecure
offices in the Court of Chancery, the 'Keeper of the Hanaper,' the
'Chaffwax,' and so forth, were abolished by an act passed by the
parliament which had just carried the Reform Bill.[69] In 1833 a
reform of the system of naval administration by Sir James Graham got
rid of some cumbrous machinery; and Graham again was intrusted in 1834
with an act under which the Court of Exchequer was finally reformed,
and the 'Clerk of the