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upon offices; to which the author oppoſes the moſt poſitive and unqualified aſſertion, that, as far as was conſiſtent with his knowledge and belief, there was not, during the whole of Mr. Pitt's adminiſtration, from 1783 to 1801, one employment diſpoſed of which the individual on whom it was beſtowed did not enjoy every ſhilling of the profits, as far as was known when the office was given, with the exception of a few caſes, where perfons in poſſeſſion of laborious offices were afluallydifabled by age, or permanent infirmities.[1] In ſuch only the officers retiring were allowed to retain a part of the incomes for the remainder of their lives, by authority publicly given. Circumſtances have, indeed, ſince occurred, which brought to his knowledge two or three inſtances where the rule laid down by Mr. Pitt had been broken, and his caution defeated. Thoſe were, however, ſuch as no poſſible care could have provided againſt at the time. There can, however,
- ↑ In one inſtance of a vacancy by death in the Weſt Indies, an officer who loſt his employment by the peace in 1783 was appointed to one infinitely more valuable, on condition of paying annuities to other loyaliſts, in order to relieve the Penſion Liſt; but this, as in the other caſes, was an arrangement officially made.
