MEMOIR

RELATIVE TO HIS INCOME,

BY HORACE WALPOLE

In my youth, my father, Sir Robert Walpole, then Prime Minister, gave me the two patent little places I still hold, of Clerk of the Estreats and Controller of the Pipe, which, together, produce about or near 300l. per annum. When I was about eighteen or nineteen, he gave me the place of Inspector of the Imports and Exports in the Custom-house, which I resigned in about a year, on his giving me the patent-place of Usher of the Exchequer, then reckoned worth 9007. a-year. From that time I lived on my own income, and travelled at my own expense, nor did I during my father's life receive from him but 250l. at different times; which I say, not in derogation of his extreme tenderness and goodness to me, but to show that I was content with what he had given to me, and that from the age of twenty I was no charge to my family.

Before my father's quitting his post, he, at the instance of my eldest brother, Lord Walpole, had altered the delivery of Exchequer bills from ten pounds to a hundred pounds. My deputy, after that alteration was made, observed, that as Usher of the Exchequer, who furnishes the materials of Exchequer bills, on which, by the table of rates in the Exchequer, I had a stated profit, I should lose ten per cent., which he represented to my father, who, having altered them to oblige my brother, would not undo what he had done: but, to repair the prejudice I had suffered, Sir Robert, with his wonted equity and tenderness, determined to give me 2000l. in lieu of what I lost, and would have added that legacy in a codicil to his will; but this happening only two days before his death, when he was little capable of making that codicil, my brother, Lord Walpole, engaged, at my father's desire, to pay me 400l. a-year, which not long after, my brother redeemed for the intended 20002.

King George the First had graciously bestowed on my father the patent-place of Collector of the Customs, for his own life, and for the lives of his two elder sons Robert and Edward; but my father reserved in himself a right of disposing of the income of that place as he should please, during the existence of the grant. Accordingly,.

having afterwards obtained for his eldest son Robert the great place of Auditor of the Exchequer, and for his second son Edward that of Clerk of the Pells, he bequeathed, by an instrument under his hand, 1000. a-year to me, out of the patent, for the remainder of the term, and devised the remainder, about 8007. a-year, to be divided between my brother Edward and me.

Having provided thus largely for my brother Edward and me, and leaving nothing but an estate in land, of nominally 8000l. a-year, and a debt of between forty and fifty thousand pounds, he gave to my brother Edward and me only 5000l. a-piece; of which I have never received but 10007., and none of the interest. He also gave to my brother Edward a freehold house in Pall Mall, and to me the remainder of a house in Arlington-street; which went away from me in 1781, the term being expired.

Though my portion was much inferior to my brother's, still it was a noble fortune for a third son, and much beyond what I expected or deserved. Yet, undoubtedly, so excellent a parent would not have made so slender a provision as 5000l. for a son he loved, if he had not had the opportunity and the legal right of giving me a much ampler fortune of what he had obtained by his long and faithful and very essential services to the Kings George the First and Second.

I presume boldly to say that my father had a legal right of making the provision for me he did in the places I hold. Patent-places for life have existed from time immemorial, by law, and under all changes of Government. He who holds an ancient patent-place enjoys it as much by law as any gentleman holds his estate, and by more ancient tenure than most gentlemen hold theirs, and from the same fountain, only of ancienter date, than many of the nobility and gentry hold their estates, who possess them only by grants from the Crown, as I possess my places; which were not wrung from the Church, and in violation of the intention of the donors, as a vast number of estates were: nor can I think myself as a patent-placeman a more useless or a less legal engrosser of part of the wealth of the nation than deans and prebendaries, who fatten on Christianity like any less holy incumbent of a fee. While there are distinctions of ranks, and unequal divisions of property, not acquired by personal merit, but by birth or favours, some will be more fortunate than others. The poor are most entitled to complain; but an archdeacon, or a country gentleman, has very little grace in complaining that any other unprofitable class is indulged by the laws in the enjoyment of more than an equal share of property with the meanest labourer or lowest mechanic.

Having said this with the confidence that does not misbecome a legal possessor, I am far from pretehding to any other plea, much less to any merit in myself. A tender parent lavished riches on me greatly beyond my desert, of which I am so little conscious in myself, that, if the distresses of the public require a revocation of gifts bestowed by the Crown in its splendour, I know no man who can

plead fewer services to his country, or less merit in himself than I can. In one light only I can wipe off an aspersion, in which patentplacemen have been confounded with other placemen. No man who holds a place for life is dependent on the Crown, farther than his duty or his gratitude binds him. I, perhaps, by the nature of my office, which I shall explain hereafter, am more dependent than almost any patent-holder; and yet I may presume to say that, having suffered by that dependence, because I would not violate my principles and conscience, I cannot be deemed a servile placeman.

Endowed so bountifully by a fond parent, as I have allowed myself to be, it would be ridiculous to say that I have been content. Yet, not having unfolded some peculiarities in my situation, I may venture to say that I have shown that I could be content with a considerable diminution. I have never made any merit of that moderation; but when I am held out to the public as one whom the public are called upon to reduce to an humbler lot, which I am ready to admit, if it be but allowed that all my guilt consists in holding what somebody else would have held if I did not, it may be permitted to me to prove, that while I assume no claim of merit, I have declined every offered opportunity of enlarging or securing my fortune, because I would not be bound to serve any Minister contrary to my principles, and because I choose to have no obligations but to one to whom I owed every thing, and to whom it was my duty, and whom it would be my pride, to obey, if he were on earth to exact that obedience.

I have said that my father left me much the larger share in the income of the patent-place in the Custom-house. I have also mentioned that the patent was granted to my father during the lives of him and his two elder sons,-on his death there remained the lives, of my two brothers-and that my share would consequently cease entirely if I survived them. The health of my eldest brother declining, and my brother Edward being eleven years older than me, two or three of my best friends urged me to ask to have my life added to the patent. I refused, but I own I was at last over-persuaded to make application to Mr. Phelham-how unwillingly will appear by my behaviour on that occasion, which did not last two minutes. I went to him and made my request. He replied civilly, he could not ask the King to add my life to the patent; but, if I could get my brother Edward to let my life stand in lieu of his, he would endeavour to serve me. I answered quickly, "Sir, I will never ask my brother to stand in a precarious light instead of me;" and, hurrying out of his house, returned to two of my friends who waited for me, and said to them, "I have done what you desired me to do, but, thank God, I have been refused." This was in the year 1751, and was the first and last favour I ever asked of any Minister for myself.

* My conduct, while I sat in Parliament, is most probably forgotten; but no man can recollect that it looked like servility to Ministers. It is needless to obviate what never was objected to me.

Had I been an ambitious or an interested man, I certainly have had eminent opportunities of indulging either passion. At the begining of the present reign, an overture presented itself to me, which a more selfish man would have thought flattering to his views.

I may be allowed to say that I have waived more substantial and real offers. Twice I have been offered what I was over-persuaded to ask of Mr. Pelham. Twice I have been offered to have my share of the patent, which I now hold only during my brother's life, conferred on me for my own. Both times I positively refused to accept that offer. Having rejected a certainty of 1400l. per annum for own life instead of holding it during the life of one eleven years older, I hope I shall not be thought a very interested man.

I will now explain the nature of my office of Usher of the Exchequer, stated by the Commissioners of Accounts to render to me clear 42007. a-year, and which I said was given to me as producing but 9001. -ayear, and which, on an additional tax being laid on places, I gave in as producing 18004. a-year, and which, had it been adverted to, would make me seem to have given in a very fraudulent estimate; but I am so conscious of my innocence and integrity in that respect, that I choose -perhaps out of vanity-to recollect that circumstance myself, as it certainly reflects no dishonour on me. When I was called on to give in the value of my place, I took my book of accounts and receipts for the last twelve years, and gave in the medium of those twelve years, which was 1800l. a-year. As mine has been an increasing place by three wars and other circumstances, and as for the first years of my holding that place, it was much less, the medium sum would have been less than 1800l. a-year, if I had taken my receipts farther back than twelve years; so that I plainly exaggerated, instead of diminishing, what I had received annually from my first nomination to the office. If I have enjoyed too much, as I confess I have, at least I have not sought to increase my income by any indirect or dirty methods.

The duty of my office is to shut the gates of the Exchequer, and to furnish paper, pens, ink, wax, sand, tape, penknives, scissors, parchment, and a great variety of other articles, to the Exchequer, Treasury, and their offices, and to pay the bills of the workmen and tradesmen who serve those offices. Many of the articles specified are stated in a very ancient table of rates in the Exchequer (I think of the time of Edward the Third, so that my office, is, if a grievance, no very novel one ;) and, on those, large profits are allowed to the Usher, whence my profit arises, and whence, if it is largely augmented of late years, a candid examiner will observe that that increase proceeds from the prodigious additional consumption of paper, pens, ink, wax, which the excessive increase of business at the Treasury must occasion; and, therefore, should a much less quantity of those implements be employed, my profits would decrease in proportion. When, therefore, I am charged as receiver of 42001. a-year, it should be remembered, that though I was so in the year 1780, (though

I shall show that even that is an arbitrary statement, not calculated on any medium,) yet I cannot equitably be reckoned ammunibus annis to receive so large a sum. I have shown that 18007. a-year was the medium on twelve years, and those not of my last receipts.

It is very difficult to state my case, and not seem to defend it. But I am telling the truth, and not pleading for favour; at least, my object is to attain a favourable opinion of my character. I am far more indifferent about my fortune. But surely any impartial man will reflect how grievous it must be to a disinterested mind to be held up to the public as a blood-sucker, under the invidious name of a placeman; to be one of those pointed at by County Associations as grievances that call for speedy correction and removal; in short, to be confounded with contractors and other leeches, that have grown out of the profusions and abuses of the time; though my office has existed from the oldest times, and has existed under the best Government. Public distress demands economy and correction. Be they exercised; I desire no exception. But being guilty of no servile, of no indirect means in obtaining, augmenting, or retaining my office, I am ready to resign that office; but I will prove (and defy all mankind to detect me in a single falsehood) that I have held my place with honour, and have nothing to palliate or conceal in my execution of it.

The place is held under many disagreeable circumstances. vance money to the tradesmen and workmen. I contract to pay the principal merchant with whom I deal for paper, though I should never be repaid. There is no specific time appointed for my being paid; it depends on the good pleasure of the First Lord of the Treasury; and yet, though a mere tradesman in that respect, I believe no man will accuse me of having ever paid court, or even attendance, on a First Lord of the Treasury. I was once, forty years ago, at the late Duke of Newcastle's levée, the only Minister's levée at which I ever was present except my own father's. Yet with very few have I had cause not to be content in my own particular: if I have been proud, they have been just.* Yet some of my predecessors have met with harder fates. Mr. Naylor, my immediate predecessor but one, lost 20,000l. by the death of Queen Anne.

Risks by prudent men are calculated as drawbacks; but where advantage preponderates, even the terrors of calculation are surmounted. More prudent men than I am would have combated those risks, by making the most of their advantages. I have ever disdained that pitiful arithmetic. All the goods I furnish have always been purchased by me at the highest prices; and never came a complaint from the Treasury that was not instantly remedied by my order. In

* From Lord North I always received regular justice and civility, though I never paid any court to him, nor disguised my disinclination to his measures. This compliment, which now cannot be misinterpreted, is due to him, and is an unsuspicious evidence of his good-humour and averseness from all malignity. When I am grateful to the living for civilities, I scorn to recollect the rancour of the dead.