I believe it was General Jackson who first introduced the practice of a wholesale sweeping out of opponents from all situations, however small; and this bright idea has been religiously acted upon by all succeeding presidents.  The smallest clerkships, twopenny-halfpenny postmasterships in unheard-of villages—­all, all that can be dispensed with, must make way for the friends of the incomers to power.  Fancy a new premier in England making a clean sweep of nine-tenths of the clerks, &c., at the Treasury, Foreign-office, Post-office, Custom-house, Dockyards, &c., &c.  Conceive the jobbing such a system must lead to, not to mention the comparative inefficiency it must produce in the said departments, and the ridiculous labour it throws upon the dispensers of these gifts of place.  The following quotation may be taken as a sample:—­

  OUR CUSTOM-HOUSE—­WHAT A HAUL.—­The New Hampshire Patriot, in an
  article on proscription, thus refers to the merciless decapitation of
  the Democrats of our Custom-house, by Mr. Collector Maxwell:—­

“Take the New York Custom-house as a sample.  There are 626 officers there, exclusive of labourers; and it appears from the records that, since the Whigs came into power, 427 removals have been there made.  And to show the greediness of the Whig applicants for the spoils, it need only be stated that, on the very day the collector was sworn into office he made forty-two removals.  He made six before he was sworn.  In thirty days from the time of his entrance upon his duties he removed 220 persons; and, in the course of a few months, he had made such a clean sweep, that only sixty-two Democrats remained in office, with 564 Whigs!  A like sweep was made in other custom-houses; and so clean work did this ‘anti-proscription’ administration make in the offices, that a Democrat could scarcely be found in an office which a Whig could be found to take.”

This is ominous, for the 564 Whigs to be turned over to the charity of the new collector.  Alas! the Democrats are hungry—­hard shells and soft shells—­and charity begins at home.  In the course of the coming month we may anticipate a large emigration from the custom-house to California and Australia.  What a blessing to ejected office-holders that they can fall back upon the gold mines!  Such is the beautiful working of our beneficent institutions!  What a magnificent country!

As a proof of the excitement which these changes produce, I remember perfectly there being ten to one more fuss and telegraphing between Washington and New York, as to who should be collector at the latter port, than would exist between London and Paris if a revolution was in full swing at the latter.  To this absurd system may no doubt be partly attributed the frequent irregularities of their inland postage; but it is an evil which, as far as I can judge from observation and conversation, will continue till, with an increasing population and increase of business, necessity re-establishes the old and better order of things.  Political partisanship is so strong that nothing but imperative necessity can alter it.