Having thus, Sir, not so much absolutely rejected as postponed the plan of a taxation of office, my next business was to find something which might be really substantial and effectual.  I am quite clear, that, if we do not go to the very origin and first ruling cause of grievances, we do nothing.  What does it signify to turn abuses out of one door, if we are to let them in at another?  What does it signify to promote economy upon a measure, and to suffer it to be subverted in the principle?  Our ministers are far from being wholly to blame for the present ill order which prevails.  Whilst institutions directly repugnant to good management are suffered to remain, no effectual or lasting reform can be introduced.

I therefore thought it necessary, as soon as I conceived thoughts of submitting to you some plan of reform, to take a comprehensive view of the state of this country,—­to make a sort of survey of its jurisdictions, its estates, and its establishments.  Something in every one of them seemed to me to stand in the way of all economy in their administration, and prevented every possibility of methodizing the system.  But being, as I ought to be, doubtful of myself, I was resolved not to proceed in an arbitrary manner in any particular which tended to change the settled state of things, or in any degree to affect the fortune or situation, the interest or the importance, of any individual.  By an arbitrary proceeding I mean one conducted by the private opinions, tastes, or feelings of the man who attempts to regulate.  These private measures are not standards of the exchequer, nor balances of the sanctuary.  General principles cannot be debauched or corrupted by interest or caprice; and by those principles I was resolved to work.

Sir, before I proceed further, I will lay these principles fairly before you, that afterwards you may be in a condition to judge whether every object of regulation, as I propose it, comes fairly under its rule.  This will exceedingly shorten all discussion between us, if we are perfectly in earnest in establishing a system of good management.  I therefore lay down to myself seven fundamental rules:  they might, indeed, be reduced to two or three simple maxims; but they would be too general, and their application to the several heads of the business before us would not be so distinct and visible.  I conceive, then,

First, That all jurisdictions which furnish more matter of expense, more temptation to oppression, or more means and instruments of corrupt influence, than advantage to justice or political administration, ought to be abolished.

Secondly, That all public estates which are more subservient to the purposes of vexing, overawing, and influencing those who hold under them, and to the expense of perception and management, than of benefit to the revenue, ought, upon every principle both of revenue and of freedom, to be disposed of.