Such, Sir, was the situation of affairs, and such the cause of that situation, when his Majesty came a second time to Parliament to desire the payment of those debts which the employment of its members in various offices, visible and invisible, had occasioned.  I believe that a like fate will attend every attempt at economy by detail, under similar, circumstances, and in every department.  A complex, operose office of account and control is, in itself, and even if members of Parliament had nothing to do with it, the most prodigal of all things.  The most audacious robberies or the most subtle frauds would never venture upon such a waste as an over-careful detailed guard against them will infallibly produce.  In our establishments, we frequently see an office of account of an hundred pounds a year expense, and another office of an equal expense to control that office, and the whole upon a matter that is not worth twenty shillings.

To avoid, therefore, this minute care, which produces the consequences of the most extensive neglect, and to oblige members of Parliament to attend to public cares, and not to the servile offices of domestic management, I propose, Sir, to economize by principle:  that is, I propose to put affairs into that train which experience points out as the most effectual, from the nature of things, and from the constitution of the human mind.  In all dealings, where it is possible, the principles of radical economy prescribe three things:  first, undertaking by the great; secondly, engaging with persons of skill in the subject-matter; thirdly, engaging with those who shall have an immediate and direct interest in the proper execution of the business.

To avoid frittering and crumbling down the attention by a blind, unsystematic observance of every trifle, it has ever been found the best way to do all things which are great in the total amount and minute in the component parts by a general contrast.  The principles of trade have so pervaded every species of dealing, from the highest to the lowest objects, all transactions are got so much into system, that we may, at a moment’s warning, and to a farthing value, be informed at what rate any service may be supplied.  No dealing is exempt from the possibility of fraud.  But by a contract on a matter certain you have this advantage:  you are sure to know the utmost extent of the fraud to which you are subject.  By a contract with a person in his own trade you are sure you shall not suffer by want of skill. By a short contract you are sure of making it the interest of the contractor to exert that skill for the satisfaction of his employers.

I mean to derogate nothing from the diligence or integrity of the present, or of any former board of Green Cloth.  But what skill can members of Parliament obtain in that low kind of province?  What pleasure can they have in the execution of that kind of duty?  And if they should neglect it, how does it affect their interest, when we know that it is their vote in Parliament, and not their diligence in cookery or catering, that recommends them to their office, or keeps them in it?