In our time, politicians have the advantage of all other men in the matter of spoils.  Such was not the state of things one hundred years ago.  The politicians were as well off in those times as they are in these,—­perhaps they were bettor off, for things could then be openly done by civilians, in the way of plundering, that the men of to-day have to do as secretly as good Christians say their prayers.  There were also many lucrative offices then in existence which have since disappeared under the labors of those economical reformers of whom Edmund Burke was the first in every respect.  But in 1762 military men had “rights” which this modern world has ceased to regard as utterly as if all soldiers were Negroes.  One hundred years ago it was not an uncommon thing for a successful general to win as much gold on a victorious field as glory.  It was the sunsetting time of the age of plunder; and the sun set very brilliantly.  The solid gains of heroes were then so great that their mere statement in figures affects the reader’s mind, and perverts his judgment of their actions.  Not quite twenty years earlier, the gallant Anson made his famous cruise round the world; and when he took the Manila galleon, he found in her, besides other booty, silver of the value of a million and a half of dollars, to defend which the Spaniards fought as men generally fight for their money.  Five years before Albemarle took the Havana, Clive took, for his own share of Surajah Doulah’s personals, over a million of dollars, from the treasury of Moorshedabad.  That was the prize of Plassey.  A little later, he accepted a present in land that must have been worth over two million of dollars, as the annual income it yielded was twenty-seven thousand pounds, or about one hundred and thirty thousand dollars.  Other British proconsuls were also fortunate in India.  The same year that saw the English flag flying over so much of Cuba saw another English force, commanded by Sir William Draper, reduce the Philippine Islands, taking possession of the whole group by virtue of a capitulation.  The naval force that accompanied Draper captured the Acapulco galleon, which had a cargo of the value of three million dollars.  The English attacked Manila without the Spanish garrison’s having had any official notification of the existence of hostilities.  The town was defended by the Archbishop, who behaved with bravery, and showed considerable skill in war; but after some days’ fighting the English got into the town by storming it, and then gave it up to the rough mercies of a hardened soldiery, some of whom were Sepoys, a description of warriors of whom the English now ask us to believe all that is abominable.  Manila was most savagely treated by heathen soldiers led by Christian chiefs, a fact to be commended to the consideration of those humane Englishmen who can with difficulty breathe while reading General Butler’s arrangement for the maintenance of order in New Orleans.  The Archbishop and some of the officers got into the citadel,