Page:Letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania - Dickinson - 1768.djvu/58

[&emsp;52&emsp;] in that kingdom, to address his Majesty on the great increase of pensions on the Irish establishment, amounting to the sum of 158,685 l.in the last two years.

have been made to gloss over these gross encroachments, by this specious argument“That expending a competent part of the in pensions, from a principle of charity or generosity, adds to the dignity of the crown; and is therefore useful to the .” To give this argument any weight, it must appear, that the pensions proceed from “charity or generosity only”and that it “adds to the dignity of the crown,” to act directly contrary to law.

this conduct towards Ireland, in open violation of law, we may easily foresee what we may expect, when a minister will have the whole revenue of America in his own hands, to be disposed of at his own pleasure: For all the monies raised by the late act are to be “applied by virtue of warrants under the sign manual, countersigned by the high treasurer, or any three of the commissioners of the treasury.” The “” indeed is to be “paid into the receipt of the exchequer, and to be disposed of by parliament.” So that a minister will have nothing to do, but to take care, that there shall be no “residue,” and he is superior to all controul.

the burden of pensions in Ireland, which have enormously encreased within these few years, almost all the offices in that poor kingdom, have been, since the commencement of the present century, and now are bestowed upon strangers. For tho’ the merit of persons born there, justly raises them to places of high trust when they go abroad, as all Europe can witness, yet he is an uncommonly lucky Irishman, who can get a good post in his country.

I consider the manner in which that island has been uniformly depressed for so many years past, with this pernicious particularity