Not only in loans were the people wronged and robbed,—the word is harsh, but expressive,—the contracts for the public service exhibited also the most gross and glaring favoritism. From time to time the evil was exposed; Parliament grew violent, and the public waxed wroth. Every quarter of a century, an inquiry was instituted, and the whole ended partly in some influential person being disgraced, and partly in an expression, that “the said frauds and abuses were one great occasion of the heavy debt that lies upon the nation.” A few specimens may serve to indicate the wrongs which, from time to time, have aggrandized an unpopular government, have swollen the pockets of the few, and increased the wants of the many. The borough-monger, who for years had been in possession of a pocket borough, found his property disturbed, and his constituents tampered with, by the contractor, who, as a candidate for the honor of the forum, was marked by vice, extravagance, and folly. As a member of the senate, he assumed the purity of the patriot, complained of the absence of economy, and declared how much cheaper the public business might be accomplished. He teased the minister; he perplexed the Parliament; he puzzled the government; until, by giving him a job, the patriot was turned into a contractor, and from that hour he marked the public money as his own. If the First Lord of the Treasury were indolent, the contractor availed himself of his sloth; if ignorant, he taught him, and made the country pay for the lesson. The very name of a contractor was odious, and their luxuries were bitter in the eyes of the people. Their abodes were like those of princes; their daughters wedded with nobles; the follies of their sons were the talk of the town; they died possessed of fortunes which kings might envy; and, as nearly all were members of Parliament, attention became pointed at men whose mansions and whose manors, bought with public money, challenged public notice. “The minister,” remarked Mr. Fox, “said to him, ‘I will give you a contract, if you will give me a vote.’ The contractor replies, ‘Now I have given you a vote, give me a contract. I voted that we had forty-two ships when we had but six, and that the French fleet did not consist of thirty-two ships. You must not, therefore, quarrel for twopence a gallon on rum, or a farthing on a loaf of bread.’”