“If my lord thinks our salaries too great, and that the commonwealth is
not housewife enough, whether is it better housewifery that she should
keep her family from the snow, or suffer them to burn her house that
they may warm themselves? for one of these must be. Do you think that
she came off at a cheaper rate when men had their rewards by £1,000 or
£2,000 a year in land if inheritance? if you say that they will be
more godly than they have been, it may be ill taken; and if you cannot
promise that, it is time we find out some way of stinting at least, if
not curing them of that same sacra fames. On the other side, if a poor
man (as such a one may save a city) gives his sweat to the public, with
what conscience can you suffer his family in the meantime to starve?
but he that lays his hand to this plough shall not lose by taking it
off from his own, and a commonwealth that will mend this shall be
penny-wise. The Sanhedrim of Israel, being the supreme, and a constant
court of judicature, could not choose but be exceeding gainful. The
Senate of the Bean in Athens, because it was but annual, was moderately
salaried; but that of the Areopagites, being for life, bountifully; and
what advantages the senators of Lacedaemon had, where there was little
money or use of it, were in honors for life. The patricians having no
profit, took all. Venice being a situation where a man goes but to the
door for his employment, the honor is great and the reward very little;
but in Holland a councillor of state has £1,500 Flemish a year,
besides other accommodations. The States-General have more. And that
commonwealth looks nearer her penny than ours needs to do.
“For the revenue of this nation, besides that of her industry,
it--amounts, as has been shown, to £10,000,000; and the salaries in
the whole come not to £300,000 a year. The beauty they will add to the
commonwealth will be exceeding great, and the people will delight in
this beauty of their commonwealth; the encouragement they will give to
the study of the public being very progitable, the accommodation they
will afford to your magistrates very honorable and easy. And the sum,
when it or twice as much was spent in bunting and housekeeping, was
never any grievance to the people. I am ashamed to stand huckling upon
this point; it is sordid. Your magistrates are rather to be provided
with further accommodations. For what if there should be sickness?
whither will you have them to remove? And this city in the soundest
times, for the heat of the year, is no wholesome abode: have a care of
their healths to whom you commit your own. I would have the Senate and
the people, except they see cause to the contrary, every first of June
to remove into the country air for the space of three months. You are
better fitted with summer-houses for them than if you had built them to
that purpose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account