The remedy must come partly from the reduction of temptation, by diminishing the salaries of all those places and appointments for which there is such immense competition; partly from the effect of public opinion; and ultimately, to a far greater extent, when any sincere desire exists to restrain it, from improved methods of distributing patronage. But one defect seems almost always to accompany a high state of civilization, namely,—a great deficiency of moral courage in large classes of persons, who from knowledge and position ought rightly to contribute their share to the formation and expression of public opinion. The first evil which this produces, is an excessive zeal and energy in a few of those who are most strongly convinced. These bear the brunt of the attacks of all who are interested in the support of abuses. If, unhappily, they are not independent in fortune as well as in spirit, these, the forlorn hope of reform, are sure ultimately to be trampled upon and destroyed by the jobbers—they die with ruined fortunes and broken hearts. Many of those who shared their opinions, and urged on their enthusiasm, but who warily abstained from expressing their own thoughts _in public_, now venture to avow those principles, to which opinion has at length advanced: these reap the rewards won by the energies and sacrifices of their martyred friends. For such, the epithet the poet applied to Bacon is not unfit: —“the wisest—meanest of mankind.”—POPE. A very serious evil arises from this timidity in expressing opinions. The whole state of society presents a counterfeit surface,—no man knows how many or how few really share his opinions: its whole fabric is in a state of unstable equilibrium; it is liable at every moment to most unlooked-for changes, from accidents apparently trivial. The following is one amongst many examples which might have been selected of the different standard with which Party measures services rendered to the public by those within and those without its own limits. In the year 1847, when some millions of English money were sent over to save the people of Ireland from perishing by famine, it became necessary to organize a system of accounts and of regulations, for the direction of those officers who were sent over for the purpose of personally superintending the distribution of this relief. These arrangements were made by the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Sir C. T----, K.C.B., at extra hours; but it does not appear how many months he was so employed.