[The Writings of Thomas Paine Volume II by Thomas Paine]@TWC D-Link bookThe Writings of Thomas Paine Volume II CHAPTER V 38/118
No wonder that jails are crowded, and taxes and poor-rates increased.
Under such systems, nothing is to be looked for but what has already happened; and as to reformation, whenever it come, it must be from the nation, and not from the government. To show that the sum of five hundred thousand pounds is more than sufficient to defray all the expenses of the government, exclusive of navies and armies, the following estimate is added, for any country, of the same extent as England. In the first place, three hundred representatives fairly elected, are sufficient for all the purposes to which legislation can apply, and preferable to a larger number.
They may be divided into two or three houses, or meet in one, as in France, or in any manner a constitution shall direct. As representation is always considered, in free countries, as the most honourable of all stations, the allowance made to it is merely to defray the expense which the representatives incur by that service, and not to it as an office. If an allowance, at the rate of five hundred pounds per annum, be made to every representative, deducting for non-attendance, the expense, if the whole number attended for six months, each year, would be L 75,00 The official departments cannot reasonably exceed the following number, with the salaries annexed: Three offices at ten thousand pounds each L 30,000 Ten ditto, at five thousand pounds each 50,000 Twenty ditto, at two thousand pounds each 40,000 Forty ditto, at one thousand pounds each 40,000 Two hundred ditto, at five hundred pounds each 100,000 Three hundred ditto, at two hundred pounds each 60,000 Five hundred ditto, at one hundred pounds each 50,000 Seven hundred ditto, at seventy-five pounds each 52,500 -- ------ L497,500 If a nation choose, it can deduct four per cent.
from all offices, and make one of twenty thousand per annum. All revenue officers are paid out of the monies they collect, and therefore, are not in this estimation. The foregoing is not offered as an exact detail of offices, but to show the number of rate of salaries which five hundred thousand pounds will support; and it will, on experience, be found impracticable to find business sufficient to justify even this expense.
As to the manner in which office business is now performed, the Chiefs, in several offices, such as the post-office, and certain offices in the exchequer, etc., do little more than sign their names three or four times a year; and the whole duty is performed by under-clerks. Taking, therefore, one million and a half as a sufficient peace establishment for all the honest purposes of government, which is three hundred thousand pounds more than the peace establishment in the profligate and prodigal times of Charles the Second (notwithstanding, as has been already observed, the pay and salaries of the army, navy, and revenue officers, continue the same as at that period), there will remain a surplus of upwards of six millions out of the present current expenses.
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