_The king's turnspit was a member of Parliament_.[1] This office and numbers of others exactly like it, existed solely because the House of Commons was crowded with venal men.

The post of royal scullion meant a vote that could be relied upon under every circumstance and in all emergencies.

And each incumbent of such an office felt his honour and interests concerned in the defence of all other offices of the same scandalous description.

There was thus maintained a strong standing army of expensive, lax, and corrupting officials.
[Footnote 1: The Civil List at this time comprehended a great number of charges, such as those of which Burke speaks, that had nothing to do with the sovereign personally.

They were slowly removed, the judicial and diplomatic charges being transferred on the accession of William IV.] The royal household was a gigantic nest of costly jobbery and purposeless profusion.