I held it to be, in its consequences, the
worst economy in the world. In saving money I soon can count up all the
good I do; but when by a cold penury I blast the abilities of a nation,
and stunt the growth of its active energies, the ill I may do is beyond
all calculation. Whether it be too much or too little, whatever I have
done has been general and systematic. I have never entered into those
trifling vexations and oppressive details that have been falsely and
most ridiculously laid to my charge.
Did I blame the pensions given to Mr. Barre and Mr. Dunning between the
proposition and execution of my plan? No! surely, no! Those pensions
were within my principles. I assert it, those gentlemen deserved their
pensions, their titles,--all they had; and if more they had, I should
have been but pleased the more. They were men of talents; they were men
of service. I put the profession of the law out of the question in one
of them. It is a service that rewards itself. But their _public
service_, though from their abilities unquestionably of more value than
mine, in its quantity and in its duration was not to be mentioned with
it. But I never could drive a hard bargain in my life, concerning any
matter whatever; and least of all do I know how to haggle and huckster
with merit. Pension for myself I obtained none; nor did I solicit any.
Yet I was loaded with hatred for everything that was withheld, and with
obloquy for everything that was given.
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