and begged one of her late husband's old wigs. The widow, who had refused all his former requisitions, complied with this, and the man who had asked the widow to give him her person and fortune, was obliged at last to be contented with one of her husband's old wigs. So is the case with me, said Mr. Burke. I would marry the handsome and rich widow economy. I fain would have her person and fortune; but finding I cannot get them, I have asked to be her treasurer, her steward, her butler, her cook, and her wardrobe-keeper- but all in vain! - but all in vain! I have got one of her late husband's old wigs, and with that, I fear, I must walk off contented; but only I beg the committee will do me the justice to remember, that I did not so far degrade myself as to ask for the old wig solely.

The question being put at one o'clock in the morning, on the first member of the clause, for abolishing the office of trea surer of the chamber, the committee divided: For the motion 158 against it 211. Mr. Burke having lost this point, declared his indifference to what became of the rest of the bill. Mr. Fox, however, roused him to his wonted attention to it, by arguing on the necessity of their still going through with the bill, and if they got ever so little more than they had already gained, it would be worth the striving for. Even, he said, if they could not obtain more than the abolition of the seven lords of trade, he should, after having gone through the bill, think that had been worth the struggle, because, as he was determined and he doubted not but his honourable friend would join with him to renew the bill from session to session, till they had effected the wished-for purpose of demolishing the influence of the crown, they would have seven of the enemy less to fight against. Mr. Burke admitted the force of his honourable friend's argument. The succeeding members of the clause were accordingly gone through, and each received a negative without a division.

April 28.

Clauses for abolishing the office of the Great Wardrobe, the Board of Works, &c.

This day the House again resolved itself into a committee on Mr. Burke's establishment bill, and first took into consideration the clause" for abolishing the office of the great wardrobe, the office of the removing wardrobe, the office of master of the robes, the office called the jewel-office, and all the places and charges, whether of persons presiding in or dependent on them, or any of them, of what nature soever, except those of one housekeeper, and one wardrobe-keeper (the said places to be united after the possession of the present occupiers) in each of his majesty's palaces and houses."

Mr. BURKE rose to inform the committee why he had not attempted to meddle with the housekeepers of the royal palaces. He said, he found palaces of two kinds, real and virtual; palaces which were visible and substantial, and palaces which were merely ideal, and had no existence but in the intellects. On examining the red-book, he found at the head of the list of housekeepers, Lady Mary Churchill, and she was followed by a whole heap of petticoats. He declared he thought it extremely right that there should be some respectable establishment for women of condition and family, and therefore imagining that the places were all held by ladies, as well out of his natural respect for the sex, as from the real feelings of his mind upon the occasion, he determined not to meddle with one of them. He had, however, received no less than eight letters on the subject, begging him not to move for the abolition of the places of housekeepers to the royal palaces, and, among others, one from Haverford-west, stating that John Manners, Esq. was housekeeper at Whitehall. He again referred to the red-book, for before, he had imagined it to be an error, and that it had either meant Lady John Manners, or Joan Manners; however,

after brushing aside the crowd of hoop-petticoats which almost concealed him, he espied John Manners, Esq. He said, he immediately went to Whitehall, which he found to be one of the ideal palaces, without habitations for retinue, or capability of reception of residents. All he saw there were several paintings of nudities in the banquetting-house, by Peter Paul Rubens, and a painter busy about them, who, according to the modern fashion, was employed in correcting and improving the works of that great master. He saw, however, no housekeeper, nor any occasion for one, though 500l. a year and better, was paid to John Manners, Esq. for holding that office. He mentioned this, to shew at once that the office of housekeeper to any of the royal palaces, was, generally speaking, a mere sinecure, which, however, as long as it was bestowed on ladies of condition, should receive no shock or violence from his hands. The rest of the clause went to the abolition of the offices of the great wardrobe, &c. which undoubtedly were so far useless, that though they cost a great deal of money, the committee must see the whole duty of them might be done at considerably less expence by other persons.

Mr. Gilbert said, that as he had on a former occasion intimated his opinion, that it would be indelicate to reform those parts of the civil list which related to his majesty's household, by act of parliament; and as the House had, in a former determination, avoided entering upon them, he thought it probable that they would adhere to the same rule in their deter mination respecting the great wardrobe. That he hoped the committee would pay so much credit to the part he had taken in public affairs, and to his conduct in life, as to acquit him of any interested views respecting that office, notwithstanding he was a member of it; he assured the committee, that on every occasion, where his own interest had stood in competition with that of the public, he had always preferred the latter. That with the assistance of the master of the wardrobe, he had reformed such abuses in the office, as fell under his inspection, as comptroller, and had saved his majesty 900l. per annum.Earl Nugent objected to the clause, as tending very unjusti

fiably to interfere with his majesty's domestic regulations. He said, if the honourable gentleman, when he saw the painter at work in the banqueting-house at Whitehall, on the paintings of Rubens, had asked that painter who he was, he did not at all doubt, but the man would have told him he was a reformer, and that he was attempting to reform and alter those pictures which had been the original work of a greater master, and had been admired for a long series of years. Just as the painter's attempts to correct the pictures of Rubens had struck the honourable gentleman, did the honourable gentleman's bill strike him; it was an attempt to reform, alter, and correct the constitution. He cautioned the honourable gentleman, therefore, how he proceeded; the constitution was the work of the old school, the work of those masters, whose universal excellence and skill had been established by the sanction and approbation of admiring ages; let the honourable gentleman consider, that the picture, however mellowed by the hand of time, had not lost its original beauty, and that the rude hand of a modern reformer might, under the notion of correcting and improving, spoil the piece altogether.

Mr. BURKE, in reply, said, that the noble lord's argument was an argument ad verecundiam, which he would readily answer. That which occasioned the painter to be employed in re-touching the almost invisible strokes of Rubens, made him turn reformer-the necessity of the times. It was contrary to his genius, his temper, and his wish, contrary to every inclination of his mind, to attempt the invidious task he had then in hand. He did assure the noble lord, that nothing but dire necessity had forced him upon it. He had long lamented the pressing occasion there was for some person to attempt a reformation in many of the great branches of the public expenditure. He had waited almost to the last moment, in hopes that some other person, whose superior talents, whose turn of mind, and whose zeal, would better qualify him for the office of reforming what was wrong; finding that no body would do it, and the necessity of its being done pressing more and more, he had at last ventured, unwillingly, upon a task

which he disliked as much as any man living. He did assure the noble lord he would much rather have proposed to build his majesty splendid palaces, to buy him the most valuable pictures, and to do every thing which could contribute to hold him up in all the possible splendour and magnificence of royalty, than to have taken upon him an office disagreeable in itself, and sure to create him enemies, namely, that of abolishing places in the household, with a view, by making a trifling saving for the public, to assist somewhat towards the great expences they laboured under. Solomon, with all his glory, was said not to be clothed like the lilies of the field: our Solomon, with all his heart, might outvie the lillies of the field; he had not the smallest objection. He repeated-it was the necessity of the times, and not his will, that made him a reformer. He could not, however, but wonder a little at the noble lord's comparison of his bill and the objects of it, to a modern painter's reforming the pictures of Rubens: he should have thought the simile of the old tattered worsted stockings, which had been used on a preceding day, would have suited better, because his bill was calculated not to alter the constitution, but to pick out the old worsted, to draw the rents together, and mend the holes. Such an office as the one he had undertaken was far from being new. There was in the household itself an office like it, and that was called the office of arras mender, whose duty it was to take care of the tapestry hangings, the works of old masters, and which had been admired for a series of years, but which— from the decay and rottenness occasioned in them by the teeth of devouring time, and from the holes made in them by the teeth of rats, and other noxious animals, who sheltered themselves behind them, nibbling them away, and continually preying upon them were in danger of falling to pieces, and occasionally required the assistance of the arras mender, to patch them up, and make them hold together.

Having said this, he took up his minutes of the enumer ation of the duties of the great wardrobe, stated by Mr.

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