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TO JAMES GORDON BENNET, Esq., PBOPRIBTOR OP THB NEW YORK HERALD : I Sir, — Moved by your great spirit, your benevolence and your capacity, I take the liberty to dedicate to you a little pamphlet. As an example of the oppressive burdens under which yon labor, Pomeroy's Democrat assures the world that. the purchasei*8 of silk pay forty per cent, over the value. Here we complain of a deficit, and in both countries it would seem that the taxes aVo to be augmented. In the few sheets submitted herewith for your consideration I have attempted to bring under the notice of the public what I believe to be the cause of this evil. With your talents and powerful organ you can, if any one can, redress this grievance, abate this nuisance. But, whether you agree with or differ from me, you are earnestly requested to enlighten mankind by publishing statistical accounts of that branch of the public expenditure which is devoted, both by the Federal Grovcrnment and by each individual State, to tho compen- sation of patriotic, I must not say mercenary. Legislators. The expense inseparable from the existence of Koyal and Impe- rial personages and their courts is r.mally cited as a motive lor giving the preference to Republican institutions, but I predict that stipendiary legislators will be found much more costly. In ihiv, last case, too, tho remedy must be more difflcc 't and much moijc tardy, because of the multitudes who are interested in porpotuating the evil. I am now of no political importance, but you who oatabiished a connection between New York and UJiji may poss'bly bo dis- posed to enquire in Montreal, where I am well known, whotho]- I am entirely unworthy of your countenance. A. GtGY. Quebec, Ulh April, 1874. \ i f I THE STIPEND. it In England, Members of Parliament are actuated by patriotism ; in Canada, by avarice. There the standard of excellence is honor, here it is pelf. In England, Members of Parliament serve gratuitously; here they vote themselves salaries, which they call by the pet name of allowance. This is a misnomer. A fellow may, perhaps, be permitted to say, I allow myself in the morning a cocktail and a brandy smash ; after which, I allow myself, at intervals, as many gin slings as I can carry home. Here the word allow, though not strictly accurate, may possibly be tolerated, because in this case the moral sense, yields to the animal propensiiies. But to allow is the con- sent given by one person, or body, to the proposed act of another. It is to grant, to give permission to another. Now, the members who exact this salary or compensation, for occuping a comfortable seat in the Parliament halls, having no more than their own con- sent, can only be said to take — to grab the money. The true name for the act and the thing would therefore be the significant phrase ir.vented and constantly used by our astute neighbors : — " Stealings." Assured that every candid man, woman and child, not an acces- sary to the crime, who understands English, will assent to all the foregoing propositions, I proceed at once to facts. The Federal Parliament has chosen to take, grab, steal, or to allow to each member, of both branches, for every session, one thousand dollars! That is a fact, the consequences of which, developed by arithmetic, are as follows : — The number of the members of the Commons is 204 X 1000 - Of the Senate, is 75 x 1000 Grabbing and stealings by this body for one session But the Local Legislature, more modest, only grabs, steals, or allows itself $600 apiece. Its account, therefore, would stand thus : — 65 Members of the Legislative Assembly at $600 = 24 Members of the Legislative Council $204,000 75,000 $279,000 $39,000 14,400 Making for one session $53,400 I am not sufficiently acquainted with the condition, either of Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Bnmswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, or British Columbia, to be enabled to speak of those parts of the Dominion with certainty. But if the members of those bodies be no meaner than those whereof I have hereinabove spoken, they may, and probably do, tax the people to an equal amount, say $332,400 Forming a yearly total of $064,800 But our Legislators also allow themselves travelling expenses, with the precise amount of which I am not acquainted. And our Governor General, so called because he does not govern, annually receives fifty thousand dollars and various perquisites. Exclusive of these two last items, however, our Legislators absorb every four years, $2,659,200. Such is the tact — and those who grab or extract these two mil- lions six hundred and fifty-nine thousand two hundred dollars from the public Treasury, are the very men who are entrusted with the custody and care of the public funds. No other human being has ever been consulted ; no plebiscite to ascertain the opinion of the i i people has been resorted to. The process is more simple — our Legislators vote themselves what they see fit — then they take it! It is a compendious process, a short cut to wealth. It is so far better than highway robbery, that those who crib or grab the cash need never expose their precious health to the night air to wait for the tardy traveller ; nor do they run the risk of being perforated by a pistol ball, or of being convicted by an ignorant jury. Then it is said of the travelling expenses, which they also allow them- selves, that some have charged for distances from places which they had not left to places at which they did not arrive. There are many, tco, who have grabbed the $1000 as members of one house besides the $600 as members of the other house ! Those who hold office modestly accept of their salaries into the bargain. And such is the insanity of the people that no step is taken to correct this evil. And every four years opportunity is offered — for the people, or any section of the people, could abate the nuisance, did they but see fit to refuse to elect any man who did not pledge himself to serve gratuitously, as in England. Every candidate who warmly squeezes the hands of electors, is supposed to offer some pledge, to jabber some grandiloquent phrases, specifying the ground upon which he ought to be preferred to his rival. But the simple fact, the true reason, might be stated in a word. A candi- date for the Commons must be understood to say please give me a ticket for soup to the tune of $1000 per session. So a candidate for the Local House, more moderate, only claims permission to rob the public Treasury of $600 per session. I know, of course, that candidates, in fact, never expressly allude to the subject ; but it is the meaning of every one of them. And here it may be suggested, that the temptation to bribe is thus frightfully increased. Supposing "^^ that candidates do bribe in England, the candidate there offers money to buy consideration. Here, bribery has all the character- istics of an investment ; and a candidate for the Commons can well afford to advance $1000 to obtain four thousand, or more, besides travelling expenses. Thus, then, though when they meet they are said to assemble to transact the people's business, they avowedly propose to attend to their own. And, since they affect to do, at one and the same time, 8 both their own business and that of the people, the enquiry natu- rally arises about which of the two are they most in earnest, to which do they attach most importance, the interest of the country or their own. As this state of things exists after every general election for four years, I shall, by way of example, suppose an exodus of the grocers, like Gilpin on " pleasure bent," for four years. Determined, however, to provide at once for their own advantage and for supplying the community with the indispensable articles of commerce in which they d3al,the grocers resort to a mass meeting to take that interesting subject into consideration. Mr. LeMesurier in the chair. My readers can imagine, fully as well as I, what, on such an occasion, oratorical grocers would expose ; but, to make a long story short, I shall submit the resolution which, in imitation of the course tolerated by the great body of the electors, the assembled grocers must be understood to take : Moved by Mr. George Hall, seconded by Mr. Hossack, and carried unanimously : — That to promote our own interest, as well as that of the commu- nity, we do hereby empower our clerks to deal with our funds during our absence, for the ensuing four years, as they may see fit, with the right of fixing the amount of salary to which they may deem themselves entitled, and of paying themselves by taking the money out of the " Till." Moved by Mr. Thompson, seconded by Mr. Fraser, and carried unanimously : — Tliat, being perfectly certain that we can never have cause to complain of the foregoing judicious arrangement, we expressly renounce the right to call any of our said clerks to account for mis- conduct, and restiiut ourselves to that of supplying them with funds, without, however, relinquishing the right of substituting another for any one of them at the end of four years. The measure thus ascribed to the grocers is precisely the course pursued by the whole electoral body, the only difference being that the latter are merely passive, while the grocers are supposed to have Note.— All the above aaraed are eminent grocers ia the City of Quebec. P 9 y* acted preliminarily. The effect, however, must be the same in both cases. One consequence which has necessarily followed is the great increase of candidates and their ferocious animosity to each other ,* another the absolute impunity with which any act of peculation or other villainy can always be committed. Such acts may be used as stalking horses to further the expulsion of rivals ; but, aa in the case of the Pacific Scandal, upon the effecting of that object the successful competitors will cheerfully condone and forget every delinquency, however enormous. To pursue the criminal to punishment would be to establish a dangerous precedent. This allowance has, however, another, and a most objectionable effect ; it unduly increases the influence and power of the Ministry. Thus, as by a constitutional rule, no money can be granted by Par- liament save on the recommendation of the Crown, the Ministry for the time being have the power to allow or to withhold any addi- tional " allowance" that members may be desirous of grabbing. Thus, the indemnity, or stipend, has been from time to time increased, and as that advantage could only be secured by the con- nivance or consent of the Ministry, the latter could impose their own terms. To fill their pockets, then, the members would vote for any measure proposed by the Ministry, for any plan or conspi- racy, for instance, like the " Pacific Scandal," tending to make the fortunes of the Ministers at the expense of the State. But the clear profit which can be made by the above-mentioned investment excites to frenzy the desire of a seat in Parliament, and as it becomes necessary to stimulate voters supporters are rewarded at the publio expense by the gift of place. Hence, competence is never thought of, and sneaking, mixed with perfidy, is the only road to office. This accounts for that (all but) universal inefficiency and for those thefts and defalcations which prevail in official circles, which are the bane and the reproach of our system. In our com- munity, at least, the wealth acquired by successful politicians is a proof of the value of their investment ; nor are they, like traders, subject to reverses or to the infinite fluctuations which affect com- mercial men. Then, as men of fortune will not generally submit to the degra- dation of competing for seats in Parliament upon the humiliatmg terms to which indigent candidates descend, the course at present 10 pursued is productive of pauper legislators —a class proverbially Gelfish. But in our country competence, seldom inherited, must be acquired by some sort of labor, and men generally reach middle life before they can be said tc be in easy circumstances. Those pauper legislators, then, are, unavoidably, young men — with no more experience than principle — precisely the class of recruits that minis- terial drill-sergeants can train to unreasoning obedience. The only excuse for this acknowledged evil is the pretended gen- eral poverty, and the supposed incapacity of desirable men to bear the expense incident to the annual attendance in Parliament. This ii:, a misarable pretext. There is abundance of wealth in the country, and multitudes of experienced men of mature age are ready and wiUing to serve gratuitously. I am, myself, one, and I know hundreds of others. Admitting that the majority, in a particular county or town, might be desirous of electing some highly gifted individual, who was both devoid of ambition, and too poo" to defray his own expenses, a case which must seldom occur, they might fur- nish him with means by taxing themselves. But it does not follow that the whole population should, therefore, be taxed, still less that our law-makers should all be paupers, depending for their bread on those for whom it is their province to legislate. It muf?*- be clear, too, that men of mature age, possessed of pecu- niary means, would not be so easily induced to lend themselves to jobs as indigent lads- -and from their stake in the country the former would be necessarily more disposed to promote the public good — in whicli that of their ftimilies would be involved, nor could they patronize rings nor countenance frauds. Young men, on the con- trary, having their fortunes to make, would be actuated by much greater avidity. That is self-evident ; nor being tempted by exces- sive cupi