Benjamin Franklin [e777 
the nation, so that, when a war costs forty millions, 
one million is paid to him; an inspector of the mint, 
in the last new coinage, received as his fee £63,000 
sterling per annum; to all which rewards no service 
these gentlemen can render the public, is by any 
means equivalent. All this is paid by the people, 
who are oppressed by taxes so occasioned, and 
thereby rendered less able to contribute to the pay- 
ment of necessary national debts. In America, 
salaries, where indispensable, are extremely low; 
but much of the public business is done gratis. The 
honor of serving the public ably and faithfully is 
deemed sufficient. Public spirit really exists there, 
and has great effects. In England it is universally 
deemed a nonentity, and whoever pretends to it is 
laughed at as a fool, or suspected as a knave. The 
committees of Congress, which form the board of 
war, the board of treasury, the board of foreign 
affairs, the naval board, that for accounts, etc., all 
attend the business of their respective functions with- 
out any salary or emolument whatever, though they 
spend in it much more of their time than any lord of 
the treasury or admiralty in England can spare from 
his amusements. A British minister lately com- 
puted, that the whole expense of the Americans in 
accession. No one knew where it had gone. No vouchers were pro- 
duced, nor were any audit books kept, apparently. The royal estab- 
lishment swarmed with officers for whom it was difficult to find names. 
Among the satellites aulae was one who was dignified with the title of 
“Turnspit of the King’s Kitchen.” It was suspected that no incon- 
siderable part of the king’s debts had been incurred in Parliamentary 
corruption. It was also whispered that some of the money was sent 
to France to corrupt the French ministers, especially Vergennes, who 
was suspected of being a pensioner of Lord Stormont. 
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