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 payment
 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 without
 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 computed,
 that the whole expense of the Americans in
accession. No one knew where it had gone. No vouchers were produced,
 nor were any audit books kept, apparently. The royal establishment
 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 inconsiderable
 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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