ade,

THE

Black Book ;

OR,

CORRUPTION UNMASKED!

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF

PLACES, PENSIONS, AND SINECURES,

THE REVENUES OF THE CLERGY AND LANDED ARISTOCRACY;
The Salaries and Emoluments in Courts of Justice and the Police Department;

THE AMOUNT AND APPLICATION OF THE DROITS OF THE CROWN AND

ADMIRALTY;

The Kobbery of Charitable Foundations ;

The Profits of the Bank of England, arising from the Issue of its Notes,
Balances of Public Money, Management of the Borough Debt,
and other Sources of Emolument;

THE DEBT, REVENUE, AND INFLUENCE OF THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY;
THE STATE OF THE FINANCES, DEBT, AND SINKING-FUND.
TO WHICH IS ADDED,

Correct Lists of both Houses of Parliament; showing their Family Connections,
Parliamentary Influence, the Places and Pensions held by themselves
or Relations; distinguishing also those who voted against
Catholic Emancipation, and for the Seditious Meeting
and Press-Restriction Bills: the whole forming

a complete Exposition of the

COST, INFLUENCE, PATRONAGE, AND CORRUPTION

OF THE

BOROUGH GOVERNMENT.

London:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN FAIRBURN,
2, BROADWAY, LUDGATE-HILL.

LIBRARY

227900 ADVERTISEMENT.

OWING to the demise of the late King, the hereditary revenues revert to the Crown; and, on the assembling of a new Parliament, an entire new arrangement will probably be made in respect of the Civil List Expenditure: this arrangement, and other changes under the new reign, may render it necessary to publish a Supplementary Part, and, if so, public notice will be given previous to publication.

February 14, 1820.

It is suggested to purchasers, for the sake of uniformity, and as being most appropriate to its name and contents, that the BLACK BOOK be bound in black.

(

DEDICATION

AND

INTRODUCTION

ΤΟ

The Working, the Agricultural, the Commercial, and Manufacturing Classes of the Community.

TO these classes the subject of this work peculiarly belongs: it is an exposition of the chief causes of their poverty and embarrassment; it will show why a powerful nation, meriting happiness and greatness by its physical resources and intellectual power, by its high moral character-its skill-its capital-its enterprise, and, above all, by its unwearied industry, it will show why such a nation is the most wretched, its population the most degraded, its government the most corrupt, its clergy the most rapacious and hypocritical, and its laws the most expensive and absurd which can be found on the face of the earth.

The object of government is to promote the happiness of society-affording equal security to the property and persons of every individual,-protecting the weak against the strong, -the poor against the rich,-in short, by guarding against. the extremes of indigence and crime, luxury and vice, and spreading an equilibrium of comfort and enjoyment through all ranks, by good laws, wisely conceived and impartially administered.

It is a cheap, simple, and admirable contrivance, when supported by the respect and confidence of the public. There is then no need of standing armies in a time of peace. There is no need of expending 16 millions a year in support of naval and military establishments. There is no need of a Sinking Fund as a resource for future war. Government is strong in the hearts of the people. It is prepared for every exigence, and must always be invincible against domestic foes and foreign aggressors. But if government has not this support, if it is looked upon only as an instrument of rapacity and extortion; if it is looked upon as a legalized system of pillage,