their only consideration. Of some men the money appetite may be as great as that of Charles Montague; of others it may be as small as that of the younger William Pitt. Charles Montague secured for himself as a place of refuge the Auditorship of the Exchequer. The younger William Pitt held in 1784 the same offices which Montague had held in 1698. Pitt was a much poorer man than Montague, and had at his own disposal a lucrative sinecure place. But Pitt gave away this place in such a way as to reward merit and relieve the country from a burden.
If the "rich dullard" should chance to be a man like the younger William Pitt, and the " poor man of intellect" a man like Charles Montague, the rich dullard is very much preferable as a member of Parliament to the poor man of intellect.
"In the intellectual qualities of a statesman, Montague was probably not inferior to Pitt. But the magnanimity, the dauntless courage, the contempt for riches and for baubles, to which, more than to any intellectual quality, Pitt owed his long ascendency, were wanting to Montague."[1]
No professions of regard for the welfare of the people can be considered as of any value as long as those making such professions pay money for
- ↑ Macaulay's History of England, vol. iv., p. 279.
