Similar orders are passed in his name by his
deputies, secretaries, and favourites upon all the other numerous
petitions and reports, which he sends to them unperused. Not,
perhaps, upon one in five does the minister himself pass any order;
and of the orders passed by him, not one in five, perhaps, is
intended to be taken notice of. His deputies and favourites carry on
a profitable trade in all such reports and petitions: they extort
money alike from the wrong-doer and the wrong-sufferer; and from all
local authorities, or their representatives, for all neglect of duty
or abuses, of authority charged against them.
As to any investigation into the real merits of any case described in
these reports from the news-writers and local authorities, no such
thing has been heard of for several reigns. The real merits of all
such cases are, however, well and generally known to the people of
the districts in which they occur, and freely discussed by them with
suitable remarks on the "darkness which prevails under the lamp of
royalty;" and no less suitable execrations against the intolerable
system which deprives the King of all feeling of interest in the
well-being of his subjects, all sense of duty towards them, all
feeling of responsibility to any higher power for the manner in which
he discharges his high trust over the millions committed to his
care.
As I have said, the King never sees any petition or report: he hardly
ever sees even official notes addressed to him by the British
Resident, and the replies to almost all are written without his
knowledge.
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