I always think it an enviable privilege of Merchants and other private employers that they can give special rewards and encouragements. But the reasons which preclude the same liberal treatment in the Public Service are obvious: the money to be given is not the money of those who distribute it, and the members of different Authorities in the British Public Service is so enormous that there would be the greatest risks of abuse if superior Authorities in all parts of the Globe were entrusted with the power of dispensing pecuniary favors.
Therefore the sort of compassionate fund proposed by Sir A. Macdonnell, although I rather lean towards it, would introduce a precedent of some danger, and at the same time one of which the extension to other places would be sure to be urgently demanded with no good reason for refusal, for the same arguments would be applicable in all unhealthy climates.
His other suggestion may perhaps be allowed to go to the Admiralty for consideration, but I do not think that it could with propriety be recommended. As to Transports, it may very possibly be unobjectionable, and if so we may anticipate that the Admiralty will assent. But as to Ships of War, I always view with suspicion the proposals which landsmen and civilians are apt to make for rendering them generally convenient. There seems to be a vague idea that they are about the World doing nothing, and that it is as well to make them useful. But in point of fact they have specific duties and great demands on their...
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