BY EMOLUMENTS EXCLUDE CORRUPTION.Rule V.In employments which expose the public functionary to peculiar temptations, the emoluments ought to be sufficient to preserve him from corruption.
Setting aside all considerations of the happiness of the individual, the interest of the public requires, that in all employments which afford the means of illicit gain, the individuals employed should be placed above want.If this important consideration be neglected, we ought not to be surprised that men urged on by perpetually recurring wants should abuse the powers they possess.Under such circumstances, if they are found guilty of extortion and peculation, they are less deserving of blame than that government which has spread the snare into which it was scarcely possible that their probity should not fall.Placed between the necessity of providing the means of subsistence, and the impossibility of providing them honestly, they will naturally be led to regard peculation and extortion as a lawful supplement, tacitly authorized by the government.
The examples of this mischievous economy, and of the inconveniences resulting from it, are more frequent in Russia than under any other European government.
``M.de Launay (Farmer-general under Frederick II.) represented to the king that the salaries of the custom-house officers were too small for their subsistence, and that it would be but justice to augment them; be added, that he could insure to his Majesty that every one would then discharge his duty better, and that the aggregate receipts in all the offices would be larger at the end of the year.''---``You do not know my subjects'', said Frederick; ``they are all rogues where my interests are in question.I have thoroughly studied them, and I am sure they would rob me at the altar.By paying them better, you would diminish my revenues, and they would not rob me less''.---``Sire'', replied M.de Launay, ``how can they do otherwise than steal? Their salaries are not enough to buy them shoes and stockings! a pair of boots costs them a month's pay at the same time, many of them are married.And where can they obtain food for their wives and families, if it is not by conniving at the smugglers?
There is, Sire, a most important maxim, which in matters of government is too frequently neglected.It is, that men in general desire to be honest;but it is always necessary to leave them the ability of being so.If your Majesty will consent to make the trial I propose, I will engage that your revenues will be augmented more than a fourth,'' The maxim in morals, thus brought forward by M.de Launay, appeared to the king,---beautiful and just as it really is in itself,---so much the more excellent from being in the mouth of a financier; since men of this class are not in general reputed to know many such.He authorized the experiment; he increased the salaries of the officers by a half, and his revenues were increased a third without any new taxes.[1]
A salary proportionate to the wants of the functionary operates as a kind of moral antiseptic , or preservative.It fortifies a man's probity against the influence of sinister and seductive motives.
