_ per annum. This proposal was discussed with
some natural jealousy in the House of Lords. Lord Lauderdale thought
that when Tom Scott was appointed, it must have been pretty evident
that the Commission would propose to abolish his office, and that the
appointment therefore should not have been made. "Mr. Thomas Scott,"
he said, "would have 130_l._ for life as an indemnity for an office
the duties of which he never had performed, while those clerks who had
laboured for twenty years had no adequate remuneration." Lord Holland
supported this very reasonable and moderate view of the case; but of
course the Ministry carried their way, and Tom Scott got his unearned
pension. Nevertheless, Scott was furious with Lord Holland. Writing
soon after to the happy recipient of this little pension, he says,
"Lord Holland has been in Edinburgh, and we met accidentally at a
public party. He made up to me, but I remembered his part in your
affair, and _cut_ him with as little remorse as an old pen." Mr.
Lockhart says, on Lord Jeffrey's authority, that the scene was a very
painful one.
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