In the mean time, however, Mr. Martindale, who was aware that it would be doing more harm than good to supply his noble relative’s extravagance with unlimited means of indulgence, thought that he should do his lordship more essential service by procuring him some appointment, which might have at least the semblance of occupation for him. With this view he waited upon the nobleman whom we have before mentioned as having patronised Horatio Markham. Here we are strongly tempted to observe how inaccurate is our ordinary language. We call men high in office, men in power. This is wrong. They find that the higher they rise, the more circumscribed is their power. The greater is their patronage, the less able are they to do as they will. A country parson has power to appoint his own curate; a country squire may choose whom he will for butler, coachman, or footman; but they who have the distribution of better things than curacies and coach-boxes, have to consult and to be guided by many more wills, minds, and opinions than their own.
Mr. Martindale found this to be the case with the nobleman to whom he made application in the present instance. Nothing could be more cordial or polite than the reception which Mr. Martindale experienced, and nothing could be more gratifying than the kind attention wherewith his lordship made inquiry after the health of the various members of his family. But when the business was mentioned for which the call was made, nothing could exceed the regret which his lordship felt and expressed that at present he had it not in his power to accommodate so respectable and valued a friend as Mr. Martindale. There was certainly sincerity in these expressions, though probably they were used with little variation of phraseology to many others. It would have been much more agreeable to his lordship had it been in his power to grant many more requests, and to oblige many more friends; but, as he himself said to Mr. Martindale, he actually had for every place at his disposal at least fifty applications, and many of them accompanied with recommendations and arguments of a most pressing nature.
As Mr. Martindale was a reasonable man, and one to whom his lordship could speak freely, there soon sprung up between them some conversation on the topic of patronage.