Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it.

To diminish the number of those who are capable of paying it, is surely a most unpromising expedient for encouraging the cultivation of corn.

The bounty was an expedient to raise it artificially to the high price at which it had frequently been sold in the times of Charles I.

If his calculations deserve any part of the reputation which they have obtained very universally, eight-and-forty shillings the quarter was a price which, without some such expedient as the bounty, could not at that time be expected, except in years of extraordinary scarcity.

They were probably not unlike that stunted breed which was common all over Scotland thirty or forty years ago, and which is now so much mended through the greater part of the low country, not so much by a change of the breed, though that expedient has been employed in some places, as by a more plentiful method of feeding them.

This expedient was no other than the well known shift of drawing and redrawing; the shift to which unfortunate traders have sometimes recourse, when they are upon the brink of bankruptcy.

This commission being repeated more than six times in the year, whatever money A might raise by this expedient might necessarily have cost him something more than eight per cent.

The French, in the beginning of the last war, did not derive so much advantage from this expedient as to compensate the loss of the fashion.

The next best expedient, it has been thought, therefore, is to pay them for buying.

This expedient succeeded so well, that it more than doubled the price of their goods in the home market, notwithstanding a very considerable increase in the produce.

The most effectual expedient, on the contrary, for raising the value of that surplus produce, for encouraging its increase, and consequently the improvement and cultivation of their own land, would be to allow the most perfect freedom to the trade of all such mercantile nations.

When the expedient of a standing army, besides, had once been adopted by one civilized nation, it became necessary that all its neighbours should follow the example.

The same expedient was, upon different occasions, adopted by several other American colonies; but, from want of this moderation, it produced, in the greater part of them, much more disorder than conveniency.

This practice is, in most cases, the expedient of a spendthrift, who, for a sum of ready money sells a future revenue of much greater value.

In order to remedy this inconveniency, government has found no better expedient, than to impose upon the whole generality an additional tax of a hundred and twenty thousand livres.

The expedient which will raise most money, is almost always preferred to that which is likely to bring about, in the speediest manner, the liberation of the public revenue.

To borrow of the sinking fund is always an obvious and easy expedient for getting out of the present difficulty.

It was expedient in nature that it should be so, and therefore necessary.

Whatsoever is expedient unto thee, O World, is expedient unto me; nothing can either be 'unseasonable unto me, or out of date, which unto thee is seasonable.

Those things therefore that are expedient and profitable to those cities, are the only things that are good and expedient for me.

Whatsoever in any kind doth happen to any one, is expedient to the whole.

And thus much to content us might suffice, that it is expedient for the whole in general.

And now I am content that the word expedient, should more generally be understood of those things which we otherwise call middle things, or things indifferent; as health, wealth, and the like.

For whatsoever I do either by myself, or with some other, the only thing that I must intend, is, that it be good and expedient for the public.

The best expedient to prevent this confusion, is to be modest in our pretensions; and even to discover the difficulty ourselves before it is objected to us.

But I could not help observing that he seemed to think he had hit upon a wonderful expedient for expressing himself in a neat, agreeable, and pointed manner, without the inconvenience of inventing conversation.

'Since then, I have consulted other branches of my family on the course which it is most expedient for Mr. Micawber to take--for I maintain that he must take some course, Master Copperfield,' said Mrs. Micawber, argumentatively.

Papa was very much depressed then, and more bowed down by care than ever you or I have seen him; but he seemed relieved by this expedient of the partnership, though at the same time he seemed hurt by it and ashamed of it.'

'SIR--for I dare not say my dear Copperfield, 'It is expedient that I should inform you that the undersigned is Crushed.

We judged it expedient, now, to tell her all we knew; which I recounted at length.

The best expedient I could think of, was to creep into my house, which I accordingly did; and shutting the gate after me, I went as far as the length of my chain would suffer, and discharged my body of that uneasy load.

My greatest apprehension was for mine eyes, which I should have infallibly lost, if I had not suddenly thought of an expedient.

The case seemed wholly desperate and deplorable; and this magnificent palace would have infallibly been burnt down to the ground, if, by a presence of mind unusual to me, I had not suddenly thought of an expedient.

For government is an expedient, by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it.

The Governors could propose to the Governor-General drafts of any laws which they thought expedient, together with their reasons for the same; and the Governor-General communicated the resolutions to the Governor, after considering the reasons.

In order to extricate himself from the Polish "impasse", the emperor again had recourse to his expedient — always fruitless because always inopportune — of a congress.

The assembly, after debate, affirmed by a large majority that Caffyn's declaration, with his signature to 'the aforesaid expedient,' was sufficient and satisfactory.

The Kearny Air Pump is an expedient air pump used to ventilate a shelter.

One expedient adopted by General Millot to speed recruitment was to make use of deserters from the Black Flag Army.

The Soviets viewed the treaty as merely a necessary and expedient means to end the war.

Antonio, the committee recommended that "the expedient be remitted to the authorities of that jurisdiction to be reported on, and to the person in charge of San Antonio, in order that he may say in what condition that house was at the time the grant was made, so that it might be valued, and that community be indemnified, to avoid questions relative to the expedient, to the end that, after these proceedings are concluded, the respective approval may be given."

This expedient has since been generally considered satisfactory for most purposes and makes possible the use of the simpler Stephenson, Joy and Walschaerts motions.

Johanna's suspicions of Sweeney Todd's involvement lead her to the desperate and dangerous expedient of dressing up as a boy and entering Todd's employment, after his last assistant, Tobias Ragg, has been incarcerated in a madhouse.

Many other neologisms faded soon after they were first used; for example "expede", which is now all but obsolete, although the derivative "expedient" and the similar word "impede" survive.

Electrification was finally completed in 1986, using standard rolling stock, and the expedient of singling the track through the narrow tunnels.

Projecting an identity that was distinctly apart from the Malays was therefore not expedient.

Francis took the most circuitous, scenic, high, difficult route north and while returning south took the more expedient route on the way down.

The Crown found it expedient to send troublesome agitators such as William Prynne and John Lilburne to Mont Orgueil far from the realm of England.

Burkitt refers to "lawful recreation" as "both needful and expedient" in the perfecting of the people.