036_160V.xml

Title: [[036-160v] 1821 Dec. 19 Codification]

Description: [036-160v]

1821 Dec. 19

Codification Proposal

'.10 Factit s remuneration bad

/'.5. Admission Universal/

VI

2

By the votaries of that spurious and barbarous substitute to law which ought never to be mentioned without reproach, nor can ever be mentioned with reproach adequate to its mischievousness, - institutions have been set on foot for everlasting augmentation of it, on pretence of everlasting elucidation institutions rendering darkness thicker and thicker, under the notion of augmenting light. To institutions of this sort, the appellation of a School of Jurisprudence may without impropriety be, and probably has been, applied. But how opposite in their nature are any such Schools of Jurisprudence and the here proposed School of Legislation! In that case money expended and the result a nuisance: a finite added to an already infinite nuisance: in this case, no money expended and the result pure good. In that case explanations are heaped upon explanations - explanations of that which not being in existence - not having any determinate words belonging to it - is essentially and for ever incapable of being explained. In that case the object of each founder and of each lecturer is - that with a view to judicial decision, his new matter thus poured in should, by as many men as possible, be read and studied in addition to the old: as if the greater the mass the easier it would be for the citizen to take it into his memory, and hold it there for use. How different is the case with the expected produce of the proposed legislation School! Having no pretence to be taken for law - having no pretence to be taken for a guide to judicial decision - no memory is endeavoured to be loaded with it: to him who feels disposed to apply his mind to the consideration of new matter destined for the field of law - to him and him alone is it adressed. True it is that, under a government in a nation in which the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the real end of every thing that is done in the way of government - true it is that in any such nation not an individual is there to whose situation it is incompetent to look into the body of the law in any of its parts with a legislator's eye. But this is what he may do or leave undone with equal security till he actually does so, no claim will the produce of the legislation School, or any part of it put in for his attention: and whatever part does, he will without danger of personal inconvenience be at liberty to look to or to leave unlooked to as he feels inclined.

036_191V.xml

Title: [[036-191v] 1821 Aug. 19 Codification]

Description: [036-191v]

1821 Aug. 19

Codification Offer

Abridgm t

'.9. Draughtsman gratuitous /'.10. Legislation School/

/'.2. Advantages/

Be the sort of work what it may, the stronger a man's relish for it, other things being equal, the higher is the degree of aptitude he is likely to give to it: and without some degree of relish that any tolerable degree of aptitude should be given to any such work is next to impossible. The more persevering the course of labour necessary to the execution of the work, the more indispensable is this relish, /is the possession of the qualification thus denominated,/ in the character of a necessary condition to the aptitude of the work so executed. Suppose no reward attached in any factitious shape, the probability is - that the natural reward will be put in for by all by whom the relish is possessed and by none by whom it is not possessed: by all with the exception of those men who stand excluded by inability to find the means of subsistence during that time. Apply the factitious reward the probability is that it will be put in for by those and those only, who to a relish for the factitious reward - say in a word for money - add a hope sufficiently assured, of being taken for objects of preference, by those in whose hands the power of patronage is regarded as being lodged.

132-181.xml

Title: [nd [wm 1818] + To Erskine ult]

Description: nd [wm 1818] +

To Erskine

ult o

Lett. 6. E. Anti Reformist

§ 7.5. Petitions rely on

5

3

47

6

{Had I a petition to draw /for refer/ for the people of Britain and Ireland I would drench Honourable House the beverage it insists on till its gorge rose at it /it cried mercy/: till every /each/ Honourable cheek turned pale at the real reproach seen through the extorted covering { Satis te eo quod satiste satiate yourself /surfeit yourselves/ with that poison for which alone you have any relish.} Nor would /could/ these after this declaration plain as it is, in any such perfect excess so much as “colourable could any pretence be found for that rejection pretences for which are looked out for so persevering an eagerness: since /for/ nothing hinders an address[?] pursued with one sort of affection /in one view/ /of one sort/ may be adopted and joined /signed/ in a quite different one}

For these fifty years and more, with eyes more or less comprehensive and attentive, I have looked into the {state of} laws and government in most civilized countries, in times past and present: and in no one instance have I ever descried the marks of any such well-considered as well as passionate attachment to falshood, as in this country the book of law and government displays in every page of it.

If to hate falshood is to hate the constitution, whose fault is it?

Knowing all this {falshood} – seeing all this falshood – all this falshood continually staring him in the face, up gets a man with a grave face, and thinks he is covering another with merited opprobrium when he says to him “Sir, You are an enemy to English institutions.” To any /every/ such person the answer may be – So then, Sir, You think it matter of reproach to a man to be an enemy to English institutions, but not so to be an enemy to truth /sincerity/, to justice, to good government, virtue public and private, and all those blessings that depend on it.