[xxxvi. 175]

1822 Aug. 14

Constitut. Code

Supreme Operative

Aristocracy

Lords - worse than Wolves

No advantage bearing reference to the greatest happiness of the greatest number - no

such advantage - did man ever attempt to bring to view in the character of a reason for

a House of Lords - for an assembly composed of members of the privileged order sitting

by hereditary succession or for life

Use /Service/ /Benefit/ to the Monarch yes: use /benefit/ to the Aristocracy, yes: to

the /a/ Monarchy it gives stability: to the Aristocracy in all its parts profit by

encrease of power profit by a share more or less considerable in the profit by /of/

legalized depredation: the House will not let the King have /come in for/ a share,

unless the King will let the House come in for a share

As to the greatest number - as to the great body of the people greater would be the

advantage to them if wolves in equal number or in a number by ever so much greater were

imported from a wolf country and turned out loose into the country: the wolves would in

process of time be shot /killed/, and for every wolf killed there would be a wolf skin

which would be good for something: the Lords though each of them would do more mischief

than many thousand wolves would not be killed, and if they were killed their skins would

not be put to any use.

If this be true for a man to propose a House of Lords is in other words to declare

himself a corruptionist: to the title of Liberal no better

pretensions has he than has the partizan of the most absolute Monarchy. The one is a

declared enemy of the people: the other an undeclared one: audacity is the character of

the one: imposition and treachery, of the other.
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  • Title: [[xxxvi. 144] 1822 July 16 Constitut]
    Description: [xxxvi. 144]

    1822 July 16

    Constitut. Code Rationale

    Supreme Operative

    I Monarch absolute

    II Monarch Limited

    III Aristocracy

    IV Monarcho-Aristocracy

    1. Borough-mongers subject.

    2 Why spoken of as paramount.

    ?. In a limited say rather a mixt Monarchy, the Aristocracy are not in practice co-equal with but dependent on and instruments of the Monarchy.

    In England the Borough-mongers are under the King not the King under the Borough-mongers.

    The King (it has been said) is in a state of subjection to the Borough-mongers. The party by whom this notion is adopted is the party of the people: it is on every occasion assumed, and argued upon as a principle. In relation to it, two questions will here present themselves. 1. Is it correct?: 2. Correct or /If/ incorrect to what cause is the use made of it to be attributed /what is the cause of its currency?/

    Question 1. Is it correct /true/? Answer. It is not. /untrue./ That they /the two powers/ act not in constant union, thus far is true. But, on each occasion whatsoever be the course taken by the union, it is by the will of the King not by the will of any power that that course is determined: not by the will of any other power whatsoever be the situation of it, or by what name so ever denominated.

    By Borough-mongers are meant the aggregate of the several individuals by whom the seats in the Commons House are filled. The cause why this denomination is employed will be mentioned in its place.

    What is here assumed is - that the Lords House in its corporate capacity is in fact /practice/ in a state of subjection to the Commons House. Thus much is true, manifest and undisputed. ( Quere whether to state the proofs)

    What is also assumed is that in a very large proportion the occupiers of the seats in the Commons House are located by individuals who have seats in the Lords House. This also is manifest and undisputed.
  • Title: [1818 Aug. 25 Things as they are or]
    Description: 1818 Aug. 25

    Things as they are or First lines &c.

    §.4. Instruments in Mixt Monarchy - Corruption

    {4}

    {11}

    {4}

    The English government /Monarchy/ is not a pure Monarchy. It is a mixt Monarchy. In it the Monarch has for his incumbrances not only an under-aristocracy called the House of Lords, but a sort of democratical representative body or at least the shadow of it called the House of Commons. Neither purchasable pleasure nor court service, nor standing army, nor so much as instruments for the carrying on the civil branch /business/ of government can he get so long as the forces of the Constitution remain unchanged without the consent of the sub[?] Aristocracy in an Assembly, and that of the sort of partially representative body in which what small portion of democracy /democratical government/ is to be found any where is to be found. The Members of the House of Lords are the declared and professed guardians of one anothers’ rights of the /that/ share of power of which they are respectively partakers. They exist not scarcely do they pretend /profess/ to exist for the use of the whole people, or for any use but that of the Monarch and that of one another: if any assignable service rendered by them or any of them as such to the people at large scarcely would any one real example be to be found. In their past and present existence consists, in the ground of public utility their sole title to future existence.

    The Members of the House of Commons are in profession and outward shew Guardians of the people’s rights such they accordingly profess /stile/ to be as often as in the formal language they have occasion to address themselves to the King /Monarch/, to the House of Lords, and to the people whose representatives they profess to be is - so many delegates, chosen by the people, and having in all parts the same interest with the people: chosen each of them by an adequate part of the people, chosen freely by that part, and not either in return for a bribe, or for fear of unjust suffering: chosen by the people by so many portions of the people /constituents/, in full persuasion of their pursuing each of them the interest of that the portion and thence all of them of the whole: chosen in that expectation, and thence liable each of them at any time to be removed from the trust /delegated power/ in the event of his being regarded by his constituents as having made a bad or even an insufficient use of it.
  • Title: [14 June 1804 Procedure Ch.]
    Description: 14 June 1804

    Procedure

    Ch. Basis

    [...?] 5. Rejective Causes

    The interests of the wolf are not more plainly and irreconcilably /diametrically/ opposite to those of the sheep, than those of the professional lawyer /have every where been/ are to those of the suitor: and to expect that at the time when the several existing /many of the several established/ plans of inquiry as/are[?] the way of judicial procedure ever instituted and brought to those present from, the interest of the suitors should have been the real object is exactly such as expectation as would be formed if it ever supposed /were any one to suppose/ that the security of the sheep would be the first object in a law[?] of march[?] prescribed by wolves.

    There stands the nature of the case, viewing /when viewed/considered/ a priori: viewed by the light of reason - reflected from the universally prevalent /dominant/ and universally known principles of nature, as [...fied?] by constant and universal experience. A very small share indeed of human reason applied to this subject, even this[?] among the subjects to which human reason is wont to apply itself - might have been sufficient to put the matter of doubt.

    Consider the matter a posteriori - back into the facts - this /these/ general conclusion of reason will find its confirmation in every page of history: to discover the sheep has every where been the first object and the first occupation of the wolves.