JB_172_200.xml

Title: [1821 Feb y 29 Rid Yourselves]

Description: 1821 Feb y 29

Rid Yourselves

'.1. Interests concerned

II. Clergy

[J.B. to J.B. Quere whether this paragraph or any part of it should

be employed the Spain as Portugal.]

Whatever labour is bestowed in the production of the wealth employed

in defraying the personal expence of any Member of the Clerical order, over and above

what is voluntarily bestowed upon him for professional service, or employed in a

manner, not merely useless, but worse than useless. It is accepted by him, in

comtempt and defiance of the precepts of him by whom it was said (Luke x. 24) how

hard is it for those that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God".

In deeds - evidence made more conclusive than it is in the power of

words to be - in deeds it is a declaration of unbelief in the chosen authority of

that precept. In riches - that is to say in the corruption and delusion which in

proportion as they are thus bestowed and employed they diffuse - in rulers and rulers

alone is the trust of all those, who, in pretence of support given to the religion of

Jesus, contribute to the employment thus given to rulers. The greater the share a man

has in thus mass of the objects of general desire without labour, the less is the

inducement to him to bestow labour: to bestow it in the rendering of unfit service,

in that shape or any other.

In principle, the employing rulers in seducing the teachers of

religion from their professional duty is the more accordant with the Catholic, than

with the Protestant, edition[?] of the religion of Jesus.

If wealth in Clerical hands, in masses as large as those in which it

is thus lodged, where that religion put upon the official Establishment, were

necessary to Catholicism, four fifths of the population of Ireland, in numbers about

four millions, would, through Catholics in all other respects, stand excommunicated

for deficiency in opulence for the word of that qualification, which, by the founder of the same religion was in the most

pointed manner, pronounced a cause of disqualification: not

to say of exclusion from his Churches +

+ Insert here a quotation or two from the Vulgate.

JB_172_237.xml

Title: [1821. Aug. 5 Rid Yourselves]

Description: 1821. Aug. 5

Rid Yourselves

Lett 2. Interests concerned

would, of itself, suffice to afford not merely an instructive, but a

most perfectly conclusive, example. Under al the hardships imposed by the spirit

unfeeling and unchangeably despotic and oppressive spirit of the English Government,

has the Catholic population since the Revolution for example diminished? no: it

has + encreased: it has more than doubled trebled: it has

received greater encrease than the dominating sect has.

To the case of both of these sections of the clergy, the same

observation applies, which applies to the case of the Royal

family and their dependents, as to the regard due

to the present possession and established expectancy. But, as applied to the case of the clergy, retrenchment derives facility from a particular

circumstance, which has no place in that other case. This, as every body sees, is celibacy: a circumstance, whereby that portion of the demand

for maintenance which regards wife and children stands

defalcated.

Suppose retrenchment applied to this

class,- if, in any number, actual possessors, or expectants in established

expectancy, remained uncompensated or inadequately compensated, whatever were that

number, a proportionable quantity of suffering - of sensible

evil - of the only real evil - would be produced.

On the other hand, so long as all were adequately compensated, the whole mass of the property at any given time

existing in such hands, might be applied to the exigencies of the whole nation, and

yet no sensible evil - no real

evil - be produced.

Whatever labour is bestowed on /has been destined to/ the production

of the wealth employed in defraying the personal expense of any member of the clerical order, over and above what is voluntarily bestowed

upon him for professional service, is employed in a manner /has been destined to a

purpose/ not merely useless, but much worse than useless. It has moreover been

accepted by him, in contempt and defiance of the precepts of Him by whom it was said

(Luke X. 24) - " how hard is it for them that trust in riches to

enter into the Kingdom of God!" In deeds - evidence

so much more conclusive than it is in the power of words to be - in deeds, it is a

declaration of unbelief in the divine authority of that precept. In riches - (that is to say, in the corruptive and delusion, which, in proportion as

they are thus bestowed and employed, they diffuse) - in riches and riches alone, is the trust of all

those, who, on pretence of support given to the religion of

Jesus contribute to

the employment

Note

In the Table exhibiting an Abstract of the Population in Ireland

lately printed for the use of the House of Commons, See Ed. Review for the years

1820. No. p

JB_164_254.xml

Title: [[clxiv. 254] 1820 Aug. 9 Constitut]

Description: [clxiv. 254]

1820 Aug. 9

Constitut. Code Emancipation Spanish

Summary

Corruptive influence

CC. Delusion - its Mischievousness - affords pretence to depredation.

It is no less incompatible with sincerity. For those who seek their profit in the mischievous power so lodged are not themselves such infants /so blind/ in discernment as to entertain the supposition they are so anxious to inculcate For inculcating it they therefore /accordingly/ employ every means of delusion which the nature of the case affords.

Knowing the impressive influence with which the possession of riches /the matter of wealth/, independent /exclusive/ of all political power in the shape of direct command makes on all who are witnesses /eye-witnesses/ of it and the influence which it accordingly enables him to exercise on the minds of men in proportion as they have less and less of it /Knowing that it is only in proportion to a mans riches /wealth/ that it is possible for him to be bountiful, and that thence, by an unhappy and most delusive tie the idea of benevolence stands associated with the idea of opulence/, it is a maxim with them to accumulate in the lap of that one individual the greatest possible quantity of wealth, and this not only that they may have /their shares may be/ so much in which to participate but that the whole system of misrule to which their profit is attached may receive so much the greater security: and in the words splendour of the Crown dignity of the crown, necessity of splendor lustre and dignity to the maintenance of the power of the Crown this policy this fraud stands not only betrayed but openly confessed.

Here then are two ends - encrease to be given to the share in plunderage the concealed end, corruptive and delusive influence /effect to be given to imposture and imposition and deception/ ever the avowed end.

The object of the deception is to inculcate the notion that by the matter of opulence /wealth/ appropriate aptitude for the business of government is lodged in the mind of him in whose hands /pocket/ the matter of wealth is lodged: appropriate aptitude in all those its elements by the union of which it is constituted