date

4 Oct 1803 Evidence Judicature
4 Oct 1803

Evidence

Judicature

Anonymous

2. Pecuniary interest - the lot of it brought into action in the primal[?] instance, so far as the application /action/ of it intends is a principle of considerable power, and capable in many instances of encountering with advantage the united force of the opposing motives. But in point of extent, it extends to but a very small part of the whole number of the individuals from whom so far as depends upon knowledge and power, information of the sort in question might be to be expected, were they prompted /if prompted/ to /by/ it by motives of sufficient efficacy. In the case of the professional smuggler his rivals among the fair traders are but here and there: his customers are every where. In the case of all assessed[?] or say direct taxes, the smuggler is cash deficient should contributer, the contributors in this case are still more numerous than customers in the other, and /but/ the deficient contributor has no natural adversary, correspondent to what the fair trader is to the professional smuggler to what /that which/ the professional smuggler has in the fair trader.

3. Sympathy for fair trader. This principle is scarcely distinguishable from the first mentioned principle public spirit: the case being such that the interests of the community at large and those of the fair trader coincide and run in the same direction, though that of the fair trader is in greater force. Setting aside the domestic connections of the fair trader (an interest which to this purposes is not distinct from his) if any particular sum[?] of sympathy is felt by him[?] for the fair trader in respect of the damage flowing upon him from the source, it is rather in his quality as member of the community that he gives rise to this emotion, and the emotion itself coincides with that of public spirit, enlivened[?] in more degree by the contemplation of the more particular object which it holds /that presents itself/ in view. The interest would be much stronger if in each individual instance it was known what was the precise amount of the damage sustained on a given occasion or within a given portion of time by each fair trader in consequence of the operations of each smuggler ore each knot /gang/ of smugglers. But this is scarce ever possible.
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    5. Sympathy towards the individual[?] delinquent - the smuggler on whose head the tendency of the information is to bring down punishment. Under the name /appellation/ of smuggler must for this purpose be understood not merely the habitual and professional smuggler but every individual whatever who, lying on any score under the legal obligation of saying furnishing contributions to the use of the public, seeks to evade the fulfillment of it.

    If on the one hand the restrictive motive the tendency of which is to restrain a man in such a case from giving open information are in this case more than ordinarily powerful /act in more than ordinary force/, on the other hand, in such stuff as the great majority of individual minds are composed of, the action of the inciting motives is more than ordinarily weak. These are 1. Public spirit. 2. Pecuniary interest in the part of the fair trader, who in respect of his traffic finds a competitor in the person of the smuggler. 3. Sympathy for the prejudices /Fair trader in respect of the damage/ flowing in upon him from that source.

    1. Public spirit. In combination with party enmity this principle is found in great abundance: in combination with national enmity in still greater. In the latter state it is found among all classes from the highest down to the very lowest from the least to the most numerous. A combination with love of power and /or/ love of reputation, or both together it is in certain countries /nations/ the leading countries /nations/ in particular such as France and England, among certain classes, over the leading classes by no means rare. But like every other down, love of power and love of reputation require a certain prospect of success: and it is only to certain classes, and in those classes to certain individuals that ny prospect of this kind lies open, in such sort as to operate in the character of a principle of action with any considerate force. In the physical world, gold is said to be by no means an uncommon element though except in a few favoured spots broke down into particles of such [...?] /smallness/ /scarcity/ and dispersion as to be of no commercial value. In the moral world, public spirit in a state perfectly pure, free from any of the combinations above spoken of, is much more rare than gold in the physical wold, and moreover when it does exist exists in particles of such [...?] [...?], as seldom indeed not to be capable in the character of of outweighing an existing motive the lightest article on the abovementioned list of restraining motives.
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    In the case where the mischief of the above finds /affords to/ no individual any person nature /motive of a personal nature/ for giving information of it the demand /need/ for this vehicle of intelligence is still more urgent. Sympathy for the public, antipathy against improbity, both of them modifications of Public spirit, to these pure and social motives especially if reinforced by the disocial motive of personal enmity towards a delinquent may urge a man with some considerable force urge man to convey to his superiors information the efforts of which if followed up would draw down punishment /censure/ on the heads of his delinquent colleagues. But in such case, under the /any such/ condition as that indispensable condition of open accusation what chance /security/ can there be of that degree of knowledge regularity /exactness/ of information which is necessary to the prevention of abuse when the only occasions on which it can be obtained are those rare and casual ones where the inciting force of enmity has burst through the restraints imposed by ordinary prudence? When the abuse is of such a nature that, the mischief of it /abuse/ without counting[?] any individual, falls exclusively on the public purse in[?] information given of it by a colleague to the prejudice of a colleague, is resented /almost seen to be/ by all as an act of treachery to all and a sort of civil excommunication, and much less intolerable than the ecclesiastical of old times is the natural and almost necessary consequence. What of the /case be of the number of those/ abuse in which the whole fraternity have their profit, and the removal of which would be felt by each of them as the private loss?
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