date

24 Jan y 1810 Parl y. Reform
24 Jan y 1810

Parl y. Reform

Ch. 9 Seat Given

'.2.

2

To draw off attention /the battle/ from realities, the artificer of Venus has been resorted to, a number of /divers/ phantoms have been set up /presented/ in the character of serious evils: thus comes the necessity /hence the task/ of shewing that they are phantoms.

In this case what we see is a man /an individual/ who to obtain a seat in parliament /the House of Commons/ has placed himself for and during his continuance in that situation in a state of dependence under some other individual to whom he is indebted for it. But in the state of things thus produced no mischief worth regarding could be upon an enquiry made without /not exposed to misguidance by/ any personal interest, be discovered. I who derive no advantage from this state of things can not perceive in it any mischief worth regarding: any such self inculpative perception with /on/ degree /ground/ of reason can I ascribe it to a person whose eyes even if there were any mischief in the case would so naturally be closed against /turned aside from/ it.

I do not see any thing wrong in it: how can I suppose that he does. Doing as he does, he has no conception of his doing anything wrong: even admitting thus what can not be admitted /is he [...?] to be/, that there is something wrong, and in that respect that there exists a corresponding spot in the intellectual part of his frame, yet to the moral part which alone is here in question it extends not.
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    But to the present purpose of the present question " limit or continuation" as applied to mind - viz. to the mind of the seller of the seat, which in the present section is the subject of inquiry, or to that of the buyer of the seat which in the last section was the subject of inquiry, all these are distinctions without difference. So long as the system exists, no mischief other than that of the system itself results in any individual inclusion from the acting[?] under it. Approving the system, or what comes to the same thing, disapproving the /all/ idea of reforming /a reform in/ it no man can in his own mind believe that he does wrong in acting under it. As little can /could/ he although ever so disapproving the system, his wishes /desire/ to see it reformed were ever so strenuous and sincere. For supposing it to be reformed, how is it to be reformed but by the aid of hands already in the House? and how are any hands to find their way into the House but by such ways as give admission to it?

    The buyer it has been shewn above does no wrong, thinks no wrong, in buying the seat: the seller, doing no wrong, how is it that he can think himself to be doing wrong, in selling it.
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    '.2. Mischief to the mind of the bribed Elector.

    The less a mischief really is, the less it is likely to be {- not to say sure to be -} in the eyes of any person exercised in the production of it.

    Even When the votes necessary to the filling of a seat are all sold in the lump by the patron of the borough, even in that case /wholesale way of dealing/, unless the existing system of parliamentary representation be to such a degree bad, as to be fit for nothing but to be subverted, this way /mode/ of filling a seat, so far from being attended with any superior mischief is, for the reasons that have been given, less pernicious than the gratuitous[?] made: and if the system be bad, still this mode of filling a seat is of all modes of filling it but that which in case of the subversion of the system would be the universal one the least bad.

    As /Seeing thus in the existing state of things/ I should not myself think that I myself was doing any thing bad, or that I need be ashamed of if wanting a seat and having money I bought a seat of the individual who had one to sell, or having a seat and wanting money I sold my seat to any man /a customer/ who wanted to buy one, so I should not expect to find that in the like case any such self condemnation in the breast of any one else /another bosom/.
  • Title: [21 Dec r 1809 Parl y Reform]
    Description: 21 Dec r 1809

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    {'.3. Mischief to the mind of the individual corrupted /seller of the seat/}

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    But he thinks he is doing wrong: and thinking it, he does do wrong: if against nothing else, he sins against his own conscience: he stands self-convicted of universal [...?]

    No: he does not think any such thing: why should he?

    Is any specific mischief likely to be the result of what he does? Looking out for any such mischief, he finds none. /In none would he put himself upon the [...?] [...?]/}

    Is it that in a transaction of this sort there is any thing that by public opinion is condemned as wrong? /reprobated?/ is it so thought of by the highest authority? by great characters in high situations? by those who in respect of height of situation at least, are the most competent judges?

    No - that it is not: of that he has the best evidence viz. their own conduct if in this instance conduct is to be received as interpreter of thought.

    If in this practice there were any thing that in their opinion were wrong, it rests with them to put a stop to it /to render it impossible/ altogether. Nothing could be easier to them than to render it impossible. If while the duration of the seat were so short as not to be worth paying for votes were given in such manner, viz by ballot, that supposing a man to have received a bribe /the money/ it could not be known whether he had earnt it, under either of these circumstances much more than under both, votes never would be bought. /If the number of the voters were in each electoral district too great for the greatest quantity of the matter of corruption that could be bought./ To whom is there that this can be a secret?

    Reason or authority: by one or other of these two guides every understanding so far as conduct depends upon cool understanding is on every occasion determined. Ask /Refer the matter to/ Reason there is no harm in the practice: refer it to authority, there is still no harm in it. For to what higher authority can a question be referred, than to that of King, Lords and Commons.