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24 Jan y 1810
Parl y Reform
Ch. 9 Seat Given
'.2. Mischief & corruption
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Neither in practice will the degree of dependence be frequently if ever /otherwise than very rarely/, so compleat as for the argument sake it is here supposed to be. As between individual and individual it would be extravagant to suppose the patron sticking by the incumbent as close as [...?] did to Telemachus, and in each particular question giving him his instructions - instructions destructive of his free will. For the delivery of such instructions, one occasion out of ten seems a large allowance. Well then on one occasion out of ten our hero for such he is by the supposition stands some hero or other engaged to give his vote according to direction given by another person of whom we have no more reason for thinking ill than ill than well. Be it so: but upon these terms he observes the power of doing on nine other occasions the good which otherwise it would not be in his power to do on any one. /so much as one./
By the supposition, the incumbent is a man of the patrons choice. Conformity of sentiment between them, and that to a considerable degree, especially upon points of primary importance, can /is/ therefore in this case the natural state of things.
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Title: [28 Dec r 1809 Parl y Reform]Description: 28 Dec r 1809 Parl y Reform Ch. Parl Corrupt I Members '.6. Corruption continued Corrupting individual 1. Mischief to public 2 First then let the dependence thus constituted, the dependence of the incumbent Member on his parliamentary patron, be a state of strict dependence. It is useless to enquire, in what various ways a dependence of this sort may have been constituted. For illustration let us take the most simple case. A /Incumbent a/ younger son of a Peer or rich /opulent/ commoner, dependent on his father for the quantum of his fortune: patron, the father aforesaid. {by the supposition (how rarely soever exemplified) the father has not at the time of the presentation any such situation under the King, or looking towards the favour of the Crown, /King,/ as has the effect of placing him under the King in a situation of dependence. {But though at the moment in question in this sense independent, yet in the instance of this as of any other man the next moment may find him in a state of dependence.}} In the event - and supposing his condition in this respect the same throughout the whole parliament - what in this respect will the condition of the patron be? If in a state of dependence, his condition is thereby taken out of the case here in question, and transferred into the one last /just/ spoken of. From the condition in which this one Member with his right of voting is placed results /to the country/ a real mischief to the country a mischief the nature of which has already been developed.
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Title: [24 Jan y 1810 Parl y Reform]Description: 24 Jan y 1810 Parl y Reform Ch. 9 Seat Gift '.3. Mischief to patron's mind 1 '.3. Mischief to the patron's mind Many words can not surely here be needful, to shew the immorality of the supposed mental mischief in the instance of this one of the dramatis personae here in question /character in our drama/, to shew that if in the instance of the presiding one it is ideal, in the instance of the present one it is still more manifestly so. The situation and course of action in which the patron places his dependent the incumbent is one in which there exists no moral wrong in which it is not in the nature of the case that the incumbent himself (who is the party chiefly benefited) should see any: still further then is it from being in the nature of the case that the patron should see any.
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Title: [22 Jan y. 1810 Parl y. Reform]Description: 22 Jan y. 1810 Parl y. Reform Influence Ch. Mischief '.1. 4 4 On any occasion in the course of this same period, suppose, for supposition sake, any other sinister interest to have obtained /commanded/ a majority, and that by the means of sinister influence, of the influence of will over will, it can only have been by means of the secret support, or through the inadvertence or the negligence on the part of /of/ the possessors that irresistible and all-commanding influence. By means indeed of authority, viz. intellectual authority - influence of that sort which is exercised by understanding over understanding may to an indefinite amount have fallen to the share of this or that individual, or to each one of an indefinite number of individuals: and if on any occasion by that sort of influence which is exercised by will on will wills thus endowed /armed/ with a sufficient mass intellectual authority can be influenced with effect, and efficient majority sufficient to exercise /exercising/ the power of the whole assembly may in this way be got together /up/ and commanded by sinister influence in /even in/ individual /private/ hands. But under so predominating an influence as that of the King how rarely, if ever, exemplified such particular sinister influence can have been, may be left to any one to determine.
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