1
results found in
34 ms
Page 1
of 1
16 Jan y 1810
Parl y. Reform
'.1.
2
2
Of the two positions that have presented themselves to my view in that light one is that "in the election of Members to serve in this House", the "Influence" which "the possessions of property .... have" is a legitimate influence": viz. such as a man has a "right" to exercise - such as a man " ought to have", and such as ought be "a predominating influence".
Of the term rights, together with the /its/ attributive /adjunct/ legitimate here adjoined to it the intended import is seems to be put out of all doubt by the words ought to have. The object of them is to present {to view the more legal rights /sort of right /acts//, viz. the faculty of doing such acts as a man has a right to do has inasmuch as he can not be punished for the doing them /having done them/} to view the exercise of the sort of influence in question not merely in the character of an act which a man has a legal right to perform, inasmuch as he can not be punished for having performed it, but in the character of an act which in the event of his having performed he has not in so doing {infringed any moral obligation nor therefore incurred any just censure nor} done any thing which in consideration of its influence on the public welfare it were desirable that he should not have done /there is any sufficient reason for wishing that he had not done/.
Similar Items
-
Title: [nd [wm 1818] Benthamâs Radical]Description: nd [wm 1818] Benthamâs Radical Prelim II. Necessity 4 2 Look at that man who sits upon that bench. Suppose him to have committed a crime in any shape, and me to charge him with it, being at the same time able to prove it. Who in that case will be punished: he for having committed it? No: but I for having charged him with it. How so? on what ground is it that such a dispensation[?] of what is called justice can be defended? On this ground: that what in the way of supposition I have been speaking of as actual was impossible. No[?] impossible? Why, because being a Judge he is Member of Utopia of the Upper region of the State. By my supposition he has been guilty of /committed/ a crime but by the only authoritative and legitimate supposition this is impossible. In that practice it is no more possible for man to committ a crime than for God to committ one. By his doing it, that which if by an inhabitant of the lower region /Cacotopia/ would be a crime, is converted into a right /proper/ and laudable act, by the very circumstance of his doing it of its being he that did it.
-
Title: [2 Jan y 1810 Parl y. Reform]Description: 2 Jan y 1810 Parl y. Reform Ch.14 Electors '.4. Borough settling 16 4 4 The " legitimate right of influence" - this then would have been the footing on which the business and the borough would have been settled: Yes, the legitimate rights of influence, carrying themselves into effect by means of those " virtuous and generous motives of friendship", the prevalence of which , is on any one occasion of this sort is viewed in idea with so much complacency by these /the so often mentioned/ Right Honourable eyes so often mentioned. Beyond the man of future contingent piety, we can not, otherwise than in imagination, follow that sacred " possession of property" in which, had providence directed it into that channel, the piety would have found so suitable a reward. But why need we? "Friendship" was the motive that would have carried it the final step.: and, the gain not being called " dry" or " sordid", why should the same "virtuous and generous motive" have been less able to carry it on for any number of ulterior steps? I say any number, whatsoever might be the number necessary to be taken, in order that the peace of the borough, and of the mind of the great character its patron, might be reestablished and secured? { {I now proceed to exhibit} /Now follows/ a short {narrative} /history/ of a short enterprize, {an enterprize such as} /{the same} being/ Besides the light which it may serve to throw upon the present enquiry, the object and nature of it seemed to be such as should naturally bespeak an emotion of sympathy, in a bosom such as that Right Honorable and Official one the declared feelings of which there has been such frequent occasion to bring to view. The dramatic form in which it is here presented is the form in which it actually made its first appearance. In it may be seen the legitimate rights of influence acknowledged in all their plenitude - acknowledged by a pair of the greatest characters in the highest stricture[?] - the virtuous and generous motive, of friendliness and affection summoned at least if not called forth into action: and from first to last without an atom to be seen of that dry and sordid matter the very idea of which is sufficient to bring the fire of indignation into Right Honorable eyes.}
-
Title: [16 Jan y. 1810 Parl y. Reform]Description: 16 Jan y. 1810 Parl y. Reform 4 4 But that it can have been that species of influence that it was his intention to present to view in that light is more than I am able to persuade myself. For the "possessions of property" are the things which on this same occasion he speaks of as being the agents or instruments by which the species of influence which he had in view is exercised, {and how it is that by these instruments any influence should be exercised by the [...?]} how of /as to/ these instruments the ways in which by means of them the will of one man exercises {an} influence and that with the most irresistible efficacy on the will of another man are plain to every body and in the course of these pages have /are/ over and over been brought to view: but whereas of these same instruments of any way in which by means of them the undertaking of one man can exercise influence on the understanding of any other no /{not any}/ intimation not any even the most distant intimation have I been able to find in the course of this speech. That by the faculty it affords to a man of doing at pleasure good and even without fear of being punished for it, evil to multitudes of men in the character either of tenants or men having goods or labour to all a property of ,50,000 or ,100,000 a year will enable the possessor of it to exercise by his will influence on other wills in no small number is what every one sees without difficulty:
1
results found.
Page 1
of 1