date

18 Jan y 1810 Parl y. Reform
18 Jan y 1810

Parl y. Reform

Note

Ch.18 Sp.

'.3. Friendship continued

3 or 2

36

13

Hence it is that to that common-relative and highest and most powerful of public functionaries by whom to a certain degree the services of a father are always rendered to his people - in the greater degree and to the greater perfection in proportion as he renders /shews/ himself worthy of that name, the general character and disposition of a father are attributed /ascribed/, that so in virtue of the relation borne by him in common to them all, viewing in his person the central point and common bond of their affection, two subjects may be engaged to bear /nourish as/ towards one another some portion at least and that the amplest /largest[?]/ possible, of that sort of affection which is so natural and so happily frequent among brothers.

Hence it is that {foreigners} under the name of aliens, men of other countries /the subjects of other states/ in the pictures drawn of them in their political costume, are so often placed as it were at an exaggerated distance, that fellow subjects /children of the same father/ may with reference to one another be drawn as it were so much the closer and the nearer.

Hence it is that through the medium of praise in aid of that social affection the comparative weakness of which, particularly in that divided and diluted state in which it bears the names of patriotism and public spirit is felt so generally and so sensibly, the aid of the stronger affections notwithstanding the opposition, the irresistible opposition which in the character of rivals they are continually giving to it is under the pressure of necessity called in, and by all the contrivances which such necessity can suggest, endeavoured to be enlisted in its service, through the medium /by the instrumentality /mediation/ /intervention// of praise and honour, the love of reputation, and by the instrumentality of rewards even the self-regarding affections {are called in}. For in whatsoever degree it is insufficient of itself /how great soever may be the weakness under which it labours/ it is only from these its rival affections /other affections though its rivals/ that the more refined and generous affection can receive assistance.
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    Description: 2 Sep r 1809

    Parl y Reform : Necessity

    B. I. Necessity

    Ch. 18 Mischief of Idol worship

    Ch. Elogiums mischievous

    3

    1

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    1 Ellenboro’ should he punish men for false eulogy?

    2 Mischief of this eloquence when applied to probable successors. Most religious of

    gracious Kings

    3 Particular praise good: general, evidence of sycophancy.

    To this topic belongs the consideration of the tendency and effect of those elogiums

    which have the personal virtues of the Monarch for their themes.

    The indulgence of social affection is at once so natural so amiable and so

    beneficial /and so amiable/, the Monarch of the country is at once so conspicuous and

    so natural an object of it /that amiable affection/, the figure of speech by which

    this exalted personage is placed /seated/ in the imagination of every man and more

    especially of every woman /imagination of the public/ in the character of a common

    father, the efficient cause and cement of a correspondently kind affection the

    affection of fraternity on the part of his subjects, one towards another, that it is

    not reluctance /a certain amount of uneasiness/ that a man in whose bosom the

    dissocial affections do not predominate can bring himself to bring to view any

    considerations, by the effect of which it may happen that to the warmth of so

    generous an affection to be /find itself/ diminished. /A cap/ It is indeed a cap, but

    a cap which on so serious /important/ an occasion must not be put away.

    If indeed the effect of those elogiums terminated with what is most commonly though

    not always their professed object – if in a word they never had either for their

    effect or for their tendency the disposing men to take the supposed personal will of

    the Monarch (for it is scarce ever other than the supposed one) for the rule of

    action and standard of propriety and rule of action, the error of these elogiums

    supposing it such would by the supposition be a harmless one, and so far as it were

    embraced with security, would even be preferable to the truth.

    Sure I am that in my own instance it is matter of uneasiness to me to find myself

    doing what depends on me towards opposing checks and objections to to what taken in

    itself is so innocent as well as harmless an exercise. Neither the /any/

    qualification which it may be supposed capable of affording to the royal person who

    is the object, not any which it may be the lot of the performer to experience – most

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  • Title: [[…?] 1810[?] Parl y Reform]
    Description: […?] 1810[?]

    Parl y Reform

    Ch. 18

    Ch. 18 Mischief of Idol worship

    1

    1. Former case[?] while there was a pretender: i.e. till accession of Ge 3

    2. The practice continued after the case[?] – Causes of the continuance 1. Vis[?]

    inertia. 2. G.3. supposed youthful virtue. 3. Interested adulation.

    § 2 Former use of idol-worship now obsolete.

    Such praises must always be groundless: the true character of the King: viz. as to

    the disadvantageous points of it never can be known. The evidence is always garbled.

    What there is bad in it is throughout suppressed by the fear of punishment: what

    there is good in it is magnified. Whatever good /in the way of eloquence/ is said of

    it, there are always several causes of it, each of them more likely to have been

    productive of the eloquence than the truth is. 1. The sinister interest in which the

    eulogist is a partaker along with the king: 2. the prejudice begotten by that

    interest: 3. the prejudice begotten by the eloquence of others whose eloquence are

    derived from one or other of the above sources.

    While there was a pretender, the praises given to the King, true or false /due or

    undue/, were at the expence of the Pretender: now there is no Pretender so far as

    they are undue they are at the expence of the nation.

    Supposing them not to augment his power his personal power they would be not only

    innocent, but, (saving the mischief to the minds, moral or intellectual of the

    eulogists where undue) beneficial: viz: as cherishing the affection towards the King

    in the character of common father, and thence toward fellow subjects in the character

    of brethren

    Of a man in public trust and so far as concerns his trust

    We ought never to speak well, if so it be a man of whom it

    is not safe to speak ill, if so it be that it is not safe

    to speak ill of him. Why? because of every praise thus bestowed on him, is to

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    own private purposes.
  • Title: [18 Jan y 1810 Parl y. Reform]
    Description: 18 Jan y 1810

    Parl y. Reform

    Note

    Ch.18

    '.3. Friendship continued

    4 or 3

    37

    14

    Nor is the contradiction any other than apparent which a man falls into /engages in/ when he speaks of engaging selfishness in the service of social sympathy. You can not /That which, true it is that/ on any given occasion /individual occasion you can not do, is - to/ engage a man in a disinterested line of conduct by the force of reward, you cannot on one and the same occasion make it his interest to act disinterestedly. But what you can do is - by praise by honour in all the shapes you can contrive to dress it in you may engage a man in such sort by suitable meditation and suitable practice to train in and fashion the general mass of his affections, that on each particular occasion the part /law of nature/ most conducive to the public welfare may by the joint influence of all the forces that have been habitually employed /called to view/ in and of the social affection acting upon the largest scale a scale coextensive with the whole community, find in time a formed[?] disposition a propensity at least, even at the expence of self-regarding interest, especially in its grossest shape, the pecuniary shape, to pursue it.

    Such has been the constant and common endeavour of all [...?] and all politicians, and what uphill work what Sisyphian labour, they have always found, history shews in colours but too striking /glaring/. At this time of day is it the part of a man[?] wise politician - is it the part of an honest moralist - by any the slightest intimation, to seek or suffer himself to add to so vast a load of difficulty?