date

1818 Sept. 9 Appendix Boroughmongers
1818 Sept. 9

Appendix

Boroughmongers

3

9

3

circumstances. In this state of things, that /if in /by/ the existence of/ the additional circumstance in question, to wit that in the property thus held in common there are some shares that are in the habit of being sold, and some others that might be capable of being sold, no considerable addition if any is made to the mischievousness of the system no change for the worse made but rather a change for the better made in it, still the main mischief remains to wit the existence of this sort of property itself: if a in the shape and with the effects of property the sort of power in question – a sort of power thus divided into shares did not exist, no such shares could be sold: in a word if there were no Borough-holders there could be no Borough-mongers: always remembered that it is in the holding of those Boroughs that is of the seats belonging to them that the real mischief consists: in the holding and not in the mongering of them: and that if, supposing it possible, the mongering could be done away /abolished/, the holding still continuing, the effect of such abolition would be rather to encrease the evil than to diminish it.
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  • Title: [1818 Sept. 9. Things as they are]
    Description: 1818 Sept. 9.

    Things as they are

    Appendix

    Borough mongers

    3

    3

    5 That in this state of things the interest of the Monarch is in opposition /opposite/ to the interest of those so called Borough mongers: and their aggregate interest opposite to his.

    6. That moreover as to what regards the people at large, the interest of the Monarch if not identical with /agreeing /in agreement/ with/ that of the people in all its points, is so at any rate in this point viz in being adverse to that of the so-called Borough-mongers: for that so it is that by the Boroughmongers dominion is exercised not only over the people, but over him, and through /th/ him over the people and that it is by the /a/ dominion that /which/ they exercise over him that they exercise the dominion which they exercise over the people

    7. That accordingly in the actual state of things it is the interest of the Monarch that to the dominion of the so called Borough mongers there should be an end: in so much that /for that/ if this same dominion were at an end, power possessed and exercised by the Monarch would be greater than the power possessed and exercised by him at present.

    8. That whereas by the proposed system of radical reform the power /dominion/ of these so-called Borough minders would be put to an end, so it is that under the proposed system of radical reform the effective power possessed and exercised by the Monarch would be greater than the power possessed and exercised by him at present.
  • Title: [1818 Sept. 9. Things as they are]
    Description: 1818 Sept. 9.

    Things as they are

    Appendix

    Borough Mongers

    §.1.

    5

    5

    What is true is – that to the Monarch it belongs to dissolve the Parliament and with it the House of Commons whenever he pleases: 2. that in the hands of the Monarch alone is the power of appointment with regard to all offices and of removal at pleasure in regard to the greatest part of the value[?] of whole mass, purse and pay taken together: 3. that in the hands of the Monarch alone is the whole of the military power, by sea and by land, over regulars and over non-regulars and that in no one of these powers are the so-called Borough mongers either collectively or individually considered partakers.

    On the other hand what is no less true is that of the persons appointed by these so called Borough Mongers /these Borough mongers and the persons appointed by them/ is composed a considerable majority of the Members of the House of Commons: true it is moreover /perhaps/ that by a dissolution of Parliament it would not at any time be in the power of the Monarch to destroy their effective power to reduce their habitual majority to a minority.

    But to the members of this set of Borough mongers the object of concupiscence, those objects by which alone /principally/ such their condition is rendered valuable to them are many by office and commission – power by peerage bishopricks and inferior office, and fictitious dignity in all its various shapes, and by any other hand than his /without his concurrence thought[?]/ not one of all these good things is there any one of them that could ever possess himself of.
  • Title: [1819 May 15 I Disfranchising II Boroughmongers]
    Description: 1819 May 15

    I Disfranchising II Boroughmongers Apology.

    Disfranchisement

    §.2[?] […?]disfranchised

    3

    1. As to the mode /that one to which it confines itself of the two modes/ in which the sinister influence may be and is applied. Such I say is the effect of this inadequate application, that the evil thus complained of is[?] the only one might be thus compleatly eradicated removed and the state of the representation and the condition of the county in consequence instead of being bettered rendered so much the worse

    Suppose all Borough-rights /Elections/ extinguished: and for example the faculty of filling the seats transferred to the Hundreds or other Territorial districts in any degree larger, in which those Boroughs are respectively situated. In this case either terrorism would be compleatly substituted to bribery, or in addition to terrorism, bribery to an unlimited amount perhaps to a greater one than Crassus[?] could continue the persons[?] of the individuals by whom the bribes were received being to an extent more or less considerable changed – together with the amount of the money given to each in the way of bribe. As to the power therefore no change would be produced other than a change for the worst.

    2 Even admitting that terrorism is not more mischievous than bribery or even that of the two modes of producing unfree and spurious votes, namely terrorism and bribery, bribery is the only one that is pernicious, – even admitting that for the purpose of the argument, still the effect of the term[?] Borough-mongering would be /is/ to produce deception, since it does not place the alledged evil on its true ground.

    For the seats in question suppose none of them ever sold: whether possible or no, suppose for the purpose of the argument the matter so arranged, that it were become visible /manifest/ to all men that no seat could ever be sold. Where would be the benefit? Not any. The seats would pass from possessor to possessor like entailed Estates. They would continue in the same families with a degree of permanence equal to that with which landed property at large does so: for I suppose it would not be proposed by any body to give to the /this/ continuance any greater degree of permanence.