date

[copyist’s hand] nd B
[copyist’s hand]

nd

B

To Erskine

1

7.

III. Foundation laid for efficient Parliamentary reform.

That of this means of national salvation there has been at different times, no small shew is to a certain degree matter of notoriety: though such are the | | indirectly applied by these self stile protectors of liberty upon the liberty of the press not near so notorious as could be wished.

Whether, from first to last, there has even been any thing in intention, howsoever it may have been in effect, more than show, it will be the endeavour of these letters to render manifest to every eye that can endure to keep itself open to the enquiry.

Against misrule, there never has been, there never can be, any tolerable security, any further than in proportion as the choice of those by whom rule is exercised, is in the hands of those who, in proportion to the enormity of the misrule, are sufferers. But with the exception of a case in which it falls as above upon their own heads and shoulders, in no shape can misrule exercise itself the Whigs are as | | shearers in the profits of it: theirs being the expectancy of that which their more prosperous antagonists are in possession. In the mean time they are, and even in possession, sharers in the channel through which that profit in proportion as it is acquired flows: viz the part they have in Saint Stephen’s. In proportion as they lost their seats, they would lose not only that prospect as above, of a share in the more tangible profits of misrule, but moreover no small share of profit in possession: profit by the sweets of that domestic tyranny, which they are thereby enabled to exercise over their neighbours; and whether in fact they do or do not exercise it, profit by the gratification, which the faculty of exercising it at any time is continually administering to their pride. It therefore is, and ever was, and ever will be, inconsistent with the nature of man, that, in a body or in any considerable proportion of that body they should be made to relinquish such shares as they respectively have in the mass of aristocratic power by any other means, than those by the force of which the British Parliament were in 1782 engaged to give up a part of the tyranny they had so long been exercising over the Irish Nation, and those by which, in 1789, the aristocratical body composed of the 80,000 French Noblesse gave up – all in one day, so large a portion of that power under the | | of which the thirty millions had for so many centuries been crushed.
Similar Items
  • Title: [1819 Mar. 22 + To Erskine II]
    Description: 1819 Mar. 22 +

    To Erskine

    II. Whig Merits

    §.3. J.B’s Remarks

    11

    5

    9

    III. Foundation laid for official Parliamentary reform.

    That of this means of national salvation there has been at different times no small shew is to a certain degree matter of notoriety: though such are the shackles indirectly applied / imposed/ by those self-stiled protectors of liberty upon the liberty of the press not near so notorious as could be wished.

    Whether, from first to last, there has in intention, howsoever it may have been in effect, ever been any thing more than show, it will be the endeavour of these letters to render manifest to every eye that can endure to keep itself open to the enquiry.

    Against misrule, there never has been, there never can be, any tolerable security, any farther than in proportion as the choice of those by whom rule is exercised, is in the hands of those who, in proportion to the enormity of the misrule, are sufferers. But with the exception of the case, in which it falls, as above, upon their own heads and shoulders, in no shape can misrule exercise itself, but the Whigs are as such sharers in the profits of it: theirs being the expectancy of that which their more prosperous antagonists are in possession. In the mean time they are, and even in possession, sharers in the channel or through which that profit in proportion as it is acquired flows: namely the part they have in Saint Stephen’s. In proportion as they lost their seats, they would lose not only their prospect, as above, of a share in the more tangible profits of misrule, but moreover no small share of profit in possession: profit by the sweets of that domestic tyranny, which they are thereby enabled to exercise over their neighbours: and whether they do or do not exercise it, profit by the gratification, which the faculty of exercising it at any time is continually administering to their pride. It therefore is, and ever was, and ever will be, inconsistent with the nature of man, that, in a body or in any considerable proportion of that body they should be made /engaged/ to relinquish such shares, as they respectively have in the mass of aristocratic power by any other means, than those by the force of which the British Parliament were, in 1782, engaged to give up a part of the tyranny they had so long been exercising over the

    Irish
  • Title: [1819 May 9 To Erskine Lett]
    Description: 1819 May 9

    To Erskine

    Lett. 6. Es /Whigs/ Anti-Reform labours

    2

    5

    2

    3. That in the whole tenor of the conduct of the body of men in question I have never been able to discover any sufficient reason /symptom/ – I might say any reason whatever for supposing on their part a disposition to self-sacrifice in the shape in question viz. that of parliamentary power, or indeed /in truth/ in any other shape.

    4. The shapes in which such self-sacrifice would have to manifest itself are obviously these two /three/: 1. sacrifice by the greater or less degree of uncertainty which by the change in question would be made to attach upon their possession of such seats as are at present in their possession, compared with the degree of certainty which has place at present.

    5. 2 Sacrifice after whatever expectancy they may respectively have of that part of the profit of official patronage which composes the difference between the amount of it under the existing wasteful system, and the amount to which it would be reduced if /supposing it to have no other measure than that which would be set to it by/ the expences of the universal interest were to be the sole measure of it.

    6. 3. Sacrifice of the present /existing/ quantity of comfort /personal advantage/ which is produced by an unlimited licence for /liberty of/ non-attendance {and under and by virtue of that licence by actual non-attendance on every occasion except those on which attendance has some special personal interest in the shape of business or at any rate of amusement for its cause.} /unless those who in consideration of attendance receive special pay in the shape of official emolument/ of which licence the consequence is that the situation of a Member of Parliament is universally a situation to which a large share of power is attached unclogged by obligation in any shape: that is to say of despotic and tyrannical power: for power unclogged /unaccompanied/ with obligation be not tyranny, it seems not very easy to say what is tyranny, nor to shew that tyranny exists in greater perfection in Morocco or Constantinople than in Westminster.
  • Title: [1819 Aug. 28 Defence ag t Ed. Review]
    Description: 1819 Aug. 28

    Defence ag t Ed. Review

    Beginning

    6

    The holders of those offices to which the greatest share of power is attached, are stiled Members of Administration, and in the aggregate are called the Ministry: and that all punishment in case of abuse of the powers of office may be plainly impossible, are holders likewise of seats.

    Those who without being holders of offices are holders of seats, being of course desirous of Offices coalesce naturally into a party, called in the aggregate the Opposition, and from a name which had been given to the Opposition in former days, the Whigs.

    In proportion to the number of seats which they can command they are thus sharers in possession of all that mass of power to which no immediate profit is attached, and in expectancy even of that to which all immediate profit is attached They are thus at all time part and parcel of those by whom the power of government is exercised partakers of that power and at the same time of that sinister interest by which by means of the power a constant sacrifice is made to their own interest of the interest of the subject many over whom the power is exercised.

    Being descended some of them, from some of those of whom under Charles the 2 d the Opposition was composed, and who had a principal share in the Revolution by which his immediate successor was dethroned, they commonly as a means of /for a ground of/ obtaining popular favour, make profession of a congeniality of opinions and affections with those of their ancestors.

    In interest and consequently in affection they are little if any thing less decidedly hostile to the subject many than their most successful adversaries, the Administration, called by a correspondent allusion, the Tories. But so unfortunate and embarrassing is their situation, in the course of the perpetual attack which they are perpetually making on their Tories, in the hope of causing them to be removed from their offices, and themselves placed in their stead, they have no means of operation but such as consist in the exposure of misrule with its sinister profits: and thus, while supporting the interests of the subject many, who are alike the objects of contempt and in so far as they […?], of aversion to both parties, they have no means of endeavouring to serve their own interest in one shape but by disserving them in another.