132-171.xml

Title: [1819 July 9 To Erskine ult]

Description: 1819 July 9

To Erskine

ult o

Lett. 6. E. AntiReformist

§ 7. § 5. Petitions rely on

38

3

But no: what Your Lordship means is not the inward sentiment – it is the outward and visible sign and nothing more that in such a sense Your Lordship or any man in Your Lordships situation /place/ can mean – that and nothing more. That which can always be forced is the outward sign: that which can never be forced is the inward sentiment: even supposing that before the force was applied the inward sentiment had place, the force is sufficient and is sure to expel it. {Respect or esteem mixt with more or less of fear: though of fear a slight and not commonly perceptible dash may be sufficient:} when force is the instrument employed {the} fear may be magnified to any amount: but {the} esteem is banished. By tyrants in general – even by Honourable House in particular, though, Honourable House is so far from being a tyrant, wherefore there is the outward and visible sign so constantly and unconcernedly as we see, freed? because by the fear which is all that remains of the inward sentiment the fear manifested by him from whom the outward sign is extorted, correspondent fear, is extorted from others: correspondent fear and those /that/ submissions which are the fruit of it.

132-168.xml

Title: [1819 June 7 To Erskine ult]

Description: 1819 June 7

To Erskine

ult o

Lett. 6. E. AntiReformist

§ 6. 4. Spontaneity rely on

2

35

2

and in particular on the occasion of the phrase “ it shall be the free spontaneous act of the House of Commons, or through respectful petitions” as above, after hunting through more than a page for the antecedent substantive, on which the import of the pronoun relative it depends, I have been forced to give up the pursuit as hopeless.

Be this as it may, in this condition I see a sort of alternative: the designation of two sets of operations or courses, by either of which the so highly desirable disposition may be brought into act. These are – 1. “the spontaneous act of the House of Commons; 2. “respectful petition of the people”, meaning, I presume, the acts respectively performed, in and by the presentation of such respectful petitions.

This I find in p. 29: and in p. 28. at more than a page distance, in the course, but still far removed from the beginning, of this breath-exhausting pair of sentences, in which all things imaginable are strung together, I observe accordingly these other words – “if Parliament should be disposed, either spontaneously, or in compliance with respectful petitions of the people, to consider &c and should fearlessly enact,” and so forth.

Here then are two causes /incidents/ presented to us, each of them as a cause likely to come into operation, each of them as an incident which we are called upon to regard as being to a certain degree probable: namely to such a degree, that the existence of one or other of them ought to be relied on by us as being sure to take effect; acted on; and that in such sort as to prevent our harbouring a thought of bringing about a state of things confessedly so desirable.

In this place that one of the two which calls for consideration is the alledged /supposed/ “free spontaneous act” of Honourable House. Why? – because the sort of instruments in question, namely petitions from the people, though easily spoken of, are, as I shall have occasion to remind Your Lordship, not quite so easily brought into existence and presented; and because if on the part of Honourable House any such […?] beneficent despotism really has place, it would be a loss to both parties if it were prevented from {manifest}ing {itself}, and ripening into act, and thus displaying before the eyes of – an admiring and grateful people.

132-181.xml

Title: [nd [wm 1818] + To Erskine ult]

Description: nd [wm 1818] +

To Erskine

ult o

Lett. 6. E. Anti Reformist

§ 7.5. Petitions rely on

5

3

47

6

{Had I a petition to draw /for refer/ for the people of Britain and Ireland I would drench Honourable House the beverage it insists on till its gorge rose at it /it cried mercy/: till every /each/ Honourable cheek turned pale at the real reproach seen through the extorted covering { Satis te eo quod satiste satiate yourself /surfeit yourselves/ with that poison for which alone you have any relish.} Nor would /could/ these after this declaration plain as it is, in any such perfect excess so much as “colourable could any pretence be found for that rejection pretences for which are looked out for so persevering an eagerness: since /for/ nothing hinders an address[?] pursued with one sort of affection /in one view/ /of one sort/ may be adopted and joined /signed/ in a quite different one}

For these fifty years and more, with eyes more or less comprehensive and attentive, I have looked into the {state of} laws and government in most civilized countries, in times past and present: and in no one instance have I ever descried the marks of any such well-considered as well as passionate attachment to falshood, as in this country the book of law and government displays in every page of it.

If to hate falshood is to hate the constitution, whose fault is it?

Knowing all this {falshood} – seeing all this falshood – all this falshood continually staring him in the face, up gets a man with a grave face, and thinks he is covering another with merited opprobrium when he says to him “Sir, You are an enemy to English institutions.” To any /every/ such person the answer may be – So then, Sir, You think it matter of reproach to a man to be an enemy to English institutions, but not so to be an enemy to truth /sincerity/, to justice, to good government, virtue public and private, and all those blessings that depend on it.