date

1821 Sept. 30 + D ┴ 2 o or 3 o
1821 Sept. 30 + D ┴

2 o or 3 o

Letter VII Religion

Religion

Priesthoods opposition to God

19

7

1

An observation I had occasion to make above is that it is not without some limitation that the effects of the opposition made to the existing temporal Government by the priesthood in the present state of things are purely mischievous. In the present state of things I see resulting from it a portion of good to the quantity of which I know not how to attach any precise limit. The good I have to view is that which is done by reducing the strength of that part of existing government which is in the hands of the Representatives of the people, reducing it in such sort as to strengthen their dependence on that whole body of the subject many in which their constituents are included. The case is this.

Whatever may have been the design, the tendency of the Constitution as established by the Code is—to establish not a government consulting the interest /having for its object the greatest happiness/ of the greatest number but a government having for its object the greatest happiness of that portion of the community amongst whom is shared the whole of the operative power /branch/ of the government: to substitute to the monarchical despotism, a despotism by which the power with the fruits of it instead of being engrossed by a Monarch shall be shared by a Monarchy and an Aristocracy, the people being […?] and gained by the firm share of a supreme constitutive power lodged in appearance in their hands but which by a mixture of corruptive influence in the hands of the Monarch and the Aristocracy and a corrupt judicature applied to Election cases, all is reduced to a show, being divested of real influence.
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  • Title: [1821 Sept. 30 To Toreno 2 o]
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    Religion

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    Thus so circumstanced they are constantly at the devotion of the ruling powers of the possessors of the correspondent quantity of the power of patronage, who ever they happen to be. If the hands it is in are those of a single despot, they are at the devotion of a single despot: if those of a despot, sharing his power with an Aristocracy they are thus at the devotion of this more or less mitigated[?] despotism compounded of Monarchy and Aristocracy. But in either case they are at the devotion of an interest existing and incessantly acting in a state of hostility as towards the greatest happiness of the greatest number: hostility having for its instrument the mass of the matter of corruptive influence: the stock of it derived from the spiritual source being thus added to whatever stock there is that is derived from the temporal source.
  • Title: [1821 Sept. 22 New placed §.5 To Toreno]
    Description: 1821 Sept. 22 New placed §.5

    To Toreno

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    Letter VII Religion

    §.5 Mischievous people

    priestly support to Government

    6 {5}

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    But in proportion as at the expence of the greatest number it committs this waste, the government is—were it only by so doing—a bad government: nor in favour of /for/ any thing which it has ever done or can do towards diminishing this waste can it produce any justification but one which not only in that character but in that of an obligation will continue to apply, so long as there continues a particle of the pretious matter in question /continues/ unrestrained that could be resumed consistently with the regard due to the comfort of those individuals whose comfort forms as large a portion of the comfort of the same number of any other individuals does.

    A government in which, at the expence of the greatest happiness of the greatest number, wast in this or any other shape is committed, is in proportion to the quantity of this waste a corrupt and corruptive government. This being the case whatever exertions are by or on behalf of the greatest number made in the view of diminishing the quantity and influence of the /this/ corresponding corruption will be conducive /subservient/ to the interests of the /such/ greatest number; and will be so, /so it will be,/ notwithstanding any opposition made to it by the government /ruling few/ for the time being, and notwithstanding whatever opposition made in consequence to their power. Such[?], in this case /on this supposition,/ whatsoever evil effect is produced by the application of the influence of the priesthood to the business of government (meaning always temporal government)—is produced—not by opposition made, but by support given, to the supposed comparatively bad government.
  • Title: [1821 Oct. 27 B ? ┴ To Toreno]
    Description: 1821 Oct. 27 B ? ┴

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    § Positions on priestly influence

    Divide[?]? 1

    1

    On this subject /[…?]/ the subject of priestly influence having once touched upon it, and seen at the same time what is done in relation to it in the Constitutional and the proposed Penal Code /both Codes/, I know not how to avoid submitting to you some of my own notices in relation to this subject /it/, before I speak of those by which the arrangements I see in those several Codes in relation to this same subject My notions on this subject stand expressed in the following propositions

    1. In so far as either in the way /by means/ of punishment or by means of reward a government gives any support to priestly influence it produces the effect is preponderantly or rather purely mischievous.

    2. In so far for the support so given punishment is employed the character of the government is tyrannical.

    3. In so far as for the support so given reward is employed the government is predatory, wasteful corrupt and corruptive. In a representative government, the effect is to corrupt the peoples representatives: to engage them in a confederacy with the temporal rulers for the promotion of the particular interest of the confederacy to the sacrifice of the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Of the matter of reward The whole mass is the fruit of depredation, the expenditure of it is so much waste, and this waste , with or without design on the part of those by whom it is thus employed, operates on the people’s representatives with a corruptive effect

    4. In alliance with government, receiving support from it and giving support to it priestly influence operates by the whole amout of it in opposition to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of the people.

    5. If to an absolute Monarchy having an Ecclesiastical , a limited Monarchy limited by a Representative body be substituted, the priestly order will of course, so long as any chance of restoration for the old despotism appears be ardent in their endeavours to promote it, and will thereby be in a state of hostility with the new Government and the people.