167_183.xml

Title: [1821 April 2 Rid Yourselves.]

Description: 1821 April 2

Rid Yourselves.

Ultramaria Deputat. none

A province then there is in which no such indispensable census is in existence. Yet without, no deputation from that Province can be made /come into existence/. The census for the as yet uncensured Province - how then is it to come /can it come/ into existence?

Oh says an Advocate of the Code, there exists /will be in existence/ the Art. 325 there will be in existence If in this Province a /governing body called/ a Provincial deputation and of the /function or/ duties [...?] to that province, the seventh is to take the census and statistic account of that same province.

To this observation /defence/ there are two answers present themselves.

1. One is the observation which came to made on a former occasion, namely when the business of approving and dividing /and in pursuance /[...?]/ of the first of its ten duties/ among the component and subordinate districts the quota of contribution assessed upon it by the Cortes: namely that suppose should it happen that in the province in question it is more agreable to the inhabitants in general to have the saving or the spending of their own money to their own purpose than to bind it to Spain to be there spent by others for the purposes they have in order to give themselves the satisfaction all they have to do is to do nothing.

In like manner in the present case should there be any province in which in the time in question it is more agreable to the inhabitants to have nothing to do with your rulers than to be subject to their dominion, and in that moment to forbear sending than to send a deputation to the Cortes at Madrid all they have to do is - to forbear /save/ giving themselves the trouble of taking or causing to be taken any such Census in which case the pretence for their being governed by your Cortes and your other rulers, namely those sending a deputy by whom they are represented in the Cortes, will not have place.

167_181.xml

Title: [1821 April 1 Rid Yourselves]

Description: 1821 April 1

Rid Yourselves

Ultramarian deputat n none

But suppose in every one of those same Provinces a competent census in existence. By the census itself no such deputation can be sent. For the accomplishment of this object, some person or body of persons there must be, by whom with this census in hand the several election districts, each of them containing the allotted number of competent electors viz. the 70,000 or according to Arts. \ZS\ thereabouts + a Representative is to be deputed to the Spansh Cortes. Look over the whole Code no such person or body of persons will you find.

No such territorial division of a province no each division of the existing Ultramarian provinces or any one of them - no such topographical or geographical demarcation does the Code any where refer to, provide for the making of, or so much as direct /ordain/ the making of. In several of the Articles above brought to view, namely in Art. 309 to 323 /mention is made/ territorial divisions termed Pueblos are spoken of. These Pueblos are they to be understood as designed to constitute /constituting/ or capable of constituting so many Election Districts? There can not be too many by far, as should in that case have spoken of them. But no others are spoken of as at that time in existence, they would therefore be all of them to be marked out. By whom? in what manner. In answer to these questions nothing is there to be found

By Article 311 a thousand is mentioned as the number of souls which is to be or may be contained in an Ayuntamiento.

+ Explain in a Note how numbers below and above the 70,000 are to be dealt with for this purpose.

167_185.xml

Title: [1821. April 2 d. Rid Yourselves.]

Description: 1821. April 2 d.

Rid Yourselves.

Ultramarian Deputat n. none.

On this occasion, as before, recurrs the perplexity about the Election Districts: the difficulty of conceiving by what persons, and on other accounts by what means, and in what mode, they can be made. Look, on this occasion, to Art. 32. In each Province, it is supposed that somebody, no intimation is given who, placed /seated/ on some eminence from which the whole population of the province, called before him for that purpose, are stationed within his view, begins with dividing them into groups of 70,000 human beings of both sexes taken together, or of 70,000 human beings of the male sex, with the portion of females appertaining to them, and says to them, you shall constitute the population of one district, naming the district at the time or not naming it. This done, and the number of Election Districts thus determined, the whole surface of the province, land and water together, being, at this same time, under his view, and the view of the whole population thus assembled, he takes compasses in hand, and marking out the surface of the whole province into as many Election districts as he has constituted Election groups, he denominates the districts supposed by the letters of the alphabet giving, at the same time, correspondent denominations to the several groupes, and says to them - You /Ye/ of the groupe A, go into Election District A, to which you shall accordingly henceforward belong and give your votes: ye of the group B. go ye into Election District B, and so on, through as many letters as the allotment requires.

This sort of arrangement, how commodious soever, being unfortunately not a possible one, what other arrangement is there that the Code prescribes or admitts of? None such, I must acknowledge, have I been able to find.

As a ground for the formation of Election Districts within its Province, the provincial deputation, supposing it in existence, may proceed so far as to take or cause to be taken the census, i.e. the account of the population of the province: But, supposing this advance made, who it is that by means of this same Instrument Census, can proceed to determine the number of the Election Districts within that province, and to mask them out, either upon the ground, or upon a Map, this is what I have not been able to find.