JB_160_430V.xml

Title: [[160-430v] 1821. Nov r. 28th.]

Description: [160-430v]

1821. Nov r. 28th.

Codification Offer

'.8. Draughtsman gratuitous

Taken out the sheet about Emp. Alexander

Cause 4. On the part of this work, aptitude probably diminished, by diminution of the number of the works which there would otherwise have been to choose out of.

A man who looks upon himself as having in the common phrase interest enough to afford him a sufficient prospect of success will accept the invitation, and apply himself to the task: a man who knows he has no interest at all, or thinks he has not enough, will not apply himself to the task: the number of these last, whatever it be, is the number of those, on whom the pay puts an exclusion. To which groupe shall the greatest number be assigned? to which groupe, number for number, the greatest aptitude? The claim of the excluded groupe seems the strongest.

The case being a case of patronage, those evil effects, will have place, whatever be their amount, in whatever hands the power of patronage be lodged.

It may be lodged in that branch of Government which is purely legislative. It may even be lodged in the branch stiled the executive branch: for, by the supposition, the draught can not receive the force of law, but from the hands of the branch stiled the legislative. If in the legislative, the hands it is lodged in, will be either those of the President of the Assembly, those of a Legislation Committee, or those of the whole body of the Legislature: if in the executive branch, the hands in which the appointment, (or under the Monarch the recommendation) is lodged, may be those of a Chief Minister, those of the Minister of this particular department, those of the Assemblage of Ministers, or those of some Council of State. The choice may thus be made by appointment, or it may be made by vote: but whether it be made in the one way or in the other, still the case is a case of pay and patronage: as between the mode of choice and the other, no sensible difference will have place.

To the influence of these causes of inaptitude, so long as specially appointed reward in any shape bestowed, an encrease of the public expence has place, the nature of the case admitts not of any tolerably effectual correction. The patron or patrons at whose hands the reward is looked for, let them be, with relation to the whole body of the people, in a state of

dependence

JB_012_072v.xml

Title: [1821. Novr. 10th. Codification Offer]

Description: 1821. Novr. 10th.

Codification Offer

Abridgmt.

'.9. Draughtsman gratuitous.

As, by the supposition, the sort of work in question is no other than an original

draught, subject to rejection and to unlimited alteration at the hands of the

Legislature, nor yet is there anything either incongruous or improbable in the

supposition that instead of a Committee of the Legislative body, the appointment

may be in the hands of a Member or certain Members of the Executive department.

Another course, is - to attach to this service remuneration in a pecuniary shape

to a determinate amount, receivable by one or some other determinate and thence

limited number of individuals, to be chosen in the way of election by the whole

of the legislative body: namely, either before the service rendered, and thence

in expectation of the receipt of it, or not till after the service rendered, and

thence in recompense for it.

Still, lodge it where you will, lodge it in one of these quarters or in another

- lodge it in any other - patronage is the instrument the work is done by and

patronage is in the unalterable nature of things a source and instrument of

corruptive influence. No correction is it susceptible of other than that which

has place in so far as the functionaries, in whose hands it is lodged, are

removable by the secretly /suffrages - the secretly and thence freely/ given

suffrages of the people. But in its application to this case in particular, the

remedy would have less virtue - less efficiency - than in any other. In this

case The degree /amount/ of their relative and comparative incapacity, would be

/on the part of the people will naturally be/ as the magnitude of this

all-comprehensive whole, compared with the magnitude of this or that particular

part, of the aptitude of which they are best qualified to judge.

III. The work suppressed, retarded, or by over haste deteriorated. Now comes in

the circumstance of time. Where factitious reward is the moving power, in the

chart /ocean/ of time, two opposite rocks - precipitation and delay - may be

seen opposing themselves: opposing themselves in such sort, that to prevent the

work from making shipwreck on the one or the other, no inconsiderable portion of

care and skill will be necessary: more than any which has been usually

exemplified or appears probable. In one case, the work will be produced, but in

such sort as not to be fit for use: in the other case, it may happen to it not

to be produced at all. Take, in

JB_024_428v.xml

Title: [1821 Novr 23 Codification Proposal Abridgment]

Description: 1821 Novr 23 Codification Proposal Abridgment '.9. Draughtsman Gratuitous

I. On the part of the workman, inaptitude in the shape in which it stands

opposed to appropriate moral aptitude.

1. Be they who they may, the patron or patrons will be exposed to the influence,

not to say subject to the dominion, of sinister interests and prejudices. This

has been shewn in Section the fifth. The dependent or protegé (for in English

though we have the thing we have not the name) will be under the dominion of

those same interests and prejudices, and to these the draught will endeavour to

give effect, with the addition of any such of his own as he thinks he can

venture to steal in.

II. On the part of the workman, inaptitude not only in the above shape, but in

all shapes: in those in which it stands opposed to the two other elements of

appropriate aptitude, namely appropriate intellectual aptitude, and appropriate

active talent.

The pay is a determinate and tangible object: an object to the value of which

every eye is sensible: those of the patron or patrons, be they who they may,

among the rest. In comparison of this - in competition with this - the goodness

of the service, where it is in any degree an object will, generally speaking, be

at best but a secondary one. The appointment, or the vote towards the

appointment, will accordingly be given - not to the individual who is regarded

as being likely to render the best service, if it be before the work is done, as

having rendered it if it be after the work is done, - but to the individual,

whom, whether on his the patrons own account, or on the account of some

connection of his, it will be most agreable to him to see thus served.