131-639.xml

Title: [[131-639a] + 1819 Oct. 21 5 Nov not]

Description: [131-639a]

+ 1819 Oct. 21 5 Nov not now

Benthams Rad. Reform Bill

Whereas

4[?] 5[?]

Facts in the character of inducements[?] to the law are brought to view in both cases: intimation of the relation between those facts and the law is given in both cases. Where the word whereas is the word employed, to give the intimation the intimation the facts come first the intimation afterward letters[?] This considered are the words the intimation comes first the facts not till afterwards What comes first is it a a matter of indifference? By no means. When the facts come first, to each of them may be […?] a […?] number of words or sentence to conveying[?] a clear and correct conception of it may require

{Powers, for extraction of evidence, would be necessary to the persons charged with the enquiry. But, as the details would occupy much room, and would have little that is peculiar to the present case, they are not here inserted. One thing almost peculiar to the present case is – that the object of the enquiry is to administer benefits, namely rights of suffrage, to those who are the subjects of it, and not burthens, as in the case of taxes, thence, instead of being thereunto[?] from[?] the enquiry still would, by […?] generally if not universally speaking, be […?] with whereby a}

sentence which a man may stop to consider and to comprehend to […?] which he can not stop /has no time/ either to consider or to comprehend

(This considered) This formulary is employed instead of the usual formulary whereas. In this case the locution employed to give notice of the inducements in question follows the number of them: where whereas is the word it precedes them. The use of it is to substitute sentences of from one to half a dozen lines each to sentences of any number of pages each. In both cases facts or supposed facts are brought to view as having in the mind of the legislator and in the character of inducements given birth or helped to give birth to the term. In the mode here employed be they ever so numerous they are given one by one: and on each of them the mind of the reader is enabled and invited to dwell as long as he finds necessary to his obtaining a correct conception of them. In the mode characterized by the word Whereas, such consideration is rendered next to impossible. Till he has got through the whole list of them be it ever so long, no proposition, no assertion is so much as commenced. All this while his /the/ mind is upon the rack, and to get out of its torment, heads[?] him[?] through the whole mass with as little possibility of stopping itself as if it were /the body it belonged to were/ seated in a carriage drawn over a rail-road by a steam-engine

{The mischievousness of the customary formulary – the sinister interest which has hitherto rendered it sacred – the grammatical circumstances by which the two modes of expression stand distinguished these are topics which must be reserved for a future occasion. Sufficient room could not be spared for them here. Upon consequence[?] or with the time of the print Bill, the difference or part[?] of issue will be visible[?] to almost everyone who to […?] and applied[?] itself to a […?]}

[131-639b: slip of paper pinned over deleted second paragraph in 131-639a]

This considered. In this formulary, the facts stated as having been in contemplation in /as having/ the character of an inducement had the effect of giving birth to the enacting matter are stated in the first instance. The words this consideredered[?] – words the effect /design/ of which is to give indication of the use thus made of them do not make their appearance till afterward. This order is the reverse of that pursued in customary mode. The word employed to give notice of the inducement is the word Whereas: and with this word the whole quantity of the matter of inducement commences

[131-639bv]

Benthams Radical Reform Bill

Note

( This considered) This formulary is substituted throughout to the Whereas which has been hitherto in use. Without any such addition the sentences are sufficiently protracted and involved: with this addition the attention is frequently exhausted before the expression of an act of legislation – before any direct assertion – is so much as commenced. In Ruffheads Edition I remember seeing a Statute, in which the preamble introduced by this word occupied more than 13 pages of that close letter-press. Bound volumes might be found, each of which does not contain more letter press than this preamble. I am sorry I can not now make reference to the Statute. I am inclined to think it is one of those of which the East India Company is the subject.

In French legislation the sort of matter which our lawyers introduce by a Whereas, has a particular name. It is called the Considerant of the law. It exhibits the facts, or supposed facts, on the consideration of which, in the character of reasons, the law or portion of law, has been grounded.

JB_161_026.xml

Title: [1817 Sept. 8 Not Paul 7]

Description: 1817 Sept. 8

Not Paul

7

Ch. Paul’s Style

Intellectual weakness, forms of

In addition to irrelevant argumentation and irrelevant reference to supposed

authorities stark nonsense is another form of intellectual imbecillity, of which,

either by different sentences or one and the same sentence the examples are

continually afforded.

JB_027_120_001.xml

Title: [6 C Prefat. Definitions difficult]

Description: 6 C Prefat.

Definitions difficult To give exact definitions of crimes & other objects

of Law is much more difficult than to lay down

any of those rules which suppose the boundaries [nature]

& description of each object to be already ascertained

& known. Instance Common False.

No test for merit Standard of merit much less fixed in this sort

of work than in any other. In a Poem

or other work the end of which is to please if

the end be attained it is attained at once — It's

being attained is manifest beyond dispute — to

a History in as far as it pleases & with respect to accuracy

the original materials are manifest &

standing tests. In a Book of Natural Philosophy

the merit of it is triable by immediate

experiment

But in this there are no principles so fixed

as to ensure it approbation. After all that can be done

by reason a great deal must be left to sentiment and caprice

Longitude encouraged, why All the Sovereigns of Europe ought to make

it their business, as they have done the Longitude.

The Longitude belongs to another time. It is not

within the competency of Statesmen. Chesterfield: contempt

of Astronomers.

I have never let a general proposition pass without

examining the propriety of it with respect to every particular

contained under it. Thus &c.

Short Sentences Crit. Review for Aug. 1778. p.160. In so work I have met with a passage on this subject which recurs to be full judgement & good sense.

"In books of this kind" [for children]" the second article [shortness

of the sentences] is a circumstance of great importance.

Children should be taught to pronounce their sentences with smartness and spirit.

And this is practicable in sentences of 3 or 4 words, or

at most 5 or 6. A long sentence, extending through several lines,

is not to be composed by their feeble organs: for instead of supporting

their voice with smartness and energy, they are perplexed

by a multitude of words, & naturally sink into a whining

drawling monotony.

C 13 Prefat

They gave £...30,000 for this work why? because

it was the sort of work none of them liked themselves. No

man apprehended that anyone by executing such a

work will ever so much merit & success would be called

above himself.

The Emperor Claudius conferred on a man

[his freedman Pallas] the Praetorian dignity contres

quinquagies sesterlium for the invention of a single Law.

Tac. Num. XII, 53 & Plur. Nat. Hist. XXXV less penult

& Plur. VIII, 5 in , Antig. Vol. I. p.213

Lit Tut. 16 // 8.

The reward in the present case liberal & simple

for a private man to give. As a reward it never could

have served to engage any one in the design who

could be at all qualified to execute it. The case that it

is of is the ensuring him the attention of a certain set

of intelligent readers judges; & the celebrity of it may require if

recommended by their suffrage.

Prizes have not produced good poems: but a good poem is not the work of study alone. The King gives plates for the surefast Horse:

and by this means the kingdom is stocked with an excellent

breed of horses. No King has ever thought of

giving a Plate to be started for by Lawmakers.

Yet neither is the composition of a good code a work

of much less importance nor of less difficulty than this

trading of a good horse, nor are jurists & political speculators men of letters and education

less sensible to rewards & honours distinctions than horse jockies & -breeders.

When one thinks of an institution a manor that may be done with a word one imagines at the same time would be useful, one is apt to presume that the Empress of Rape a maid have embraced it. - & where upon enquiry in hand, that the law not embraced, one begins to doubt whether it could have been useful / I except these that could require more I

Wonder - that the Congress of Austria whose wisdom prudence

& activity extend to every thing whose Administration is

one scene of well-empoy'd munificence, should

not yet have embraced this measure. Long ago however He has taken a

step towards it: a step much beyond any that has ever

been taken by any other sovereign: a step that in some

countries might of itself have been sufficient to [ a produce

the effect desired] effective to the purpose.