date

[lxxxiv. 108] 1822 Jany 20
[lxxxiv. 108]

1822 Jany 20

Codification Offer

ult¼o

?.5. Admission Universal

Members unapt

By sinister interest understand every particular interest by which, it being opposite to the interest of that is detrimental to the greatest happiness of the greatest number a man is led /prompted/ to sacrifice to it that universal /all comprehensive/ interest.

Such sacrifice may be termed the sinister sacrifice

By prejudice understand erroneous prepossession: prepossession in the case where it is regarded as errroneous

Not in this only but in the succeeding sections will these explanations be found to have their use.

It is in sinister interest that the relative inaptitude which corresponds to appropriate moral aptitude has its cause.

It is in interest©begotten prejudice, original weakness and authority©begotten prejudice that that modification of relative inaptitude which corresponds to appropriate judgement has its cause.

Interest©begotten prejudice, though by the supposition it would not have had existence but for sinister interest, may where it does exist be in any proportion more mischievous in a proportion to any amount greater, contributing to the sinister sacrifice than sinister interest itself. For /To/ the number of persons capable of being sharers /partakers/ in /infected with/ the sinister interest there are certain limits: to the number of those capable of adopting /taking up/ and retaining the interest©begotten prejudice there are no limits: 2. by a change of circumstances the particular interest in question may cease to operate in the direction and character of a sinister interest: it may operate in the opposite direction and thus become a right and proper interest: whereas prejudice when once formed may continue to any length of time inflexible, contributing so long as it has place to the sinister sacrifice. Notorious are the instances in which by thousands and ten thousands by prejudice in its various forms /modes/ men have been led to sacrifice each of them his own unquestionable interest while contributing to the sacrifice of the universal interest at the altar of monarchical and aristocratical despotism[?].
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    In every /any/ political situation and for every sort of political work, such are the elements of appropriate aptitude. In every political situation appropriate aptitude finds itself encountered by the operation of various causes of relative inaptitude © causes the tendency of which is to diminish the degree of appropriate aptitude on the part of persons filling the situation in question or engaged in the work in question © diminishing it in one or more of its several shapes as above.

    The following are the heads under one or other of which /Sinister interest, interest©begotten prejudice inbred intellectual weakness, authority©begotten prejudice © here in these heads, one or other of them/ /will/ the several causes of such relative inaptitude may it is believed be comprehended will it is believed be found /it is believed/ comprehendible:/./ namely 1: Sinister interest: 2. Interest©begotten prejudice: 3. Original /General/ intellectual weakness. 4. Authority©begotten prejudice

    By sinister interest understand interest acting upon human /man's/ conduct in a direction opposite to that which leads to the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

    By right and proper interest understand

    In the mental frame of man /it is in/ the will is the part to which the seductive force of sinister interest applies itself and operates /operates/: it is to the intellectual part that the several other causes of inaptitude, namely interest©begotten prejudice, inbred intellectual weakness, and authority©begotten prejudice more immediately apply themselves.

    By prejudice, in so far as any clear idea is attached to it, is understood prepossession operating /acting/ in a sinister direction © in a direction opposite to the only right and proper direction /opinion so often mentioned/: by prepossession judgment already formed in relation to the matter in question whatever it be.
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    Though among prejudice the most mischievous prejudices would not perhaps have had existence had it not been for the corresponding sinister interests, yet especially when considered as /the character of/ a cause of inaptitude with reference to the work in question /it may happen to a/ prejudice in this or that shape may perhaps be found more powerful in its action, and thence more pernicious than the corresponding sinister interest. To the number of those who are capable of possessing a share in a sinister interest, the /there are certain /determinate/ limits: limits applied by the/ very nature of the case opposes certain limits: for suppose it shared in by the greatest number of the members of the community an /the/ interest is by the supposition by the very definition not a sinister but a right and proper interest. But to the number of the persons capable of being under the dominion of a prejudice, whether interest©begotten or inbred, there are absolutely no limits other than those which /which apply to/ the number of the members of the whole community. In England it is by their own sinister interest that in England all Monarchs have been /of course been at all times/ led to sacrifice to that particular and thence sinister interest the interest of all the rest of the community /their fellow Citizens/. It is by a conjunct sinister interest that their several subordinates in the several departments of government have at all times by the possession or prospect of shares in the profit of the sacrifice been at all times led /prompted/ to give support and encrease to that same sinister sacrifice. It is by that same interest that they have been led to nourish in their own breasts the corresponding prejudice by which this sinister sacrifice is /never ceases to be/ represented as a right and proper one: At the time of James II In all these minds by the sinister interest was begotten the desire and endeavour to sacrifice to the particular and sinister interest of the ruling one for his own benefit and that of the few that were ruling under him, the interest of the many. By that same sinister interest was begotten in an unascertainable but probably not inconsiderable proportion of these same minds, the prejudice according to which this same sinister sacrifice was a right and proper sacrifice: and that accordingly it was in /on/ the instance /part/ of every individual matter of duty to contribute by obedience and obsequiousness without reserve, to the utmost of his power, to that same sinister sacrifice: a duty the fulfilment of which had for its enforcement the three great Sanctions, the popular or moral, as well as the political, and still more unreservedly than the political, the religious.
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    When the operation of the sinister interest as such is considered, the state of the understanding /intellectual faculty/ is not considered. Of the will /volitional faculty/ only is the state considered: of the will as determined /being/ in respect of the direction taken by it /in which it acts/ determined by the forces which in a direct manner operate upon it in a direct manner, namely the eventual expectation of pleasures [?] pains [?], and the corresponding desires producing the effect of ”motive•.

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