date

1821 Nov. 18 Codification Offer /Proposal
1821 Nov. 18

Codification Offer /Proposal/

'.1. Advertisement

'.2. Topics of this

22 NovrWhat follows will it is supposed be superceded

A work of the sort in question not being within the ordinary line of public business - being in fact the first of the sort that was ever proposed or perhaps so much as conceived - questions to the following effect present themselves as calling for answers

1. In favour of the probability of your executing a work of this sort with advantage to your employers what presumptions are you able to produce. What In a word are your grounds of expectation in regard to acceptance. Say - Grounds of expectation what?

2. Why not produce the work at once instead of thus offering to produce it? Say - Why instead of the work an offer only?

3. Why thus make offer of it instead of waiting for its being spoken? Say - Invitation why not waited for?

4. Your notions of what is best in the field of Constitutional law being plainly repugnant to the arrangements which in that part of the field of /which regards Constitutional/ law are already established in several of the Nations to which Your Proposal looks, what expectations can you entertain of any acceptance at the hands of their respective rulers either for what regards that part of the field or for what regards the two other parts of the field namely the Penal and the Civil.

What acceptance can you look for, from Governments established on principles of Constitutional law different from yours? Say - From different principles what expectation of acceptance?
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  • Title: [19 November 1821 Codification Proposal]
    Description: 19 November 1821

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    Proposals, from the same hand in the main to the same effect as the present one have --- for above these --- been not only forwarded to divers Governments, but ----- ---- put into general circulation. These /Those/ being already in existence a question that will naturally occurr /present itself/ is from what causes and to what end can they in this way be renewed(?) /could the substance //--------// of them come to be repeated/. For affording satisfaction to any such question, a few words it has been thought may be of use.

    By ---- of the acceptance /notice/ which in that same publication is shown to have been the ---- ---- of the Proposals therein contained though compleat /effective/ acceptance failed to be the result a certain degree of encouragement was afforded: the documents in /by/ which that ------ stands expressed form so many testimonials in favour of the proposal itself and the individual by which it was made. Still ---- the force of the encouragement was not found sufficient to engage him to enter upon the work. The particular offer /--- --- ---/ at that time made to different constituted authorities ---- ---- followed by the like offers more or less ---- made to other(?). At length by all these encouragements taken together a sort of stimulus(?) has been produced sufficient /such as/ to produce a determination to enter upon the work.

    Such being the case in question at present to be answered is - why instead of the work itself, /retard the execution of the work itself, by drawing up more --- and/ --- --- for the second time a set of proposals for the writing of it?
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    '4 Why not wait for invitation

    2. Invitation why not waited for

    Answer. For such a work, from no imaginable quarter was /has the/ such// expectation of any such invitation been reasonably to be expected.

    1. Without previous and express information the existence of any individual competent even in his own eyes to the execution of such a work was not to be anticipated.

    2. In the instances in which from an authority to an offer directly made a favourable ear had actually been lent /an incipient /initiative/ acceptance had been given/, definitive and effective acceptance had not followed. From Spain acceptance had been /was/ given by the Goberno - the septemvirate of Ministers with information that the offer had been laid before the King. But of any further acceptance either by the Cortes or from the King no advice has at present /down to this time/ 17 Novr 1821 been received.

    Doubtless if in any instance invitation had been given, supposing the individual not unworthy of receiving the transaction would have been more honourable to both parties and more encouraging to that one of them to whom for his support under a work of such unexampled difficulty and labour, encouragement would have been so eminently serviceable, not to say /if not altogether/ indispensable. But on this occasion the proper question is - not what course would have been most gratifying to the feelings of this or that individual, but what would be in the highest degree conducive to the happiness in the first place of this or that particular nation, in the next place eventually of the whole human race Regarding himself as not incompetent to the rendering service to mankind in this shape and to this extent was it for him to have declined rendering it, and for no better reason than the not having received in the shape in question a [----?] gratification to the passions of pride and vanity. With any such prospect before him, a real lover of mankind would not he be ready to lick the dust at the feet of the meanest individual of the species rather /sooner/ than forego all chance of being [-----?] such a service?
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    So much as to readiness. Then as to competency /aptitude/ including what, to the present purpose is full as material as actual competency /aptitude/, in the breasts of those on whom acceptance depends, the expectation of finding such competency in the instance of the individual by whom the offer is made.