1818 Aug. 26.

Things as they are

§.5. Matter of Corruption

5

In the case where the power bestowed in this way by the Monarch is in name and shew as above coordinate to his own, he loses /parts with/ nothing by the bestowal of it: it is not at his own expence but at the expence of those who share in it under the same name that it is thus bestowed In the case of the Lords Spiritual, {so called because all of them are by Act of Parliament full of the Holy Spirit otherwise called the Holy Ghost,} the number being by usage limited, it is all profit to him and without loss, as often as the occasion arrives /comes/ for filling it up. In the case of the Lay-Lords, by which is meant those who have not the benefit of being impregnated by any such gas, a loss /an expence/ there is, but among the persons suffering it /on whom it falls/ the Monarch is not to be found: they are the already existing Lords, in whose company the new one is intruded.

By corruption in this shape are kept in subjection all those men, if any such there are, who are not capable of being kept in subjection by money or ribbons: all the Lords themselves with the exception of those who being already on the highest level can not be raised any higher: all those future contingent Lords who under the unassuming name of country Gentlemen, avenging themselves upon their dependants in /for/ the prostration manifested by them towards the Monarch and his acting servants /advisers/, cease not till the sale is completed to boast of that independence which the nature of their situation and their prospects have /designed[?] to/ banished for ever from their hearts.
Similar Items
  • Title: [1822 April 17 Rid Yourselves]
    Description: 1822 April 17

    Rid Yourselves

    Lett. 18. Relinquishment Plan

    ' 6. Case V. Subjection uncontested

    2. Buyers foreigners

    The same fruit the [...?] /[...?] the [...?] the [...?] it wide the

    distinction between their [...?] former rulers more than others are [...?] to [...?]

    give: and d o less.

    The [...?] [...?] will for respect [...?]

    Already /For example/ for example in Congress those who are near

    enough to the spot to take /make/ a detailed survey of it, a suspicion, I am told has

    arisen, that in the Senate they have a useless /sort of/ House of Lords: not as

    elsewhere an implacable enemy and sure preventer of every thing that is not bad, but

    a needless and useless delayer of many things that are good, and at any rate a

    useless source of expence. /waste of time and money/ Of the balance between profit

    and loss in that business I pretend not to form any judgement: I have no sufficient

    means for it. But under /in/ that government in which the People are rulers over

    their rulers if any alteration that in his eyes is a good one presents itself to any

    man's conception, the probability of its obtaining acceptance is in his scale in the

    direct rules of the utility /goodness/ of it: whereas /while/ in a government in

    which there is a House of Lords, without anything /with nothing above it/ or with a

    Monarch above it, as to acceptance for any thing good all probability is out of the

    question, certainty of non-acceptance is entire.

    If there be a difference under a Monarchy the improbability of adoption for any

    thing conducive to the greatest happiness of the greatest number is rather less

    without than with a House of Lords. By weakness or caprice, even in that station a

    single man may be led thus to promote the happiness even by augmenting the ower, of

    the many: of a multitude /number/ of men thus high in power, the greater part never

    can.
  • Title: [1818 Aug. 26. Things as they are]
    Description: 1818 Aug. 26.

    Things as they are

    §.5. Matter of Corruption

    7

    No folly to receive the Bill: folly to honour it.

    7. Factitious Dignity. In the manufacture of this commodity as /a more/ curious an instance /may be seen/ of the union of human folly on the one part with human knavery on the other as is to be seen any where /will scarcely any where be to be found/. It is a manufacture the monopoly of which is in the hands of the Monarch for the purposes of the Monarch will the produce be therefore of course be bestowed, and though not an altogether unexampled one the case in which it is given /bestowed/ for any other purpose than that of corruption will always be a rare one. The pretence on which it is carried on is that of bestowing the produce of it in the character of a reward for the encouragement of merit of merit {or where merit means any thing beyond /other/ than the state of the affection on the part of him who applies the word as towards him to whom it is applied,} meritorious service rendered to the public. That of which it is evidence at the bar of common sense - and in all cases nearly conclusive evidence is merit of that sort which consists in /in the habit or supposed disposition to/ obsequiousness: in obsequiousness as towards the Monarch and those who in this behalf are his advisers.

    Factitious dignity is either spiritual or temporal: in both cases it is of various sorts and sexes.

    1. In the spiritual department according to the title employed in the giving the certificate, the quality or quantity or degree of merit rises in degrees designated by various appropriate epithets: in the ascending scale 1 Reverend, 2. Venerable 3. Very Reverend, 4. Right Reverend, 5. Most Reverend: Status and titles those of 1. Simple Clergymen by whom as such the holy Ghost has been received and whether by means of the holy Ghost money in the shape of benefit has or has not been made. 2. Very Reverend the Dean: 3. Venerable, the Archdeacon who in the office of doing nothing is to some purposes assistant and subordinate to the Bishop. 4. Right Reverend, the Bishop: 5. Most Reverend the Archbishop. 6. Most religious as well as Gracious, the Monarch, whose seat /sitting part/ whether male or female tops all the hierarchy.
  • Title: [[114-028v] 1821 May 11 Codification]
    Description: [114-028v]

    1821 May 11

    Codification Offer

    '. Draughtsman gratuitous /'.10. Offer/

    By the above considerations alone - all of them deduced from the observation of the influence of the reward in question on the goodness of the service it is employed for the extraction of - by the above sober considerations alone, and not by any unreflecting sentimentalism has the veto thus put upon reward been produced. To the value of money the author is no less sensible, than those are who for the procurement of it are so ready to consign men by thousands to speedy death by fire and sword, and to lingering death by famine. With unfeigned gratitude he would accordingly, supposing the work compleated, accept from willing donors individually and separately, contributing, money from each to any amount from the lowest denomination of coin to the greatest sum which any individual could take pleasure in thus disposing of. Not a ribbon of the number of those which are worn about men's shoulders - not a ribbon of that sort, of any colour, from any hand, would he refuse bowing for it being previously understood, that in his opinion the greatest happiness of the greatest number would be much the more effectually promoted were all such ribbons dragged through the kennel in the lump and then burnt by the hands of the common hangman, than by being bestowed in requital of the most meritorious service for which reward in this shape was ever granted. Only in so far as those, at whose instance it would have been bestowed would be otherwise than desirous to see it thus bestowed, does aversion to reward in any shape maintain a place in his mind.