date

1821 June 18 Codification Offer
1821 June 18

Codification Offer

'.9. Draughtsman gratuitous

Suppose a remuneration undertaken for, then /thereupon/ come the diversifications

and with them a correspondent choice of evils

I. Remuneration

1. The remuneration may in value and shape be unliquidated or liquidated

2. Supposing it in the whole or in part pecuniary In respect of time of payment

with reference to the performance of the service, it may be purely antecedent,

purely subsequent, or purely concomitant, in the whole or in part: or in any

proportions mixt

II. Number /II. Candidates - Number of/ of the persons by whom an assurance or a

chance of obtaining it shall be possessed

If one only, the chances against the obtainment of the most apt are an indefinite

number to one: and without all emulation all motive for extraordinary exertion

being excluded, even that one will not be so apt as by competition he might have

been rendered.

If a number, then by what number? Shall they each /every one/ of them, as many as

offer /send in each of them a Draught/ be assured of pay, or shall the pay be

confined to a limited number

III. Patrons number of

If the number to be paid for be limited, then so it may be that more draughts

than there is pay for may be offered. In that case some person or persons there

must be to determine by whom the several lots of pay shall respectively be

received. This person or these persons are thereupon patron or patrons with

relation to the office: Patrons Shall there be more than one? if more, how many?

What may be true is - that by refusing pay, you may exclude men in a number more

or less considerable, who if pay had been given, especially if from the

commencement of their labours might have been admitted.

What at the same time is not the less true is - that by the establishment of pay,

you can not fail in the first place to impair the quality of the work, in the

next place to impair the popularity of it - lessen the confidence that will be

likely to be placed in it, and thus in a double way impair /lessen/ the

usefulness of it.
Similar Items
  • 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
  • Title: [[036-172v] 1821. Nov r. 9th.]
    Description: [036-172v]

    1821. Nov r. 9th.

    Codification Offer

    Abridgm t.

    ' 9. Draughtsman gratuitous

    '.1. Gratuitous what.

    Reward factitious - what

    Abstractedly considered, reward in this shape may seem capable of being ranked under the denomination of factitious reward: but, considered in its application to the sort of service here in question, presenting itself without need of promise, as it will naturally be apt to do to all eyes, - it may on this account be referred to the head of natural reward. Unexpensive, if not strictly speaking gratuitous, may the service be stiled, at any rate: because, from remuneration given in this shape no additional expence to government, no additional burthen to the people, is the result.

    As in Spain and Portugal, so in every other country in which the business of legislation is in the hands of a body of Representatives chosen by the people, that part of the business, which consists in the preparation of any such body of proposed law for the consideration of the whole Assembly, will be in the hands of a select few, under the name of a Commission or Committee. In any such hands, attaching to the exercise of this function, any specially appointed factitious reward, in the shape of pay, or in any other shape, is as far from being customary, and thence from being probable, as it is from being eligible.

    But it has been shewn that in hands so situated, the business, of preparing a proposed Code in the first instance for the consideration of the whole body, could not, although in appearance ever so gratuitously performed, be lodged without the most serious inconvenience.

    The hands so situated being supposed rejected, hence the necessity of looking out for others. To these extraneous hands, factitious reward, in some shape or other, at the expence of the public, will either be given, or not. If it be given, the case is a case of patronage; and the number of those by whom it shall be capable of being received, must of course be limited: if it be not given, reward being in the natural shape offered to view, but in no other, the number of those to whose eyes the prospect of it is opened, and whose service in the shape in question may be obtained, is naturally unlimited: and in this case patronage bas no place.

    On
  • Title: [[114-012v] 1821 June 14 Codification]
    Description: [114-012v]

    1821 June 14

    Codification Offer

    '. Draughtsman gratuitous

    Instead of one patron to the four offices, now suppose two patrons, each appointing to two offices. In this case, it is not easy to say how the matter is mended: it might be at least as easy to say how it is made worse.

    Let three be now the number of the patrons. Suppose these to agree, here then will be one appointment for each: remains one other which they will have to settle among themselves as they can agree. If they can not agree, thereupon, either the fourth office remains unfilled, or a sort of election takes place: by something which is accepted as an equivalent, the most influential satisfies the two others, and it is thus by his choice that the fourth office is filled.

    Thus far the matter is seen at its utmost pitch of simplicity. The number of the offices to be filled being as above but four, let now the number of applicants be five. The plot now thickens: and a complicated election with all its intrigues takes place.

    On every such occasion, be this position kept in mind. Wheresoever there is a public function to be performed, & a mass of emolument is attached to the exercise of that function,- more particularly where the appointment is in the hands of one patron or a small number of patrons - and no power of removal is in the hands of the body of the people, or of persons removable by them, the emolument is the primary object of attention & solicitude: the aptitude, of the service rendered by the exercise of the function, being at best, but a secondary object. To the truth of this position, an exception suppose is here and there to be found: still such exceptions are rare: under the English Government at any rate - (and except that of the Anglo-American United States no other full settled Government so good is as yet to be found any where) - at the best extremely rare. If the existence of any such exceptions be admitted, still no difference would result as to the practical conclusion:- as to the course of proceeding most proper to be adopted.