date

29 Dec r. 1809 Parl y. Reform
29 Dec r. 1809

Parl y. Reform

Necessity

Ch. 17.

5

 Go on to shew the struggle between King & Minister

Ministers occasional[?] obligation to [...?] 1 Human[?] & [...?] 2. Catholic emancipation

The number of acts of misconduct which an administration finds itself able to committ with impunity - without dismission, censure of the persons, reversal or so much as modification of the acts will of course be liable to variation.

It will be jointly dependent on two circumstances, the degree of reputation they possess in the opinion of the people, and the degree of favour they possess in the affection of the King.

At first favour will of course be altogether out of the case: by the supposition, if the King could without too much disturbance to his case have avoided taking them in, he would not have taken them in.

But if, being in possession of popularity they preserve it, or not being in possession of that advantage they acquire it, then in proportion to the share in which at any given time they {are} in possession of it, it will appear difficult and ineligible to him to dismiss them their dismission will in his eyes be matter of difficulty: and at the same time if so it be that by their obsequiousness to his will they came to acquire a degree of favour, the consequence is, that in proportion to the degree of favour thus acquired will be his unwillingness to part with them.
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    A case /An example/ /An /Two/ incident/ nearer to our own times, and at the same time less dependent on any such evidence which /the correctness of which/ is of a nature to be questionable seems to be offered by the famous /celebrated/ dictum in which Hanover and Hampshire are placed upon the same line: < > and by those transactions relative to what is called Catholic emancipation which immediately preceded the dismission of the administration /headed by/ of which Lord Grenville was at the head.
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    Of the {degree of} obsequiousness manifested by then what will be the degree? A question this to which, unless the practice of self biography observed by James the 2 d has transmitted itself to his successors the giving any precise answer would /must/ be about as difficult as to give an exact delineation of the degree of mutual obsequiousness in that or any other station, as between man and wife. All that on such ground it is in the power of human reason to do is to bring to view the psychological forces that come into action on both sides.

    The object of the King will naturally be to give to his own will as much effect /to exercise as much power/ as possible: and this as well at the expence of the power of the Minister as at the expence of the public over whom the power is exercised.

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