date

11 Sep. 1809 Parl y Reform
11 Sep. 1809

Parl y Reform

B.II. Influence &c

Ch.1. Generalities

'. Influence allowable?

4

4

Dependence, the real and immediate mischief, corruption, not mischievous but through that.

When /Of/ A person (Obsequius) who finds himself placed in a situation in which his will is habitually exposed to influence exercised on it by the will of another person B (Patronus) is said to be dependent on him: relation being had to Patronus, the situation of Obsequius is termed a situation of dependence.

By the mere[?] act /fact/ of having received an object of desire say a sum of money however recently, if without expectation of any ulterior sum from the same source, no dependence is created.

By actual bribery therefore, no dependence is created

By the expectation of a bribe indeed dependence may be created.

But, as already shewn by the mere expectation of a bribe in the shape of a given sum, say ,500, viz. to be once paid, and not oftener, whatever dependence is /may be/ created can not be equal to the dependence which would be produced by an equally strong expectation of being made to lose /part with/ a sum to the same amount.

[unnumbered: between 126-293 and 126-294]

[part of page lost through tear]

nd [wm 1806]

Parl y Reform

1

(a)  Quere whether to add the words dependence and independence to the first sentence, or afterwards?

'. Of dependence considered as the effect /result/ of influence.

The stronghold of the advocates of the system of corruption and dependence lies in the /in a single word - the/ word influence - in the vast extent <...> its import and thence in the two distinct and widely <...>ent[?] sences /purposes/ in which it is alike capable of being in-<...>.

Influence of will on will - influence of under<...>ng on understanding - note well the distinction between these two species of influence - or rather between these two different occasions on which and purposes for which the term influence is employed and the spell of delusion is dissolved.

It is only on the occasion on which the idea /object/ presented by the word influence, is that of the influence exercised by will over will, that either corruption or dependence or corruption have really any place, corruption the cause, dependence the effect. {In this case and in this rule[?] are the two terms influence and corruption virtually synonymous:} in this case and this only can the epithet corrupt with truth and purposity[?] be attached /annexed/ to the term influence: in this case and in this only can dependence be said to be the fruit and result and fruit of the influence exercised /1.[?]/: corruptor the person /party/ by whom the influence is exercised: corrupted and dependent, by being corrupted brought into and kept in a state of dependence the party on and over whom the influence is exercised.
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    The case in which it may happen to parliamentary corruption not to be productive of dependence is, as already intimated, not altogether without example. It is the case where the corruption is so circumstanced as to bear the name of bribery, the party to whom the matter of corruption is administered being a parliamentary elector, and the body by whom or on whose behalf it is administered, a candidate for a seat in parliament.

    Take the case of a venal but open borough: in which the thus corruptible part of the electors, receives each of them from one of the candidates a guinea for his vote.

    By /In/ this transaction, by corruption in this shape no sort or degree of dependence is produced on either side /part/ in particular not on the part of the elector. This transaction past this contract fulfilled on both sides an /a sort of/ expectation may /will/ naturally enough be produced, that in a future election the like contract may be repeated. But naturally speaking not being accompanied either by hope or fear, by this transaction no dependence /no dependence of the corrupted elector on the corrupting candidate/ will naturally speaking be produced. In the regular course of things, the /any/ occasion for repeating the transaction will not recurr again much sooner than at the end of seven years: when it does come, comes with it naturally enough perhaps the expectation of another guinea viz. from the same or another hand, but without any decided /small/ fear of less or hope of more: and be it what it may, viewed at so considerable a distance, no decided probability will naturally present itself /appear/ of its being either more or less if presented /offered/ by that same thing if presented /offered/ by any other hand.
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    Of any such individual offence as that of taking on an individual occasion any thing that could with propriety come /grammatical propriety be brought/ under the denomination of a bribe, is what I must confess, in what I should not expect to see /capable of being/ established /substantiated/ in /on/ any individual instance that ever took place /had place/, on the part of any such portion as that above described, of the population of the Honourable House - i.e. of the ‘number of voters’ of which on the day hour and minute in question its population was composed.

    But of corruption bribery is but one mode, and that beyond all comparison the least mischievous mode.

    In this shape, whether it be considered on the part of the giver or the receiver, on the part of the corrupter or the corrupted, corruption is the act but of the moment; corruption in another shape is a habit, and if it be termed an act - the act of a whole life.

    In that office as in every other, the mischief of a state of habitual dependence which in other words if not exactly is the same thing with a state of habitual corruption /bribery/, or still worse the mischief of a state of habitual dependence and through habitual dependence of habitual corruption is to that of any such single act of corruption as infinity to one, as the number of acts exercised by a man /during a man’s continuance in the office/ in subjection to the influence of will over will by which the dependence is connected[?] to the mischief of one such act.
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    {This[?] reason is an arithmetical one: if no dependence, no more than one instance of undue obsequiousness is produced by one complex operation: if dependence, as many instances as the nature of the case /situation/ produces during the man's continuance in it.}

    dependence apart, the effect of the undue influence is but occasional and momentary: but, if dependence be the fruit of it, the effect is permanent, continuing as long as the dependence continues, and producing on the part of the corrupted trustee as many instances of breach of trust as the corruptor has occasion to call for during that length /span/ of time.

    Of the two species of political trust viz. that of the member of parliament, and that of the parliamentary elector, it is in the situation of member of parliament that in which influence undue influence is beyond comparison in an almost infinitely greater degree most apt to be productive of this pernicious fruit. Why? - Because, a vote /the act of voting/ being in both cases /situations/ the act by which the power is exercised, the number of votes which within a given space of time it may happen to a Member of parliament to give is beyond comparison greater than the greatest number which it can happen to a parliamentary elector to give. Under the system of septennial parliaments, casualties apart, a parliamentary elector as such does not find it in his power to be corrupt /violate that his trust/ oftener than once in seven years,