date

7 Aug. 1809 Parl y Reform Hume
7 Aug. 1809

Parl y Reform

Hume

14

14

Add Origin of this notion Ballance of power as[?] in international law.

In note B. nothing is said of the quantity [...?] of the forces.

And what is it that in his view of the matter had so long kept them from it? Want of " moderation" forsooth: want of moderation, and nothing else.

"But such a moderation["] (continues he) "is not to be expected in party-men of any kind. After a concession of this nature, all declamations must be abandoned; and a calm enquiry into the proper degree of court-influence and parliamentary dependence would have been expected by the readers.["]

"And though the advantage in such a controversy might (continues he) possibly remain to the country-party, yet the victory would not be so compleat as they wish for; nor would a true patriot have given an entire loan[?] to his zeal, for fear of running matters into a contrary extreme, by diminishing too far

+ the influence of the Crown. It was therefore thought best to deny, that this extreme could ever be dangerous to the constitution, or that the Crown could ever have too little influence over the members of parliament."
Similar Items
  • Title: [8 Aug 1809 Parl y Reform Ch]
    Description: 8 Aug 1809

    Parl y Reform

    Ch. Necessity Hume

    Humes Note

    5

    20

    What craft this is! But this is worse if worse anything can be to the sort of nonsense a man is condemned to talk, who has corruption to defend

    Here now what with his uninvidious, and what with his invidious sense of the word he is in all his glory, pronouncing the self same thing /act/ in the self same person, practiced on the self same occasion, in relation to the self same persons at once justifiable and infamous, just as gentlemen Honourable Gentlemen please: in a Minister for example justifiable if he be a good one, that is if it be his pleasure to call himself or that of his friends to call him good, infamous if he be a bad one, that is if it be his pleasure to call himself or that of his friends to call him a bad one /bad/.

    Immediately afterwards comes a sort of concession which however it would cost him little or nothing to retract since it amounts to next to nothing. "But to be a spy or to be corrupted" (says he and here without saying whether it be by office or honour or any thing else) "is always infamous under all ministers " ... as to the " is always infamous["] this perhaps may not be giving any opinion of his own, since infamy /making a man infamous/ is the work of the public the people and it may be unphilosophical and foolish for them so to do: but considerably after comes a sentence passed by him in his own person whereby the offence of being corrupted is pronounced a " prostitution" and that a shameless one. /" is to be regarded as a shameless prostitution./ Here /Thus again and/ again we find him making use of these his "invidious appellations" words the use of which he gives /had given/ us to understand, viz. in the text + is the sign of a " party" man, being the language of " declamation". Corruption is according to him a word which ought to stand excluded from the controversy, as being /too strong/ a word too strong, belonging to the language of declamation: and to mend the matter out comes he with another word prostitution applied to exactly the same [...?] /act/ to which the word corruption (corrupted) has been applied, which word has nothing to save it from being mere tautology, but the circumstance of its being /unless it be that it is/ still stronger savouring still more strongly of declamation.
  • Title: [14 Oct r 1809 P.I. Parl. y Ref. m]
    Description: 14 Oct r 1809 P.I.

    Parl. y Ref. m Part II. Influence. {Ch. 1.

    Explanations}

    2 o

    1

    Sophisms derived from the idea of ballance.

    Necessity of the Kings the Peers &c having a weight in the constitution, the government – the house

    No need of any such weight. Needful and important that the King should have the

    patronage viz that it may be in a single responsible hand: seen that it should be so disposed of as to bribe his Judges.
  • Title: [7 Aug 1809 Parl. Reform Ch]
    Description: 7 Aug 1809

    Parl. Reform

    Ch. Necessity Hume

    Humes concession

    3

    25

    3. Amendment the 3 d. Instead of " had none of the Members any property" &c put if on each occasion a majority of the Members had not any property &c

    Had the proposition stood as in the amendment here proposed /brought to view/ the propriety of the conclusion (it will scarce be disputed) would have remained unaltered. And on this occasion, as on the last mentioned it is no more than what justice and consistency require to substitute to such of the words as if understood strictly and literally would be /render the proposition/ a nugatory one such others as are necessary to reduce /bring/ it within the limits of reason and good sense.