JB_127_139.xml

Title: [13 Aug 1809 + '.5 Parl y. Reform]

Description: 13 Aug 1809 + '.5

Parl y. Reform

B.III Duration

Ch. 7. 5. [...?] prerogative

1

1 [...?] King from producing [...?]. 2. - So nothing new.

Ch. 7. Objection 5. The result of this arrangement would be to destroy in effect that part of the King's prerogative which consists in the right of his choosing his own time for the dissolution of Parliaments /regards /respects/ the dissolution of parliaments/.

Answer. So far as concern matter of form the objection has no place. If there be any whose wish it is to see the Crown divested of this prerogative, it is more than I ever heard of. I at any rate am not of the number: it is no part of this plan it is no part that the King /Crown/ should be divested of this right. Of any such change I can find no use: inconvenience from it I could find without difficulty: from what has been here said on the subject already in investigation of them it would be no difficult matter: but no such divestment being as it should seem in contemplation, or likely so to be, objections against /to/ it may be spared.

Certain it is - and this much must be admitted - that in proportion as the frequency of the advantage which in point of sinister interest the advisers of the Crown, open or secret, are at present capable of reaping war and thus from the exercise of this prerogative the frequency of [...?] is diminished, the effective power of derived /derivable/ by them /vested in them/ from the case /[...?]/ of this prerogative will be proportionally diminished. The more frequently the composition of the House is made liable to undergo a change at stated times, the less need the Crown can have and the less advantage it can derive from the faculty of exposing it to the like change on the sudden at occasional times.

JB_127_129.xml

Title: [11 Aug 1809 + Parl y Reform]

Description: 11 Aug 1809 +

Parl y Reform

B.III Duration

Ch. 4. 2. Populace incapable

9

1

Ch. Objection 2. Incapacity of the people to comprehend /form a right judgement in/ their own interest.

To this objection, the short answer is that it is an objection to the Constitution itse lf as distinguished from absolute monarchy: and therefore can not without self-contradiction be urged by any persons who as the persons in question do, profess themselves adherents to and /admirers as well as/ defenders of the constitution as it stands.

Every time when upon an acceptance made of an office by which a seat of the House is vacated a new election takes place an appeal is actually made to that part of the people of which the Electors Constituents by whom a Member is placed in that seat is composed, an appeal to the people calling for their judgment on the conduct of public affairs in general in so far as that particular Member bore /can be seen to have borne/ a part in it.

Every time when a new Parliament has place - when the process of election comes to be repeated in relation to every such seat /the whole number of such seats/, an appeal of the same sort is virtually made to the whole body of the Electors to the particular bodies of Electors respectively corresponding to each and every seat: and though no such special /particular/ appeal is made in form, the change taking place in virtue of an arrangement preestablished by law, yet the operations performed by the people are exactly the same as if an appeal to that effect were actually made.

Every time a dissolution of Parliament has place such special appeal is virtually made.

The very last time that a dissolution of Parliament did take place, such appeal was in the words of the King's Speech declaredly made in terminis.

JB_127_134.xml

Title: [13 Aug 1809 + Parl y. Reform]

Description: 13 Aug 1809 +

Parl y. Reform

B.III Duration

Ch. 6. 4. Inconsistency

1

Why not a fixt term with continual[?] person[?] [...?]?

Ch. or '. Objection the 4th. The proposal is inconsistent with its own principles: transgression committed dismissal should be immediate.

Answer - No: and such an arrangement would be not only needless, and /but moreover/ mischievous as also /and even/ less efficient with reference /in relation/ to the end in view.

1. It would be less efficient. {What is every body's /man's/ business is no man's business: what may be done at any time is done at no time.}

Apparent in particular time in every year for the renewal of the Elections: - of powers conferred by the Electors on their deputies, once a year the attention of the Electors /these authors /principals/ of the/ is by this means unavoidably turned to the conduct of their deputies /trustees/: once a year they have the faculty and invitation given them to express their opinion, to pronounce their approbation or disapprobation in relation to their /that/ conduct: and this judgment not only is the power /faculty/ of exercising it confirmed /secured/, but the certainty of its being exercised established. If the member of the expiring year have /has in the course of the year/ done nothing to render /that has rendered/ him, in the eyes of any leading person in the body of his electors, unworthy of his trust, and at the same time no rival candidate presents /offers/ himself, his re-election will follow of course: and each re-election will be a fresh certificate in his favour.

In the opposite case, according to the accidental varieties in the characters and situations of the leading persons in the different electoral districts, the attention of the electors would in some districts and at some times not be turned with sufficient frequency /not frequently enough/ to the conduct of their deputies, in other districts and at other times too often. /too frequently./