date

1818 July 5 Parl. Ref. Bill
1818 July 5

Parl. Ref. Bill

Reasons

II. Electors Who

Universality

People after them rulers

5

37

Add. 7 Aug[?] 18. Appropriate /necessary/ instruction lies within a very narrow compass. Then this.

In this state of things With what colours[?] of reason by the ruling supporters of the system of non-Reform can any deficiency in the element of appropriate intellectual aptitude on the part of the bulk of the people be alledged in support of the exclusionary system? {In any direct way nothing is more notorious nothing more condemnable, any encrease in respect of this /this article/.} By any direct proof no superiority in respect of this element /article/ of appropriate aptitude is so much as attempted or professed to be proved: of its existence in this instance no direct evidence is ever attempted to be produced. Yet evidence of a certain sort is not only produced but most confidently relied on. And this sort of evidence what is it? circumstantial evidence mere circumstantial evidence - and that of a [...?] weak and inconclusive as can easily be conceived. This evidence of what is the matter of it composed? Of the matter of wealth /opulence/. In the matter of wealth they behold the grand efficient cause of the only two elements of appropriate aptitude that come here in question, viz. appropriate probity and appropriate intellectual aptitude. In their account /reasoning/ this pretious matter is the pretended efficient cause and the real substitute for every thing that can be desired. Exactly in proportion to the quantity of money or money's worth that a man has contrived to get into possession of is he not only the better man, but the wiser.
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  • Title: [1818 July 5 Parl. Ref. Bill]
    Description: 1818 July 5

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    On looking out for /To the enquiry after/ an endowment which while in respect of appropriate probity it should be better evidence than wealth in any quantity can be, for what in this case /the situation of Representatives at any rate/ does wealth but raise a man into the vortex of temptation, should at the same time in respect of appropriate intellectual aptitude be more direct /less [...?]/ and therefore better evidence than can be afforded by any such sum as that which is received[?] in the character of exclusion evidence, the faculty of reading presented itself.

    {Probity of intention being secured by the state of interests by the coincidence of personal with universal interests and action in conformity to such interest and such initiative secured by secrecy, than by security against tyrannical coercion as well as corruption.} For /actual/ intellectual aptitude, instead of a pittance incapable of producing any effect in any way I /let us/ take that endowment which if it be not /though not/ itself the appropriate aptitude, stands at any rate nearer to it than money /does the matter of wealth/ to any amount, and conferrs to /conveys on/ every one who is disposed to employ it the immediate means of requiring this aptitude to any amount and degree that element of appropriate /aggregate/ aptitude. Even this very tract small as it is, will it not do something towards producing so desirable an effect. Will it not do something more than even the Church of England Catechism? Does it not bear rather more closely upon the point upon this particular point than any thing that ever came /has come/ ever from the pen of [...?]?

    [Note:] How inferior so [...?] in merit, [...?] being kind to the [...?] inferior in merit genius and in a word in merit.
  • Title: [1818 July 5 + '.2 Parl. Ref. Bill]
    Description: 1818 July 5 + '.2

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    howl[?] upon paper wild and visionary anarchy and destruction of property.

    If in this case appropriate aptitude be admitted in the character of an efficient cause of title.

    If in regard to this right /the franchise here in question/ the efficient cause of title be considered as constituted by /consisting/ in the possession of a certain degree of appropriate aptitude - of appropriate aptitude caused /taken/ in all its three point taken together, and any incurable deficiency in respect of any one of them as a sufficient cause for exclusion, the title of the lowest /least opulent/ classes to admission will be found /seen/ to stand upon much firmer ground than that of the highest /most opulent/: in respect of exclusion in either case there were any well-grounded plea in favour /support/ of it, the case of most opulent /highest/ is that in which it would be seen to stand upon much firmer /stronger/ ground than in the case of the lowest.

    Of the three elements of appropriate aptitude viz. appropriate probity, appropriate intellectual aptitude, and appropriate active talent + it is the first that is beyond comparison the most important. Why? even because if this be wanting /if in this there be a deficiency/ if in the breast in question this primary quality /element/ be wanting, the result is that by any abundance of the two other elements in the same subject, the mischief so far from being compensated and lessened, is encreased.

    +  Observe in a note that against this nomenclature no direct objection has ever been [...?]: only indirect accusations about style &c.
  • Title: [1818 July 5 Parl. Ref. Bill]
    Description: 1818 July 5

    Parl. Ref. Bill

    Reasons

    II. Electors Who

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    Now in the breast of the democracy, this cardinal element (cardinal virtue it used to be called) is {always} at its maximum: in the breast of /an/ a Monarchy at its minimum: in the breast of an aristocracy in a quantity growing less and less as the aristocracy approaches nearer and nearer to the condition of a Monarchy. The particular interests of the Monarchist and of the Aristocrat, are in direct opposition to the universal interest: what is the consequence? that of the other two elements viz appropriate intellectual aptitude and appropriate active talent whatsoever portions are possessed by these two adversaries /opponents/ are sure to be employed - every occasion in which the opposition of interests has place, and it has place on almost every occasion - in support of the interests thus adverse to that of the people: to be thus employed, and thereby to be employed in giving continually encreased facility and extension to the sacrifice made of the more extended to the less extended interests.

    But in this respect as it was in the beginning, so it is now, and shall /will continue to/ be to the end. Man must be transformed into a being totally different from what he is before any change in this particular can take /have/ place.