date

1818 Sept. 1 Parl. Reform Bill
1818 Sept. 1

Parl. Reform Bill

+ '.2 B.

Reasons ult

'.2. Electors Who

Universality

2. Intellect

9

1

9

2. Of these elements with reference to the secondary situation in question comes secondly and lastly for consideration the element of appropriate intellectual aptitude "According to the best of his judgment" was accordingly a limitation necessary as above to be annexed.

To a first glance /view/ what may at first sight occurr is that, forasmuch as the Members of the House of Commons possessors of the virtually supreme power have as such for their field of thought and action the whole field of government with all the details belonging to it, the Universal-suffrage men their proposed Electors, will in that quality, on the occasion of each Election have to act as judge of the conduct of these their delegates /deputs[?]/ and Representatives: and that for the exercise of their judgment which belong in that character it will in like manner be necessary for them to extend their observation and their judgment over that same unbounded field: and that if such appropriate intellectual aptitude as they possess falls short of being competent and sufficient for the performance of that task, it falls short of being adequate and that in such sort and to such a degree as to render it a matter of necessity to look out for /take/ some other hand or hands /person or persons/ at[?] need[?] for the hands by which /whom/ the function of choosing the possessors of this virtually supreme power shall be exercised.

This being the case /These things considered/, the conclusion will naturally enough be 1. that it is not in the nature of their situation to furnish them with the means of attaining any relatively adequate portion of appropriate intellectual aptitude, nor therefore to admitt of their possessing it: 2. that even, supposing them to possess it, such is the habitual precipit[...?] and passion attached to their situation, as to preclude them from its free and calm pursuit of the dictate of their judgment even were those dictates themselves ever so strictly conformable to their interest; that is to the universal interest.
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  • Title: [1818 Sept. 1. Parl. Reform Bill]
    Description: 1818 Sept. 1.

    Parl. Reform Bill

    Reasons ult o

    '. Electors Who

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    Thus we have /may be seen/ two degrees as it were of appropriate aptitude with reference to the great end in view: 1. appropriate /primary or immediately operating/ aptitude, aptitude with reference to the exercise of this virtually supreme power; 2. appropriate aptitude, /secondary or unimmediate or instrumental aptitude,/ with reference to the choice of the persons by whom this same virtually supreme power shall be exercised.

    The primary or immediately operating appropriate aptitude has been found resolvable into three elements - appropriate probity or moral aptitude, appropriate intellectual aptitude, and appropriate active talent. The unimmediately operating appropriate aptitude may be conceived as resolved into the same three elements. But in the case of these possessors not each of them of a share in the virtually supreme power but of a share in the appointment of those by each of whom a share in that same virtually supreme power shall be exercised, one of the three elements viz. appropriate active talent will be found not to be needful: the /all/ demand for it will /may/ be seen to be excluded by the nature of the case - by the nature of the function to be exercised. A judgment will be to be formed and declared: but the declaration of that judgment and of the consequent will being to be declared, there is nothing further to be done.

    By this consideration the portion of appropriate aptitude necessary is in the case of this secondary species of aptitude reduced within bounds comparatively narrow: the facility and assurance of finding or creating it in sufficient quantity is proportionably encreased.
  • Title: [1819 July 5 To Erskine ult]
    Description: 1819 July 5

    To Erskine

    ult o

    Lett. 7. Whigs AntiReformists

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    2

    {2}

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    He seems moreover to have yet to learn that epithets such as wild and visionary, or absurd, visionary and senseless, applied to a plan of any kind to which while plain and specific reasons are attached for its support while no such reasons have been opposed to it, is a virtual confession of its unassailab[?] aptitude, uncontrovertible aptitude: that the course taken by the use made under such circumstance /in such a case/ is, if any thing be, itself “wild, and visionary” “absurd and senseless, and that the language by which they are employed is much more apt for the mouth of a magpie or a parrot, than for that of a Statesman, who has any pretensions to the /make to/ praise of any one of the three branches of appropriate aptitude.

    Well then Sir, of all those securities for good behaviour to speak in the too plain /little dignified/ language of Common Law well possessed in the degree in which the great body of the Whigs possess these will not constitute in your estimation constitute a sufficient title to the praise of preeminence – if with reference to a parliamentary seat or other office to indulge you with your own language they are not to be admitted in the character of elements of appropriate aptitude, pray what are those that will?

    Ah, my Lord – I have said it over and over – nothing either more or less than the distinction conferred by the having been appointed to the seat by the free suffrages of a proportionate section of the people, voting on the principle of virtually universal suffrage, under the assurance of their being /with security for their being/ removable at any time after a short time of trial, say one year or two years. This, and nothing less: /else:/ pretensions /claims/ not only to appropriate probity but to appropriate intellectual aptitude, and appropriate active talent, having been heard and determined and certified, by some by means of a self-formed judgment, by others by means of a derivative judgment, derived from those whose situation has rendered them best qualified for pronouncing a self-formed judgment, as in the case of the freely though not formally chosen members of an American Circus or a Westminster Rump – an institution at once uncontrovertibly beneficial, and happily unavoidable. {an association, to which, should disappointment or envy or disappointment render a man passionate and unadvised enough without a shadow of proof to accuse of /impute to it/ corruption in any shape in this last mentioned instance, he would hurt as a man would hurt a stone wall by running at it {head foremost} at full speed, head foremost.}
  • Title: [1822 May 25 Economy etc .2]
    Description: 1822 May 25

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    .2. Efficient causes of or Employable Securities for appropriate Official

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    I Moral Aptitude - Securities for its existence /it./

    1. Identification of individual with universal interest in the situation of

    possessors of the supreme Constitutive power.

    2/1/. Minimizing power in the situations of the possessors of the supreme

    Operative power.

    3/2/. Minimizing money in the situations /hands/ /disposal/ of the possessors of

    the supreme Operative power and their subordinates

    4/3/. Minimizing the quantity of money /factitious remuneration and moneys worth/

    applied in remuneration of the services of public functionaries possessors of

    the supreme operative power and their subordinates.

    /4. Exclusion or abolition of factitious dignity/

    5. Maximizing legal responsibility - i.e. eventual subjection to legal punishment

    in the situations of possessors of the supreme Operative power and their

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    6. Maximizing moral responsibility - i.e. subjection to reproach at the hands of

    the Public Opinion Tribunal by which the force /power/ of the Moral or Popular

    Sanction is applied as a counterforce to the legal power of the state