date

2 June 1819 Disfranchising
2 June 1819

Disfranchising

§.5. Evil 4 Multiplying Country Members

6

§.5. Evil 4. Multiplying Country Members.

49.

With relation to every other each man has a common and an opposite interest. In

virtue of his opposition but for the various sanctions he would be an oppressor. In

proportion as they and particularly the legal, and in that the Constitutional are

good and strong he is withheld from being so: in proper time as they are had on weak,

left unrestrained or helped. In U.S. Constitutional Law is good and strong:

oppression unknown: Anglice[?] d o. weak and rotten: oppressed by

Monarch and Aristocracy triumphant and unchecked.

50.

Between Country Gentlemen and others, there is probity: now as to intellectual

aptitude and active talent.

51.

In the Country Gentleman see probable cause of either quality in any degree. By no

deficiency in either need Lord be prevented from putting a ten of his in a seat.

52.

In no such weak state can the mind of the mercantile man be: in him activity is kept

up by personal stronger and steadier than any public interest His is a habit of

activity with a fund of practical knowledge acquired by experience and observation.

Knowledge, judgment and activity compose a Capital transferable from one business to

another.

53.

Anti Reformist. Would you exclude Country Gentlemen?

54.

Reformist No more than you. My wish is that 1. As to

probity, finding themselves unable to sacrifice universal to peculiar personal

interest, they sh d. confine their aim to the advancement of their

share in the universal interest: as to intellectual that the rich father excluded

from his competition by intellectual inaptitude may by appropriate education stock

with the requisite matter the vanities in his son’s mind.

55.

The worst I wish is in that class which in virtue of its property would if possessed

of adequate appropriate aptitude would by the influence of understanding without d o. of will secure its present share of power to substitute to

individuals possessing it in every shape.

56.

(General rules have exceptions. Here whoever chooses to make himself an exception, is

so.) –
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    17 or 1

    Anti Reformist.

    In any other class any larger dose of aptitude?

    18 or 2.

    Reformist. 1. As to probity, no; unless by mere accident, except in the seats filled

    by Westminster and those other Election Districts, if any, where by multitude of

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    seductive influence in both shapes.

    19 or 3.

    2. As to intellectual aptitude, no class that affords so bad a promise (3. See

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    20 or 4.

    Anti reformist. Said by you already, without appropriate probity, d o. intellectual aptitude is better absent than present; by it the more

    efficient aid being given to the improbity opposite to appropriate probity.

    §.5. Evil 4. Multiplying Country Members

    21 or 5.

    Reformist, yes; but here comes two modifications 1. In all other classes put together

    no such strong body of sinister interest as in this: viz – 1 Peerage: which to its

    own House adds the seats to which it nominates in Common’s House –

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    22 or 6.

    2. All Landholders whose subsistence is chiefly derived from rent of land.

    23 or 7.

    All constantly on their knees to Monarch for more money, powers and factitious

    dignity.

    24 or 8.

    To all these are many common bonds and unity of interest: viz –

    1. Meetings in Parliam t. House and club Houses &c.

    2. Documents such as County Histories, Maps, &c.

    3. Justice of Peace Sessions General and Petty.

    25 or 9.

    Thence mutual encouragement and facility for joining and giving strength and

    extension to oppression for crushing all reformists who seek in one another the means

    of self defence.

    §.5.4. Evil 4. Multiplying Country Members

    26 or 10.

    For an example of the fruit of this common sinister interest, take the facility of |

    | secured by them to one another under favour of Judge made law.

    27 or 11.

    Not possible that by shopkeepers &c. any judgment should be formed of

    customer’s ability except from his visible possessions and expenditure: with rank

    where he has any.

    28 or 12.

    Higher-order men run in debt with them in all ways – on his death, his land, with

    younger son’s fortunes on it goes to his family free from all such debt. To the

    unconsumed remnants of his moveables these creditors have to go to Law with, and with

    their Lawyers to gain undue advantage over one another.

    29 or 13.

    Established was this arrangement not by Parliament but by Lawyers for their own

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    {4}

    they must expect to be ript[?] open if they talk as they do

    Anti-Reformist – And if you had the power, would it then be your wish and your endeavour to exclude Country Gentlemen /the class of those in question/ from the House?

    Reformist Not more than it would be yours. In regard to men of that class, as in regard to men of all classes my wish is {and my endeavour would be so to order matters} that finding themselves under an inability to sacrifice the universal interest to their personal and other partial interests, they should confine their endeavours to the advancement of that interest of theirs which consists in each mans share in the universal interest. So much as to probity: and that, finding himself by the merits of those whose studies and occupations had been directed to the qualifying themselves for the due /their intellectual faculties for the apt/ discharge of the duties of their situation excluded from that share of power which his property might otherwise have enabled him to attain the ignorant and inapt father should by appropriate /an apt/ course of instruction /education/ to make provision for stocking with appropriate and useful matter the vacuities which experience had rendered him sensible of in his own mind. So much for intellectual aptitude.

    In a word the worst that /all that/ I wish is – leaving the class itself in possession of that share of power which by the mere influence of understanding on understanding would without any of that sinister influence which is exercised by will on will, adhere /cleave[?]/ to it so long as the property itself adhered to it – in this same class of men to individuals uniting the possessing appropriate aptitude in no shape to substitute other or even the same individuals possessing that same appropriate aptitude in every shape.

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    There stands the master as between the Country Gentleman on the one hand and a Candidate belong to any other class, and in particular to the commercial class on the other, there stands the matter the question of aptitude, on the ground of appropriate intellectual aptitude, on the ground of appropriate probity. Observe now how it stands on the ground of appropriate intellectual aptitude, and appropriate active talent.

    On the part of the Country Gentleman you can have no assurance /probable cause/ of either of these desirable qualities /endowments/ in any degree. Nothing but fear of exposure without profit could /need/ prevent a Lord who has a seat at his disposal from putting in a son of his though he were in a state of idiocy or next door to it.

    But never /at no time/ can the mind of the mercantile /commercial/ man have been /be/ in any such state. So long as he has been what by the supposition he is, his mind has been in a constant state of activity: of activity kept up by the spur of personal interest, much stronger than that of any public interest. It is therefore in the possession of a habit of activity, as well as of practical knowledge, obtained /acquired/ by experience and observation, in virtue of that habit. But, with more or less facility, according to circumstances, a fund composed of knowledge, judgment and activity stored up /once acquired/ by application to any one branch of business is a species of capital, transferable to any other branch of business.