JB_128_062.xml

Title: [9 Oct r 1809 + §.3 Parl y Reform]

Description: 9 Oct r 1809 + §.3

Parl y Reform

2 o

B. I. Necessity

Ch. Occasional inadequate

§.3. Burke advocates occasional

1

§.3. Occasional, to the exclusion of constant, interposition pleased for

/advocated/ by Burke

Occasional interposition—(it must be confessed)—‘ interposition’ indeed, but that not more nor other than occasional—was what was

desired and pleaded for, on the part of the people by Edmund Burke.

‘Indeed’ (says he +) ‘in the situation in which we stand, with an

immense revenue, an enormous debt, mighty establishments, Government itself a great

banker and a great merchant, I see no other way for the preservation of a decent

attention to public interest in the Representatives, but the

interposition of the body of the people itself’ (the words italicized here

are italicized in the original) ‘of the body of the people itself—Yes—but when?

{Periodically and regularly and} at {stated and} pre-appointed and foreknown

times?—No: but on some very particular occasion or occasions, when the purpose of a

very particular and meritorious connection of Noble Lords and Gentlemen may be

answered by it, things being at that pitch that for giving the country the benefit of

their services, nothing less, nothing else will serve—‘whenever’ (continues he) ‘it

shall appear, by some flagrant and notorious act, by some capital

innovation, that these Representatives are going to over-leap

the fences of the law, and to introduce an arbitrary power’;—a state /juncture/ of

things the arrival and continued existence of which the ninety-nine preceding pages

had been employed to prove.

+ Thoughts on the causes of the present discontents. p. 100.

JB_128_064.xml

Title: [9 Oct r 1809 Parl y Reform]

Description: 9 Oct r 1809

Parl y Reform

B. I. Necessity

Ch. Occasional inadequate

§.3. Burke advocates occasional

3

A curious sort of remedy it must be confessed is this which he recommends—or to

speak more properly curious the conjuncture—the only conjuncture at which he can

endure the idea of its /that this remedy of his own prescription/ being applied.

The signal for the application of it must be some particular ‘ act’: and of what description must that act be? It must be not only ‘ flagrant’ but ‘ notorious’: this flagrant

and notorious act must moreover be an ‘ innovation’: that

/this/ innovation must be a capital one: this capital

innovation must be such as shall have made it ‘ appear’, that

‘ these Representatives are going to over-leap the fences of the

law:’ and this intended over-leaping of the fences of the law must have had

for its object or its effect or both nothing less than ‘ to

introduce an arbitrary power.’

[In margin:] so it keep to its old shapes misgovernment swell to what bulk and

continue for what length of time it pleases

In the eyes of this Physician of the body politic, this remedy which with /under/

all these conditions he ventures to prescribe must be /have been/ not only a quack

remedy, but among the most dangerous and drastic of quack remedies. The patient must

be /is to be/ at death’s door, before the Physician who thus prescribes it will

endure to see it adminstered.

Be this as it may when once the proper Physician is called in, there is to be an end

of the remedy: it is not to be used in any such character as that of a diet [...?]

/it is not to be used./ It is to be used not as a succedaneum to his skill, but only

as an instrument in his hand: an instrument too which when once he is /has been/

called in, and has fairly taken his seat by the bed-side, is never more to be

employed or thought of.

JB_128_066.xml

Title: [8 Oct r 1809 + §.3 Parl y Reform]

Description: 8 Oct r 1809 + §.3

Parl y Reform

1 o

B. I. Necessity

Ch. Occasional inadequate

§. Burke

1

 To be inserted either in P t I. Necessity, or in P t III. Plan?

Ch. 17. Occasional interposition on the part of the people inadequate

§.3. Burke—Occasional interposition alone advocated by him

Meantimes this occasional interposition, in how small a degree soever it answers the

purpose of the people answers in the best possible degree the purpose of party men of

that set of Court dependents whose interest in the good things /loaves and fishes/

for the time happens to be in the state not of possession but expectancy.

When the voice of the people has reached to a certain pitch of loudness, the strings

of administration will they know be crushed and a new set of performers /themselves/

be summoned upon the stage.

But when once mounted upon the stage and fairly seated, is it their interest—can it

be any desire of theirs to hear any thing more of the voice of the people? /So long

as they continue there/ That voice can never more make itself heard but to their

prejudice.

Such as is /hath been/ their interest, such of course hath /has/ been their

language. A grumbling, a disturbance, a riot, a tumult—a sedition—any thing of this

sort—any thing /expression of popular affection/ which in its nature can not but be

occasional they have no objection to: on the contrary it is what they wish for—and

which in so far as it can be promoted in a whole show[?]—by words which whether

spoken or written will be sufficiently guarded they use their endeavours /are used/

to promote.

Propose to them the only useful mode of interposition, constant, constantly

efficacious and therefore as constantly quiet—in that they behold unsurmountable

difficulties. Then comes a cloud /torrent/ of words, the object of which is to make

plain things seem mysterious, and easy things impracticable.