date

2 Sep r 1809 Parl y Reform
2 Sep r 1809

Parl y Reform

B. I. Necessity

Ch. 18 Mischief of Idol-worship

§.3. King’s interest. 2. power

Elogiums &c

5

3

3

3

2. All praisers praised for praising

3. All punished for praising

In case of parl y reform such praiser would be […?]

Every King is religious: every Vil[?] is pretty.

Note well the mischievousness of these elogiums, note well their absurdity as often

as /if ever/ /should ever/ any attempt is made to form out of such matter an argument

in support of this or that individual measure.

1. The King is a good King; 2 this measure or line of conduct or that which he has

chosen. 3. therefore believe it to be such /consider it as such/, and submitt to it

without opposition, whatever it may be! Of such reasoning what is the practical

result? on the one part despotism on the other part slavery – nothing short of it The

King is a good King: good not this day only nor the next, but every day: so the day

for resistance /opposition/, when then can it come? Not on any day during his life

1. The King is a good King: - may be so. But how do this[?] you[?] know it

2. The King is a good King. Why so? Because every body says so. True: but /in

England. But in France/ does not every body say so, yea and still louder of

Bonaparte?

No. Under such inducements for saying so, so far from being evidence of the thing

itself a man’s saying so is not so much as an evidence of his believing it: any more

than is what a lawyer says from his belief is evidence so much as of his believing it to be true. Be he what he may, so long as there

abuse /are abuses which whether by his will or by his name, and the use made of it he

protects/, he will be a good King and the best of Kings in the eyes of all those who

derive any the least particle of profit from any of those abuses. So many profiters

by abuse so many retained advocates of it and of every thing as well as every person

that contribute or are supposed to contribute to the support of it.
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  • Title: [2 Sep r 1809 Parl y Reform]
    Description: 2 Sep r 1809

    Parl y Reform

    B. I. Necessity

    Ch. 18 Mischief of Idol worship

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    Elogiums mischievous

    2

    2

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    But these elogiums, not to speak of their bearing so frequently on the part of the

    object not any determinate ground, nor on the part of the eulogist any generous

    /really social/ and honest motive, such is the constant tendency – such is very

    frequently their effect, that against their influence a man whose social affections

    are capable of extending themselves beyond the garment which wraps up the individual

    – a man in whose bosom the constitution and the people whose all[?] depends upon it

    are in any degree the objects of regard /affection/ can not be too much upon his

    guard against its sinister influence.

    Under an absolute monarchy such exercises may be not only innocent but beneficial:

    be he what he may /ever so mischievous/ their tendency is in some measure to sooth

    and soften the character of the Monarch, at any rate to reconcile the people to their

    fate.

    But under the British Constitution /English government/, the very existence of the

    constitution depends upon jealousy, and upon the unceasing alertness of that

    jealousy: the unfitness the radiant and irremediable unfitness of the King, as King,

    to govern to govern in any thing the few exceptions as above alone exempted[?] is the

    fundamental principle of it.

    So good a King! can we do better than to be governed by him? to be governed by him

    in every thing? So excellent a King, can any man be more fit – can any man be so fit

    as he for the so difficult task of government? for a task for which the purest[?]

    probity is not more than necessary

    The King so good, and the country therefore to be governed by him? No: if he /the

    King/ have but so much as the wish to govern, this wish, to the extent in which he

    suffers himself to indulge in it, is itself a proof of his not being, of his not

    being to the only purpose here in question to the most material of all purposes, a

    good one.
  • Title: [2 Sep. 1809 Parl y Reform B]
    Description: 2 Sep. 1809

    Parl y Reform

    B. I. Necessity

    Ch.18. Mischief of Idol-worship

    §.2. King’s interest. 2. power

    Elogiums mischievous

    Elogiums &c

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    The King is a good King – may be so: the King is a good King – so says every body,

    that speaks of him.

    May be so. But does this afford any the smallest evidence of his being so? – Not it

    indeed.

    The King is a most gracious and religious King. So says every body that ever enters

    into a church. But in all this is there any thing in which by a rational man by which

    any the slightest reason can be found for thinking him so.

    This was said of Charles the 1 st who was a religious King but

    not a gracious one: this was said of Charles the 2 who was a gracious King but not a

    religious one. This was said again of James the 2 d who though not

    a gracious King was indeed a religious one /King/, but with such a religion as to the

    purpose of the Church of England was worse than none.

    When then in a solemn & religious service all regard to truth is thus

    solemnly and regularly trodden under foot by every man of the Ecclesiastical

    profession, the same praise being in the same words poured out like the holy chrism

    upon the head of every royal person /crowned head/ in whatsoever degree the object

    thus bepowered is in the estimation of the bepowerer deserving of it or undeserving,

    what degree of credence is it possible for any man of that profession to make title

    to, when on every profane /political/ occasion without the special /present/ sanction

    of religion to put a bridle upon his pen or his tongue, he is seen occupied in

    bedawbing[?] the same idol with the same /that or any other/ praise?
  • Title: [2 Sep r 1809 Parl y Reform : Necessity]
    Description: 2 Sep r 1809

    Parl y Reform : Necessity

    B. I. Necessity

    Ch. 18 Mischief of Idol worship

    Ch. Elogiums mischievous

    3

    1

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    1 Ellenboro’ should he punish men for false eulogy?

    2 Mischief of this eloquence when applied to probable successors. Most religious of

    gracious Kings

    3 Particular praise good: general, evidence of sycophancy.

    To this topic belongs the consideration of the tendency and effect of those elogiums

    which have the personal virtues of the Monarch for their themes.

    The indulgence of social affection is at once so natural so amiable and so

    beneficial /and so amiable/, the Monarch of the country is at once so conspicuous and

    so natural an object of it /that amiable affection/, the figure of speech by which

    this exalted personage is placed /seated/ in the imagination of every man and more

    especially of every woman /imagination of the public/ in the character of a common

    father, the efficient cause and cement of a correspondently kind affection the

    affection of fraternity on the part of his subjects, one towards another, that it is

    not reluctance /a certain amount of uneasiness/ that a man in whose bosom the

    dissocial affections do not predominate can bring himself to bring to view any

    considerations, by the effect of which it may happen that to the warmth of so

    generous an affection to be /find itself/ diminished. /A cap/ It is indeed a cap, but

    a cap which on so serious /important/ an occasion must not be put away.

    If indeed the effect of those elogiums terminated with what is most commonly though

    not always their professed object – if in a word they never had either for their

    effect or for their tendency the disposing men to take the supposed personal will of

    the Monarch (for it is scarce ever other than the supposed one) for the rule of

    action and standard of propriety and rule of action, the error of these elogiums

    supposing it such would by the supposition be a harmless one, and so far as it were

    embraced with security, would even be preferable to the truth.

    Sure I am that in my own instance it is matter of uneasiness to me to find myself

    doing what depends on me towards opposing checks and objections to to what taken in

    itself is so innocent as well as harmless an exercise. Neither the /any/

    qualification which it may be supposed capable of affording to the royal person who

    is the object, not any which it may be the lot of the performer to experience – most

    assuredly it is not in the contemplation of pleasure in those or any other shapes

    that I find /feel/ the inducement which has engaged me in so ungracious a task.