date

1818 Dec r 9 Parl. Reform Bill
1818 Dec r 9

Parl. Reform Bill

Principles

Beginning

§.1 Misrule when[?] necessary

11

In default of all other drains, under every Monarchy an /the/ army – the standing

army would of itself /under any Monarchy/ be sufficient to push /swell/ the quantity

of product of regulated extortion up to the very /utmost/ limit of the capacity of

endurance /supply./ to drain /draw/ from the pocket of the people the utmost quantity

of money capable of being extracted /drawn out/ by taxes.

2. An instrument of defence against aggression from without /abroad/ – an instrument

of aggression abroad – an instrument of oppression at home – a toy to play with – in

all these distinguishable characters is an army an object of universal concupiscence.

Of these four uses /purposes/, the first is of course the only one avowed: and if

this were all the quantity coveted might have its limits. But if so it were that for

this purpose it were the whole of it compleatly unnecessary /needless/ no demand for

it at all, the demand of it /need /desire made[?]/ of it/ for the three other

purposes would not be the less intense: and even for the best of them frivolous as it

is /even for the last one /purpose/, were it even the only one/, the desire would be

insatiable. A play-thing such as now[?] but a Monarch can shew is to a Monarch beyond

all price: and the larger /vaster/ the toy, the more matchless, and the more

matchless the more valuable. An army is a doll magnified. What a doll is to a girl in

leading strings an army is to a prince: Sixpence dresses out the small doll /little

baby/: millions of pounds are bestowed every year upon the great one.

[marginal insertion:] Soldiers are already to be seen, in whose coats the cloth is

not to be seen for the gold that covers it: if all were thus covered with gold, those

who are now covered with nothing better than gold would be covered with diamonds.

In treaties, holy or unholy If the only avowed object, self defence, were the only

real one, the stipulations would have for their subject /object, not armament but

disarmament: not the keeping up of troops, but what is somewhat more easy, the

abstinence[?] from keeping them up.
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    The burthen, corresponding to the quantity of corruptive money without appendages /et cæteras/ as above, which is exacted for this purpose is a burthen which in this impure Monarchy is so much added to the list of those burthens which are as above common to this impure and those pure Monarchies. True this, and undeniable. But though this is literally true, yet not so would be the inference if it were inferred that supposing this burthen removed the people would from such[?] removal derive any ultimate relief. If the standing army remained without encrease, yes. But the standing army would not remain without encrease. In these islands as on the continent, under the new impure /this/ Monarchy as under the existing pure ones, it would receive encrease to a degree correspondent to the utmost capacity of endurance on the part of the people. What the machine called a doll is to a child, the machine called a soldier is to a Monarch: when it is not employed in cutting throats /as an instrument of murder/, it is /serves him for/ a plaything, taken one by one, he amuses himself with dressing them /they are dressed and undressed/: put together, they form a machine indefinitely large and complex, by which figures upon /after/ /ever variable/ figures are described, and explosions, louder and louder explosions […?].