JB_129_410.xml

Title: [[129b-410] 17 March 1817 Plan]

Description: [129b-410]

17 March 1817

Plan Cat

2 o

Introd

§.80. Seat Traffic

5

Superseded but consultable

{On the occasion of the seat-traffic business A o 1809 To the eyes of M r /the head/ Speaker of Honourable House the subject presented itself in a different point of view {from that which is given here}. Content[?] {was to} that those who had nothing to offer /give for a seat/ but money should not be able to purchase it in any way neither by an express contract nor by an implied one. His only anxiety was not those who had office to give should not be able to purchase it by an implied act: i.e. {the only one of the three[?] media[?] in which it is customary or necessary to do the business Lest by implication over coming the his declared reluctance “to mix in the debates”, + once and again did he stand up and insist that to the prohibition should be attached the limitation conveyed by the word express. Lest in the prohibition put by the Bill implied

contracts should in this case be considered as included By the /these/ two short and unpremeditated speeches of the 7 th of June, an interpretation and that one unquestionable may be seen put upon the long and elaborate one of the 1 st.

“A Bill for more effectually preventing the sale of seats for money; and for promoting a monopoly thereof to the Treasury by the means of Patronage. Such was the title moved for by Lord Folkestone Out of 161 28 voted for this amendment. Cobbets debate June 13 th 1809.}

+ Speech 1 June 1809 Cobbets Debate

JB_128_004.xml

Title: [30 Aug 1809 Parl. y Reform.]

Description: 30 Aug 1809

Parl. y Reform.

Table of Ends and Means: viz. 1 in the Order of the Ends. 2. in d o of y e Means

III.

Means first – their Uses continued

VI. Speeches correctly compleatly and authentically taken down and regularly

published.

Uses (direct)

1. Contributing to secure probity on the part of Members:

viz. by rendering[?] each man permanently responsible to the tribunal of public

opinion, and in particular to his Electors for every thing done or said by him in

parliament.

2. Contributing to secure existence and encrease of intelligence on the part of Members, viz. in so far as depends upon such

exertions as would naturally be made by each man to preserve himself from contempt

and to secure esteem on the part of the readers of each his speeches and in

particular on the part of his Electors.

3 Contributing to secure the existence of active talent of intelligence on the part of Members – viz. by keeping out all such as are to

a certain degree deficient in that respect: persons seen /a person in whose instance/

unfitness in this respect were made manifest, whether by the badness of their /his/

speeches[?] or the constancy of their /his/ silence could be kept out either by their

consciousness /his self consciousness/ of his deficiency, or by the promise

entertained of it by rival Candidates and by his Electors.

IV.

Means first – their Uses continued.

VI. Speeches correctly &c. published

(continuation.)

Uses continued.

Collateral Uses.

4 Contributing to secure the existence and encrease of appropriate intelligence on

the part of Electors: who would thus, each of them in so far as it pleased him to

make use of them be in possession of a correct and compleat stock of the grounds

necessary to his forming a correct judgment of the probity of each his Representative

from the part taken by him when silent, and of his probity and intelligence both in

so far as he has taken part in the Debates.

5. In the case of a Bill sent up from the Commons to the Lords, furnishing the Lords with a correct and compleat representation expressive

of all reasons /arguments/ brought forward in the Commons House in will in opposition

to, or in support of the measure: thence contributing to receive relative and

appropriate intelligence on the part of the Members of the Upper House.

6. Furnishing the means of detecting and successfully counteracting the influences of

those rhetorical fallacies and sophisms the efficiency of which depends upon the […?]

of the time responsible for examination /scrutiny/ and reflection.

V.

Means first – their Uses continued

VII. Attendance regularity and generality of it secured in an

encreased degree.

I. Means

1. Recordation of the names of the Members attending and voting, voting on which side

and d o non-attending, on each day, and on the occasion of each

debated point: publication of d o along with the speeches.

2. Elections annual, as above: thence yearly opportunity of substituting diligent to

idle representatives: idleness experienced and published as above will be operated at

each election as an invitation to competitors.

3. Should the above means prove inadequate, {exaction of a deposited sum a two} a sum

to be deposited by each Member in the hands of an officer of the House; a

proportionable part to be taken back on each attendance.

II. Uses (direct)

1 Contributing to secure encrease of probity on the part of the House taken in the

aggregate. At present, in the future of the corrupt and dependent part of the House

attendance is secured by inducements, the application of which extends not to the

independent Members.

2 Contributing to secure encrease of probity, as above: viz in cases where, so long

as the Member is in attendance, the nature of the question, compared with the

circumstances of the person will be understood to impose on him the obligation of

declaring his sentiments: which sentiments will be published, as above in his own

words.

3 Contributing to secure encrease of intelligence: the more frequent a man’s

attendance, the greater his experience, the greater his experience the greater his

expertness in his business.

VI.

Means first – their Uses continued

VIII Electors – their number encreases in every electoral

district, except those which are already on the footing of Counties or Open

boroughs.

Uses. (direct)

1. Contributing to their encrease of probity on the part of

Members: viz. by contributing to encrease the difficulty viz. the vexation and

expence attached to the problem of bribery: the advantage of /derivable from/ it

being reduced to nothing by the proposed concealment of the votes, the proposed

shortness of the time for which a seat is holding and the proposed exclusion of

placemen from the right of voting in the House.

 28 Jan y 1817

Add

1 Number of Members in the House: which gives[?] of 4 Different part[?]

2. Number of Electoral Deposits.

3.

JB_129_480.xml

Title: [[129b-480] 4 April 1817 Plan]

Description: [129b-480]

4 April 1817

Plan Cat

2 o

Introd

§. Interests adverse

III. Course taken ?

2

16

2

In general terms, the answer which may without much dissembly be hazarded is this. On this as on other and similar occasions, some there will have been, to whom /in whose eyes/, the universal interest being comparatively or even absolutely a matter of indifference, reform in any shape was in no other hope was set up, than in that of its serving as a ladder to the coveted /looked for/ power: others in whose eyes /by whom/ while reform parliamentary reform {has} presented itself in the character of a good of an instrument of good – an instrument capable of being and designed to be rendered subservient to the advancement of the universal interest, the term moderate presented the idea of those modifications which would be necessary to the prevention of those confusions – those never distinctly conceived and therefore but the more terrific confusions – those hideously yawning phantoms by which if not excluded the expected good might be swallowed up, and a torrent of evil pure unmixt evil – vomited up and poured over the land instead of it.

Here we have /Behold here/ the two extreme points of the two corresponding and contrasted yet combined scales – viz. discernment without appropriate probity, and appropriate probity without discernment. In both scales in each of the two scales are degrees in abundance, in which respectively so many places might be found for all the infinite /several/ diversifications of which alone considered in this point of view, the mind of man may be seen to be perceptible.