[129b-456]

25 April 1817

Plan Cat

Conclud g Note

Introd

§.18

2

Something in particular it had been my intention to say on the subject of Petitions: were it only for the purpose of suggesting to all who could venture to regard the Bill of Rights as still in force to maintain from beginning to end that stile of address of which in these rash and audacious pages may so it be /if/ interpreted by the rule of centuries may made to afford a sample – to present on this subject all that time will allow of my saying is, that for those to whom the exercise of that right may afford matter of amusement will do well to take /be speedy in taking/ their last of it have no time to lose if it be their wish to take the /in taking their/ last of it.

Their last of it? No: /for already has/ that last has been taken.
Similar Items
  • Title: [[129b-457] 25 April 1817 Plan]
    Description: [129b-457]

    25 April 1817

    Plan Cat

    Conclud g Note

    Introd

    §.18

    3

    I speak of the practice: /exercise:/ for as to the use of it – that is gone already. For any use they can now be of Petitions may as well be sent to Kamchatka or Botany Bay as to Honourable House. By Petitions the people of every part of the country might and /could and did/ without danger converse with every other: now all that converse is at an end.

    From the Chair but t’other day a proposal of measure of economy – a grand measure of economy having for its subject the Voter, the excessive and useless voluminousness of which had become evident /manifest/ to every Honourable eye. Proposition acceded to force and from both sides of the House. Of this measure of economy what was the object let any one say that please. Behold here one of the effects. Of Petitions for reform in any shape the existence mentioned: of the lines of the purport not a syllable. Till now Petitions for reform had if received been printed at length: and at so reasonable a price as that of preserving the forms of respect & Petition for any purpose might have been made receivable. Now if to the people in the character of Petitioners what were the minds of the state of which through such a channel any useful intelligence /information/ could be obtained The mind of Honourable House: no: what that has been is and will be is abundantly known without the being declared but the minds of one another. Through that channel though still as it were in a whisper they could thus communicate one with another without much danger from the Habeas Corpus suspension, and without any danger at all from libel-law
  • Title: [[129b-458] 25 April 1817 Plan]
    Description: [129b-458]

    25 April 1817

    Plan Cat

    Conclud g Note

    Concluded[?]

    §.18

    4

    That[?] there is /we have/ /believe[?]/ a measure of economy. By a simple Vote of the House of Commons passed at the instance /proposition/ of the Right Honourable the Speaker behold this part of the Bill of Rights repealed – virtually indeed but not the less effectually repealed – and this too without so much as the expence of an Act of Parliament: Opposition not less than Administration – Whigs not less than Tories in raptures at the thoughts of so economical a measure. Behold here a shape in which all men whose delight is in Economy may even in these times make sure of seeing it: a shape – every shape – in which by and with Economy Legitimacy is served. In this shape may Economy depend at all times upon being served by Honourable House served with unfeigned as well as undissembled pleasure: and the greater the delight with which it is served in this shape, the less the need which will be seen due[?] of its being served in any other shape.

    By this one measure of refined economy, the Coronet, which with its deputy-supporting pension awaits the retreat of acknowledged merit, be not only will it be merited but (oh well timed fruit of genius!) the expence of it saved. And after this can any eye be blind to the use of Peerages and of Pensions?
  • Title: [[129b-513] 8 April 1817 Plan]
    Description: [129b-513]

    8 April 1817

    Plan Cat

    2 o

    Introd

    § Interests adverse

    28

    3

    3

    Omitt? in praesente

    How slight so ever may be their regard for the interest /welfare/ of the people not one existing abuse can they ever attack, not a projected abuse can they ever hang upon, obstruct and by /with the help/ this is that favourable accident peradventure for a while defeat[?] in its progress without rendering proportionable service to the interest of the people: and if not by these hands, with any tolerable effect by which other hands can the people be ever served. If in some /any/ other of his properties they resemble the many-headed personage whose name was Legion, they resemble him at any rate in the number of their heads: and as in the one instance /case/ it is by numbers of their quest of their unbidden quest that the swinish multitude of those days were finally tormented, {so must it be by dint of numbers} so neither can it be without the aid of numbers that in the sea of petitions the swinish multitude of these days can receive the faint and unfrequent rarely-visiting rays of comfort /respite/ with which they can expect /it may now and then be their lot/ to be comforted.