date

[129b-490] 15 April 1817 Plan
[129b-490]

15 April 1817

Plan cat

2 o Note?

Introd

§. Attendance

Speakers illness

1

15 April 1817 Speakers illness debate

Not Chairman of Committee of Whigs and Tories

L.[?] Salary[?] what? See L d Cochranes[?] paper.

While the ink is yet wet on the paper /paper is yet wet/ comes another sample of Honourable House.

Amongst its principles of action not the least useful /congenial/ is one which may be termed, the principle of determined improvidence, or prevention-abjuring principle.

{After the horse is stolen – after and not before says the proverb shut the stable door

Bring to view a mischief propose a remedy for the prevention of it: Nay says a voice from the Treasury Bench, and in particular from the Law[?] part of it Nay but can you produce an instance in which any such thing has ever happened? what none – well then – let us hear no more of your remedy – this is not a place for theories.

A Member of Honourable House is he subject to death? O yes: for of this the proof stands upon the Journal: for this cause it is that now[?] Writs are every now and then offered to Members is he subject to bodily indisposition? Yes: for of this too, for example when alledged as an excuse for non attendance, proof may be drawn from the same authoritative source. But the Speaker – is he subject to indisposition?}
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  • Title: [[129b-491] 15 April 1817 Plan]
    Description: [129b-491]

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    That to the Member who has been appointed Speaker to the House /M r[?] Speaker/ bodily indisposition so […?] – bodily disposition in any such shape and degree as to render attendance for the purpose of the business absolutely impossible – Even to Honourable House – is there a time at which this could ever have been a secret even to Honourable House? That when there is no Speaker /without a Speaker in the | |/ when the House as a House, the case of a Committee apart the House can not sit? Can this too[?] have ever been a secret to Honourable House, and that those, be the exigency ever so urgent, the business of the house must continue at a stand Well now rather than be guilty of any such departure /violation/ from principle as to shut the stable door before a steed has been stolen, no matter what may be the urgency of the pending or impending business no matter what the country no matter what the whole earth may suffer from the non-completion of it /the business/ never yet has the prevention of such incalculable a mischief, been numbered by Honourable House among its cares.

    Now if neglect – if indifference to human suffering – if neglect carried to such a pitch what can have been the moral – the psychological cause? Stupidity? honest stupidity? In no other place at any rate is stupidity so deplorable to be found. Stupidity: no: but in that state of interests, of which, in the character of the cause of general non-attendance viz by means of the profit made by the nursing of that disorder intimation has been already given.
  • Title: [[129b-494] 15 April 1817 Plan]
    Description: [129b-494]

    15 April 1817

    Plan Cat

    Note (a)

    Introd

    §. Attendance

    5

    Now unless it be the sinister interest in the sinister profit by delay /C – r Generals general interest in delay/ or the prevention-abjuring principle produced /having for its cause/ the general interest which he has with[?] the interest by which he is placed in a state of perpetual war with every thing that is well and good – let any one say that can what is it that can have given birth to a state of things in which unless preserved by one of those exertions of arbitrary power for which the demand is so carefully nursed the whole machine of government is that left exposed /liable/ to the danger of falling to pieces?

    This neglect to the account of which of the two grounds /causes/ /sides of the human mind/ is it the pleasure of Honourable Gentlemen to see it /that it/ placed? to the intellectual, or to the moral? to that state of the intellectual faculty by which a man is incapacitated from seeing that a /in the/ Speaker of the House of Commons is liable to sickness /be incapacitated from business by sickness/ /by sickness liable to be rendered incapable of attendance to business/ like another man, or that for want of some act of the House mischief beyond the reach of calculation may ensue: or to that state of the moral faculty, which with the mischief full in its view chooses rather that it shall take place than that the efficiency of one of the instruments which it has for the exclusion of good should be diminished?
  • Title: [[129b-492] 15 April 1817 Plan]
    Description: [129b-492]

    15 April 1817

    Plan Cat

    Note (a)?

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    §. Attendance

    3

    The leaders – does it happen to them to have an interest – a special /an incidental/ interest in delay? When an event of the sort in question /let it/ takes place, here is a reason: a reason for delay in a state of things in which perhaps neither reason nor so much as a tolerably plausible pretence could have been given. Now[?] they have /for them[?] should have/ the usage of the House and that usage inviolable. On the other hand /But/ suppose that when an incident /a misfortune/ of the kind in question happens /takes place/, promptitude not delay is the object of their wishes. The power is in their hands – sooner than fail, no dust[?] no fictions to which they would not have recourse. At the opening of a Parliament Before a Speaker has been chosen for the purpose of meeting to make a House for choosing and a Clerk of the House officiating in the Speakers place. In the case here supposed this Clerk, who before the official[?] experience of the Speaker has commenced, must be singularly incapable if he did not make a better /fitter/ Speaker than the Speaker himself, this Clerk – or rather than fail, the picture of the Speaker or a picture of the Clerk would be set up for the purpose.