date

1822 Feb. 17. Thoughts on Official
1822 Feb. 17.

Thoughts on Official Economy

Rudiment to the 1st part. (ab intra?)

1 Function for which extra aptitude is necessary per[?] the list with

the several shapes in which the aptitude is required

including British India

2. do ab extra? - i.e. pecuniary. Every power left at command of

functionary for his own use is waste and corruption.

In regard to the Official Establishment in general - and the several

Offices contained in it in particular, that which the greatest happiness of the

greatest number /principle/ requires is that on the part of the Official person in

question there be the greatest degree possible of appropriate aptitude, relation had

to the service proposed to be obtained /rendered/ by the community from the execution

of the Office, and this at the least expence possible to the public purse: in other

words that the burthen pressing /thereby imposed/ upon the people /subject many/ in a

pecuniary shape shall be the lightest possible.

Here then throughout the whole of the Establishment are two [...?]

objects between which there is the most intimate connection, and in a certain degree

a conflict and competition - on the part of the functionary appropriate aptitude: on

the part of the people at large, exemption from unnecessary burthen in the shape in

question which is a pecuniary one.

In every situation be it what it may aptitude with reference to the

service for the rendering of which it is that a man is placed in that same situation

say appropriate aptitude may be seen to be composed of three distinguishable elements

and thence to be divisible into /of/ so many distinguishable branches: namely

appropriate moral aptitude, appropriate intellectual aptitude and appropriate active

aptitude

Division of offices into those requiring no aptitude but pecuniary

i.e. moral and those requiring extra intellectual and active aptitude.
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  • Title: [1822 Feb. 17. Thoughts on Official]
    Description: 1822 Feb. 17.

    Thoughts on Official Economy

    1 The greatest happiness of the greatest number requires that all

    needless Offices be abolished

    Then follows the Expository matter viz

    1. Modifications of needlessness: included the Monarchal and the

    Aristocratical

    2. Reasons for the abolition viz. 1. Exclusion of waste 2. Exclusion

    of corruption

    1. Simply useless. 2. needless and useless. 3. positively

    mischievous.

    2. The greatest happiness of the greatest number requires that for

    securing the maximum of aptitude to the service rendered by all such Offices as are

    retained such arrangements should be made as in the instance of each the nature of

    the case requires

    Expository Matter stating the arrangements apposite to the case in

    the instance of Offices of pecuniary trust.

    3 /4/. The greatest happiness of the greatest number requires that

    all lots of factitious dignity /factitious dignities/ be abolished.

    4 /3/. The greatest happiness of the greatest number requires that of

    all such Offices as are not needless, the quantity of emolument attached if any

    should be as small as can be attached to it without prejudice /detriment/ in an

    assignable shape to the aptitude of the service rendered by the functionary in

    possession of it.

    Expository matter. Stating the arrangements apposite to the case in

    the two cases in the instance of the two species of Office respectively viz. 1.

    Offices requiring pecuniary trustworthiness /aptitude - trustworthiness ab extra?: 2. Offices requiring extra aptitude ab intra?
  • Title: [[cixl. 205] 1822 Feb. 18 Copied]
    Description: [cixl. 205]

    1822 Feb. 18 Copied

    Official Economy /Constitutional Law - Official Establishment/

    Means of ascertaining /obtaining/ by an instrument the maximum of aptitude on the part of the functionary and the minimum of pecuniary burthen to the people 1. For offices requiring pecuniary trustworthiness without extra intellectual or active aptitude, 1. power of depredation minimized: thus quantity of public money at command, and plenitude of command over it minimized: fidejussors as near as may be to the maximum of the amount at command. 2. For Offices requiring extra talent or say appropriate active aptitude Public exhibition, with Do Examination in so far as applicable.

    Mode of ascertaining the minimum of official emolument necessary thence of expence:

    Emolument a fixt salary: thereupon sale by auction of the Office: tenable either for a term of years, or rather for life subject to displacement for misconduct specified and proved add perhaps in some instances, for aggregate inaptitude in the judgment of certain persons, but in this case not without reimbursement of the purchase money. Call this the Economical Auction

    Objections to the Economical Auction. 1. Exclusion of the unopulent classes: 2. extension of venality. 3 extra probability of misconduct in the shape of depredation, for want of pecuniary responsibility, and by reason of the sharpness of the aptitude for crime in a proportion encreasing with the degree of indigence

    Objection 1. Exclusion of the unopulent: thence violation of the principle of Equality.

    Answer

    1. From the rejection of this preservative against misrule, evil to the greatest number, great: viz. [...?] of contribution and the matter of wealth raised by it expended in waste, and thence operating as matter of corruptive influence: swelled pro tanto the amount of the mass of the matter of patronage. Mass of pecuniary emolument saleable say &1,000,000 a year: saving £200,000 To reject this instrument is to impose £200,000 a year on opulent and unopulent, for the purpose of turning and the profit-seeking industry of the unopulent from other channels into this.

    2. The bar opposed to the unopulent is not an insuperable one, like the bar opposed under some governments by want of nobility. By raising himself to a degree of opulence adequate to the purchase of the office, the most unopulent man may acquire it.

    3. The rejection of this instrument of frugality would exclude the use of a main security for, and thence instrument of, appropriate aptitude; namely relish for the business: the less the emolument, in other words the more a man gives for the office the greater the relish - to him who gives nothing for it it may be an object of disgust: of disgust not surmountable but by the extreme of indigence.

    4. The access proposed to be left to the unopulent will not secure their entrance or render it so probable to them as to the more opulent, the greater the opulence the greater the means of access to patrons who of course belong to the opulent class.
  • Title: [1822 June 17 Economy etc Hence]
    Description: 1822 June 17

    Economy etc

    Hence for instruction and remembrance and standards of reference we have these formulae /axioms./ /aphorisms./

    1 Sole justifiable end of laws, greatest happiness of greatest number

    2. Immediate direct means or immediately subordinate end, aptitude maximized on the part of functionaries of all sorts employed in /about/ and under the law, appropriate aptitude maximized maximization of appropriate aptitude.

    3 Collateral means or /and/ immediately subordinate end, expence minimized minimization of expence.

    I. Aptitude

    Appropriate aptitude is aptitude with relation to the end Inaptitude is the absence or the opposite of aptitude. In the case of a functionary of Government appropriate aptitude is appropriate official aptitude.

    In /Of/ appropriate official aptitude with relation to the end of government and laws three branches or elements may /require to/ be distinguished, namely 1. Appropriate moral aptitude: 2. appropriate intellectual aptitude: 3. appropriate active aptitude

    Appropriate intellectual aptitude again requires to be distinguished into 1. appropriate knowledge: 2. appropriate judgment.

    For maximizing appropriate official aptitude in these its several branches the arrangements and other means employed by the Constitutional branch of law may be termed Securities for these several branches of appropriate official aptitude: These securities for it, are so many efficient causes of it: they respectively so many concurrent causes: the aptitude produced by them, their joint /common/ effect.