date

[clx. 273] 1822 July 4 Constitut
[clx. 273]

1822 July 4

Constitut. Code

Factitious dignity /Honor/

?.4. Conferred as usual

mischievous

Conferred not in those cases the evidence afforded of itself in each individual case with the evidence thus afforded

?.4 Conferred in the only manner as yet in general use factitious honor is in its nature in various ways preponderantly mischievous - detrimental and not /rather than/ contributory to the greatest happiness of the greatest number: and in the first place as conferred in a Monarchy. Arbitrarily conferred, factitious honor is pernicious every where

Of The various forms in which it has been conferred in Monarchies a comparative /an analytical/ view has been just given. The cases in which it has thus been given agree all of them in this: namely that they have been given out in a judicial manner: not on the ground of any adequate or determined evidence: Thus given They have therefore little more tendency to be productive of good desert than punishment applied by the same hands, in the same arbitrary manner, would have to be expressive of ill-desert.

Of two things of two matters of fact it must be admitted an act of this sort does afford conclusive evidence: that the individual so honored: 1. that he is in favor with the Monarchy or: 2 that at any rate he is not to such a degree out of favor as that the act /reward in this shape/ being proposed by the functionary in question is not thought fit by the Monarch to be refused.
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  • Title: [[clx. 274] 1822 July 5 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 274]

    1822 July 5

    Constitut. Code

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    Factitious Dignity /Honor/

    ?.4. Evils produced by it

    Note to the list of good things operating as corruption add punishment i.e. the power of remitting it: also evil in other classes. Hence, tyrants the most praised.

    ?.4 Factitious honor in general - Evils produced by it - when as usual, arbitrarily conferred

    When arbitrarily conferred either it is conferred either without so much as an indication of service in any specific shape rendered to the public, or if with any such indication without proof made and published of the reality of the facts on the supposed reality /ungrounded supposition/ of which it is /has been/ grounded.

    1. If conferred without indication of service to the public that which is indicated by it is - that the individual on whom it is conferred is an object of favor to the person or persons by whom it has been conferred. In this case it is mischievous in /on/ the │   │ following ways /accounts/

    Mischief /Evil/ 1. Burthen to the unhonoured at large

    There are two sets of persons at whose expence is conferred every honour that is conferred: all the members of the community at large - the whole number of them: 2. those particular ones if any among whom peculiar benefits in this shape have been shared.

    By the members at large, of any donation of this sort taken singly the expence is in but a small degree if in any degree felt. But when viewed in the aggregate, the expence to which communities have been subjected to in this shape, will, by every man, be more or less clearly perceived, and sensibly /acutely/ felt, in proportion as he thinks of it.

    2 By those who, at the time when in the individual instance in question the honor was conferred, were already in possession of it, the expence is felt in a much more acute /intense/ degree. Witness the Dutchess of Northumberland who in the days of George the second was afraid of spitting /durst not spit/ out of her Coach as she passed along the street for fear of spitting upon a Lord.

    Evil the second case. Burthen to the co-honored.
  • Title: [[clx. 301] 1822 July 8 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 301]

    1822 July 8

    Constitut. Code Rationale

    Note

    Factitious honor

    ?. Evils

    In the Prussian Monarchy, made up of shreds and patches, torn at different times from their various possessors - in the Prussian Monarchy till t'other day there was nothing above a Count. Of late the Monarchy being enlarged and consolidated the treasury of honor has been enriched there by /with/ an order of Princes

    In Poland before the partition /delaceration[?]/ a fear of the most opulent families that is to say the greatest Landholders, though it is believed without any formal creation used to bear in other languages the title of Princes and continue to do so since

    In Russia, in which the manufacture of factitious honour has within this country been carried on with the greatest degree of elaboration, there are Barons and above them Counts but nothing higher: the Princes having been such not by creation, but some how or other, it is not generally known how it remains for the genius of the present or some future Aristocrat to import from England all along with its other products the titles of Duke and Marquis, to set above those of Count and Baron.

    In reality this question about rank is by no means so frivolous as it may appear to be: for by all these elevations it will be seen how the people are tormented and depressed.

    In the several countries in which a title originally conferred by the Monarch has been assumed by men on whom it has not either on their own persons or on the persons of their ancestors been conferred, an instance may be seen of a sort of superfoetation of depravity, a fraud made to grow out of a fraud: the Monarch by /by the conspiracy by which/ this false certificate of meritorious service has been produced the Monarch and those /the individuals/ thus honored by him have swindled the public at large out of a certain quantity of respect not really due, imposing thus upon the public at large: and the usurpers of it have on their parts imposed upon the public at large and the Monarch both, by pretending to have received from him what in truth he never gave.
  • Title: [[clx. 259] 1822 July 4 Constitut]
    Description: [clx. 259]

    1822 July 4

    Constitut. Code Rationale

    Factitious Dignity /Honor/

    As time runs on Of the several judgments here indicated an aggregate and continually encreasing body will be formed. To this aggregate some denomination will of course be given. Let it for example be - The Book of good desert or say The Register of meritorious service

    In it the several individual services will of course be classed /ranged/ under general and specific heads: as likewise the names and other circumstances appertaining to the individuals so /thus/ distinguished.

    Note (a)

    Opposite but not the less analogous to this Register will be the Book or Register of ill-desert.

    The expence attendant on the process of conferring Dignity in this its natural shape, is it liable to the imputation of being excessive

    If at the expence of a /but a/ single individual reward in money to the amount of any the smallest denomination of coin were claimed, the services of the judicial establishment for the purpose of giving effect to it or rejecting it, are not grudged. But /Nor/ in the shape in question, reward can not it will be seen be given but at the expence of all the members of the community how impalpable so ever may in each instance be the amount of the expence.

    Where the value of the service appears /shall appear/ not to be such as to warrant this expence no such expence will be incurred The individual by whom it is conceived that a service of this description has been rendered will take his own course for the giving publicity to it

    At the expence of the public at large and by the act of a public functionary without sufficient and judicial evidence of extra good desert, reward in the shape of honour ought not to be conferred.

    Honour thus conferred will be natural honor judicially conferred: conferred as the French say /phrase is/ en connoissance de cause.