date

[clxiv. 249] 1820 Aug. 8 Emancipation
[clxiv. 249]

1820 Aug. 8

Emancipation Spanish

Summary

Corruptive influence

Where to the production of the corruptive effect a special act of corruption is necessary - a special act of corruption if punishable with a corrupt giver on the one part and a corrupt receiver on the other, here the mischief is at its minimum:

Examples. A candidate for the situation of Representative in a sovereign Assembly gives money to an Elector for his Vote

An individual having a suit at law depending before a judicatory gives money for a decision in his favour to a Judge belonging to that judicatory

Where to the production of the corruptive effect no special act of corruption is necessary, there the mischief is at its maximum: the disease is indeed /altogether remediless and/ incurable: the depravity on the part of the functionaries who share in the profit of it, political depravity - depravity upon the largest scale is at its highest pitch.

Example.

The whole form of Government is so constituted that in the instance of every member of it his private interest is in a state of diametrical /point-blank/ opposition to his public duty. It is the interest of the subject many that the quantity of money, power and factitious dignity attached to official situations as also the number of those situations should be the smallest possible: and the degree of appropriate aptitude on the part of those by whom they are filled it is the interest of the ruling few that the quantity of those instruments of felicity so bestowed should be as great as possible. By every war the number of those situations receives a sure encrease

Accordingly by the English Constitution The power of making war is given to the King. He can not indeed carry it on without the concurrence of the two Houses of Parliament. But with scarce an exception such is their situation, the members of both Houses are all of them on the look out for some one or more of the instruments of felicity in the gift of the King. Hence on the part of a vast majority, a constant disposition to concurr in every war, howsoever destitute of necessity or so much as a colourable pretence.
Similar Items
  • Title: [1820. July 25 Emancipation Spanish]
    Description: 1820. July 25

    Emancipation Spanish

    Summary

    Corruptive influence

    All those external instruments of human felicity that are or appear

    to be in their reach, act /operate/ /in proportion to their quantity act/ on public

    functionaries in the character of instruments of corruptive influence. The greater

    the proportion is of the whole mass to the whole mass of the national property the

    more efficient is their operation in that character. The Spanish Monarchy like all

    other Monarchies the which have representative systems combined with them the Spanish

    Monarchy teems with useless places, needless places, overpaid places and sinecure

    places: it teems with factitious dignities constituted of and kept up by /and no

    otherwise kept up than by/ the [...?] of the subject many, constituting one of the

    instruments of corruption and operating as bounties upon worthlessness and depravity

    /breach of public duty/ in every shape bounties upon depravity in that shape in which

    it consists of the sacrifice of the universal interest to the particular interests of

    those by whom these instruments of imposture are bestowed Having now in combination

    with it a representative democracy the whole mass of the external instruments of

    felicity at the disposal of the ruling few representatives of the people and others

    /amongst the rest/, will be employed in the exercise /application/ of corruptive

    influence to the purpose of engaging them to swell to the utmost possible pitch the

    amount of official emolument and thence of official expenditure and of the taxes by

    which it is defrayed. Even Setting aside the mass of money power and factitious

    dignity attached to the possession or endeavoured acquisition of Spanish American and

    the other distant dependencies, the quantity of the matter of corruptive influence in

    the hands of the Monarch and his advisers, the Monarch being irremovable, will

    suffice, and that to a certainty sooner or later to engage a constant majority of the

    Cortes in a constant breach of trust constantly operating in augmentation of the mass

    of the external instruments of felicity and corruptive influence shared among the

    ruling few
  • Title: [[clxiv. 248] 1820. July 26.]
    Description: [clxiv. 248]

    1820. July 26.

    Emancipation Spanish

    Summary?

    Corruptive influence degrees

    1. The highest degree of efficiency is where to the receipt of the sinister and corruptive benefit no special act done in the intention of producing the public mischief /that view/ is at the hands of any particular individual necessary: the benefit falling into his lap in virtue of the general arrangements that have place on the part of the law

    2. The next highest degree of efficiency is where to the receipt of the benefit although a special act done in that view may be regarded as necessary, yet no such special act is actually necessary to be done, what is sufficient for producing the /an adequate/ expectation of the benefit, is - the existence of a person, who regarding it as being for his interest to produce the public mischief is in a condition to confer on the individual under temptation a benefit sufficient to produce the corruptive effect

    3. The next highest or third degree of efficiency is where to the receipt of the sinister and corruptive benefit a special act done in the intention of producing the public mischief is necessary.
  • Title: [[clxiv. 222] 1820 June 27 Emancipation]
    Description: [clxiv. 222]

    1820 June 27

    Emancipation Spanish

    ?.8. Corruptive influence

    Corruption without Corrupter

    The essence of the mischief /evil/ consists in the existence, in the hands of one or of the few, of a power adequate to the purpose of sacrificing to their own narrow interest the broader interest of the many: corruptive influence is productive /a source/ of evil no otherwise than so far as it is productive of this effect. In /Under/ a pure despotism no corruptive influence it has been already remarked is exercised on the under despots by the despot in chief on the under despots: why because he has no need of going to work in a way so less sure and at the same time so expensive: by force military force, when once it is collected and established, no additional expence is necessitated for the making application of it to this or any other purpose: it costs no more to fire a ball into the bowels of a petitioner for reform than into a target

    Accordingly where by the situation a man occupies in the government and by the power attached to that situation he finds himself enabled to put himself into the possession of a mass of the external instruments of felicity in any shape or shapes, to put into his purse /pocket/ for example the matter of depredation in any shape it matters not whether a special corrupter can or can not be found for him in the persons of any other functionary.

    If merely by occupying the situation of Chancellor it is in the power of a man at the expence of insolvent debtors and their impoverished creditors to fill with fees his own pockets in that character, and those of his sons or other dependents /worshippers/ whom he would or would not otherwise have had to feed /provide for/ at his own expence in the situation of Commissioner, it makes no difference with regard to the temptation he is under of adding to the public misery for the sake of adding to those emoluments whether he receives this part of his emolument from the hands /at the hands/ of a Corrupter General by a separate deed, or whether without need of application to that primary author of all evil he puts /sweeps/ the money into his purse by means of a power attached already to his office.