[clxiv. 269]

1820. Sept r. 6

Emancipation Spanish

Summary.

?. Corruptive influence

or Domination impossible?

It follows not that because where circumstances admitt of it a Republic is the only good form of government, your rulers did wrong in putting up with a Monarchy or that they would not have done wrong had they tried for a republic. Had they made any such experiment, I can not /I feel how incompetent I am to/ see /see not/ what chance they could have had to bring /of bringing/ it to bear. Now the Mixt Monarchy is on its legs, as little do I see what chance there could be of preponderant good, from any attempt to overturn /overthrow/ it. All I mean to say is - that whatever change there is /should there be any change/, just so far as it operates in favour of the Monarchical or the Aristocratical part /Monarchy or Aristocracy/ its effects will be evil, just in so far as it operates /its operation is/ in favour of the power of the people, good: and that as by insensible changes when once established it can not fail to be brought nearer to /back in its way to/ despotism, so by sensible changes, so they be not violent ones when and as opportunity offers, to bring it nearer to republicanism, the opportunity should not be suffered to pass /let slip/ unimproved.
Similar Items
  • Title: [[clxiv. 268] 1820. Sept. 5. 1822 Aug]
    Description: [clxiv. 268]

    1820. Sept. 5. 1822 Aug. 9 Inapplicable or Superseded

    Emancipation Spanish /Constitut Code/

    Summary

    ? Corruptive influence?

    or ? Domination impossible?

    GG. If you cannot exclude Monarchy, minimize its power.

    If Naples prefers your Constitutional Monarchy to a Republic, it /Monarchy/ is best for her: if Sicily prefers a Republic to your Constitutional Monarchy, it /a Republic/ is best for her. Would to God I /Oh that I could but see/ both countries united in any form! united under a Constitutional Monarchy, or under a Republic, or the one under the one form of government the other under the other. At this distance I can not take upon me to be sure /to say/ that these men were in the wrong, who in Spanish America used their endeavours to establish a Constitutional Monarchy under a different Monarch in preference to a Republic. To /For/ all Candidates for office /who look to office/ true it is that a Monarchy is beyond comparison better than a Republic and for the same reason a mixt Monarchy better than a pure one. True. But in this or that particular State it follows not that mixt Monarchy only because it is best for the influential few is relatively a bad one: for if no better is to be had it is best for the subject many likewise. In a Republic there are no needless or overpaid offices, because there is no Corrupter-General to employ the pay of them in paying /luring/ the Representatives of the people to betray their trust, and join with him in plundering their constituents. In a pure Monarchy though the pride and vanity of the Monarch [...?] needless Offices, it is only through the /his/ indolence and negligence of the Monarch if there be any overpaid ones: for as there exists no man to whom any declared resistance can be opposed to his will can be opposed, so there is no one in whose instance resistance requires to be softened. As to a republic, so it be at once practicable and palatable what makes me prefer it to a mixt Monarchy is that not only a /is the best/ mixt Monarchy is not only not so good as a republic at the first, but that by its very nature it is destined to grow worse and worse: worse and worse till by repose it sinks into a pure Monarchy, as ours has so long been sinking, or by convulsion rises into a republic, as ours, if ever it rises at all, seems destined to rise. A republic (bating extraneous accident such as all governments and all men are exposed /liable/ to) will in proportion as it changes, grow better and better, because there is something to make it better till it arrives at the best and nothing in it to make it worse. A pure Monarchy can not grow worse, because /for/ it is at all times at the worst. A mixt Monarchy alone is by its very nature destined to change, and that only one way, namely by less bad to worse. It is made worse and worse, by every man added to the army under the Monarch, and by every penny added to the taxes. By the every man it is made the more tyrannical; by the every penny it is made the more corrupt, and by every armed man not only the more tyrannical but the more corrupt: for to encrease the army is to encrease not only force but patronage.
  • Title: [1820 Oct. 16 Spanish liberticide measures]
    Description: 1820 Oct. 16 Spanish liberticide measures 6 Letter 3? Introd. Letter 1 6

     Postpone this to Letter III.

    Will it be said – Anglo-Columbia is not Spain? – I admitt it. But if from such

    liberty, carried to such perfection, the danger, if any, is in that Republic so

    minute it would be still less in your monarchy. In the Monarchy there are no

    such facilities for the abuse of the liberty as in the Republic: in the Monarchy

    /Republic/ there are /no/ such means of immediate repression as in the Republic

    /Monarchy/ have in existence. In the Monarchy there exists not on the part of

    the people at large such habit of assembling for discussion on political

    subjects as in the Republic; no such formed habits of concert and arrangement on

    those occasions: in the Monarchy the proportion of those who are in possession

    of fire arms and of the habit of using them is in comparison of what it is in

    the Republic extremely small: in the Monarchy, the proportion of the armed and

    trained military men under the command of the public functionaries – regulars

    and militia together is much larger than in the Republic and much more uniformly

    distributed/ -ly small: in the /your/ Monarchy the supreme command of the

    military force regulars and militia together is concentrated in one visible and

    perpetually existing and vigilant hand: in the Republic it is in an unseen and

    ever-changing body/.
  • Title: [13 Aug 1809 + Parl y Reform]
    Description: 13 Aug 1809 +

    Parl y Reform

    B.III Duration

    Ch. 8. 6 Republicanism

    [...?] nothing new therefore so republicanism

    Ch.8. Objection the 6 th. The effect /result/ of this arrangement would be to destroy the monarchy: changing the form of government in effect to a Republic

    On the present occasion this objection must be brought forward: why? because on every recourse[?] /on that /the/ side in question/ it is seen to be brought forward.

    To the present purpose what might seem /is/ sufficient to say, is that to this particular arrangement to this particular part of the plan of reform, it has not any particular application: whatsoever may be the regard due to it it applies to the whole.

    Whatsoever article /feature/ /part/ takes any thing from the power which the advisers of the Crown, open and secret together have of doing mischief, by this feature takes so much from the power of the Crown is indisputably taken away - and [...?] in compleat annihilation of the power of the crown to be the object which I know it not to be with any one, and am sure it is not with me. Whatsoever part of the power of the Crown be taken away, so much as that power[?] amounts to, so much is the advance made toward state [...?] and [...?].