date

[ clxvii. 212] 1821 March 2 7
[ clxvii. 212]

1821 March 2 7

Rid Yourselves

Adopter's Justification

Meantime these when added tpgether make but a small part of the whole number of the imperfections which, if my eyes do not deceive me I have discovered in this momentous work: a small volume would not suffice for any thing like a full display of them. Corresponding amendment would have to be proposed: amendment in all its classes: subtraction, addition, substitution.

Were the volume a folio, and every line of it a distinct and incontrovertible truth, the /tribute of/ approbation I have given to the several nations by which the same Code has been adopted would not be the less sincere.

If of either of the importance or of the extent of a legislative provision /arrangement/ the number of words employed in giving expression to it were regarded as a time measure, minute indeed would be that portion of the Code to which any approbation from me could consistently with sincerity be applied. /bestowed/ Such is the only measure recognized by /among/ our sham /spurious/ and self-appointed legislators in whose vocabulary reflection is synonynous to theory, and theory Jacobinism and blasphemy. Measuring the field of legislation by this measure, although the English penal code is not less defective in its provision than it is tyrannical, it is upon the multitude of the /penally inflicting/ laws that they lay all the blame, not upon their barbarity or their momentous ineptitude with relation to /in the duration of means/ their professed and to their real and actual ends.
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  • Title: [[ clxvii. 213] 1821 March 2 7]
    Description: [ clxvii. 213]

    1821 March 2 7

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    S 16. Adopter's Justification

    But not: it is not by the number of words employed in giving expression to it; that the extent anymore than the utility of a mass of legislative measure is to be measured it is by the extent of the influence exercised by it the happiness of those whose happiness is at stake on it.

    In a nutshell according to the trivial proverb was contained on a certain occasion the substance of Homers Head in a receptacle of similar magnitude might be containted the excellence of the Spanish Constitutional Code. In Articles 13 and 4: the only legitimate end of government: in Articles 34, 35 the effcetual means: the choice of the ruling few placed in the hands of the subject many, to the exercise of a man's share in this choice no bar opposed but that which it is in his /in a man's/ own power to remove. To theory at once so sound and so extensive carried into detail by practice so beneficially effective, imperfection in detail might have been added in any number and to almost any extent, and still the compound might have remained a beneficient /good/ and serviceable one.
  • Title: [[ clxvii. 214] 1821 March 2 7]
    Description: [ clxvii. 214]

    1821 March 2 7

    Rid Yourselves

    S 16. Adopter's Justification

    Here then was a Constitutional Code which the insurgents in other nations saw ready-made to their hands. What better code was there /had they/ in their view? Not any. What other was there in their view? Not any. Such as it were not only by /the authority of/ exam[ple but by experience /of good effect/ with all the experiennce that the nature of the case afforded did this code present itself to their view. To each of their nation what a treasure was this which their good fortune had thus placed in their hands! Without it what could they have done? Answer this question who can. For from the distinction of the existing government what good would come without some other to take its place. For the framing of a new one there was nothing any where: and /in favour of/ to no new one, whatsoever were its excellence, absolute or comparative, could any such evidence of aptitude have been afforded, as was afforded by this one.
  • Title: [[ clxvii. 215] 1821 March 2 7]
    Description: [ clxvii. 215]

    1821 March 2 7

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    S 16. Adopter's Justification

    What other (I have asked) was there in their view? The English Constitution? It is a mere non-entity: a thing the existence of which is confined to the imagination of him who speaks of it; it is accordingly in every such imagination a different thing: each such imagination a thing such manufactured by the mans own interest - that is to say his own conception of his own interest and that interest a sinister one.

    In no one such imagination /unless in so far as the imagination of a radicalist may afford an exception/ is it a thing to compare for goodness - for aptitude with relation to the only legitimate end of government with that which has been set up by the Spanish Code.

    In the imagination of a Tory it is that system of government which under existing circumstances presents itself himself as the one the best /most effectually/ adapted to the delivering the rest of the nation bound hand and foot to be plundered and oppressed by the hands and for the benenfit of an all plundering and all-oppressing one, together with such of the subject many as far as a share in the plunder and the pleasure of oppressing others would be essential to be shares in the common servitude.

    In the imagination of a Whig it is that system of government which under the same existing circumstance itself is best adapted to the delivering up the rest of the nation to be plundered and oppressed by a plundering a dn all-oppressing one, acting /not otherwise than/ in conjunction with a few, who for their share in the profit of plundering and the pleasure of oppressing would be content to give up to the one the larger share, reserving to themselves the faculty and the arousement of an unending contest, having for its object the reducing of that share to the narrowest (...?) possible.