date

[ clxvii. 213] 1821 March 2 7
[ clxvii. 213]

1821 March 2 7

Rid Yourselves

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.
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    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.

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    4. The adopters of the Code every where justified. On no occasion could they have taken a better course: their choice was that or none. The foundations /roots/ were /are/ the best possible: in theory Fundamental /Radical/ theory - fundamental maxim - sole defensible end of government the greatest happiness of the greatest number: radical /correspondent/ arrangement: constitutive power - the root /basis/ of all operative power lodged in the hands of the greatest number: this power lodged in the /those/ hands by those by where obedience all operative power is comprized /constituted/ in the hands of those to the securing of whose greatest happiness the exercise of it ought to /should/ be directed. The foundations were /Those were/ the best possible: and on these foundations preserved no bad arrangements that should be inserted into the edifice - no arrangements adverse to that all-comprehensive end can be of long continuance. Not in the multitude of words only but in extent of import depends the extent of the effect produced by a discourse. In detail the Code swarms with imperfections: it could not have been otherwise: a sample, and no more than a sample has on this occasion been held up to view. But from these imperfections had they been still more numerous and still more important than they are, the whole taken together would not have been divested of its beneficial quality, /rendered either bad in itself/ or unfit to be adopted in Monarchical States /any Monarchical State/ seeking relief from despotism.
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