date

[Wrapper enfolding clxvii 277-81]
[Wrapper enfolding clxvii 277-81]

Rid Yourselves

August 1821

Letter 25 Aversion Causes

Cause 9. Loss by fortunes made in Ultramaria by Spaniards out of Ultramarian Offices and on retreat from Office carried out of Ultramaria to Spain.

[clxvii. 277]

1821 July 3 d

Rid Yourselves

4 Supposable resource 4

Emolument from Ultramarian Offices

Strange as it may appear these your distant kinsmen have not quite so blind a partiality for you or your rulers as your rulers reckon upon your having for yourselves. This exportation - this continual exportation - of money or moneys worth, always without an equivalent, and this to an amount so considerable as to be regarded as a national resource - /a resource/ worth contending for, and at such an expence - the inhabitants of the country at whose expence it is to be saved up and sent away - what will they say to it? Vain to this purpose would here be all reference to the abjured despotism. Under that pressure, nothing did they dare say against any thing: nor therefore against this. But, under the new system - the system of equal enjoyment and equal rights - the system of economy and good government - a system under which by Article 368 they would "have liberty to write, print, and publish these and all their other political ideas without harm" &c what would they say of it? They would say - that neither in the one country nor in the others, consistently with the fundamental principle of the Constitutional Code - (Art. 4. 13) namely the greatest happiness of the greatest number can there be any such making of fortunes: that the whole amount of fortunes made in any country out of official emolument, whether spent on it or exported out of it, constitutes a part, though no more than a part, of the booty made by unpunishable because leglalized depredation: that in the Anglo-American United States, it is a principle that no such booty shall ever be made, and that accordingly in that only existing and etablished sort of good government no such booty is ever made:

How should it? when if you except the substitute to a Monarch, with his ,6000 a year Civil list, when in the whole Official Establishment there is no such thing as a lot of Official emolument out of which, were the men to live all the time upon air, any thing that in England could be called a fortune could be made. True (they would say): if by the example of English rulers depredation, only because unpunishable, is capable of being justified, justifications you may have in plenty. But, wheresoever else and under whatsoever /other/ system of law, the example of England may afford a justification for unpunishable depredation, in Spain or any where under the Spanish Constitutional Code it can do no such thing.
Similar Items
  • Title: [[wrapper enfolding clxvii.240-56]]
    Description: [wrapper enfolding clxvii.240-56]

    Rid Yourselves. Aug. 1821

    Letter 5. Continued Ultramaria in submission impossible

    [verso]

    Rid Yourselves 31 March 1822

    Part 4

    Letter Cause Apprehension of the several branches correspondent to the several supposed sources of bencht looked for on the part of Spain.

    1. loss of profit by expenditure of Official Emolument savings - See see [...?] Ultramaria [...?] required

    2. loss by restriction on Ultramaria production and export prohibited for the sale of Spanish dealers.

    3. Forced military service. Export or Ultramarians for military service in Spain or elsewhere.

    4. Denial of justice by Appeal: Oppression by d o.

    [clxvii. 240]

    1821 Aug. 5

    Rid Yourselves

    Lett. 5,

    Continued submission impossible

    Letter 5. Continued Ultramarian Submission impossible

    Spaniards!

    You the subject many! You the great bulk of the Nation! never be it out of mind, it is to you I speak, on this occasion as on every other.

    From the claim kept up by your rulers in the dominion from the dominion over the whole of Ultramaria itself, if already in their hands, in respect of money no net profit can you receive: no saving can you make no, nor under the Code so much as a single receipt, of the repetition of which you could at any time entertain any well-grounded expectation: This I have already shown you. This was on the supposition of temporary submission and mutual satisfaction in consequence.

    At the time when any translation of this may chance to reach you - at that time, whatever it may be, you will see written what narrow limits in respect of extent of territory population and wealth the expectation of any such submission how short-lived so ever can have any tolerable ground.
  • Title: [[clxvii. 279] 1821 Aug. 1 Rid]
    Description: [clxvii. 279]

    1821 Aug. 1

    Rid Yourselves

    4. Supposable resource 4. Emolumt from Ultramarian Offices

    In England all this in accordance with the Constitution; I mean always with what would be the Constitution, if there were one. For if the English Constitution, according to the account given of it in all speeches given no less by Whigs than by Tories, the end in view is the maintaining the lustre and splendour of the Crown: to which it is necessary that the pockets of all the rich who are near enough to be seen on their knees before it should be kept in a state of perpetual plunderage. But of your Constitution, which, such as it is, is a really existing one, the end in view - at any rate the declared end - (Art. 4. 13) is the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

    But suppose it admitted that it is proper that to all offices should stand attached masses of emolument such as should suffice for the making fortunes out of them. Suppose it were admitted that it is propoer that the fortunes, when made, should be carried out of the country at the expence of which they have been made. These same admissions - what would you be better for them? If it be proper that, to offices in Ultramaria, masses of official emolument should be attached for the benefit of Spaniards, to the end that, after making out of them each man his fortune, he may on his return to Spain, carry it with him to Spain, - it can not be less proper, that, to Offices in Spain like masses of official emolument should be attached for the benefit of Ultramarians, to the end that after making out of them each man his fortune, he may carry it with him on his return to Ultramaria. These your distant kinsmen - suppose them to urge /claim/ this reciprocity: what will you find to say to them /answer them/? That they are an inferior cast, and that reciprocity would be injustice? There stands your Constitutional Code, and at every page it contradicts you. When they want an example for misrule, it is to England that your rulers send you. The fund is an inexhaustible one. Thus it was when they tried to destroy the liberty of the press and public discussion. On this occasion, one little circumstance excepted. Here too, if in their eyes it be expedient they may find a case in point to shew you. /Look at/ British India with its population of hundred millions. Englishmen are sent to India to make fortunes and bring them to England: Indians are not brought over to England to make fortunes here and go carry with them to India. But now the little circumstance. The people of English India avowed a conquered people with reference to England: but your Ultramarian kinsmen are not a conquered people with reference to you or your rulers /reference to England: but your Ultramaria kinsmen are not a conquered people/. They are descendants of the conquerors. And, between Spain and Ultramaria how little soever there may be at bottom - (but this you will see in its place) in profession, and on the surface of the Code, all is equality and reciprocity.
  • Title: [[clxvii. 280] 1821 Aug. 1 Rid]
    Description: [clxvii. 280]

    1821 Aug. 1

    Rid Yourselves

    4. Supposable resource 4.Emolum t from Ultramarian Offices

    As to conquest, take notice that in speaking of it I do not speak of it as capable of forming a just ground for any such plunderage: all I say is - that even if it did, this claim against the descendants of the conquerors would not be any thing the better for it.

    Another thing. Corruption! Corruptive influence! Never - on this occasion, or on any other, let this political poison, or the name it is called by, be out of your minds This matter out of which fortunes are thus proposed to be made in pretence of service rendered - this matter suppose it allowed to be collected, what is it but so much of the matter of corruptive influence? so much poison to your Constitution: poison to the Constitution of every country that has one:- poison to the Constitution of every such country wherever situated; Under the present head, merely to try your attraction for it, is any mention made of it: it belongs to another head, and under that head I shall have to present it to your view.H Meantime suffer me here to give you notice, that in my vocabulary corruption is not as in some, a term of vague and unmeaning sentimentalism. By it is designated the source of that sinister interest; by which in every department of the government the agents and trustees of the people are, in every limited Monarchy, made to betray their trust, and practice misrule in every shape. By possession in prospect of needless and excessive official emolument attached to offices, kept up or created in and for the prosecution of this claim, men will be engaged on the support of a system whereby the like waste and depredation will be confirmed and extended in the several other departments: in a word the interest of you the subject many will on every occasion that can be mentioned be made a sacrifice of to the particular and sinister interests of those several sections of the ruling few. I hope the announcement is plain enough, whatever the proof may be.

    HLetter 8 th