date

1820 Sept. 24 Emancipation Spanish
1820 Sept. 24

Emancipation Spanish

'. 5. Corruptive influence

Beginning

'. 5. To the subject many the dominion would in a Constitutional view be still

more hurtful, by its corruptive influence on the ruling few

Here, my friends, here I find myself in a perplexing /distressing/ straight. I cna

not bring to view that mischief /evil/ which is the greatest without speaking of the

injury /mischief to you/ with which the dominion is seen to be pregnant, when

contemplated /viewed/ in the constitutional point of view: I mean that mischief which

is the result of the matter of corruptive influence /quanitity of corruptive matter/

with which it loads and [...?] the body of the state /politic/: nor can any tolerably

adequate or clear conception be given of the nature and magnitude of this part of the

mischief /evil/, without bringing /calling/ to view the true view in nature of man

the universal the unalterable the unquestionable yet never confessed nature of man,

and the destructive nature of those forms of government purely monarchical despotism

/pure and despotic monarchy/, pure represnetative democracy, both /each/ in a state

of purity and those infinitely diversifiable instances which are a compound of both,

not to speak of aristocracy

Be the constitution on all point ever so excellent this one load upon it - the

ultramarian dominion - suffices to render all its excellence of no effect: and

suffices sooner or later to drag /replunge/ the natives back into the gulph of

monarchical despotism that scene of torment from which it so lately, and by such

prodigies of true wisdom and true valour it has emerged Seeing this how can I avoid

the endeavour to lead /conduct/ you into the region of abstractions, seeing that but

/without the contemplation of/ for these abstractions the nature of the case affords

not many people means of affording you a conception of the destruction which

eventually awaits you, nor consequently of the [...?] or your falling into it unless

you can bring yourselves to forego the poisonous fruit, with the prospect of which

you have so long been tempted and deluded.
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    '. 5. Corruptive influence

    Dominion but accelerated

    Even without the dominion, but for approximation towards representative democracy

    the destruction of the democratic part of it is certain: but by the dominion it will

    be rendered almost immediate.

    Most monarchy floats between /from/ despotic monarchy and and from democracy and

    pure despotic monarchy it never can be stationary. Without any exertions directed

    /arrangements taken/ to that especial purpose it is continually sliding down hill

    towards the gulph of despotism. The vis inertia or vis insitum[?] call it which you

    please suffices to keep it perpetually on the slide towards the gulf of despotism:

    what soever motion it receives whether from within or from without suffices to

    accelerate its progress /it in its descent/ on that sinister course. Waste in every

    shape, and in even the smallest quantity operates not only as waste but as

    corruption: for by every particle expended in waste, expectations to an unlimited

    [...?] are created, expectations entertained by men, ready to do whatsoever may be

    necessary or conducive to their succeeding to their own profit /use/ on succeeding

    occasions the gain /profit/ by these or [...?] waste

    Whatever is expended upon a single individual, for the purpose of causing the

    deluded multitude to regard as excellent in benevolence /beneficence/ and prudence

    one individual above themselves suffices to render him excellent in maleficence and

    imprudence, is so much of the substance of the profit extorted and disspoiled in

    waste. Every particle of the money or other good things of this wicked world external

    elements of felicity expended in waste or, whether properly or not an addition to the

    mass of the matter of corruption, operates themselves as an instrument of corruptive

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  • Title: [[clxiv. 219] 1820 July 4 Emancipation]
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    ult o

    ?.8. Corruptive influence

    Corruption without Corrupter

    Continue Either a King or [...? ...?] much more both will suffice to bring you under power coercive power

    Q. To corruption, action needless: situation sufficient. Examples.

    Of this instrument of mischief the most striking /curious/ /mysterious/ as well as mischievous /efficient/ property is - that it operates and works without need of a hand to move it. Situation, mere situation a still and silent relation between cause and effect between human /moral/ means and human /moral/ motives - suffices for the production of the effect. Before me lies an external instrument of felicity - a lucrative office a mass of power - an ensign of factitious dignity:- from /in/ the very nature of the case without need of any body to inform me of it, I see that if I pursue a certain line of conduct I shall thereby give to myself a more or less considerable probability of obtaining it: if I pursue the opposite line, then am I sure I shall not have. As yet what there is /is stated as being/ in the case is but /simply/ influence. The line of conduct by which alone I can hope to obtain this object of desire is of such a sort by the pursuing of which mischief will be done to the universal interest: no matter: it will be beneficial to my own private interest: I therefore pursue it notwithstanding
  • Title: [1820. Aug. 18 Emancipation Spanish]
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    Summary

    '.5. Corruptive influence

    Townsend

    As its efficiency can at no time cease, while at all times it is

    susceptible of encrease, and by every encrease of dominion, and by every war,

    successful or unsuccessful, can not but encrease - sooner or later, unless stopt by

    violent howsoever salutary change, it will to a certainty convert the mixt Monarchy

    into a government, in which more or less of the forms of the mixture will probably be

    preserved, but which will in effect be a pure despotism. Of course, the exact time is

    not capable of being determined. Thus much however is certain, namely, that by every

    encrease given to the matter of corruptive influence, and in particular by every

    encrease given to public expenditure, necessary or unnecessary, and in particular by

    every encrease given to the splendour of the crown, and to the tangible or visible

    supports afforded to royal dignity, or to the dignity of any situation subordinate to

    royalty,- by every encrease given to dominion, and by every war, and by every

    encrease given to either the extent or the duration of the war, be the quantum of the

    several articles at the outset what it may, it cannot but be accelerated /component

    elements of the corruptive mass at the outset what it may, the disastrous conversion

    can not but be accelerated./

    To say that in the hands of an irremovable chief functionary money in

    the view of a set of subordinate or coordinate functionaries will not corrupt men -

    is to say, that when applied to them, water will not moisten them, nor fire warm

    them, or arsenic poison them.