date

1820. Aug. 16 Emancipation Spanish
1820. Aug. 16

Emancipation Spanish

' 11 Particular Interests adverse

' 8 Interests adverse

Retrenchment

3 Aug 1821 Suppposed superseded by Letter 2

When you have though sufficiently of the sufferings which the dominion would produce

at a distance, and the interests it would have to contend with from without, in a

word from Spanish America,- think of the sufferings - equally incontestable, though

the proportions being as yet so compleatly unascertainable, the not equally obvious

sufferings it would produce, and the correspondently less obvious oppostie interests

it would have to contend with, at home - Think twhether in some quarter or other, ret

renchment must not be made. Think whether in any quarter it cna be made with near so

little suffering - with near so little resistence, national andindividual, as in

this.

Two quantitites - you observe - call at once for your consideration, as being among

the unavoidable results of whatsoever retrenchment came to be made: tow quantities,

the quantity of that suffering which in some quantity or other cna not but be

produced and the quantity of resistence, which in some shape or other and in some

quantity or other in the minds of the persons threatened by it, by the application[?]

that suffering can not fail /but be/ to produce. The first of these considerations

addresses itself to your benevolence; the latter to your prudence.

First is to the necessity of retrenchment, and thw quantum to which that necessity

applies

Of the existance of such a necessity considered in a general point of view, this an

not be more than an opinion.

To the consideration of the quantum belongs the following elements - the following

data that have so lately been furnished, from the most authentic sources.
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  • Title: [1820 Omitted Apr. 1822 Emancipation]
    Description: 1820 Omitted Apr. 1822

    Emancipation Spanish

    Lett. 1.

    When you have thought sufficiently of the sufferings which the dominion would would

    produce at a distance, and the interests it would would produce, at a distance, and

    the interests it would have to contend with from without think of the sufferings less

    obvious sufferings it would produce, and the less obvious [...?] interests it would

    hve to contend with at home - the [...?] in some quarter or other - retrenchment must

    be made. In no quarter can it be made with near so little suffering - with near so

    little natural and rational resistence - as in this.

    While matter to this effect was writing, in come the accounts of the proceedings in

    the Cortes. Sittings of July 13 th 1820. According to the Finance

    Minister, Contributions, 470,000,000 reals; expenditure 680,000,000, reals: Royal

    family's expences exclusive of the King's 40,000,000 reals: increased to that sum

    from the 20,000,000 of reals which was the amount in the days of Charles 2 d. Proposed on part of Ways and Means, sale of the whole of the

    National Domains, and 1/7th of that of the Clergy.

    As to the change in the Constitution, for an indefinite length of time it is to the

    exigencies of the state that it will make addition,

    rather than to the resources. The relief which it will

    afford to the finances is sure; but its non-immediateness is not less sure than its

    existence.

    With this retrenchment there must be: and at /from/ what branch of the possible

    subject matter? Those branches above in addition to the one in question have

    presented themselves as capable of being subjected to it: that which regards the

    Monarch and his family that which regards the Clergy, and that which regards the

    Public Creditor.

    How then are those interests, combined against that sinister interest by which the

    pursuit of that dominion is maintained: those interests and no one of them a weak

    one. Four contending interests, and which of them stands forth in the order of just

    preference? To this I have no need to answer: that the one which regards the dominion

    stands last, I have answered without difficulty. King, Clergy, and Public Creditor

    have this in common - that retrenchment can not apply to them, without giving birth

    to suffering: to [...?] suffering. To the daemon of ambition it may apply - and apply

    largely - if not without producing any such effect, at any rate without producing in

    that shape any thing like equal effect.

    See

    Mem? [...?] Aug[?] 1820
  • Title: [1820 July 23. Emancipation Spanish]
    Description: 1820 July 23.

    Emancipation Spanish

    '. 11. Particular interests adverse

    Retrenchment principles

    Holder of office during pleasure not comparable if they have means of living from

    other sorces.

    In the pain of disappointment consists all the suffering from retrenchment. No

    expectation no disappointment. The subject of disappointment may be possessed or

    vested expectancy. Disappointment may have /has/ for its cause loss of things in

    possession or loss of things in vested expectancy. In so far as no vested expectancy

    has place disappointment has no place. In so far as no vested expectancy has no place

    endowment attached to useless or needless office may be abolished without suffering,

    on condition of allowing the whole of the endowment attached to the incumbent during

    his life the whole of the endowment attached to his office. Offices held under

    appointments understood to be revocable may be extinguished without compensation

    where the incumbent is in possession of a livelyhood from any other source/

    II As to maximizing the facility

    Whatever reduces the suffering reduces at the same time the facility.

    It were to be wished that it could be added, and in the same proportion. But the

    facility will be invisibly in the power of resistence: and in the case in question

    the power of resistence will be not as the quantity of suffering but as the quantity

    of political influence. Under a despotism it will accordingly be at its maximum:

    under /in/ a republic at it minimum, in a mixt government directly in the power of

    the ruling few [...?] in the power of the subject many.
  • Title: [1820 July 23 From Emancipation Spanish]
    Description: 1820 July 23

    From Emancipation Spanish Retrenchment

    '. 11. Particualr interests adverse

    Retrenchment principles

    The interests of the King, of the Clergy, of the Public Creditor all concur in

    requiring that thais emancipation should have place. To avoid practical error,

    political surveys must be not merely extensive but all comprehensive. Retrench

    somewhere is indispensable. For a long time receipt has fallen short of expenditure

    exzpenditure has outrun receipt not substraction form but addition to expenditure

    will for some time be among the unaviodable results of the auspicious change.

    Retrenchment somewhere is therfore indispensable. Retrenchment is this quarter may be

    made with less suffering than from any of those other quarters. The greater the

    retrenchemtn made in any one of those quarters the less will need to be the

    retrenchment from those other quarters taken together In this quarter Retrenchment

    may be made with less suffering than is one of those other quarters.

    Follow certain principles not as to financial[?] retrenchment. Judge, my friends how

    far they are or are not true ones.

    The ends in view are - 1. Reduction of suffering to the minimum

    2. Giving the maximum facility to the operation

    1. As to minimizing the suffering

    The suffering will be the less, 1. the less the number of the sufferers; 2. the

    intense the suffering on the part of each. In taking the number of suffers, not the

    immediate /principal/ sufferers above but those /dependents of all clases/ who

    through them are sufferers should be included. Dependents on men of the lowest class

    are wives and children and other dependent blood relations. In the higher classes to

    these are added domestics, servants, and artists of all sorts who subsist by

    ministering ot their pleasures. Were it not for this the King being but one, and the

    provision made for him so enormous stripping off /by restricting/ the whole provision

    attached to that office, the retrenchment might be made with least injury. But he has

    his dependents and they have theirs. The service thus employed /rendered/ being all

    of it useless to the public, as the incumbrances drop off the office with its

    instruments should be extinguished.