1819 Aug. 25

Fallacies 7 Ch | | Cause & Obstacle Confounders

2. Next as to the House of Lords. To shew in what way that portion of the power which rests in the hands of the Lords, as such with reference to the good effect in question operated as a cause, is not possible. to shew in what way it has operated as an obstacle is altogether easy. The interest of that body and thence of every individual belonging to it stands in a state of undeniable opposition to the universal interest. Their interest is to have in their own possession jointly and /or/ severally in the greatest quantity possible those good things in the quantity of which the quantity of happiness is generally understood to depend /regarded as depending/: and that therefore in the hands and for the use of those by whom those means of happiness have been produced the quantity remaining /exercised by them/ should at all times be as small as possible

That for no other cause than merely that they are Lords money's worth ought to be taken out of /exacted from/ the hands of those by whose labour it has been produced, to be put into the hands, not only of the Lords themselves, but of other persons connected with them by the ties of natural consanguinity and alliance, has been openly awarded by the official advocates of both parties in the State, first by Edmund Burke for the Whigs, and then by George Rose for the Tories (+) The phrase employed as a pretence for this exaction is - support of dignity. But thus to vindicate one abuse by another. The dignity being hereditary and factitious, and with the exception of that person in the line on whom it was in the first instance conferred being without so much as the pretence of meritorious service rendered to the public involved in the seats of estimation by the same mechanical process: and where there is a /exists the/ pretence, in most cases it will be seen that instead of service, injury to the universal interest has b[...?] the consideration of which the operation /manufacture/ has been produced.

(+) Defence of Economy against Burke. Defence of Economy against Rose