[114-006v]

1821 Nov 13

Codification Offer

'8. Foreigner best

'.8. Foreigners work a bond of sympathy

Not that to any such purpose the hand of a foreigner, as contrasted with that of a native can make any such pretension as that of exclusive competence.

In opposition to any such notion, the case of the Spanish Constitution presents itself at the instant to every eye. But to the present case that case affords little that will be found parallel. The property by which that work stood so irresistibly recommended was of all conceivable ones the most simple: it was existence: not that it was well made but that it was ready made simple. One government being put down, not to set up another was impossible. With the exception of the Constitution of the Anglo American United States, composed of functions for the filling of which no country in Europe afforded any already ostensible hands, no such thing as a /any other/ Constitution was to be found /seen/ any where. The choice was therefore that or none. If indeed instead of a Constitution the talk of a Constitution would have served, that was to be found in England: but it is only in England that for rules of action fictions can be made to pass for realities