5 Jan y 1817

Necessity Cat

1 Theory

§ IV. Democracy self-acting

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To take for a constancy any immediately operative part in the exercise of the supreme power, a man must already be provided with a stock of the means of subsistence sufficient /adequate/ at least to the enabling him to subsist for and during that same time: to enable him to possess upon his first entrance into the possession and exercise of this share a stock of appropriate intellectual aptitude {not to speak of moral aptitude} competent to the situation will have acquired an ambivalent[?] and additional quantity of time filled with /occupied by/ labour.

Thus then so far as concerns the part taken by immediate and personal operation the physical capacity of any constant exercise of /given to/ the supreme power /the power in question/ is limited to those by or for whom a stock of the means of subsistence during the continuance of that /such/ exercise has already been provided: and the part thus already to so large an amount provided with the means of continued subsistence can never be greater than a comparatively small proportion of the whole number of the members of the community /state/

But if of the members /whole number/ of the supposed democracy /democratical state and government/ in question there be one /a/ part by whom alone the supreme power is exercised, which the remainder in much greater number in various ways occupied in the production of the means of subsistence, let this be the case then so it is that the state to /in the designation of/ which the appellation of democracy has thus been /was then in the first instance/ employed was /is/ in truth not a democracy but an aristocracy: and thus without the aid of the principle of representation another[?] reason[?] of limitation to the number of the members of which a democratical government is capable of being composed or brought to view

 Add for example Athenian &c pseudo democracies. 2. Roman democratic assembly maintained by tributary corn. 3. Speak of the confusion attached to […?] discussion[?] in large assemblies.