1821 Oct. 1

To Toreno

2 o or 3 o

Letter IV

Religion

Censorship

30

4

5

4

Art. 226. 218. 213.

[marginal note:] Art. 220

Article 213 in case of the publication of a forbidden discourse of a certain description by an Ecclesiastic, secular or regular, if it be a pastoral (episcopal) charge in official edict or writing, bodies ecclesiastical there are three separate temporal functionaries are mentioned: namely the Political Chief, the Alcaldo[?] and the Judge on all /every one/ of whom the obligation is imposed /it is made matter of obligation/ —not only of proceeding against the delinquent but of calling in (ruoja[?]) the offensive writing. Penalty from 300 to 600 dollars. How it is that without interfering with one anothers authority and producing mutual obstruction all these different functionaries can in this case go to work, is not clear to me. A maxim I have already had occasion to submitt to your view, is that in the case of a functionary of any description, bu every number /unit/ added to number one, responsibility is diminished.

But /Meantime/ the offence in question what is it? it is the offence constituted by the guardarsi[?] Article: the offence which consists in giving expression to an /the/ opinion that in that production of impeccability and infallibility entituled the Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy there exists an Article which on some point or other had better not be kept than kept, better be altered than left as it is.