[lxxxiv. 171]

1822 Feb 14

Codification Offer.

?.5

V

2.

When as above no more than a part /portion/ of the operative power is in the hands of the deputed representatives of the people placed in those hands by the exercise of a correspondent constitutive power as above, a small quantity of that power /external instruments of felicity © objects of general desire ©/ especially of that of which the matter of wealth is the instrument, lodged in hands not displaceable by the subject many suffices for producing /the production/, sooner or later according to circumstances, the sinister effect the sinister sacrifice /for the production and consummation of the sinister sacrifice/.

For this purpose it is not possible to say what would be the least quantity sufficient: a quantity much smaller than the smallest that has ever yet been exemplified would suffice: amply sufficient would be the quantity in the hands of the President of the Anglo©American United States if that functionary were not as he is placed and displaceable by the subject many.

Considered in respect of its tendency by its action on the desires of the deputed representatives and trustees of the subject many to produce on their part a constant sacrifice of the universal interest in the continued violation of such their trust, the quantity of the external instruments of felicity thus situated /stationed/ may be stiled the matter of corruptive influence, or more shortly the matter of corruption: it is composed of the matter of reward that is to say the matter of good in any shape, in the case above and in so far as applied /applying itself/ to this evil purpose.