1819 Aug. 16

Fallacies

12

Ch. Logical

6 §.2. Exposure

Order

2 But what is still more material, the word, Order is of the eulogistic cast: whereas in the case of /instance of the words/ Government and Law howsoever /how frequently soever/ the things signified may have been taken in the lump for subjects of laudation, the complexion of the signs themselves is still tolerably neutral: just as is the case with the words Constitution and Institutions.

Thus whether the measure of arrangement be a mere transitory measure of government or a permanent law, if it be a tyrannical once it ever so tyrannical, in the word order you have a cloak [...?] wide enough, but in every respect better adapted than any word that the language whatever it be can supply, /by or without and of[?] a pardon having been previously secured to the operators/ to the purpose of serving as a cover to it. For suppose with or without law any number of men, by a speedy death or a lingering one destroyed for the offence of meeting one another for the purpose of obtaining a remedy for the abuses by which they /from which they and so many others/ are suffering, what nobody can deny is that by their destruction order is maintained: for the worst order is as truly order as the best. And /Accordingly/ a clearance /riddance/ of this sort having been effected, suppose in the House of Commons, a Lord Castlereagh or a Lord Milton - or in the House of Lords a Lord Sidmouth or an Earl Grey, to stand up an insist that by a measure so undeniably prudential, order was maintained, with what truth could they be contradicted? And who is there that would have the boldness to dare maintain that order ought not to be maintained?