1820 Feb. 18

Radicalism not dangerous

III. Experience

II. Ireland

Radicalism its origin

Instruments of felicity

Quantity possessed is no power

10

{8}

2

If as above it be for the interest of the whole community that of these instruments of felicity the aggregate mass should be divided in shares as equal and thence relatively /proportionally/ as small as is consistent with the existence of government, and thence of political society, the greater the portion is which any functionary of government as such is in possession of, in comparison of that member of the community whose share is the smallest, the more extensive is the sacrifice made of the interest of the whole number of the members of that community to the interest of that one, and in so far as any such sacrifice has place, {it may be said with uncontrovertible truth that} the interest of that same ruling one is in a state of direct opposition to that of those who are subject to his rule, and that accordingly so long as this plan of division and in a word this state of things has place be whatsoever number of millions their number may amount the interest of all those millions is continually sacrificed to the interest of that one. But in proportion as this sinister sacrifice is large, the relative quantity of felicity in the country, in so far as depends upon the constitution /structure/ of the government is small, and in one word bad the constitution of the government is in one word bad.

But the man by the exercise of whose will, and to and for the promotion of whose separate /whose instrumentality, and for whose own[?]/ interest, all those /so many/ other interests are made a continual sacrifice, if he be a bad man, what is this chief upholder of a constitution thus bad, but a bad man? if he be most excellent, in what is it that he is most excellent? In what unless it be in the exercise of oppression and depredation: of oppression in virtue of and in proportion to the excess of power[?] that he possesses in the shape /article/ of power, of depredation in virtue of and in proportion to the excess he possesses in the article /shape/ of wealth. In one word if in every thing is it in virtue that he is excellent? is it not rather in vice: always understood if in the continued practice of oppression and depredation there be vice.