28 Sep. 1809

Parl y Reform

B.I. Necessity

Tests

14

Religion the sole sanction that can bear[?] upon it.

Unless it be thus that the absurdity of the thing professed to be believed be so palpable, that all who profess to believe it will from that circumstantial evidence be concluded mendacious.

As to the degree of probability between the one and the other result, this is a topic /subject/ which can not {so} well be considered till /entered upon as/ some particular eventual burthen and consequently some particular occasion by which the eventual imposition of it is introduced be brought to view.

Mean time for argument sake, let it be supposed that the opposite forces are in such manner ballanced that the number of those who submitt to the burthen and the number of those who submitt to committ the act of are in each given space of time equal.

On this supposition here are two results produced all along together: viz the exclusion of reputedly-unfit /presumedly-unfit/ persons from the situation in question; and the production of so many acts of mendacity, and thence of so many liars, which liars notwithstanding their being such, gave admission into the situation for which even if they were not /had they not been/ liars their unfitness /being unfit/ is presumed: and the number of the persons who, notwithstanding their assumed unfitness, and their having been thus first converted into liars are admitted into the situation, {having first been converted into liars,} is by the supposition equal to the number of non-liars, whose aversion to lying whose respect for truth, having been proved by the test, are by means of it extended from the situation, and thence subjected to the burthen to which by the being extended from the benefit in question a man is subjected.