May 1810

Defence of Economy

Ch.

'. Influence convenient

4

Where in compliance with custom the word influence is employed, and tokens of reprobation attached at the same time to the thing it is employed to express, explanations or restrictions ought then all along to be kept constantly attached to it.

1. First that it is over the will of some person that it is exercised, and that by the will of some one else

2. That the person by whom it is exercised is a person on whose conduct the person over whose will it is exercised is designed and supposed to operate as a check

3. Thirdly, that in the instances in question its operation has been effectual /effective/ - i.e. that on the part of the person on whose will the influence has been exercised, obsequiousness as towards the influences will have been produced: and that no doubt may remain, that such conduct has been produced, as but for the exercise of the influence would not on the part of the person in question, have had place.

If of the person on /to/ whose will the influence has applied itself the conduct is exactly the same as it would have been had no such influence applied itself the influence is to every practical purpose no influence at all. Not having been productive on any effect at all it can not have been productive of any bad effect.