26 Sep. 1809

Parl y Reform

B. I. Necessity

Ch. 18. Despotism near

§.1. Commons dependent

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So enormous is become the body of those dependents whose sinister[?] interests are

connected with and dependent on /united to/ the sinister interest of the King, that

the voice of this part of the people alone is become capable of raising itself to

such a pitch as to be scarcely distinguishable from that of the whole. So numerous is

the multitude of deceivers, that one knows not where to look for the deceived.

In Smollets Ferdinand Count Fathom[?], one of the hero’s first exploits is to pick

the pocket of a young maiden of her all, a part of which, bestowed under the mask of

sympathy, suffices for her seduction. Partly by original design, partly by a

factitious necessity which under good /prudent and able/ management would not have

been necessary /had existence/ to this pitch is arrived the

conduct of public affairs under the British Monarchy. So prodigious /vast/ is the

proportion of the peoples property drawn from them by /in the way of/ taxes, that in

the character of a corruption fund, an engine of corruption, that what with need

produced by the impoverishment on the one hand, what with ways and means accumulated

on the other, the force of corruption is almost universally irresistible. Of the

money thus taken from the whole body of the people from the people in a body, a part

serves for the corruption and enslavement /corrupting the virtue/ of a majority of

their lenders: so that /and the result/ in looking round among the people the

difficulty is to find a man of any account who is not in some way or other dependent,

who is not under the influence of a separate interest more powerful than his social

interest and under the influence of this sinister interest ready at all times and

upon all occasions to sacrifice to that interest which he possesses in severalty

whatever interest he possesses in common with the people body of the people.