[clx. 278]

1822 July 12

Constitut Code Rationale

6 Factitious honor excluded

4. Evils produced

7. Evil 7: evil by sanction given to imposture. The character in which this token operates is that of a certificate of merit on the part of the wearer: of useful and meritorious service rendered by him in some shape or other to the community at large: and combined with this certificate is a draught drawn upon the members of the community in their character of members of the Public Opinion Tribunal for value received: a draught payable in tokens of respect, value received in the shape of meritorious service

The functionaries by whom this counterfeit /deceptious/ instrument is uttered are by the practice of uttering it and the habit of seeing it accepted, encouraged to act in the character of impostors. It operates in this way on their moral faculties as an instrument of demoralization

8 Evil 8: evil by propagation of delusion. This evil is the counterpart of the last preceding one. In so far as the imposture /fraud/ passes upon them undiluted - in so far as they /men/ are imposed upon by it, and bestow respect where respect is undue and the payment of it mischievous - mischievous to themselves[?] mischievous, as hath been seen to every body it operates upon their intellectual faculties: it operates as an instrument of intellectual depravation.