[clx. 341]

1822 July 11

Constitut. Code Rationale

Securities

4 Legal responsibility

5 Moral responsibility

First calls for explanation legal responsibility, of moral responsibility any such clear conception not being obtainable by any other means as by its analogy to responsibility with reference to the power of the law.

As to legal responsibility, to the purpose of exposure to punishment at the hands of the political including the legal sanction, in a Government the whole or any fractional share in the supreme operative power is in the hands of a single person, no such legal responsibility, it is sufficiently evident /manifest/, can in his instance and at his charge have place. The situation of an absolute Monarch is therefore one in which no such responsibility can have place. The situation of a limited Monarch, howsoever limited is therefore another - or at any rate /the least/ will want very little of being so

Spanish King under

Spanish Cortes

Under an absolute Monarch, no such responsibility can in the instance of any /no other/ functionary under him whom the overgrown /head/ /supreme/ functionary is disposed to favour can any such responsibility have place, unless such should be the masters pleasure: and it will not be the Masters pleasure unless he be an object of the Masters personal displeasure whatsoever misdeeds he may have committed to the prejudice /detriment/ of the universal interest, and whatsoever may have been the defalcation made from the sum of public happiness.

So far as this effective irresponsibility has place so far it is evident the power of the legal sanction can not be presented in the character of a counterforce to the power of government - the power of government in the hands of a supreme ruler or set of supreme rulers - to present it in this character would be a contradiction in terms.

But, a case not altogether incapable of having place is - At the charge of one set of functionaries his subordinates and instruments, say his subordinates in the department of finance suffers the punishment to be administered by another set of his subordinates and instruments - say the functionaries belonging to the judicial department: here then the force of one of those sets operates /acts/ as a counterforce to another set his equally and assuredly obsequious instruments.