1822 June 12

Economy etc

. Appropriate Moral Aptitude. Expository Matter. Identification of rulers with people's interests. Opposition of rulers' to peoples interests Corruption political or anticonstitutional - Relation between these several topics. Relation of each of these topics to every other.

On the part of a ruler /ruling/ or other public functionary, appropriate moral aptitude is perfect if, /has place in so far as/ on each /every/ occasion on which his function comes /is or ought/ to be exercised, the end to the accomplishment of which his endeavours are directed is the promotion of the universal interest howsoever by the course pursued by him accordingly, /whatsoever may be the effect with regard to/ his own personal or any other particular interest may be affected by what he does.

In this state of things, supposing it realized, aptitude in the shape here in question is at its maximum

Independently /Laying out of the case/ /Abstraction made/ of what may be done by laws and institutions to exclude or lessen it, the particular interest of rulers /the ruling class/ in general of all rulers is in a state of natural and diametrical opposition to that of the whole people considered in the correspondent character of subjects.

Take for example the case of a single ruler - in one word a Monarch.

The greatest happiness /felicity/ of the greatest number of the people requires that the external instruments of felicity, whatsoever they may be, be shared by the whole number in a proportion as near to equality as is consistent with universal security, and with that abundance at each moment of time which is itself necessary in the character of a security for the permanency of universal subsistence.