20 June 1811

Abdication

3

59

2. In the next place though of the existing assemblage /set/ not a single individual should be able to prevail upon himself to sit as upon the supposed new terms, still would not any reason /no reason/ be afforded for apprehending any want of fresh /other/ persons ready to sit upon these supposed new terms ready to undertake the exercise of share in /portion of/ the supreme power, even though a duty so severe and irksome, so volumicient[?] and unreasonable, so unexampled and romantic, as that of binding themselves to content themselves with power and reputation and respect without pecuniary profit, and for the sake of that power and reputation and respect, to give up as much of their own time and of their own ease as by the most illustrious and highest of them all is constantly given up at present, were formed the substance of the supposed terms.

At any rate if in the character of an end in view the result were desirable /fit to be desired/ the experiment might be worth trying, always on the supposition that it is the interest of the constituents that is of all the members of the community with the exception of these[?] there[?] its agents, that it is the interest of the many millions /so many million/ that in comparison of the interest of these few hundreds has the best claim to be pursued.

By the bare acceptance of such terms a man is rendered in some respects at least so much the more fit: and if so it be that by the same cause he is rendered in any respects the less fit, surely it is for them to whom it appears that in certain respects he would be the less fit, to tell us /point out/ what they are.