Dec r 1809

Parl y Reform

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Influence

Ch.17. Mischievous not disreputable

'.1. Bribery, least mischievous

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Ch. 17 Why in its most /least/ mischievous form /forms/ corruption is least /most/ disreputable.

'.1. Bribery is the shape in which parl y. corruption is least mischievous, most if not exclusively disreputable.

Of corruption in every case in which it is productive on the fount of it the mischief is permanent continuous its magnitude being cæteres paribus on the length of time during which the dependence continues: the number of breaches of trust which it is within that time capable of producing has no other branch than the number of acts which in the exercise of the trust it can fall into the way of the trustee to perform within that space of time.

Of corruption in every case in which it is not productive of dependence the mischief is but momentary: it amounts to but a point[?]: on the part of the trustee a single breach of trust is the only bitter fruit of which the corruption is capable of being productive.

It is in the case where the mischievousness of it is at its minimum, that corruption is in use to be designated by /under/ the name of bribery.

Bribery as hath been seen is corruption in the case where the mischievousness of it is at its minimum: the case in which the mischievousness of it is at its maximum is the case in which it has for its fruit a state of habitual dependence: such for example as that which is produced by the defensible possession of a defensible lucrative office, or by the expectancy /prospect/ of any such office be the possession of it defensible or indefensible.