1821 Sept. 30

To Toreno

2 o or 3 o

Letter VII

Religion

17

5

Thus so circumstanced they are constantly at the devotion of the ruling powers of the possessors of the correspondent quantity of the power of patronage, who ever they happen to be. If the hands it is in are those of a single despot, they are at the devotion of a single despot: if those of a despot, sharing his power with an Aristocracy they are thus at the devotion of this more or less mitigated[?] despotism compounded of Monarchy and Aristocracy. But in either case they are at the devotion of an interest existing and incessantly acting in a state of hostility as towards the greatest happiness of the greatest number: hostility having for its instrument the mass of the matter of corruptive influence: the stock of it derived from the spiritual source being thus added to whatever stock there is that is derived from the temporal source.