1821 Nov. 16

Codification Proposal

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'4 Why not wait for invitation

2. Invitation why not waited for

Answer. For such a work, from no imaginable quarter was /has the/ such// expectation of any such invitation been reasonably to be expected.

1. Without previous and express information the existence of any individual competent even in his own eyes to the execution of such a work was not to be anticipated.

2. In the instances in which from an authority to an offer directly made a favourable ear had actually been lent /an incipient /initiative/ acceptance had been given/, definitive and effective acceptance had not followed. From Spain acceptance had been /was/ given by the Goberno - the septemvirate of Ministers with information that the offer had been laid before the King. But of any further acceptance either by the Cortes or from the King no advice has at present /down to this time/ 17 Novr 1821 been received.

Doubtless if in any instance invitation had been given, supposing the individual not unworthy of receiving the transaction would have been more honourable to both parties and more encouraging to that one of them to whom for his support under a work of such unexampled difficulty and labour, encouragement would have been so eminently serviceable, not to say /if not altogether/ indispensable. But on this occasion the proper question is - not what course would have been most gratifying to the feelings of this or that individual, but what would be in the highest degree conducive to the happiness in the first place of this or that particular nation, in the next place eventually of the whole human race Regarding himself as not incompetent to the rendering service to mankind in this shape and to this extent was it for him to have declined rendering it, and for no better reason than the not having received in the shape in question a [----?] gratification to the passions of pride and vanity. With any such prospect before him, a real lover of mankind would not he be ready to lick the dust at the feet of the meanest individual of the species rather /sooner/ than forego all chance of being [-----?] such a service?