1822 May 12

Economy etc

Functionaries in a corrupt government the most hardened of misdoers.

Q. Are there any and if any what description of individual /persons/ which the

greatest happiness principle /of the greatest number/ requires to be excluded

from the faculty of contributing by their votes to the location of the

functionaries invested with the supreme operative power as above

A. Yes: all such in whom such properties have place as render them deficient in a

degree adequate to the purpose of exclusion in respect of any of the several

elements of appropriate aptitude: moral, scientific judiciary, or active.

Q. What if any are the circumstances /those properties/ by which with reference

to the function in question an individual is divested /is rendered destitute/ of

the requisite and indispensable portion of moral aptitude?

A. None whatever. In the case of a public functionary possessing of himself a

share of /in the/ supreme operative power the branch of unaptitude opposite to

moral aptitude is neither more nor less than the constant disposition to

sacrifice to his own personal interest the universal interest. But suppose /if/

an equal share of the constitutive power in question is in the hands of every

one of the members /member/ of the community in question the aggregate of the

several personal interests is itself the universal interest.