[129b-391]

25 Jan y 1817

Introd

3

5

Ask what in this supposed aggregate mass of benefit there is that is imaginary the answer that may be but too truly given is that with the exception of the above mentioned securities of detail of which not a single one can be made the preservation of which is not unless in case of a change altogether precarious every security that can be imagined to exist against the constant /continual/ sacrifice of the universal interest of the whole people to the separate and mutually more or less intimately /wholly/ associated interests of the monarchy and the aristocracy: that the interest principally espoused by the tories is that of the monarchy: that the interest principally espoused by the whigs is that of the aristocracy. But that in one thing the tories considered as a party and the whigs considered as a party have always, and not only without concert but without need of concert, and even under the semblance of opposition been constantly agreed: and that is that in considering the aggregate mass of the property of the people, out of which for the joint benefit of the monarchy and the aristocracy with their respective instruments retainers annuities and dependencies, fortunes to the utmost extent practicable may without just reproach and accordingly without disguise endeavoured to be made. In the case of Edmund Burke who being at the time in question the efficient member of the aristocratical party the Whigs may be considered as the mouthpiece of the Whigs that that principle was not only avowed without disguise but deliberately and with all the force that could be applied to the subject by the most splendid talent, deliberately and in print contended for has /this is what has/ been shewn in that Defence of Economy which is already before the public.