[clxvii. 252]

1821 Aug. 6.

Rid Yourselves

Lett. 5 Continued Submission impossible

4. Adopters justified.

4. The adopters of the Code every where justified. On no occasion could they have taken a better course: their choice was that or none. The foundations /roots/ were /are/ the best possible: in theory Fundamental /Radical/ theory - fundamental maxim - sole defensible end of government the greatest happiness of the greatest number: radical /correspondent/ arrangement: constitutive power - the root /basis/ of all operative power lodged in the hands of the greatest number: this power lodged in the /those/ hands by those by where obedience all operative power is comprized /constituted/ in the hands of those to the securing of whose greatest happiness the exercise of it ought to /should/ be directed. The foundations were /Those were/ the best possible: and on these foundations preserved no bad arrangements that should be inserted into the edifice - no arrangements adverse to that all-comprehensive end can be of long continuance. Not in the multitude of words only but in extent of import depends the extent of the effect produced by a discourse. In detail the Code swarms with imperfections: it could not have been otherwise: a sample, and no more than a sample has on this occasion been held up to view. But from these imperfections had they been still more numerous and still more important than they are, the whole taken together would not have been divested of its beneficial quality, /rendered either bad in itself/ or unfit to be adopted in Monarchical States /any Monarchical State/ seeking relief from despotism.