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1820 Aug. 28.
§ Representation no Security
Amendment exclusion & ruinous
8.
influence Amendment impossible not found to
So much for the mischief
to Spain and Ultramarinea
together. From the
share of Ultramarinea
in the Cortes, no adequate
security against misrule
in Ultramarinea to the
prejudice of the people
there. By want of adequate
information, the solicitude,
as well as capacity,
for making adequate
provision will be extended.
9.
Amendment impossible referred to
By the Provincial Deputations
and Ayuntamientos,
though chosen
and removable by the
people, (seen above) the
requisites can not be
supplied.
While by law they are
incapacitated from doing
anything for themselves,
by Nature, i.e.
by distance, Spanish rulers
are incapacitated
from doing any thing
for them. Constitution
conformed to, the machine
is stopt: result,
not security, but anarchy
or despotism.
10.
To this state of things,
i.e. the remedilessness
of the Constitution, no
assignable limit. Per 385.
not till 8 years "after the
"Constitution had been
"Carried into practice"
(says 375.) can "any
"alteration, addition, or
"correction be proposed
"in any of its details:"
and then came further
drags to the wheels.
Thus says Constitution
of 1812: it being adopted
without alteration, any
alterations made, or to
be made, by existing Cortes,
must be violations
of it.
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§ Representn no Security
Amendment exclusion destruction ruinous
11.
By preventing the Constitution
from being, in
some of its details, carried
into practice, this, and
each succeeding, Cortes
may preserve, from amendment,
all its defects,
howsoever flagrant.
12.
Not necessary this. Under
the Constitution it can not
ever be any where carried
into practice. By despotism
yes: but by despotism the
Constitution would be –
not carried into practice,
but violated.
13.
Lost labour to look out
for other obstacles to the
standing of an edifice,
the standing of which is
impossible.
Let one suffice for all.
For a step preparatory
to amendment, 2/3ds of the
members present must,
per 379, agree: i.e. a majority
thus small is to
overrule the majority.
14.
Attempts, contrary to the
nature of things, three.
1. To make prior laws
stronger than posterior.
2 – Minority stronger
than majority.
3. Shorter experience wiser
than longer experience.
15.
Assumptions involved in
these attempts.
1. We are infallible as to
present operations.
2. We alone have the gift
of prophecy as to future
events.
3. We ourselves shall not
be so wise when older as we
are now.
16.
Spaniards, continue/contra not
for all this your Constitution
makers. These self-deceptions
scarcely hitherto
has man been able to resist
not
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§ Representation no Security
Amendment exclusion ruinous
16 continued
Not even the Anglo-American
Constitution-makers
perfectly. None but they
have been able to refuse
themselves the power of
punishing every man
who passes censure on them,
if the terms be what they
dislike.
17.
Think not that to me the
Constitution is not an object
even of administration as a
work of genius.
18.
Yet it has its defects, which,
unless amended, will, by
destroying it, destroy its excellencies:
viz
1. Endeavour to retain the
unretainable dominion:
after striking off the despotism
by which alone, it at
all it would have been
retained.
Apology for this, the national
delusion, the result
of inveterate associations
of ideas.
19.
2. Endeavour to tie posterity's
hands (and even
their own).
Apology for this, common
practice among men alike
situate.
20.
Caution. In no number
of arguments, each professedly
, let any
discovered error be regarded
as disproving the conclusion
so long as one remains free
from error.
For no folly or improbity
in your adviser, punish
yourselves.
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Identifier: | JB/008/079/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 8.
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1820-08-28 |
8-20 |
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008 |
emancipation spanish |
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079 |
emancipation spanish |
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001 |
amendmt exclusion ruinous |
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marginal summary sheet |
1 |
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recto |
e2 |
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john flowerdew colls |
[[watermarks::[prince of wales feathers] i&m 1818]] |
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arthur wellesley, duke of wellington |
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1818 |
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3183 |
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