JB/012/069/001

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1824 April 27. +

First Lines Offer why?

35* 5

In regard to this promise a Constitution — of a Constitution of indeterminate quality to be given at an indeterminate
time 1 — such is the degree of suspicion, which, to promises of this sort, is so firmly attached by
sad experience, — you will, I hope, leave no effort unemployed to remove it.
You will leave no measures unemployed for distinguishing yourself as plainly as possible from
the most powerful those who are at once the greatest the meanest, and most flagitious of mankind. The more particular the mention which
you will make of that mass
of perfidy, and the
more intense the abhorrence
with which you
declare its having inspired
you, the more
impressive, the more obligatory,
and the more
satisfactory, will be
the security you
will thus give. Such
this will be will be the character of
your deportment and
your discourse, if
in your vocabulary
Protector means Dictator,
and nothing
more.

Altogether different
will it be if instead
of Dictator, Protector
Emperor is the explanation
of it.

As to the English public
in particular — should its good opinion
chance to be among the
objects of your regard,
unfortunately to an English
ear Protector is
far from being an auspicious
sound. Not to speak
of Cromwell, who, under
the name of Protector
became more absolute
than the King whom
he had dethroned for
being too absolute, —
Richard the third had
been the Protector of his
Royal Nephew whom
he murdered. A successor
of his is, Protector by Act
of Parliament, Protector of the Ionian Islanders,
the
[+] the consequence is — they are protected as were the unarmed
and unoffending multitude of men women and children at Manchester,
for the slaughter of whom one of his creatures rewarded one
of our priests, with a benefice equal to one of your Bishopricks.

As to their appropriate aptitude, it may be considered
either in a comparative point of view, or in an absolute point
of view. Supposing absolute competency not altogether wanting,
comparative competency will be his in proportion to whatever deficiency,
in respect of absolute aptitude competency, may be seen to have place on
the part of those any or all such other persons on whose part the
greatest degree of competency aptitude, in all points taken together, would
naturally be looked for, and might reasonably be expected. Of such
comparative deficiency in respect of appropriate aptitude on the part of all natives
of the Country in question, as to such, the evidences — such as occurred to the
author of this address have been herein above brought to view. If so it
were Of a Code of Law, by which the whole field of legislation including
some part of the field of thought and the whole of the field of action,
the necessity to the greatest happiness of the greatest number has, it is
hoped, been herein already rendered sufficiently apparent. Of the necessity
of the sort of work above described, under the name of the Rationale,
in the character of a constituent part or all-pervading accompaniment
of such a work — the necessity of this part to the securing
to the whole the highest probability obtainable of its being in the
highest possible degree conducive to the abovementioned universal
end, the existence, it is hoped, a has also been rendered made sufficiently
apparent. But, according to every thing that he has ever
heard, or has reason to believe, there exist not at this moment,
in the whole of the human species, so much as any one other
individual by whom for a work of the extent in question, and that
work comprehending in its design a part or accompaniment
such as that in question, any preparation has been ever made.

142

Identifier: | JB/012/069/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 12.
Date_1	1821-04-27	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	012	Main Headings
Folio number	069	Info in main headings field	first lines
Image	001	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e5
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	c wilmott 1819
Marginals		Paper Producer	andreas louriottis
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1819
Notes public	letter 2891, vol. 11	ID Number	4130
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