JB/012/079/002

Click Here To Edit

1821 Oct 28

10
8 2

3o
Letter VII Religion
? Facienda = Reason

Further details on this occasion I will not attempt to burthen
you with: these, as far as they go, will, I hope, not be altogether unintelligible.
Such is the course taken by a legislative Draughtsman, whose labours have
the greatest happiness of the greatest number for their end in view.
With the example exa of the Constitutional Code of the Anglo-American United
States, no extensive Code, that has ever yet received sanctionment, has had
that for its end in view: a short proof of this, and a larger need scarcely
be desired, is — the neglect paid, in every one of them, to the above two rules.

If for example taking in hand any decree of the Cortes,
the person in question a person so circumstanced should say do not any of you that which
by this decree all of you are ordained to do: it is
repayment to the Gods Ordinances of God, thus a notion
entertained by many a man would be that in the event of doing any thing of what
he is thus forbidden, he would be placed by the Almighty
in a state of everlasting torment. Be taken the above
groundlessness of this notion ever so palpable, a new complaint the exposure
of it ever so easy, no one of those in question would hazard the paying attention to
it. For my souls
health obedience
to this exhortation
disobedience to the
irreligious antireligious and wicked
law is the a safe end
and the only one

But now suppose the same disobedience recommenced
by the same person in a writing discourse to which
though to the same effect was were not known to be his
In this case, it would tell for exactly what it was
worth and no more. Against the supposed noxious inhibition In the first case argument
might as well not be employed for it would not be
listened to: in the other case it may be employed
with prospect of success: since there is nothing to prevent
its being listened to.

What then in this case is the effect of the Censorship?
Not to restrain liberty of discussion, but to establish
it, for all that it does is to to oppose a bar to exclude coercion: coercion
which considering by reason of the source from which it is
supposed to come is to by many a mind altogether irresistible.

Identifier: | JB/012/079/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 12.
Date_1	1822-06-05	Marginal Summary Numbering	12
Box	012	Main Headings
Folio number	079	Info in main headings field	jb to general sn martin protector of peru
Image	002	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e15
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	c wilmott 1819
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer	andreas louriottis
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1819
Notes public	[[notes_public::letter 2891, vol. 11; "not sent" [note in bentham's hand]]]	ID Number	4140
Box Contents