JB/013/239/001

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1820 Sept. 11
J.B. to Mora

You have been long – too long – in expectation, Sir, of my Address to
Spain on the subject of Emancipation of her distant dependencies. Copies of My address
to the Constituted Authorities of France on that subject, are in the packet so often mentioned.
Terrified with the thoughts of the prej violence of the prejudices I saw opposed to me, I have yet
at the same time receiving encouragement from the aspect of officers in relation to it, I have been bestowing
much more labour on it
than I had intended. In
a week or ten days I hope
it will be compleated, and
in a course of copying for the
press. But I think of getting
made and published, a
Spanish translation here
for the colonies. For
softening the wrath which
it scarce fail of exciting
a coincidence curious
enough and which for
that reason I could wish
should be known, is this,
namely, that, without
any communication
A curious enough coincidence to myself in the highest
degree satisfactory and even useful, and to the Spanish people
I flatter myself not likely to be displeased, is this that
without the matters of the between the authors,
of the system of two schemes of popular representation, penned much about the same penned much about the same
time, the one in Spain by authority, by the other by me in London without
authority, are in principle and all the great leading features the same: viz.
virtual equality, universality of suffrage (the only security for genuineness)
of suffrage, practicable equality of suffrage, and annuality of suffrage: the universality
limited restricted narrowed by no other limit than what it
would be in the powers of each man to remove in his own instance
to remove: viz. the in Spain, to the annual annuality so easily
already in use to a considerable extent in the London municipal
Elections, and in all Elections in the Anglo American United
States, biannuality: biannuality substituted by necessity, and with with but little if any the distance of the Colonies considered, and without any very determinate disadvantage.
considerable measures ponderable disadvantage By equality of suffrage I mean that which depends
upon the comparative number of votes, in the several Election Districts,
as compared with each other: equality of the force of and effect
of one man's vote as compared with another's: if for if while in District
A there are two but one thousand votes, in District B there are two thousand
votes, the force and effect of a vote in District A is twice
as great as in District B. In As to stages of Election, in my scheme of Election indeed there is
but one: state of Election: in yours there are no fewer than four.
Supposing the public mind ripe for it, as in England and English America,
and the thing practicable, main the advantages belonging to mine are –
its simplicity, and its giving to the subjecting Representatives in a
more direct and certain way to the influence of constituents. but But it
has the disadvantage of requir necessitating a system of territorial division,
to be first instituted effected in the first instance, before any Election can have
place. In the case of Spain, mine would be in respect of the state of public mind whether, eligible advantageous
or no, would have been plainly impracticable: no time was there for
any such territorial demarcation: the already existing divisions were what
the legislator, was by necessity whether by choice or no, was by necessity,
forced to employ and operate upon. This In this whole business of Election may be
seen an example of the a sort of demarcation above alluded to – viz. that between arrangements
much alike applicable
to all countries, and arrangements
that require
to be modified according
to the different state of
things in different countries.

Identifier: | JB/013/239/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 13.
Date_1	1820-09-11	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	013	Main Headings
Folio number	239	Info in main headings field	jb to mora
Image	001	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c1 / d24
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::i&m [fleur de lys] 1818]]
Marginals		Paper Producer	arthur wellesley, duke of wellington
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1818
Notes public		ID Number	4688
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