JB/015/193/001

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Popular Rewards & Punishments

Among the pleasures & pains growing out of the moral or popular sanction, & exercising a
vast influence on virtue & vice & thence on happiness & misery are a group of factitious
entities, which demand considerable attention. They are Reputation, honour, renown,
fame, Glory & Dignity may serve as a list of them. They have this in common:
that they are though factitious – the objects of possession. They are distinguished
from other objects of possession in this that pursuit of them to any extent is not
deemed improper. The love of money every one admits may be carried to excess – but
not so the pursuit of these possessions.

But in the mistakes made respecting them – in the eulogiums poured
on those who pursue and those who possess them will be found one of the most fruitful sources of improbity
& mischief. The means a man has at his disposal he will employ not only
to keep that which he possesses, – but to obtain that which he desires. These possessions
are the instruments of influence, – & that influence may is liable to be baneful according to the
extent of that influence. The mischief is at its minimum where confined to an
individual – it is at its maximum when it operates on a national or international
field.

Applied to private life the principal mischief of which any of these
appellatives is likely to be productive is danger to life from duelling. The good proposed
is the repression of offensive deportment, a good obtainable, much more effectually
obtainable by less expensive means – but there is this good to set against the balance of evil.

But applied to national & international concerns they become
incentives to misrule, in the shape of usurpation of power, – and to war, that
is to rape ravage, rapine and destruction on the largest scale. And the amount
of evil will depend on the quantity amount of power influence exercised by him who
puts these elements of misery into action.

Suppose him to be a sovereign, – his domain of action is
national, or international. If it is at the expense of his own subjects that he seeks
this honour, glory, fame, dignity, & so forth – the mischief to which the language in
question leads is, – invasion of popular rights, – in case of non-resistance oppression &
misrule, – & in case of resistance civil war. If it is at the expense of other nations
that he seeks these distinctions, then comes foreign wars, – which being interpreted is
murder – rape – devastation on a vast scale at the expense both of his own subjects &
those of the foreign state.

Though of this all comprehensive mass of wretchedness & profligacy a
sovereign alone cannot be the actual perpetrator, – yet as an instigator before the fact
every subject may operate – influentially according to his position. An official
Cabinet Counsellor – a member of a popular assembly – a member of an
unofficial association – a writer in a public newspaper – each in his different
sphere.

The quantity of these possessions influences which a sovereign may hold
will be in proportion to the quantity of power he possesses – Acting upon his people the power which he and his
& at the expence in what regards his towards them subjects possess with reference to other nations – the power which he himself possesses – & with
reference to the nation to which he belongs. Now the desire to possess these
acquirements being boundless – the efforts to obtain them become boundless too. Hence
foreign conquest, aggression, usurpation, – depredation at home – depredation
abroad, – & acts, which if committed by unofficial hands would bear
the name & be visited with the punishment of crimes, – are unchecked in
their misery-creating career.

Identifier: | JB/015/193/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 15.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	015	Main Headings	deontology
Folio number	193	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f54
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks	j & m mills 1828
Marginals		Paper Producer	john fraunceis gwyn
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1828
Notes public		ID Number	5409
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