JB/015/224/001

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79

IX
Of Right & Rights

Right is for the most part a recognition by law of something claimed by one
or more individuals. It is that to the enforcement of which the legal powers lend
their sanction. It enters little into the deontological field, – where the
business consists chiefly in the proper distribution of obligations. Deontology endeavors
to give the to obligation the efficiency of action & where different obligations
clash it determines which should preponderate. It is true that the
legal sanction has obligation attached to it – obligation in the most
perfect form – obligation as a counterpart co-existent with right – but
it may will also sometimes appear that the obligation produced by the legal sanction
is superseded by the the deontological, as where, for example, the infraction
of a law may be attended with greater good than its observance.

The demand of rights sometimes takes the most extensively
baneful range of all the sources of action. The right of empire for instance
has been made the ground work of the most unbounded profligacy & consequent
misery – the plea for rapine & murder on the largest scale. It
may be a concupiscense of the most profligate & horrible character – &
has been put forward by men like the Prince de Condé as an excuse &
a sanction for every species of iniquity.

Left to itself – wandering about without the deontological
chain to bring it back to its fit abode – it is one of the most
pernicious of pretenders. In the political field despotism with
all its horrors takes its stand upon it. In the religious field,
persecution – in the popular, injustice – in the domestic
parental, – marital, – or other tyranny.

Subservient to utility there is no objection either to
the word or the thing – that which is useful is right – a
right is that which grows out of the application of the
greatest happiness principle. Such a right cannot be shaken
by argument – but no such right can be assumed in
any given case. Weigh pains – weigh pleasures – & as the
balance stands, will stand the question of right & wrong.

Identifier: | JB/015/224/001 "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	224	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles	of right & rights
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f79
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	5440
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