JB/023/132/001

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1830. Nov. 30.
J.B. to Belgians

Jeremy Bentham
to the
Belgie Nation & its Congress.
On Kingship and its Equipment.

Letter II.
(In continuation.)

Belgians!

I continue. The question – Shall there be a King?
having received its decision, and that decision being in the
affirmative, my situation is in that respect rather an awkward one.
In considering what shall be his equipment, what it will not be possible
for me to avoid is to present to your view considerations bearing on
the thus already decided question. To the question what shall be his
equipment my answer will be – for no other can it be – as sparing,
as scanty, as narrow, as small, as penurious, as niggardly
(take these or any other words as strong as you please) as
possibles for, in that way, such is the nature of the institution,
nothing can he have but that evil – yes, so much pure evil – may
be seen to flow from it. I mean always comparatively speaking,
comparison had with a representative democracy – a product
for which in your latitude the times are ripe. For, in the
early days of society, the institution, if an evil, was an
unavoidable one.

Meantime while thus speaking of the inaptitude of every
Official Establishment of which this situation, so adverse
as it seemed to me to be to the greatest happiness of the people,
formed forms a part, I was, as I could not but be,
making allusion all along to, and thus assuming the known
existence of, Governments of a different complexion, having
Official Establishments free from this sort of incumbrance –
in a word, Commonwealths, one or more. Having, at this same
time, had all along in view a Commonwealth, which in my
eyes is not less eminently well-suited than Kingship is ill suited
to the universally professed purpose, I see not how I can hope
to render what I have to say as clearly understood as I would
wish it to be, without presenting to your view a few of the
leading features of it. Here they they are –

1. King, none.

2. For the supreme authority in the State, commonly stiled the
legislature, Chamber of Representatives, one; deputed, all of them,
by the great body of the people, elected in the immediate way
– that is to say, without the intervention of any class of middlemen
in the capacity of Electors; – deputed, in a word, as in this
particular you, have been Members of the Congress, have been.

3. Electors, who? – a point this to which for the present purpose
it is not necessary to advert. Provisionally, let us suppose

Identifier: | JB/023/132/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 23.
Date_1	1830-11-30	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	023	Main Headings	lord brougham displayed
Folio number	132	Info in main headings field	jb to belgians
Image	001	Titles	jeremy bentham to the belgic nation & its congress / on kingship and its equipment / letter ii (in continuation)
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	2
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e1 f1 / e10 f10
Penner		Watermarks	street & co 1830
Marginals		Paper Producer	antonio alcala galiano
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1830
Notes public		ID Number	8003
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