JB/023/132/002

Click Here To Edit

Oh no! say I. This is what you do and those who think with you when
the service is public service and the pocket out of which the pay is to come is that
of the public at large. What on this same occasion I would do is the exact contrary.
While, as above, amongst those who were equally fit I would learn who would serve
cheapest, I would take that course which in private life a man of ordinary prudence
takes for forming the best-grounded judgment – that is to say, if it be in the
case of a single individual, – for learning whether he is any degree fit, and
amongst individuals which of all of them is most fit – Examination! One more,
examination! Did you never hear of such a word? did you never see the thing?
Have you a son? did you never examine him about anything? Were you never at
school or in a school? if yes, did you not see in it boys in numbers examined
together? Have you a servant? did not you in some way or other examine into
his character?

Well then, for ascertaining fitness for places of the sort in question in
respect of good behaviour and capacity taken together, or as I say appropriate
aptitude in all its branches, I have my own method – a method an
account of which may be seen in my works by any one can bring himself to
take the trouble.

Good again! rejoins my antagonist. And so you would examine a man for the
place of Chief of the State as you would a Schoolboy for his remove into a higher form,
and inquire into his character as you would inquire into the character of a footboy?

No, answer I; not I, indeed. And why not? Only because in the present case it cannot
be done. And this is the very reason why for Chief of the State I would not have a
King but a Prime Minister. For, being giving yourselves a king, you give yourselves a Chief of the
State so circumstanced that were this master of yours to turn out ever so bad you
would not have instead of him one less bad, though it were ever so much less bad;
whereas had you contented yourselves with a Prime Minister or even a President,
you might in case of his disappointing expectation change him, and as
often as there were need.

You have read Telemachus: who is there that has not read Telemachus?
A king to be chosen for Crete: competition excited, and examinations instituted.
A fable this, you will say, – a fable, and not so much as capable of being realized.
True; but why not capable of being realized? Only because in that case
a king the Chief of the State was a king: had he been a Prime Minister or a President
true it is that in the first instance – that is to say, at the formation of the
State, – it could not be realized; but ever afterwards it might be.

Thus then you see how we agree – the venerable and wise philanthropist
of the last century and your humble servant of the present – in our notions
as to what, in this case, ought to be.

All this, you will say, is for rule; but now for application: cannot
you come to particulars? Cannot you name a sum?

Name a sum? Oh yes! that I can without difficulty; understanding
you to mean a sum for which a precedent is to be found: for by no other
measure can any sum be found which to the exclusion of every other,
smaller or larger one, can be said to be a proper one. Look to the Congress
of the Anglo-American United States: there, under the already-observed
improper appellative of President, you may see the sort of functionary
here in question, the Chief of the State. There, for the pay of the
Chief of the a Nation more than three times as populous as yours
you have Dollars 25,000, Guilders , Francs .

Look now to the per contrà. Your king's pay, what is it proposed
to be? Not less surely, but rather any times more, than from 20 to 50
times as much.

Identifier: | JB/023/132/002 "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	002	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
Box Contents