JB/030/084/001

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1828 Aug. 3
Blackstone

Persons there are and those not a few, to whom this plain
truth will be far from acceptable. If universally received, it would
in no small degree reduce them to silence
deprive them of whatsoever they are wont or able to employ
in the way, and for the purpose of argument: take from them
the quality of friends to the Constitution – a quality of the possession of which they are wont to make their
boast. So long as this word is in use in as often
as a proposition presents itself to it occurrs which on the occasion
in question thinks regards it as his interest to maintain, he
comes out with it and says – this is part and parcel
of the constitution: if you in relation to the matter you disagree
with him, his temper worsens, and he says the same
thing over again in the same or other words. This is what
on an occasion of this sort stands in the place of argument,
if the meeting be a private one, each disputant though quits
the room with the same opinion, real or pretended as that
which he brought into it: if the meeting be a public one, it
may be put to the vote.

By saying there exists in and for England a Constitution
– and so and so is part and parcel of it, is
it then ever in the power of any man to give existence to a Constitution?
Yes: and when if he saying "here is the Ghost of King John
or here is the Ghost of King Henry, it is in his power to
produce the Ghost.

This fiction is it an innoxious or unimportant one?
By no means. By saying this or this is part and parcel
of the Constitution which a man does that which a man
endeavours at is he – be gives his own instance and
in furtherance of his own interest at the expense and by the
sacrifice of other interests, in relation to the points in question to usurp and give exercise to
the supreme power in the States. The use made of it is the
obtaining a pretence for expressing anger, and acting accordingly:
for acting in an inimical
and injurious manner
in relation to every person
whose declared opinion in
relation to the matter in
question wants anything of being the same with his.

Identifier: | JB/030/084/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 30.
Date_1	1828-08-03	Marginal Summary Numbering	5-7
Box	030	Main Headings	pannomion
Folio number	084	Info in main headings field	blackstone
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	d2 / e2
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	richard doane	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	9591
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