JB/036/159/001

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1822 July 1
Constitut. Code Rationale

Yes, No – (it may be said) Reform, if radical, will suffice: it will
suffice without further change. Not in any shape, and
in particular not in this shape, can Parliamentary Reform have
been brought about, unless and until both Lords and King and
Lords have been brought into acquiescence. But the use
and only use of this Reform is to remove the Existing abuses:
in this one point is concentrated all this is the effect looked to from it: that the powers sufficient
to produce the cause will be sufficient to produce the effect.

Answer. No: it will not suffice. By the supposition, the
Office of King will remain: the power of the King will remain untouched: the power of the Lords
their silo will remain untouched. But to from the Office of King
a quantity of the matter of wealth all of it operating upon the
Representatives of the people in the character of matter of corruptive
influence is inseparable: in a large proportion it
will suffice to prevent the abolition of the mass of depredation and oppression
at present established: and whatsoever it is not able to prevent the
immediate abolition of, it will suffice to bring back in a longer or shorter
course of time. To produce this effect not so much as a
single act in other that can with truth propriety be called an act of corruption (it has been shown) is necessary: not so much as
a single act of that sort on either part. [☞ A list being made
of their pernicious powers, here repeat it or refer to it.]

To continue in confirm the existence of the Kingly Office would be
to sanction a principle incompatible opposite to the only justifiable end
of government. It would be continue in the hands of functionaries
by the opposition hostility of whose interest to the universal interest has
been shown as well by theory to be necessary, and as by recent experience
to be radical and unchangeable the power of giving
effect to that same sinister interest.

You who propose the continuance of the state of things power by which the
mischief has been done, by what means do you pr is it your
expectation that the safest good you propose should be effected? You who
propose the accomplishment of the end, how is it that you can
avoid proposing the adoption of the means the only means by which
it can be effected? Parliamentary Reform or any reform you can make
or think of – will it
change mans nature?
Finding in every office
an appetite for power
as likewise in dogs
an appetite for bones
will the word reform extirpate it?

Identifier: | JB/036/159/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 36.
Date_1	1822-07-01	Marginal Summary Numbering	7-10
Box	036	Main Headings	constitutional code rationale
Folio number	159	Info in main headings field	constitut. code rationale?
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	a4 / b4 / d4
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	11083
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