JB/058/217/001

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1805
Evidence

§. 5. Comparison between corruption in this form and bribery.
☞ Introduction cont.

I say in the form and direction of a bribe. But
in respect of the degree of force, there is no comparison.
In the shape of a bribe, received from an indiv in that form
from a determinate individual, nothing can be received
by any manofficial person, man in this station or any other, in the station of Judge or any other, without his longing putting himself into compleatly in
the power of the giver of the bribe: wherever what is received
by exposing himself thus to utter ruin, not only by from the voluntary
hostility of the bribe-giver but from his indiscretion as
well as a variety of other accidents. In the shape of fees,
received, as of right for business really done, whatever is
received, especially by a hand thus entrenched in power, is received in perfect safety.

Under this system it may be said nobody takes bribes Under a system of this kind, it may happen, that no bribes are
ever taken: Very likely Be it so, and what then? The pear fruit
has no specks in it: nor true: but what then is it worth yet what is it worth
when it is if it be rotten at the core?

Bribery would is a distinct mischief, and would might
be a still worse, on account of the want of confidence
the general alarm it would be productive of, if common, might
be still worse: but the remedies against it are so effectual,
that in comparison of this the other deeper-seated principle of
corruption it is scarce worth thinking of.

If a Judge be detected discovered to have received a
bribe, nobody, not even he himself, has any thing to
say in his defence: whereas if a system thus rotten in the
core, one of the bad effects, is as will be seen is that the more
corrupt it is, the less it is thought to be. Shares in the sinister profit of the system
being possessed by or hoped for by all who are in a condition to
require any tolerable insight into it, the more corrupt it is, the more
truly it is : the means of those who suffer from it, are
drowned by the acclamation of those who profit by it. Even the patient
who knows so well what he suffers, knows not from what cause.
Deceived by the false and theories as industriously circulated, as they are false
the poison really administered by the physician, is refused
by him to the disease. Seeing no individual living in whom
blame can fasten itself, he concludes there is no blame none any where.
And thus the whole community is divided into two classes:
the one composed of impostors, the other of dupes: of impostors of
whom none are so fit for their vocation, being so duping others converting others into dupes as those who have
succeeded best in their endeavour, to become dupes, to be such themselves.

Identifier: | JB/058/217/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 58.
Date_1	1805	Marginal Summary Numbering	1-3
Box	058	Main Headings	evidence
Folio number	217	Info in main headings field	evidence
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e1
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	18886
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