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41
Reward
Cases unmeet § 3
Wagers
which by possibility it may have a pernicious
tendency in the capacity of a reward, would
be to go too far. It lies upon the prudence
of the legislator to make an estimate draw a ballance in such case strike a ballance
between
of the
danger accruing impending to be apprehended from this cause, and the
advantage to be expected from the measure when
considerd in other points of view. It is evident
enough that the proportion between this danger
and this advantage will in different cases be
very different: and the drawing the line between
the cases in which the one and those in
which the other seems to preponderate, is a
business of too much detail to be transacted performed
here. It will find its place with propriety
under the head of Contracts in the Civil
Code: and to that subdivision of it in which
the question what contracts shall be are [adopted,
that or in others other words are declared
to be good and ] valid, is discussed.
To the same place
belongs the consideration
of the expedients that
may be adopted for
guarding as well as may be against the
danger, without sacrificing
as little as
may be of the advantage.
A hasty and
narrow-minded legislator
starts with horror from a
measure at the first glance glympse
of evil: a well-informed
and circumspect legislator
understands, and
having understood remembers,
that legislation
is never any thing but a
choice of evils.
At present all that we have to do is to lay
down a general cautionary rule, which is as follows:
Wherever an emolument is held up or
allow'd to be held up to view, let the legislator
beware of any evil tendency it may have in
the capacity of a reward.
Identifier: | JB/087/150/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 87.
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reward |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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