JB/100/072/001

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C
Of the Composition of the Laws
NOTE

The late insurrection in London was owing solely
to the defectiveness of the laws in this respect.
It began with hot-headed and intolerant Protestants.
They had been got it into their heads made believe that
by a then late act of Parliament Popery was
tolerated. It was no such thing. But the Laws
in that as in every other article are such an
unintelligible chaos, there was no convincing
them of it. Had they been couched conceived in as an simple
form in which they might be conceived, nothing
would have been more easy. You fancy that
Catholics are liberated; look here you will
see it is no such thing. See here thing By this change
they may be reduced to beggary: by this other
they may be driven out of the kingdom: by a
third they may be hanged put to death.

But it is shorter work to shoot men than to
instruct them. The business Legislators [you ye] know
this [very] well. The business of shooting is for done
in a moment; and you they may perform it by proxy.
But the business of instruction you they must perform your them selves;
and it takes up time and trouble.

To look at the law itself it was impossible to know what it was it had done. It repealed another law which had been made in the view of restraining popery but this law was but [one] out of many. Upon the face of the law you saw a shadow of what the little which it had abolished. That shadow prejudice and hot-headedness would magnify. But you saw not even a shadow of the much which it had left. How Who could see it? Who could to this hour find it out. No man but a lawyer. Of all the mob that begun the outrages there was never a soul who does not read the newspapers. Legislators, you and you only are we to thank for it if a paragraph in the law is not as intelligible as a paragraph in a newspaper.

NOTES

This title consists wholly of Instructions to the Legislator.

Identifier: | JB/100/072/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 100.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	100	Main Headings
Folio number	072	Info in main headings field	of the composition of the laws
Image	001	Titles	note
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f1 / f2 / f3 / f4
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::[gr with crown] propatria [britannia motif]]]
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	32088
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