JB/106/342/001

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1823 Feby 28
Greece.

In this same same Senate, set down by the side of the Poli Assembly composed of the immediate delegates of the people,
I see I see much a source of factitious delay, of waste of time on the part
of the Members and their Electors, of waste of money given in the name of pay.
I see considerable evil In various shapes, I see more evil done by it I see than I can here find time to bring to view. Applied to the power of the
President I see here responsibility diminished by it. I see how
subordinates under a secret necessity of letting the Members of this body into a Share of this the
patronages. I thereby see in it a natural source of corruption. Applied to the
power of the Assembly of Representatives I see it oppressing,
to an indefinite extent amount obstruction to the will of the Members of
the Constitutive body as manifested by their delegates. In its members, such as continuing in that situation they do for
six six whole years, I see a source and seat of aristocratical feeling and
prejudice.⊞1
⊞ A set of men, not
appointed placed immediately
by the people, but
by another set of men who
have been placed by the people .
This set of men, all paid
of the expence of the
people, may every one
of them, in spite of the
people, continue therein
six years together in the practice of delaying
or defeating arrangements
proposed by the people's
immediately deputed
delegates, of whose
faculty of
running counter to the
will of the people lasts
not in the instance
of any one of them,
more than two years.
Nor would those two
years have been more
than one, had it not
been for the vast quantity
of time necessary to be
consumed in travelling
between the seat of
election and the seat
of government. Accordingly
in Spain the duration
of that authority lasts
but for one yea. And so
in Portugal. From an authority
thus constituted, the
best that can be hoped for
is inefficiency: the more
efficient the more
maleficent. I see not a single good effect produced with it that
would not be better produced without it.⊞2
⊞2 The Spanish Constitution
has no such Second
Chamber, as the phrase is
to obstruct throw obstruction
in the way of all the proceedings
of the first: and from
the omission none but good
effects have ever been found.
To the Portugueze Constitution
the same observation applies
with at least equal force.
I see nothing but the existence
Of the that seems capable of being alledged in
support of its existence. As to But of any utility that may be supposed
to belong to it, a most simple and convening test of the utility is
that, which the Citizens of that only seat of good government have at
all times in their hands: a test, which now any one Citizen has it in
his power at any time to make application of. Let him look over the history
of the proceedings of Congress since the first introduction of this part into the machinery
of its Constitution. Let him note in the first place the what in his eyes are would are the
apt arrangements, which it has applied its obstructing end while
such obstructions have been established. Let him note
in the second place the apt measures which arrangements which have as yet remained
defeated excluded by it. Let him note in the third place the cor
arrangements which have as yet have been kept excluded by it, and which
would have been established if it had not been in existence.
My expectation would be to find in each of the two first tests
some articles, and in the last either or more or next to
none.

Identifier: | JB/106/342/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 106.
Date_1	1823-02-28	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	106	Main Headings	constitutional code
Folio number	342	Info in main headings field	greece
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e12 / f16
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	34930
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