JB/549/180/001

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1823. June 13
Constitut. Code§. 2. Common Law

For a pretence sufficient pretence for the sort of oppression
thus exercised the oppression has found a sufficient pretence
in a few words and or phrases: for f covering with the counterfeit law no small portion
perhaps the greatest part of the field of penal law, one single word has been found
sufficient.

Of these words and phrases the following may suffice for examples.
Sufficient 1. Sedition. 2. case is . 3. blasphemy. 4. Conspiracy.

First as to sedition For punishing every person, by whom by a
with othersby means with the concurrence of his fellow by
oppression relief endeavours have been made by appropriate
discourse to obtain relieve, the a single word sedition
has sufficed. Of sedition no definition no description has
ever been given by the authority of the only competent legislature,
no ordinance consequently made and promulgated for the
punishment of it. No matter: under the direction of a Jury
the Judge pronounces the word Guilty on every man against
whom as above an accusation of sedition has been preferred.

2. Next as to . By the
use which Judges they have made of this Latin phrase, they have
given to themselves, and their successors so long as the system of
imposture lasts, the power of punishing with the words in
their mouths any man at for any thing for which it is their it suits
their purposes pleasure to see a man punished. For this purpose, prudence
indeed requires that the the prosecutor should look
out for some act which the still remaining prejudice of the
people continues to mask with their pleasure. In itself or in that of its consequences it is not
necessary that it should be in any shape or degree noxious, its
effects may be all of them on the side of pleasure; none of them
on the side of pain. All that is necessary is that the sort of act and
thence the agent should to the majority of those who happen to be
on the Jury objects an object of antipathy and displeasure: of antipathy
whether because giving them no pleasure they have no not therefore any desire to purchase
it themselves: or because
it gives them displeasure
to see it purchased by
a person of the class sort of
line who to by whom
it has been observed
to be purchased.

Identifier: | JB/549/180/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 549.
Date_1	1823-06-13	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	549	Main Headings
Folio number	180	Info in main headings field	Constitut. Code
Image	001	Titles
Category	Text sheet	Number of Pages
Recto/Verso		Page Numbering
Penner	Jeremy Bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	Jeremy Bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections	Jeremy Bentham	Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number
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