JB/106/230/001

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29 July 1810
Prefat. for Defence of Economy – a new Edition of Fragment on Government

1.
To the devise of bettering
the laws the disposition
throughout the present
reign has been adverse
in the extreme. p.1.

2.
Of any theoretical enquiry
possible practical
results are reducible.
1 – the making the law
2 – preventing it from
growing worse. p.1.

3.
Bettering it is impossible:
it being best already:
so certified by all
lawyers and believed
by nonlawyers, as firmly
as that the bread they
eat was flesh & blood,
always the same. p.1.

4.
Preventing the law from
being worse is preventing an
impossibility; – to be worse, a
thing must be bad. Even if it were
bad the ruling hand by which it
to

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Preventing the law from
growing worse is preventing
an impossibility; – to be
worse, a thing must bev bad.
Even if it were bad the
ruling hand by which
it has been brought to
its present perfection
might be trusted fo for
not suffering it to grow
worse. p.1.

1.
Abuse gives a common
interest to all who
profit by it in any shape.
p.2.

2.
No such wish among
them as that the country
should be swallowed up
by the Sea or Bony:
only that abuse should
be kept as high as is
consistent with the
non-existence of such
a catastrophe. p.2.

3.
Rufus wished not to see
the whole country waste:
only so much as was
requisite for a good
hunting ground.
His interest was that
there should be cultivated
ground enough to feed his
army of defence & whippers
in. p.2.

4.
No Members of the Cabinet
wished to let in Bony
or lessen the dependencies.
Bony not so easy served
as George.
Dependences breed places.
p.3.

5.
Uses of a country vary
with the times: – once, to breed
foxes – now to breed places.
p.3.

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6
Except a few exceptions
prescribed by candour and
decency, profitable abuses
and for the sake of
it imperfection, are
objects of not always
disguised attachment
to those on whom the
operations of government
depend, and so will be
while those who should
be Judges over the servants
of the Crown are accomplices with and
under them. p.4.

7.
Not only reform but Improvement
suffices to fill
the House with wry
faces except in regard
to Improvement that
has for its subject a road
or a canal that leads
through a gentleman's
estate: – provided the
canal injures not the
prospect. p.5.

8.
Except as above Improvement
is resisted as an
innovation or an injury
the more beneficial to
the country the more
formidable and odious
to those who hold the
fate of it in their hands.
p.5.

Identifier: | JB/106/230/001"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 106.
Date_1	1810-07-29	Marginal Summary Numbering	1-9
Box	106	Main Headings	fragment on government (defence of economy)
Folio number	230	Info in main headings field	prefat. for defence of economy or new edition of fragment on government
Image	001	Titles
Category	marginal summary sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner	fg1	Watermarks	th 1806
Marginals		Paper Producer	andre morellet
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1806
Notes public		ID Number	34818
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