The enormous practical mischievou'sness of the customary formulary — the sinister interest, by which it has been hitherto rendered sacred — the gramma- tical circumstances by which the two modes of expressiou stand distinguished — the alliance, which, on this as on every other part of the field of law, has place between fraud and imbecility — these are topics that must be re.-ierved tor a future occasion. In this place, the room which any thing like a full explana- tion would require, cannot be spared. Meantime, whatever may be the grammatical and logical description of the ditJerence between the two modes, the etfect of it can scarcely fail of rendering itself perceptible to every eye that has ever found itself condemned to drag itself along the length of a British Act of Parliament. British-and-hish I mean: but, for the expression of this meaning, the Uuion Act (it has been seen) has not atfurded us a aingl* ■word.
Note XIX. Page 42.
Note XIX. Page 42.
Various and important are the collateral uses which a complete Register of this sort might be tbund to have, chieHy under the head of Police; for example, provision for the poor, prevention of crimes, securing the equal payment of taxes, &c. It will be evident, upon a little reflection, what strength would be jiiven to whatever is good and popular in the laws, if, |)y means of every body's huliitaiion, every body's abode were thus, at all times, capable of beina made known to every body. Let it not be forgotten, that the state of things in winch the sort and degree of notoriety, that would be the result of the survey here in question, would have place, would not be that unhappy state of things, in which it is a question whether most evil would be produced by the execution or non-execution, by the strength or the weakness of the laws.
Parishes in England and Wales are 10,674; in Scotland, 921: Parishes and Sub-paiishes rakeu together, in England and Wales 15,741; in Scotland 1,005: Extra-piirociiial places, about 200. By Sub-parishes is here meant such Divi- sions of Parishes as severally maintain their own Poor (Stat. 13 & 14 c. 2, c.l2). They are called ' Ty things or Townships.' Parishes and Sub-parishes together are the places stated as having made separate Returns. The Parishes so divided are chieily the seven Northern Counties of England, and they are all so: 30 or 40 miles square is no unusual extent; upon an average these Northern are seven or eight times the extent of the Southern Counties. Farl. Pop, Returns. Prel. ObserVn 14, 15.
69 Note (f) XXI. Page 43.
For the execution of tliis business, on which, trifling as it may seem, the right in question will in so great a degree be dependent, neither the individuals interested, nor any local authorities, would be to be trusted. In neither case could unifoiniity of proceeding, or compleatness of execution, be reasonably expected. In the case of individuals, failure in abundance would be produced by ab.seuce, pnverty, or negligence; in the case of local authorities, by negli- gence or disaffection. In neither case would there be any effectual respon- sibility. In either case the expense would be greater than on the here proposed plan, reckoning consumption of time as expense.
As to the expense of the requisite remuneration for these Door-plate Fixers, if considered as constant, as in a certain degree it will require to be, it may naturally enough appear formidable. But, by uniting in the same individuals this fimction and tnat of the distribution of letters, this expense might be greatly reduced at least, if not wholly done away. To the exercise of both functions, in addition lo reading, the same knowledge exactly and no more, would be indispensable: namely, an acquaintance with the site of every Ha- bitation within their respective fields of action.
Supposing it to he regarded as interfering with the patronage, or in any other respects with the power, attached to the office of Postmaster-General, nothing less than tiie most determinate opposition from tiiat office would of course be to be expected. But the functionaiies immediately under the patronage of the Pes; master General are the several Lucul Postmasters, not the Distributors of the letters: and it is only to the function of Distributor of letters that that of Door-plate Fixer would have to be united.
It would be for consideration how far, for economy sake, it might be of ad- vantage to unite, regularly or occasionally, the functions of District Clerk and Poll Clerk to the function of local Postmaiter, instead of to the profession of attorney, as pioposed in a former Note.
To the function of Door-plnte Fixer that of Constable might, it should seem, be united with no.small advantage: and thus, in so far as a Constable is at present reuuiuerated at the expense of the public, a proportionable saving might be effected.
Note (*) XXII. Page 47.
Among the artifices of misrule, are needless and useless and groundless nullifi- cations, interruptions, and terminations of public business. No measures but those that have for their object either the interest of the people, or the interest of the Opposition, sufier by these obstacles. The Crown has times and season* at command.
Note (0 XXIII. Page 47.
[Resig-nation.'] At present a seat cannot be vacated by simple resignation. When a Member wishes to resign, he cannot do so without being appointed to an Office under the Crown: which appointment, Monarch or Minister may re- fuse, or delay as long as he pleases. Refusal is not, indeed, customary: but it IS not the less legal; and might, and would at any time be resorted to, if an expected successor were to a certain degree obnoxious. In Ireland, before the Union, and on the occasion of the Union, it was actually resorted to.
Among the inwardly harboured maxims, by which the practice of Honour- able House conducts itself, a leading one may be stated to be this:— never do m a direct way that which you can do in an indirect way; in other words, never do without insincerity that which you can do by insincerity.
70 70 Tims ill tlie present case, one man cannot make room in the House for another, but a faise pretence for it nnist he made: a false pretence; and to that false pretence, not only the outgoing Member himself, but the Monarch and Minister likewise are parties.
The ground of the falsehood is this. In the Statute Book are some half dozen Acts, mentioning by general description, certain Offices, and other sources of emoliniient at the pleasure of the Crown, and declaring, that upon acceptance given to any Office, &c. coming within that description., by a Mem. ber of the Hou^^e of Commons, his seat is vacated. Why vacated? Because were he to continue in it, the Office being one of those to which emolument is attached, his conduct would, by the fear of losing it, be apt to be rendered subservient to the particular interests of Monarch and Minister — adverse to the universal interest. Thus the very principle of all the Acts is the notorious corruptness of the system, of which they make a part.
Among these Offices, is one called the Stewardsliip of the Chiltern Hundreds. Of the system of falsehood, without which a seat is not suffered to be vacated, this Office is the constant instrument. On this occasion the following is the pretence, the falsehood of which is so notorious. Regarding the person in ques- tion, as being eminently fit for the trust in question, — and willing, as well as able, to perform the duties of it, and thereby to earn the emolument attached to it, — his Majesty has been advised, and is graciously pleased, to select him for that purpose, and place the Office in his hands. What, in the instrument of appointment, is actually expressed, I cannot pretend to say: nor can at this mo- ment be certain whether any instrument for this purpose actually receives official signature. But, whether expressed or no, such are the allegations implied. Willing, and determined to do his best towards the fultilment of these duties, the Member who has thus been singled out, gives, on his part, to liis Majesty his humble thanks, and to the Office his acceptance. This being what is said — said by Monarch and by Minister— both saying it in solemn form by their signature, how stands the matter of fact? No duties whatever: no selection: the Office is given indiscriminately and successively, to every Mem- ber that applies for it; to all Members, who, one after another, apply for it; perhaps to several on one and the same day.
Thus drenched in insincerity is Honourable House. It is by insincerity men get into it: it is by insincerity men get out of it. Hear their Speeches: look to their Votes: look to their Journals: see whether, without insincerity, any thing that is done there, is ever done.* * It is from the class of men by which the proceedings of Honourable House have at all times, as they could not but have been, been guided, that the insin- cerity so conspicuous in ihe whole frame of them, has manifestly been derived. Lies manufactured by lawyers as such, arc even by themselves acknowledged to be jmlruths, and, as such, constantly spoken of under the name of fictions. But never was the appellation of a lie ascribed to any thing with more strict propriety than to these^c<iows. A fiction of law hurts nobody, says one of their Latin maxims. This lie embraces, and overtops all the others. A fiction of law hurts every body. Never was any one of these lies told, but it had for its object, and as far as it compassed its object, for its effect, usurpation and injus- tice. When a Judge wanted to do something which he was conscious he had no right to do, his way was, in relation to some matter of fact, to make an assertion, which, if true, might have afforded him a justification for what he did; but which, to his knowledge, was not true. Here then was a gross lie: and by lies of this sort, in the dark ages, did Judges contrive to steal power, sometimes from Parliament, sometimes from the Monarch, sometimes from one another, under favour of that universal ignorance, which they had so success- fully laboured to keep up, by the clouds in which, by these and other means, tbey had succeeded in enveloping their proceediogs. The detail of these lie«, 11 Were not all regard for sincerity almost universally cast oflf in Honourable House— cast off by Whigs not less completely than by Tories — could sham representation liave stood thus loug in the place of genuine?
Among the etTects of Radical Reform, would be — not only in Honourable House, but in so many other places — in other Houses — on the throne— on the Seats of Judicature — in the Seats of Education — if not to put an end to his, at any rate to put an end to the empire of his.
and these thefts, may be seen in Rlackstone: in Blackstone, who, so thoroughly depraved by bad education were his understanding and his morals, saw, for any thing that appears, no harm in it. Yes: usurpation and injustice. Never, in the coining of any one of these lies, could the coiner have had any better object; for if what be was doing had not been contrary to justice, the lie would have been of no use to him. Contrary to justice? Yes, and even contrary to law, as it stood, in so far as in such a shape, and in such bands, any thing to which the name of law could with propriety be applied, could be said to stand, or to have existence.
For some time past, 1:0 fresh lies of this sort — none at least that in flagi-ancy can compare with the old stock — have been coined: the people, it may have been feared, would not bear it. But the old stock is made the most of: — seve- ral pin poses are continually answered by it: — purposes, as baneful to the people, as beuf ficial to those by whom the base currency is forced upon them. A vice, which for its mi^chievousness ought to be an object of universal abhorrence — the vice ot insincerity in its very grossest forms — has, to their own profit — such is the efficiency with which power, decked in false science, can produce delusion — been converted by them into an object of almost universal veneration. To an eye that d^ies open itself, a curious sight is — to see how, in the very act of punishing this vice in others, they revel in it themselves. — No; never has man been punished by them for lying, but a string of lies has been uttered by the Judge, to help form the ground for punishing him. Every record is the discourse of some Judge or Judges. Look into any record, you will see the lies it teems wiih. Examine in detail the forms of judicial procedure, and see whether it be not in insincerity that they began, and from the beginning have continued. — No proposition so absurd, no practice so flagitious— that custom and hubit will not reconcile men to. When the King has made a man a Judge, amongst other powers is this of converting vice into virtue: this is among the articles of faith which hitherto the people have had the goodness to believe.
It may be ^oeu in another work (Suear not at all) whether the Clergy of the Eslablishment are not, on their part, trained up for years in a course, even confessed by themselves to be, that of habitual perjury: not to speak of the in- sincerity in so many other forms, with which without exception, men, on their entrance into that profession, are by authority of law compelled to defile them- •elves.
Of the sort of morality thus imbibed by the higher orders, who does not see — ye<, and feel but too sensibly— the effects? in particular the effects pro- duced by it in Honourable House, and in the whole system of sham repre- sentation., on which it stands. To men thus educated, how can insincerity, when so constantly practised to their own sinister purposes — be otherwise than an object of fond nlfection, and sincerity an object of terror and abhorrence? Thus it is, that whatsoever regard for sincerity has place in the *' lower orders," it is not in comtquence but in spite of the example set tliem: set them by those, who, on no belter ground, than that of the riches and power with which fortune has favoured them, pretend to constitute the only class in which either wisdom or virtue is to be found.
Protest against high-seated vice in this and so many other shapes, the answer *^ — Yon are an enemy to Eiigiisk institutions: as if, only by continuing to prac- tise it, Englishmen had a power of converting vice into virtue.
72 Note (*) XXIV. Page 49.
[Acceptance of a Peerage], This sonrce of mischief should be cut off: and, if under radicalism; of course it would be.
1. lu the hands of Monarch and Minister, it is a pprpetnally ready bribe, for those who could not be bought by bribe in any other shape.
2. It gives additional strength, to a body of men, whose interests are avow« ediy distinct from, and thereby unquestionably opposite to, the universal in- terest; and who have in their hands the means of niHking perpetii >lly repeated sacritices of the universal interest to that separate and sinister inte: est.
3. It is giving continual increase, to a breed of men who from increase of numbers and extravagance, are in large proportion continually slidmg down into a sort of elevated pauperism, which, accordinn to an avowed nirixim of Government, must be pampered at an expense proptntioned to it< tHCiiiiont elevation, See the avowal of the maxim proved— upon the Wiiitjs in the " Defence of Economy against Burke," and upon the Tories in the " Defence of Economy against Rose;" both printed in the Pamphleteer.
To a limitation of this sort the Peers themselves would naturally have no great objection. In the reign of George the First, by an odd concurrence of causes, it was favoured not only by the Lords, but by the Minister. But, as was altogether natural, it was etfectually opposed in Honourable House.
Note (t) XXV. Page 49.
For an exposition of the words annoyance and disturbance, see Appendix.
Note 0) XXVI. Page 49.
This Section has two objects: 1. To obviate the apprehension that annoyance may be given in the House to men of high habits by men of low habits; for, with men of this obnoxious description, to an unlimited amount, imagination, howsoever opposed by reason and experience, will, in the high-seated minds, be busy in peopling the House, supposing the Seats in it filled by free and universal suffrage.
2. To secure individual Members against groundless expulsion, and thereby their Constituents against injury, by the injustice of an occasional majority of the House.
It being clear that, under any order of things, every governing assembly must possess, over its own Members, whatsoever power is necessary to secure its proceedings against disturbance, — on this ground it is that Honourable House reserves to itself, of course, the power of excluding from its walls any person who shall have been pointed out by Monarch or Minister, to be so dealt with.
Thus it was, that, in 1764, to please the Monarch, it expelled John H'ilkes. The alledged cause was a libel; and a libel is — any discourse, in print or writing, which he who has power to punish for it chooses to punish for. Had that pretext failed, any words that had been spoken by him might have served: for, any words that Honourable House chose to expel a man for, might, and at all times may be, for that or any other purpose, voted scandalous: scandalous^ or upon occasion, what would form so much stronger and conmiodtous a ground, blasphemotis. For, on the field of religion, whatever a man says that another man does not like, is, according to that other man, blasphemy: whereupon, in so far as he has power, he makes the miscreant smart for it.
Under the sway of corruption, no species of annoyance can be imagined, that Honourable House would not submit to, rather than submit to have this 73 privilege defined, and thereby confined to its real uses. Not so under Radical Keform.
The paramount objects here have been — to give effect to all legitimate causes of exclusion, and in so doing to put an exclusion upon all illegitimate ones. For this purpose, it was necessary to take what promised to be an exhaustive view of the legitimate ones. A temporary object was that which is herein above first mentioned: quieting the alarm which, in such a case, seemed liable to be felt by the opulent multitude, to whom personal ease is every thing, public interest nothing.
Note XXVII. Page 50.
Hitherto, so long as a Speaker has been indisposed, the business of the House, and thereby the business of the Nation, has been at a stand. On or without an intimation from a Monarch or a Minister, a Speaker, as well as any other man, may be indisposed whenever he pleases. The business of the nation is of no importance: a Speaker of the Commons House is not susceptible of infirmity, bodily or mental: — One or other of these maxims is what the present practice in this matter has for its ground: it rests with Honouiable House to say which. For the causes, see the Note xxiii to p. 47. Under Radicalism, the business of the Nation will not be of no importance: under Kadicalism, a Speaker will not be exempt from human infirmity.
Under real and preappointed law, the man in power, Monarch, Minister, Judge — be he what he may — is not altogether without check: there is a some* thing, which is or may be, in the eyes of every body, and which he may be expected at least to be bound by. Under imaginary and retrospective, or — as the phrase is — expost facto law, (for such is all Common Law) he is without check: on each individual occasion, he imagines whatever suits his sinister interest, and says — this is law. This (he says) is law: and, as if that were not enough, from the beginning of tilings, down to this time, so (if you will believe him) it has been; though this is the first time that any such thing ever entered into man's thoughts. See this in Blackstone: and this it is that makes " Common Law the perfection of reason." Of reason? but in what eyes? In the eyes of all those who have, or have had, the making of it; and of all those others whom they have made their dupes.
APPENDIX, INCLUDING GENERAL EXPLANATIONS.
On the present occasion, it was thought better not to incumber the text of the proposed Bill with any considerable portion of the matter, which, on the supposition of its being completed, would have been to be inserted in this place. The text of this part may eventually be added, together with the Reasons at large.
Of the particulars which, in this place, there will be occasion to bring to view, the use, if any, will not be confined within the limits of the present Bill: it may be seen extending itself over the whole field of legislation.
To an Appendix, on this as on other occasions, are proposed to be referred five distinguishable sorts of matter: 1. Fixation. 2. Ex- position, or Explanation (including Definition). 3. Enumeration. 4. Abbreviation. 5. Forms of Instruments. For designation these names will, it is hoped, be found to serve. Exemplifications as well as explanations now follow.
1. Fixation. Instances there are, in which, senses more than one being plainly enough brought to view by the word or phrase in ques- tion, doubts may have place, in which of them it was meant that they should be understood. Of the operation termed Jixalion, the function in these cases is — to indicate, according to the occasion, some one of those senses to the exclusion of the rest.
Take for example the word day.
1. On some occasions it is employed to mean a determinate portion of the time occupied by a revolution of the earth round the Sun, 76 Appendix.
2. On other occasions, it is employed to mean no more than a portion of that time; namely, that portion, as far as it can be distin- guished, during which the light of the sun is visible: in this latter case, the meaning is expressed without ambiguity by the words day- time, the day-time.
3. When a portion of time is spoken of, as the time within which a certain operation is required, forbidden, or permitted, to be per- formed,— and, for the designation of it, the word daysj in the plural, preceded by the name of a number, is employed, — as for instance,7i^c (Zay.<r, or ten days, — thence is liable to arise a question, whether in the portion of time thus designated, are to be considered as included so many days, each of them entire; or whether the intention will be satis- fied, if the Grst only, or the last only, or both the first and the last, are respectively but the portion of a day. It is on these occasions, that in common usage, the words inclusive and exclusive come to be em- ployed in conjunction with the word days. Fuller explanation cannot be given without more space than can be spared here.
For the removal of the ambiguity thus brought to view, in several parts of the present Bill, an appropriate fixation would need to be made. Of this case, the passages in which the word days is preceded by a blank space, afford so many instances.
4. In the instance of the word days, taken as above in the plural, a particular demand is created by the institution of the Sabbath. On the occasion in question, in the number of days mentioned, shall the Sabbath-day, where it happens to form one of them, be reckoned, and considered as included, or shall the number intended be understood to be that same number, over and above the Sabbath-day? The answer will depend on the nature of the occasion. If what is regarded as work be to be done in the intervals, the intervening Sabbath-day or Sabbath-days must be considered as added to the number: otherwise not.
II. Exposilion or Explanation, including Definition. The demand for fixation has place, in so far as, by the word in question, more senses than one are, all of them, more or less distinctly brought to view: what in this case is necessary is — to decide between them, by fixing upon some one of them to the exclusion of the rest. The de- mand for exposition or explanation has place, in so far as, were it not Appendix. 77 Appendix. 77 for riie operation thus denominated, it might happen that no object at all might present itself as clearly designated. Fixation has for its purpose, the removal of ambiguity: explanation, the clearing up of obscuriti/. Between the import of the words, as thus explained, the separation will not always be very distinct: especially since, by the same word, on the same occasion, a demand for both operations may be presented: and, although by the operation which happens to have been performed, no more than one of them may have been the direct object, the other, it may happen, has been accomplished.
Synonymous, or nearly so, to explanation^ is exposition.
Oi exposition there are several modes. For the complete enumera- tion and explanation of them, more room would be requisite than can be afforded in this place.
A mode commonly employed, or at least intended and supposed • * Why say " intended and supposed?" as if the thing intended on an occasion of this sort ever failed of being done? To this question something of an answer may here be expected. By logicians, when speaking of a definition, is com- monly meant, as of course, the mode termed in Latin definitio per genus et diffe- rentiam: definition, afforded by the indication of a more extensive collection of objects, to which the object in question belongs — some genus (as the phrase is) of which it is a species, — together with the indication of some peculiar cha- racter or quality, by which it stands distinguished from all other objects in- cluded in that same collection — from all other species of that same genus: and this form is that which, when what is considered as a definition is given, is the form constantly intended and supposed to be given to it.
Now then, by him who undertakes to give a definition in this form, what is necessarily, howsoever tacitly, assumed, is — that there exists in the language a word, serving as the name of a genus of things, within which the species of things, indicated by the word he thus undertakes to define, is compreheuded. But words there are, and in uo small abundance, of which defiuitions of this sort are frequently undertaken to be given, — or which are supposed to be, as clearly and generally understood, as if definitions in this form could be and had been given of them, — but for which, all this while, no such more extensive de- nomination is afforded by this or any other language: and among them, words which, in law and politics, are in continual use, and npon the signification of which, questions of prime and practical importance are continually turning. Take for instance, the words riglit, power, obligation. Now, in the way in ques- tion,— namely, by indicatlnn of so many superior genus's of things, of which these words respectively designate so many species, — it is not possible to define these words. No ooe of these three words can you thus define. The word 78 Appendix.