The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Principles of Judicial Procedure, With the Outlines of a Procedure Code.
• Note By the Editor.
• Preface.
• Introduction.
• Chapter I.: General View—ends of Judicature.
• Chapter II.: Ends Apt and Unapt.
• Chapter III.: Procedure—its Relation to the Rest of the Law.
• Chapter IV.: Judiciary Establishment.
• Chapter V.: Procedure—its Subject-matters.
• Chapter VI.: All-comprehensive Arrangements.
• Chapter VII.: Practical General Rules.
• Chapter VIII.: Judicial Application.
• Chapter IX.: Proxies.
• Chapter X.: Judicial Communication.
• Chapter XI.: Evidence.
• Chapter XII.: Initiatory Hearing.
• Chapter XIII.: Defence, How Elicited.
• Chapter XIV.: Suits, Their Sorts.
• Chapter XV.: Suits, Continuance Of.
• Chapter XVI.: Suits—termination.
• Chapter XVII.: Suits, Their Stages.
• Chapter XVIII.: Means of Execution.
• Chapter XIX.: Counter-security.
• Chapter XX.: Remedies,—compensation.
• Chapter XXI.: Judicial Transfer.
• Chapter XXII.: Prehension.
• Chapter XXIII.: Jury-trial.
• Chapter XXIV.: Special Juries.
• Chapter XXV.: Grand Juries.
• Chapter XXVI.: Quasi-jury.
• Chapter XXVII.: Recapitulatory Examination, Or Quasi-trial.
• Chapter XXVIII.: Appeal and Quasi-appeal.
• Chapter XXIX.: Natural and Technical Systems Compared.
• Appendix A.: Initial Sketch of the Procedure Code.
• Appendix B.: Account-taking Judicatories.
• Appendix C.: British India—jury System.
• From the Right Honourable Sir Alexander Johnston, to the Right Honourable Charles W. Williams Wynn, President of the Board of Controul.
• The Rationale of Reward.
• Advertisement By the Editor.
• Remarks By Mr. Bentham.
• Preliminary Observations.
• Book I.—: Of Rewards In General.
• Chapter I.: Definitions.
• Chapter II.: Matter of Reward—sources.
• Chapter III.: Of Reward and Punishment Combined.
• Chapter IV.: Of the Union of Interest With Duty, and of Self-executing Laws.
• Chapter V.: Matter of Reward—reasons For Husbanding.
• Chapter VI.: Remuneration Ex Post Facto.
• Chapter VII.: Punition and Remuneration—their Relations.
• Chapter VIII.: Remuneration—where Hurtful.
• Chapter IX.: Remuneration—where Needless.
• Chapter X.: Proportion As to Rewards.
• Chapter XI.: Choice As to Rewards.
• Chapter XII.: Procedure As to Rewards.
• Chapter XIII.: Rewards to Informers.
• Chapter XIV.: Rewards to Accomplices.
• Chapter XV.: Competition As to Rewards.
• Chapter XVI.: Rewards For Virtue.
• Chapter XVII.: Accompaniments to Remuneration.
• Book II.—: Rewards Applied to Offices.
• Chapter I.: Salary—how a Reward.
• Chapter II.: Rules As to Emoluments.
• Chapter III.: Fees and Perquisites—none.
• Chapter IV.: Minimize Emolument.
• Chapter V.: No More Nominal Than Real.
• Chapter VI.: Couple Burthen With Benefit.
• Chapter VII.: By Emoluments Exclude Corruption.
• Chapter VIII.: Give Pensions of Retreat.
• Chapter IX.: Of the Sale of Offices.
• Chapter X.: Of Qualifications.
• Chapter XI.: Of Trust and Contract Management.
• Chapter XII.: Of Reforms.
• Book III.—: Reward Applied to Art and Science.
• Chapter I.: Art and Science—divisions.
• Chapter II.: Art and Science—advancement.
• Chapter III.: Art and Science—diffusion.
• Appendix.
• Leading Principles of a Constitutional Code, For Any State.
• Section I.: Ends Aimed At.
• Section II.: Principal Means Employed For the Attainment of the Above Ends.
• Liberty of the Press, and Public Discussion.
• Advertisement.
• Jeremy Bentham to the Spanish People.
• Letter I.: On the Liberty of the Press—the Approaching Eight Months’ Sleep of the Cortes—and the Exclusion of Experience From the Succeeding Cortes.
• Letter II.: On the Liberty of Public Discussion In Free Meetings.
• Letter III.: On the Liberty of Public Discussion In Free Meetings—continuation From Letter II.
• Letter IV.: On the Liberty of Public Discussion In Free Meetings—continuation of the Subject From Letter III.
• An Essay On Political Tactics, Or Inquiries Concerning the Discipline and Mode of Proceeding Proper to Be Observed In Political Assemblies: Principally Applied to the Practice of the British Parliament, and to the Constitution and Situation of the Nati
• Chapter I.: General Considerations.
• Chapter II.: Of Publicity.
• Chapter III.: Of the Place of Meeting and Its Dependencies.
• Chapter IV.: Of What Concerns the Members Present At a Legislative Assembly.
• Chapter V.: Of the Presidents and Vice-presidents Belonging to Political Assemblies.
• Chapter VI. *: of the Mode of Proceeding In a Political Assembly In the Formation of Its Decisions.
• Chapter VII.: Of the Proposal of Measures For Adoption.
• Chapter VIII.: Of the Different Acts Which Enter Into the Formation of a Decree.
• Chapter IX.: Of the Promulgation of Motions—of Bills—of Amendments, and Their Withdrawment.
• Chapter X.: Of the Drawing Up of Laws.
• Chapter XI.: Of Debates.
• Chapter XII.: Of Amendments.
• Chapter XIII.: Of Dilatory Motions, Or Motions of Adjournment.
• Chapter XIV.: Of Voting.
• Chapter XV.: Of Committees.
• Chapter XVI.: Of Formulas.
• The Book of Fallacies: From Unfinished Papers of Jeremy Bentham. Edited By a Friend.
• Preface By the Editor of the Original Edition.
• The Book of Fallacies.: Introduction.
• Section I.: A Fallacy, What.
• Section II.: Fallacies, By Whom Treated of Heretofore.
• Section III.: Relation of Fallacies to Vulgar Errors.
• Section IV.: Political Fallacies the Subject of This Work.
• Section V.: Division Or Classification of Fallacies
• Section VI.: Nomenclature of Political Fallacies.
• Section VII.: Contrast Between the Present Work and Hamilton’s “parliamentary Logic.”
• Part I.: Fallacies of Authority, the Subject of Which Is Authority In Various Shapes, and the Object to Repress All Exercise of the Reasoning Faculty.
• Chapter I.
• Chapter II.: The Wisdom of Our Ancestors; Or Chinese Argument—( Ad Verecundiam. )
• Chapter III.: Fallacy of Irrevocable Laws.
• Chapter IV.: No-precedent Argument—( Ad Verecundiam. )
• Chapter V.
• Chapter VI.: Laudatory Personalities— (ad Amicitiam.)
• Part II.: Fallacies of Danger, the Subject-matter of Which Is Danger In Various Shapes, and the Object to Repress Discussion Altogether, By Exciting Alarm.
• Chapter I.: Vituperative Personalities— (ad Odium.)
• Chapter II.
• Chapter III.: Fallacy of Distrust, Or, What’s At the Bottom?—( Ad Metum. )
• Chapter IV.: Official Malefactor’s Screen—( Ad Metum. )
• Chapter V.: Accusation-scarer’s Device—( Ad Metum. )
• Part III.: Fallacies of Delay, the Subject-matter of Which Is Delay In Various Shapes—and the Object, to Postpone Discussion, With a View of Eluding It.
• Chapter I.: The Quietist, Or “no Complaint”—( Ad Quietem )
• Chapter II.: Fallacy of False Consolation— (ad Quietem.)
• Chapter III.: Procrastinator’s Argument ( Ad Socordiam. )
• Chapter IV.: Snail’s-pace Argument.—( Ad Socordiam. )
• Chapter V.: Fallacy of Artful Diversion—( Ad Verecundiam. )
• Part IV.: Fallacies of Confusion, the Object of Which Is, to Perplex, When Discussion Can No Longer Be Avoided.
• Chapter I.: Question-begging Appellatives—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter II.: Impostor Terms—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter III.: Vague Generalities—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter IV.: Allegorical Idols—( Ad Imaginationem. )
• Chapter V.: Sweeping Classifications—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter VI.: Sham Distinctions—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter VII.: Popular Corruption—( Ad Superbiam. )
• Chapter VIII.: Observations On the Seven Preceding Fallacies.
• Chapter IX.: Anti-rational Fallacies—( Ad Verecundiam. )
• Chapter X.: Paradoxical Assertion—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter XI. :non-causa Pro Causa: Or, Cause and Obstacle Confounded—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter XII.: Partiality-preacher’s Argument—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter XIII.: The End Justifies the Means—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter XIV.: Opposer-general’s Justification:—not Measures But Men; Or, Not Men But Measures—( Ad Invidiam. )
• Chapter XV.: Rejection Instead of Amendment—( Ad Judicium. )
• Part V
• Chapter I.: Characters Common to All These Fallacies.
• Chapter II.: Of the Mischief Producible By Fallacies.
• Chapter III.: Causes of the Utterance of These Fallacies.
• Chapter IV.: Second Cause—interest Begotten-prejudice.
• Chapter V.: Third Cause—authority-begotten Prejudice.
• Chapter VI.: Fourth Cause—self-defence Against Counter-fallacies.
• Chapter VII.: Use of These Fallacies to the Utterers and Acceptors of Them.
• Chapter VIII.: Particular Demand For Fallacies Under the English Constitution.
• Chapter IX.: The Demand For Political Fallacies:—how Created By the State of Interests.
• Chapter X.: Different Parts Which May Be Borne In Relation to Fallacies.
• Chapter XI.: Uses of the Preceding Exposure.
• Anarchical Fallacies; Being an Examination of the Declarations of Rights Issued During the French Revolution.
• Advertisement.
• An Examination of the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen Decreed By the Constituent Assembly In France.
• Preamble.
• A Critical Examination of the Declaration of Rights.
• Declaration of the Rights and Duties of the Man and the Citizen, Anno 1795.
• Observations On Parts of the Declaration of Rights, As Proposed By Citizen Sieyes.
• Principles of International Law.
• Essay I.: Objects of International Law.
• Essay II.: Of Subjects, Or of the Personal Extent of the Dominion of the Laws.
• Essay III.: Of War, Considered In Respect of Its Causes and Consequences.
• Essay IV.: A Plan For an Universal and Perpetual Peace.
• Appendix. * —junctiana Proposal.
• A Protest Against Law-taxes, Showing the Peculiar Mischievousness of All Such Impositions As Add to the Expense of Appeal to Justice.
• Supply Without Burden; Or Escheat Vice Taxation: Being a Proposal For a Saving of Taxes By an Extension of the Law of Escheat, Including Strictures On the Taxes On Collateral Succession Comprised In the Budget of 7 Th December 1795.
• Preface.
• Section I.: General Idea.
• Section II.: Order of the Details.
• Section III.: Advantages.
• Section IV.: Originality.
• Section V.: Produce.
• Section VI.: Application.
• Section VII.: Heads of Objection, With Answers. †
• Section VIII.: Existing Law.
• Section IX.: Ancient Law.
• Section X.: Blackstone.
• Tax With Monopoly; Or Hints of Certain Cases In Which, In Alleviation of the Burden of Taxation, Exclusive Privileges May Be Given As Against Future Competitors, Without Producing Any of the Ill Effects, Which In Most Cases Are Inseparable From Everyth
• I.: Stock-brokers.
• II.: Bankers.

SECTION VII.

CONTRAST BETWEEN THE PRESENT WORK AND HAMILTON’S “PARLIAMENTARY LOGIC.”

Of this work, the general conception had been formed, and in the composition of it some little progress made, when the advertisements brought under the author’s notice the posthumous work intituled “Parliamentary Logic, by the late William Gerard Hamilton,” distinguished from so many other Hamiltons by the name of Single-speech Hamilton.

Of finding the need of a work such as the present superseded in any considerable degree by that of the right honourable orator, the author had neither hope nor apprehension: but his surprise was not inconsiderable on finding scarcely in any part of the two works any the smallest degree of coincidence.

In respect of practical views and objects, it would not indeed be true to say, that between the one and the other there exists not any relation; for there exists a pretty close one, namely, the relation of contrariety.

When, under the title of “Directions to Servants,” Swift presented to view a collection of such various faults as servants of different descriptions had been found, or supposed by him liable to fall into, his object (it need scarce be said,) if he had any serious object beyond that of making his readers laugh, was, not that compliance, but that non-compliance, with the directions so humorously delivered, should be the practical result.

Taking that work of Swift’s for his pattern, and what seemed the serious object of it for his guidance, the author of this work occasionally found, in the form of a direction for the framing of a fallacy, what seemed the most convenvient vehicle for conveying a conception of its nature: as, in some instances, for conveying a conception of the nature of the figure he is occupied in the description of, a mathematician begins with giving an indication of the mode in which it may be framed, or, as the phrase is, generated.

On these occasions, much pains will not be necessary to satisfy the reader that the object of any instructions which may here be found for the composition of a fallacy, has been, not to promote, but as far as possible to prevent the use of it—to prevent the use of it, or at any rate to deprive it of its effect.

Such, if Gerard Hamilton is to be believed, was not the object with Gerard Hamilton: his book is a sort of school, in which the means of advocating what is a good cause, and the means of advocating what is a had cause, are brought to view with equal frankness, and inculcated with equal solicitude for success: in a word, that which Machiavel has been supposed sometimes to aim at, Gerard Hamilton, as often as it occurs to him, does not only aim at, but aim at without disguise. Whether on this observation any such imputation as that of calumny is justly chargeable, the samples given in the course of this work will put the reader in a condition to judge.

Sketched out by himself, and finished by his editor and panegyrist,* the political character of Gerard Hamilton may be comprised in a few words: he was determined to join with a party; he was as ready to side with one party as another; and whatever party he sided with, as ready to say any one thing as any other in support of it. Independently of party, and personal profit to be made from party,—right and wrong, good and evil, were in his eyes matters of indifference. But having consecrated himself to party—viz. the party, whatever it was, from which the most was to be got—that party being, of whatever materials composed, the party of the ins —that party standing constantly pledged for the protection of abuse in every shape, and, in so far as good consists in the extirpation of abuse, for the opposing and keeping out everything that is good—hence it was to the opposing of whatsoever is good in honest eyes, that his powers, such as they were, were bent and pushed with peculiar energy.

One thing only he recognised as being malum in se, as a thing being to be opposed at any rate, and at any price, even on any such extraordinary supposition as that of its being brought forward by the party with which, at the time being, it was his lot to side. This was, parliamentary reform.

In the course of his forty years’ labour in the service of the people, one thing he did that was good: one thing, to wit, that in the account of his panegyrist is set down on that side:—

One use of government (in eyes such as his, the principal use) is to enable men who have shares in it to employ public money in payment for private service:—

Within the view of Gerard Hamilton there lived a man whose talents and turn of mind qualified him for appearing with peculiar success in the character of an amusing companion in every good house. In this character he for a length of time appeared in the house of Gerard Hamilton: finding him an Irishman, Hamilton got an Irish pension of £300 a-year created for him, and sent him back to Ireland: the man being in Dublin, and constituting in virtue of his office a part of the Lord Lieutenant’s family, he appeared in the same character and with equal success in the house of the Lord Lieutenant.†

His Grace gave permanence to the sinecure, and doubled the salary of it. Here was liberality upon liberality—here was virtue upon virtue. It is by such things that merit is displayed—it is for such things that taxes are imposed; it is for affording matter and exercise for such virtues—it is for affording rewards for such merit, that the people of every country, in so far as any good use is made of them, are made.

To a man in whose eyes public virtue appeared in this only shape, no wonder that parliamentary reform should be odious:—of parliamentary reform, the effect of which,—and in eyes of a different complexion, one main use—would be, the drying up the source of all such virtues.

Here, in regard to the matter of fact, there are two representations given of the same subject—representations perfectly concurrent in all points with one another, though from very different quarters, and beginning as well as ending with very different views, and leading to opposite conclusions.

Parliament a sort of gaming-house; members on the two sides of each house the players; the property of the people—such portion of it as on any pretence may be found capable of being extracted from them—the stakes played for. Insincerity in all its shapes, disingenuousness, lying, hypocrisy, fallacy, the instruments employed by the players on both sides for obtaining advantages in the game: on each occasion—in respect of the side on which he ranks himself—what course will be most for the advantage of the universal interest, a question never looked at, never taken into account: on which side is the prospect of personal advantage in its several shapes—this the only question really taken into consideration: according to the answer given to this question in his own mind, a man takes the one or the other of the two sides—the side of those in office, if there be room or near prospect of room for him: the side of those by whom office is but in expectancy, if the future contingent presents a more encouraging prospect than the immediately present.

To all these distinguished persons—to the self-appointed professor and teacher of political profligacy, to his admiring editor, to their common and sympathizing friend,* the bigotry-ridden preacher of hollow and common-place morality—parliamentary reform we see in an equal degree, and that an extreme one, an object of abhorrence. How should it be otherwise? By parliamentary reform, the prey, the perpetually renascent prey, the fruit and object of the game, would have been snatched out of their hands. Official pay in no case more than what is sufficient for the security of adequate service—no sinecures, no pensions, for hiring flatterers and pampering parasites:—no plundering in any shape or for any purpose:—amidst the cries of No theory! No theory! the example of America a lesson, the practice of America transferred to Britain.

The notion of the general predominance of self-regarding over social interest has been held up as a weakness incident to the situation of those whose converse has been more with books than men. Be it so: look then to those teachers, those men of practical wisdom, whose converse has been with men at least as much as with books: look in particular to this right honourable, who in the House of Commons had doubled the twenty years’ lucubration necessary for law, who had served almost six apprenticeships, who in that office had served out five complete clerkships;—what says he? Self-regarding interest predominant over social interest?—self-regard predominant? No: but self-regard sole occupant: the universal interest, howsoever talked of, never so much as thought of—right and wrong, objects of avowed indifference.

Of the self-written Memoirs of Bubb Dodington, how much was said in their day!—of Gerard Hamilton’s Parliamentary Logic, how little! The reason is not unobvious: Dodington was all anecdote—Hamilton was all theory. What Hamilton endeavoured to teach with Malone and Johnson for his bag-bearers, Dodmgton was seen to practise.

Nor is the veil of decorum cast off anywhere from his practice. In Hamilton’s book for the first time has profligacy been seen stark naked. In the reign of Charles the Second, Sir Charles Sedley and others were indicted for exposing themselves in a balcony in a state of perfect nudity. In Gerard Hamilton may be seen the Sir Charles Sedley of political morality. Sedley might have stood in his balcony till he was frozen, and nobody the better, nobody much the worse: but Hamilton’s self-exposure is most instructive.

Of parliamentary reform were a man to say that it is good because Gerard Hamilton was averse to it, he would fall into the use of one of those fallacies against the influence of which it is one of the objects of the ensuing work to raise a barrier:

This however may be said, and said without fallacy, viz. that it is the influence exercised by such men, and the use to which such their influence is put by them, that constitutes no small part of the political disease which has produced the demand for parliamentary reform in the character of a remedy.

To such men it is as natural and necessary that parliamentary reform should be odious, as that Botany Bay or the Hulks should be odious to thieves and robbers.

Above all other species of business, the one which Gerard Hamilton was most apprehensive of his pupils not being sufficiently constant in the practice of, is misrepresentation. Under the name of action, thrice was gesticulation spoken of as the first accomplishment of his profession by the Athenian orator:

By Gerard Hamilton, in a collection of aphorisms 553 in number,—in about 40, vice is recommended without disguise; twelve times is misrepresentation, i. e. premeditated falsehood with or without a mask, recommended in the several forms of which it presented itself to him as susceptible; viz. in the way of false addition three times, in the way of false substitution twice, and in the way of omission seven times.

He was fearful of deceiving the only persons he meant not to deceive (viz. the pupils to whom he was teaching the art of deceiving others,) had he fallen into any such omission as that of omitting in the teaching of this lesson any instruction or example that might contribute to render them perfect in it.

Of a good cause as such—of every cause that is entitled to the appellation of a good cause, it is the characteristic property that it does not stand in need—of a bad cause, of every cause that is justly designated by the appellation of a bad cause, it is the characteristic property that it does stand in need—of assistance of this kind. Not merely indifference as between good and bad, but predilection for what is bad, is therefore the cast of mind betrayed, or rather displayed, by Gerard Hamilton. For the praise of intelligence and active talent—that is, for so much of it as constitutes the difference between what is to be earned by the advocation of good causes only, and that which is to be earned by the advocation of bad causes likewise—of bad causes in preference to good ones,—for this species and degree of praise it is, that Gerard Hamilton was content to forego the merit of probity—of sincerity as a branch of probity, and take to himself the substance as well as the shape and colour of the opposite vice.

This is the work which, having been fairly written out by the author,* and thence by the editor presumed to have been intended for the press, had been “shown by him to his friend Dr. Johnson.” This is the work which this same Dr. Johnson, if the editor is to be believed, “considered a very curious and masterly performance.” This is the work in which that pompous preacher of melancholy moralities saw, if the editor is to be believed, nothing to “object to,” but “the too great conciseness and refinement of some parts of it,” and the occasion it gave to “a wish that some of the precepts had been more opened and expanded.”

So far as concerns sincerity and candour in debate, the two friends indeed, even to judge of them from the evidence transmitted to us by their respective panegyrists, seem to have been worthy to smell at the same nosegay: and an “expansion and enlargement,” composed by the hand that suggested it, would beyond doubt have been a “very curious and masterly,” as well as amusing addition, to this “very curious and masterly performance.”

Two months before his death, when, if he himself is to be believed, ambition had in such a degree been extinguished in him by age and infirmities, that after near forty years of experience a seat in parliament was become an object of indifference to him,† —four years after he had been visited by a fit of the palsy,‡ —he was visited by a fit of virtue, and in the paroxysm of that fit hazarded an experiment, the object of which was to try whether, in a then approaching parliament, a seat might not be obtained without a complete sacrifice of independence. The experiment was not successful. From some Lord, whose name decorum has suppressed, he was, as his letter to his Lordship testified, “on the point of receiving” a seat; and the object of this letter was to learn whether, along with the seat, “the power of thinking for himself” might be included in the grant;—the question being accompanied with a request, that, in case of the negative, some other nominee might be the object of his Lordship’s “confidence.”

The request was inadmissible, and the confidence found some other object.

It is in the hope of substituting men to puppets, and the will of the people to the will of noble lords, puppets themselves to ministers or secret advisers, that parliamentary reform has of late become once more an object of general desire: but parliamentary reform was that sort of thing which “he would sooner,” he said, “suffer his hand to be cut off, than vote for:”* whether it was before or after the experiment that this magnanimity was displayed, the editor has not informed us.

The present which the world received in the publication of this work may on several accounts be justly termed a valuable one. The only cause of regret is, that the editor should, by the unqualified approbation and admiration bestowed upon it, have made the principles of the work as it were his own.

True it is, that where instruction is given showing how mischief may be done or aimed at,—whether it shall serve as a precept or a prohibition, depends in the upshot, upon the person on whom it operates with effect:

Many a dehortation, that not only has the effect of an exhortation, but was designed to have that effect;

Instructions how to administer poisons with success, may on the other hand have the effect of enabling a person who takes them up with an opposite view, to secure himself the more effectually against the attack of poisons;

But by the manner in which he writes, by the accessory ideas presented by the words in which the instruction is conveyed, there can seldom be much difficulty in comprehending in the delivery of his instructions whether the writer wishes that the suggestions conveyed by them should be embraced or rejected:

If occasionally there can be room for doubt in this respect, at any rate no room can there be for any in the case of Gerard Hamilton. As little can there be in the case of his editor and panegyrist: “Qui mihi discipulus puer es, cupis atque doceri, huc ades, hæc animo concipe dicta tuo:” The object or end in view is, on occasion of a debate in parliament—in a supreme legislative assembly—how to gain your point, whatever it be. The means indicated as conducive to that end are sometimes fair ones, sometimes foul ones; and be they fair or foul, they are throughout delivered with the same tone of seriousness and composure.

Come unto me all ye who have a point to gain, and I will show you how: bad or good, so as it be not parliamentary reform, to me it is matter of indifference.

Here, then, whatever be the influence of authority—authority in general, and that of the writer in particular—it is in the propagation of insincerity (of insincerity to be employed in the service it is most fit for, and in which it finds its richest reward) that throughout the whole course of this work, and under the name of Gerard Hamilton, not to speak of his editor and panegyrist, such authority exerts itself.

To secure their children from falling into the vice of drunkenness, it was the policy, we are told, of Spartan fathers, to exhibit their slaves in a state of inebriation, that the contempt might be felt to which a man stands exposed when the intellectual part of his frame has been thrown into the disordered state to which it is apt by this means to be reduced. An English father, if he has any regard for the morals of his son, and in particular for that vital part in which sincerity is concerned, will perhaps nowhere else find so instructive an example as Gerard Hamilton has rendered himself by this book: in that mirror may be seen to what a state of corruption the moral part of man’s frame is capable of being reduced—to what a state of degradation, in the present state of parliamentary morality, a man is capable of sinking even when sober, and without any help from wine; and with what deliberate zeal he may himself exert his powers in the endeavour to propagate the infection in other minds.

PART I.

FALLACIES OF AUTHORITY,

THE SUBJECT OF WHICH IS AUTHORITY IN VARIOUS SHAPES, AND THE OBJECT TO REPRESS ALL EXERCISE OF THE REASONING FACULTY.

With reference to any measures having for their object the greatest happiness of the greatest number, the course pursued by the adversaries of such measures has commonly been, in the first instance, to endeavour to repress altogether the exercise of the reasoning faculty, by adducing authority in various shapes as conclusive upon the subject of the measure proposed.

But before any clear view can be given of the deception liable to be produced by the abuse of the species of argument here in question, it will be necessary to bring to view the distinction between the proper and the improper use of it.

In the ensuing analysis of Authority, one distinction ought to be borne in mind;—it is the distinction between what may be termed a question of opinion, or quid faciendum; and what may be termed a question of fact, or quid factum. Since it will frequently happen, that whilst the authority of a person in respect to a question of fact is entitled to more or less regard, it is not so entitled in respect of a question of opinion.

[* ]Extract from the preface to Hamilton’s work:—

“He indeed considered politics as a kind of game, of which the stake or prize was the administration of the country. Hence he thought that those who conceived that one party were possessed of greater ability than their opponents, and were therefore fitter to fill the first offices in the state, might with great propriety adopt such measures (consistent with the constitution) as should tend to bring their friends into the administration of affairs, or to support them when invested with such power, without weighing in golden scales the particular parliamentary questions which should be brought forward for this purpose: as, on the other hand, they who had formed a higher estimate of the opposite party might with equal propriety adopt a similar conduct, and shape various questions for the purpose of showing the imbecility of those in power, and substituting an abler ministry, or one that they considered abler, in their room; looking on such occasions rather to the object of each motion than to the question itself. And in support of these positions, which, however short they may be of theoretical perfection, do not perhaps very widely differ (says Mr. Malone) from the actual state of things, he used to observe, that if any one would carefully examine all the questions which have been agitated in parliament from the time of the Revolution, he would be surprised to find how few could be pointed out in which an honest man might not conscientiously have voted on either side, however, by the force of rhetorical aggravation and the fervour of the times, they may have been represented to be of such high importance, that the very existence of the State depended on the result of the deliberation.

“Some questions, indeed, he acknowledged to be of a vital nature, of such magnitude, and so intimately connected with the safety and welfare of the whole community, that no inducement or friendly disposition to any party ought to have the smallest weight in the decision. One of these in his opinion was the proposition for a parliamentary reform, or in other words, for the new modelling the constitution of parliament; a measure which he considered of such moment, and of so dangerous a tendency, that he once said to a friend now living, that he would sooner suffer his right hand to be cut off than vote for it.”

[† ]“Yet, such was the warmth of his friend’s feelings, and with such constant pleasure did he reflect on the many happy days which they had spent together, that he not only in the first place obtained for him a permanent provision on the establishment of Ireland,a but, in addition to this proof of his regard and esteem, he never ceased, without any kind of solicitation, to watch over his interest with the most lively solicitude; constantly applying in person on his behalf to every new Lord Lieutenant, if he were acquainted with him; or if that were not the case, contriving by some circuitous means to procure Mr. Jephson’s re-appointment to the office originally conferred on him by Lord Townshend: and by these means chiefly he was continued for a long series of years under twelve successive governors of Ireland in the same station, which had always before been considered a temporary office.”—Parl. Log. 44.

[* ]See next page.

[* ]Extract from the preface to Hamilton’s work:—

“But in the treatise on Parliamentary Logic we have the fruit and result of the experience of one, who was by no means unconversant with law, and had himself sat in Parliament for more than forty years; who in the commencement of his political career burst forth like a meteor, and for a while obscured his contemporaries by the splendour of his eloquence; who was a most curious observer of the characteristic merits and defects of the distinguished speakers of his time; and who, though after his first effort he seldom engaged in public debate, devoted almost all his leisure and thoughts, during the long period above mentioned, to the examination and discussion of all the principal questions agitated in parliament, and of the several topics and modes of reasoning by which they were either supported or opposed.

“Hence the rules and precepts here accumulated, which are equally adapted to the use of the pleader and orator: nothing vague, or loose, or general,a is delivered; and the most minute particularities and artful turns of debate are noticed with admirable acuteness, subtilty, and precision. The work, therefore, is filled with practical axioms, and parliamentary and forensic wisdom, and cannot but be of perpetual use to all those persons who may have occasion to use their discursive talents within or without the doors of the House of Commons, in conversation at the bar, or in parliament.

“This tract was fairly written out by the author, and therefore may be presumed to have been intended by him for the press. He had shown it to his friend Dr. Johnson, who considered it a very curious and masterly performance.”

[† ]Page 26.

[‡ ]Page 14.

[* ]Page xxxvii.

[† ]“Yet, such was the warmth of his friend’s feelings, and with such constant pleasure did he reflect on the many happy days which they had spent together, that he not only in the first place obtained for him a permanent provision on the establishment of Ireland,a but, in addition to this proof of his regard and esteem, he never ceased, without any kind of solicitation, to watch over his interest with the most lively solicitude; constantly applying in person on his behalf to every new Lord Lieutenant, if he were acquainted with him; or if that were not the case, contriving by some circuitous means to procure Mr. Jephson’s re-appointment to the office originally conferred on him by Lord Townshend: and by these means chiefly he was continued for a long series of years under twelve successive governors of Ireland in the same station, which had always before been considered a temporary office.”—Parl. Log. 44.

[* ]Extract from the preface to Hamilton’s work:—

“But in the treatise on Parliamentary Logic we have the fruit and result of the experience of one, who was by no means unconversant with law, and had himself sat in Parliament for more than forty years; who in the commencement of his political career burst forth like a meteor, and for a while obscured his contemporaries by the splendour of his eloquence; who was a most curious observer of the characteristic merits and defects of the distinguished speakers of his time; and who, though after his first effort he seldom engaged in public debate, devoted almost all his leisure and thoughts, during the long period above mentioned, to the examination and discussion of all the principal questions agitated in parliament, and of the several topics and modes of reasoning by which they were either supported or opposed.

“Hence the rules and precepts here accumulated, which are equally adapted to the use of the pleader and orator: nothing vague, or loose, or general,a is delivered; and the most minute particularities and artful turns of debate are noticed with admirable acuteness, subtilty, and precision. The work, therefore, is filled with practical axioms, and parliamentary and forensic wisdom, and cannot but be of perpetual use to all those persons who may have occasion to use their discursive talents within or without the doors of the House of Commons, in conversation at the bar, or in parliament.

“This tract was fairly written out by the author, and therefore may be presumed to have been intended by him for the press. He had shown it to his friend Dr. Johnson, who considered it a very curious and masterly performance.”

[a]Note by Editor Malone:—“A pension of £300 a-year, which the Duke of Rutland during his government, from personal regard and a high admiration of Mr. Jephson’s talents, increased to £600 per annum for the joint lives of himself and Mrs. Jephson. He survived our author but a few years, dying at his house at Black Rock, near Dublin, of a paralytic disorder, May 31, 1803, in his sixty-seventh year.”Note.—That not content with editing, and, in this way, recommending in the lump these principles of his friend and countryman, Malone takes up particular aphorisms, and applies his mind to the elucidation of them. This may be seen exemplified in Aphorisms 243, 249.

[a]For “nothing,” read “the greatest part.”—J. B.