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SECTION VI.: MEANS, &C. CONTINUED.—III. ELECTIONS FREQUENT—ANNUAL. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 3 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 3.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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SECTION VI.

MEANS, &C. CONTINUED.—III. ELECTIONS FREQUENT—ANNUAL.

Question 17. The proposed frequent renewal of elections,—to which of the above ends does it promise to be conducive?

Answer. To all three: and in the first place to probity.

Question 18. In what way?

Answer. In divers ways:—

1. On the part of each member taken individually: viz. in case of transgression, by the prospect of eventual exclusion; and that speedy, to wit, at the next election—at furthest within a twelvemonth:

2. On the part of the whole House, taken collectively: viz. by reducing, to so small a quantity, the length of sinister service which it would be in the power of the king or his ministers to purchase at the hands of any one member: and increasing at the same time the number of such lengths of service, as, ere they could secure the commencement or continuance of any sinister course of government, they would find themselves under the continually recurring necessity of purchasing, out of the whole number of members.

3. By reducing, in so great a degree, whatever inducement a candidate would have, on the occasion of a contest, to launch out into any such expense, as, by straitening his circumstances, might, in the hope of obtaining an indemnification, engage him to place himself in a state of dependence on the king, or this or that set of ministers: whether ministers in possession or ministers in expectancy, making in this respect no difference.

Question 19. In what way does this means promise to be conducive to intellectual aptitude and active talent?

Answer. By perpetually holding up to the view of each successful candidate, now become a member, the near prospect of a fresh election, on the occasion of which it may happen to his constituents to have the choice of the same or any additional number of rival candidates: for all whom the encouragement will be greater and greater, in proportion as, on his part, any feature of unfitness, absolute or comparative, has, in either of these two shapes, been manifested; viz. whether by discourses indicative of ignorance or weakness, by constant silence and inactivity, or by absentation or slackness of attendance.*

[* ]The shorter the man’s continuance in the situation, the less the temptation to himself, his agents, and his friends, to spread false reports for the purpose of his obtaining it: false facts tending to prove on his part aptitude, or on the part of this or that rival inaptitude. For an additional chance of a possession not so long as a year, scarcely could it be worth a man’s while to expose himself to lasting infamy.—MS. note in Bentham’s copy.