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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Section 12.: On the part of a ruler, willingness or unwillingness to see established an all-comprehensive code, with its rationale as above, and to receive original draughts from all hands, are among the most conclusive tests of appropriate aptitude, - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4

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Section 12.: On the part of a ruler, willingness or unwillingness to see established an all-comprehensive code, with its rationale as above, and to receive original draughts from all hands, are among the most conclusive tests of appropriate aptitude, - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4 [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. 4.

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

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Section 12.

On the part of a ruler, willingness or unwillingness to see established an all-comprehensive code, with its rationale as above, and to receive original draughts from all hands, are among the most conclusive tests of appropriate aptitude, in relation to such his situation. Willingness, as to rationale and universal admission, legislator’s test.

That which, in a less pointed manner, has been applied to the situation of proposed draughtsman, will be seen to apply, in a more pointed manner, to the situation of actual legislator.

Whence comes it, then, that in the Anglo-American United States—whence comes it that, under the only form of government which ever had, or ever could have had, for its end in view, the greatest happiness of the greatest number,—the constituted authorities have been so generally, though happily not universally, shrinking from this test? The answer shall be given in the words of two of them. See Testimonials. VII. 1 & 2.

What the sacrifice is that is involved in the endurance of this test cannot have passed unobserved. How much easier any such sacrifice is to propose than to bear a part in, must have been alike manifest. But—the greater the difficulty, the greater the glory: the greater the difficulty, the smaller the number of those, whose magnanimity enables them to surmount it, and the more exalted that virtue, to the embrace of which so few will be able to aspire.

PART II.—TESTIMONIALS.