# The Colle ct e d W o r k s o f Jeremy Ben t h a m

The Colle

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Corresponden

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volume 4

W o r k s o f

Jeremy Ben

The first five volumes of *The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham* contain over 1,300 letters written both to and from Bentham over a 50-year period, beginning in 1752 (aged three) with his earliest surviving letter to his grandmother, and ending in 1797 with correspondence concerning his attempts to set up a national scheme for the provision of poor relief. Against the background of the debates on the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789, to which he made significant contributions, Bentham worked first on producing a complete penal code, which involved him in detailed explorations of fundamental legal ideas, and then on his panopticon prison scheme. Despite developing a host of original and ground-breaking ideas, contained in a mass of manuscripts, he published little during these years, and remained, at the close of this period, a relatively obscure individual. Nevertheless, these volumes reveal how the foundations were laid for the remarkable rise of Benthamite utilitarianism in the early nineteenth century. In 1789 Bentham published *An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation*, which remains his most famous work, but which had little impact at the time, followed in 1791 by *The Panopticon: or, The Inspection-House,* in which he proposed the building of a circular penitentiary house. Bentham's correspondence unfolds against the backdrop of the increasingly violent French Revolution, and shows his initial sympathy for France turning into hostility.

**Alexander Taylor Milne** (1906–1994), scholar and historian, was Secretary and Librarian of the Institute of Historical Research,

**General editor: J.R. Dinwiddy** (1939–90), historian, was educated at New College, Oxford, before being appointed successively as Lecturer 1969–78, Senior Lecturer 1978–83, Reader 1983–9, and Professor 1989–90 in the Department of History, Royal Holloway College, University of London. In 1977 he was appointed as second General Editor of *The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham,* a post he held jointly with Professor Burns

> Cover design: Rawshock design £45.00

until the following year, and then solely until 1983.

Free open access versions available from www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press

University of London.

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# Correspondence

t h e

Jeremy Bentham

volume 4

Oct o b e r 1 7 8 8 t o D e c e m b er 1793

**Edit e d by Al e x a n d e r Ta ylor Miln e**

### the collected works of jeremy bentham

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*General Editor* J. R. Dinwiddy

Correspondence Volume 4

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*The* CORRESPONDENCE *of* JEREMY BENTHAM

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Volume 4 October 1788 to December 1793

*edited by* ALEXANDER TAYLOR MILNE

This edition published in 2017 by UCL Press University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT

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First published in 1981 by The Athlone Press, University of London

Available to download free: www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press

Text © The Bentham Committee, UCL

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library.

This book is published under a Creative Commons 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:

Alexander Taylor Milne (ed.), *The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham*, Vol.4: October 1788 to December 1793. *The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham*. Edited by J.R. Dinwiddy. London, UCL Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781911576150

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ISBN: 978–1–911576–17–4 (Hbk.) ISBN: 978–1–911576–16–7 (Pbk.) ISBN: 978–1–911576–15–0 (PDF) ISBN: 978–1–911576–18–1 (epub) ISBN: 978–1–911576–19–8 (mobi) ISBN: 978–1–911576–20–4 (html) DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781911576150

## PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION OF VOLUME 4

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The fourth volume of Jeremy Bentham's *Correspondence* was originally published, together with the fifth volume, in 1981, under the editorship of the late Alexander Taylor Milne and the General Editorship of the late J.R. Dinwiddy. The *Correspondence* volumes represent the 'backbone', so to speak, of the authoritative edition of *The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham*, giving scholars the orientation that enables them to begin to make sense of Bentham's published works and the vast collection of his unpublished papers, consisting of around 60,000 folios in UCL Library and 12,500 folios in the British Library.

The present volume has been attractively re-keyed in a typeface that is sympathetic to the original design, and crucially the exact pagination of the original volume has been retained, so that referencing remains stable. The opportunity has been taken to incorporate corrections identified by the Bentham Project. Professor Emmanuelle de Champs (University of Cergy-Pontoise) has kindly checked the accuracy of the reproduction of the French material according to the conventions currently adopted in the edition as a whole.

The letters in the present volume, which opens on the brink of the French Revolution and closes with Britain embroiled in war with Revolutionary France, represent a rich and diverse period in Bentham's life. The French Revolution provided him with an opportunity, as he saw it, to influence the reconstruction of the French state. He drew on his knowledge of English political and constitutional practice, together with the theoretical insights he had developed in his own work, in order to offer advice to the French as to how they might achieve peaceful constitutional reform. He offered a series of innovative solutions, including instructions on how to organize a political assembly, recommendations for a constitutional settlement, and a scheme for the detailed reform of the judicial system.

Two volumes of Bentham's writings on the French Revolution have appeared in the *Collected Works*. *Political Tactics*, edited by Michael James, Cyprian Blamires, and Catherine Pease-Watkin, published in 1999, was composed for the Estates-General prior to the outbreak of the Revolution and contains advice on how to organize a legislative assembly, both in terms of the physical space it occupied, its formal

#### Preface to the new edition PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION

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procedures, and its relationship with the people it represented. *Rights, Representation, and Reform: Nonsense upon Stilts and other Writings on the French Revolution*, edited by Philip Schofield, Catherine Pease-Watkin, and Cyprian Blamires, published in 2002, contains the earliest utilitarian justification of political equality and representative democracy (including the advocacy of female suffrage three years before Mary Wollstonecraft began to write her *Vindication of the Rights of Women*). In the meantime, in April 1789 Bentham had finally published what has become his best-known work, *An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation*, which had been printed in 1780, although it had little impact at the time.

Very little heed appears to have been taken of Bentham's work in France, though the National Assembly did elect him as an honorary citizen of France in 1792 in recognition of his efforts. By this time, however, Bentham had become disenchanted with the turn of events in France, being particularly affected by the stoning to death of the Duc de La Rochefoucauld in the September Massacres of 1792. War with Revolutionary France commenced on 1 February 1793, and would continue, with only two short breaks, until Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815.

In the mid-1790s, like many of his fellow countrymen who were alarmed by developments in France, Bentham came to the view that political reform should be avoided. He devoted his energies to promoting a variety of schemes that he hoped would address problems being faced by the British state. Foremost amongst these was his panopticon prison scheme. In 1790 he began to advocate the building of a panopticon prison in Dublin, and his explanatory essay on the subject, *Panopticon: or, The Inspection-House*, appeared early in 1791. He opened negotiations with William Pitt's administration to build a panopticon in London, and also had hopes of establishing one in Edinburgh and even in Paris. The panopticon project was very much intended as a joint venture with his younger brother Samuel, who had returned from Russia in 1791 with a Russian knighthood in recognition of his military service at Ochakov in 1788.

A significant personal development for Bentham was his meeting in 1788 with the Genevan Etienne Dumont, who later produced five French recensions of Bentham's writings, the first being *Traités de législation civile et pénale* in 1802, and thereby establishing Bentham's reputation as a philosopher and jurist. Dumont had arrived in England in 1786, having been appointed as tutor to the son of the Marquis of Lansdowne, with whom Bentham remained on intimate terms during vi

these years. Finally, the death of his father Jeremiah in March 1792 put Bentham in possession not only of significant financial resources, but of the large house in Queen's Square Place, Westminster, which became his principal residence for the remainder of his life.

> Philip Schofield General Editor of *The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham* UCL, March 2017

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### PREFACE

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The thanks of the Bentham Committee are due to the following persons and institutions for access to and permission to print Mss. in their possession, as well as for assistance afforded to the General Editor and to the editor of this volume: the British Library Board, the British Museum; the Keeper of the Public Records, the Public Record Office; the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland; the Keeper of the Records of Scotland, the Scottish Record Office; the Librarian, University College London; Bodley's Librarian, the Bodleian Library, Oxford; M. le Bibliothécaire, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève; the Provost and Fellows of King's College, Cambridge; the County Archivist, Cornwall County Record Office, Truro; the County Archivist, Devon County Record Office, Taunton; the County Archivist, Kent Record Office, Maidstone; the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine; the Librarian, American Philosophical Society; the Librarian, Columbia University, New York; the Librarian, the Free Library of Philadelphia; the Librarian, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California; the Librarian, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Keeper of the Hyde Collection, Four Oaks Farm, Somerville, New Jersey; the Librarian, New York Public Library; the Librarian, Yale University; the Most Hon. the Marquess of Lansdowne and his son, the Right Hon. the Earl of Shelburne; the Right Hon. the Earl Spencer; Col. Sir John G. Carew Pole, Bt., of Antony House, Torpoint, Cornwall, the Right Hon. the Baron Congleton; Sir John Eden, Bt.; Sir Edward Hoare, Bt.; the Right Hon. the Earl Stanhope; Mr D. R. Bentham.

The grateful acknowledgements of the Committee are also due to the following bodies for financial assistance towards the cost of the editorial work on these volumes: the Pilgrim Trust, the British Academy and the Social Sciences Research Council. A substantial advance from the Provost and Council of University College London and a generous loan from the Friends of University College London provided the funds required for the volumes to be put into print.

Four editorial assistants in succession gave valuable help in copying from manuscripts, checking typed transcripts and collecting information for footnotes: Miss Judith Stafford (now Mrs T. Le Goff), Dr Michael Harris, Dr Ivon Asquith and, in the latest stages,

#### PREFACE

Dr Martin Smith, who shared in the labour of checking the proofs. The editor is most grateful to all of them and also to the ladies who produced the typescripts, particularly to Mrs Audrey Munro who did most of this exacting work. The General Editors, Professor J. H. Burns and his successor, Dr J. R. Dinwiddy, not only kept watchful eyes on the whole enterprise but identified obscure allusions and made suggestions which explained some of Bentham's cryptic remarks. Other colleagues in the University cleared up special problems, notably Professor D. W. J. Johnson, who obtained from Paris copies of French material; Dr Alice Carter, who enlisted the aid of the Netherlands History Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in tracing Dutch references; and Dr Isabel de Madariaga, who identified from Russian sources two individuals mentioned in the first letter from Samuel Bentham to his brother in volume 4. Professor C. L. Drage of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, again provided translations of passages written in Russian, which were very few in these volumes. To those mentioned and to the many other scholars who willingly gave answers to individual queries, the editor is deeply grateful.

*University College London* A. T. M.

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### CONTENTS


### LIST OF LETTERS IN VOLUME 4



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### 1 . T h e L e t t e r s

More than three-quarters of the letters included in this volume and in volume 5 of the *Correspondence* have not been published in full before. The place where nearly all of the others were previously printed, either in part or in full, was Sir John Bowring's 'Memoirs of Jeremy Bentham, including autobiographical conversations and correspondence', contained in volume x and xi of his edition of *The Works of Jeremy Bentham* (11 volumes, 1843). Wherever possible the present text has been taken from original manuscripts, either the autograph letter itself, when it has survived, or a copy made by Bentham himself or one of his secretaries, or (during the years 1788–92) by his father, Jeremiah. A considerable proportion of Bentham's own letters, here printed for the first time, are preserved only in autograph drafts, which are not even fair copies. In such cases variant readings, insertions and other changes of mind by the writer have been indicated in footnotes. Crossed-out passages, which are very numerous in some drafts, have not been reproduced. The inadequacy of Bowring's editing is again revealed by many letters of which the original has survived: his omissions, misreadings and other discrepancies have been noted where it seemed desirable. Unfortunately there are nearly one hundred letters included in these two volumes for which Bowring's printed version is the only one we have. This is particularly the case with much of the personal correspondence between Bentham and 'the ladies of Bowood'—Caroline Fox, Caroline Maria Vernon and her sister, Elizabeth Vernon. Bowring quotes a number of letters addressed to them, either collectively or individually, often without giving any date. Most of the letters sent to these ladies by Bentham belong to the years 1789–92, after which his friendship with the Marquis of Lansdowne became less intimate and he seldom visited Bowood in Wiltshire or Lansdowne House in London, although he remained on good terms with the Marquis. After Lord Lansdowne lost his second wife in August 1789, the 'reports' about her bereaved brother-in-law which Bentham made to Caroline Vernon during the autumn and early winter of that year survive only in draft form among the Bentham manuscripts at University College London. It would seem from headings, deletions and other indications that Bowring had

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intended to include these 'reports' in the correspondence he printed but thought better of it, probably because one of the ladies concerned, Caroline Fox, was still alive, and the other two only recently dead. It is certain that the 'reports' were actually sent, because acknowledgements in reply are mentioned by Bentham; but the final versions of these and other letters to the ladies would seem to have been discreetly destroyed, except for an innocuous fragment of one giving instructions to Caroline Fox about playing a piece of music, preserved among the Holland House papers in the British Library.

As in volume 3 of the *Correspondence* the main manuscript sources for the letters printed in volumes 4 and 5 are the two large collections of Bentham papers in the library of University College London, and in the Department of Manuscripts in what is now called the British Library in the British Museum. As explained in earlier volumes, the former of these collections came into the hands of Bowring as Bentham's literary executor and were deposited by him at the College in 1849. The second collection came to the British Museum by purchase from the botanist, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, who had received them from his friend, George Bentham, nephew of Jeremy.

There are a number of autograph letters from Bentham's patron and friend, the first Marquis of Lansdowne, among the Bentham collection in the British Library, sometimes with copies of Bentham's replies. The latter can in some cases be compared with the final version among the Lansdowne Mss. at Bowood, where there is, for instance, the original of the exceedingly long letter of protest concerning his political ambitions, that Bentham wrote to the Marquis on 24 August 1790. As in other instances, Bowring had only an imperfect copy of this letter to work on for his printed version, which varies in several places from the actual letter sent. Other collections to which such observations apply are the Pole Carew Mss. at Antony, Cornwall, and the Spencer Mss. at Althorp, which have in several cases enabled original letters and drafts to be checked against one another.

Another valuable source here used for the first time is the Dumont collection in Geneva. Bentham got to know the Swiss scholar and reformer, Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont (1759–1829) late in 1788, through their mutual friend, Samuel Romilly, and the patron of all three, Lord Lansdowne. During the following years there developed with Dumont a collaboration which was to make Bentham's name better known on the continent of Europe than in

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Britain. The Dumont Collection in Geneva contains a series of Bentham's letters to him, while many of Etienne Dumont's letters to Jeremy are preserved among the Bentham papers in the British Library.

Acknowledgements to owners or custodians of these and other manuscript collections which have yielded correspondence are made in the Preface above. All known letters of Bentham belonging to this period (1788–97) have been printed in full, if texts exist, or quoted from Bowring when his extracts are all that seem to survive. Similarly, almost all letters to Bentham have been printed, the only exceptions being two long ones written on his travels by Lord Wycombe, the elder son of the first Marquis of Lansdowne, which are merely quoted as they add little to knowledge of Bentham and his circle.

The correspondence between Bentham and his brother, Samuel, especially after the latter's return from Russia in the Spring of 1791, adds much concerning aspects of the personal story: their joint efforts in the Panopticon penitentiary scheme; the death of their father in March 1792, which put Jeremy into possession of Queen's Square Place, Westminster, and provided both brothers with money for their various projects; Samuel's increasing concern with the improvement of English dockyards and warships, leading to his appointment as inspector-general of naval works in 1795; the awkward coincidence that the second earl Spencer had become Samuel's superior, as First Lord of the Admiralty, just at the time when the earl was resisting Jeremy's efforts to secure a site for the Panopticon penitentiary on land belonging to the Spencer family; and much else involving both brothers. In June 1794 an unidentified lady, referred to a dozen times as 'Puss', makes her first appearance in the correspondence between the brothers. Two years later, notwithstanding this person whom Jeremy calls the 'old idol', Samuel got married to Mary Sophia Fordyce, the elder daughter of a family friend, Dr George Fordyce, with consequent adjustments at Queen's Square Place. After the marriage of Samuel in October 1796 there is no surviving correspondence between the brothers in the following year, during most of which they were living *en famille* in London, or at close quarters. A new correspondent is Arthur Young, with whose interest in population, the plight of agricultural workers and poor relief in general Bentham became concerned from 1795 onwards.

The negotiations about various sites in the London area for the proposed Panopticon penitentiary dragged on with a succession of

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hostile or reluctant landlords, doubtful government ministers and procrastinating officials. A gleam of hope appeared before the end of 1797 with the appointment of Charles Abbot, step-brother of the Benthams, as chairman of a Finance Committee set up by the House of Commons, with wide terms of reference. To this committee the Panopticon project was to be referred in the following year.

As indicated in the Chronology which follows the correspondence enables one to trace the considerable literary output of Bentham during this decade. From 1789 to 1793 his attempts to advise successive French governments concerning procedural, legal and administrative problems presented by the Revolution of 1789 resulted in several published works and much other writing which did not get either printed or published until many years later. Very little notice was taken of this advice, but in 1792 he was made an honorary citizen of France, in company with several other British reformers, including William Wilberforce. On the strength of this honour Bentham seriously suggested, during a dark period of the war between Great Britain and the French Republic, that he and Wilberforce might go to Paris as peace emissaries in 1796.

Perhaps because it appeared on the eve of the French Revolution, Bentham's major work of the period, *An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,* first published in April 1789, though put into print ten years before, made little impression outside his own small circle. Much more successful was the *Defence of Usury,* a second edition of which was called for in 1789, after a pirated version had appeared in Ireland. It was in that country that another work, written several years before, was first issued in 1790: *Panopticon, or the Inspection House.* The idea of a novel sort of penitentiary, in preference to transportation for criminals, was enthusiastically taken up by Sir John Parnell, the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, with whom Bentham conducted a vigorous, but in the end ineffectual, correspondence in 1790 and 1791. Ireland was used on several other occasions as a sounding-board for Bentham's ideas: some of his earliest writing on finance was originally published there in the 1790's, notably *A Protest against Law Taxes* (Dublin, 1793).

Bentham's notion, in his old age, that King George III was the real opponent of his Panopticon prison scheme, when it was proposed for England, finds no support in the correspondence of this time. Neither does his conclusion that the supposed personal hostility of the monarch was the result of Bentham's attack on the

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foreign policy of the government in the 'Anti-Machiavel Letters' which he contributed to the *Public Advertiser* in May and June 1789. Among several other newspaper articles by Bentham mentioned in the correspondence is one opposing slavery in the same journal. He supported William Wilberforce in this and other campaigns, including that for reforming the poor laws. An invitation from Sir John Sinclair and exchanges of letters with Arthur Young resulted in a series of articles on 'The Situation and Relief of the Poor' in the *Annals of Agriculture* during 1797 and 1798. At the same time Bentham's dislike of Pitt's Poor Law Bill of 1795–6 led on to numerous draft 'Essays' on the subject, copies of which were circulated to a number of friends for their comments. Like so much of his prolific writing at this time most of these 'Essays on the Poor Law' did not get printed until many years later. His translator and editor, Etienne Dumont, was, however, beginning to get Bentham's name more widely known abroad in the new Genevan journal, *Bibliothèque britannique,* which carried a series of extracts from his published and unpublished writings in 1797 and 1798.

### 2. Out l in e o f Be n t h a m ' <sup>s</sup> Lif e, Oc t o b e r 1788 t o De c e m b e r 1797

**1788** During the later part of the year 1788 Jeremy Bentham was spending most of his time at the farmhouse, near the village of Hendon in Middlesex, which was to be his usual residence until he came into possession of Queen's Square Place, Westminster, on the death of his father in March 1792. 'Dollis's' farm was alongside the Dollis Brook, flowing between the parishes of Hendon and Finchley. It consisted of some 69 acres at the foot of Holder's Hill and Bittacy Hill. The farmhouse was pulled down in 1932 and the land is now covered with shops and small suburban residences, except for a small part in Hendon cemetery. On 16 March 1789 Jeremy's father, Jeremiah Bentham, wrote to his younger son, Samuel, who was still in Russia, 'Your brother passes his time being wholly taken up in writing in the same sequestered and retired manner he lived in while with you, at Hendon in Middlesex about 7 miles from Town, where he has an Appartment in a Farm House belonging to a Tenant of Mr. Brown's, and where he lives perfectly in his own way and dines at his own time, and is secure from interruption of every kind, and where he intends to continue I believe for some time, as he finds he can be provided with all manner of Eatables and just as he likes without the least trouble to himself.' Even after he took up residence at Queen's Square Place in May 1792, Jeremy made frequent visits

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to Hendon and often spent weeks at a time in the farmhouse in order to get on with his studies and writing.

The news that the French government had decided to call a meeting of the Estates-General in the following May stimulated Bentham to a renewed interest in French affairs and by the end of November 1788 he had drafted in French two pamphlets, one in the form of an open letter to Mirabeau, criticising what he termed the attempt 'to saddle the nation with a Parliament similar to that of 1614', the second his 'Observations' on a French publication entitled *Arrête de la noblesse de Bretagne.* The preparation of this second pamphlet was the start of his lifelong friendship and collaboration with Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont, who signed himself 'Etienne Dumont' and was always so-called. It was through Samuel Romilly, the future law reformer, with whom Bentham had been acquainted since 1784, that Dumont was asked to check the French in which the pamphlet had been written. Bentham took his criticisms in good part and sent over to a publisher in Paris the corrected version.

**1789** In February 1789, when Lord Wycombe, the son of the marquis of Lansdowne by his first wife, was visiting France, Bentham seized the opportunity to send the first part of an 'Essay on political tactics' to Madame Necker, whose husband was again at the head of the French government, and to the influential Abbé Morellet, an old friend of the Lansdownes. Neither approach proved effective. The Neckers merely made polite acknowledgements, and Morellet was not able to get back from Mirabeau the unused 'open letter' Bentham had sent him, nor could he secure the translation and publication of the essay on political tactics—hardly surprising at a time when scores of *brochures* were appearing in France, including several by the Abbé himself.

Meanwhile, urged on by George Wilson and other friends, Bentham had decided to publish *An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,* which had been in print for ten years and to which he added only a 'Concluding Note', when it was published in April 1789. Etienne Dumont had by this time renewed acquaintance with Mirabeau in Paris and had joined the *atelier* which provided material for his speeches and publications. Early in June Bentham was telling Dumont that other affairs, private and public, were preventing him from continuing the 'Essay on political tactics', parts of which had been printed in England. The reference to public affairs was to Bentham's 'Letters of Anti-Machiavel', contributed

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to *The Public Advertiser* during May and June. They attacked the unfriendly attitude of Pitt's administration towards Russia, and George Wilson may have been alluding to them on 5 July when he congratulated Bentham on the 'Victory of the Commons' in a debate which caused the government to change its foreign policy.

Bentham was never on more intimate terms with the Lansdowne family than during this year. He was much concerned about what proved to be the fatal illness of Lady Lansdowne, and he would probably have accepted, if the project had not been called off, an invitation in January to accompany the marquis, Lady Lansdowne and her half-sister Caroline Vernon, on a health-seeking voyage to Lisbon. Bentham dined frequently at Lansdowne House in London, but proposals to revisit Bowood had to be postponed, in the event, until after the death of Lady Lansdowne in August. From among all his friends the marquis chose Bentham to be with him during the first few months after his bereavement. In September Bentham travelled to Warwick Castle by way of Worcester, with Lord Lansdowne, accompanied by the ladies of Bowood: Caroline Vernon, her sister Elizabeth, and her niece, Caroline Fox. While they remained at the castle with Lady Warwick, a sister of the Vernons, Bentham accompanied the marquis back to London, and until mid-November made a series of 'reports' to the ladies, more particularly Caroline Vernon, on how Lord Lansdowne was faring. Incidentally these 'reports' reveal Benthams' efforts to get on a more familiar footing with the ladies themselves. In December he was back at the farm in Hendon, coming up to London on occasion, for instance to sit for the portrait, by an unknown painter, which is reproduced as the frontispiece of this volume.

**1790** There are few letters surviving from the earlier part of the year, and quotations by Bowring from several written to the ladies of Bowood at the time are undated and difficult to place. Bentham seems to have visited the Wiltshire mansion early in the spring, but he was at Hendon at the beginning of April when he addressed a letter to the President of the National Assembly, sent with 100 copies of a translation into French of the first part of his *Draught of a New Plan for the Organisation of the Judicial Establishment in France.* The letter was printed in the *Journal de Paris,* and instalments of the *Draught* appeared in Mirabeau's *Courrier de Provence* during March, April and May. Dumont, who had returned to England in March, translated the instalments as Bentham wrote them, the two men working in adjacent rooms at Lansdowne House,

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with the marquis supervising. Every effort was made to get the work noticed in France. Lord Lansdowne wrote strongly in its support to the Duc de La Rochefoucauld, who was still influential; and the Gautiers, friends of Samuel Romilly in Paris, were also used as a channel of communication. On 3 May Bentham asked Dumont to find out through Jacques Antoine Du Roveray, another member of Mirabeau's *atelier,* whether any notice had been taken of his letter to the President of the National Assembly. The answer eventually received was that the proposals in the *Draught* had been referred to the judicial committee, without noticeable results.

Disappointed in France, Bentham turned his attention to Ireland, where the problem of dealing with convicts, no longer transportable to America, was exercising the government. Once again through the good offices of Lansdowne he was able during the summer to take up with Sir John Parnell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland, the idea of a Panopticon penitentiary in that country as an alternative to transportation to Botany Bay. A considerable correspondence followed, of which unfortunately only drafts of Bentham's letters and memoranda survive, together with a few of Parnell's replies. Arrangements were made for publishing in Ireland the explanatory work: *Panopticon, or the Inspection House,* much of which had been written years before. By the end of the year it was being printed in two parts, while separate postscripts were in preparation. The architect, Willey Reveley, was engaged in September to draw plans illustrating the work, and correspondence with him and about him continues into the year 1791.

Before he became immersed in the Panopticon project Bentham sought an understanding with Lord Lansdowne about his own political prospects. The inordinately long letter of 26 August 1790 complained that men of inferior ability were being 'brought in' to the House of Commons as members of Parliament for pocket boroughs controlled by the marquis, while nothing was being done for Bentham. Lansdowne replied immediately, expressing surprise at the unsuspected political ambitions of his client and promising to use the next opportunity of satisfying them. The friendly tone of this letter and a subsequent one in October seems to have completely reconciled Bentham and no more is heard on the subject, except a remark in a letter to his brother on 6 December that, the Panopticon idea having been taken up by the government of Ireland, 'Lord L. thinks he has persuaded them that I am necessary to them and that they must bring me into parliament there; and he is strenuous with me to go over there upon those terms ...'

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**1791** At the beginning of the year Bentham started the prolonged negotiations with the British government on a Panopticon penitentiary scheme for England. In his letter of 26 January, addressed to William Pitt, the prime minister, he drew attention to the Irish proposals and offered his services as organiser and manager of a new kind of prison on the banks of the Thames as a substitute for the notorious 'hulks'. Copies of the explanatory work, *Panopticon: or, The Inspection-House,* printed in Ireland and reprinted in England, were sent not only to Pitt but to other ministers and friendly members of parliament like Sir Charles Bunbury and Reginald Pole Carew. Bentham did not expect the matter to be taken up immediately in England and he pressed on with the Irish project. By May, however, it was clear that the parliament in Dublin was not going to act on it that session. He was not without hopes that something similar might be achieved in Scotland, since Robert Adam had been asked to design a new Bridewell in Edinburgh and was attracted by the Panopticon idea. The two men were put in touch with one another by Pole Carew, and during May Bentham was suggesting to the Scottish author, James Anderson, that he might tender for the prison contract in Edinburgh and was even sending him details of the equipment required. Anderson was not persuaded and Robert Adam died in March the following year, leaving his brother, James, to carry out the plans for the prison in the Scottish capital, which he did in a much modified form.

Throughout the year Bentham continued to use Dollis farm as his headquarters, residing with William Browne, the family friend and solicitor, at his house in Bedford Row, Bloomsbury, during occasional visits to London. The return of his brother Samuel from Russia at the end of May made it convenient for both of them to have their own lodgings in town, and in December they began to rent apartments at 2 Dover Street, Piccadilly. As the originator of the 'inspection house' principle, which he had tried out for industrial buildings in Russia, Samuel for the moment encouraged his brother's Panopticon penitentiary scheme. After a few weeks in London Samuel went on an excursion into the west country, and it was planned that Jeremy should join him during the summer at Antony House, Cornwall, the home of their friend, Pole Carew. Bentham's pre-occupation with postscripts to the *Panopticon* book kept him in London and the 'Panopticon Table' was eventually sent down to Cornwall for the comments of Samuel and Pole Carew.

The brothers had a warm invitation to visit Bowood, but it was not until towards the end of the year that Bentham was able to

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accept. Meanwhile his parents, the ailing Jeremiah Bentham and his second wife, breakfasted with Lord Lansdowne at the Wiltshire mansion on the way back from Bath to London early in October. During that month Bentham was making a fresh attempt to interest the French government in his proposals for reform. Encouraged by a reference in the National Assembly to his *Draught of a new Plan for the Organisation of the Judicial Establishment in France* he drew up an address, which Dumont translated into French, once more offering his services. It was sent to Jean Philippe Garran-de-Coulon, to whom he wrote again in November, sending a summary in French of the Panopticon volumes, followed by the volumes themselves. Garran-de-Coulon reported to the Assembly that Bentham was willing to come to France, if it were decided to construct a prison according to his plans, and to manage such an establishment himself. The question was referred to the Comité de Legislation, while Garran-de-Coulon arranged for the translation of the Panopticon volumes into French.

At the end of November Bentham wrote to William Pitt reminding him of the proposals for a penitentiary in England which he had made to the prime minister more than ten months before. No written reply was forthcoming and at the end of the year all the other Panopticon projects were in abeyance in France, in Scotland and in Ireland. On 20 December Bentham told Lord Lansdowne that 'a smooth-faced, smirking Major' (Robert Hobart, the Irish Secretary) had been to see him at number 2 Dover Street, professing personal sympathy with the Panopticon project for Ireland and regretting 'the immobility of the still higher powers'.

**1792** Sometime in January it would seem that Bentham received a rebuff from the ladies of Bowood, when he tried to call at the Vernon residence in Albemarle Street, Piccadilly, and was refused admittance. In a letter to the ladies of 2 February he complained that his contacts with them had become limited to 'short snatches at Bowood and elsewhere' and 'two or three times last winter at Lansdowne House'. He went on to declare that if he was never to see them except at these places he would rather not see them at all. According to Bowring 'the effect of the letter was an immediate invitation,' and it is clear from later letters that throughout this year Bentham was still on friendly terms with Caroline Vernon, and to a greater degree with her niece, Caroline Fox.

On the same day as he wrote this letter to the ladies Bentham made a fresh approach to the prime minister concerning the

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Panopticon scheme, going beyond his proposals of January 1791 in offering to take on all the expense of building the penitentiary himself, without an advance from the government. At this stage he appeared anxious to avoid new legislation, and he discouraged Sir Charles Bunbury from raising the matter in parliament that session. Through Bunbury he tried to interest the new Home Secretary, Henry Dundas, in the project, while telling George Rose, who was handling the negotiations for the Treasury, that he appreciated that the 'multiplicity of more important business' would entail delays. By the end of July Rose had made it plain that neither he nor Dundas would take the question up until after the summer vacation.

Meanwhile a great change had taken place in Bentham's circumstances with the death of his father in March, and his inheritance of Queen's Square Place, Westminster, together with substantial funds which enabled him and his brother Samuel to embark on their various projects, including the revised Panopticon penitentiary scheme. Bentham took up residence at Queen's Square Place early in May, while continuing to spend days or even weeks at a time in Dollis farmhouse, as a refuge from the considerable entertaining his town house involved. The bulk of his manuscripts were now, however, in his Westminster residence, and in mid-August Etienne Dumont was warned not to 'wonder at the disorder' in which he would find Bentham's papers, when he began arranging the French and English material on the Penal Code and other subjects, with a view to its eventual publication in French. After the death of Mirabeau and the increasing militancy of successive French governments, Dumont, Romilly and most of the Lansdowne circle became disillusioned with the Revolution. Writing to Lord Lansdowne on 3 September Bentham protested that while the marquis was hiding in a seaside cottage and Lansdowne House was shut up, Queen's Square Place had become a 'Hospital for Refugees', sent there by Dumont, Romilly and Benjamin Vaughan. Ironically in October Bentham received through the French embassy in London the information that, like William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and other British reformers and philanthropists, he had been made an honorary citizen of the French Republic. In his reply accepting the honour he mentioned the refugees and put in a strong plea for tolerance towards those who opposed the new regime.

At that time Bentham had become optimistic about the chances of his Panopticon scheme being adopted in England. Henry Dundas had been to see at Queen's Square Place the model of the

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proposed prison and prototypes of the machinery being assembled by Samuel for employing convicts in useful work. Dundas saw no objection to Battersea Rise as the suggested site, and Bentham hastened to make contact with Thomas Bowdler who, with Sir Charles Bunbury and Sir Gilbert Elliot, was one of the three commissioners appointed in 1781 to supervise the buildings to be erected under the Penitentiary Act of 1779. Under that statute two of the commissioners had to agree to the plans (as Bunbury already had) and it was thought that nothing now stood in Bentham's way, so he ended the year in hopeful mood.

**1793** This was a disappointing year for Bentham. The Panopticon scheme ran into unexpected difficulties in England and nothing happened about it in Ireland. Indeed Sir John Parnell's friendliness must have been strained by the attack Bentham made on the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer's proposal to impose a tax on legal judgments. It was through new friends in Ireland that *A Protest against Law Taxes* was published in Dublin in March, two months after Bentham had made the acquaintance of Thomas Law, who had returned to England from service on the Board of Revenue at Calcutta. He was a brother of John Law, a bishop in Ireland, as well as of Edward Law, later Lord Ellenborough, and all of them were useful contacts for the future.

On 4 February Bentham exerted himself on behalf of a Frenchman, Duquesneau, the husband of his cook, Marie, and obtained the withdrawal of an order of banishment served on him under the Aliens Act of January 1793. Bentham had earlier interested himself in the case of William Chapman, a well-educated convict, who had inquired about employment on the Panopticon project. He had saved him from transportation in 1792 and was now able to get him admitted to service in the Royal Navy before the end of his prison sentence.

The rumour, which proved unfounded, that Henry Dundas was about to give up the Home Secretaryship caused Bentham to urge in May that speedy attention might be given to his penitentiary plan, of which Dundas had expressed 'a favourable opinion'. In the same letter of 20 May Bentham offered his services 'for nothing' in the drafting of statutes. A day or two later he was urging his brother to return to London as Dundas was expected to bring the prime minister to see what Bentham terms 'the Raree-show' at Queen's Square Place the following week. In the event it was not until mid-July that Pitt made his promised visit, after which Bentham was

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desired to make his 'arrangements'. At the beginning of August, however, the Secretary to the Treasury, Evan Nepean, was advised that Bentham's proposal did not 'at all square with the design' of the Penitentiary Act, because the prison contemplated by it was 'to be regulated by Public Officers' whereas the new scheme was 'a private concern'. Although disconcerted by 'the sudden appearance of the difficulty' Bentham acknowledged to Nepean that a new Act of Parliament might be required, but he was encouraged to approach the proprietors of Battersea Rise pending the introduction of a bill in the next session. Bentham had already ascertained that the province of York, as ground landlords, and the Spencer family as long-terms lessee were the proprietors with whom he had to deal. Much of the remaining months of the year were taken up with long, argumentative letters from him to Dr. William Markham, Archbishop of York, and to John, 2nd Earl Spencer. They elicited short non-committal replies. Lord Spencer agreed to see Bentham in London on 22 September and told him that whatever parliament decided he must submit to, but did not think it incumbent on him to 'volunteer' the surrender of his rights. At the end of October Bentham informed his friend, Philip Metcalfe, m.p., that he was drawing up, at the request of the administration, a bill which would enable Battersea Rise to be used as the site for a prison on Panopticon lines.

Meanwhile Samuel Romilly had written from Edinburgh describing the semi-circular Bridewell being built in that city. He noted that it had a number of Panopticon features, but also many differences, although James Adam admitted that the main idea came from the Bentham plan. Thus ended the Scottish scheme begun through Robert Adam two years before. At the end of the year Bentham had retreated to Hendon to meditate on setting up 'a legislation-school all of a hurry without and before Panopticon'. Before leaving London he sent to Nepean on 10 November a detailed scheme for 'conversation-tubes' which he and his brother had worked out after visiting the Tinned Copper Warehouse of Messrs. Charles and John Wyatt in Blackfriars, where experiments in conveying sound through pipes were being made. The government does not seem to have shown any interest, but Bentham had pioneering speaking-tubes installed at Queen's Square Place.

**1794** Throughout the year Bentham was dividing his time between Hendon and Westminster, but was more often at Dollis farmhouse than at Queen's Square Place, where his brother was

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sometimes in residence when Jeremy was not, giving rise to interesting correspondence between them. On 15 February Bentham came into London to celebrate his forty-sixth birthday with his brother. He stayed on at Queen's Square Place until early April, completing the draft of a new Penitentiary Bill, about which he consulted several legal friends, including Romilly, who returned a copy on 9 March with the comment 'There is a great deal too much merit in the bill for it to have the smallest chance of passing'. After several attempts to obtain an interview with Nepean, who was ill during part of the month, Bentham wrote a long letter to him on 30 March complaining that the position of the Panopticon plan was 'worse than stationary', that he and his brother had spent large sums of money on materials, patents for machinery and labour, that Samuel's career in Russia had been prejudiced by overstaying his leave, and that the whole scheme would have to be dropped unless parliamentary sanction were obtained before the end of the session. Only after further reminders was the requested interview obtained on Saturday, 12 April. Disappointed by the result, Bentham had gone off to Hendon on the Sunday when Nepean unexpectedly called at Queen's Square Place for a copy of the Penitentiary Bill, which Samuel was able to supply. The help of their step-brother, Charles Abbot, who was becoming an influential member of parliament, was enlisted at this stage. On 15 April Bentham wrote to him, 'I hope to God you may have been able to do something with the S.G. [Solicitor-General]: if not, we perish...' A new obstacle to the bill was presented by objections raised by William Lowndes, parliamentary-counsel to the Treasury, but by the beginning of May these had been ironed out and a shorter version of the bill was brought before the House of Commons.

It was not until the bill was passed that Bentham received any reimbursement for the large sums he had already spent on the project. In a letter of 21 April he called attention to the financial aspects, this time dealing with Charles Long, joint Secretary to the Treasury. Through him he obtained by the end of June £2000 towards his outlay on the project. The shortened bill had passed the House of Commons during May, but was held up on 5 June in the House of Lords by an order to print, proposed by Lord Spencer on the third reading. In the few days before the bill was considered again Bentham did his utmost to rally support among well-wishers in the upper house. On 14 June the bill was passed by the Lords, subject to amendments, and on 17 June the Commons agreed to the amendments, which to Bentham's dismay included the insertion

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after 'Battersea Rise' of the phrase 'or any other Place as proper and convenient' for the site of the prison. This provision in the new Penitentiary Act removed any possibility of compelling Lord Spencer to sell Battersea Rise for the purpose.

Nevertheless Bentham pursued his original objective. On 9 August he had an interview with Charles Long, who suggested the employment of two surveyors to seek an alternative location, but was told by Bentham that 'if it was the decision of the Administration to refuse the old spot' he would beg leave 'to drop the business altogether'. Long referred him to Dundas, to whom Bentham accordingly sent, on 16 August, a long letter, accompanied by an even longer Memorial addressed to the Lords of the Treasury, arguing that Battersea Rise was the ideal site for the prison, that there were 'no other fit places', and that the Treasury was bound 'to fix upon the old spot if claimed by him'.

Pending a reply to this massive communication Bentham turned his attention to lesser projects, though he continued to welcome visitors at Queen's Square Place who wished to see the Panopticon model and machinery. At the beginning of August he made the acquaintance of Sir John Sinclair, first president of the Board of Agriculture, who foresaw possibilities of using some of Samuel's devices for making agricultural implements. Sinclair was so impressed that he brought several other prominent men to Queen's Square Place, including John Jay, the American statesman, who was in London negotiating the commercial treaty of 1794. In September Bentham made another contract with the Board of Agriculture in the person of its secretary, Arthur Young, whom he consulted about the value of landed property and population statistics, and with whom he was to have considerable dealings in later years.

The finances of the Bentham brothers had at this stage reached a low ebb and one idea Jeremy put forward for retrieving their fortunes was a scheme for 'luggage ports'—relays of carts carrying goods quickly between London and Edinburgh. After an experiment at the beginning of September using a cart fitted with a divided axle-tree—an invention of Samuel's—the project was abandoned.

On 21 September Henry Dundas replied to the long letter of 16 August and returned to Bentham the Memorial to the Lords of the Treasury, observing that it was unsuitable in form and that everything material in the two communications could have been 'compressed into eight in place of eighty pages'. Bentham was at Hendon and his brother opened Dundas's letter before sending it on from

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Queen's Square Place. In forwarding the correspondence Samuel made an offer to take over himself 'the principal part in the business' so that Jeremy could devote his time 'more usefully and creditably' to other interests. Bentham was clearly touched by his brother's generous offer, but preferred to continue the negotiations himself. On 26 September he wrote to Dundas asking if a shorter Memorial would be acceptable and was soon told that it would.

Bentham remained at Dollis Farm until the end of November, occasionally making brief visits to London. On 3 October he sent to Charles Long of the Treasury a manuscript copy of the pamphlet 'Supply without Burthen' (published in the following year). Another copy was sent to James Trail, who passed it on for comment to George Wilson. Bentham was also writing at Hendon drafts of his 'Annuity Note Plan' and other financial essays not put into print until some years later. Meanwhile Samuel was looking after his brother's as well as his own interests in London. On 27 October he told Jeremy that he had been to see Long who had assured him of the friendliness of Dundas and himself towards the Panopticon penitentiary project and had made suggestions about shortening the Memorial to the Lords of the Treasury. On 31 October Bentham produced a very much briefer Memorial, which was immediately transmitted to the Treasury by Dundas. No action was taken on it before the end of the year and on 11 December Bentham complained to Lord Lansdowne that the procrastination of William Pitt, 'the most unfeeling and faithless of Ministers', was reducing him to penury. The marquis sent him money and promised more, if needed.

**1795** During the whole of the year Bentham was in residence at Queen's Square Place, with only very brief visits to Dollis farmhouse. He became friendly with William Wilberforce, who early in January brought his friends, Dr. Isaac Milner and Lord Muncaster, to see the Panopticon model and apparatus. Many other visitors came, some of them introduced by Wilberforce, others by Lord Lansdowne, others of their own volition. Yet in spite of frequent reminders and constant attendance at government offices Bentham could get no decision about the prison site. While he was on a short visit to Hendon he wished his brother to try again but Samuel was reluctant to do so particularly because Wilberforce was hinting at 'obstacles' he was 'not at liberty to mention'. What these were appeared later in the year when Earl Spencer, the owner of Battersea Rise, became First Lord of the Admiralty.

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For a moment in April it looked as though the Irish Panopticon scheme might be revived. Sir John Parnell wrote that the new administration in Ireland, headed by Lord Camden, was favourably disposed, but the most he was able to obtain was a clause in an Act of the Irish Parliament empowering the lord-lieutenant to apply money allotted for transporting convicts to employing them at labour.

Samuel was spending much of the year at Portsmouth, enquiring on behalf of the Admiralty into the state of Royal Navy ships and shipyards. His signature was required on the Panopticon Contract, which Bentham was hopefully drawing up, between the brothers and the government. Samuel came back from Portsmouth for a few days at the end of May, expecting the signing to take place, but arguments about the financial terms delayed completion and the much altered draft contract was still passing between the Solicitor-General and Attorney-General at the end of the year. The situation had meanwhile become clearer after Samuel was appointed Inspector-General of Naval Works in September. This brought him into close touch with the First Lord of the Admiralty and his influential wife, Lavinia, Countess Spencer. Very soon Samuel was telling his brother that Lord Spencer's opposition to 'giving up his ground' was 'unsurmountable'. Nevertheless the Panopticon penitentiary preparations were kept going by means of loans from bankers or from well-to-do friends like Andrew Lindegren, the merchant with whom Samuel often stayed in Portsmouth.

Later in the year Bentham was able to engage a young man as a secretary, John Heide Koe, who wrote to Samuel on 9 November 'Mr. Bentham's whole time is taken up in writing observations on the Treason Bill'. This critique of what became the Treasonable Practices Act, passed in December 1795, was sent to the *Morning Herald.* Lord St. Helens offered to arrange for Bentham's observations on this bill and on the Seditious Meetings Bill, which was before parliament in the same session, to be put forward in the House of Commons by William Wilberforce, but in fact the latter strongly supported the government.

**1796** Early in the year domestic difficulties with a truculent cook and other servants at Queen's Square Place were added to Bentham's public frustrations. During most months he was sending down to his brother in Portsmouth information on naval matters and on various experiments being undertaken in the outhouses at Westminster on Samuel's behalf. In February occurs the first

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mention of the essays Bentham was beginning to write on the poor laws. On 28 February he drafted, even if he did not send, a letter to William Pitt, suggesting the suitability of 'Panopticon for Poor Houses', and he spent much time in succeeding months in collecting particulars concerning problems of poverty. 'What stuff' is Bentham's description of Pitt's own poor law bill, introduced into the House of Commons in March, taken up again in December, but eventually withdrawn in 1797 after several attacks upon it.

On 23 April he was cheered by a letter from Etienne Dumont asking permission to print selections translated into French from Bentham's published and unpublished writings in a new Genevan periodical, the *Bibliothèque britannique.* From October 1796 to April 1798 eight long articles appeared in the journal, six in the form of letters from Dumont, giving extracts from Bentham's 'Civil Code', 'Manual of Political Economy' and other unpublished material.

In May his step-brother, Charles Abbot, asked for Bentham's comments on the report he was making on expired and expiring statutes, as chairman of a select committee of the House of Commons. By this time Bentham had secured another interview with Lord Spencer, to whom he had written on 18 April offering to compensate him for any loss of revenue expected from future leases on the Battersea Rise estate. On 26 May the earl once again refused to consider that site for the prison but indicated that alternative sites might be available on land he owned on Barnes Common or somewhere on the River Thames between Battersea Bridge and Lambeth. Writing to his brother, Bentham saw strong objections to the 'cursed marsh', but in June he started negotiating with Thomas Harrison, the land agent of Lord Spencer, about the riverside site. At the beginning of July he saw the earl again and it became clear that a small area as far as possible from Battersea Bridge was all that Lord Spencer would concede, if legally obliged to do so.

Discouraged by this interview Bentham turned his attention to another possible site on the south side of the Thames near Woolwich. On 16 July he wrote to Charles Long, pointing out its advantages less visible than the prison hulks in that part of the river, not near any dwelling houses, mostly waste land and so on. Unluckily 'Hanging Wood' took in a favourite walk of Lady Wilson, whose invalid husband, Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, bart., owned Charlton House a mile away and had powerful relatives. One of them, his son-in-law Lord Arden, came to Queen's Square Place on 13 August to warn Bentham of strenuous opposition. On 26 August Bentham

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felt obliged to write to Lord Spencer, 'I find myself thrown back upon your Lordship's Marsh, spite of my utmost efforts to emerge from it'. He got the uncompromising reply: '...if you still persist in a plan so directly contrary to my wishes, you must not be surprised at being told that I am determined to keep my Estate unless compelled by law to give it up'. As a last shot at the Woolwich site Bentham went so far on 29 August as to offer a bribe of £100 a year to John Stride, the steward of the Wilson estates, 'in case of success in an enterprize of so much difficulty and delicacy'.

All attempts to secure Hanging Wood having failed, Bentham transferred his attention to a fourth possible site for the Panopticon penitentiary: Tothill Fields, not far from Queen's Square Place itself. He ascertained that the Dean and Chapter of Westminster were the lords of the manor and that Lord Salisbury owned the adjacent Millbank estate. Correspondence with Samuel Horsley, Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, was initiated in September. At the same time Edmund Estcourt, the agent of Lord Salisbury, was approached, and by the end of the year negotiations were well in train, although difficulties had already appeared, such as common rights in Tothill Fields enjoyed by local residents and the use of part of the site as a cricket ground for the boys of Bentham's old school, Westminster.

In the midst of these preoccupations Bentham was willing to undertake a temporary task of national importance. Hearing rumours that peace overtures to France were being discussed, he wrote to Wilberforce on 1 September, suggesting that they, as honorary citizens of the French Republic, might offer to go as emissaries to Paris. Wilberforce was not attracted by the idea, and Lord St. Helens to whom Bentham also mentioned it, with a hint that his lordship might head the mission, considered that, instead of being a recommendation, honorary French citizenship would be 'somewhat of a drawback'.

During this period the Bentham brothers were exploring, besides Samuel's various inventions, other possibilities for making money. On 7 September Jeremy wrote to his brother suggesting they might start a daily paper to be called *The Indicator,* which would contain short classified advertisements, calling attention to those more fully described in other periodicals. The press restrictions of the time caused Bentham to drop the idea, after mentioning it to George Rose, who foresaw government opposition. Rose had become secretary to the Admiralty in 1795 and was personally on friendly terms with both brothers. Samuel visited him at his

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country house, 'Cuffnels' near Lyndhurst, Hampshire, during September 1796.

The marriage of his brother to Maria Sophia Fordyce in October brought changes to Bentham's mode of life. A number of letters until the end of the year are concerned with domestic arrangements, at first in the expectation that Samuel would lease a house in Queen's Square, close to his brother's residence; but in the event the newly-weds came to live for the next year at Queen's Square Place, with consequent adjustments. In December Bentham was busy making new domestic arrangements and at the same time was getting surveys made of Tothill Fields by Richard Horwood, a wellknown map-maker. He also made the acquaintance of the magistrate, Patrick Colquhoun, with whom he was to collaborate in succeeding years in pressing for reforms of the poor law, the police and the prison system.

**1797** During this year there was no correspondence which has survived between Bentham and his brother, presumably because Samuel and his wife had come to live at Queen's Square Place and Jeremy was seldom absent from home. Mrs Bentham occasionally acted as an amanuensis for her brother-in-law. A new Penitentiary Contract Bill was considered necessary because Tothill Fields was common land and could not be partially enclosed for the erection of a prison without an Act of Parliament. Throughout the year Bentham was continually reminding his friends in the administration to get the Solicitor-General and Attorney-General to approve the draft bill drawn up by himself and other lawyers. Despite the efforts of his step-brother, Charles Abbot, Samuel Romilly, William Wilberforce and others, nothing had been achieved in this direction by 5 December, when a Treasury Board Minute directed 'this case and the copy of the Bill to be submitted to the considn. of the Attorney and Sollr. Gen:l.'

In the early part of the year Bentham was engaged in attempts to persuade the vestrymen of Westminster to fall in with his plans for Tothill Fields. He was also devoting much time to 'thorough discussion of the Poor Bill' which the prime minister was trying to get through the House of Commons, and shaping his own ideas on the subject. In February he got in touch with Sir Frederick Morton Eden, whose work on *The State of the Poor* (3 vols., 1797) had just appeared. In April and again in July he was obtaining from Arthur Young statistics on corn prices as they affected the labouring classes. Then on 5 July he received from Sir John Sinclair, president of the

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Board of Agriculture, an invitation to contribute 'papers' to the transactions of the Board. The result was the series of letters on 'The Situation and Relief of the Poor' which Bentham contributed to the *Annals of Agriculture* in the years 1796–8. From September onwards he made widespread inquiries to collect information for a 'Table of cases calling for Relief' and a 'Pauper Population Table', copies of which were inserted in his first article in the *Annals.* One of the 'Pauper Table Letters' on the subject indicates the changed relationship with the ladies of Bowood. It begins 'Mr. B. being still in existence takes the liberty of addressing a packet to Miss Fox in the humble hope of prevailing on her to exert the favour of her interest with Lords Lansdown, Holland, Warwick and Ossory'. Never again was Bentham on the same intimate footing with the Lansdowne household as he had been earlier in the decade.

### MISSING LETTERS OF JEREMY BENTHAM REFERRED TO IN THE CORRESPONDENCE

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#### MISSING LETTERS

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#### MISSING LETTERS

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### KEY TO SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

#### SYMBOLS


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	- [?] Reading doubtful.

Editorial comments in the text are printed in italics within square brackets.

#### ABBRE V I AT I ONS

Apart from standard abbreviations, the following should be noted:

B.L. I, II...etc.: refer to the main series of Bentham papers in the British Library, Additional Mss. 33537–64, the volumes of which are numbered from I to XXVIII. Thus B.L. V and B.L. VI, the volumes in the collection most frequently cited in these years, refer to Add. Mss. 33541 and 33542.

U.C.: refers to the Bentham papers in the Library of University College London. Roman numerals refer to the boxes in which the papers are placed, Arabic to the leaves within each box.

Bowring: refers to *The Works of Jeremy Bentham,* published under the superintendence of... John Bowring (11 vols.), Edinburgh, 1838–43. Volumes x and xi contain Bowring's 'Memoirs of Bentham and selections from his correspondence'.

#### NOTE

Apart from sources cited in the notes, the following standard works have been in frequent use and have not usually been cited:

*Dictionary of National Biography*

Joseph Foster, ed., *Alumni Oxonienses ...1715–1886,* 4 v., 1887–8

John and John Archibald Venn, comps., *Alumni Cantabrigienses.* Pt. I (to 1751), 4 v., 1922–7. Pt. II (1752–1900), 6 v., 1940–54

G. F. R. Barker and A. H. Stenning, eds., *The record of Old Westminsters,* 2 v., 1928

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Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke, *The History of Parliament. The House of Commons, 1754–90,* 3 v., 1964

J. C. Sainty and J. M. Collinge, comps., *Office-holders in modern Britain*: v. I, *Treasury officials, 1660–1870* (1972); v. II, *Officials of the Secretaries of State, 1660–1782* (1973); v. III, *Officials of the Board of Trade, 1660– 1870* (1974); v. IV, *Admiralty officials, 1660–1870* (1975); v. V, *Home Office officials, 1782–1870* (1975); v. VI, *Colonial Office officials* [1794– 1870], (1976); v. VII, *Navy Board officials, 1660–1832* (1978); v. VIII, *Foreign Office officials, 1782–1870* (1979)

J. F. Michaud, ed. *Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne,* 52 v., 1811–28

Jules Balteau and others, eds., *Dictionnaire de biographie française,* v. 1— 1929– . In progress

Correspondence October 1788 to December 1793

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### F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 12/23 October 1788

Cherson Octr. 12 23 th 1788 O.S.

As the post from this part of the country uncertain at all times is very little to be depended upon in the present state of affairs, I am happy in having found an opportunity of sending a letter by a merchant who I have just now heard sets out tomorrow for different parts of Germany. Since we began fighting this summer I wrote twice to let you know of my existence, once after our action of the 7th of June and once after those of the 17th and 18th of the same month,2 and these were the last I had any part in, for though I continued with the Flotille till the middle of August there was no more fighting in that time except on the 1st of July and I was then absent in a commission Prince Potemkin had given me to transport

**627.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. IV: 487–9; V: 105. Autograph. Although preserved in separate volumes in the British Library these appear to be two parts of one letter. The first part has the place and date shown at the beginning (p. 1), but no address or docket. The second part has no heading and begins with the words 'In the course of the winter'. It cannot be much later than October 1788, since it refers to the Liman still unfrozen, to Ochakov as being still uncaptured, and to the recent blowing up of a bomb vessel, which happened on 20 October (N.S.) according to R. C. Anderson, *Naval Wars in the Levant, 1559–1853,* Liverpool, 1952, p. 331. The end of this second part is docketed by Jeremiah Bentham: 'Mss recvd. this from the hands of the Merchants / who undertook to bring it, at Q.S.P. on / Thursday June 4th 1789,' and underneath by Jeremy Bentham: 'Rece'd it on Saty: June 13, at Bedford Row, where it was / left for me by my father. 1789 / S.B. to J.B. Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esq. / Queen Square Place / Westminster.'

On 4 April 1789, that is two months before this letter reached Westminster, Jeremiah Bentham had received a letter from Samuel, dated 27 January/7 February 1789, in which he mentions an earlier one 'sent by an acquaintance who set of from hence [Kherson] for different parts of Germany'. In the letter of 7 February 1789 Samuel confirms his posting to Siberia in command of a different regiment, observing: 'I hope if you have found a person who wished to come here as Surgeon to my regiment that he will have no objection to go with me where, though he certainly will have less business, he may spend his time more agreeably.' The letter ends: 'not one letter yet from my brother since his arrival in England, so that my letters now, though perhaps by the stile are intended for him, are directed to Q.S.P.' Jeremy had in fact written a long letter to Samuel on 2 May 1788 (letter 620, *Correspondence,* iii, 616–19), never apparently received.

<sup>2</sup> Both of these letters are missing.

8 vast sea mortars from Cherson and to employ them on a land battery.3

You, I think, must have known, that last Autumn, when the Turks declared war by attacking two of our vessels here, we were as little prepared as possible. 3 or 4 very indifferent frigates was all the force we had at this port to defend ourselves against a force ten times as great on the side of the Turks. It was found necessary therefore to arm in some manner or other every bark that could swim. The Vessels which had been used to transport the Court down the Dnieper, though very ill constructed for such a purpose, were to become immediately vessels of war4 and as I happened to be at Cherson at that time, Mordvinoff5 pressed me into the Admiralty service, to assist in fitting out this heterogeneous fleet of small vessels, which then first took the name of the *Flotille.* Some of the People who ought to have been the most acting were sick, others absent; so that it so happened that [on] several and some of the most important occasions I may say the whole of the business of the Admiralty rested on me. The employing great guns of 36 and even 48 pounders on such small vessels, even on ships longboats, was entirely my idea. But besides the fitting out I had often the care of manning and appointing commanders: and was just going to command myself this flotille under Mordvinoff, who had got together 4 or 5 frigates, when I got a relapse of the ague with a kind of nervous fever which lasted me till the winter and rendered me in an instant unfit for the least business whatever. At that time I was in so bad favour with the Prince, because he owed me money, that he hardly had spoken to me even when I was every day with him; however when he came here in the winter, he did vouchsafe to open his mouth, to thank me in publick and acknowledge great obligations to me for what I had done. Mordvinoff on all occasions asserted in the strongest manner possible that it was through me that he was enabled to drive away the Turkish fleet: yet, as nothing brilliant was done against the enemy, the mere defence of this part of the country got Mordvinoff but little credit: and therefore no great store was set by my atchievements.

<sup>3</sup> For Samuel's earlier involvement with the flotilla in the Liman of Ochakov see his letter of 30 August/10 September 1787, *Correspondence,* iii, 569–71. A full account is given in Ian R. Christie, 'Samuel Bentham and the Russian Dnieper Flotilla, 1787–1788', *Slavonic and East European Review,* 1 (1971–72), 173–97.

<sup>4</sup> A reference to the galleys and provision barges used from Kiev to Kherson when Catherine II made her tour of the Ukraine and Crimea in the spring of 1787.

<sup>5</sup> Admiral Nikolay Semënovich Mordvinov (1754–1845). See *Correspondence,* iii, 271 n. 4 and 570 n. 7.

Prince Nassau6 had long been backwards and forwards with PP (Prince Potemkin) and the Empress had ordered him to have a command given him, by which he might distinguish himself: therefore, as Mordvinoff had declined the sea command here, this Flotille was augmented as much as possible and entrusted to P.N. and it was proposed to me to serve under him. As my health was now pretty well reinstated I could not decline putting to proof the success of an Armament which was mostly of my own invention. Fanshawe7 was also enlisted in this fresh water service: by which we both became objects of jealousy among the Navy: which, added to the real want of Navy officers, made it difficult to find a commander for each vessel. P.N. at the same time determined to have none but Volunteers: which at length we found. On the 7th of June, when we had our first action, our flotille consisted of about 35 vessels, counting 15 or 16 longboats carrying only one gun each: of these 22 only were in the action, when we were attacked by 57 Turkish vessels much superiour in the number of guns, but in general of less caliber than ours. They had besides a large fleet 5 or 6 times superiour to ours, who were waiting at the distance of a few versts: under the cover of which we obliged their small fleet to return, after having lost 2 or three—we don't know which. On our part we suffered but very little; all the enemies shot went over us; we had not in all 50 men killed. I had on my own vessel 2 killed and 7 wounded by an iron 36 pounder, which burst as I was standing behind to aim it: myself not a yard from the breech. The men on both sides, and even one behind me, was wounded: some of them in upwards of an hundred parts of their bodies, by different pieces of the gun: but I received no hurt but singing my hair and scorching off one of my eyebrows. The celebrated or rather notorious Paul Jones,8 from a sudden want of officers and a kind of enthousiasm, for his supposed courage and abilities, excited greatly by P.N., had been taken into the Empress's service as Rear Admiral; and being arrived here was put to command of the great fleet here: which,

<sup>6</sup> Charles Henry Nicholas Othon, Prince of Nassau-Siegen (1745–1809?); after naval successes against the Turks in the Black Sea he was promoted to vice-admiral, but was defeated in the Gulf of Finland by a Swedish fleet in 1790 and took little part in active service thereafter.

<sup>7</sup> Henry Fanshawe (1756–1828), who later had a distinguished career in Russia. See biographical note in *Correspondence,* iii, 456 n. 24.

<sup>8</sup> John Paul Jones (1747–92), who, after his colourful participation in the American War of Independence, entered the Russian navy early in 1788 as a rear-admiral. Although more successful in later engagements than this one he got small credit for them and left Russia in 1790. See F. A. Golder, *John Paul Jones in Russia,* New York, 1927.

frigates and armed Merchantmen together, amounted to 11 sail. His command was entirely independent of our flotille: and though we were required to act together P.N. and he were neither to give nor receive any orders from each other. At first P.N. was so highly prepossessed in favour of P. Jones as to vow vengeance against those who should show the least slight to him: this however did not prevent Fanshawe and me from declaring, that nothing but the presence of the enemy could induce us to serve *with* him, and no consideration whatever could bring us to serve *under* him.

On the 16th, when our flotille had been augmented by a few more gunboats, we saw the whole Turkish fleet consisting, great and small, of more then 100 sail, form in a line across the *Liman,* in all appearance to attack us: but as they seemed to be waiting for the next morning, we determined at a council of war to put the best face upon the matter, and, if we could get the start of them in the morning to advance and attack *them.*

Although on former occasions the disposition of P. Jones had appeared over prudent to P.N., it was at this council of war the latter lost all patience: and vowed he would advance with his flotille, though the former should stay behind with his Ships.

On the 17th we were in a line parallel to that of the enemy at about 5 or 6 versts (distance); our flotille being dispersed in the intervals of P. Jones's squadron: when, upon our weighing anchor one of his armed merchantmen was presently sunk by a bomb from the town of Ochakow: and of P. Jones squadron some scarcely stirred from their moorings: the rest one by one came to anchor again, and left our flotille to shift for itself.

We had presently the satisfaction to see 2 of the Turkish ships of the line ashore: of which one was that of the Captain Pasha, who had made his retreat in a boat.

We passed by these to follow after the rest, who certainly, more frightened at the misfortune of their commander than hurt by our shot, were retreating as fast as they could out to sea or close in under cover of Ochakoff. The 2 ships left on shore were burnt by the bombs and fireballs we threw in them which certainly added not a little to the dismay of the turks, as well as it encouraged us inasmuch as to have no more idea of fear. With respect to myself the bursting of my gun in the former action had made me so much affraid of my own guns that at the first I could not prevail on myself scarcely to make use of them: but kept for the most part at about a mile's distance firing out of a 13 inch brass mortar: till spirited up by our success I approached by degrees and tried again

my guns on the poor unfortunate ships. Although forsaken by all the rest of the fleet, these two defended themselves till the fire caught in different parts; that is some few obstinate fellows kept firing, although the colours were struck and many prisoners taken out.

On the 18th at daybreak the Turks were again in a line, and our flotille was below P. Jones's squadron, which we now thought no more of, or rather relied no more upon for assistance. No doubt my first business at rising in the morning was to see what the Captain Pasha had been about in the night; when I preceived first 2 or 3, then as far as 7, of their ships which laid with their heads neither to the current nor to the wind: from whence one might well suspect them to be ashore. I called directly my best sailors to consult them; and, as it appeared to us all that those ships were ashore, I went immediately on board P.N. to acquaint him with my observation and propose an immediate attack: I found him already up, and doubting also of what my coming confirmed him in. The signal was made directly for engaging: but as there was no wind to blow out the signal flags, nothing could be done but by a boat rowing round to give orders. I therefore, receiving the orders first, set sail first, and called to all I came near in my way to follow me. We had about as much discipline in our manoeuvres as a London mob: however, we advanced as many of us as chose immediately, and the rest by degrees till we came within musquet shot of the ships onshore. I with 3 or 4 more got close to 3 of them: where, as every one did the best for himself, I contrived to place myself on the quarter of the largest and so as to be sheltered by the same from the Guns of the one next to it. In this position (as near as I could keep myself where the current ran strong) I remained for I suppose about 2 hours: firing about 130 shot out of 4 guns. My companions soon left me, as I suppose to go to fight elsewhere: and some others, one or two at a time, came in their places: but the smoke was so great, that I could see only the vessels I was engaged with, although I seemed to be most in danger from the guns of the town and of some small gunboats that were near the shore, none of which I could see. The bomb shells and shot from these fell round me in a quantity that surprised me much that they did not hit: tis true they were random shot, and came from a distance. As to the shot from the ships I engaged, although I could not keep my vessel from being sometimes exposed to their broadside, they flew all so much above our heads, that even our little masts were scarcely in danger, now and then a few grape shot touched us, and some musket balls; but

not a single man in my vessel was killed, whereas the day before when I kept at a greater distance I had 2 killed and several slightly wounded. 2 or 3 times these ships had ceased firing; and upon our sending out boats alongside, while some were getting quietly in as prisoners, others still fired musquetry and even great guns: then we called our boats off and began again with our great guns, till by their signs of submission and ceasing to fire they induced us again to send boats.

Out of one of these ships I took 56 prisoners on board my own vessel: and the rest, to about 400 alive, were taken on board others: and the ship was saved, and is now fitted again. She had then but 48 guns on board although built for 60. 7 others which the turks lost that day were all burnt, besides one sunk. Yet our fireships were not used. They were *not* burnt on purpose: but, as all our vessels were for the most part furnished with shells like bombshells, or others filled with combustible matter to be used instead of shot, there was no avoiding the burning any vessel we fired into. 3 or 4 of the largest were burnt and blown up without our being able to save scarcely any of the people aboard. About 3,000 however were taken out of the 11 ships destroyed on this and the foregoing day: probably a greater number were burnt or drowned: dead bodies were floating about for a fortnight afterwards. I kept 7 of the officers prisoners on board my vessel for a about a week: during which time the making their situation tollerably comfortable was perhaps as great a pleasure as ever I felt. P.P. afterwards took them as well as all the other officers to head quarters, where they were well taken care of. A Negro I kept for myself. On this day we lost very few men: no vessel but a rowing boat which was sunk. The remaining part of the large fleet were driven entirely out to sea; and though they have of late returned with a further reinforcement, the Captain Pasha never dares venture to come within the *Liman.*

On the first of July while I was at Cherson the flotille attacked Ochakoff and burned upwards of 20 of the small vessels which had taken shelter under the batteries. One Galley only was taken and brought away.

The Turks however have again got together above 100 sail; of which 15 are of the line. They lie within sight of Ochakoff, but can give it no relief. On the other hand, our army, encamped around the town with batteries within pistol shot of the entrenchments, are unable to take it. There cannot be 5,000 men in the town: but they have so well buried themselves in the earth, that our shot do them no harm. We have been expecting every day for these 2

months the town to be taken: but P.P. is affraid to lose men by assault, and seems to be waiting for their surrendering. We had above 30,000 men before the town; how many are sick and dead I know not.

P.P., you may well imagine, was transported with our success: and by his recommendations we were in the opinion of all others too much rewarded. Almost all on board the flotille were advanced a rank: the chief of us got the Order of St. George and this only for the action of the 7th.9

These distinctions, as you may imagine, must make a multitude of jealousies. All the officers of the Army, who have been exposed to the inconveniencies of perhaps long marches, or at least tedious encampments, now began to think they had much better have been too on the *flotille*: all the Navy officers, who in P. Jones squadron looked on and saw us come off safe, in short all the world who were not among us, are crying out at the extravagancy of giving more St. George's crosses for what we have done, than were given all last war: but Fanshawe and I, as being most employed and made Colonels by a particular Ukase of the Empress, over the heads of many others even of such as were made nearly at the same time by seniority, we two Englishmen excite a most terrible envy, so much so that we are actually both of us kicked out of the flotille for peace and quietness sake. Circumstances, tis true, contributed much to our expulsion. P.N. through *ennui* and other causes, fell ill: so that it was more convenient to him to live ashore in his tent than to stay aboard his vessel. Thereupon P.P. ordered him to appoint the eldest officer under him to command the flotille in case of bad weather, his own ill health, or any sudden motion of the enemy preventing his being able to get aboard when it might be necessary to act.

This P.N. wished to decline: knowing what the consequences would be: but P.P. insisted: upon which P.N. sent me an order to take the command accordingly.

Its being contrary to all custom and indeed to the letter of the Law that an Officer in the army should command those of the Navy much more so those of the same rank as himself in a fleet, the Navy gentlemen had from the beginning shown reluctance and now were very ill disposed to obey us Army gentry, besides

<sup>9</sup> Besides his promotion and decoration Samuel received a gold-hilted sword of honour from the Empress, as anticipated later in this letter. In a letter to his father of 15 February 1789 he wrote 'it was brought to me a few days ago' (B.L. V: 18). See M. S. Bentham, *Life of...Sir Samuel Bentham,* 1862, p. 88.

there was a Dutchman of the name of Winter10 who had been taken into the sea service but a short time after I was made a Lt. Colonel and with the same rank: and he now commanded one of the divisions of the flotille. Fanshawe, who was now Colonel as well as myself, had been promised a regiment. I for my part doubted much if I should have one given me fearing that P.P. would find some means or other to prevent my being able to decline the sea service; but, as soon as I had received that order to command the Flotille as being the Senior Officer in it, I was then sure of having a regiment given me to get me out of the way: and so it was the very next day: for Winter, with the rest of the White coats, had made such a representation of the injury done to them to put them under the command of a Green coat that the next day came out a distribution of the vacant regiments with orders for their respective Colonels to join them with all expedition: Fanshawe to the regiment of Ilitsk and me to that of Rajsk. He was as great a nuisance as I; for though younger in seniority to me he was also older than Winter. We made, both of us, all haste to give up our freshwater-sailorships: and in 2 or 3 days bid adieu to the Flotille, obeying our last orders to join our respective regiments. He is gone to Olviopole with his, and mine is now doing Garrison duty in this town. It is the only regiment here, and consists, compleat as it is now, of 2472 including all ranks.

It happens also, to the still greater mortification of our enviers, that ours are of the best regiments of Infantry there are, and I believe the most compleat; but they are composed for the most part of recruits since the month of May. What I dislike most is that probably I shall pass the winter here and though on my account I am pretty well seasoned to the climate I fear I shall lost ⅓ of my men before the summer.

For the burning the Turkish ships on the 18th and 17th the Empress has sent some swords as presents to some of us, but P.P. has not yet delivered them. This is a mark of distinction that only 2 or 3 of the Commanders in chief received last war. There will also probably be some prize money, but of this I know nothing for certain. All the soldiers and sailors who were on board the flotille in these actions have received a silver medal which is hung to their button hole.

Prince Nassau besides the order of St. George 2nd Class has

<sup>10</sup> Probably the Captain de Winter, mentioned several times in Russian sources, who died, in September 1789, of wounds received in the battle of Rochensalm (*Arkhiv Grafor Mordvinovykh,* i, 431 and 431 n. 1).

received from the Empress an estate of 3500 peasants in White Russia. P. Jones and he are now and seem likely to remain henceforward the most inveterate enemies possible, indeed the poor American seems to have nowhere a friend; in private society he is much of a gentleman more of a french petit maitre than of an English sailor. Were I not an Englishman I should see nothing in the man to dislike. The Russians would perhaps have little to say against him were it not that he gives nobody anything to eat. Stinginess is here perhaps the greatest vice a man can be guilty of. With respect to his not fighting or rather his not leading up his squadron he can scarcely be blamed for as the navigation of the Liman is difficult for vessels of great draught of water it may be as well that he did not expose them. It was to that same difficulty of navigation for great ships that we owed our success; had not the Turkish great ships got ashore it is scarcely possible but they must have destroyed us. At present the situation of the Turkish fleet blocking up the Dnieper prevents P. Jones squadron joining the Sevastopole fleet. When they are joined they will be inferiour to the Turks as the flotille cannot go to sea at least [the] greatest part cannot. Orders however will be to engage if possible and the superiority in the Black Sea will then be decided.

If Ochakoff be soon taken we shall begin to hope for peace, fighting for once in a way was well enough but it is an abominable trade to follow: besides for my part as I shall get nothing more by war, I have every reason to wish for peace. I should then most certainly come for a month or two at least to England. In case of peace, I should be much tempted to ask to change my regiment for one of Cavalry in Siberia. It would be more profitable more amusing and more healthy for I fear the Prince will want to keep me always in the neighbourhood of Cherson.

Notwithstanding the great want of them several regiments are without surgeons. Medical assistance of all kinds is as bad as conceivable. Scarcely any man recovers from the dysentery. Three fourths of a regiment were carried off by it in about 9 months last year, and there is scarcely a day I dont lose a man by this disorder now in my regiment.

If 2 or 3 young men of abilities were to come here they could not fail of doing well. I for my part would assure a salary of 300 rubles and my table to a surgeon who had knowledge and practice enough in medicine for the disorders here and though while I have my regiment I should not leave him much time for private practice yet hereafter I might be able to put him in a way of making a fortune.

You may conceive that dilligence would be more requisite than extraordinary abilities. As it is I am obliged to be Physician myself to my regiment as I have before been to several of my friends with good success.

Debraw11 you know I suppose is dead. He had just been made 1st Physician to the Army, the Patent for which did not come from Petersburg till after his death, had it come before it would no doubt have saved his life for he died more of disappointment than of anything else. Korsakoff12 was killed by falling down a precipice near Ochakoff as he was working at the batteries. To me it was no great loss for he was become my enemy; but it was a most unlucky death for a man to meet with in the sight of the enemy. His Character was so much changed within these 2 years that I have scarcely found a single person who regretted him.

A lucky cannon ball took the thigh off your friend the Governor of this province.13 He was riding a hornbock with P.P. within gunshot of the town where certainly he had no business: from nothing he had amassed an estate of 3 or 4,000 peasants and 200,000 rubles in money. He lived but a day or two after his wound, and his death as you may imagine caused more joy than sorrow.

It so happens that 3 or 4 others who have lost their lives more by accidents than by the enemy's shot were such as by no means wished me well and my friends are hitherto as well as myself safe and in good health. For my part I am just now as well as ever I was and have been so all the Summer notwithstanding I was 4 months on board a bit of a vessel where I was obliged to sleep even upon deck for want of room below.

In the course of the winter I will remit the whole sum I owe or the interest of it whichever is most convenient to you unless some extraordinary advantageous opportunity of employing money should between this and then present itself. A trafic of hay and corn and the transport of goods by my regiment horses are my sources of profit. Unluckily I have no forage prepared for my horses as I could not have foreseen my having a regiment this winter much less that it would be quartered here. The Admiralty owe me about 1,600 roubles on account of the tools I sent them, but

<sup>11</sup> Dr John Debraw. See *Correspondence,* iii, especially p. 497 n. 1.

<sup>12</sup> Lieutenant Colonel Nikolay Ivanovich Korsakov (1749–88), formerly a friend of Samuel. See *Correspondence,* iii, passim, especially p. 281 and n. 16.

<sup>13</sup> Ivan Maksimovich Sinel'nikov, governor of Yekaterinoslav (see *Correspondence,* iii, 456, and *Arkhiv Grafor Mordvinovykh,* i, 421 n. 1).

they won't pay me yet on account of their present poverty.14 Could you let me know without a great deal of trouble the price of a set of blocks for a ship of 74 guns as they are made for the navy in Taylor's manufactory.15 The Admiralty here wanted me to charge myself with the procuring them blocks from England for 2 ships of 74 guns; but not imagining my credit to be very good I did not see how I could execute this commission. If I could have done it I should have had Jewish profits. You will tell me they have no money to pay for what I sent them before; but that is because I could not make out the amount till a week ago and they 〈al〉ways send money to pay for what they want for present use though they cannot always pay their old debts. I doubt however its being worth my while to furnish them with blocks for my profit but I would like to oblige them with information of the price at which they might be procured. If therefore you were to write to Taylor he would let you know at what price he would deliver for exportation blocks of the different sizes and sort used in the Navy.

The best way of writing to me is I believe through Shairpe16 desiring him to forward letters by post but not a word must be written that you would not all the world should know.

I am not without hopes that you will find me a surgeon for my regiment. A young Scotchman who has attended hospitals but though he may have the frugality more general in his country if he is very interested we can never agree. From Petersburgh I should of course pay his expenses, but if he chooses to be at the expense of coming by land through Warsaw he need not wait for the Spring and he would find his advantage as well as I mine in his coming in the winter. It is a long time since I have heard even of the existence of our Cousin Mulford.17 Send him this letter for I am sure he will

<sup>14</sup> In 1786 Samuel had imported a large consignment of tools from England. For an account of his previous activities in Russia see Ian R. Christie, 'Samuel Bentham and the Western Colony at Krichëv, 1784–1787', *Slavonic and East European Review,* xlviii (1969–70), 232–47.

<sup>15</sup> Probably Walter Taylor (1734–1803) who, with his son Samuel, supplied blocks to the Royal Navy. See J. M. T. Pannel, *The Taylors of Southampton, Pioneers in Mechanical Engineering. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,* vol. 169, no. 46 (1955), and K. R. Gilbert, *The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery,* H.M.S.O., 1965.

<sup>16</sup> One of the merchant family of Shairp, Maude and Co., who operated in Russia and had acted for the Benthams on several occasions. See *Correspondence,* iii, especially p. 221 n. 5.

<sup>17</sup> John Mulford, a cousin of Jeremy's, who appears many times in *Correspondence,* i, ii and iii. See especially i, 19 n. 12. In a letter of 22 April 1789 Jeremiah Bentham told Mulford that he looked upon him as 'the uncle to both my sons and the only relation they know in life besides myself' (B.L. V: 48).

be glad to hear that God gives me good luck though he is hitherto very sparing in grace. I have had no news from anybody since a letter from my father dated April or May I forget which and the key is lost of the chest I put it in with other papers. I hear by that letter that Usury was defended and have become a Jew in consequence, but from J.B. I have had no letter yet.

You would like I suppose for curiosity sake to know what kind of life I am to finish by. The army used to be of all things my greatest aversion and what I at the same time thought myself the least fit for, yet the fates will have it that I am to be distinguished as a soldier.

I am certainly well off and in all probability shall always be well off in this country, yet I have a terrible longing to come home. If we are lucky enough to take Ochakoff soon and we become quiet for the winter I am in hopes of taking a trip to Petersburgh for a few days only. It is now above 5 years since I was there.

Give me further directions about your effects which I received from the Crimea what of them there are which you would have sent to you. If I don't go myself I will find some opportunity of sending them to Petersburgh through Mercier. I ought to have still at Petersburgh 22 cases of minerals and other things which I brought with me from Siberia. Mr Fitzherbert18 had charge of them, but he has not let me know what he did with them at parting, nor indeed have I written yet to anybody to enquire.

I received a few days ago a letter from Hynams19 by a Mr Fox20 lieutenant in the english navy who is in the service here. The letter was of a date 3 months old and spoke of a very high obligation to you respecting his son.

If our wars or any other circumstances should set you to war with the French remaining still neuter with respect to this country, would it be necessary or proper that I should return as Subject though not in the millitary service in England?

Let me hear as soon as possible how you all do. They have been bombarding Ochakoff again by land and water but with little

<sup>20</sup> Not positively identified; three English naval lieutenants of that surname were gazetted at this time: William Fox (6 November 1778), Samuel (26 December 1782) and John (5 April 1783).

<sup>18</sup> Alleyne Fitzherbert (1753–1839), later Baron St. Helens (1794). He had been envoy-extraordinary at the Russian court, 1783–7, was Chief Secretary for Ireland 1787–9, envoy-extraordinary at the Hague 1789–91, and ambassador to Spain 1791–4. He and his brother, Sir William (1748–91), were good friends of Samuel and Jeremy. See *Correspondence,* ii and iii passim.

<sup>19</sup> Robert Hynam, the watchmaker of the Empress Catherine and a friend of both brothers. See *Correspondence,* iii, passim, especially letter 518, p. 313.

success. A Bomb vessel which was under my command and just such a one as that I was on board of is blown up and not a man saved. The frosts begin and my old companions on the flotille are in pityable situation. The river will not be frozen this month and till that time the fate of Ochakoff undecided. Adieu.

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### F r o m a F r e n c h C o r r e <sup>s</sup> p o n d e n t

#### 12 November 1788

Our great men are exasperating the nation by language which cannot but make them unpopular. One Grand Seigneur,—and what is worse, one of the notables,—said the troops did not fire on *the people,* but *only on the populace,*—a distinction with which people and populace are sufficiently exasperated. Our debates are carried on as barbarously as in the time of Charlemagne,—our national character seems opposed to sedate deliberation. We have little moderation in our expressions, and less logic in our reasonings. We are too impetuous and too vain. Every one seeks to display his talent (*esprit,*)—nobody seems to think about enforcing conviction. As if we had not enough to do with a few great and grave matters, only think of Necker's submitting to the Assembly from fifty to eighty questions, any one of which would require an age of time, and a legislature of Solons to solve,—and he says, 'Answer them all in a few weeks.' You are celebrating the centenary of your public liberties.2 Noblest of Te Deums! Would we had such to celebrate,—but we dare not even to announce the celebration of

**628.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 190. Probably incomplete. Although Bowring's editorial notes suggest that this is a translation of a letter from Brissot de Warville it cannot be from him as he was in the United States of America at this time and did not arrive back in France until the later part of January 1789 (see Eloise Ellery, *Brissot de Warville. A Study in the History of the French Revolution,* 1915, and previous works on him by Claude Perroud). Neither is the letter likely to have come from the Abbé Morellet, with whom Bentham's correspondence seems to have been resumed in February 1789 (see letter 642).

The present letter refers to events following Necker's recall to power by Louis XVI in August 1788. In November the Assembly of Notables was reconvened and Necker sought unsuccessfully to secure its agreement to the doubling of the representation of the Third Estate in the States General, which had been summoned to meet in May 1789. Necker submitted to the Assembly a questionnaire under twenty-five heads, dealing with the convocation of the States General, its method of election, composition and procedure. The questions were increased 'from twenty-five to fifty-four', by 'the ingenuity' of the Notables, according to J. M. Thompson, *The French Revolution,* Oxford, 1943, pp. 4–5.

<sup>2</sup> That is, the centenary of the English Revolution of 1688–9.

yours! The censors struck out the notice from the *Mercure.* There seems no bound to our wanderings. It is indeed but the French history of the past. Brittany is amusing herself with a riot,—the nobility and the *tiers état* with mutal recriminations of abuse. The court is appealed to for troops to enable one province to come to blows with another. Béarn is loudly clamouring for separation.3 Paris is full of pamphlets and pamphleteers, who and which only entangle more the too much entangled question. Some demand the pure democracy of Appenzell,4 —others a tyrant king and a free people. Everything tends to detach and to alienate,—nothing to unite. M. Delacretelle5 announces that, 'France is about to give the noblest lessons to other nations.' So be it,—but let me shroud myself in silence.

### 6291

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 17 November 1788 (Aet 40)

Hond. Sir

Your letter of Saturday2 has just reached me. Pray do just as you please: only be so good as [to] apprise me of the terms before you bind yourself irrevocably.

I suppose when you have understoood the utmost that Jeffs3 will give, you will find some means of learning whether the other man will give more.

Be so good as inform me whether my Mother4 will [be] turned of 55? the 31 Decr. 1788? an odd question you will say. The case is

<sup>3</sup> On the provincial disorders which continued during the autumn of 1788, see A. Mathiez, *La Révolution française,* 2nd edn., 3 vols., Paris, 1925–7, i, 31 ff.

<sup>4</sup> From medieval times the small Swiss canton of Appenzell had preserved a democratic assembly, the *Landesgemeinde.*

<sup>5</sup> Probably Pierre Louis de Lacretelle (1751–1824), lawyer, politician and author; possibly his younger brother, Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle (1766–1855), influential journalist and in later days a professor of history at the Sorbonne.

**629.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. IV: 492–3. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah: 'Mr. Jere Bentham / Lr dated Hendon / Nov. 17th, 1788.'

Addressed: 'To / Jeremiah Bentham, Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.' Postmark indecipherable.

<sup>2</sup> Missing.

<sup>3</sup> Not identified.

4 His stepmother, Mrs Sarah Bentham (née Farr, first married to John Abbot). She was the mother of Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester (1757–1829), and John Farr Abbot (1756–94), to both of whom there are frequent references in the *Correspondence,* past and future. She lived until 1809. The advertised tontine has not been traced.

I see an advertisement of a little Tontine in France on real security sanctioned by Government on lives not younger than as above shares under 20 guineas a piece. If upon farther enquiry the particulars please me, I think I should like to have a share or two. The time is fixed in such a manner, that there is none to spare.

Your's ever

J.B.

#### Monday 2 o'clock Novr 17th 17865

This letter being put in the post tomorrow will reach you in the afternoon I suppose about 4 or 5. Pray send off the answer immediately—to the principal office near Clare Market, and it will reach me about 2 on Wednesday. The simple fact is all I want: there will be time enough for discussion when we meet. I shan't conclude for the affirmative till I see you.

### 6301

### F r o m G e o r <sup>g</sup> <sup>e</sup> W i l <sup>s</sup> o n

#### 30 November 1788

My dear Bentham,

It has been for many years a subject of great regret to me that you have been spending your time upon subjects on which many people are able to write sufficiently well, while there are so many other subjects of great importance to which there is nobody else, that I know of, is at all competent.

I think all our quarrels, and the constant and intemperate opposition which I have given to your late attempts at publication, are owing to this sole cause. I am led to these reflections by having accidentally looked this morning into your Introduction to your Penal Code. It grieves me to think that so much excellent matter should be either lost or forestalled—you are not likely at present to complete the Code; but is it impossible to publish the Introduction by itself? It is not unusual to publish part of a book, and

<sup>5</sup> A mistake in the original.

**<sup>630.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. ix: 104–5. Copy. An introductory note to the letter as printed in Bowring, x, 194–5, indicates that this may have been Bowring's working copy.

According to Jeremiah Bentham it was 'by the advice and persuasion of his friend, Mr Wilson, and some others' that Jeremy proceeded to publish the *Introduction* in the following April (Jeremiah Bentham to Samuel Bentham, March 1789, B.L. V: 24–7).

why not this part, which, though called an Introduction, contains a system of Morals and general Jurisprudence infinitely superior to any extant? I am convinced it would raise your reputation more than anything you have yet published, and that reputation, besides being a gratification in itself, will add greatly to the weight of whatever you may write hereafter on temporary subjects. It can be done without expense, or rather, it is the only way to recover an expense already incurred. I will therefore propose to you three things—1st To finish the Introduction; 2nd To finish the Chapter on the division of offences, which in my copy ends at 9—12; 3rd To publish the Chapters ending with (Properties) which contain 200 pages, and would make a reasonable volume. The last proposal would give you no other trouble than writing an advertisement to account for the appearance of part of a work. You may say that other pursuits have prevented, and are likely for some time to prevent your completing it, and therefore you publish this part which is sufficiently detached and was printed off some years ago.2

I think the best way will be to publish whatever is finished, but not to begin to write anything new—and that you can do afterwards if the subject and the success please you. I hinted at the danger of your being forestalled,—by which I do not only mean that other people, by the progress of reason, may make the same discoveries you know there are stray copies of your Introduction abroad, particularly that you gave to Lord Ashburton3 —others, which are now in safe hands, may, by death, get into those which are not safe. I have often been tempted to think that Paley had either seen your Introduction, or conversed with somebody that was intimate with you. There are many things in his book so like you, and so out of the common road, that they cannot be the production of the same person who wrote other things in the same book which are really puerile.4

Did you not send to Dunning more than I have, and also the titles of the remaining Chapters?—if so, publish to the end of the last complete chapter already printed, and add those titles, if you have a copy of them—this will avoid the unpleasant task of

<sup>3</sup> John Dunning (1731–83), created Baron Ashburton in 1782, whom Bentham had first met at Bowood. See *Correspondence,* iii, 121 and n. 1.

<sup>4</sup> William Paley's highly influential *Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy,* published in 1785.

<sup>2</sup> A considerable part of what went into the published *Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation* (1789) had been in print since 1780 and seen by several of Bentham's friends. What he appended in 1789 was 'a considerable number of corrigenda, addenda and supplementary notes' (see the Introduction to the edition in *C.W.,* p. xxxix).

requiring to write on a subject which is not at present interesting to you, and which, if you were to begin it, might lead you further than I wish at present. I have really this matter very much at heart, and shall be much mortified if you don't consent.

### 6311

### T o S a m u e l R o m i l l y

#### 2 December 1788 (Aet 40)

Tuesday Decr 2. 3 o'clock

My dear Sir,

I am much flatter'd by your good opinion, but infinitely more obliged to you for Mr Du Mont's2 abuse, and quite delighted with

**631.** <sup>1</sup> Dumont Mss., Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, Geneva, 33, vol. i, fos. 171–2. Autograph.

Addressed: 'To / S. Romilly Esqr / Gray's Inn. / London.'

Samuel Romilly (1757–1818) was a young lawyer of Huguenot descent, deeply interested in reform of the criminal law, a subject on which he exercised considerable influence in his later years. He became solicitor general, with a knighthood, in the Fox-Grenville ministry of 1806–7. He had been introduced to Bentham by George Wilson in 1784, at about the same time as Romilly was being drawn into Lansdowne's circle through his friendship with Benjamin Vaughan, a close associate of the marquis, and also through his contacts with Mirabeau, then in England. Bentham's acquaintance with Romilly was renewed at Lansdowne House, and deepened, after Jeremy's return from Russia (Bowring, x, 186; *Memoirs of the Life of Sir Samuel Romilly...with Correspondence,* 3 vols., 1840, i, 85–7). During the autumn of 1788 Bentham began to give active, though not yet fruitful, attention to developments in France (see J. H. Burns, 'Bentham and the French Revolution', *Transactions of the Royal Historical Society,* 5th series, xvi (1966), 96–114). By the end of November 1788 Bentham had drafted his first two pamphlets on French affairs, one in the form of an open letter to Mirabeau, criticising the attempt to saddle the nation with a Parlement similar to that of 1614; the other his 'Observations' on a pamphlet entitled *Arrête de la noblesse de Bretagne.* The open letter seems to have been sent direct to Mirabeau for him to amend and use as he pleased; but he failed to make use of it. The second pamphlet was apparently the piece in question here. (See Bentham's references to both pamphlets in his letter of 25 February 1789 to the Abbé Morellet, letter 642 below.) Consulted as to the merits of the work, Romilly had referred it to his friend, Etienne Dumont.

<sup>2</sup> Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont (1759–1829), a native of Geneva, trained and admitted as a minister into the Calvinist church, had been a close friend of Romilly since their first meeting in Geneva in 1781. After the aristocratic coup d'état at Geneva in 1783, Dumont went voluntarily into exile and served briefly as a pastor at St. Petersburg. In 1784 Lansdowne sounded Romilly about his suitability as a tutor to his younger son, Henry, and from December 1785 Dumont seems to have been attached to Lansdowne's household in this capacity. In the late summer of 1787 Dumont, at Lansdowne's request, accompanied one of the Townshends on a continental tour, cut short by the misbehaviour of the young man. On the way back to England Dumont made a short stay in Paris, during February 1788. In the summer of that year he and Romilly, furnished with letters of introduction from Lansdowne, made, a visit of two months to Paris, and the reports they brought back may have

the accident to which I owe his writing it freely. I submitt my jargon to his chastisement with the utmost thankfulness, rejoicing at the opportunity I have got of learning French into the bargain. Be assured no unknown rapscallion of a French Editor shall be resorted to, so long as Mr Du Mont's patience and charity will continue me his assistance. I have heard too much of his talents not to have the most perfect confidence in them. This will reach you at the same time I hope, with one for Buisson3 sent this morning. That you will now stop of course.—Your's most thankfully

#### Jy Bentham

Pray intreat Mr Du Mont to cut deep and freely. If any barbarism remains, it is his henceforward and not mine. But for the mere *air etranger* as far as it is endurable, I join with him in wishing it to be preserved.

### 6321

### F r o m S a m u e l R o m i l l y

#### 3 December 1788

Dear Sir,

I have sent the 'Observations,2 etc., to Mr Dumont with your last letter,3 and a request that he would return them to me as soon as he conveniently can. When I get them, am I immediately to send them by the post,4 or are they to be returned to you for your

helped to stimulate Bentham's interest in French affairs. It was during this visit that Dumont first met Mirabeau and he returned to Paris for a longer stay early in 1789. It seems probable, from the opening of letter 631, that in December 1788 he was still at Lansdowne House. (*Memoirs of the Life of Romilly...with Correspondence,* i, 58–9, 86, 96, 105.)

<sup>3</sup> Probably F. Buisson of the rue Hautefeuille, Paris (see J. Bénétruy, *L'atelier de Mirabeau,* Paris, 1962, p. 233, n. 1). The missing note 'sent this morning' was presumably a covering letter to go with the manuscript of the 'Observations', after Romilly and Dumont had dealt with it (see letter 632 below).

**632.** <sup>1</sup> National Library of Scotland, Ms. 1809, fos. 165–6. Autograph. Docketed: (1) by Bentham, '3 Decr 1788 / S. Romilly / to / J.B. Hendon.' (2) by another hand, 'S. Romilly / 3 Decr 1788.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqre / Hendon / Middlesex.' Postmark illegible.

Printed, Bowring, x, 195. A copy, perhaps Bowring's working copy, is in U.C. <sup>i</sup>x: 105–6.

<sup>2</sup> See letter 631, n. 1.

<sup>3</sup> Letter 631.

<sup>4</sup> That is, to Buisson, under cover of the letter which Bentham had sent to Romilly for the purpose (see letter 631, n. 3).

approbation of his proposed alterations? With respect to *immutable,* permit me to say, I think you triumph without much cause. I ventured to assert that there was no such word in the French language; upon which you observed, that then there ought to be to which I readily agreed. The arguments you use are very conclusive, to prove the latter of those two propositions, but by no means to prove the first; and, indeed, a very short transcript from the Dict[ionary] of the Acad[emy],5 which you hold in so much contempt, from Richelet,6 Chambaud,7 or even Boyer,8 would have proved more as to the fact (which alone was in dispute) than the most ingenious arguments. I believe the truth is, that *'immuable'* is used by the French for *immutable,* and that *immobile* means both *immoveable* and *motionless,* and that there is no such substantive in the French language as *immutabilité,* but that *immuable* is the adj[ective], or as you call it the concrete idea, and *immuabilité,* the substantive or the abstract idea; but I have no good Dictionary to refer to, and very possibly am wrong. If I am right, I confess it is an absurdity in the language, which the French will have obligations to you if you correct.—

Yours, very faithfully,

Sam1 . Romilly.

Gray's Inn, 3d Dec. 1788.

### 6331

### F r o m G e o r <sup>g</sup> <sup>e</sup> W i l <sup>s</sup> o n

#### 4 December 1788

Did we ever tell you what Dr Adam Smith said to Mr Wm Adam2 the Counsel M.P. last Summer, in Scotland? The Doctor's

<sup>5</sup> Probably the *Dictionnaire de l'Académie Françoise. Nouvelle édition, augmentée d'un supplément, où l'on a ajouté les mots qui ne se trouvent point dans le Dictionnaire de l'Académie,* 2 vols., Nîmes, 1786, new edn. 1787.

<sup>6</sup> Pierre Richelet, *Dictionnaire de la langue Françoise, ancienne et moderne ...,* 3 vols., Paris, 1769.

<sup>7</sup> Louis Chambaud, *Nouveau Dictionnaire français-anglois et anglois-françois,* 2 vols., London, 1778.

<sup>8</sup> Either of two works by Abel Boyer may be the subject of Romilly's reference here: *The Compleat French Master for Ladies and Gentlemen,* 1694, or *The Royal Dictionary,* 1699.

**633.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. IV: 494. Copy in the hand of Jeremiah Bentham. No docket or address. <sup>2</sup> William Adam (1751–1839), m.p., Scottish advocate and English barrister; an active politician in the group led by Charles James Fox. For Bentham's relations with Adam Smith, see letter 702, p. 132, below.

Expressions were 'That the Defense of Usury was, The Work of a very Superior Man; and that tho' he had given Him some hard knocks, it was done in so handsome a way that he could not Complain' and seemed to admit that you were in the right

G.W.

Thursday evening Decr 4 1788

To Jeremy Bentham Esqr

Dr Reid3 Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glascow, by his letter to Dr Gregory4 of Edinburgh, as the latter says, seems to be more enlarged now in his Sentiments: for he agrees with the Author of the Defence of Usury, without making any Exceptions in the Case of Money Bargains, and says, he is much pleased with the Tract sent him on Usury, and thinks the reasoning unanswerable.

Dated Glascow 5 Septr 1788

Dr Gregory also in his Letter says, He too is a Convert to the Author's Doctrine and considers it as Demonstration.

### 6341

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 10 December 1788 (Aet 40)

Hendon Decr 10th 1788

My Dear Father

I can but ill spare time; but the occasion, though I hope it will happen often will not happen every day, and when a father turns seducer, it is difficult for a son to resist. I will therefore obey your summons if God permit. In the mean time I send you some papers which perhaps may afford you some amusement. I shall only add that the prayer of Wilson's petition2 which you will find among

<sup>3</sup> Thomas Reid (1710–96), professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow from May 1764 until his death, but in semi-retirement from 1780. Bentham may have written to him in 1790 (see below, pp. 132–3).

<sup>4</sup> James Gregory (1753–1821), professor of the institutes of medicine at Edinburgh from 1776 and professor of medicine from 1790; he held a notable position in medical society at Edinburgh and his intellectual interests ranged far beyond the limits of his profession.

**634.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. IV: 495–6. Autograph. Docketed: 'Mr. Jeremy Bentham / letter dated Hendon / Decr 10 1788.'

Addressed: 'To Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.' <sup>2</sup> See Wilson's letter of 30 November, letter 630.

them is granted for divers causes and considerations besides those he mentions. I was asked t'other day by a gentleman you don't know whether the Defence of Usury was yet published in French? I asked him how he came to expect it should be? his answer was because a short time ago the Comte de Mirabeau had told him at Paris he intended translating it or getting it translated. You will return me the papers on Saturday: till when I remain

> Your affectionate J.B.

P.S. Wilson must never know I show'd his letter even to you: if he did, he would take it very much amiss.

### 6351

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i <sup>s</sup> <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n <sup>s</sup> d o <sup>w</sup> n e

3 January 1789

Exeter 3d Jany 1788 Should be 17892

Dear Mr. Bentham

As long as you honour me with your Friendship, you may treat the House to which I belong with every Freedom you think proper. It's a Fruitfull Subject, and I dont think it is in the power of your Ingenuity to hit amiss. I am very glad to hear that you intend taking up the cause of the people in France. Nothing can contribute so much to general Humanity and Civilization, as for the Individuals of one country to be interested for the prosperity of another; I have long thought that the people have but one cause throughout the World. It is Sovereigns who have different Interests. Besides we owe it particularly to the French, for I take it, that the Constitutions of both Countries were very much the same till Cardinal Richlieu took the lead in one and the Stuarts happily for us in the other. Was not there a time when the Clergy made a third Estate with us? I have been surpriz'd that Learned Men in France have not made a point of examining the progress of this and other questions in our History more correctly than they have done.

As to the Pamphlets you mention you will find most of them at

The first paragraph is quoted in Bowring, x, 195–6.

<sup>2</sup> Note in Jeremy Bentham's hand.

**<sup>635.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 1–4. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremy Bentham: '1789 Jan 3 / Ld Lansdown. Exeter / to J.B. Hendon / by misdelivery not reced till 12th.'

Lansdown House, if you will call there, now that you are sure to find nobody there. It's unnecessary for me to send any orders, as the Library as well as everything else is open to you. Because you forget us, I believe you sometimes think we are capable of forgetting you. You will be entertained with a little Pamphlet of the Abbé Cerucci's, Memoire sur peuple François3 or some such Title, and with the Resultat des Assemblées Provinciaux.4 I have not had time to read several of the others. Fowre5 will tell you of a little Man who will supply you much better than Elmsley,6 and you will do me a service by selecting such as are worth reading, and desiring the Man to place them to the account of the Library at Lansdown House.

You possibly know that I am here on account of the Health of your Friend Lady Lansdown. The Physicians have at length sent us here in search of Climate, and it depends upon the advice that we may be to receive at or near Plymouth whether we shall go on to Lisbon. If such is our Fate, will you make one of the Party, which consists only of Lady Lansdown, Miss Vernon and myself.7

If you see Mr. Romilly or Mr. Dumont be so good to make my Compts to them.

> I am with very sincere Regard Dear Mr. Bentham Most Sincerely Yrs. Lansdown

<sup>3</sup> *Mémoire pour le peuple françois,* 1788, by Joseph Antoine Joachim Cerutti (1738–92); he assisted Mirabeau in preparing his speeches and gave the funeral oration on him.

<sup>4</sup> *Résultat des Assemblées provinciales à l'usage des Etats d'une Province* [i.e. of Artois, written by Charles Marie, marquis de Créquy], 1788.

<sup>5</sup> Librarian at Lansdowne House.

<sup>6</sup> Peter Elmsley (1736–1802), a well-known bookseller and publisher.

<sup>7</sup> This proposal indicates the close intimacy between Bentham and the Lansdownes at this time. During what proved to be the last illness of the marchioness the only non-relatives permitted to see her were Benjamin Vaughan and Jeremy Bentham (Lord E. Fitzmaurice, *Life of Shelburne,* ii, 334). Caroline Maria Vernon (1761–1833) was the half-sister of Lady Lansdowne, after whose death she continued, in company with her younger sister, Elizabeth, and her niece, Caroline Fox, to look after Lord Lansdowne until her marriage in 1797 to Robert ('Bobus') Percy Smith, brother of the celebrated Rev. Sydney Smith. (For Bentham's earlier relations with Caroline Vernon, see *Correspondence,* iii, especially 49 n. 2).

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 20 January 1789

#### Saltram, 20th Jany, 1789

Dear Mr Bentham

23

First as to your attack upon my handwriting,2 it is not my Fault; I was very ill educated, and never learn'd to write. The people I have envied most thro' life have been those who can write well, and yet write so carelessly, that Lady Lansdown, Miss Vernon and myself are sometimes half an hour making out a particular word. But I can't express how much I am obliged to you, when, tho' you compare the number of words to a Bill in Chancery, you don't compare the Stuff itself to one, but, upon the contrary, are so good as to say, that two Sheets of mine have half the Stuff of one of yours. You have a proof that your Ideas are never lost upon me, by my producing them at ten years distance. If I did not quote you to yourself, you may be sure that I shall be proud to quote so great an authority to everybody else, as I hope to have your Sanction upon the other subjects you mention—such as Colony-holding,3 the Invasion of Holland,4 the Swedish Declaration,5 and the Turkish War,6 of which I am afraid it is too true that we had the merit of contriving—no Wonder that the whole Island, from the Land's End to the Orkneys, should join in lamenting the Event which has checked such a Progress of Glory. I was at a loss where I took up my Ideas in opposition to the general Sense, but I now find the Fountain, and am confirm'd in them in consequence, but I

**636.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 5–8. Autograph. Docketed: '1789 Jan 20 / Ld Lansdown, Saltram near Plymton / to / J.B. Hendon.'

Partly printed, Bowring, x, 196.

<sup>2</sup> Two letters, one from Lansdowne to Bentham and a reply, seem to be missing here.

<sup>3</sup> Bentham was preparing for what became *Emancipate your Colonies! Addressed to the National Convention of France, anno 1793: showing the Uselessness and Mischievousness of distant Dependencies to an European State,* Bowring, iv, 407–18.

<sup>4</sup> This would appear to refer to the Prussian invasion of the Dutch Republic in support of the Orangist faction during the previous year. On this see A. Cobban, *Ambassadors and Secret Agents: the Diplomacy of the First Earl of Malmesbury at The Hague,* 1954.

<sup>5</sup> In the summer of 1788. See M. S. Anderson, *The Eastern Question, 1774–1923,* 1966.

<sup>6</sup> British suspicions about Russian ambitions in the Near East had been growing since the Russian occupation on the Crimea in 1783, and the Turkish decision to declare war on Russia in 1787 may have been encouraged by an impression that Great Britain and France would both stand by her.

cannot help thinking that you do not give a very good reason for turning Republican, when you say that the two Republican Parties, the Foxites and the Pittites, join only in what is unjust, unprincipl'd and impolitick. Seeing this happen, as I have done upon other questions, namely the East Indies, where they only join'd in covering every Villain, and prosecuting the only Man of Merit7 from thence, has a very different effect upon me, and exhibits a problem regarding Government, which requires all your acuteness to Investigate. In the mean time, if I should venture at any time to attempt to stem this torrent, or to expose these Doctrines, will you take the writing part upon you, if I take the speaking part;—that is, tho' I don't speak better than I can write, I look upon it [as] the service of most danger, as times go, and therefore it's fit that the Talents least worth should be applied to it.

Now as to Lisbon, I have the please to tell you, that Lady Lansdown has gain'd so much ground here, that we are in hopes we may avoid the risque of a Winter's Voyage. If we go we shall seriously be very happy to have your company, and will do all in our power to make it agreeable to you. Our plan would be to go from this very garden on board the Commissioner's Yatch, and in it to the pacquet at Falmouth, which Government have been so good as to have at our command—We should be to stay at Lisbon till May, from where our way of Returng must depend upon the Ladys, whether it shall be by Madrid and Paris, which I should incline to, or as we come by the Pacquet, which I think would be most likely to suit them unless you come and prevail on them. As for your reasons, they operate in my opinion directly the other way, which surprizes me, as you sometimes reason very tolerably. 1st. You have finish'd and publish'd the great work,8 and should therefore get out of the way as soon as possible, as every author does the first night of his comedy—2dly you are publishing about France, to do good this should be done instantly, and I think it may do a great deal, as well as do credit to you and to this Country—3dly you say it is your business to go on Legislating—Having done with France, what Country wants such assistance more than Portugal?

As to Monsr. De Chatelet,9 I apprehend it must be the same

<sup>7</sup> Warren Hastings.

<sup>8</sup> Lansdowne's phraseology is anticipatory. He expected Bentham's *Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation* would be out before his party left for Portugal. It was actually published at the beginning of April 1789.

<sup>9</sup> Louis Marie Florent, duc de Châtelet-Lomont (1727–93), colonel of the French Guards and King's Regiment, ambassador to England 1768–70. He was imprisoned during the Revolution and guillotined 13 December 1793.

who was Ambassador here, in which case you had better avoid the communication you mention, for he is a narrow, peevish, vain Man, and not likely to take it properly—What you mention of him is the natural *Inconsequence* of a French Character. I take it, what lies at the bottom of all our great Proceedings, is that we conceive France to be at our Mercy, which is as weak as it is cowardly, for What nation did not become more capable of Military Exertion instead of less, after great Civil exertions? If we don't go to Lisbon, I hope you will come and hide yourself here, as soon as you have published, instead of that miserable cottage, which the Ladys say cannot be to answer any purpose but that of some low Intrigue.

I am again at my two sheets, but if they contain as much as half of one of your Pages, I shall be quite content.

I have not a moment left for the Post or Driver

I am etc. etc. L——

P.S. I send you some Pamphlets.10

### 6371

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 21 January 1789 (Aet 40)

#### Hendon Middlesex Jan: 21 1789

Hond Sir

I have just received you favour of yesterday.2 I have been continually in the intention of paying my duty to you for some time past, and shall certainly execute it before many days are over my head. I shall profit by your kind intentions with respect to the Ale by the first opportunity, which I imagine will occurr before long, I

<sup>10</sup> Probably Morellet's pamphlets referred to in letter 642. In a letter to Lansdowne of 3 January 1789 Morellet mentions sending him 'deux papiers', his own *Projet de réponse du Roi, à un écrit répandu sous le titre de 'Mémoire des princes',* Paris, 1788, and his *Observations sur le projet de former une Assemblée Nationale sur le modèle des Etats-Généraux de 1614,* Paris, 1789. See *Lettres de l'Abbé Morellet à Lord Shelburne, depuis Marquis de Lansdowne, 1772–1803,* ed. Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, Paris, 1898, p. 274. In an unpublished letter to Morellet in reply to this one Lansdowne wrote 'I have sent the Pamphlets to your Admirer, Mr. Bentham, who has just determin'd to publish his great Work upon Legislation and is now writing upon the Crisis depending in France' (undated, probably *c.* 20 January 1789, Lansdowne Mss.).

**<sup>637.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 9. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah Bentham: 'Mr. Jeremy Bentham / Letter dated Hendon / Jany 21, 1789.'

Addressed: 'Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queens Square Place / Westminster.' Postmark: 'Penny Post Paid'. 2 Missing.

mean that of my Landlord's going to the neighbourhood of Lincoln's Inn fields, where I shall take the liberty of directing the empty barrel to Mr Abbot's.3

This same post brings me some Leyden Gazettes, the suppl[ement to] the last of which will afford you some particulars not in our Gazette, and the presumption of Sam's safety resulting from the mention of other deaths. Observe this business was done by the Bomb-vessels; and you know to whose department the fitting them out belonged4 —

Yours ever

#### J.B.

P.S. I received in due course two former letters,5 the first of which I should certainly have obey'd, had it not been for the dispensation sent me by the 2d. Your economy was at a fault. You might have sent me a dozen or 2 or 3 dozen cards without my paying for them. The penny post carries 4 ounces. But somehow or [other] your letters, though single, and though you pay a penny with them (as marked) cost me 2d. I think I was told as a reason that they go first to the General Post, which is quite unnecessary. I had a letter t'other day from Ld Lansdown.6 If Physicians order, he, Lady L., and Miss Caroline Vernon go to Lisbon, and he asks me to be of the party.

### 6381

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 25 January 1789 (Aet 40)

Jan: 25 1789, Hendon Middx

#### Hond Sir

I congratulate you on your bargain.2 I think it is a rare good one: considerably beyond my expectation.

<sup>3</sup> Bentham's step-brother, Charles Abbot, was living at No. 5 New Square, Lincoln's Inn.

<sup>4</sup> A reference to Samuel's use of fireships (see *Correspondence,* iii, 622–3, and letter 627, above).

<sup>5</sup> Both missing.

**638.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 10–11. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah Bentham: 'Mr. Jeremy Bentham / Letter dat'd Hendon / Jany 25, 1789 / express'g his approbation of the Terms of my / agreeing to sell the House / at Barking.' <sup>6</sup> Probably refers to letter 635, dated 3 January, but not received until the 12th.

Addressed: 'To Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place, / Westminster'.

<sup>2</sup> Jeremiah's letter announcing the bargain is missing. Jeremy had made long visits to the house in Barking, when his grandmother resided there during his early youth. (See Bowring, x, 17.)

The cask is already at Mr Abbots—My landlord's team goes every now and then to Lincolns Inn Fields, but not to Bedford Row.3

#### Yours ever

J.B.

### 6391

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i <sup>s</sup> <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n <sup>s</sup> d o <sup>w</sup> n e

#### 2 February 1789

1789 Feb 2

I will send the Letter for the Abbé Morellet2 tomorrow to Fowre at Lansdown House, who will receive it on Thursday morning time enough to accompany the Pacquet, if you think proper to forward it next Thursday—If not I will direct him to keep it till the following Thursday or deliver it to you as you order him.

Saltram

27

2nd Feby

<sup>3</sup> Refers to the delivery of an ale cask mentioned in the first paragraph of letter 637 above. William Browne, a friend of Jeremiah Bentham and a fellow attorney, acted as a business agent for the family and Jeremy sometimes stayed at his house, 9 Bedford Row, Bloomsbury. For previous relations with Browne see *Correspondence,* i, ii and iii, especially i, 66 n. 3.

**639.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. Ogden Autograph Collection. Docketed: '1789 Feb. 2. Ld L. Saltram / to / J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'To Jer. Bentham Esqr / Hendon / Middlesex.' Franked: 'Fr. Lansdown / Plympton. Feb 2nd 1789'.

<sup>2</sup> Lansdowne's letter to Morellet, dated 3 Feb. 1789, is preserved at Bowood in a copy sent in 1876 to Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice by L. J. Cist of Cincinnati, who then owned the original. It runs: 'My dear Abbé, I told you in my last that *Mr. Bentham* was preparing something for the press regarding your affairs. This intention gave me great pleasure because I knew he could not write ill upon any subject, and must necessarily promote the good cause, but I was particularly anxious about it, because I look upon it [as] of the greatest consequence that the people of one Country shall find that the people of the other have a common feeling with them, of much more consequence than the paltry Rivalship which has hitherto subsisted which shall sell a yard of silk or cloth cheapest. His intention was to write in French and to send what he wrote to Paris, where he was getting into hands which for various reasons, I did not much approve. I hope I have persuaded him to write in English, and at the same time that he sends one Copy to the printer here, to send another to you. I hope I have not taken too great a liberty, especially as I have advised him to put his whole Confidence in you and have told him that I would answer for your acting kindly honourably and ably by him. / I could say a great deal for him to you, but it's unnecessary, as you already know the high Esteem I have for Mr. Bentham and the affection which our whole Family, Men women and Children bear him. / As I don't know when this letter may reach you I will add no more than that I always am / Your most Faithfull / Humble Servt / Lansdown.' (Lansdowne Mss.)

### F r o m R o b e r t H y n a m

#### 18 February 1789

St Petersburg Feby 1789 OS

Dear Sir,

28

I have been waiting the Arrival of Prince Potenkin before I wrote to you, that I might have some account to give you, of your Brother.

The Prince arrived here a few days since, and I now have the satisfaction to assure you that your Brother not only received that mark of Honor you enquired about, the Gold Sword, but also the Order of St George. He has now a Regiment. It is said he has obtained leave to go to England for six months, if so I hope you will have the happiness of seeing him soon.

> Believe me Dear Sir, your very obliged Servant Robt Hynam

### 6411

### F r o m L u k e W h i t e

#### 21 February 1789

Dublin, Febry 21st. 1789

Sir,

I this day received your letter of the 12th inst;2 that scheme for reducing the Interest of money in this country is not yet given up; therefore the Pamphlet you proposed on that subject will yet be in time, if you can find Leisure to finish it;3 and which I should be very happy to publish.

**640.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. XXII: 437. Note in Jeremiah Bentham's hand: 'The following is an Extract of a Letter from Mr Hynam to Jeremy Bentham Esq of Lincoln's Inn and by him transmitted to his Father the 28th March 1789.'

For Hynam, see letter 627, n. 19.

**641.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 16–17. Copy by Jeremiah Bentham. Docketed: 'Mr. Jy Bentham / Copy of Mr. White's letter / to him / dated Dublin Feby 21, 1789.'

Luke White had a bookseller's shop in Dawson Street, Dublin, and made a fortune by financial speculation. After the Union of 1800 he became m.p. for Leitrim, in Connaught, and died in London, 1824. 2 Missing.

<sup>3</sup> No pamphlet on the subject seems to have been issued by Bentham, apart from the *Defence of Usury.*

I have to thank you for an offer of a Part of the Copy of your 'Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation' and agree to take 25 copies on the Terms proposed; which you will please to have forwarded to Messrs Robinsons4 Paternoster Row, directed for me. I should take a larger number of the 2d edition, if it were not likely to be reprinted here, but of that I can say nothing at present.

If I could prevent the printing here of 'Political Tacticks'5 I shod be very glad to engage for a number on the Terms mentioned but think it will not be easy to prevail on my Brethren here to agree not to reprint anything that comes out with your name. I will however try my influence with them; by the Agreement of the Booksellers of this place every new Book is common Property and Each Person in the Trade may have a Share in every Book reprinted. There are several concerned in the edition of the 'Defense of Usury' of which I am one; the number printed 750, of which I do believe more than half are sold, and have no doubt of the Remainder selling in a short time.6

I cannot at present find a copy of the Newspaper that contained the Advertisement of the 'Defense of Usury'. Sho'd I be able to procure a Copy I will send it to you.

Every Man here, that I have heard speak of that Work, does it in terms of the highest approbation, and I do think, it has had a wonderful influence in Men's Minds with respect to the Interest Bill, for you have illuminated the subject beyond any other writer that has gone before you.

Should I be able to prevail, (which I very much doubt) on the Booksellers not to reprint your Pieces, I will immediately inform you.

I am

Sir

Your oblidged and obedt humble servant L.W.

To Jeremy Bentham Esqr

Lincolns Inn

London.

<sup>4</sup> George Robinson, bookseller and publisher, of 25 Paternoster Row (1764–1801), had in 1784 taken into partnership his son, George, and his brother, John.

<sup>5</sup> *The Essay on Political Tactics* was first printed, but not published, by Payne in London, 1791.

<sup>6</sup> In a letter to his son, Samuel, of 13 March Jeremiah Bentham reported that in England the *Defence of Usury* was out of print and that 'near 100 copies were sent to Ireland, before the Irish reprint of 750 copies was made' (B.L. V: 24–7).

### T o A n d r é M o r e l l e t

#### 25 February 1789 (Aet 41)

Hendon, Middlesex, February, 1789.

Sir,

30

I am the Bentham mentioned by Lord Lansdowne.2 He bids me send you all my children. I send you the last; but only to look at, not to dress in a French jacket.3 It's elder brethren waited on you of their own accord many years ago.4 A much larger I hope will follow, (by the next weekly packet but one,) for the which, and other particulars, I beg leave to refer you to a letter that goes by this packet to Lord Wycombe.5 What Lord Lansdowne attempts to trouble you with, is a Treatise on Political Tactics,6 containing principles relative to the conduct and discipline of Political Assemblies. It will be impossible for me to complete it [in] time enough to be published before the meeting of the Etats Generaux, for whose use it is principally designed: but I hope to be able to despatch, by that time, such parts as seem to be of most immediate and essential importance. The favour I am a suitor for at your hands, is that you will get some disciple of yours to translate it into French, and publish it: the more you put into it of your own, either by correcting his translation, or subjoining a note to correct any mistakes the author may have fallen into, or, in short, in any other way, the more, of course, I shall feel myself honoured and obliged.

As something must be understood relative to terms, what think you of the following? The author to provide for the expense, either, by eventual engagement, or, if required, by previous remittance and the real profits, if any, to be equally shared between him and the translator. As I have been, and shall be at the expense of near

**642.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 198–9. The letter and accompanying packets of Mss were sent care of Lord Wycombe, under cover of letter 643. The day of the month is revealed in Morellet's reply, letter 646.

<sup>2</sup> See letter 639, n. 2.

<sup>3</sup> Probably the *Defence of Usury,* which is mentioned in Bentham's letter to Lord Wycombe, letter 643.

<sup>4</sup> In 1778 Bentham had sent to Morellet copies of *A Fragment on Government* and *A View of the Hard-Labour Bill.* See letter 250, *Correspondence,* ii, 118–20.

<sup>5</sup> Letter 643, in which mention is made of the forthcoming *Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,* published in April 1789.

<sup>6</sup> A part of this treatise was printed under the title *Essay on Political Tactics* in 1791.

£100 sterling, in books bought to be consulted for this purpose, I think there would be no harm in my getting back a part of the money if it should so happen; but for this, as well as everything else, I beg leave to commit myself entirely to you. Would a small edition in the original English be likely to find readers? I should be very glad if it would, for I never saw an English translation that I could bear to read: and it was that consideration that set me upon writing such piles of barbarous French, as I have written to my great sorrow. In this event, the author's having three-fourths of the net profits, upon the English (he standing as before to the expense) seems as reasonable as that he should have one-half upon the French. The greatest part is already in my dog-French, and now I have the pleasure of translating it, or rather rewriting it into English.

Lord Lansdowne has sent me your two pamphlets—the King's Answer to the Prince's, and the Strictures on the Composition of 1614.7 But I hope not to be beholden for any more of them to a third person. If you send them out in quest of an *estime sentie,* you can send them nowhere to so good a market, as by sending them to me. Few people, I flatter myself, think more together than you and I do. I made two attempts to get a *push at the wheel* on the same side with you; but I fell down both times, and could not reach it; for which, see, once more, my letter to Lord Wycombe. I have almost written an essay on Representation,8 and the subjects are so connected, that there are parts which I hardly know where to put, whether in that, or in the Tactics. For instance—On the conjunction, or separation of the right of proposing, debating, and voting. On the division of a political body, into divers independent bodies. On inequalities in the relative force of votes. On the manner of voting—when it should be public, and when secret. The two first, and the fourth of these heads are already written in French, and the third nearly so.

After laying down my principles, and deducing rules from them, and giving the reasons for each rule, I apply the standards, thus laid down, to the English practice. This I hope will help to make the book readable with you, and may possibly make some little sensation here, by a side wind. If I can manage matters so as to send you to the amount of about 100 8vo pages or so, by the end of March, I should hope they might be got out a few days before the meeting of the States.

<sup>7</sup> Morellet's *Projet de réponse* and his *Observations* (see letter 636, n. 10).

<sup>8</sup> The 'Essai sur la Representation' (drafts in U.C. clxx: 87–121).

1 M arc h 1789 T o L ord W ycombe

32

If you want British Spirits to put into Madame H.'s wine,9 instead of water, you may have some, if you can get the cargo from the person to whom it was consigned, for which purpose I enclose a letter to the C. de Mirabeau.10 But if he gives it up, you will be sensible of the propriety of his not knowing into what hands it passes; and for that purpose, you will instruct your messenger not to know who it was that sent him. Understand that I know nothing of him, nor he of me. It is a libel on the people of France for their attempt to saddle the nation with the Composition of 1614.11 Understand also that nobody revised the copy but the author, nor he beyond the 8th page, such was his fear of not being in time: on which consideration he gave *carte blanche* to his intended editor, whose experience in the *metier de fourbisseur* is well known.12 The other, which is a dissection of the Noblesse of Brittany, you might get, without difficulty from the bookseller, if it were worth while. He refused to publish it, even at the author's expense; because, after the corrections it had undergone by a third hand, it was not sufficiently legible, and because it was too strong to pass the Censor, etc. etc. It is now, like the first, entirely out of date.13

I am, with the truest respect and esteem, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant.

### 6431

### T <sup>o</sup> L o r d W y c o m <sup>b</sup> <sup>e</sup>

#### 1 March 1789 (Aet 41)

March 1, 1789

My dear Lord,

I owe you many thanks for a pleasure that was not originally designed for me,—your father, partly out of kindness, and partly,

<sup>9</sup> Probably a misprint in Bowring for 'Madame N.', i.e. Madame Necker, to whom Bentham refers in his letter to Lord Wycombe (letter 643).

<sup>10</sup> Missing: Morellet may never have passed it to Mirabeau (see letter 646 n. 9).

<sup>11</sup> Drafts of this pamphlet, which seems never to have been put into print, are in U.C. clxx: 1–7. They are followed by other material in French, some headed 'à Mirabeau'.

<sup>12</sup> Not identified, unless Mirabeau himself is meant.

<sup>13</sup> Drafts of this pamphlet, headed 'Observations d'un Anglois sur un écrit intitulé Arrête de la noblesse de Bretagne, suivant la copie imprimée dans le Courier de l'Europe du 22 Novre 1788, écrites le jour suivant', are in U.C. clxx: 122–33. F. Buisson was probably the Paris bookseller who refused to publish it (see letter 631).

**643.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 196–7. Lord Lansdowne's elder son, John Henry Petty (1765– 1809), was styled Lord Wycombe after his father became a marquis in 1783. He succeeded him as 2nd Marquis of Lansdowne in 1805. Lord Wycombe visited Paris

as I tell him, out of vanity, having taken me into the Cabinet circle, through which certain letters have gone the round of travelling. I have been praying double tides for Lady L.'s recovery, not on her account, nor your father's, as you may imagine, but that my constancy and wisdom may not be put to the trial by a repetition of the summons to form one of her escort to Lisbon. At your age I should have jumped mast high at the thought of such a jaunt: but now, what would France and the rest of the world do, if I were to desert them to go and dangle after other men's petticoats at Lisbon?

The finding your whereabouts has put into my head a project for appointing his son my ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Madame Necker; and accordingly I do, by these presents, constitute and appoint you, etc. etc., my said ambassador at the court of the said lady, for the purpose of presenting at the toilette of the said lady—not a pincushion, but a project of a pincushion of my invention for sticking motions on, for the entertainment of the Etats Generaux. You are to know that, for these five or six months past, my head and my heart have been altogether in France; our own affairs, I think no more of them than of those of the Georgium Sidus.2 I am working as hard as possible on a treatise on the conduct and discipline of political assemblies, under the short title of Political Tactics; dissecting the practice of our two Houses, for the instruction of their newly created brethren; having taken out a license from your father for cutting and hacking without mercy. I am labouring might and main to get out some of the most essential parts at least time enough for their meeting. It was in the course of that inquiry that I hit upon the project above-mentioned, too simple and obvious to claim any merit on the score of ingenuity. I accordingly take the liberty of troubling you with some papers, designed to form, with little innovation, so many chapters in the above work, though they would not follow one another in immediate succession there, as here. Which of them shall be presented, and in what order, I beg leave to commit to your discretion.

I attempted t'other day to let off two squibs for the benefit of the Tiers, but they both hung fire,—one from causes that I am apprized of, what became of the other I don't know.3 They were in

in the spring of 1789 and later in the year made a tour of Europe, including a visit to Russia.

<sup>2</sup> The planet Uranus, first named in honour of George III by Sir William Herschel, when he discovered it in 1781.

<sup>3</sup> The 'Libel on the People of France' and the 'Observations' on the noblesse of Brittany (see letter 642, n. 11 and n. 13).

my own dog-French; one of them was afterwards Frenchified by a reverend gentleman4 at L—— House, without being applied to by the landlord, or knowing who was the author, till after he had given his opinion,—which, in respect of the language, was none of the most encouraging. Poor dear Tiers! I hope they will now do pretty well without me. Considering the nurse they have got, I hope my younger brethren of the —— will be able to stand on their legs without me.

I have got as much soi-disant French as would reach up to my chin, and now I am to be condemned to translate it into English. This is what your father, who has never seen any of it, modestly advises me; and so I believe I shall, notwithstanding, as I have a suspicion he is in the right. Poor man! he has been wearing the ends of his fingers off in writing to me and for me. He puts me into the hands of a *quidam,*<sup>5</sup> who is to get my English, somehow or other, into French. I send him by this packet my Usury, and by the next, or next but one, a great quarto volume of metaphysics, upon Morals and Legislation, which had been lying imperfect at the printer's ever since I have had the honour of knowing you, and before, till t'other day that I took it out, and put a patch at the end, and another at the beginning.6 You may see the outside at the Abbés; but I sha'n't send you a copy, because the edition was very small, and half of that devoured by the rats; and God knows when I shall have time to make the alterations necessary for a second edition, if called for; and I have none to spare for naughty boys who run up and down the country playing, and don't read.

### 6441

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 6 March 1789 (Aet 41)

Hendon, Middlesex March 6th 1789

Hon.d Sir

As I know you have no aversion to employing yourself, especially when it is for the benefit of either of your Sons, I take

<sup>4</sup> Etienne Dumont. 5 The Abbé Morellet (see letter 642). <sup>6</sup> The *Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,* most of which had been in print since 1780–1, was published in April 1789.

**644.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 19–20, 22, 23. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah: 'Mr. Jeremy Bentham / Lr datd Hendon / March 6, 1789 / abt. publishing Introduction etc.' An additional note runs: '1789 / Thursday Feb 19 / Fryday 20 / Saturday 21 / Monday 23.' Addressed: 'To Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.'

the liberty of troubling you with a little commission relative to my new work. It is to get it advertised as soon as deliver'd at the Booksellers which now I expect it may be in the course of a few days. In all the Morning papers except the Daily Ledger, the | | 2 and the Times: and in all the evening papers without exception: the list on the other page though not correct may serve to assist your enquiries. Once only in each at least for the present.3 The best way of advertising a book is to send a copy to each of the Reviewers: this species of bribery, which must be a dead secret between you and me, I also beg leave to charge you with: begging that no third person whatsoever may either hear of it or see the part you take in it. The direction should be 'To such an one (one of the Booksellers for whom the Review is published) For the Authors of the.. . Review.' This was the bribe and the only bribe that procured the notice taken of *Usury* in the Monthly.4 The case was, I suppose, the title had been passed over and the Reviewers would not have known of its existence till too late to notice it, if it had not been sent them. But not a syllable of writing of any kind accompanied the copies I sent, or to speak the truth left at the respective publishers: and you will not write any thing of course. Maty5 in one of his Reviews abused authors for not sending him copies: said, if they did not, they must not expect he should take any notice of them: and that it was a compliment every Reviewer had a right to expect. This, I expect, will be advertisement enough for the 1st edition: which at present consists of mighty few. There were but 250 printed. God Almighty has disposed of about half, by sending a damp to rot them at the 〈prin〉ters: I was a little vexed at first, but now I don't care: the Printer will make me amends by giving me so many copies of it in the improved state in which it will appear if ever it does appear in a second edition. There are but 128 for sale: and even with regard to part of that number, there may be a doubt. Of these 25 are bespoke by an Irish Bookseller, a man of great eminence in

<sup>2</sup> Blank space in original: *The Daily Advertiser* was the other exception. See the list attached to Bentham's letter, p. 37 below.

<sup>4</sup> This favourable notice appeared in *The Monthly Review,* lxxviii (1788), 361–70.

<sup>5</sup> For Paul Henry Maty, see *Correspondence,* iii, especially 285 n. 4.

<sup>3</sup> Advertisements for Bentham's *An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation* have been found in the following newspapers: *The Public Advertiser,* 28 April; *London Chronicle,* 21–3 May; *St. James's Chronicle,* 5–7 May; *The World,* 12 June; *The Gazetteer,* 29 April. In B.L. V: 21 is a fair copy in Jeremiah's hand of the notice attached to this letter by Jeremy (B.L. V: 23), and the fair copy has added to it: 'In the Press, a new Edition of The Defence of Usury / By the same Author'. This last sentence was added according to a request in Bentham's letter of 10 April (letter 650).

his line, whose letter I enclose for your edification:6 and a few I would wish to reserve for France. I shall give none but what I am obliged to give by promises made before the catastrophe. I shall give none for instance to Far[r] and Charles of this edition; but if they are good boys, they may have some, perhaps, of a better. And pray beg they would not buy any: since it would be depriving the book of so many chances of being read. If they want to look into it, which is not very likely, you can lend them your's. The probability is that the copies will be all gone long before I am at leisure to republish. White's letter you will probably like to take extracts from to send to Sam by way of continuation of the history of his Nephew the Defence of Usury, which was born in his house and under his eye. Pray send it me back immediately, as I have occasion to write in answer. Send me back likewise if you please the ½ Number I sent you some time ago of the Leyden Gazette. I send you back the four Newspapers I borrow'd; it would be great charity and a fatherly act, if you would send them me regularly as you have done with them: for some time at least, till I can come to some other arrangement. I am disappointed in the St James Chronicle that I had order'd: the Postman here now tells me he cannot undertake to supply me: so that, having countermanded the Times, I am quite *news-less* and forlorn. I have seen nothing of later date than Saturday. If you know of any body, (Farr, for example) who does or would take in the Morng Chron: for the sake of the debates, I should be glad to go halves with them in the expense they sending it me 3 times a week and I keeping the fee simple, allowing them the 3d a week they would have to pay for postage. N.B. This packet which I have weighed comes just within 4 ounces the weight allowed by the penny post.

7 Pray send me a copy of the title of the Fragment on Government: you have a copy: I happen not to have one here. I want it immediately in order to insert some mention of it at the end of my new book with my other works: viz: either that there are a few copies left or that there will be a new edition. If there are any left it must be with Brooke—I write to know: but if any, they can be but very few. My name will get off a new edition, at least as you will see in Dublin.

<sup>6</sup> The letter from Luke White, letter 641.

<sup>7</sup> Although on a separate sheet (B.L. V: 22) and without any docket, this is clearly a postscript to the letter of 6 March.

8 This day is published / in one Vol. 4o. Price 19s. in boards / An Introduction to the Principles of MORALS and LEGISLATION / Printed in the year 1780 / and now first published / By Jeremy Bentham of Lincoln's Inn Esquire / sold by T. Payne and sons at the / Mews-gate Charing Cross.

This advertising you know is Payne's business: but you also know he would neglect it: he would advertise two or three times, perhaps in the Gazetteer, and scarce any where else. Make him give you the money, as soon as the advertisements have appeared: if he won't, I will.


They are all said to be sad things except the Monthly which is tolerable having improved of late. My friends were surprised at seeing the Critique on Usury so well done.

<sup>8</sup> On a further separate sheet and also in Bentham's hand (B.L. V: 23).

### 6451

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 24 March 1789 (Aet 41)

Honoured Sir

Many thanks to you for the Newspapers. They come very regular and very safe. *Blue* paper is the cheapest and most *useful envelope.* You will not I hope expect me to be as punctual in the acknowledgement as you are in the remittance.

Hugh the Printer2 is as sad a snail as Payne3 —but I hope a few days more will bring poor *Introduction* out of his hands. Let the advertisement if you please stand as I sent it. As to the Papers in which it shall be advertised, use your discretion de bene esse: to be sure there is no occasion for advertising it so much at first, while less advertising may carry off all the copies long before I can have leisure to get out a new edition—So with regard to Reviews.

Tuesday morn March | | 89

I will return the Newspapers by the first opportunity.

P.S. You would oblige me much and save me perhaps a day lost in coming to town if you would transcribe and send me a story I was looking for t'other day in Ld Clarendon about the way he took to render abortive the proceedings of a committee of the whole House when he was Chairman. Hist. Rebellion Book III Vol. I p.275.4 in your 8vo edition. It takes up, if I recollect aright, not above 12 or 15 lines. I want it immediately for a work I hope to committ to press in a week or ten days.

**645.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 32–3. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah: 'Mr Jy Bentham / Ln. dated Hendon Middlx / Tuesday 24 March 1789.'

Addressed: 'To / Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queens Square Place / Westminster.' Postmark: 'Penny Post (paid)'.

The appearance of the day of the week 'Tuesday morn' at the end of the second paragraph may indicate that the first part of the letter was written on the 23rd.

2 Henry Hugh, printer, 6 Great Turnstile, Holborn.

<sup>3</sup> Thomas Payne (1719–99) and his son, booksellers and printers, Mews Gate, Castle Street, Leicester Fields, known as the 'Literary Coffee House'. The elder Payne retired from business in 1790. The firm printed several of Bentham's works (see *Correspondence,* i, ii and iii passim).

<sup>4</sup> The reference is to Clarendon's *History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England,* 3 vols., Oxford, 1707, i, 276, where Clarendon described how as Speaker at the time he prevented Sir Edward Dering's Bill for Extirpating Episcopacy from receiving a first reading in the House of Commons.

# F r o m A n d r é M o r e l l e t

### 25 March 1789

Monsieur

39

je n'ai reçu votre lettre du 25 février2 qu'en montant en voiture pour m'en aller à 60 milles de Paris aux élections de mon canton pour les états généraux et là les élections et leurs préparatifs et leurs suites m'ont retenu jusqu'au 18 du mois present—à mon arrivée seulement j'ai trouvé à Paris votre manuscrit que m'a fait passer mylord Whycombe, qui pour me faire connoitre vos intentions relativement à la communication que vous avez le projet d'en faire à Madame Necker m'a envoyé en même tems la lettre que vous lui avez écrite à ce sujet.3 J'ai lû tout de suite le manuscrit où j'ai trouvé des vues excellentes sur un objet plus intéressant que des personnes légères et irréfléchies ne peuvent le penser. Votre tactique4 me paroit la seule à l'aide de laquelle nous puissions gagner la grande bataille que la raison et la liberté vont livrer à l'ignorance et à la tyrannie des mauvaises loix et d'une vicieuse constitution. L'importance de la forme de la salle et celle du tableau des motions5 me paroissent démonstrées dans votre écrit. Sur le premier de ces points nous ne pouvons plus guères profiter de vos idées parce que la salle de nos états avec tous ses defauts est prête et qu'en supposant qu'on voulût exécuter votre plan il ne resteroit pas assez de tems. Nous avons bien une salle de spectacle à Versailles dans le palais même qui selon vous et dans la vérité seroit un édifice très approprié à des états généraux en lui même; mais d'abord cette salle est très mal éclairée, destinée qu'elle est à des spectacles qui ne se donnent que la nuit, et elle manqueroit d'ailleurs de tous les accessoires nécessaires pour les comités ou les chambres diverses qui ne peuvent en être éloignés. Quant au tableau des motions nous pourrions ce me semble en faire usage utilement, mais il m'est venu une idée que je vous soumets et qui tiendroit ce me semble lieu de votre apparatus sans demander aucuns frais. Ce seroit une surface

**<sup>646.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 36–9. Autograph. Docketed: '25 Mar. 1789. Morellet Paris / to / J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'To Mr. Jeremy / Bentham Lansdown's / House Berkeley Square / London.' There is a garbled translation of some passages in Bowring, x, 199.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 642.

<sup>3</sup> Letter 643.

<sup>4</sup> The parts of the work on 'Political Tactics' so far sent to Morellet.

<sup>5</sup> See Bowring, ii, 317–20.

formée de plusieurs pièces d'ardoise où une personne écrivant parfaitement transcriroit la motion en craye blanche. On en pourroit faire les caractères assez grands pour être vus de toutes les parties de la salle et on pourroit y ajouter les amendemens et l'effacer pour y substituer une autre en assez peu de tems pour ne jamais retarder les délibérations. Cette pratique nous est déjà connue dans les académies et dans notre lycée et dans toutes nos écoles. Elle pourroit servir à nous préparer au moins à votre méthode qui après tout me semble devoir être plus propre et plus sûre. J'ai porté hier à madame Necker votre manuscrit; et nous en avons parlé ensemble à son mari; mais ils n'ont ni l'un ni l'autre le tems de le lire quoique cela les touche de fort près; on ne peut proposer la chose qu'aux états généraux eux-mêmes à qui il appartient de l'adopter. Ils ont été très sensibles à cette bienfaisance d'un etranger qui se faisant cosmopolite ou plutôt nôtre frère met un intérêt si aimable à la recherche des moyens de nous rendre heureux. Ils m'ont chargé de vous en remercier. Made. Necker m'a dit qu'elle vous a déjà fait des remercimens pour votre ouvrage sur l'usure que vous avez eu la complaisance de lui envoyer.

Je dois maintenant vous parler de l'usage qu'on peut faire icy de votre manuscrit. Mes occupations ne me permettent pas de le traduire. Je puis le donner pour cela à un homme qui entend fort bien votre langue et corriger et revoir avec lui-même son travail mais la traduction faite il sera très difficile pour ne pas dire impossible de tirer d'un libraire le moindre honoraire pour le traducteur et si celui-cy en obtenoit quelque salaire il seroit si modique qu'on ne pourroit pas lui proposer de la partager avec l'auteur.6 Le nombre des ouvrages imprimés depuis trois mois seulement sur les états généraux est si énorme et à raison de cette concurrence ils se vendent si mal que les libraires n'impriment que ceux qu'on leur donne *gratis* et qu'il est à ma connoisance qu'ils en refusent de bons même à cette condition. Je n'ai rien tiré du tout des 4 à 5 pamphlets que j'ai publiés et il m'en coûte même quelques 8 ou 10 louis pour le plaisir que je me suis donné de dire quelques vérités que j'ai crues utiles. Voilà l'état au vrai de notre *bibliopolium.* D'après cela il faut que vous me fassiez connoitre vos intentions ultérieures. Je proposerai toujours à mon traducteur de s'occupper des deux articles que vous m'avez confiés en attendant les autres. Mr. de Mirabeau n'étant pas icy je n'ai pas pû lui remettre votre lettre. Peut-être seroit-il plus en état que moi de vous faire tirer quelque avantage de votre travail: je suis fâché de ne pouvoir

<sup>6</sup> The proposed translator was Louis Joseph Faure; see letter 655, p. 55 n. 3.

traiter cette petite affaire avec lui. Mais il est ennemi si violent de Mr. Necker et il vient d'exciter contre lui une si grande indignation en publiant une correspondance faite pour être secrète dans laquelle la duchesse de Vittemberg, le prince Henri et qui pis est de simples particuliers sont compromis d'une manière si cruelle que je ne puis avoir de relation avec lui, malgré la grande estime que j'ai pour ses talens qui sont véritablement très grands.7 Voilà ma confidence faite mais c'est à vous que je la fais.

Les questions que vous m'indiquez comme entrant dans votre tactique politique sont infiniment intéressantes. Je regarde cependant votre essay sur la *représentation*<sup>8</sup> comme plus pressé que tout le reste et j'y joindrois ce que vous avez à dire de la division du corps politique en divers corps indépendans, question qui me paroit ne pas tenir à la tactique des assemblées générales. Nous aurions bien besoin et vous-mêmes et l'Europe et l'Amérique aussi d'une bonne théorie de la représentation nationale qui me aroit encore à faire et sans laquelle les grandes nations n'auront jamais tous les avantages de la vie sociale, personne n'est plus en état que vous de nous rendre ce bon office. Comme anglois vous avez dû réflechir depuis longtems sur cette partie capitale de votre constitution et votre esprit me semble plus que celui d'aucun philosophe connu capable de voir et d'embrasser la question par toutes ses faces et de ne rien laisser à dire quand vous l'aurez traitée. Je désirerois done beaucoup que vous fissiez un bon traité de la représentation. Je crois je vous l'avoue, sauf examen ultérieur, que notre nation est trop nombreuse et trop peu eclairée ou plutôt trop grossièrement ignorante pour avoir une représentation véritablement démocratique complète formée par des élections placées dans les dernières classes de citoyens. Je serai charmé que vous me confirmiez dans cette idée si vous êtes conduit à ce resultat ou que vous me détrompiez si il ne vous paroit pas juste.

Je ne puis faire aucun usage de votre lettre à Mr. de Mirabeau9 comme je vous l'ai dit cy dessus parce qu'il est en Provence ainsi

<sup>7</sup> Mirabeau's *Histoire secrète de la Cour de Berlin, ou Correspondance d'un Voyageur françois, depuis le 5 juillet 1786 jusqu'au 19 janvier 1787,* Paris, and London, 1789. On its publication, Prince Henry of Prussia, then in Paris, complained to Louis XVI and the Prussian ambassador demanded a prosecution. Although this was ordered on 10 February 1790 the deliberately obscure circumstances of publication prevented effective action.

<sup>8</sup> The proposed 'Essai sur la représentation', which was never completed (drafts in U.C. clxx, 87–121).

<sup>9</sup> The letter which Bentham wished to be passed to Mirabeau in order to get back his 'Libel on the people of France for their attempt to saddle the nation with the composition of 1614' (see above, p. 32 n. 10).

je ne puis me procurer la communication de ce que vous appellez un *libelle* contre les partisans de la forme de 1614 et il est vrai comme vous l'observez vous-même qu'il est un peu tard pour revenir sur ce sujet que nos écrivains ont épuisé icy. Quant à vos observations critiques sur l'arrêté de Bretagne je ne sais point quel libraire en est le dépositaire.10

Nos élections vont se faisant avec beaucoup de trouble et de confusion quoique sans violences: nous n'en savons pas assez pour pouvoir juger *upon the whole* si elles seront raisonnables. Je suis allé au lieu de mon bénéfice oû l'on m'a préféré pour l'ordre ecclésiastique un homme au-dessous du médiocre pour la disposition qu'il a montrée de défendre les privilèges ecclésiastiques à tout prix. Je ne puis par la même raison être choisi par les prêtres à Paris. Il seroit possible que je le fusse par le tiers et pour le tiers mais je n'en ai ni éloignement ni envie. Si je ne suis pas en dedans je pourrai encore être de quelque utilité en dehors, surtout si vous m'aidez de vos lumières et si nous avons de vous une bonne tactique et un bon traité de la représentation à laquelle je crois qu'il est necessaire qu'on travaille dès cette lère assemblée pour en avoir bientôt une 〈meil〉leure. Je vous prie d'agréer tous mes remercimens 〈pour?〉 votre confiance et d'être persuadé de l'estime respectueuse que je vous ai vouée à jamais.

L'abbé Morellet

le 23 mars 1789.

### 6471

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 27 March 1789 (Aet 41)

Hendon, Middlesex March 27, 1789

Hon.d Sir

Many thanks to you for your packet and extract.2 As to the placing of the words in the advertisement, that is the very thing I

<sup>10</sup> See letter 642, n. 13.

**647.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 40. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah: 'Mr. J. Bentham / Letter dated Hendon / March 27, 1789.'

Addressed: 'To / Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.' Postmarked: 'Penny Post Paid'.

<sup>2</sup> The extract may have been the quotation from Clarendon requested in letter 645. From what follows here there must have been a covering letter from Jeremiah, which is missing.

wished should not be altered. Pray let it go just as I sent it or not at all.

As to the missing newspaper of Saturday, it had already come to me in the former packet.

In future give me leave to recommend it to you to make use of half a sheet of thin blue paper for an envelope, and to seal it with a single wafer. Newspapers contain no secrets. Your last letter, being made use of in an *envelope* was so *bewaxed* in four or five places that I could not open it without tearing to pieces.

I hope this letter will prove less illegible than the last. I thought, that so long as you could read your own writing, you could read mine.

The one I enclose will put you to no such difficulty:3 it may perhaps afford you some surprise, but I hope no sorrow.

Let me recommend it to you to direct your letter for *Sam* rather to Mr. *Hynam,* than to Mr. *Samborski.*<sup>4</sup> Upon the former, you will see I have some claims: upon the latter, we have none. The former is in the way of receiving things from on board of ship; the latter, probably not. Hynam we know was alive and at Petersburgh little more than a month since: which is more than we know of the other.

I am very glad to hear tidings of my good friend Mr *Howard,*<sup>5</sup> and much obliged to him for his intended favour: if you can learn where his abode is in London, pray let me know. Pray return me the enclosed.

<sup>5</sup> Probably John Howard, the prison reformer, who was in London at this time. In July 1789 he left for Russia, travelling via Holland and Germany, in order to investigate causes and cures of the plague. While visiting Kherson he contracted a fever and died in January 1790 (see M. Southwood, *John Howard,* 1958, pp. 117, 119, 126; also L. Howard, *John Howard, Prison Reformer,* 1958, pp. 153–63).

<sup>3</sup> The enclosure has not been identified.

<sup>4</sup> A letter from Jeremiah to his son, Samuel, dated 13 March, gives him information about Jeremy's activities (copies are in B.L. V: 24–7 and 28–31). There is also a copy of a letter from Jeremiah to Andrev Afanas'yevich Samborskiy (for whom see *Correspondence,* iii, 150 n. 10), asking him to forward from St Petersburg the letter of 13 March to Samuel (B.L. V: 34–5); but as a result of Jeremy's advice this may not have been sent.

### 6481

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 29 March 1789

Formel near Tavistock 29th March 1789

Dear Mr Bentham

I left London in a hurry owing to Lady Lansdown's finding a return of her Complaint with the return of bad Weather, but she is now coming round again. Owing to this circumstance I did not open Monsr de Calonne's Book,2 till a few days since, when I was at leisure to read it, and consequently did not find your Note3 till then. I write however by this night's Post to Fowre to send you Monsr Mirabeau's Secret History of the Court of Berlin.4 As to Madame la Motte's Book5 I have it here, and will send it to you the first opportunity, tho' it is scarce worth the carriage, and still less the time you would bestow on reading it.

The King of Sweden is going on at a rare rate without making the least account of your Indignation or mine.6 I don't believe he knows it. I wish you would make him sensible of it, for which there is but one way, that of appealing to the Public opinion of Europe. If the people of different countrys could once understand each other, and be brought to adopt half a Dozen general principles, Their Servants would not venture to play such Tricks. I hope when you have given France a Legislature, you will suffer nothing to Interfere, and prevent your Pen from enforcing these principles.

**648.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 41–2. Autograph. Docketed: '1789 Mar. 29. Ld L. Tavistock / to / J.B.'

Partly printed, Bowring, x, 197–8.

<sup>2</sup> Possibly the *Discours prononcé de l'ordre du Roi et en sa présence, par M. de Calonne, contrôleur-général des finances, dans l'Assemblée des Notables, tenue à Versailles, le 22 février 1787: précédé du Discours du Roi,* Paris, 1787; or his *Requête au Roi, adressé à sa Majesté par M. de Calonne ...avec les pièces justicatives,* 2 pts., Paris, 1787.

For Calonne, see letter 658, n. 6.

<sup>3</sup> Missing.

<sup>4</sup> Mirabeau, *Histoire secrète de la Cour de Berlin,* 1789. See letter 646, n. 7.

<sup>5</sup> Jeanne, Comtesse de Valois de la Motte, *Mémoires justificatifs de la Comtesse de Valois de la Motte, écrits par elle-même,* London, 1788. An edition in English was also published in London the same year.

<sup>6</sup> Gustavus III (1746–92), who had made a sudden attack on Russia in June 1788, hoping to regain lost Baltic territories.

The Ladys desire their Compliments to you, and expect the pleasure of seeing you at Bowood.

### I am with very sincere Regard Dr. Mr. Bentham Affectly yrs Lansdown

P.S. We have chang'd our Situation to have a week's change of air, but we shall return immediately to 〈Saltram?〉 and to Bowood as soon as the weather can be depended upon.

### 6491

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 8 April 1789 (Aet 41)

Thanks to my dear Father for Sam's letter.2 Two it seems are missing that we know of—one sent by the post three weeks before, and another by the private hand that was to go through Germany.3 As to the Surgeon, nothing can be done about him till we have further advices, as we know not whither nor when, nor how he would be to go: but the sooner Sam is written to (to Petersburgh) the better that he may send particulars if he wishes to have the Surgeon before he himself comes to England.4 This delay till next winter is rather a disappointment. I am astonished he never got the letter I sent him by Gould the Prince's Gardener in May last.5

Wedny April 8—89 Hendon

**649.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 43–4. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah: 'Fils Jeremy / Lr. datd Hendon Apl 8 1789.'

Addressed: 'To / Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.' Postmark: 'Penny Post Paid'.

<sup>2</sup> This was Samuel Bentham's letter to his father, dated from Kherson, 27 January/7 February 1789, B.L. V: 12–13; docketed as 'received on 4 April'.

<sup>3</sup> The letter sent with the merchants travelling through Germany did not arrive at Westminster until 13 June 1789, although written in October 1788 (letter 627); the other letter mentioned was evidently never received.

<sup>4</sup> Samuel was inquiring for a British surgeon willing to go out and serve with the Siberian regiment he was about to join.

<sup>5</sup> Samuel complained in the letter of 7 February 1789 that he had received no letter from his brother since Jeremy's arrival back in England over a year before; Jeremy had in fact written, at least once, on 2 May 1788 (see letter 620, *Correspondence*; iii, 616–19).

### 6501

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 10 April 1789 (Aet 41)

#### Hendon, Middlesex April 10, 1789

Hond Sir

You have by this time probably received 4 copies of my 4to (from Clark2 the Stationer in Portugal Street) in boards, together with one in sheets. The former for Reviews: the latter to be bound up for yourself according to your own Direction. But quaere whether it be worth while to bind a copy of this, as in all prob. there will so soon be a second in better plight? This as well as the others will of course be ready compleated: pray return to Clark the uncompleated copy which you have already: unless you have written any thing in it, in which case you will return that for completion, and return also the compleat one.


Papers. Daily and evening 6 of each sort to begin with only once to be advertised in each. The Evening are quite as material as the Daily: since few of the latter go out of London.

Particularly the St. James's and London Chronicle—These go to Constantinople Berlin etc.


**650.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 45. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah: 'Mr. Jeremy B—m / Lr datd Hendon Ap. 10 1789 / abt. advertising Introduction etc.'

Addressed: 'To / Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.' Added in Jeremiah Bentham's hand: 'Monthly, by Becket Pall Mall / 'Critical Robinson Pr nr Row / European by Sewell Cornhill / Analytical T. Johnson St. Pauls Chch yd. / St James's Evening Baldwin Bridge Street Black Fryers / General Evening Pr. row / Public Advertiser No 1 Prno Row / Morning Herald [J. L Ford] No. 18 Catharine Street Strand / World—in the Strand / Gazetteer, Mr. Tay No 10 Joy Lane Pr. no Row / London / Chronical Q where?'

<sup>2</sup> William Clarke, bookseller, of Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.

You might add to the Advertisement if it would not add so much to the room taken up as to add to the price

In the Press a new edition of the Defence of Usury.3

### 6511

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 11 April 1789 (Aet 41)

April 11 1789

Hond Sir

47

In the event of your not having yet returned your uncompleated copy of my Introd. as mentioned in my last, I enclose this in one to Mr Clark the Stationer to beg you will not omitt to do it immediately: as the want of it will quite derange my plans. You know where to get as many as you please.

J.B.

### 6521

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 28 April 1789 (Aet 41)

Hon.d Sir

When books are sent as presents, it is customary to send them before any advertisement appears: for the obvious reason that if not sent till afterwards, they may have been bought in the mean time. It was on this account I delay'd sending the advertisement, till after you should have received your copies: thinking that of course you would send them as soon as received, and little suspecting that you would have found a reason for not sending the books in the-non appearance 〈of the〉 advertisements.

Tuesday morning.

I should have been in town yesterday if the bad weather had not prevented me, or I should have sent this yesterday.

<sup>3</sup> For the text of the advertisement, see letter 644. The first edition of the *Defence of Usury* appeared in December 1787, the pirated Dublin edition in 1788, and a second English edition in 1790.

**651.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 46–7. Autograph. Docketed: 'Fils Jeremy / Lr dated Hendon / 11th April 1789 / reed Monday morning / the 13th April 1789.'

Addressed: 'Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queens Square Place / Westminster.'

**652.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 50. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah Bentham: 'Fils Jeremy / Lr dated Tuesday / 28 April 1789.'

Addressed: 'To Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.'

Apparently an answer to a missing letter from Jeremiah.

### 6531

### T o A n d r é M o r e l l e t

#### 28 April 1789 (Aet 41)

Hendon, Middlesex, April 28th, 1789

Direct to me by post as above. I am delighted of all things to think there is any sort of chance for your being one of the *elect.* I am sitting cross-legged, as our old women say (I suppose they mean making the sign of the cross with their legs), for good luck to you. You do your reverend order more honour than I could have conceived them to be deserving of, by supposing it possible they should look upon you as a man fit for their purpose. As to your friends of the Tiers, I am at a loss to conceive on what data your hopes or your fears, or, if you will have it so, your non hopes and your non fears, can be founded. The intermediate system of election throws such a cloud over the business as, to my optics, seems destined to be impenetrable. This is one reason why my new Jerusalem would not admit of any such thing, for unnecessary complication is a misery of fraud and intrigue, and useless trouble, and every thing that is bad, as I am crying out in every page.

This is expected to cover three2 sheets of my Tactics.3 You will see I begin in the middle, *mais je vais au plus pressé.* As many more will follow next post day; and then one or two more, probably one, will finish this part of a part which I look upon as the most essential of the whole. I shall ruin you in postage; but a friend of mine, to whom I could not address this for want of being as yet informed of his address, will call on you and reimburse you. The putting off the meeting till the 15th of May4 gives me some little chance of having this part out in time.5 Do not let the want of pecuniary encourage-

In the Ms. draft in U.C. clxix: 164–7 the first paragraph is the last and there are many other differences, the most significant of which are noted below.

<sup>2</sup> Morrison has 'those sheets', clearly a mistake for the 'three' in the draft.

<sup>3</sup> The *Essay on Political Tactics* (see letters 642 and 646).

<sup>4</sup> The Estates met in fact for business on 5 May (see letter 655, p. 57 below).

<sup>5</sup> The draft goes on here: 'Without staying to continue this subject I think next of printing what I have to say on the Presidents—their functions—numbers—subordination to the Assembly—Dependence on the Assembly—the powers they ought to have—the powers they ought not to have—by whom they should be appointed who they should be—and how chosen. Though what I have to say may come too

**<sup>653</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Printed version in *The Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents formed by Alfred Morrison,* 2nd series, 1882–1893, Vol. i, pt. 1, A–B (1893), pp. 222–3.

ment stop the translation, if you think the original likely to be of any use, which, however, is a matter you can hardly judge till you have seen the three next.6 I thought I had made provision against that contingency in my former letter, by undertaking for the expense, etc. You take no notice of my idea of publishing on my own account and at my own risk, on which alone was grounded that of my getting something towards paying the expenses I have been at, a prospect I am perfectly content to abandon, now that I am resolved upon publishing here. People (Necker's house for example) would certainly let you have money on your drawing on Ld L.7 ; if so pray do, should there be any occasion, only letting me know a week beforehand, that I may lodge the money at his house (for he is now always in the country) before the draught bill comes to him. If the French system of Tactics is really in that deplorable state in which, judging from what materials I could find, I have represented it, I find a difficulty in imagining how such an Assembly can stir a step without changing it; and it is not a small expense that would

late for what regards the choice of them it may be in time for what regards their functions and their powers. I should have given priority to a deal of stuff I have on the subject of publicity of the proceedings which I look upon to be all in all. But by the provision made for visitors I have the satisfaction to find that what was intended for advice can now only answer the purpose of elogium and justification: unless the States should be wrong-headed enough to do as our people have always done (except by connivance in the truth of positive and [.. .?] law) and shut the doors after M. Necker has thrown them open. However I have plenty of considerations of detail to offer besides the general principle.

I rather wonder what makes you in such haste about my taking up the subject of representation: I should have thought that might wait better than anything. The present people will not be sent away this long while, unless the crown (which God forbid!) should find them impracticable. But I have not time to quarrel with you at present: vide ad interim a sort of part answer in my first sheet. I must postpone a thousand things I could wish to say to you: I thought to have sent by this post a general sketch of the plan. I am abusing as you will begin to see your present system or rather no-system of Tactics, all the while in great ignorance about it, and therefore in perpetual trepidation for fear of doing you injustice. I am forced to divine as to a thousand particulars with relation to which were I in Paris in a garret no great distance from your House I could speak with certainty. Take compassion on me, and set somebody to tell me whether there are any documents extant from which the mode of proceeding—oh, but you will see what I am in want of by looking at the book. Do not imagine as you might from the 3d sheet that because I begin first with the Historiographer General of the Provincial Assemblies I take up with such secondhand evidence. In the 4th sheet you will find me dissecting the original Proces-Verbaux. Mark for omission whatever you find useless or improper, and do, for Charity's sake whatever your time will allow you to do towards correcting any errors I may have fallen into, only whatever occurs in the translation (if translation it is to have) what is not in the original should be distinguished accordingly.'

<sup>6</sup> The draft has 'three next sheets', the printed version has 'those', obviously a misprint.

<sup>7</sup> 'Lansdown' in draft.

prevent me from doing what depended on me towards forwarding such a change.8 An account has been sent from hence by some very intelligent people I know of the English practice, but not a syllable on the way of giving reasons and showing the inconveniences of any other mode, and without such explanation I should fear the naked exposition of the *little* that is useful and necessary, involved with the *much* that is either useless or mischievous, would afford but imperfect lights.9 I could wish these three sheets were translated and sent to the press, sheet by sheet, that no time may be lost in getting this part out before the meeting. If, when the three next come, it should not be thought worth while to continue, it is but a few louis thrown away, for which I am responsible. But the number of copies printed should not be less than that of the States. Were I on the spot, and were you to view the importance of the subject in the light that I do, I would send copies *gratis* to the poor members, such as cures and labourers, and employ people to stand at the doors with copies to sell to the rich.10 As to the

<sup>8</sup> The order of the passages which follow in Morrison is different in the draft, where 'making a change' is followed by 'As to the Defence of Usury I never had the smallest idea of making a farthing by it in France. I did not write it for France, nor was I at any expence about it, except print and paper which has been amply made up by the sale of the whole edition (750) not to mention the greatest part of a pirated edition in Ireland of equal number: neither did I wish you to take the trouble of setting anybody about translating it. Sooner or later it will find a translator if it deserves one. The same with regard to the quarto volume on the principles of morals and legislation, a copy of which was sent some days ago for you to Ld L's.'

<sup>9</sup> This passage does not occur in the draft and Bentham's failure to remember what he said about the *Règlemens* caused some embarrassment (see letter 664, n.2).

<sup>10</sup> From this point the draft has a long passage, which was omitted from the final version of the letter, but which throws further light on Bentham's intentions at this time and is printed here in full: 'I am concerned to know whether you think any use can be made of my quarto book for the public of your country; viz: in the way of extract or abridgement or something of the sort: for as to a translation it is altogether out of the question. /Several/ some of my friends say that it contains all truth: but no man conceives it possible for any other man to get through it. It was all Arabick to Ld Lansdowne and Ld Camden. Possibly among Frenchmen you and Condorcet might be able to get through with it if you were each of you alone and without any other book in a desert island. So might D'Alembert and Condillac had they been alive. The unreadableness of it I lay partly at your door: as much as any body it was you with your Prospectus etc. and your definitions and divisions of value that led me into that track /train/.

As to my idea of a profit you will observe that it never meant to apply to any other work than those that were written on purpose for France and for which the expence then mentioned was actually incurred. The Defence of Usury was therefore altogether out of the question: as likewise the 4to volume on Morals and Legislation in General which you will receive by the first conveyance.

I am not rich: yet /rich enough however/ I contrive to have always a little sum at command for my pleasures: and in that list I know of nothing superior to the idea of having contributed something in the cause of useful instruction to your country

Defence of Usury, how came you to think of plaguing yourself with it? I neither desired nor wished you so to misspend your time. Sooner or later it will find a translator if it deserves one. In that view I could wish some bookseller of your acquaintance had a few copies of the original without risk to himself to sell; but that cannot be for some time, as it is out of print. Adieu, I must conclude abruptly for want of time. If you do not get chosen, let me know whether any friends of yours are who are more likely to profit by good advice than a certain Eminence. But, as you must be so overloaded with business, can not you set somebody else to write to me?11

### 6541

### T <sup>o</sup> t h e D u c d e L <sup>a</sup> R o c h e <sup>f</sup> o u c a u l d [ ? ]

#### Early May 1789[?] (Aet 41)

#### Advice to Fayette

Part of a series of Essays on Political Tactics undertaken originally with no other view than in the hope that something may

in payment of the great debt I have contracted on that score. Dr Smith has remarked the unfeigned respect and gratitude which men are ready enough to entertain for those from whom they have received real benefit in that way: to which I will add that a mans gratitude towards his instructors is not the less lively for his never having been subject to their power. From the preceptors that were chosen for me, English fellows of colleges, /English monks/ I never got anything: those I happened to choose for myself and from whom I got the seeds of almost everything I value myself for were mostly Frenchmen: Helvetius, D'Alembert and Voltaire: not to mention persons living and of whom I could not without affectation speak in the third person.

Let us then go hand in hand my friend with our sacrifices, you to the altar of patriotism I to that of gratitude and philanthropy.

To the account above-mentioned I may add a guinea and a half which I actually paid for copying what M. and Mde Necker had not time to read.

I would not even swear but what I may get reimbursed my £100 even in this country: and then I shall have the more at the service of yours. For the Defence of Usury has been out of print some time: and even in Ireland the Pirates there have sworn to reprint whatever comes out in my name as one of them has confessed to me: ergo if such be the effect of that name in that unliterary country it may in this I should hope prove worth something more.'

<sup>11</sup> The last three sentences of the Morrison version do not appear in the draft: 'a certain Eminence' probably refers to Mirabeau.

**654** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 172. Autograph draft in English and French, with corrections. A pencil heading, 'Advice to Fayette', was probably added later and clearly does not designate the addressee in view of the reference to Lafayette at the end of the first paragraph. Perhaps a version of this letter was sent to the duc de la Rochefoucauld, who received a copy of the 'Tactics' in France at this time (see J. H. Burns, loc. cit., p. 100). Between the draft of letter 653 in the U.C. manuscripts and this one are two sheets in Bentham's handwriting headed 'Marquis of Lansdown to D. de Rochefoucault', including a statement about Bentham that 'The object of his ambition is

be picked out of them that may be of use to the Etats Généraux.— A man of distinction in the republick of letters has taken in charge to get the work translated into French,2 in which language a good /considerable/ part of it was at first written. Having had communication of a very good account which has been sent to Paris of the English Parliamentary practice the joint production of several particular friends of his, revised by an experienced and distinguished Member of the House of Commons3 and understanding for whose use it was designed, the Author of these sheets, takes the liberty of sending them as a sort of supplement to those papers. The remainder of the work of which these sheets it is supposed will hardly form so much as the ⅛th part will be sent as fast as printed, and as opportunity occurs. Any communications designed to correct errors, supply materials or suggest improvements will be thankfully received.

Copies are likewise sent to the M. de Fayette and the Cte de Mirabeau.4

1. Qu'il n'appartient qu'aux Etats Généraux de la France de nommer des Committés des dits Etats.

2. Que tous les Committés sont comptables de leur conduite aux dits Etats /à toute heure, et par eux/ et révocables à volonté.

3. Que parmis tels Committés nulles assemblées composées d'individus membres des dits Etats.

4. Que toutes les fois que les dits Etats se trouvent assemblés tous ses membres sont...

5. Qu'a l'heure que les Etats auront fixée pour leur séance tous ses membres sont tenus à y comparoir5 pour y rester jusqu'à ce que la séance soit levée, et cela, sous peine des arrêts.

<sup>2</sup> That is, Morellet, who had undertaken to do this on 25 March, see letter 646.

<sup>3</sup> *Règlemens observés dans la Chambre des Communes pour débattre les matières et pour voter,* an account by Samuel Romilly, prepared with the assistance of George Wilson and James Trail, translated into French by the Comte de Sarsfield and Etienne Dumont; published in Paris with an introduction by Mirabeau, in June 1789.

<sup>4</sup> This and the preceding two sentences are written in between the first three lines of the passages in French, which are here printed below them. The paragraphs numbered 1–5 in the draft are crossed through but the two following ones beginning 'Que si aucuns membres' and ending 'main forte', are not deleted, so that to make sense the whole or much of this section in French may have been included in the final version, if a letter was sent.

<sup>5</sup> An old form of comparaître, meaning 'to appear' (in court).

I understand to see his offering translated by order of the Assembly and printed for the use of the Members' (U.C. clxix: 170–1). The letter from Lansdowne to La Rochefoucauld a year later (April 1790, see below, p. 125 n. 1) does not, however, suggest that he had written to the duke on Bentham's behalf before.

Que pour mieux containdre /plus sûrement/ la comparution de ceux qui s'absentent, le Roi soit supplié d'accorder à l'Assemblée une garde de |.. ? . | laquelle restera sous le bon plaisir du dit seigneur Roi aux ordres du President ou autre personne commissionée par l'Assemblée.

Que si aucuns membres des Etats refusoient ou négligeoient de comparoitre ils pourront aussitôt y être contraints par corps par l'Huissier de la Chambre /des dits Etats/ ou ses députés nommés à cet effet.

Que lorsque pour exécuter les décrets des états sur ses /des/ membres réfractaires il arrivoit que l'Huissier ou ses deputés éprouvassent résistance ou autre empêchement quelconque il est du devoir de tout citoyen François de leur prêter main forte.

The King I suppose would be ready enough to lend you guards especially for such a purpose. But a habit on the part of the people to act in execution of the orders /support of the authority/ of the House would be good not to say necessary for all sorts of purposes, and there can be no occasion wherein less exception could be taken to the /calling in/ making use of such an instrument. The manifest danger and incongruity of employing the military against members of the House furnishes not only a pretext but a very good reason against /for not/ doing so. But the House can not go of [on?] its own errands, fight its own battles, execute personally its own decrees. There remains therefore no other alternative than the calling on the assistance of the body of the people at large.

When you have obliged the two privileged orders to brush up their particular assemblies in order to come and help make up the General Assembly and have declared that all other Assemblies than the General one and its committees are but assemblies of individuals destitute of all binding force, you have gone as far as you ought.

Do not attempt to forbid their assemblies though you should be sure of succeeding: it /would be/ is setting a bad precedent altogether repugnant to the principles of liberty. All sorts of people ought to be allowed to assemble and to continue to assemble, so long as they /neither do nor attempt to do any physical/ do no mischief.

Let them protest, and say what they please. Every man has a right to be heard: every man has a right to speak his mind. You have nothing to fear from any such assemblies or their protestations: and /but/ you have every thing to fear from the ill example you would set in attempting to suppress them by force: it would be /abjuring/ flying in the face of your own principles.

The authority of the States must lie /reside/ in the majority of the States.

No attempts to stifle the voice of any part of the community—no suppressions of hopes—/burning of publications—/ no tearing or defacing of registers. Leave all such violences to the Parliaments.

It is a bad and imprudent practice to mix with Acts of the House reasonings calculated to induce more to join in the /passing/ making of such acts: for people might join with you in your acts who would not join with you in your reasons: the same thing being approved of oftentimes by different people for different reasons. But there can be no objection to giving the acts such expression and such order as that they may serve as reasons for themselves to the penning of acts in such manner that by the expression given to them and the order in which they are made to follow one another they carry their own reason upon the face of them.

Let success and not triumph be the /end/ object in view: triumph ought not to subsist among fellow countrymen, can not subsist among friends. it supposes /enemies/ enmity and sharpens it and creates them.

Qu'il est loisible [à] tous des Membres quelconques des dits Etats {de même que tous citoyens quelconques} de s'assembler en tel nombre tems et lieu qu'il leur plait, pourvu que ce soit paisiblement, et pour autant que cela n'apporte pas préjudice à leur service auprès des dits Etats: ensemble de signer et faire publier toutes protestations, remonstrances, mémoires et autres tels écrits que bons leur semble sans pouvoir sortir aucun effet légal autre que ceux qui sortiroient des actes pareils émanés d'individus.

Que cependant toutes telles protestations, remonstrances, mémoires et autres écrits pareils émanés d'une assemblée quelconque de membres pareils, autres que /celles formant/ les Committés des dits Etats ne sont et ne doivent être que des actes d'individus:6

This you see is in strictness a sort of hors d'œuvre. But it /that/ is in itself a desirable /useful/ proposition to establish; and as it favours the pretensions of your adversaries at the same time that it does not frustrate /stand in the way of/ your purpose it seems more likely to lessen than to augment the opposition made to the whole string of arrêtés taken together.7

<sup>6</sup> This sentence is a marginal addition, which would seem to be intended for insertion at this point.

<sup>7</sup> Another marginal addition, which may relate to a particular 'proposition', or be intended to sum up the whole communication.

### 6551

### F r o m A n d r é M o r e l l e t

#### 8 May 1789

Le 8 may

J'ai reçu *my dear sir* votre très aimable lettre2 et le pacquet qui l'accompagnoit. Après l'avoir lu je l'ai envoyé sur le champ à l'homme de lettres à qui j'avois dejà confié la partie de manuscrit que j'ai reçue précédemment, c'est celui qui a traduit un ouvrage d'un italiano-américain appellé *Mazzei* intitulé *recherches sur les états unis.*<sup>3</sup> Il n'écrit point mal et entend bien votre langue. J'ai cru ne pouvoir mieux faire que de le lui confier: mais si je ne me suis pas trompé pour le talent je le suis pour la diligence car je n'ai encore rien vu de sa traduction. Je l'attens demain et je verrai comment il se sera tiré de cette besogne que je corrigerai avec lui si elle a besoin de corrections.

Si vous pensiez que votre ouvrage a besoin pour intéresser de paroitre avant l'ouverture des états généraux vous auriez déjà perdu le moment de le publier car notre assemblée est ouverte du lundi 5 du courant, nous attendons avec impatience les discours du roi et de Mr Necker pour en faire la matière de nos critiques et de nos éloges où l'on mettra de part et d'autre toutes les exaggérations que dicte l'esprit de parti dans des circonstances aussi critiques que celles où nous nous trouvons. Mais comme je suis convaincu que les formes et le régime de l'assemblée elle même ne seront pas réglées d'icy à quelque tems vos recherches auront encore le tems de paroitre et de nous être utiles publiées dans notre langue si la traduction est assez bonne pour ne pas gâter votre ouvrage et si moi et mes amis (au nombre desquels je puis compter les mêmes personnes à qui vous destinez des exemplaires de l'original anglais, je veux dire Mr. de la Rochefoucault et Mr. de la Fayette)4 nous en jugeons la publication utile.

J'avois en effet mal entendu vos intentions au sujet du traité

<sup>4</sup> See letter 654, note 1.

**<sup>655</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. II: 184–7. Autograph. Docketed: '17| | / Morellet Paris / to | |.' Addressed: 'To M. / Jeremy Bentham / Hendon Middlesex / by London.'

<sup>2</sup> Letter 653 above.

<sup>3</sup> The translator of Philip Mazzei's *Recherches historiques et politiques sur les Etats-Unis de l'Amérique Septentrionale,* 4 vols., Paris, 1788, was Louis Joseph Faure (1760–1837), who later became a prominent French jurist and magistrate. Mazzei's work was never published in English.

à faire avec un traducteur ou un libraire mais aujourd'hui que vous me les expliquez permettez moi de les combattre. Vous ne devez faire aucune avance pour faire imprimer icy. Si l'ouvrage peut se vendre en assez grand nombre pour couvrir les frais un libraire s'en chargera et ce sera à lui d'en juger. Si non vous feriez une dépense inutile puis qu'il vous en coûteroit votre argent et que votre livre ne se répandroit pas assez pour produire l'effet que vous voulez obtenir.

Je vais mêler dans la suite de ma lettre ma réponse à votre première et à celle que je recois avec vos nouvelles feuilles dans votre second envoi.5

Je trouve que vous vous arrêtez trop sur ce que vous appellez *les formes* ou *la pratique françoises.* Nous n'en avons point de fixes et de connues pour les assemblées nationales car les assemblées des états de nos provinces ne méritent vraiment pas ce nom et l'assemblée de guyenne que vous cîtez est de trop fraîche date et a trop peu d'autorité pour mériter qu'on discute les avantages et les inconvéniens de ses formes. Je crois que toute cette partie de votre travail devroit être abrégée par cette raison.

J'imagine que le conte que vous me dites avoir eté envoyé à Mr. de la Rochefoucault par la voie de Mr de Sarsfield est la même chose que Mr. de la Rochefoucault a fait traduire sous le titre de *Vade mecum* parlementaire et dont il m'a donné un exemplaire il y a déjà quelques mois. Mais l'anglois est très mal et très obscurément traduit et il n'y a d'ailleurs comme vous le dites ni *why* ni *wherefore* et ce sont pourtant des motifs qu'il nous faut.6

Je goûte beaucoup vos idées sur les présidens mais ce qui nous importe le plus est de savoir quelle espèce d'autorité l'assemblée doit leur donner sur elle-même quel moyen coactif on peut lui mettre entre les mains pour maintenir l'ordre sur tout au milieu de nous nation turbulente toujours pressée de parler et aiant la rage de parler longtems et de n'écouter jamais et j'ai peine à croire qu'un seul homme se trouve, aiant assez de courage de force de caractère, de zèle du bien public, d'indépendence sur tout pour exercer seul cette autorité qu'on lui aura confiée, d'une manière égale et inflexible sur tous les membres d'une assemblée où la malheureuse inégalité et l'habitude de la respecter même au dépens du bien public ont un si grand empire. Dites-moi je vous prie si vous ne

<sup>5</sup> That is, Bentham's letters of 25 February and 28 April, letters 642 and 653.

<sup>6</sup> A mistake by Morellet: what Bentham referred to in letter 653 was the *Règlemens,* described by Romilly, Trail and Wilson, not the *Vade mecum parlementaire, ou The Parliamentary Pocket-Book. Par M.S.* [i.e. François Soulis], Paris, 1789, to which Romilly referred slightingly in letter 659.

croiriez pas qu'on pourroit donner au président deux assesseurs qui l'aideroient et le soutiendroient dans cette fonction qui formeroient avec lui un petit conseil lequel seroit censé porter l'espèce de jugement prompt pour la punition de ceux qui s'écartent de l'ordre etc. C'est une idée qui me vient en vous écrivant et que je n'ai pas encore bien reflechie mais qui me semble pouvoir être de quelque usage parmi nous.

Je dois vous avouer que de toutes les choses difficiles que nos états généraux ont à faire la plus difficile à mon sens est d'établir une bonne police intérieure—nous en avons malheureusement un exemple sous les yeux dans les assemblées de Paris tenues tant *extra* qu' *intra muros* elles sont en activité depuis trois semaines, elles ont mis un tems prodigieux à faire ce qu'elles appellent des cahiers pour lesquels il falloit 24 heures, ou plutôt à debattre longuement et inutilement chaque article de ses cahiers qui ont été faits en un jour. On a été dans l'assemblée de paris *intra muros* un jour entier à régler la succession au trône et la régence en cas de mort ou d'extinction de la branche régnante et les bourgeois de paris dans l'assemblée du tiers et surtout les avocats bavards qui en font près de la moitié ont consumé un tems precieux à traiter cette question si etrangère à eux et que les états généraux seuls pouvoient ou devoient discuter.

Pendant ces lenteurs il a bien été forcé d'ouvrir les états sans les deputés de la capitale et c'est ce qu'on a fait lundi et mardi dernier. Le discours de Mr. Necker n'a pas encore paru; en attendant il a eté délivré dans une feuille périodique par le comte de Mirabeau7 qui a ouvert une souscription de cette feuille et qui a dejà plus de 7 mille souscripteurs. Cette feuille qui n'a paru encore que deux fois et où l'on a déjà mis des injures personelles contre l'évêque de Nancy qui a fait le sermon de l'ouverture8 et contre la caisse d'escompte qu'on appelle une societé de banqueroutiers etc aiant produit un très mauvais effet sur les effets publics et tendant à répandre la défiance contre l'administration a eté supprimée ce matin même en vertu des règlemens de la librairie *encore subsistans en attendant la legislation nouvelle que les états généraux* proposeront au roi sur la liberté de la presse, cette suppression va faire un bruit

<sup>7</sup> Ignoring the laws controlling the press, Mirabeau had issued on 2 May 1789 the first number of a journal called *Etats-Généraux;* a court order suppressing it was too late to stop the second number appearing on 5 May (see letter 660, n. 2).

<sup>8</sup> Anne Louis Henri de la Fare (1759–1829), who preached a long sermon at the church of St Louis when the opening of the Estates-General was consecrated at a service on 4 May. He lived to preach at the coronation of Charles X (1824) and died a cardinal.

terrible et exciter de grans cris mais elle est en général approuvée des gens qui voudroient voir avancer la grande affaire du rétablissement de l'ordre et le bien public qu'un ouvrage de ce genre peut traverser bien puissamment en alarmant la confiance et en decriant le ministre qui paroit seul pouvoir conduire au port le vaisseau battu d'un si violent orage.

Vous me demanderez peut-être quelle est ma besogne au milieu de tout cela, rien; vous avez mieux connu que moi-même la sottise de mon *reverend order.* Je me suis presenté à deux assemblées ecclésiastiques dans chacune desquelles j'ai été laissé de coté parfaitement pour voir employer des vicaires et des porte dieu, je dis comme les italiens *manco fatica* et je vais bientot voir mes jardins à 50 miles de paris ou j'entendrai parler fort peu d'affaires auxquelles je ne puis rien, je ne suis resté à paris que pour voir mettre en train votre traduction mais si je m'en vais je laisserai la chose en mains sûres et puis je ne compte passer chez moi que 12 ou 15 jours.

Je serois bien impertinent de me plaindre de mon inutilité lorsque je vois notre respectable ami9 avec tant de lumières et d'activité et de talens vivant oisif à bowood et votre pays privé du bien qu'il pouvoit faire; au reste il a bien payé sa dette à la societé. J'ai fait aussi moi même un peu de bien selon mes faibles moyens et nous pouvons dire Fun et l'autre avec les proportions gardées *deus nobis haec otia fecit.* Il ne manque à mon bonheur que de passer ce loisir auprès de lui. Je suis bien malheureux que cette maudite manche nous sépare et que la mer m'ait fait tant de mal à mon dernier passage que je ne puis y penser sans horreur à m'y exposer encore.

A propos de mylord Lansdown comme je ne me trouve pas en position de lui écrire dans ce moment cy surtout avec la liberté que je voudrois et qu'il peut être intéressé à connaitre le peu que je vous dis de nos affaires actuelles faites-moi l'amitié de lui envoyer ma lettre même et d'un autre côté faites-moi savoir des nouvelles de lady Lansdown par votre première lettre. J'attens d'un jour à l'autre my lord Whycomb10 qui me semble m'avoir dit qu'il reviendroit en may. Si vous le joignez dites lui quelque chose de mon respectueux dévouement. Je n'ai pas répondu à la lettre11 qu'il m'a écrite en m'envoyant votre 1er papier mais j'ai exécuté ses ordres ce qui est la meilleure des réponses.

<sup>9</sup> Lord Lansdowne.

<sup>10</sup> Lord Wycombe.

<sup>11</sup> Lansdowne's letter of 3 February 1789, quoted above in letter 639, n. 2.

Je vous prie de ne point vous embarrasser de quelques ports de lettres qu'il m'en coûte pour recevoir vos papiers à tems. Je suis assez riche pour payer et le plaisir qu'ils me font et celui que j'ai de vous obliger. Quand vous m'enverrez les exemplaires par la voye dont vous me parlez je les distribuerai sur le champ. Comptez sur mon zèle pour répondre à la bienveillance que vous montrez à mon pays et rendez-moi la justice de croire que je suis non seulement cosmopolite comme vous et aimant les *britannos hospitibus feros* autant que vous aimez les *french dogs* mais surtout aimant ceux qui vous ressemblent. Je vous salue et vous embrasse sans autre formule—

#### L'abbé Morellet

### 6561

### F r o m G e o r <sup>g</sup> <sup>e</sup> W i l <sup>s</sup> o n

#### 12 May 1789

Tuesday night

Dear Bentham

You will think our criticisms pretty numerous, severe and perhaps sometimes a little impertinent.2 But the good parts require no observation and civility is not always compatible with conciseness.

There is much excellent matter in these sheets and often great happiness of expression. The separation of the debate from the vote, and the speaking without order are so important that it seems impossible for a popular assembly to get on at all without them, and the omission of them is alone sufft to account for the inutility of all former States in France. Every thing relating to those subjects you have stated extremely well. We had no idea before how much depended on the mode of proceeding in public Assemblies. It is a part of our constitution equal in importance to any, and hitherto

**656** <sup>1</sup> U.C. ix: 14. Autograph. Docketed: '1789 May 12 / G.W. Lincs Inn / to J.B. Hendon / Critique on Tactics.'

Printed, with a few errors, in Bowring, x, 199–200.

<sup>2</sup> It is evident from this and other passages that Wilson's letter was accompanied by extensive notes, now missing. He speaks in the plural of 'our criticisms' because James Trail contributed to them; but not Samuel Romilly, as Bowring would seem to suggest (Bowring, x, 199); the separate letter from Romilly he quotes (p. 201) is much more laudatory (see letter 657). Writing about the 'Tactics' to Dumont on 9 June Bentham quoted 'the observations of two friends of ours at Lincolns Inn' and adds 'R. if he has happened to mention the subject has probably told you how perfectly he is of the same mind' (see letter 663, p. 70 below).

unobserved. It is a great satisfaction to find that it comes out so well on investigation.

The French seem to be much embarrassed not only by their rage for instructions but also by the mode in which they are given, for the election is complicated with the redaction of the Cahier[s], and it seems to be that which has retarded the elections at Paris of which we have yet no account tho' the States have met.3 If they will instruct let them at least do it afterwards. I hope when you have disciplined these States you will tell them how to elect the next and how far their instructions ought to be carried and obeyed. But this part of your task is not so pressing. By the bye dont you think the terms Discipline and tactics as dangerous to the liberty of the Assembly as the word Marshall which in your first note you are so afraid of? That note and one or two other passages which we have remarked upon are not equal in importance to the rest and might perhaps have been shortened. There are occasionally great faults in the style—a fondness for parentheses which tend much to intricacy and obscurity, and generally only serve to introduce some idea which would naturally occur to the reader, and if it did not might be spared—and a passion for Metaphor which does not suit with a didactic work. Haste too has sometimes prevented you from attending to the consistency of your figures. There is nothing after all like plain language, and simple unqualified proposition[s] delivered in short sentences. We think there is too much arrangement and that the reasons might as well have been put below the rule as in a separate Chapter. The present mode occasions repetition and we think distracts the attention. The addition of the English and French practice is very entertaining and highly useful.

In many places we have found fault without suggesting a remedy. To have done both would certainly have been better, but it is not altogether so easy, and to do half one's task is better than to do nothing.

> Yours sincerely G.W.

<sup>3</sup> The Estates-General had met formally on 2 May and for business on 5 May, but the Paris elections went on until 18 May and the Paris deputies did not arrive at the National Assembly until 3 June.

### 6571

### F r o m S a m u e l R o m i l l y

#### *c.* 12 May 1789

'I have read your Tactics with the greatest pleasure. All that is said about voting and debating at the same time, and about a right of pro-audience, is admirable. *On ne peut pas mieux.'*

### 6581

### T o G e o r <sup>g</sup> <sup>e</sup> W i l <sup>s</sup> o n

#### 16 May 1789 (Aet 41)

#### Saturday, May 16, —89, Hendon.

Dear Wilson,

Many thanks to you for your criticisms: the more you abuse me, the more you oblige me. Most of them I feel the force of, some of them my own conscience had anticipated. All the things you say should be done are done; but all things cannot be done at the same time, nor in the same place. That, for the learning of which you wish I had attended the House more frequently, I possess as fully as if I had been born and lived there. Do not suppose I ever lose sight of the softening which rules receive by practice. The importance of the want of order in sitting, I have seen in the same light that you do: but that head belongs to a preceding Essay.

I accuse myself that I did not think to ask you to get me a sight of Dumont's letter, giving an account of the French Assemblies;2 think of it I did: but I forgot it again, and left you without doing it. I accuse you, that you did not put in a word for me immediately without asking; to revenge myself, and show that I am not like you, I send you one I have just received from the same place.3 You will suspect with me, that it is not quite so entertaining to my friend the Abbé to see the practice of his country abused as it seems to be to you. You will grieve with me at the foolish and inconsistent

**<sup>657.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 201. A quotation, introduced by the statement: 'Romilly, writing to Bentham on the subject of his Political Tactics, says—' (See letter 656, n. 2.)

**<sup>658.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 200–1. A reply to Wilson's letter of the 12th (letter 656).

<sup>2</sup> Possibly a letter addressed to Romilly, with whom Dumont was in correspondence.

<sup>3</sup> Morellet's letter of 8 May (letter 655).

step taken by Necker, in confuting his enemies, by stopping their mouths.4

You will see in the Abbé's letter an allusion to what I had said to him of the work of the Triumvirate5 . I had told him of the credit I conceived it entitled to, the use I hoped it would be of in France; the obligations I was under to it, adding that mine might serve as a supplement and key to it, as *that* did not enter into the *why* nor *wherefore.* Names I took care not to mention.

The apparent inconsistency between my use of the words *tactics* and *discipline,* and my censure of the word *marshal,* struck me at first, as it was what had not occurred to me; but think again: you will find that the difference between an authoritative and an unauthoritative expression exculpates me. *I* might call him a drill-serjeant, or any thing; he would not be the more so for that: it would make no difference in his powers or pretensions; but whatever the *law* called him, such he would be.

When you and Trail have read Morellet's letter, put it up in the cover in which I enclose it, sealing it with a common seal, and send it to Lansdowne House: for which place I take the opportunity of sending a packet.

I have got a copy of Calonne's last *Lettre au Roi,* which is not sold.6 Have you, or Trail, or Romilly, a mind to see it?

### 6591

### F r o m S a m u e l R o m i l l y

#### 19 May 1789

19 May 1789

Dear Sir

I am not at all acquainted with Mr Lee,2 but Sir Gilb. Elliot,3 who is, offered to shew him the papers I sent to France. I did not

<sup>4</sup> By, unsuccessfully, banning Mirabeau's journal, *Etats-Généraux.*

<sup>5</sup> The *Règlemens* of Romilly, Trail and Wilson (see letter 654, n. 3).

<sup>6</sup> Probably the *Lettre adressé au Roi par M. de Calonne, le 9 février 1789,* London, T. Spilsbury, 1789, one of the numerous books and pamphlets issued by Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734–1802), who had for a brief period succeeded Necker as contrôleur-général de finances in France, Mit withdrew to England in 1787 and spent much of his later life assisting émigrés. The vast collection of papers he accumulated is in the Public Record Office, London. (See letter 648, n. 2.)

**659.** <sup>1</sup> National Library of Scotland, Ms. 1809, fo. 167. Autograph. No docket or address.

<sup>2</sup> Probably John Lee, m.p. (?1733–93), formerly a follower of Lord Rockingham and now in the Foxite group.

<sup>3</sup> Sir Gilbert Elliot, 4th bart. (1751–1814), until 1793 also a follower of Fox; he later became Governor-General of India and 1st Earl of Minto.

accept his offer because I supposed it would occasion a great deal of delay. Sr G. E. told me he should not chuse himself to ask Mr Lee any question about the proceedings of the House and I easily guessed his reason. If you please I will desire him to introduce you to Mr Lee.

I have had no news of the papers I sent. The Vade Mecum parlementaire which the Abbe Morellet4 speaks of is a collection of forms which are not observed, and of rules which are never enforced taken from Cokes Instit. Elsynge Hakewell and several other books which are of no Authority and which no man in either House would venture to cite, very ill put together and admirably calculated to mislead the French and to render the English ridiculous.5

I am exceedingly delighted with your Introduction6 and only lament that there is not more of it, and that you leave to others the task of applying your principles to particular Cases; for it is hardly probable I think that any one capable of performing that task properly will undertake to compose a large work in which it is impossible that he can have the merit of originality.—Why is not your book advertized?—If you wish to see the Vade Mecum parlementaire I will send it to you

#### Yrs sincerely Sam1 Romilly

<sup>6</sup> The *Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,* published in April 1789.

<sup>4</sup> As a regular member of Lansdowne's circle Romilly may have been shown Morellet's letter at Lansdowne House, to which Wilson had been asked to forward it (see letter 658, p. 62 above).

<sup>5</sup> *Le Vade-mecum parlementaire, ou The Parliamentary Pocket-Book.* Par M.S. (i.e. François Soulis), Paris, 1789. Morellet's letter of 8 May (letter 655) speaks of de la Rochefoucauld having had it translated and the English being badly rendered. The references are to Sir Edward Coke's celebrated *Institutes of the Laws of England,* first pubd. 1628; Henry Elsynge's *Ancient Method and Manner of Holding of Parliaments in England,* first published in 1660; and William Hakewill's *Manner of Holding Parliaments in England,* 1641: all much out of date by Bentham's time.

### 6601

### F r o m G e o r g e W i l s o n

#### 21 May 1789

Thursday 21 May

Dear Bentham

I have been waiting till I should meet with some intelligent Member of Parlt. who might give me answers to your queries such as you might rely upon; not having had that good fortune I send you such as occur to Trail and myself. We are out of humour with Necker's conduct and with his Speech, and also with the Order of the Noblesse, and with the Meetings at Paris. As to Mirabeau he is I fear an incorrigible blackguard and also very deficient in common sense. What could be more foolish than to publish any thing at this time which should give a pretence to say that the liberty of the Press was dangerous? They would not have dared to suppress a journal which had given a fair account of the proceedings of the States.2

The Abbé Morellet's reasoning about your criticisms on the French practice is very silly.3 What has been adopted in their public Assemblies hitherto is most likely to be adopted again and it seems to me highly necessary that you should continue to expose it's inconveniences. It would seem that the Noblesse in their first debate had at least 2 questions before them at the same time. Trail has found an instance or two in de Retz4 where Molé the Premier President defeated the Frondeurs by altering the form of the Question. The same thing appears to have been done by the President of I forget what assembly of Nobles in the Leyden Gazette a few days ago.5

**660.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 51–2. Autograph. Docketed: '1789 May 21 / G.W. Linc. Inn / to J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / Hendon / Middlesex.' Stamped: 'penny post payd t.t.h.'

Inaccurately quoted in Bowring, x, 212–13.

<sup>2</sup> Mirabeau's journal, *Etats-Généraux.* See p. 57 above.

<sup>3</sup> In Morellet's letter of 8 May 1789 (letter 655), p. 55 above.

<sup>4</sup> Trail may have been reading an English translation, 4 vols., 1774, of the *Memoirs* of Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz (1614–79), or the most recent French edition, 4 vols., Geneva, 1777. The references may be to three occasions noted by de Retz when Matthieu Molé (1584–1656), mediating between the French court and the Parlement of Paris, secured the postponement of vital decisions in 1649 and during the Fronde in 1651 (*Mémoires,* i, 287 and ii, 176, 408; English edn., i, 186 and ii, 75, 220).

<sup>5</sup> i.e. *Nouvelles Extraordinaires de Divers Endroits*, xxxviii, 12 May 1789. The journal was known as the *Gazette de Leyde* or *Leyden Gazette* after its place of publication.

I hope you have not told Morellet that Romilly had any assistance from other persons in the papers he sent to the D. de la Rochefoucault, or that more persons than one were concerned in those papers.6 To have done so would be very injurious to Romilly, and to Trail and me. To us by imputing to us a silly vanity of which we are not guilty. To him because he is really entitled to the whole merit whatever it may be, having done no more than every writer does, submitting his work to the criticisms of his friends and attending to such of their observations as he thought deserved it. It is of little consequence what the Abbé Morellet thinks concerning persons whose names he does not know, but it becomes material if he repeats it to the D. de la R. and Romilly's other friends, who may be led to withhold from him part of the credit he is entitled to from the work itself and also to suspect him of want of modesty and candour in passing for his own what was really done by others—If I have misunderstood you on this point I beg your pardon—What led me to suspect that you may have so expressed yourself is the phrase 'work of the triumvirate' which shows your own notion of the matter, and 2dly that you did not mention *names* in the plural.

Many thanks for the perusal of Morellet's letter which contains some curious particulars. The rage for speaking and incapacity of hearing seems to be a serious obstacle to a free Government in France. I have heard it said of Fox that he was the best hearer as well as the best speaker in the Country, but till we saw Dumont's and Morellet's letters I did not feel the whole force of the observation. Calonne's letter to the King we saw some time ago.7 I hear Lady Lansdown cannot possibly live many weeks. Lord Guilford was expected to die last night.8

Yours etc.

#### G.W.

<sup>6</sup> Romilly's *Règlemens.* See above, p. 52, n. 3.

<sup>7</sup> See above, letter 658, n. 6.

<sup>8</sup> Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford, did not die until 4 August 1790; his son Frederick, Lord North, the former prime minister, succeeded to the earldom, but died two years later, on 5 August 1792.

### 6611

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 22 May 1789

Bowood Park 22d May 1789

Dear Mr Bentham

I must first thank you for your Book,2 tho' I am afraid I mus[t] still range myself among the Philosophers whose capacity more than choice oblig'd them to prefer popular to the occult Bodies of Doctrine. I shall however wait with more Impatience for what is to come.

I return you the Abbé Morellet's Letters3 with many thanks, and hope you will send me de quoi il s'agit as soon as any thing is printed here or there, but you seem to have misunderstood me, when I desir'd not to hear from you, till you had dispatch'd what you had in hand for the States General, and to have suppos'd that I never desir'd to hear from you more. I want to know how your Brother does, and whether my Worldly advice has produced any Effect about the Treatment of Ministers. I see that we are determin'd to try the Empress's Temper.4

I am sorry that I have no means of paying my court to you but by the Method a Boy courts his Writing Master. Unfortunately I am too old for that as well as for several other things, but you see by my humble endeavours how happy I should be if you would point me out some more effectual methods.

Lady Lansdown has had three or four pretty good nights, but I am afraid to flatter myself. She and [the] Miss Vernons and Miss Fox desire many sincere Compliments to you. I am

> Very Truly Yrs Lansdown

**661.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 53–4. Autograph. Docketed: '1789 May 22 / Ld L. Bowood / to J.B. Hendon.'

<sup>2</sup> Presumably a presentation copy of the *Introduction.*

<sup>3</sup> Probably letters 646 and 655.

<sup>4</sup> Lansdowne is referring to the anti-Russian slant of British policy.

### T o C h a r l e s B u t l e r

#### 3 June 1789 (Aet 41)

#### Hendon June 3d 1789

Dear Sir

67

When you took with you my list of foreign newspapers etc, you expressed something like an intention of taking in the Gaz. de Leyde, which is beyond comparison the best. I write this to propose an arrangement to you which will diminish the expense to you by ⅔ds. At present I take in that paper in conjunction with two friends: but as they have access to it through a more eligible channel, they propose to me the discontinuing that paper after the present quarter, and taking in lieu of it some French paper for the sake of getting the fullest accounts of the proceedings of the Etats-Generaux. T'other day Dr Fordyce,2 Physician of Essex Street, hearing of the above partnership, proposed to me his acceding to it. I have not yet given him any answer. But if it is agreable to you, you and he and I may engage in a similar partnership which will certainly answer his purpose and mine, and will I hope answer your's. Instead of 4 guineas a year, the paper will by that means cost you but £1.8. Should you approve of this, there will be nothing more to do but to give notice (which I will undertake for) to the man from whom I have the paper at present to direct it in future to you or Dr Fordyce, as he and you agree. Essex Street will be convenient on account of its vicinity to Lincoln's Inn. I enclose a letter for him, which to shorten the matter you may as well be the bearer of yourself. He reads lectures and is therefore to be met with at certain hours every day as your servant by enquiry will be able to inform you.

**662.** <sup>1</sup> Ms. in the possession of D. R. Bentham. Autograph. Docketed: 'June 8th 1789 / Jeremy Bentham.'

Addressed: 'To Charles Butler Esqr / Lincoln's Inn / London.' Stamped: 'Penny Post Paid'. The date on the docket is wrong.

Charles Butler (1750–1832) was a Roman Catholic lawyer who specialized in conveyancing. He had been a member of Lincoln's Inn since 1775 and served as secretary to various committees agitating for the repeal of the penal laws against Catholics. After the passage of the Relief Act of 1791 he became the first practising English barrister of Catholic faith. His contacts with Bentham became close, particularly in the drafting of the new Penitentiary Bill in 1796–7 (see especially letters 1229 and 1300).

<sup>2</sup> Dr George Fordyce (1736–1802), f.r.s., an eminent physician and chemist, who had long been a friend of the Benthams and whose elder daughter, Mary Sophia, was to marry Samuel Bentham in October 1796 (see *Correspondence,* i, ii, iii passim; also later in the present volume and in volume v).

The General Penny Post Office on Blackman Street by Clare- Market will be the place to send the papers to for me: of which Fordyce should be apprised; as also of the hour by which they should be put in so as for me not to lose a day. I shall take care of them, and bind them up pro bo. pub.: in consideration whereof you will indulge me with the Office of Keeper of them.

The paper which speaks the sentiments of the Court of Berlin is the Courier du Bas Rhin: and I believe after the Gazette de Leide is as good as any of them. It is not in veracity and impartiality upon a par with the Gaz. de Leyde, but being on the opposite side in politics it may form no improper accompaniment to it. If you can get a second person to join for it, I have no objection to make a third. I am, Dear Sir

> Your's most truly Jeremy Bentham

### 6631

### T <sup>o</sup> E t i e n n e D u m o n t

#### 9 June 1789 (Aet 41)

Hendon June 9th 1789

My dear Sir

My misfortune was, the not being able to divine your thoughts

**663.** <sup>1</sup> Dumont Mss., B.P.U. Geneva, 33, Vol. i, fos. 55–6. Autograph. Docketed: 'Lettres de Jer. Bentham.'

Addressed: 'A Monsieur / Mr. Claviere / Administrateur des Assurances / sur la Vie / Rue D'Amboise / a Paris / Pour M. Du Mont.'

Hitherto Bentham's dealing with Dumont had been through Romilly; he now opens a direct correspondence and prepares to rely upon him, and possibly Mirabeau himself, for a French translation of the progressing work on 'Political Tactics'. On 22 June the Abbé Morellet wrote to Lord Lansdowne:

'J'ai eu une correspondence très active avec Mr. Bentham mais dans l'impossibilité ou je me trouvois de suivre plus longtems la besogne dont il me chargeoit c'est à dire la publication de sa tactique des états généraux en françois j'ai remis suivant ses propres indications à mr le duc de la rochefoucaut ce qu'il y avoit de fait de la traduction par un homme qui lui est connu et je comptois que le travail se continueroit malgré la grande difficulté de faire cette traduction morceau à morceau sans connoitre l'ensemble et en recevant continuellement des additions et des changements. Mr. Bentham m'a fait écrire dernièrement par Mr. Dumont qu'il désiroit que tout fut remis a Mr. de Mirabeau. J'ai écrit à Mr. Dumont en consequence pour retirer s'il le jugeoit convenable l'original des mains de Mr. le duc de la rochefoucaut. C'est tout ce que je puis faire pour remplir les intentions de Mr. Bentham.' (Lansdowne Mss.)

Etienne Clavière (1735–93), whose name is mentioned several times in future correspondence, was one of the four 'proscrits genevois' studied in J. Bénétruy, *L'atelier de Mirabeau,* Paris, 1962. During a brief period as a Girondist minister of finance he was responsible for the *assignats.* Arrested by the Jacobins he killed himself in prison.

at 200 miles distance.2 The honour of having M. de M.3 for my Editor needed but to have been announced to have put every other plan out of my thoughts. Two lines from him, inclosing two numbers of a suppressed Journal4 which I have sought for here in vain, would at once have been a flattering encouragement and a necessary assistance. The impatience which you say he was pleased to express for the continuation, would not have then received the disappointment which must now befall it. What he has received was the produce of forced exertions, which the reception it met with at Paris gave me little encouragement to continue. Some private affairs, and the superior urgency of some calls of a public nature, had put the Tactics under a temporary suspension in a very languid and sleepy head: and now I am so hampered betwixt that undertaking and another I have since embarked on, that I know not to which to give the preference.5 Mean time I have taken measures for your receiving at the same time with this, a short view of the contents. If there are any parts of it that he would wish to see despatched before the rest, he need but mention them, and it shall be done. That part already sent of Essay VI is so far detached from the rest, and in importance so superior that I should think it might be published separately. One short chapter only is wanting to compleat that part, and even that perhaps may be thought superfluous. It is at the printers, and I believe was printed off soon after the rest. Here follow some of the observations of two friends of ours at Lincoln's Inn.6 'The separation of the debate from the Vote, and the speaking without order are so important that it seems impossible for a popular Assembly to get on at all without them, and the omission of them is alone sufficient to account for the inutility of all former States in France. —We had no idea before how much depended on the mode of proceeding in public Assemblies. —It is a part of our Constitution equal in

<sup>2</sup> This sentence and other remarks in the letter indicate that it is a reply to one from Dumont, now missing, or to a message through Romilly.

<sup>3</sup> Mirabeau.

<sup>4</sup> Mirabeau's *Etats-Généraux.* See above, letter 660, n. 2.

<sup>5</sup> The correspondence gives no indication of the private affairs Bentham mentions. As regards public affairs he had been seeing through the press his *Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation* and considering a new edition of *The Defence of Usury*; by early June he was writing the 'Anti-Machiavel' letters (Bowring, x, 201–11), which attacked the anti-Russian attitude of British foreign policy. On 17 June he told Lansdowne that he was giving this controversy priority over the 'Political Tactics' (see letter 665) and he said the same to Morellet on 18 June (see letter 667).

<sup>6</sup> The quotation is from letter 656.

importance to any, and hitherto unobserved. It is a great satisfaction to find that it comes out so well on investigation.' (Don't let these good folks know that I have quoted them, even to *you*: for they are so made up of scruples, they might indict me perhaps for breach of trust.) R. if he has happened to mention the subject has probably told you how perfectly he is of the same mind.7 Experience, so far as I can collect it from the Courier de Londres and Gazette de Leyde seems to confirm this theory. You *Tiers* people are but half so full as you hope to be, and yet the Noblesse who are but half as full as they take 4 or 5 hours to perform the operation of voting which we perform 99 times out of a hundred in about twice as many moments, and the other 100th time in the compass of ¼ of an hour. Mean time I see hints of things which make my mouth water every post, and none of them reach me. —The Comte de Mirabeau's letters to his constituents, answering the purpose of the suppressed Journal, etc. etc. I am in a rage with M.M. with the Abbé M. with you, with Ld L., with R. and in short with every body through whose means I might hope to come in for a share of these delicacies.8 Your Ms. reports I thank you for most heartily upon trust, for no tidings of their arrival here have as yet reached me. What mollifies me a small matter with regard to M.M. is that it is impossible he should have communicated with me before he saw you, for want of knowing who I was or how to direct to me. I had designed myself to him by the description of the Author of the Defence of Usury, and he did not know that any such book existed. The case was R. had told me long ago *totidem verbis* that M.M. had expressed to him an intention to translate it. No further explanation ensued, and my conclusion was that he had read the book, approved it, and knew the author to be a friend of R's with whom he corresponds. God Almighty predestinated me to be the ame damnée of France.9 I am fighting our people for her *a toute outrance.* This is the occupation I spoke of above, and the only one that interferes with Tactics. You will see I hope de quoi il s'agit in a few days.

As to the Abbé, I have only to regret the having put him to so much useless trouble. Tell him how sensible I am to [of] his kind endeavours, and to the head-ache which my tedious discussions

<sup>7</sup> Samuel Romilly.

<sup>8</sup> Bentham complains that copies of Mirabeau's *Lettres à ses commetans* and other topical French writings are not coming to him through Morellet or other friends.

<sup>9</sup> Bentham uses the same phrase in the opening sentence of his letter to Morellet of 18 June (letter 667).

and bad handwriting must have given him. He should have 2 copies of the Defence of Usury. You might borrow one for M.M. and I would replace it as soon as I can: for the 1st edition has been some months out of print. Poor Ld L. I grieve to think of him—I received a few lines from him I think they were written this day sennight.10 It was then 10 at night: he at L. House and to set off again at ½ after 2 in the morning for Bowood. I suppose it was about Lady L. and from what he had mentioned before, I conclude there is no hope left. I accept most thankfully your kind offer through the Abbé of making a collection of French *nouveautés* for me. I will trouble you another time with the list of what I have. You must read this letter over *twice*: I have not time to read it *once.* Pray indicate to all persons whom you find charitably disposed the channel of correspondence I make use of for things too bulky for the post.

### 6641

### T o G e o r <sup>g</sup> <sup>e</sup> W i l <sup>s</sup> o n

#### 12 June 1789 (Aet 41)

Hendon, Friday, June 12, –89.

Dear Wilson,

It is impossible for me to recollect the terms in which I expressed myself to Morellet about your share in Romilly's paper. I well remember the term I did *not* use, which was the word triumvirate,2 which I suppose was the occasion of your alarm. My object—as far as a sentence of a line or two could be said to have an object—was to communicate to people there the sense entertained by me of the value of a present that was none of mine. Saying nothing but the truth, having no injunction, nor being under any obligation that I know of to conceal the truth,—saying nothing but what was honourable to the parties, as far as honour may be derivable from such a medium and from such a source,—I do not feel the smallest compunction for anything that I may have said, whatever it may have been. Having nothing to gain in any shape

<sup>10</sup> Missing.

**<sup>664.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 213–14. A reply to Wilson's letter of 21 May (letter 660).

<sup>2</sup> Bentham used the word 'triumvirate' in his letter to Wilson (letter 658 above), not in his letter to Morellet (letter 653 above).

by misrepresentation, nor feeling in myself much propensity to misrepresentation, the probability, I hope, is, that I have used none. If I wanted diversion at your expense, I should like to hear you make you apology to Romilly for a no-injury from which you could derive no benefit, and in which you had no participation or concern. But were I in Romilly's place, I should not be much flattered by an apology which supposed, on my part, a disappointed plan of passing as exclusively my own a work in which two others had so large a share. For whatever I may have said to the Abbé, the fact is, that the share you and Trail had in it was very considerable, as the original—in all your hands, and now before me—testifies. The fault you have to apologise to Romilly for, is his having lent me that original, and your having written in your own hand instead of forging his, for the sake of making what was yours appear his, when you knew nothing of any intention on his part to communicate it to anybody. What never entered into my head, I must confess, till you put it there, was, the idea that any one could look upon a paper of this kind as a thing to found a reputation upon. It was always spoken of to me as a collection of a few rules, which would not have been worth setting to paper but because they were known to everybody, but which, for the opposite reason, might be of use there. The value of such a work was as its accuracy, and the probability of its accuracy was as the number of hands it passed through. Whether Romilly mentioned to people there his having received any such assistance, is more than I know or hope ever to know. If he did not, it must have been either because it never occurred to him, or because he did not think it worth while. What I should have done in his place I am equally unable to determine. It is likely enough I might have mentioned the assistance, not conceiving it to be a matter in which either the vanity of talent or the vanity of modesty could have place, but that, as having the more title to confidence, the information might stand the better chance of being of use. But if Romilly would feel the smallest regret at hearing that the assistance received was known in its full extent, or, to speak shortly, if he would care a straw about the matter, he is a man very different from what I take him to be. Your scruples about the matter were refined to such a degree of subtlety, that it cost me no small effort to bring my conceptions to the same pitch. I gave no answer at first, in humble hope that maturer reflection or oblivion would have dissipated them: and because, to express myself in imitation of a great model, I have but one head, and cannot always spare that at the precise moment you would wish.

The time it cost your one servant to take the letter to Lansdowne House, added to the time it took me to write the letter on the slave trade,3 are not, together, equal to the time it cost me to study your two letters and compose this, which, after all, will afford you little satisfaction.—*Mem.* To take care another time how I use the word triumvirate.

With regard to the temporary miscarriage of the books, it was as I supposed: they are since arrived. I waited two message-cart days before I mentioned it. When such mistakes happen, the way to have them rectified is to mention them. Turgot's came in course, for which I thank you.4

Necker is double damned in my estimation, were it only for his folly, and tyranny, and tergiversation, in suppressing all accounts of the debates.5

J.B.

### 6651

### T <sup>o</sup> t h e M a r q u i <sup>s</sup> <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n <sup>s</sup> d o <sup>w</sup> n e

#### 17 June 1789 (Aet 41)

Hendon Wednesday June 17th 89

Come, my dear Lord, your prisoner has broke ground, and now is the time for you to bring up your battering cannon. The enclosed will show you *de quoi il s'agit* now.2

To heap coals of fire upon Pitt's head, I have written him a letter, (bullying, because being a minister it would not have been decent to write to him otherwise) enclosing duplicates of the enclosed, but offering a quiet memorial if he will read it, and giving him a day to answer on pain of war.3 He will let the day pass and then the Lord hath delivered him into your hands: and the milk of my memorial turns into the aqua fortis of a party pamphlet.

<sup>3</sup> A reference to a letter printed in the *Public Advertiser,* 6 June 1789, pp. 1–2, and signed 'J.B.' In it Bentham strongly supported the attack on the slave trade with legal arguments.

<sup>4</sup> Probably Condorcet's *Vie de Turgot,* Paris, 1786.

<sup>5</sup> Bentham and Wilson were mistaken: after its initial banning of Mirabeau's journal, *Etats-Généraux,* the French government authorized certain periodicals to publish reports of proceedings and tolerated unauthorized accounts, including Mirabeau's own ones.

**665.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 153. Autograph draft. No docket or address, but a note in Bentham's hand: 'Qu: whether sent?'

<sup>2</sup> A reference to the phrase in Lansdowne's letter to him of 22 May (letter 661).

<sup>3</sup> Probably copies of the 'Letters of Anti-Machiavel', which had begun to appear in *The Public Advertiser,* 15 and 16 June. The letter to Pitt is letter 666.

Tactics have accordingly been suspended, spite of Mirabeau's *'vive impatience'*—I am ashamed to confess, even to you, how much the wish to see you employ'd, at a time that employment is so necessary has contributed to this digression of mine.

I am flattered by Lady Lansdowne's permission, comforted by the thoughts that she is in a condition to give it, and hope to profit by it on Friday.

### 6661

### T o W i l l i a m P i t t

#### 18 June 1789 (Aet 41)

Sir

I fear, or rather hope, the subject of *continental connections* and *commercial preferences* has not yet had the benefit of your maturest thoughts. The inclosed paper,2 if it fails of inducing on *your* part a similar suspicion, will serve at least to show that *I* am in earnest. If you will *read* a *quiet* memorial from me on the subject, I will *write* one. If you will then tell me what, if any, impression has been made by it upon your mind, we shall be quits. There are enough who think with me in this matter, and who, had I then been at leisure, would have brought it on before now, in places where you would have attended to it. I tell them, that of two improbable things, the persuading you out of the present system, and the forcing you from it, the former is the quietest and the least improbable.

Silence will, by this day sennight be deemed an answer. My address must then be to the good people of this country, whom I do not despair of convincing that the dangers they stand exposed to by the measures in question are much more serious, more imminent, and more palpable, than any they descried in the proscribed East-India Bill.3

Impute my shortness to my respect for your time; and by no

Addressed: 'To / The Right Honble Wm Pit.'

Draft in U.C. clxix: 154.

**<sup>666.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Hoare-Pitt Mss., H.6. Autograph. Docketed: 'G.S. 1 Apl 1819 / Mr Bentham / 18 June 1789.'

<sup>2</sup> Probably the first of the 'Letters of Anti-Machiavel', which began to appear in *The Public Advertiser* on 15 June.

<sup>3</sup> A reference to Fox's East India Bill, opposition to which had led to the break-up of the Fox–North coalition and Pitt's assumption of power in December 1783.

means to any deficiency in that respect for your person and station, with which I have the honour to be,

> Sir, Your most humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

Hendon Middlesex June 18th 1789 Rt. Hon: W. Pit.

### 6671

### T <sup>o</sup> A n d r é M o r e l l e t

18 June 1789 (Aet 41)

Hendon, June 18th, 1789

The *bon Dieu* predestinated me to be the *âme damnée* of France. The enclosed papers will inform you of a pursuit which gained a momentary precedence over the parties.2 You have a great work to accomplish, which, to accomplish well, requires peace and leisure. The more I think on what is going forward in our cabinet, the more I tremble at the thoughts of your being disturbed and interrupted by our folly and injustice. Read the enclosed attack upon our foreign politics, and then, and not till then, think whether you can get me any assistance with regard to the following points.3

1. Documents of any kind tending to prove that Ainslie's intrigues were the cause of the declaration of war made by the Porte against Prussia. I have seen enough of the man to look upon him as very fit for such a business. He had quarrels with Bulgakoff, and has told me as many lies as would fill a bushel against Herbert.4

2. Lists of the *navies* of France and Spain, to assist my demonstration that no well-grounded fear of our own safety can afford us any adequate motive for grasping at unjust advantages to the prejudice of either nation.

**667.** <sup>1</sup> Printed in *The Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents formed by Alfred Morrison,* 2nd series, 1882–1893, Vol. i, pt. 1, A–B (1893), pp. 223–4. No original or draft found.

<sup>2</sup> Perhaps a misprint for 'Tactics', that is Bentham's essays on 'Political Tactics', which as he had previously told Dumont had to give precedence to another undertaking: the 'Letters of Anti-Machiavel' (see letter 663, p. 69).

<sup>3</sup> Clearly from what follows the first of the 'Letters of Anti-Machiavel'.

<sup>4</sup> Sir Robert Sharpe Ainsley (?1730–1812), British ambassador to the Porte, 1776–94. Bentham had met him at Constantinople on his way to Russia in 1785. Yakov Ivanovich Bulgakov (1743–1809) was the Russian ambassador at Constantinople, 1781–9, and Baron Peter Phillip von Herbert Rathkeal was an Austrian diplomat who served as imperial internuncio at Constantinople, 1779–1802 (see *Correspondence,* iii, especially p. 349 n. 3 and p. 406 n. 16).

3. Computations of the number of men and ships employed in the merchant's service in both nations.

4. In short, authentic documents of any kind that can tend to demonstrate the folly and injustice of the hostile plans we have been pursuing for these two years past. It is from the most authentic sources, from Mr Necker himself, that I would wish to have them; and it is in that wise that I address myself to you. I scarce need observe to you that our Ministry must be in possession of all this, and that your Minister can have nothing to fear from communicating to those, whose endeavour is to prove themselves friends to his country, what can be no secret to its enemies.

Catching at a passage in a letter, wherein I expressed my vexation at the thoughts of the mad plans of foreign politics we were pursuing, some people, having long entertained the same sentiments, have been long pressing me to lay mine before the public, as a preparation for laying theirs before Parliament. I excused myself, out of despair of success, till our Declaration delivered to Denmark put me out of all patience, and the ministerial defence, to which you see my reply, served as a spark to set my tinder on fire.

I make no sort of mystery of the part I take in this business; nor, if I get documents from the quarter above mentioned, shall I have any scruple on my own account of avowing from whence I had them. The direct and manifest end of my endeavours being peace, and the welfare of my own country not less than that of any other, I offer myself without fear to all the imputations which the nature of the case will suggest to my prejudice.

What I drive at ultimately is a plan of reciprocal and constant *disarmament* upon a large scale, as a measure of economy in both countries, as well as a preservative of peace. No longer ago than 1787 a convention for this purpose was actually entered into and observed, as you cannot but remember, though upon a small and temporary scale. What has been practised so lately, can it be justly looked upon as visionary and impracticable? You will perceive, that in a country like ours, a plan of this sort may come better from an obscure individual than from a minister. I have just sent a copy to Pit, offering him a quiet memorial to convert him.5 This is only to heap coals of fire on his head, for you may be sure he is inconvertible. Some people pretend to know that the Defence of Usury has knocked up the project for reducing the rate of interest in Ireland. I have proof sufficient of its having made a very deep impression, and certain it is, that the project has been put off this

<sup>5</sup> See the letter to Pitt of the same date (letter 666).

year without any reason alleged. But to drive a Minister from a plan of wickedness and folly, in which he is supported by both parties, by simple reason is not altogether so feasible.

Tell me what you are about for the public service. In or out, you promised not to be idle.

### 6681

### F r o m G e o r <sup>g</sup> <sup>e</sup> W i l <sup>s</sup> o n

#### 5 July 1789

Lincolns Inn Sunday 5 July

Dear Bentham

You desired the Courier not to be stopped till the new French paper should be ordered. We have heard nothing on that subject from DuMont and only know that the Journal de Paris is very bad. Therefore the Courier still goes on. I have not stopped the Leyden Gazette because you had a view of establishing another partnership, so that too goes on; but I wish for your final instructions as to both before the circuit which begins tomorrow fortnight.2

I received a few days ago an unpublished book of my friend Gregory's on the old controversy of liberty and Necessity, in which he undertakes to *demonstrate* that the doctrine of necessity leads to conclusions which are some of them false and others absurd. The following paragraph is transcribed from his letter:

'and one for your own perusal and your friends Bentham the Usurer, and Trail and Trail's brother3 —I have great confidence in the soundness of your 4 heads and the fitness of them for strict reasoning. I take it for granted that you will all dislike and distrust at first my mode of writing and reasoning—possibly some of you may have a different system from mine as to my conclusion. So much the better: you will examine my argument more rigorously which is just what I want. If it swerves in the least from the strictest Mathematical reasoning by necessary inference from principles that are intuitively and necessarily true, then it must be

**<sup>668.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 55–6. Autograph. Docketed: '1789 July 5 / G.W. Linc. Inn / to J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / Hendon / Middlesex.'

Partly printed, Bowring, x, 215–16.

<sup>2</sup> See Bentham's explanation and proposal to Charles Butler, letter 662.

<sup>3</sup> For Trail's brother, see letter 669, n. 4.

arrant Nonsense. If any of you can show me any error in the chain of reasoning I give it up for ever and shall suppress the work, and shall think myself much obliged to you for preventing me from exposing myself by publishing nonsense. I make the same offer to Priestley who will be in very great wrath at the Essay and the author of it.'4

I shall therefore unless you forbid me send it to you in a day or two, and if you make any observations on it shall transmit them to the Author; but at any rate you must let me have it again in a week, because I am instructed to send it to another person before I leave town.

I wish you joy of the complete Victory of the Commons.5

In a late number of Mirabeau's letters to his Commettans, which Romilly has or will send you, are 6 principles relating to the manner of debating translated verbatim from you without acknowledgement and without reasons, which he says he may add hereafter.6 I believe it is true that the troops refused or were ready to refuse to act. I heard from good authority that the D. du Chatelet7 who is colonel of the French Guards told the king that he could not answer for his Men. Our papers, I think the Diary, says that they were all ordered to their quarters but refused to be confined, and that for several days they walked about Paris feasted by the inhabitants; and that all the Coffee-houses in the Palais Royal were filled with them. After the Function on Saturday afternoon Bailly8 adjourned them to Tuesday.

<sup>4</sup> Dr James Gregory (1753–1821), professor of medicine at Edinburgh University, who had previously commented favourably on Bentham's *Defence of Usury* (see letter 633, n. 4). Volume ii of his *Philosophic and Literary Essays,* 2 vols., London and Edinburgh, 1792, was devoted to an 'Essay on the Difference between the Relation of Motive and Action and that of Cause and Effect, in Physics'. Parts of this dealt with Liberty and Necessity. Gregory added an 'Appendix containing Objections made to the preceding Essay, and Answers to them'. It began (pp. 467–8): 'I communicated this Essay to a friend that I knew had early imbibed the principles of the Necessitarians, requesting him to give me his opinion of it. He sent me the following remarks, numbered at my desire, and gave me leave to do as I pleased with them. But he requested that I should not publish his name.' This was presumably either Wilson or Joseph Priestley; Bentham had declined to comment (see letter 669).

<sup>5</sup> An allusion not traced in the proceedings of the House of Commons.

<sup>6</sup> The French version of Bentham's six basic principles appeared in the *Courrier de Provence,* i, no. 10 (7–12 June 1789), pp. 8–9.

<sup>7</sup> Châtelet-Lomont (1727–93) resigned command of the French army and National Guard, July 1789.

<sup>8</sup> Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736–93), celebrated French astronomer-turned-politician, first president of the National Assembly and at the same time mayor of Paris. In that capacity, his responsibility for 'the massacre of the Champs de Mars' lost him popularity and the circumstances of his execution in the same place on 12 November 1793 were especially horrible.

Tell me to whom the Leyden Gazette is in future to be directed

Yours sincerely G.W.

### 6691

### T o G e o r <sup>g</sup> <sup>e</sup> W i l <sup>s</sup> o n

#### 8 July 1789 (Aet 41)

Dear Wilson,

I am much flattered by Dr Gregory's intentions in my favour, and concerned that it is not at present in my power to profit by them. My time is so much engrossed by subjects that will not wait, that I have none to spare for anything else, much less for one which would require not only the whole of the interval allowed me, but many such, to do it tolerable justice. When printed, I shall take the first opportunity of reading it. It seems to be a subject, of all others, on which a man need be least apprehensive of exposing himself: seeing how excusable error is, and how many illustrious names he will find to countenance him in it.

The above is ostensible and copiable. *Entre nous,* I don't care two straws about liberty and necessity at any time. I do not expect any new truths on the subject: and were I to see any lying at my feet, I should hardly think it worth while to stoop to pick them up —not but that I will read it when it comes out, and be ready to talk with him upon the subject *vivâ voce,* if ever he should come within my reach. I am sure you must have gone before me in regretting that a practical professional man should stand forth as an author upon subjects so purely speculative. Have you had, or will you have self-command enough to forbear communicating those regrets to the author to whom they can present no other ideas than what must be already present to his mind, and to whom, in the nature of things, they cannot be of any service. Should you ever have a hobby-horse of your own, you will feel how tender its hoofs are, and how little it can bear to have them trod upon.

Gregory being your particular friend, I suppose, if you can find time, you will not refuse him the benefit of your revisal to see whether there be any such palpable defect as should render correction indispensable, or suppression necessary, if correction should be impracticable. This which you are desired to do is a very

**669.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 216–17. A reply to Wilson's letter of the 5th, letter 668.

different thing from throwing cold water on the whole design, which certainly you are not desired to do. It would be contrary to my principles to ply you with this advice, were it not to save another man from advice which would be more burthensome.

As to the *Leyden Gazette,* my arrangements are not yet formed, but will be before you go. In the meantime, let them come to me, if you please, as usual.

The victory of the Commons I had full intelligence of on Wednesday, and was coming to you with the news, but was stopped by business which would not wait.

The Duc du Chatelet, you have heard by this time, has resigned. There was a report yesterday about town, that the Count d'Artois had once more prevailed on the king to go back to the old system—that the command of the troops had been given to the Marshal Broglie—that the French Guards had been sent to a distance, and 30,000 *Foreign* troops sent for to curb the capital and the States-General. This, as to the latter part of it at least, must be nonsense.2 What clouds were the 30,000 *Foreign* troops to come out of?

The No. in question, of Mirabeau, I have before me.3 The manner in which he has spoken of communications made him by another person, is not altogether what *ours* would have been: especially yours in the same case; but it is but a previous notice, and probably when the engagement comes to be fulfilled, the proper acknowledgments will accompany it. He could not with Dumont *en tête* mean anything dishonourable.

Trail tells me of his brother's being come to town; but when I desire to know where he lodges, that I may call upon him, does not answer me.4 I must confess myself unable to comprehend his

<sup>2</sup> The rumour was well-founded: encouraged by reactionary elements at court, including his brother, the Comte d'Artois (the future Charles X of France), King Louis XVI was about to replace Necker by the dictatorial Baron de Breteuil (on 11 July) and by other militant actions to provoke the revolutionary events in Paris during the succeeding days. Ten regiments of foreign mercenaries, numbering some 30,000 men, were in fact included among the thirty regiments gathered in and around Paris: the French Guard in the capital sided with the masses against some of the foreign troops on 14 July. Victor François, duc de Broglie (1718–1804), was on 11 July put in charge of the troops at Versailles and appointed minister of war on the 12th, but he resigned three days later and left France; he later supported the counter-revolutionary armies.

<sup>3</sup> Of the *Courrier de Provence* (see letter 668, n. 6).

<sup>4</sup> Bentham's friend, James Trail (1750–1808), was one of a large family, the children of the Rev. William Trail (1712–56). This unnamed one may have been 'the Irish brother' referred to in letter 731, p. 216 below: that is, William Trail (d. 1831), chancellor of Down and Connor.

wishes and intentions with respect to me, or to account for his conduct on the supposition of his wishing either to put an end to our acquaintance, or to continue it. In the latter case, I know full well what I should have done in his place many months ago. Adieu.

Hendon, July 8, 1789.

81

### 6701

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i <sup>s</sup> <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n <sup>s</sup> d o <sup>w</sup> n e

#### mid-July 1789

The /De Witt's/ Letters2 are abominably stupid and uninteresting, with however some curious things interspers'd, which I have mark'd sometimes with my Nail, sometimes with doubling the Leaf at Top, or at Bottom, and sometimes with a Pencil.—You will read them in an Hour.

I thought I had mark'd the 4 Vols of Negotiations,3 but it's no matter, for there is so full a Table of Contents, that you will easily find what's interesting. I read them chiefly with a view of tracing the Designs of the French upon the Low Countries, and the nature of their connection with the Princes of Orange before Louis the 14th and Wm 3d's time. You will find several curious particulars upon both these Heads and the Book in general well worth reading. I wish if you read it, you would be so good as to mark for me, whatever can be applied to modern times.

I will collect more papers for you against Wednesday, and if I shou'd be out, Fowre will have the key seal'd up and directed to you.

Adieu.

Lansdown House Monday Morng 10 o'clock

**670.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 66–7. Autograph. Docketed: '1789 July / Ld. L. L. House / to / J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'To Jeremiah Bentham Esqr.'

Partly printed in Bowring, x, 215.

<sup>2</sup> Referring either to the original Dutch edition of Jan de Witt's letters and negotiations, or to the French edition cited in n. 3 below; the former was entitled *Brieven geschreven ende gewisselt tusschen den Heer J. de Witt...ende de gevolmaghtigden van den Staedt der Vereenigde Nederlanden,* The Hague, 1723–5.

<sup>3</sup> *Lettres et négotiations entre J. de Witt... et Messieurs les plénipotentiaires des Provinces Unies des Pais-bas ...1652–69,* 4 vols., Amsterdam, 1725.

Romilly has just return'd the Marquis de Casoux's Book.4 Be so good as to read it soon, as I want Ld. W.5 to read it.

### 6711

### T o S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 29 July 1789 (Aet 41)

Hendon Middlesex July 29th 1789

This is a letter which I am desired to write to you for the purpose of introducing to you the Earl of Wycombe. –God knows when and where if at any time and any where it will be delivered to you. And who is the Earl of Wycombe, you will say? Why he is the eldest of two sons of the Marquis of Lansdown: as good a creature as ever breathed, and just what from his countenance you would imagine him to be. It is proper you should know that he is a little deaf: in different degrees at different times: people hope that as age advances the infirmity will wear away. If this does not I know of nothing else that should prevent his taking a leading part one of these days in public affairs. He has already begun to feel his ground by taking a leading part in some novel propositions and getting people to his side in a Committee on the last Westminster Election.3 Whatever talents he may be able to muster up

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps Romilly had been reading *Considérations sur plusieurs parties du méchanism des sociétés,* London, 1785, the most substantial work of Alexandre, self styled marquis de Casaux (1727–96). Another possibility is his long pamphlet on *Questions à examiner avant l'Assemblée des Etats-Généraux,* Paris, 1788, or his recent *Simplicité de l'idée d'une constitution,* Paris, 1789. Casaux was a one-time sugarplanter in Granada, who became for a while a British subject when the island was captured from the French, but resumed French nationality in 1779 and attached himself to the Mirabeau group. He took refuge in Britain in 1792.

5 His elder son, Lord Wycombe.

**671.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 64–5. Autograph. Docketed: '1789 July 29 / J.B. Hendon / to / S.B. Russia / for Ld Wycombe.'

Addressed: 'To / Colonel Bentham / Russia.'

Partly printed in Bowring, x, 217–18, from whose text a few words have been recovered, although he has misread others. Bowring also quotes a letter of Wycombe's from St Petersburg, dated 17 October 1789, speculating on 'the prospects of the ensuing century' in Russia (Bowring, x, 219). Samuel Bentham was in Siberia at this time and so far as is known Lord Wycombe made no contact with him. It seems likely that this letter to Samuel was returned to Bentham when the young man had completed his tour.

<sup>2</sup> Anglice: 'My dear Mr. Samuel Ivanich!!!'.

<sup>3</sup> At a by-election in August 1788 Fox's friend, Lord John Townshend, had at vast expense succeeded in wresting the second Westminster seat from the Pittite, Lord

will be supported in the most powerful manner by an excellent and aimable character which I dare venture to pronounce will never quit him. In this point however I speak rather from universal report than from particular experience: his father has opened to me a good deal of late and I am become one of the Cabinet Council there, dining there regularly once a week. With the son I have not equal intimacy, nothing in particular having happened to lead to it. Your age and character fit you better for an intimacy with him: the schoolmasterishness of mine acting naturally as a repellant. \*He pretends to have read and to like my great book: but has never expressed any desire to enter into particular discussions about it, and I question whether he has force of mind enough and a sufficient talent and relish for close reasoning to be governed by it.\*4 His father and I have lately come to a variety of explanations: and the result of it is that he is as zealous as myself for universal liberty of government commerce and religion and for universal peace. Consequently he is fond of the French: but the son notwithstanding the unfeigned attention and respect he seems to feel for his father is hitherto a sort of an Antigallican.

He seemed vastly desirous of getting this letter to you. I had already given him one for Pleschijeff.5 His project being to return from Petersburgh through Warsaw in January. I have been just proposing to him in a letter which covers this for you and he to take the journey together if you and he can manage matters so as to be at Petersburgh in time. I have likewise proposed his taking a trip to you at your quarters in Siberia to fetch you to Petersburgh; telling him that if you were apprised in time of his resolution, you would be sure to send an officer to Petersburgh to conduct him to you. If he answers me in the affirmative I shall write to you accordingly. He goes by way of Copenhagen and Stockholm by sea and sets out from Hull in two or three days time.

Hood, who had been obliged to seek re-election after accepting a place on the Board of Admiralty.

<sup>4</sup> Bowring omitted the sentence between asterisks, presumably to avoid giving offence to the Lansdownes. He also omitted the last part of the letter, after the word 'Antigallican'.

<sup>5</sup> Sergey Ivanovich Plescheyev (1752–1802), a good friend of the Benthams in Russia (see *Correspondence,* iii, especially p. 2, n. 5).

<sup>6</sup> Anglice: 'You must come here at once because the very woman I wrote to you about formerly has come here in search of you'. The wording and grammar of this sentence corroborate Bentham's remark that he has almost forgotten his Russian. The letter, or passage in a letter, to which he refers, is missing.

I have almost forgot my Russ. I have no grammar by me. The petition about St. George is granted, just figures in our Gazette.7

### 6721

### F r o m S i r I s a a c H e a r d t o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 11 August 1789

Sir Isaac Heard's best Compliments to Mr Bentham he has got the Earl Marshals Warrant Authorising the record of his Majesty's Licence and Authority for Samuel Bentham Esqr to accept and wear the Cross of the Military Order of St George and his Majesty's Original Warrant, therefore waits Mr Bentham's Commands.2

College of Arms 11th Augt. 1789

### 6731

### T o J a c q u e <sup>s</sup> P i e r r e B r i ss o t d e W a r v i l l e

#### mid-August 1789 (Aet 41)

I am sorry you have undertaken to publish a Declaration of Rights. It is a metaphysical work—the *ne plus ultra* of metaphysics. It may have been a necessary evil,—but it is nevertheless an evil. Political science is not far enough advanced for such a declaration. Let the articles be what they may, I will engage they must come under three heads—1. Unintelligible; 2. False; 3. A mixture of both. You will have no end that will not be contradicted or superseded by the laws of details which are to follow them. You are deluded

**672.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 68–9. Docketed by Jeremiah Bentham: 'Sir Isaac Heard / Letter datd College of Arms / Augt. 11. 1789.'

Sir Isaac Heard (1730–1822) had become Garter King of Arms in 1784.

<sup>2</sup> Bentham had already passed the news to his brother on 29 July (see letter 671).

**673.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 214–15. Introduced by the statement: 'On the subject of the Declaration of Rights Bentham thus expressed himself to Brissot:—'.

No date is given, but the letter, or extract, may be placed in mid-August 1789, by which time the debates on the Declaration were being reported in London newspapers. Although the intention to draw up a Declaration of the Rights of Man was announced in the National Assembly as early as 4 July, discussions did not begin until a month later, and the Declaration was not approved until 27 August.

<sup>7</sup> The *London Gazette* of 25 July 1789 recorded that Samuel Bentham had been given royal leave to accept and wear the cross of the Russian military order of St George, awarded for his exploits in the Liman during 1788 (see letter 672).

by a bad example—that of the American Congress. See what I have said of it in my new 4to volume—the last page of the last note.2 Believe not that this manifesto served the cause. In my mind it weakened that cause. In moments of enthusiasm, any nonsense is welcomed as an argumentation in favour of liberty. Put forward any pompous generality—stick to it—*therefore* we ought to be free—conclusion and premises may have nothing to do with one another—they will not be the worse for that. What, then, will be the practical evil? Why this: you can never make a law against which it may not be averred, that by it you have abrogated the Declaration of Rights; and the averment will be unanswerable. Thus, you will be compelled either to withdraw a desirable act of legislation—or to give a false colouring (dangerous undertaking!) to the Declaration of Rights. The commentary will contradict the text. The contradiction may be persevered in, but this will only increase the confusion—heads will be weakened—the errors of the judgment will become errors of the heart. The best thing that can happen to the Declaration of Rights will be, that it should become a dead letter; and that is the best wish I can breathe for it. My first impressions have been strongly confirmed by looking over all the 'projects' which have hitherto had birth. It would be some remedy if any declaration were made provisional, or temporary. The National Assembly has more than once acted wisely in this particular; but would the impatience of the people tolerate the expression of doubts in a matter deemed so important?

<sup>2</sup> Bentham's *Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation* (1789), pp. cccxxxiv–v; in *C.W.* (1970), pp. 309–10. Bentham commented on 'American declarations of rights', including the Declaration of Independence, that according to them 'every law, or other order *divesting* a man of *the enjoyment of life or liberty* is void.

'Therefore this is the case, amongst others, with every coercive law.

'Therefore, as against the persons thus protected, every order, for example, to pay money on the score of taxation, or of debts from individual to individual, or otherwise, is void...

'Therefore also, as against such persons, every order to attack an armed enemy, in time of war, is also void: for the necessary effect of such an order is "to *deprive* some of them of the *enjoyment of life".*

'The above-mentioned consequences may suffice for examples, amongst an endless train of similar ones.'

### 6741

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### *c.* 16 August 1789

My dear Mr Bentham

My first Idea was to take Henry2 with me, and to seek some Retreat upon the Sea Coast, wishing to be as little of a Burthen as possible to any of my Friends; but one of the Miss Vernons and Miss Fox are so good [as] to insist on coming with me, which makes me think it better of their account, as the Coast is at this time of year lin'd with Company, and on my own, as the sooner I accustom myself to my Fate the better to go to Bowood. We are therefore to set out to morrow by the way of Sussex for the sake of dropping one of [the] Miss Vernons with Lady Warwick, who is alone and much to be pitied.3 We expect to be at Bowood on Wednesday and if you will have the goodness to bring your Books there any time in the following week, we shall feel Comfort and pleasure in your Company and I shall hope to have composed myself sufficiently to profit of it. Tho' I have expected long since what has happened I am for the present very much stuned with it.

> I am very affectionately yours Lansdown

Augt 1789.

**674.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. Add. Mss. 37520, fo. 232. Copy in the hand of Jeremiah Bentham.

A date about 16 August is clearly indicated for this letter. Bentham wrote from Bowood on Sunday, 23 August (letter 675) and Lansdowne would not have sent this invitation to join him there sooner than a week before: Lady Lansdowne had died on 7 August and by Sunday, the 16th, her husband could have been contemplating departure for Sussex on the 17th and arrival at Bowood on Wednesday, the 19th.

<sup>2</sup> Lansdowne's son by his second wife, Lord Henry Petty (later styled Petty Fitzmaurice). He succeeded his half-brother as 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne in 1809.

3 Henrietta Greville (née Vernon), Countess of Warwick (1760–1838), was the half-sister of Lady Lansdowne and sister of Caroline and Elizabeth Vernon. She may have been residing at Warwick House, a 'marine villa' in Worthing purchased in 1789 by her husband.

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 23 August 1789 (Aet 41)

#### Bowood Augt. 23 1789

Hond Sir

87

The enclosed2 will serve to shew you how I happened to find myself here. Instead of the one Miss Vernon therein mentioned, we have both as well as Miss Fox. They came with my Lord from Ld Warwick's in Sussex.3 Ld L. seems to bear his shock better than was expected: a little touch he has of the Gout may perhaps have been of use to him. But as yet I have scarce had any private conversation with him, and he is gone out a riding with a Capt. Jones4 of the Navy who lives at Bradford, and is here I believe only for a day or two. I am just arrived in one of the night Mail Coaches which I found to have much more shew in them than comfort in the construction—no place for an elbow and the sides slope to you thus / \ rather than from you thus \ / so that there is no rest for the head and sleeping is impracticable.

I was in hopes before now to have received the copy you had the goodness to promise me of Col. Fanshaw's letter.5 Ld L. upon my announcing it to him has been waiting for it with impatience: and it is an odd story I have to tell that I could not get my Father to trust me with a paper declaredly sent for me. I missed by this the opportunity of shewing it to General Schlieffen,6 the Prussian General whose name you have seen in the papers coupled with that of the Prince of Prussia and our Princess Royal to whom being an Officer of high rank in the Prussian service it would have been a

**675.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 70. Autograph. No docket or address.

<sup>2</sup> The original of letter 674, only Jeremiah's copy of which is preserved.

3 George Greville, 2nd Earl Brooke of Warwick Castle and Earl of Warwick (1746–1816), husband of Henrietta, the half-sister of Lady Lansdowne.

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps Captain Theophilus Jones, r.n., who became a rear-admiral in 1804 and a vice-admiral in 1809.

<sup>5</sup> Probably the (now-missing) copy of a 'long letter' from Colonel Fanshawe to General Conway, dated Kiev, 15 February 1789, mentioned by Jeremiah Bentham as contained in a packet from Russia received on 6 July (B.L. V: 18).

6 Martin Ernst von Schlieffen (1732–1825), German general and diplomat; he had been sent to London as minister-plenipotentiary by the Prince of Hesse-Cassel in 1776 and as envoy on special mission to Holland and Britain, August–September 1789. He came not, as rumoured, to arrange a royal matrimonial alliance, but to discuss the defence of the Low Countries and the upheavals in Brabant (*Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie*).

valuable communication. He is an old army friend of Ld L's, they having served together under Prince Ferdinand. I dined with him at Ld. L.'s not a great many days before Lady L's death. Ld L. then gave me his history: and as the circumstance of his supposed errand here made no part of it, I suspect the story that was afterwards in the paper about it was without foundation: though I have not yet had opportunity of enquiring. He certainly and Baron Kutzleben7 who was of the party gave a more ample and different account. Thirteen or 14 years ago he had been over here and spent 3 or 4 months. He is Governor of Wesel; and happening to have some business at the Hague, he thought while he was so near he would slip over here once more for a fortnight or three weeks to revisit his old friends.

Bowood has undergone much alteration since I was here last: but as yet I have seen no more than through the window. All eyes here are eagerly fixed on French politics as you may imagine: and full of joy at the dawn of prosperity that opens to them, and of hope for its consummation. The accounts in your paper are very tardy, imperfect and full of misrepresentation, and partly from gross ignorance, partly from low malevolence, generally blackened.

Pray my dear Father let me have this paper at last, nor let the difficulty of getting it copied prevent you from sending the original nor fancy that it is less safe than in your own pocket when once at Lansdowne House. My respects attend the Ladies. Adieu, I am summoned away.

### 6761

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n <sup>t</sup> h a m

#### c. 30 August 1789 (Aet 41)

My dear Father

 As you have resolved not to let me have the paper which is the subject of the negotiation now on the carpet between us without my putting myself to the expence of another letter, I accordingly send you these presents humbly beseeching you to send it to

<sup>7</sup> Christian Moritz Wisner, Baron von Kutzleben (*c.* 1735–98), minister-resident of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel in Britain, 1776–89 and 1791–8.

**<sup>676.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. III: 222. Autograph. Without date, but evidently written a week or so after letter 675. The letter to which it is a reply is missing.

Lansdowne House as soon as you can prevail upon yourself to part with it, directed to the Marquis at Bowood, or to me at the Marquis's as above, or in short with any other variations such as your ingenuity may suggest.2 If directed to me you may put a B at the corner: but whichever way you direct it will in short come to the same thing. If you could have prevailed upon yourself to have sacrificed the 'marble-paper-cover', value the fraction of a farthing, the difficulties might have been got over easier and somewhat speedier: and if my good genius had been on duty to have whispered into your ear what an obstacle union is to portability they never would have had existence.

I am glad you have got into so good a line of newspaper intelligence. Whatever share of the merit may belong to Mr Bell's3 particular correspondent, he has a much surer and more regular resource in the French Newspapers and Journals of Assembly proceedings which the Oracle and the Gazetteer get four times a week at a shop from which four or five publications of that sort come regularly to me. To let you into the secret, it is De Boffe's in Gerard Street.4 I tell it you at the peril of your paying him a visit to give him to understand you have a son that deals with him and to pump him in order to get out of him what they are and how much they cost me—When I saw him last which was about ten days ago he was in the habit of making up packets of these publications four times a week to above seventy different persons who take them in by this channel, which in point of frequency has so much the advantage of the post: You may even have them 6 times a week if you are disposed to pay double price.

Instead of the one Miss Vernon spoken of in the letter which you have, I found both. We had likewise Ld and Lady Warwick for two or three days, with their two boys who are at Winchester School. They are on their way from a place they had in Sussex to a place they have in Wales. It should seem their finances were coming round again, as they came here with a considerable train, have been lately to Warwick Castle canvassing and entertaining, and talk of being there in the winter, when people here are to meet them: but I have not happened to learn precisely how that matter stands.

<sup>2</sup> Apparently the letter from Col. Fanshawe mentioned in letter 675.

<sup>3</sup> John Bell (1745–1831), printer, bookseller and publisher, founder and part proprietor of *The Morning Post, The World, The Oracle* and other newspapers. His headquarters in the Strand, London, were a centre for distributing French publications.

<sup>4</sup> Joseph De Boffe, 11 Gerrard Street, Soho, importer of foreign books.

Capt. Blanket5 came here piping hot from the Navel Review at which he had been present as visitor to Capt. Macbride.6

Governor Parry and his two boys from Winchester likewise took this in his way from Barbadoes to London. He had his Government from Ld S. of whom he was an old army friend. His wife, who died of a Cancer, was a Miss Ogden an intimate friend of Mrs Barclay's.7

I can not stay to write a word more. I have given you more scrawl than I ought to have done in common prudence. It is bad policy to pay you for plaguing me: but whether you send the paper or not, I shall not write about it any more. I expect every instant to be called down to dinner, which always comes some hours too soon. I can find here but four hours a day for doing my business and governing the world.

Ld L. bears up beyond expectation

### 6771

### F r o m R <sup>o</sup> <sup>b</sup> e r <sup>t</sup> H y n a m

#### 15/26 September 1789

St. Petersburg Sepr. O.S. 15. 1789.

Dear Sir

 I received your favour with One Inclosed2 to your Brother which I immediately forwarded to him in Siberia.

Mr Gould3 desired me to take Charge of a Parcel addressed to General Bandre4 —I gave it to Mr Monilaw who was going to Magiloff. H writes me that he dined with the General and gave him the Parcel. I am concerned that I am not able to give you any Account of the Letters you enquired about. Mr Gould is now, I believe near Bender.

<sup>5</sup> Captain John Blankett (d. 1801), who appeared frequently in the earlier letters of Bentham (see *Correspondence,* iii, especially p. 46 n. 4).

<sup>6</sup> John Macbride (d. 1800) had been a naval captain since 1765 and rose to be an admiral, 1799. During the 1780s his duties included attendance on the king at Weymouth and in 1788 he was appointed to the *Cumberland* guardship at Plymouth; he was m.p. for Plymouth, 1784–90. Captain Macbride had quarrelled with Samuel Bentham in 1778 (see *Correspondence,* ii, 161 n. 2, 171 n. 1 and 172–3).

<sup>7</sup> David Parry (d. 1793), an Army major who became governor of Barbados, 1784–93. His wife was Catharine, d. of Col. Edmund Okeden, of Little Crichel, co. Dorset; she died in 1788. Mrs Barclay has not been identified.

**677.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 77–8. Copy by Jeremiah Bentham. Docketed: 'Copy Letter from Mr Robt Hynam / to / Mr. Jy Bentham / datd Petersburg / Sept 15. O.S. 26 N.S. 1789 / Rec'd by Jy B Novr 10 / and from him by / his Father at Q.S.P. Novr 13.'

<sup>2</sup> Both missing. 3 Prince Potëmkin's gardener.

4 General Bandre, neighbour of Samuel and Jeremy Bentham, when they were at Zadobras (see *Correspondence,* iii, especially 580 n. 1). Monilaw has not been identified.

Colonel Fanshawe is now with me. He speaks in very high Terms of your Brother's Conduct, and says, that the Construction of some Vessels by your Brother, contributed chiefly to the Success of the Russians upon the Liman. In a Letter I received from your Brother from Crichoff on his way to Siberia (where he is to form a Regiment) he says, Prince Potemkin behaved with great generosity to him, and more than complyed with all his Requests.

Now, my dear Sir, give me leave to trouble you once more on the disagreable Subject of my Son. I hope it will be the last time. A few days since I received a Letter from my good and respectable Friend Mr Carew, Member for Titchfield.5 He tells me that he has consulted several Acts of Parliament on the Subject; he also applied to some Eminent Barristers his Acquaintance, and their unanimous Opinion coincides with your's to the letter viz. that a Prosecution not begun within a year of the supposed Commission of the Crime, can never after take place. Now from your and their concurring Testimony, I am satisfied as to that point. The only remaining Doubt, as Mr Carew hints, now is, whether or not some Prosecutions unknown to us may not have commenced in Westminster, or some of the County Courts that take Cognizance of such Affairs. I earnestly therefore request that you may give me this additional Proof of your Friendship to make or cause to be made the due Researches in the above Places, and to acquaint me with the Result.

Any Expence attending the Enquiry I shall chearfully pay to your Brother the Colonel who will live with me here on his way to England the ensuing Winter. Believe me, Dear Sir, with gratitude and sincerity

### Your obliged Servt Robt Hynam

P.S. I hope you received my last Letter6 wherein I informed you that the Affair of the Box supposed to contain Instruments is over. The Captain that brought the Box is now here, and has again assured me that neither He nor his Owner ever received the least trouble about it.

J. Bentham Esqr Hendon Middlx.

<sup>5</sup> Reginald Pole Carew (1753–1835), who had travelled extensively before entering Parliament in 1782 and had got to know Samuel Bentham in St Petersburg, 1781–2 (See *Correspondence,* ii, 496 n. 6 and 513 n. 2). <sup>6</sup> Missing.

### F r o m E t i e n n e D u m o n t

#### 27 September 1789

Monsieur

92

J'ai appris par Mr Romilly que vous n'aviez point reçu une lettre2 où je vous accusois la réception de votre plan de tactique parlementaire et d'un papier anglois contenant des réflexions sur un traité entre la Prusse et l'Angleterre. Je ne regrette la perte de ma lettre qui n'étoit qu'une longue gazette de quelques séances que par la privation de votre réponse, la suspension de votre travail et l'idée vraiment pénible pour moi qu'a dû vous donner ma négligence supposée. Je me hâte de revenir à votre ouvrage. Malheureusement je n'ai pas le plan sous les yeux parce que mon séjour ordinaire est à Versailles et que je suis venu à Paris pour profiter des derniers moments que Mr. Romilly peut me donner. J'ai montré ce plan à Mr. De Mirabeau, au Duc de la Rochefoucault et quelques autres personnes qui ont admiré cette conception vraiment philosophique et cet ensemble qui forme le système d'un ouvrage absolument neuf et original; j'ose vous dire, Monsieur, sans aucune espèce de flatterie, et je ne puis me rappeller sans rire la preuve que vous avez par devant vous de ma sauvage franchise, je puis vous dire qu'en achevant cet ouvrage projetté, vous remplirez une des lacunes de la littérature politique, il n'y a que vous peut-être qui puissiez combler ce déficit puisque vous seul en avez mesuré l'étendue et que vous avez jetté toute la trame de l'ouvrage. Je ne vous promets pas un succès prompt. Les François sont encore des enfants qui bégayent dans leur assemblée nationale: point d'ordre, nul enchainement, nulle discussion, le hazard les entraine çà et là, chacun joue le rôle du Président, et ils ont la manie de tout faire. Figurez-vous d'ailleurs une assemblée composée d'éléments très discords, les communes ont revolté le Clergé en leur ôtant les dîmes et la Noblesse a toujours conservé le resentiment de la réunion forcée, ils se regardent naturellement comme des prison-

**678.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 79–80. Autograph. Docketed: '1789 Sept. 27. / Du Mont Paris / to J.B. Reced at Bowood.'

Addressed: 'Jer. Bentham Esqr / London.'

2 Missing.

The letter is quoted twice, in translation, in Bowring, x, 185, 219. For the circumstances of its writing, see J. H. Burns, loc. cit., pp. 101–2, and Charles Blount, 'Bentham, Dumont and Mirabeau', *University of Birmingham Historical Journal,* iii (1951–52), 153–67.

niers de guerre et il n'est pas ordinaire de faire une paix bien sincère avec son vainqueur. Les deux partis ne sont bien d'accord que pour s'enlever la parole et tenir l'assemblée dans une fermentation inactive. Une heure de conversation avec Mr. Romilly vous mettra plus au fait des vices de leurs formes que je ne pourrois le faire en plusieurs pages; mais il ne faut pas perdre le courage de les instruire et de les servir, ils se formeront ou ils se détruiront et le premier cas est beaucoup plus vraisemblable. Je vous presse donc Monsieur, au nom de votre philantropie, d'achever l'ouvrage que vous avez commencé, et s'il vous est possible de l'achever pour le commencement de la seconde legislature, vous rendrez à ce pays un service essentiel; peut-être, ils ne l'adopteront pas immédiatement, ils essayeront encore quelques nouveaux réglements de leur façon, mais enfin les bonnes idées, les premisses vrais et utiles se feront des partisans, la partie de l'ouvrage qui est connue par un petit nombre de personnes leur fait désirer vivement le reste. Vous avez eu autant de prosélytes que de lecteurs.

J'ai prié Mr. Romilly de vous remettre de ma part un exemplaire de la réclamation de quelques Genevois contre la nouvelle Aristocratie établie à Genève. J'avois fait cet écrit en grande partie avant de quitter Londres mais je l'ai refait en entier à Paris parce que j'avois l'avantage de vivre avec un homme qui connoissoit beaucoup mieux que moi la constitution de notre ruche et qui m'a donné beaucoup de secours essentiels.3 J'ai mis un avant-propos qui suffit pour mettre les étrangers au fait des principaux événements. Je vous l'envoye, Monsieur, comme un bien léger à compte de dettes que j'ai contractées envers vous, je n'oserois pas vous l'envoyer si je ne savois combien vous êtes familiarisé avec des discussions et des polémiques de législation. Cependant l'objet est si peu intéressant, que je ne veux point vous demander un effort de patience. C'est un désert ou l'on s'est efforcé de crier de temps en temps un passage. Il suffit done d'y jetter un regard çà et là; je

<sup>3</sup> Both Dumont and his fellow-worker in Mirabeau's atelier, Du Roveray, were actively supporting the radical cause at Geneva, which for some years had been ruled by a reactionary aristocracy. The anonymous work, largely written by Dumont, was entitled *Réclamation des genevois patriotes établis a Londres contre la nouvelle aristocratie de Genève contenue dans deux Lettres au Procureur-Général et aux Adjoints,* Paris, 1789, xv, 95 pp. The preface is signed in London, 17 June 1789, with sixteen names, including those of Dumont, Jacques Antoine Du Roveray and his brother, Isaac. Dumont records elsewhere that in 1789 'je passai quelques semaines a Surêne, dans une maison de campagne de Clavière, ou je travaillai à refondre mon Adresse aux Citoyens de Genève; je fus aidé dans cet ouvrage par Clavière, Du Roverai et Reybaz; ce dernier fut mon Aristarque pour le style.. .' (E. Dumont, *Souvenirs sur Mirabeau,* ed. J. Bénétruy, Paris, 1951, p. 42).

serai trop satisfait si en vous intéressant un moment à ma patrie, je me présente à vous comme un ami de la liberté et des bons principes.

Je reviens à un objet qui m'occupe beaucoup plus fortement, c'est la Tactique parlementaire. Si vous reprenez cet ouvrage comme je l'espère, je pourrois vous informer de quelques localités, de quelques détails qui vous fourniroient l'occasion de quelques developpements, mais je le ferai plus commodement en Angleterre que depuis Versailles. Je me propose de retourner bientôt à Londres, sans pouvoir fixer encore precisément mon départ. Je compte parmi les attraits qui me rappellent l'espérance de cultiver votre connaissance et de vous dérober quelques moments. J'ai l'honneur d'être

Monsieur

Votre très humble et très Obeïssant Serviteur Du Mont

Versailles

27e Septembre 1789

rue d'Artois No 6

Mr. Bentham est prié d'adresser ce qu'il auroit à faire parvenir sous l'adresse de Mr le Comte de Mirabeau, ce qui suffit.

### 6791

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n <sup>t</sup> h a m

#### *c.* 10–14 October 1789 (Aet 41)

 How fares it with the partie quarrée2 at the Heath? Mr. A. <sup>3</sup> I conclude has returned some time from his health-hunting expedition.—I hope it has not proved a wild goose chase. Has the remaining trio continued constant to the Heath? or have any and what part of it taken any and what excursions—None, I presume, this way: if they had, I should of course have heard of it. Soon after the commencement of the Game Season Ld Lansdown gave orders in my hearing for sending you some. Your silence, and the scarcity I have heard complained of, make me suspect the orders have not been obey'd.

**679.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 81–2. Autograph.

Addressed: 'Jeremiah Bentham Esq.'

2 A mis-spelling of *partie carrée,* meaning a pleasure party of two ladies and two gentlemen, in this case Jeremiah Bentham and his wife, who were visiting the latter's son, John Farr Abbot, and his wife, Mary (née Pearce), at their home on Putney Heath.

<sup>3</sup> Farr Abbot.

As for me, I am still alive: but so idle, I might as well be dead for any good I do in the way of my pursuits. I endeavour to stifle my remorse with the pious hope of returning to them by and by with encreased relish. I shall hardly be returnable before term, if so soon. When I do return it will probably be by way of Warwick Castle, which for some time past has reassumed its pristine splendor: Ld L. escorts thither the two Ladies that are here, and it is proposed to me to make the fourth.

Wednesday Oct. 14th 1789 Bowood.

The above was written three or four days ago. Our route is now settled. We set out Monday sennight the 26th, sleep at Worcester: reach Warwick Castle the 27th: stay there 28th and 29th: /drop the Ladies there/ sleep at Wycombe the 30th: stay there the 31st: and arrive at Lansdowne House to dinner the 1st of next month.

When do you think to resettle at Q.S.P.? I hope for a line from you before I leave this place. I have not heard from you this age. Col. F.'s4 letter arrived very safe, and was very acceptable: but after due allowance made for politeness and so forth did not appear to be near so much prized as our Col.l's short one.

You neighbour Mr. Baring5 is expected here from town tomorrow.

### 6801

### T o C o u n <sup>t</sup> M i r a <sup>b</sup> e a u

#### mid-October 1789 (Aet 41)

A° 1789

Supply—New Species proposed. Sir,

 I am proud, as becomes me, of your intentions in my favour. I look out with impatience for the period of their accomplishment.

There are also autograph drafts headed 'To Mirabeau, short view of economy for the use of the French nation' in U.C. clxvi: 1–26, and others headed 'France, à Mirabeau' in U.C. clxx: 1–42. It is doubtful if a letter based on this draft was actually sent to Mirabeau, or the proposals on finance which were to have accompanied it (see J. H. Burns, loc. cit., p. 102).

<sup>4</sup> Fanshawe's letter from Russia, previously mentioned in letters 675 and 676.

<sup>5</sup> Not Sir Francis Baring, bart., the close associate of Lord Lansdowne, but either his eldest brother, John, or his younger brother, Charles. Their sister was Lady Ashburton, the widow of John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton.

**<sup>680.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. ix: 37. Autograph draft, followed by several pages in French headed 'à Mirabeau', 'Escheat' etc. (U.C. ix: 38–49).

Meantime in addition to the honour of calling the Comte de Mirabeau my Translator and Reviewer (a), permit me that of stiling myself his correspondent. As a sincere wellwisher and passionate admirer of the great nation in the affairs of which you are bearing so distinguished and honourable a part, can you allow me a place in your Journal for a few leading ideas relative to the business of finance? I shall study compression as much as possible: writing as I do for those to whose time a minute is a month, and to whose intelligence a page is a volume.

(a) For the *Defence of Usury* See *Courier de Provence,* servant de suite aux Lettres du Comte de Mirabeau a ses commettans, No. 49, du 2 au 3 Octobre 1789, p. 6 note.2

### 681*a*<sup>1</sup>

### T o J <sup>a</sup> <sup>c</sup> q u e s P i e r r e B r i s s o <sup>t</sup> <sup>d</sup> e W a r v i l l e

#### late October 1789? (Aet 41)

 How have you done this age, my dear President. Depuis quatre années point de communication entre nous. C'est en Russie que j'ai /vu/ eu les derniers signes de votre existence: c'étoient les complimens que vous avez bien voulu me faire en face de l'univers.2 Je vous en rends très humblement grâce. J'ai fait bien du chemin, depuis que je vous ai vu: vous avez bien fait le vôtre: voila la difference entre nous. Le sceptre dans une main, la plume dans l'autre, on dit que vous gouvernez comme un Ange. Il y a toujours eu une petite rivalité entre vous et votre confrère ci-devant de

**681***a***.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 169 recto. Autograph rough draft. A pencil note in another hand at the top of the page reads 'J.B. to Brissot Paris 1789–90'.

It would appear from internal evidence that both this letter and letter 681*b* (neither of which may actually have been sent) were intended for Brissot, perhaps under the mistaken impression that he had become a president of the National Assembly, as well as chairman of a district council in Paris. He had so far failed to secure election to the Assembly, although very influential through his journal, *Le patriote français,* and his membership of the constitutional committee. Bentham had known him well in London during 1782–84 and Brissot had given notice of a forthcoming publication of Bentham's in the first issue of the periodical, *Correspondance universelle,* 1782 (see *Correspondence,* iii, especially 151 n. 1).

2 An allusion not traced in Brissot's prolific journalism.

<sup>2</sup> The reference is to an announcement in Mirabeau's journal of a forthcoming translation of the *Defence of Usury,* probably not made by Mirabeau himself, but published in 1790 by Le Jay, the publisher of the *Courrier de Provence* (see Charles Blount, 'Bentham, Dumont and Mirabeau', *University of Birmingham Historical Journal,* iii (1951–2), p. 163). In fact two translations of the *Defence of Usury* appeared in France (see p. 168 below).

Versailles actuellement aux Tuilleries.3 J'ai aussi mes griefs entre lui: je ne veux pas de lui dans mes belles cours de justice que je viens de bater par parenthese: je lui ai bien courru [après] pour l'en chasser. Me voici/ voila/ votre/ un/ soldat/ Suisse/ à vos ordres: daignez me faire enroler sous vos drapeaux.

Tell Roederer4 that as he could not get a hearing I shant /must/ not expect one—that he stole my ideas about Reward and he need not be surprised if he finds I have been even with him in this business.

### 681*b*<sup>1</sup>

### T o J <sup>a</sup> <sup>c</sup> q u e s P i e r r e B r i s s o <sup>t</sup> <sup>d</sup> e W a r v i l l e

#### late October 1789? (Aet 41)

J'écris actuellement à votre autre confrère le Présid. de l'Ass Nat—la plus jolie lettre du monde en bon Anglo-Francois comme /tel que/ celui-ci, pour lui faire /pareil le meme/ l'hommage /à celui/ que je fais à votre /Majesté/ Seigneurie par les présentes.

Avez-vous une jolie lanterne dans votre royaume? J'ai envie d'en faire expérience. Je suis encore /ainsi que/ comme vous m'avez toujours connu, un animal sui generis. Je fais la guerre aux Rois d'un /main/ côté et aux Jurés de l'autre. C'est /voila sans doute/ ce semble un crime de /que celui ci/ lèse-nation /selon/ dans votre code. Vous me ferez pendre comme de raison: mais en qualité de good natured man / et de mon ancien ami, vous ferez bientot couper la corde. /En qualité de bon Roi de District et de bon Anglais/.

Mais sérieusement il ne faut pas laisser entrer ce diable de Roi dans le temple de la Justice. Vous verrez comme il y gâtera tout.

<sup>3</sup> Louis XVI moved from Versailles to the Tuileries on 6 October 1789, so this letter cannot have been drafted earlier than the middle of that month, when the news was known in London.

<sup>4</sup> Pierre Louis, le comte Roederer (1754–1835), did not become a member of the National Assembly until 26 October 1789, but he was already well-known for his political and financial writings, e.g. his *Députation aux états-généraux,* 1788. Bentham had while in Russia in 1787 drafted a long 'Essai sur les récompenses', the basis of his much later *Rationale of Reward,* but it seems unlikely that French friends had actually seen it.

**<sup>681</sup>***b***.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. CLXIX: 169 verso. Autograph rough draft of what appears to be a separate letter from letter 681*a*. No date or address, but a pencil note in another hand at the top of the page reads '1789 or 90 J.B. To Brissot Paris', and the reference to the intended recipient as 'bon Roi de District' and other indications would fit with Brissot's position as chairman of a district council in Paris at this time.

Mettez-moi très humblement aux pieds de Mme la Présidente.2 Je chéris tendrement le souvenir de la 〈protection?〉 qu'elle a bien voulu m'accorder dans les tems passés. Amendez-donc bien votre District—faites bien créer Justice pure! Justice populaire! Point de veto Royal dans le choix des Juges—La Nation est la source de la Justice.

### 6821

### T o C a r o l i n e V e r n o n

#### 1–2 November 1789 (Aet 41)

Report *No. 2*

Pursuant to order, I took post and quartered myself on Saturday night the 31 ult at Lansdowne House without saying a word, but inwardly resolved determined /to maintain it/ not to /surrender it to any inferior mandate/ quit it to the last extremity. Ld L in bad spirits: the tears stood in his eyes at dinner time: and he could not eat. I am but a sorry comforter. *I* am more apt to catch the infection than fit to stem it. Luckily, before I had dined came Mr Morgan,2 whose conversation did in some degree what I would have wished to do.

/The/ My orders admitted of my decamping the next morning. I did so, but having met with some news at Hampstead that I thought would interest him, I came back at night to bring it to him. At ½ after 10 he had already been half an hour in his bedchamber. He seemed really pleased to see me, yet sent me upstairs [before] eleven. Ld Henry whose cough though a trifling one seems to

<sup>2</sup> Probably Maurice Morgann (1726–1802), who had been Lansdowne's undersecretary of state, 1766–8, and continued attached to him.

<sup>2</sup> Bentham had known Brissot and his wife, Félicité, née Dupont, when she joined her husband in England during 1783. He had certainly visited the house or houses that Brissot rented in London and no doubt enjoyed what he calls the 'protection' offered by Madame in them. (*See Correspondence*, iii, 184 and n. 1, 317.)

**<sup>682</sup>***.* <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 155–6. Autograph rough draft, with many corrections. The numbering of this letter as 'Report *No. 2'* was done in pencil, probably at a later date.

Although the addressee is not indicated it would appear from the contents that this series of letters was written to Caroline Vernon, whom Bentham and Lord Lansdowne had just accompanied, with Caroline Fox, to Warwick Castle (see letter 679). Evidently Bentham had been charged to give news of Lansdowne after returning with him to London and seized the opportunity to say more than he feared might be acceptable. It is clear from the last letter in the sequence that the others had been received and it may be assumed that versions of all of them were sent. 'Report No. 1' has not survived.

occasion some anxiety was to have gone to school this morning early. Coming down stairs at 9 o'clock I was surprized to meet him: his return,3 I found, had been put off till Wednesday. This relaxation of discipline betokens weakness in the Ministry: had the Sovereign4 been present I question whether it would have taken /it would hardly have taken/ place: Ld Henry would have been less wanted, and his absence from duty less likely to be allow'd of. The cough, I suppose, serves as a pretence.

Anxious to obey the spirit as well as letter of my orders I would have continued in quarters yesterday during dinner time:5 but finding /relief approaching/ some body was to be there, I declined it and decamped. It is a melancholy thing to dine alone: but his arrival being now known, people are of course flocking in, and he need never be in that predicament unless he chooses it. Today however I dine there. Before I was risen came in a message of invitation to that effect accompanied with circumstances that looked as if compliance was desired. Sir J. and Lady Hort6 are to be there and I know not what 'pretty Ladies.' I have been and got rid of an engagement as I said I would endeavour to do. My papers /rubbish/ not being to arrive till Wednesday I have two or three days which I may give or throw away without loss.

Should I be thought to have done my duty, I humbly hope to be admitted at some happy period to the honour of kissing hands in token of her Majesty's most gracious approbation.

London Novr. 1 1789

Written in fear and trembling in painful recollection of the just reprimands so often received for grievous though involuntary offences.

<sup>4</sup> That is, Miss Vernon herself, now 'The Sovereign' in Lansdowne's household.

<sup>3</sup> That is, to Westminster School, attended by Lord Henry at this time.

<sup>5</sup> The narrative sequence indicates that the latter part of the letter was written during the morning of Monday, 2 November.

<sup>6</sup> Sir John Hort, 1st bart. (1735–1807), had been British consul-general at Lisbon, 1767–8; his wife was Margaret, daughter of Sir Fitzgerald Aylmer. She died in 1843.

### 6831

### T o C a r o l i n e V e r n o n 3 November 1789 (Aet 41)

#### No. 3

 Of the pretty ladies two were Sr J.'s nieces, the two Miss Cramers nor did the epithet seem inapplicable.2 On entering the room I found Ld L /grappled with/ in the hands of another Lady, whom I imagined to be M. de Polignac, or some other fair and illustrious refugee.3 The French language infinite volubility and a reasonable measure of pretention and the names of Bruxelles and other places bordering on France first catching my ear scarce admitted of any other supposition. It was Lady Caldwell, whose husband Sir John, nephew to Sr J. Hort, was also /of the party/ present.4 She proved an old acquaintance of mine. If you do not already know their history, Ld L. of course will give it you. When /they were gone/ he had got loose from her he confessed himself quite fatigued. 'What a difference between Miss V. and Lady C. Her conversation is always a relief, her's has been a fatigue to me. Though an interesting woman as you see, it is quite a tax upon me even to talk to her.' The displaying of herself to him, he had before acknowledged, seemed likewise a sort of tax upon her. If the result of a visit is to be a state of mutual oppression, no matter I should think how seldom it be repeated: /but her part of the tax, I take it, was of the number of those which people are not averse to pay/ but on her part I believe the tax did not meet with much reluctance.

If Ld L could be made proud and /or/ vain it would be [by] Miss F.5 A speech of hers was t'other day repeated with great triumph. Being asked whether she intended to go this winter to

**683.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 156. Autograph rough draft, with many corrections. 'No 3' in pencil at top.

This third report was evidently written on Tuesday, 3 November, since events on Wednesday and Thursday are referred to as in the future.

2 Sophia and Elizabeth Cramer, daughters of Sir John Coghill (who had changed his name from Cramer), and Mary, née Hort, sister of Sir John Hort. The elder, Sophia, married in 1801 Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Doyle. A crossed-out following sentence in the draft reads: 'They seem not a year or so older than his wife.'

3 As Bentham goes on to explain, the lady turned out to be not the refugee duchesse de Polignac, but the French-speaking Harriet, Lady Caldwell.

4 Sir John Caldwell (1750–1830), son of Sir James Caldwell, the 4th baronet, and Elizabeth, sister of Sir John Hort. He married Harriet, daughter of Hugh Meynell.

<sup>5</sup> Caroline Fox.

Ampthill.6 —No, says she, that I won't, if I can be of any use to Ld L.

I had a curiosity to see Sir J. H. ['s] bagatelle7 and his stile of living in it. Ld L /whose political capacity is /politics are/ ever busy who has an insidious /way/ knack at divining from circumstances and situations what will be acceptable to his friends, conceived as much, though I had never let slip the smallest hint of it. Sir J. gave me a second and serious invitation to Lisbon, but would not have given me a dinner in England if he had not been forced to it. Sir J. in giving the invitation to Ld L. stopt there: Ld L. added, and Mr B. Lady H. after the invitation /gave/ introduced the appendage/ added Mr B. of her own accord, and without having heard what passed before. My modesty puts the most natural construction upon the difference and I say to myself, see what it is to be a dangerous man.8

I am in agonies at the thoughts of this temerity repeated twice repeated in the compass of 5 days. Evil suggestion is /the/ my sole excuse. The original sin lies at the door of Ld L. The relapses are all I have to answer for. He knows of neither. Miss V. and Miss Fox seem desirous of French news: I shall send them my Papers. May not mine accompany them?—Certainly—I'll send them then.— Do so—and won't you write?—I was so much surprized and startled /at/ by the proposition that I should not wonder /if/ to hear that my countenance exhibited symptoms of reluctance. Yet how could I /do otherwise/ avoid complying with it? And when a mans foot slips and breaks the ice, head and /shoulders/ ears are but too apt to follow./If ice is broke what more natural than to tumble in head over ears/. My comfort is the worst that can happen that the reprimand if it does come will first light upon Ld L. so that the force of it will be in some degree broken before it /descends/ reaches/ comes down to me.9

Ld L. desires me to dine at L. House /on Wednesday/ tomorrow; being the first day of meeting of a weekly /meeting/ club proposed

6 Ampthill Park, a Bedfordshire residence of John, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory, Caroline Fox's uncle.

<sup>7</sup> That is, a small but luxurious country house, comparable to the chateau de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne.

8 A paragraph interpolated here, and reappearing in slightly different phrasing a few lines below, runs: 'The proposition startled me. The physiognomists whose interpretations have sometimes sat so heavy on me might for aught I know have mistaken diffidence for reluctance. But could I do otherwise than comply? and when a man's foot slips and breaks the ice, how apt are head and ears to follow.'

<sup>9</sup> The whole draft letter is scored through in pencil up to this point, perhaps at a later date.

to be formed of the friends of the new principles /liberality/, or as some would say, of mischief. What shall it be called? The New Principle Club, the Regeneration Club, the Philo-Gallicon Society. Miss F. is too much on our side to betray us to her Uncle Charles, or even which would be the same thing, to her Brother.10 If they get hold of us what fine portraits there would be of us in the Opposition papers?

Ld L. would likewise have me stay Thursday, to meet Mr. Towneley11 and Mr Agar12: because Mr T. has a capital collection of Statues, and Mr A. of pictures. What are they to me, who knows no more of statues than a statue nor of pictures than a picture? I wont stay a minute longer for any such idleness. /Having/ When I have given /yesterday/ today to curiosity and tomorrow to political sympathy, my disposable time will be run out. Since Miss F. condescended to accept a share of it, it is a sacred thing in my eyes, and not to be profaned to vulgar uses.

If these /fruits of my indiscretion should ever be betray'd/ letters are ever mentioned to Ld L. first /for the joke sake/ try him with some of the particulars, if any such there should be which are not mentioned in his letters; without letting him know whence you got them, and see how impressed he will be. The joke though suggested by me being purified by the lips through which it passes will not be of the number of my foolish jokes.

### 6841

### T o C a r o l i n e V e r n o n

#### 4 November 1789 (Aet 41)

Wednesday Novr.

This day the Phileleutheran or Phillogallicon /Assembly/ Society, or whatever other name it is to be called by, for the

<sup>10</sup> Caroline Fox was conducting a vigorous correspondence with her brother, Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3rd Baron Holland (1773–1840), who was in close touch with their uncle, Charles James Fox (1744–1806).

<sup>11</sup> Charles Towneley (1737–1805), who was educated at Douai and lived in Rome, 1767–72, studying ancient art and collecting antiques. He presented a collection of statues to the British Museum in 1805. The Towneley Gallery was at No. 7 Park Street, now Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster. See J. T. Smith, *Nollekens and his Times,* i, 1920, p. 314 and illustration.

<sup>12</sup> Welbore Ellis Agar (1735–1805), commissioner of Customs, whose 'exquisite collection of pictures' is mentioned in Boswell's *Johnson* (G. B. Hill edn., rev. L. F. Powell, vol. iii, Oxford, 1934, p. 118 n. 3).

**684.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 161. Autograph rough draft, with corrections. The letter is dated according to the entries in the Lansdowne House Dinner Books.

definitive sanction of the Sovereign is not yet arriv'd, met in course for the second time. It now /was much more numerous, it was composed/ consisted partly of the friends to liberty, partly of enemies, and partly of people who /do not trouble their heads/ care nothing about the matter. Whence the idea /of the composition originated/ came I will not take upon me to determine: whether from the Regency Committee, half Pittites and half Foxites or from the Prussian army, half natives and half enemies. If the former the addition of an armed neutrality /seemed a sort of/ was an improvement upon the former. If publicans and sinners were never to be admitted, what hopes of increasing the number of the elect. The latter it must be confessed were considerably the majority: their number was increased this time by the presence of the Patriarch,2 and that of a foreign member, M. du Rouveray.3

Alas! /Who will/ what a wicked world this is we live in! The Minister's promises are made by his French Cook.4 It turns out after all that my French papers have /none of them/ never been sent to Warwick with the rest. By this most barbarous of all breaches of faith my credit has been suffering at the Castle, all this long while and my property lost the use /to which it owed/ which gave it the chief value in my eyes. /It is just the same/. This is just the same trick which the Garde des Sceaux /play'd/ served the National Assembly.5 This comes of keeping bad /aristocratical/ company and harbouring Refugee Duchesses,6 concerning whom I humbly propose he may be called to a strict account. It is needless to repeat the reproaches in which a very just resentment endeavoured to find vent. Dismission was threatened and shall certainly be inflicted if he perseveres in his offence. He begged they might go through his hands instead of etc. because etc.—and behold the consequence.

Another intrigue of his is to get the fee simple not only of these but all the French papers I have taken in. I see through the design

<sup>2</sup> Dr Richard Price (1723–91), long an intimate friend of Lord Lansdowne; his earlier writings in defence of the American colonists had been deplored by Bentham, but they were now on good terms (see *Correspondence,* ii, 23 and 23 n. 6, and below. pp. 214 and 263).

<sup>3</sup> Jacques Antoine Du Roveray, the friend of Dumont, who was paying a short visit to England.

<sup>4</sup> Bentham's complaint, which is only half-humorous, is that Lansdowne had not fulfilled his undertaking to forward Bentham's French periodicals to Warwick Castle.

<sup>5</sup> Probably a reference to Charles Louis de Paule de Barentin (1738–1819), who was Garde des Sceaux when the Etats-Généraux first met.

<sup>6</sup> Not, however, the duchesse de Polignac, who had fled from France to Switzerland in July 1789 and from there to Vienna, where she died in 1795 (see letter 683. n.3).

and am not to be so imposed upon. Part of them I can not do without, the other part is trash not worth preserving. I see through the design and am not to be so imposed upon. One part of it is a plot against my independence, the other against my /honesty/ integrity. He wants to make me turn cheat, and put off at the full price articles that never were good for much and are now worth nothing. Candour dictates all my interpretations.

### 6851

### T o C a r o l i n e V e r n o n

#### 4, 5 November 1789 (Aet 41)

#### No 4

 A note2 from Miss Vernon found last night upon my table. I am all confusion at the unexpected honour, and rejoiced at the good /news/ tidings it gives of Miss Elizabeth. She and Miss Fox too, I am told sometimes exercise their pens. Reading to be sure is but /an imperfect compensation for/ a poor succedaneum to hearing but it is the only one.—I wonder whether a man's purposes would be more likely to be served or disserved by hinting at old claims?

To countenance Ld Henry's stay from School, Ld L. got an opinion from Mr Du Barre3 that his cough required it. Not being present when the opinion was obtained, I can say nothing about corruption or undue influence. There seems just enough of the cough to countenance the opinion. I mean no reflection upon Ld Henry, with whom I see no reason to suspect the idea /to have/ originated.

#### Thursday

Today is a holiday, there is an end of the Cough! The Cough has done its business and Ld H. goes to school tomorrow. Ld L.

2 Missing.

**<sup>685.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 157. Autograph draft, with corrections. Apparently begun on Wednesday, 4 November, and dealing with events of that day, but mostly written on the Thursday. The heading 'No. 4' is in pencil and probably added at a later date. It is actually the 5th report in the sequence.

<sup>3</sup> The Rev. Peter Debarry (*c.* 1724–1814), the tutor of Lord Henry, both while he was at Westminster School and afterwards at Edinburgh University. Debarry was himself educated at Westminster School and then at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was described by Lord Adam Gordon as 'a man of very uncommon good character, and well informed' (A. Dalzel, *History of the University of Edinburgh,* 2 vols., 1862, i, 131). He ended his days as vicar of Burbage, Wiltshire.

has been to Court, talked French politics with the K. and the eye of the Sovereign seems to have exercised a soothing and benignant influence. To day he visits the Queen meaning the Queen consort, but I believe would still more gladly see the Queen Regent whose Court is kept at present at the Castle.4 I make my retreat this instant, wrapping myself up in my virtue, and leaving the pictures and Statues unvisited, the garret unadmired, and the Piano-forte unaccompanied.

When tea was over, Miss Betsy5 redescended with me to the dining-room where the piano forte is, with the magnificent Lady Caldwell /for her second/ to /escort/ her /and sing second/. Gen. Clark6 came in soon after our return, and Lady Caldwell lost Ld Lansdowne. Sir J. Coghill7 joined conversation with me before supper, and gave me an invitation in form to Coghill-hall. What is the English of all this? (A kind word had doubtless dropt from Ld L. during my absence.) To a man so /accustomed/ used to rebuffs and reprimands and /averse or frozen/ cold looks, it /was/ is so much Arabic.

It was agreed between the 2 sisters that the soul of one of them inhabited the Garret, and that that of the other was rivetted to the Piano-forte /on the Ground floor/ in the room below.8

Temptations of a /more animated kind than pictures and statues/ different kind awaited me at Sr John Hort's. The company consisted of the 3 Sr Johns9 with the wives of two of them, the daughters of Sr. J. Coghill and the Son. The day before I had sat between them at dinner, though nearest as Ld L. was pleased to observe to the youngest whom he thinks the handsomest. Betsy Cramer (that I find is her stile and title) now lamented in her most pathetic terms, the habitual distress she was in in the country for want of an accompaniment. Miss Cramer, after Sir J. Hort had shown me his house, took for granted I had not seen what she called her Garret, and /extorted bespoke/ extracted /expressions of concern/ a regret for my loss and of desire to make myself amends for it another time.

<sup>5</sup> The younger Miss Cramer.

<sup>6</sup> Perhaps Sir Alured Clarke (?1745–1832), a major-general at this date, later a field-marshal.

7 Sir John Coghill, 1st bart. (1732–90), who had assumed that surname in 1778, having previously been named Cramer. He married Mary, sister of Sir John Hort; she died 1815.

<sup>8</sup> The draft letter is scored out in pencil to this point.

<sup>9</sup> The three Sir Johns: Coghill, Caldwell and Hort.

<sup>4</sup> That is, Lord Lansdowne had been received in audience by King George III and was to see Queen Charlotte that day, but would prefer to see 'the Queen Regent', Miss Vernon herself.

The decorations /were/ are planned by her and are executing by her own hands. Their notion /must be/ is that every body who is seen with Ld Lansdowne must be somebody. He knows or affects to know nothing about the matter. He laughed at me as you may imagine, nor will Miss Fox be behind-hand with him. I told him I was duly sensible of /all these/ the honour but /should not/ did not mean to profit by it. What makes me remember the very words is that I was taxed with having composed them as the Members of the Nat. Assembly compose their speeches. I need not tell you how full he is of plots and stratagems; one of them seems to be rub off some of the rust from your unworthy worshipper, but it has eaten in too deep to be got rid of. They all dine here on Friday, and I slink back into my shell tomorrow. The opinion formerly declared on that head by the sovereign, renders me proof against the repeated mandates of the Minister. My ambition centres on a visit to Wycombe one of these days. What plan of intrigue would /give/ afford me the best chance /for compassing it/ of procuring an invitation?

This which as far as it goes is the simple truth you may as well hear of from me; for you will hear of it of course from Ld L. with improvements to /render/ make it more laughable.

### 6861

### T o C a r o l i n e V e r n o n

#### *c.* 6 November 1789 (Aet 41)

There is a report abroad, I find, that Miss Fox has taken to working of miracles; making the dumb to speak. No places more proper than old castles for romantic exhibitions: but the castle of St Angelo must now yield to that of Warwick. His Holiness has never yet been able to do any thing like it: oft as he has been seen to rub his head for ¾ of an hour together upon St Peter's toe, as Mr Ord,2 an eye witness assures us. Which of three attributes, wit, beauty or severity had the greatest share in producing the effect, the /historians/ commentators have not /pronounced/ settled. When the Devil loses in one quarter he is but too apt to gain in

<sup>2</sup> Possibly Thomas Orde, afterwards Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton (1746–1807), a friend and political supporter of Lord Lansdowne.

**<sup>686.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 162. Autograph draft, with corrections. If sent, this letter may be dated as between letters 685 and 687, since there is reference to 'compliments cold as ice' in acknowledgement of previous letters, whereas letter 687 replies to what was clearly a more substantial communication from Miss Vernon.

another. This *miracle* has been an occasion of sinning to an humble admirer. It has filled him with envy /jealousy/. He regards with envy /as well as towards/ the patient on whom the miracle was wrought and /as toward/ the correspondent to whom the news of it was written. After wearing his fingers ends out with writing, he gets nothing but compliments cold as ice and short as sailors' prayers.

### 6871

## T o C a r o l i n e V e r n o n

10 November 1789 (Aet 41)

#### No 5

Sent from Hendon. Novr 10th Tuesday 1789

 A cover from Warwick!2 I tremble with apprehension—what can it enclose? My own stuff back again? Let me feel—it is hardly thick enough for that—a severe and freezing reprimand? Let me suppose it be. I will pluck up my spirits, however, and face it at any rate—Confession and submission may perhaps make my peace. But why thus apprehensive? as if any reprimand, how severe so ever, would not be less so than disdainful silence?

Pending these debates, the letter has been lying a good hour unopened on the table. When a letter comes from an interesting quarter my procrastinating temper finds in either side of the alternative reason for delay. If something unpleasant is apprehended the evil /moment/ hour is to be staved off: if something pleasing is expected, the /flutter/luxury/ pleasure of expectation is to be protracted.

A reprieve! a reprieve! It is even so. The Sovereign3 with the advice of the Privy Council has borrowed the sceptre of Ahasuerus, and stretched it out in token of /forgiveness/ pardon to her devoted supplicant. It is a charter of pardon and the lustre of grace beams forth in each line.

To whose pen am I indebted this second time? Not to Miss Vernon's: the /hand/ writing though not dissimilar is not /precisely/ exactly the same. Not Miss Fox's: it does not /altogether resemble/ exactly agree with the /songs/ signature I have seen in /some of her/

**<sup>687.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 158–60. Autograph draft, with corrections. The heading 'No 5' is in pencil and probably added at a later date.

<sup>2</sup> Missing.

<sup>3</sup> That is, Caroline Vernon.

her Music books, the only production of her pen /which my timid inquisitiveness /stands accused of/ has been able to discover/ I have yet had opportunity to admire. Condescension begets presumption —A third time let me hope the youngest of the Graces will join her hand with the rest and compleat the circle.4

Heigh ho! It is time I should take breath and compose myself— I am /running unawares/ getting into prose bewitched the nearest approach I can /should/ ever make to verse. No /inferior/ other attraction /could/ would have drawn me thus within the verge of ridicule.

One thing still alarms me. At the /writing/ date of this second favour the last and most indiscreet of my indiscretions could scarcely I think have arrived. It was put into the post on Thursday (5th) and Miss Elizabeth's letter for such I will venture to call it being dated the 6th must I think according to the course of the post at Warwick have been dispatched before mine came in.

With submission the /epithet/ term Philogallicon applied to the Society in question /fails/ is not altogether commensurate to the extent of their views.5 Phileleutheran—friendly to liberty—would be more expressive and do them more ample justice. If French men are at present the most conspicuous object of their affections, is it not as French men, but as men duly sensible of the value of liberty and /striving/ doing their utmost to attain it; and in consideration of the rank their numbers give them in the catalogue of nations. The term Philogallicon is that which the Sovereign's unerring wisdom /selected/ chose as the least unfit of the three candidates presented her by her unworthy servant, while her dignity forbad her substituting any other. The function of a Sovereign /the function of her exalted station/ according to the principles of true Monarchy is not to originate acts, but only to give to such as he or she is pleased to approve the sanction of the sceptre.6 The appellation of New-principle was never seriously proposed. The faint marks of expressiveness it bears at the hour of its birth would be wearing

<sup>4</sup> Bentham believes that Elizabeth Vernon may have penned this letter, but hopes in any case to receive another one from the ladies, perhaps in her hand.

<sup>5</sup> The weekly meetings at Lansdowne House, of which Bentham informed the ladies on 3 November (letter 683). Their reply evidently told him that 'the Sovereign', i.e. Caroline Vernon, preferred the term *Philogallicon* to the other two suggestions he had made for naming the little debating society.

<sup>6</sup> A marginal addition opposite this passage interrupts the sense and is partly illegible. It begins: 'Priority and rank are their title to prominence. The /correction/ censure, just or not, stops where it ought, nor is it bold or unjust enough to attempt to force its way to the throne,—not to have perceived to what degree sovereign.. .'The remaining few words are illegible.

out every day: it was thrown out at the moment only in allusion to an expression which the founder of the society employs sometimes for shortness, and to a little book he has been heard deservedly to recommend. Another term, though most seriously employd in French, was not seriously proposed in English. Virgin eyes descry as through a mist /behind a cloud/ in distant obscurity and metaphysical ones /as beneath a microscope/ in exhaustive minute detail the profanation, it would be exposed to in the /impious/ hands of certain captious lawyers and other scoffers by nature or profession.

The Society, whatever be its name, met as was intended. To estimate its respectability we must not look to its numbers. Five including the founder, and of them one was an interloper. The patriarch Dr P.7 was at one time proposed to be invited. How it happened, I did not happen to learn; whether forgotten, or preengaged, or repulsed by the intelligence of Miss Fox's absence, he was not there. His place was supplied by Dr. Ingenhausz,8 the Emperor's physician, who in quality of /a traveller/ one /not long since/ lately arrived from the scene of action /Netherlands/, it was supposed might furnish some intelligence. If he furnished any it was at the private audience before dinner, for neither at dinner nor afterwards did any thing of that sort transpire. He seems an exception to the general rule, which pronounces physicians the busiest of politicians. An obscure articulation /rendered/ made him at the opposite side of the table a difficult companion for a dull ear. Another sense however was gratified by some chemical exhibitions. The good Dr's Court connection, Imperial as it is, has not purged him altogether clear of pedantry. In entertaining two strangers whom he did not care a fig for, Mr V.9 and myself, he gave a heavy fit of yawning to the Master of the House, for whom the entertainment we must suppose was designed. Politeness apart, material philosophers are /held in as little favour/ regarded as coldly by him /with almost as little sympathy/ as moral are by certain of his friends. I was ungrateful enough to laugh at the *qui pro quo*; /though/ but generous enough to do it in my sleeve. His person I think can

<sup>7</sup> Dr Richard Price.

<sup>8</sup> Dr Jan Ingen-Housz, or Ingenhausz (1730–99), f.r.s., Dutch physician and chemist, for whom Lord Lansdowne had a high regard. He was successively court physician to the Empress Maria Theresa and the Emperor Joseph II of Austria; hence his royalist leanings. For Bentham's previous acquaintance with Ingenhausz and his writings, see *Correspondence,* ii passim, especially p. 183 and n. 6.

<sup>9</sup> i.e. Benjamin Vaughan, according to the entry in the Lansdowne House Dinner Books.

hardly be unknown to any of you of my three Graces, but since I saw him, and perhaps since you saw him, his diameter seems doubled. A grotesque physiognomy composed of large features surmounted by a prominent forehead, lighted by a heavy eye, deeply indented at the mouth, and set down obliquely upon an abdomen that seems borrowed from a play house or a puppet show might have shared with me and the Abbé Morellet in the honour of affording gratification to Miss Fox's relish for ridicule /the ridiculous/. His principal title to attention at L. House /are those/ is the attention he shew'd, it seems, to Ld Wycombe during an indisposition at Vienna.

The Dr as well as his Imperial Master, is I believe */de son/ par metier Royaliste.* His loyalty and his Chemistry together gave such a tincture to the Club as rendered its natural complexion scarce discernible. The consumption of a good bottle of Claret was the most substantial proof it exhibited that day of its attachment to the French cause.

Those further and last particulars concerning Ld L. and the Philo-gallican alias Phileleutheran Society serve to shew alas! how little the good of mankind in general tells for in comparison of /the commands/ that part of it which /posesses shares the monopoly of/ monopolizes my homage. Mankind are very good sort of people, but since I have had the good or ill fortune to become acquainted with certain select parts of it, I begin to be in somewhat less pain about the rest and /and less sensible of the great need I once supposed them to be in of my assistance/ less apprehensive of their not falling upon their legs though deprived of the unspeakable benefit of my assistance.

As to giving me up to the Minister, my fate is in your hands: but I look down with generous disdain on every thing that savours of confession and humiliation. Elated with the surmise (surely it is not /altogether/ wholly an /unfounded/ ungrounded one!) of the secret support of the Sovereign, I /snap my fingers/ bid defiance to the utmost efforts of ministerial vengeance. I snap my fingers (as well as a bungler can do who never had the honour of taking lessons from Miss Elizabeth). In vain would Wycombe gates be shut against me. The Vice-Queen leaves open the door that leads to the Back-Stairs—I scale the wall, and throw myself at her feet.10 Alas! how imperfect are all sublunary enjoyments! that the Sovereign's presence and that of her august representative should

<sup>10</sup> The 'Vice-Queen' would seem to refer to Caroline Fox and the 'Princess' to Elizabeth Vernon.

so seldom irradiate the same spot! That one blessing is so seldom to be purchased but by the sacrifice of another—The Princess thank heaven is more steady in her adhesion to Ld L. and more accessible to his friends.

I shall see the Minister in course on Wednesday, but /with an erected crest/ I shall face him boldly *le nez en l'air* as somebody described the D. de Choiseul11 upon his reappearance one day at Court.

The Sovereign's doom is the perfection of wisdom—But with submission /if/ as the discovery is to be delay'd at any rate till Thursday, might it not keep till Saturday and be reserved for Wycombe? The best of Sovereigns are not averse it is said to amuse themselves on certain occasions with the perplexity of their Ministers. /Only/ Two days more and the Vice Queen and Princess in person and the Sovereign by proxy might convene the Minister before them and /read in his countenance the surprize he will be struck with/ observe his surprize and embarrassment when the veil of /mystery/ secresy under which he had flattered himself his proceedings lay envelopped is torn asunder before his eyes.

The Hermit of Hendon, late the Spy of Berkeley Square—now mounted upon stilts and turned Fustian Weaver.

### 6881

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n <sup>t</sup> h a m

#### 3/14 December 1789

 I wrote to you of my setting out for Siberia, telling you of my having received the Command of Two Batallions belonging to the Corps there;2 Each Batallion is similar to the one I commanded at Crichoff, but they are a great distance one from the other, according to my desire. The One, at which I am at present occupys a space of about 200d versts on the Frontiers towards the Kirgises; you will see, in the Map, a Line of Fortresses or Fore ports as they are called (how little so ever they deserve that name) all along the

<sup>11</sup> Etienne François, duc de Choiseul (1719–75), diplomat and French foreign minister.

**<sup>688.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 93–7. One of three copies (B.L. V: 91–100) by Jeremiah Bentham. Docketed: '3/14 Dec. 1789 / S.B. Tobolsk to J.B. Hendon.' A further note by Jeremiah records: 'Rec'd at Q.S.P. 5 Feb. 1790, Jh.B.'

Partly quoted in Bowring, x, 221–2.

<sup>2</sup> Samuel had given this information in a letter to his father, 27 Jan./7 Feb. 1789 (see above, p. 45 n. 2).

Kirgesian Frontiers; all those from Chernovitsk to Semiarsk, besides my Battalion wch is quartered within that distance, together with so much of the Frontiers are under my immediate Command during my residence here; Yarnisheff, which is likewise a Town should be my Quarters and the House there is larger, and something better than the Crichoff one was, but as the Commerce or Barter with the Kirgese is carried on at Korakoff, fifty versts to the Northward, I choose rather to reside there the short time I shall probably remain in one place. My Neighbours, the Kirgeses are as peacable at present as one could wish, and tho' they steal a few Cattle, or now and then a Man or two, upon laying hold of some of the Tribe everything is returned. They assemble every day on the other side of the River Irtish which marks the Boundary, bringing with them skins of different kinds, Horses, Oxen and Sheep, these they barter for cheap Cloths, leather, Iron-work, and trumpery Ornaments. It is reported there are some Mines of silver and Gold, as well as Copper; I am therefore preparing to set out in 2 or 3 days on an Expedition amongst them, not conceiving they are People anyways to be afraid of. My General will not give me leave to go further than fifty versts into their Country, but when I get so far no one can stop me, and I must be doing what no one else has done before me.

After having spent about five weeks with the Kirgese and in that time rode about 1200 Versts in their Country I returned well pleased with my Journey. As I had an Englishman with me a Lieutenant in One of my batallions, he kept a Journal of our Tour in English; you shall one day or other have a Copy of it. This Englishman, of the name of Newton,3 is son of a gentleman of property in Newcastle, he served at the taking of Ochakoff, and then at his desire, was sent to me by Prince Potemkin, he arrived just in time to accompany me to the Kirgese, and as I have various Propositions to make to the Prince, I am preparing to dispatch this Mr Newton express to Petersburg.

I am at present at Tobolsk, in the month of June I was here in my way to my Batallion, and I then dispatched the Englishman4 I had brought with me from Cherson, to examine the mouth of the River Ob, and a small part of the Coast of the White Sea, with a

<sup>3</sup> Captain, later Major, William Newton, a copy of whose letter to his own father, dated 10 September 1789, in Jeremiah's hand, is in B.L. V: 71–3.

<sup>4</sup> Richard Upsal, a seaman who enlisted under Samuel at Kherson and later accompanied him to Siberia; he attained the rank of major in the Russian army and rejoined Samuel in England for a career in the Admiralty (see M. S. Bentham, *Life of Sir Samuel Bentham,* 1862, pp. 89, 93–4, and *Correspondence,* v, passim.

view of Attempting a Communication with Archangel. There is no doubt of this Passage being at certain times practicable; but the Object is the ascertaining the degree of Danger and delay occasioned by the Drifts of Ice which even in Summer by certain winds are brought upon the Coast, so as entirely to interrupt the Navigation, as some of them are come back, having made a Chart of the River and the Part of the Gulph; but a Russian Capt. with some of them pass the winter in travelling by Land about the Coast: the last Summer they had nothing but an open Boat; but for next year I hope to find means of building them a Vessel in which they may go to Sea. An officer and 50 men I have brought with me from my Batallion are to be employed in preparing a Vessel for this Expedition.

Having settled this business I set off for my other Batallion which is at about 3,500 versts = 2,400 miles from Hence, and about the same distance from the other. Its Quarters are on the other side of the Lake Baikal in the Neighbourhood of Kiackta. It was for the purpose of getting more intelligence about the Chinese Frontiers that I chose this Batallion at so great a distance from the other; and when I have received the Command of it, I mean to leave a Major there whom I brought with me and then return here, and to my other Batallion before the Spring. It is possible I may then go to Petersburg and I have permission to take a Trip to England, but if my Projects here are attended to they may keep me here another year before I can go even to Petersburg.

I may truly say, I am pleasantly Circumstanced enough, enjoying a degree of respect from those I associate with and meeting with none, who, if they were disposed, dare to give me any Vexation. Here, at Tobolsk at least, I can associate with People of Philosophy, Talents and Amiability, moreover the variety of my projects, and a present good state of health leave nothing but my attachments to England to cause any regret.

While I was at Cherson, at the breaking out of the war Admiral Mordwinoff5 had orders to give Passports to any who would fit out Privateers, as well in the Mediterranean and Archipelago, as in the Black Sea, but few People of Enterprise presented themselves to obtain such Permission. A Greek of the name of Lambro,6 whom the Prince had taken into the service with the Rank of Captain,

<sup>5</sup> Admiral Nikolay Semënovich Mordvinov, friend and superior officer of Samuel, when at Kherson (see letter 627 n. 5 and *Correspondence,* iii, 271 n. 4, 570 n. 7).

<sup>6</sup> Major Lambro, from whose privateering ventures 'the subscribers reaped no profit', 'according to Lady Bentham, op. cit., p. 90 (see also p. 196 below).

seemed the fittest of all men for such Enterprises, but money, the most ess[en]tial Article, was wanting.

Lotteries and card Playing I had always avoided, but in this case, besides the views of Gain, the Idea of setting an example, and a rising Enmity against the Turks, induced Mordwinoff and me, to raise a sum for the fitting out of Lambro. Mordwinoff gave 3,000 I, and two others 1000 Each, and with this we sent him off to Leghorn, where he fitted out a Vessel, and Prize after Prize, became Master of 22 Sail; of these some were lost, but before I left Cherson, altho' we had got no account of him of the Profits cleared from his Prizes I should have found no difficulty in selling my Share—I chose rather to take my chance of the future success, and according to the News Papers our Lambro (called always Major Lambro) has done wonders. Besides so immensly rich Prizes he has taken Fortresses and Islands, and dares all the Turkish Force. It is ten to one that he does not keep his Head long on his Shoulders: but tho I have heard nothing from the Parties concerned, I have no doubt but they will look after their Interest, and that mine will necessarily keep pace with theirs.

If you have any Correspondents in these Parts of the world where by the news Paper you hear this Lambro is roving, I wish you would endeavour to learn what conduct he observes respecting our Interests, whether any sum is realised or whether he lays it all out in increasing his naval Force.

How is it that since your Return to England I have not received a single line from you nor from my Father since his letter of April 1788 by which I learnt you were returned.

The perfect Ignorance I am in of your Occupation and even of your Welfare is the greatest and indeed the only Cause of uneasiness I have.

I never was so pleasantly circumstanced in other respects, enjoying a degree of respect from those I associate with and meeting with none who if they were disposed dare to give me such vexations as I sometimes experienced when you were with me.

I do not speak of the Officers and others under my Command, for they for the most part are no better fit for Society than those with whom you saw me; but here at Tobolsk at least I can associate with People of Philosophy, Talents and Amiability which I could find but with difficulty in the Capital.

Moreover the variety of my Projects and a present good state of Health leave nothing but my attachments in England to cause me any regret. If you should on any account be disagreably circum-

stanced at home and if your Purs〈uits?〉 should not absolutely require your presence there I know no place or circumstance that will suit you so well as this; perhaps nowhere People out of England better able to converse on your Projects than you would find here for besides that from the distance from the capital a man must be enterprising to wish to serve here, from being too enterprising to be bourne with near the Residence of 〈. . .?〉 etc.

Tobolsk Dec.r 3. 1789

I send by this same opportunity a Copy of a Journal of my Excursion among the Kirgeses, badly written by Mr Newton, sti[ll] worse copied by another Englishman, but it may amuse you for an hour.

I send it to Mr. Whitworth,7 to go by a Courier. I have just reced a letter from Mr Shairpe, but no News from any of you in England.

Some Papers from the Heralds office about my permission for the Military Order, I hear, are in Hynam's Hands.

### 6891

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n <sup>t</sup> h a m

#### 12 December 1789 (Aet 41)

#### Hond. Sir

 I believe when we parted it was understood that I was to be at the Painter's on Monday.2 Before I left him I settled with him that the day might be changed to Tuesday. This proviso I made, meaning to dine with our friends at the Fields on that day and uncertain whether Monday would suit them. It turned out that Tuesday would suit them better: so I sent a note to the Painter accordingly. The hour is eleven. I write this to prevent your having

<sup>7</sup> Charles Whitworth (1752–1825), who had just come from the post of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in Warsaw to a similar post at St Petersburg, which he held until 1800. He was ambassador at Paris during the armistice of 1802 and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1813–17. He was created a baron in 1800, a viscount in 1813 and Earl Whitworth in 1815.

**<sup>689.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 101–2. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah Bentham: 'Mr Jeremy Bentham / Letter datd / Saty Decr 12 1789.'

Addressed: 'To / Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.'

<sup>2</sup> This evidently alludes to the portrait, by an unknown artist, which used to hang in the Council Room at University College London. Bentham may not have known that in the previous month his father had presented to Lord Lansdowne the portrait of Jeremy as a boy. (See the note in the Introduction, p. xxxvii above.) The note to the painter is missing.

the trouble of going on Monday to no purpose in expectation of meeting me.

There is even a possible case in which I may not go even on Tuesday. Ld L. writes to me to meet him and the ladies in town on Monday. They return he says, on Tuesday or Wednesday to Wycombe: and he wishes me to go with them. If I go there at all as I am inclined to do, you would not wish me to decline such an opportunity: and I cannot ask the ladies to stay a day in town on my account. Pray mention this to Mr and Mrs A. 3 who if it should so turn out, I doubt not will have the goodness to excuse me. But I rather think it will not: some people when they mention two days for doing a thing seldom take the first. I shall know on Monday: and if you and Mr and Mrs A do not on that day hear from me to the contrary, you may conclude the engagement stands.

Sat. Decr 12. 89

### 6901

### F r o m <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s <sup>d</sup> <sup>o</sup> <sup>w</sup> n e

17 February 1790

Lansdown House Wednesday 17th Feby

Mon cher Philosophe

We all became at last very much troubl'd about you. Even | | 2 said, I am afraid Mr Bentham is ill in that lonely place, as we have not seen him for such a long time—I won't tell you all that every body else said, except that I grew quite jealous, that you had not even as much partiality for me as Rousseau had for Marshal Luxemburg.3 However I am determined to make him my Model for the remainder of my Life, as my best chance.

I have this Instant forwarded the Letter etc. to your Father. I could not do it sooner without disobeying another part of your commands, for Miss Fox and Ld Holland4 did not return to town

<sup>3</sup> The Farr Abbots.

**<sup>690.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 115–16. Autograph. Docketed: 'Ld L / Berkely Sq. / to / J.B. Hendon / After receiving S.B.'s letter about Lambro / 1790 Feb. 17.'

<sup>2</sup> Blank in Ms.: no name or initial.

<sup>3</sup> Charles-François de Montmorency, Marshal of Luxembourg (1702–64), friend and patron of Jean Jacques Rousseau.

<sup>4</sup> Henry (Vassall) Fox, 3rd Lord Holland, the brother of Caroline Fox.

till Monday night—they are all much oblig'd to you for the Perusal of your Brother's interesting Letter.5

I am but just recovering, not yet able to get on horseback; Henry has had a worse cold than he had at Wycombe, but is getting better. I should think by next Wednesday you might find us all assembl'd. The Ladys are all arriv'd—Ld Wycombe left Dresden the 31st, so that I expect him every day, and Dumont has left Paris some time intending to make a very short stay at Brussells.

As to the Pamphlets I have consulted Fowre, and it's like looking for a Needle in a Bottle of Hay. There is no way but your comparing what you have with Deboff's6 account—We have had ours indiscriminately from Paris and Deboff's. I can swear to the Number: *Four.*

I gave your Letter to Mr Vaughan.7

Adieu

### 6911

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x

#### late February 1790 (Aet 42)

 My plan was, after having written what you have by this time received, to go to town to pay my respects to Lord W———, with my letter in my pocket, time enough for the post.2 The Fates decreed otherwise. I had scarce put the seal to it, when my seven tables, together with your old acquaintance the harpsichord, and the chairs that make up the society, set up a kind of a saraband;

5 Samuel's letter of 3/14 December 1789 (letter 688), apparently sent with a covering note from Bentham.

<sup>6</sup> Joseph De Boffe, the bookseller.

<sup>7</sup> Benjamin Vaughan. The letter to him is missing.

**691.** <sup>1</sup> Quoted in Bowring, x, 187–8, with introductory note: 'An amusing epistle of Bentham to one of the ladies of Bowood has these passages:'

Although Caroline Vernon was well-read, it was Caroline Fox who was the lady proficient in Latin and Italian, as is evident from her correspondence with her young brother, Henry, 3rd Lord Holland, during the years 1789–91 (Holland House Papers, B.L. Add. Mss. 51731). He called his sister's Latin 'excellently done' and her Italian 'very plain' (fos. 17–18). On 20 June 1791 Caroline wrote to him from Bowood: 'I am now sitting down to write to you instead of conversing with Ovid as custom is thus early in the morning' (fo. 44).

<sup>2</sup> Lord Wycombe arrived back from his continental travels late in February 1790. Bentham indicates that, after recovering from a swimming in the head, he had set out for London with a previously-written 'important letter' in his pocket, but was too late to catch the post that day. The present letter seems to refer to a poem, either in Italian, or in italic script, received from the lady. Bentham suspects it is a translation from Latin, but cannot identify it.

moving circularly round the centre of the room, but without changing their relative positions. They composed themselves, however, after a short dance, nor have they had any such vagaries since. I set out, notwithstanding, and reached London that evening, but not till the post was gone. This makes another day's retardation of that important letter more than I thought for when I put the last hand to that immortal work. What was the object of this extraordinary, and by me never-before-experienced interposition, I submit to your omniscience. What momentary consequence may be the result of the retardation above-mentioned, remains yet to be revealed; in all other respects, the world, as far as I can see, goes on as if nothing at all had happened.

Stung to the quick by your reproaches, I have ever since been hard at work upon Ovid, in hopes of fetching up my lost time, and picking up some little gleanings of that art which I am so much a stranger to; but it is so long since I learnt Latin, I can't make head or tail of it, for want of Lord Henry to consult, who has it by this time at his finger's ends, having mastered the Tristibus when I had the honour of seeing him this time twelvemonth.3 Was it in the original that you read it, or what translation would you recommend? Could not you spare me your own copy for a little while, putting a few marks in it to guide me to the instructive passages; distinguishing for example by a dagger † the *honest* arts, and by a star\*, or constellation of stars, those, if you can find any, that would enable me to *succeed beyond expression?* Then there might be some hopes for me; for, alas! I feel but too plainly it is impossible for me to make anything out without your assistance. Well, now, a thought has come across me that makes my heart sink, and almost sets the chairs and tables a-swimming again. This beautiful Italian that has scarce been out of my hands, and never out of my thoughts, since it arrived, is but a translation from the Runic! the hand, indeed, is angelic; but the apparition of a cloven foot behind the curtain haunts me so, you can't imagine. Come, now, I will tell you what you should do: The honest and the handsome thing would be to steal half an hour when you know nobody knows anything of the matter, and tell me of the violences that were practised upon you to make you write this; and which part, if any, you adhere to, and which part you disavow. Tell me how long you were kept without food before you would comply, and

<sup>3</sup> Young Lord Henry Petty was being partly tutored at home: the *Tristibus* signifies *Publii Ovidii Nasonis Tristia,* several editions of which appeared in England during the eighteenth century.

whether it was in your own apartment in the Harem that you were confined, or in the one formerly occupied by my friend the Tiger.4

It is not a small matter, as I have occasion to know, that will subdue you: witness the persecution you underwent at Worcester, rather than read a page or two of a language which is the same to you as English5 . But be sure disavow, at any rate, the superlative about Mr R., and above all things if it was genuine.6 I called at his chamber-door as soon as I had sent to Lord W., in order to look him through and through, and measure the degree of his success by the firmness of his tread, the loftiness of his head, and the selfcomplacent security of his countenance. But his recollections and his prospects were too delicious to be exchanged for any sort of company; for though the porter told me he had just let him in, his door was shut, and all the poundings and kickings were in vain.

### 6921

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x

#### [?]March 1790 (Aet 42)

 I am smitten with remorse at the thought of having, in one of them, brought back to your recollection something that passed at Worcester, not considering, simpleton as I was! that however delightful the recollection was to me, it might be otherwise with you. You would remember only the being teazed, while I thought only of the unwonted kindness with which you contrived to soften its refusal.

I beg, with folded hands, you would not let another post go out without telling me, either that I have not offended, or that, if I have, I am forgiven.

<sup>4</sup> A tiger had been one of the animals in the small menagerie kept at Bowood and mentioned in Bentham's letter to George Wilson of 19 August 1781 (*Correspondence,* iii, 50).

<sup>5</sup> Bentham had been one of the small party which went from Bowood to Warwick Castle by way of Worcester in September 1789. See letter 679, p. 95 above.

<sup>6</sup> 'Mr. R.' would seem to refer to Samuel Romilly, who had recently moved into chambers in Gray's Inn and perhaps 'sported his oak' when Bentham tried to visit him.

**<sup>692.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Quoted in Bowring, x, 188, as 'Another letter to the same lady:'.

The allusion to a previous letter of Bentham's, which had mentioned 'something that passed at Worcester', would place this one shortly after letter 691.

### 6931

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x

#### [?]March 1790 (Aet 42)

 I beg pardon.—I had quite forgot the papers you had the goodness to send me; you never told me how they fell into your hands. Did you pick them up from the ground anywhere?—or did ——— bring them to you? She has a real kindness for me, poor creature, whenever she dares show it, notwithstanding some insinuations that have been circulated to the contrary in very shocking terms. Last Autumn, when Bowood was turned into a desert, and we were left almost alone together, we grew very fond of one another, and came to a thorough explanation,—nothing more conciliating than sympathy in sorrow. But do not let it go any further, for poor Timon's sake.

I am growing more and more savage every day. I begin to moralise, and talk about the sparks flying upwards. I have known dogs that, if you spoke to them and offered them a bit of the breast of a chicken, would turn and growl at you.—I am exactly in this case. It was but t'other day I spoke to puss, the only person I ever see, in so civil a manner; she went into hysterics. I feel my forefeet drawing nearer and nearer to the ground,—as soon as the grass is got up a little, I shall take to eating it. Does Lord H. propose to have a menagerie when he goes to ———; I forget the name of his place,—I believe it's Winterton?2 If so, and the dens are not all engaged, put in a word for me, pray, and bespeak one of them for me, to keep me in. He need not put himself to the expense of a chain, I have had one by me these ten years. I won't bite you; indeed I won't, though you should put in a hand, and give me a pat now and then through the grate. If anything could keep me upon my hind legs a little longer, it would be the sight of a few lines now and then, such as those that were written to the jewel-man; but put me in the inside of the letter, so that nobody may see them but myself.

2 If 'Lord H.' refers to Henry, Lord Holland, possibly Winterslow, near Salisbury.

**<sup>693.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Quoted in Bowring, x, 188–9.

Internal evidence places the letter about this time: the reference to 'Last Autumn, when Bowood was turned into a desert' clearly alludes to the period after Lady Lansdowne's death in August 1789. Either Miss Vernon or Miss Fox had sent on some papers left behind at Bowood by Bentham and picked up perhaps by a friendly bitch, he suggests. 'Timon' would seem to refer to Bentham himself.

Hands which were made never to be kissed, were made to be snapped and snarled at. What is on the other side3 was delayed in the hourly expectation of being able to fulfil the promise to Miss F.; the interval has given room to a sort of half repentance. The sarcastic disdainfulness which drew forth so snarling a reply, was a just punishment for bragging. I have accordingly struck out, beyond all power of deciphering, the three or four most snarling lines. Thorough prudence would have condemned the whole to the flames. The half prudence, which is all I am as yet able to rise to, comforts itself under the consciousness of saying and doing foolish things, by the thought of the penetration displayed in the discovery of their folly. If ever the time should come, when one J.B. is able to write, or speak, or behave to a Miss F. or a Miss V., as he does to others, or as others do to them, it will be a sign that the reign of attractions and fascinations is at an end, and that F. and V. are become no more than A. B. or C. The task is rather a severe one; but as endeavours are not wanting, success may at last attend them.

### 6941

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x a n <sup>d</sup> C a r o l i n e a n <sup>d</sup> E l i z a <sup>b</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>t</sup> <sup>h</sup> V e r n o n

#### [?]March 1790 (Aet 42)

 In humble imitation of the fair objects of my adoration, I will try for once whether I cannot write a letter, discreet, guarded, and short as theirs is: dropping in, too, on my part, the word gratitude, which in my dictionary has a little more, and a little warmer meaning. I hope to kiss the fair hands, and take the gouty ones2 between mine, with due regard to their respective sensibilities, on Saturday or Sunday.3

<sup>3</sup> Neither the original of this letter, nor what was written 'on the other side' (which Bowring did not print) have survived.

**<sup>694.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Quoted in Bowring, x, 189, as 'Answer to an invitation to Bowood'. The letter from the ladies is missing.

<sup>2</sup> The 'gouty' hands refers to those of Lord Lansdowne, who was having difficulty in writing: see the postscript to letter 712, p. 182 below.

<sup>3</sup> That Bentham visited Bowood at this time is confirmed by what Bowring terms 'a piece of pleasantry', which 'professes to be a letter written by Miss F——, to Miss V——, giving an account of Bentham himself'. The persons to whom reference is made in it are Caroline Fox ('Miss F.') and her uncle, Charles James Fox ('Charles'), Caroline Vernon ('Miss V.') and her sister Elizabeth ('Miss E.'), Lord Lansdowne ('Lord L.') and his elder son, Lord Wycombe; 'Schuman' has not been identified: there were several music masters of that name in England during the period. This fictitious but informative letter (as printed in Bowring, x, 219–21) reads as follows:

'Well, was there ever anything so designing as Lord L.? I might well have my suspicions: and the oddest accident in the world has enabled me to convince you of the justice of them, by such proofs as you could little have expected. Just now, Mr B., as he was leaving the room, pulled out his handkerchief, and the enclosed dropt out of his pocket unperceived. As it fell into one of the elbow-chairs, where he was sitting, next mine, the handwriting involuntarily caught my eye: so, as nobody happened to be looking that way, I whipped it up, and here you have it. Send it me back, that I may toss it into his room some day when he is not there: he will think he dropt it there himself. You see Lord L. knew what he was about, and knew how much we were against having Mr B. here; so he writes to him to beg our leave; but as we heard nothing from him, we conclude he was afraid to write to us, and that Lord L., when he saw him, told him some story or other, to make him believe we had forgiven him. I forgot to tell you, he said that he had written the other letters which are escaped: one, a further journal of the society, which he burned on finding that none of us took any further notice of them; another, a penitentiary letter to Lord L., which he wrote in a fit of the gripes, and burned because it was too foolish.

Would you have thought it? Wycombe is as bad as B. Here we have got Mr B. again. We said everything you desired us to Lord L.; and as there came no more foolish letters, we were in hopes we should see nothing of the foolish writer for the time at least. Lord L., as you may imagine, said what he could to excuse him; but as he saw it would not do, he gave it up at last, and there was an end, as we thought, of Mr B., for this year at least. Our evil stars had decreed otherwise. T'other day, as we were at L. House, talking about our returning here, as there is room for one, says Lord L., 'I have thoughts of taking down Mr B. with me, if you have no objection.' How could we help ourselves? As there were other people in the room, to have said, No, would have seemed particular. We looked at one another, each expecting the other to speak, and, as neither spoke, silence gave consent, and so it was concluded. You may imagine what passed when Miss E. and I found ourselves alone. We vowed we would not suffer it; but who should attack Lord L. about it?—there was the difficulty. Miss E. wanted to put it off upon me, saying, it was more my concern than hers, as I should be plagued with him most. I said it would look very odd for me to speak about such a thing instead of her; and so, as neither of us could pluck up courage to be spokeswoman, there was nothing to be done but patience. Don't you think it was rather unkind in Lord L. to take us in that manner, at a disadvantage? Miss E. says, it was only thoughtlessness—but I won't believe any such thing. That's no foible of Lord L's, I am sure; as if it were possible he could have so soon forgotten all that we said to him about the letters. That comes of your not being here: if you had, a glance from you would have been sufficient—not that you would have been put to the expense, for he would not have dared mention any such thing. I can't think, for my part, what Lord L. can see in the man, that he wants always to have him about him, he seems so attached to him; and so says Miss E. But you know he likes to have odd people about him, and always did. Then these political men, it is so difficult to know what to make of them: they may have their reasons for harbouring such fellows, that they won't let us women hear of. Though he pretends to tell you everything, I have my suspicions to the contrary: and this, amongst other things, is a proof of it. Who can tell but that Mr B. may know of something that Lord L. has done—that my uncle Charles, if he were to hear of it, would impeach him for. Lord L., I do believe, is as honest as any of them; but as I often heard them say it is impossible that a man can have been minister without he is more to be pitied than blamed; and it may be very necessary for him to keep this man in good humour; besides, though one were sure of getting off, there is nobody that would like to be brought into trouble, you know, if they could help it. To do the man justice, he has not broke out yet, that we know of, in any shape, I don't recollect anything in particular that he has done or said amiss as yet, either during the journey or since; nor Miss E. neither. He has not offered to knock down Miss E. once, nor me either, though he has had several books within his reach. One

thing is, indeed, certain—he is grown mighty humble since his disgrace, and hardly dares to look up or open his mouth. This is worse than before; if you must be troubled with one or t'other, better have a merry fool, say I, than a melancholy madman. He has not dared to tease me yet, at least, about reading; and as to writing, I think he has had enough of that to mortify him for a while. I don't think he will be soon at that again, after the mortifications he has undergone. Suppose now, you were to give him a line or two to tell him you will endeavour to forgive him, and that one thing, I will venture to say for him, that if ever a creature of his sex had a true respect for one of ours, he has for you. This will set him to rights again: as it now is, he goes moping about the house at such a rate that it is enough to give one the vapours to look at him. Miss E. speaks to him now and then, and so do I, to try to raise his spirits; but all won't do, while he is in disgrace with you. I don't mention this as any merit in him, only that it serves to show that there is one thing in which he is like other people. By Miss E.'s advice, I let him accompany me again: you know it would look particular to refuse him; and Miss E. observes, that as you know who seems to like music, I may as well make use of this man as not, to keep my hand in, as I can't have Mr Schuman here. As Lord L. says, I don't think he ever means any harm; and when he does, or says anything amiss, it is only through ignorance; then you know how submissive he is, so that one might do what one would with him, if it were worth the while.

I can't say but that I thought you rather hard upon him, when you reproached him with not having learnt of you what you had never tried to teach him. Not that he did, or said anything at that time, to call for it; but as Lord H. was by and nobody else, I thought it would have been a good opportunity for him. No lessons, as you have often observed, are so impressive as those which are offered by contrast, and it was in this view that the wise Spartans exposed their slaves to view in a state of intoxication, in order to inculcate sobriety on their children.

Enough, you will say, and more than enough about such a subject. But what else can one write about? For there is not a creature here but him.

Miss E. joins with me in love, and so forth: Kiss my dear cousins for me a thousand times, and believe me ever, my dear aunt, etc. etc.

Excuse the trouble I shall have put you to, to make out this scrawl—the pens here are so bad that I declare I hardly know my own handwriting.

Don't let Miss E. know what I say, but the truth is that Lord L. does just what he pleases when you are not here.

Yesterday, for example, as soon as tea was over, as you were not here to play at cribbage with him, he took himself off to the Land of Nod, where he remained till supper time.

Perhaps you gave him the meeting, and he got his usual number of games, in spite of distance. I would have asked him whether that was not the case, if Mr B. had not been by. Miss E. was busy at her plans and elevations, and there sat Mr B. like a post, and never said a word to me about music, until it was time almost to have done. I could not help wishing for you, were it only to have given him one of your lectures upon behaviour.'

Another fictitious letter, placed by Bowring immediately after the one quoted above (Bowring, x, 189–90), is described by him as 'an agreeable satire upon our libel law. It was sent to Lord Lansdowne, professing to be intended for the editor of *The World*—and a second letter, written to Lord Lansdowne, pretending that the epistle "To the Conductor" had glided by mistake into the former envelope'. The fictitious communication 'To the Conductor' supposes Bentham to have put compromising private letters into the hands of the editor, including one from Miss Fox, about which Bentham remarks: 'As to Lord L'.s, you may have a hamper full of them if you please: but they are a drug in comparison of this. I really cannot bate a farthing of twenty [pounds], which, with the additions, will make forty. The V.'s are yours upon the same terms: genuine original V.'s, you rogue, you...' 'P.S.—If you take the V.'s, as good a way as any of marking the persons, when the time comes,

### 6951

### F r o m B e n j a m i n H o b h o u s e

#### [?]April 1790

 Mr Hobhouse presents Compliments to Mr Bentham and returns the Journal des decrets etc. with thanks—Mr. Hobhouse shall always be happy to pay his respects to Mr. Bentham at Hartham. His best Compliments attend Lord Lansdowne

Saturday Evening

Hartham House

### 6961

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e P r e s i <sup>d</sup> e n <sup>t</sup> <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e N <sup>a</sup> <sup>t</sup> i o n a l A s s e m <sup>b</sup> l y

#### 6 April 1790 (Aet 42)

Lettre de M. Jeremy Bentham au Président de l'Assemblée Nationale

Monsieur,

J'ai l'honneur de vous présenter cent exemplaires d'un Projet d'organisation pour le pouvoir judiciaire. J'y ai ajouté en même

without committing yourself, would be to print Horace Walpole's verses on them, out of the *Annual Register,* for the next paragraph'. This last sally alludes to Walpole's tribute to 'The three Vernons': in *Annual Register,* 1787, xxix, Poetry, p. 167, where 'Henrietta's serious charms' and those of 'pretty playful Caroline' and 'young Elizabeth' are celebrated: 'Lovely three, whose future reign

shall sing some younger, sweeter swain...'

**695.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 111–12. Docketed: '179 Hobhouse.'

Addressed: '— Bentham Esqr.'

Benjamin Hobhouse, M.P. (1757–1831), created baronet in 1812, was the father of John Cam Hobhouse, Lord Broughton, and himself a distinguished politician and scholar. He lived at Hartham House, Corsham, Wilts.

**696.** <sup>1</sup> Printed in the *Journal de Paris,* no. 115, dimanche, 25 avril 1790. A footnote reads: 'On trouve la traduction de M. Bentham sur le nouvel ordre judiciaire en France au Bureau Du Courier De Provence (16, rue de l'Echelle).'

The news that the Constitutional Committee had on 21 December 1789 submitted to the National Assembly a draft plan for a new judicial system prompted Bentham to prepare and print in instalments his own *Draught of a new Plan for the Organisation of the Judicial Establishment in France,* 1790, reprinted in Bowring, iv, 285–406. Instalments, translated by Dumont, began to appear in the *Courrier de Provence* for 22–3 March and continued to do so until May: ibid., vii, 123–8, 177–84, 225–32; viii, 49–56, 188–91, 321–8. At the beginning of April one hundred copies of the parts so far printed in England were sent to Paris through the French minister in London,

nombre les trois premiers numéros d'un Ecrit qui contient les motifs de mon Plan et une Critique détaillée du respectable ouvrage contre lequel j'ai hasardé d'entrer en lice. Le reste ne tardera pas à vous être soumis, j'ose vous prier de bien vouloir le faire distribuer à ceux de M.M. les députés qui savent l'anglais.

Plus j'ai senti le respect dû aux adversaires que je me donnais, plus j'ai reconnu la nécessité de ne rien perdre de tout ce que je pouvais rassembler de forces pour combattre leur ouvrage. Voyant dans ces mêmes adversaires les plus éclairés de mes juges, la recommandation que je voulais me ménager auprés d'eux, comme la seule qui put me servir, c'était d'avoir bien raison contre eux.

Une guerre d'émulation, une rivalité de services et de témoignages d'amitié entre les Nations, voilà la guerre dont j'ai voulu donner l'exemple: puisse-t-elle s'animer de plus en plus cette espèce de guerre entre les différentes Nations de l'Europe et surtout puisse-telle être à jamais la seule entre la France et l'Angleterre!

Seconder vos nobles travaux selon mes faibles moyens, en presser l'imitation où je pourrai me faire entendre, voilà le double but que je me suis proposé. Vous m'en avez donné le droit, vous m'en avez imposé le devoir. Déclaratrice des droits de tous, l'Assemblée Nationale commande au plus juste titre les services de tous, chaque homme peut lui dire, je demande d'être entendu sur vos

François Barthélemy (1747–1830), and on the same day Lord Lansdowne wrote to the duc de La Rochefoucauld as follows:

#### Monsieur le Duc

'London 1st April 1790

 Mr Bentham's name is already known to you, at least Mr Dumont tells me that you read and admired a short tract of his upon Political Tactics, and you may have read another work of his noticed by Mr de Mirabeau upon *Usury.* He has, since the new organisation of the judicial establishment has been proposed in the National Assembly, applied himself with incredible diligence to sift the proposition to the bottom, and to suggest another, from the best and purest motives possible. He has for several years past devoted his whole time to the study of general principles, and is by an hundred degrees the most capable person in this country to judge of the subject. He has just finished, and sends by the mail of this night, through the channel of the Ambassador, 100 copies to the President of the Assembly, and what I would request of you, Monsieur le Duc, would be to have it understood, that it is the work of no ordinary person, that his time is valuable, and that his work certainly deserves more than ordinary attention.

I love him very tenderly as a man, to the full as much as I admire him as an author and look up to him as a lawyer, but this makes no part of the motive of any thing I say. I know, Monsieur le Duc, that you are governed by motives of a much higher nature, and I flatter myself that you give me credit for not being insensible to the same feelings in regard to your country, as well as my own.' (B.L. V: 119–20. Copy by Bentham; printed in Bowring, x, 226–7. The copy is docketed by Bentham: 'Ld. L. London / to / Duc de la Rochefoucauld Paris / 1790 Apr. 1,' so the letter may have gone with the other material on the 6th. For La Rochefoucauld, see letter 704, n. 2.)

intérêts. Je suis avec un profond respect, Monsieur, votre trés humble et trés obéissant serviteur.

Signé Jeremy Bentham

Hendon—Middlesex—ce 06 Avril 1790

### 6971

### T <sup>o</sup> E <sup>t</sup> i e n n e D u m o n <sup>t</sup>

#### 3 May 1790 (Aet 42)

 If no tidings about my letter2 to the Nat. Ass. are arrived as I suppose none are, do have the goodness to write about it tomorrow to Du Rouverai:3 beg him to ask the D. de la Rochefoucault (with whom I understand he is acquainted) whether he received Ld L's letter4 with the Nos. of my Book: he knows or can know from the President whether the letter has been received, whether it has been opened, or whether any resolution has been taken by any body not to open it or not to send it to the Assembly: whether the leaf of French which you translated has been distributed, etc.

On Friday, I hope you received the conclusion of the Chap. on Appeals. On that day I came here and have been here ever since, hampered with trifling points about arrangement, expression and other subordinate considerations relative to the Chapter on Judges which will be a long one: difficulties which I should have got over long ago had it not been for the languor resulting from the thoughts of having taken so much pains to no purpose. Tomorrow, or at any rate on Wednesday, I hope to bring it to town for the press, and then I call upon you, and upon my return go to work upon Juries. I have no fear of their coming to any definitive arrangement, at least in favour of Juries, before I am ready for them. I have not seen any thing from France that has come since Wednesday sennight. Adieu.

Hendon Middlesex

Monday May 3d 1790.

**697.** <sup>1</sup> Dumont Mss., B.P.U., Geneva, 33, vol. i, fos. 57–8. Autograph.

Addressed: 'To / Mr Du Mont / Lansdowne House / Berkeley Square / London.' Postmark: 'penny post paid mo'.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 696.

<sup>3</sup> Du Roveray had returned to France during December 1789, and Dumont had come back to England early in March 1790 (see Dumont, *Souvenirs sur Mirabeau,* ed. J. Bénétruy, Paris, 1951, pp. 125, 141, 285–7).

<sup>4</sup> Quoted in letter 696, n. 1.

### 6981

### F r o m E t i e n n e D u m o n t

#### 12 May 1790

J'avois esperé, mon cher Monsieur, de vous voir à Lansdown house le lendemain du jour ou je reçus votre billet,2 mais je suppose que vos travaux vous ont retenu à la campagne. J'ai écrit a Mr. Du Rov. pour lui demander des explications sur vos envois, je l'ai prié de s'adresser à Mr de la Rochefoucault et au President, enfin de faire tout ce qui seroit en son pouvoir pour découvrir s'il n'y avoit point de négligence et d'oubli. Une lettre de lui a croisé la mienne, il me dit qu'il est sur que le pacquet a été remis, les exemplaires distribués. Votre lettre a été imprimée dans le journal de Paris,3 mais il n'était pas en état de m'en dire davantage parce qu'une indisposition l'avoit retenu dans sa chambre et qu'il n'avoit eu ces informations que par hazard sur ma lettre, il fera de nouvelles demarches, j'en attends chaque jour le résultat. Le pacquet et les envois sont malheureusement tombés sous la Présidence de Mr de Bonnay,4 qui, je suppose, n'est pas l'homme à sentir et à faire valoir la generosité de votre procedé. Dieu sait s'il en a seulement rendu compte à l'Assemblée, j'en doute beaucoup. Quoiqu'il en soit un peu plutôt ou un peu plus tard, on y donnera l'attention que l'écrit est fait pour attirer, et je me flatte que l'Assemblée en témoignera sa reconnoissance. Je suis de mauvaise humeur, je l'avoue, de ce que les auteurs du Courrier de Provence ont interrompu la publication de mes Extraits, ils m'ecrivent que ces papiers

**698.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 109–10. Autograph. Docketed: '179| | / Dumont.'

Addressed: 'Jer. Bentham Esqr / Hendon / Middlesex.'

The translated brief extract in Bowring, x, 185, is inaccurate and misleading.

A clue to the date of this letter is 'Mercredi' at the end, and the tenor of the correspondence would indicate Wednesday, 12 May 1790, rather than 5 May as suggested in C. Blount: 'Bentham, Dumont and Mirabeau', *University of Birmingham Historical Journal,* iii (1951–2), 164 n. 53. Dumont would have received Bentham's letter of the 3rd on the 4th and he says that he had hoped to see Bentham on the following day. He goes on to tell Bentham that he has written to Du Roveray as requested and expects his reply (from Paris) any day (*chaque jour*): this would not have been possible in much less than a week. Dumont ends by saying that he and Romilly would like to visit Bentham in Hendon, to which the latter replies promptly on the 14th or 15th (letter 699) that it will be a pleasure to see them.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 697.

3 See letter 696.

<sup>4</sup> Charles François, marquis de Bonnay (1750–1825) served as president of the National Assembly in April and July 1790, but refused further election in December and later fled to England.

sont très bons, les idés très saines, que les deux morceaux qu'ils ont publiés ont été fort goûtés du public, et la seule raison qu'ils aient eu de suspendre, c'est la longeur et l'abondance de séances dont ils ont eu à rendre compte. J'ai regret que la dissertation sur les appels n'ait pas été connue, elle auroit prevenu la création d'une Cour d'appel dans chaque département, mais il est possible encore qu'après avoir fait leur plan, ils reviennent dans l'exécution, et corrigent beaucoup de choses. Je suppose que vous avancez avec courage 〈et?〉 qu'en voyant la fin de la carrière, vous ne ralentissez point votre marche. Le public rendra justice à vos travaux, et si l'Assemblée même persistoit dans son indifference, c'est à dire, continuoit à ignorer, ce que je ne crois pas possible, tous les penseurs vous en dedommageroient bien, un ouvrage prépare la reputation d'un autre; quand on ecrit pour une autre nation que la sienne, les succès vont lentement parce qu'on est destitué de tous les secours de la protection, de l'amitié, de l'intrigue et même qu'on ne peut jamais saisir l'apropos. Qui auroit deviné qu'en traitant l'organisation judiciaire, on ne feroit nulle mention du plan du Comité? Mieux auroit valu travailler directement sur vos nouvelles idées, sans perdre temps à refuter les leurs, mais assurement, on ne prèvoit pas ces choses là. Je ne veux que m'expliquer à moi-même la lenteur a l'engourdissement non de l'Assemblée mais du Secrétariat: ajoutez l'extrême amovibilité de ce bureau, les membres changent si souvent qu'il ne peut y avoir de suite.

Je vous communiquerai la réponse de Du Roveray que j'attends chaque jour. Si vous venez en ville, ne m'oubliez pas. Voici de beaux jours, Romilli et moi avions envie d'aller vous faire une visite, après la terme, mais vous ferez encore mieux de nous venir voir. Tout à vous.

Mercredi. Du Mont

### 6991

### T o E t i e n n e D u m o n t

#### 14 or 15 May 1790 (Aet 42)

#### Thursday or Friday2 May 14 or 15 1790

 It will be a great pleasure to me to see you and Romilly here. But first I must have got through the labyrinth I am wandering in at present and come to town; and God knows when that will be. I hope on Monday. Mean time I send you a letter for you to put into French if you please, and I hope send it by this day's post. What keeps me so long is that having lost all prospect of being of use in France, at least upon the present occasion, I can not help turning aside wherever amusement calls me. French law being now out of the question, I pay the more attention to the English. My kingdom, like other people's, is not to be of this world: but 〈when〉 I get to heaven I will make as many tribu[nals?] as I please, and I'll promise you they shall ev[ery] one of them have cognizance of every thing, and hold none of them more than one Judge—Tous des obligians, point de Carosses, pas même un vis-a-vis. As for Juries, I will have none of them, though the 12 Apostles were to offer themselves to make the first. As to Du Rouverai publishing no more it is because nobody buys what there is out already, which you know is the non-customers fault, not your's nor mine.

Pray desire Romilly when you see him to endeavour to learn and let me know how many times out of ten Juries perjure themselves and cheat the King in Revenue causes: I believe about seven.

2 May 14 was a Friday in 1790.

**<sup>699.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Dumont Mss., B.P.U., Geneva, 33, vol. i, fo. 59. Autograph.

Addressed: 'To / Mr Du Mont / Lansdowne House / Berkeley Square.' Postmark: 'penny post paid'.

This is clearly a reply to Dumont's letter of the 12th (letter 698). Next to the original in Geneva is a loose sheet (fo. 60), containing in Bentham's hand a rough draft in French, intended as a 'supplement a ce que vous avez bien voulu publier sur le nombre des Juges'. After a crossed-out passage are two sentences in English: 'What a pity—this was a mistake! I mean what I have scratched out.' Perhaps Bentham changed his mind after writing the letter and wrote that draft in French to save Dumont the time and trouble of translation before sending it on to Du Roveray.

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 1 June 1790 (Aet 42)

Hon.d Sir

130

 I came to town last night with very good intentions of paying my duties to you today about dinner time, but could not compass it. I therefore take this method of desiring you to beg the favour of Mr Hawes2 who I understand is going to the neighbourhood of Eastwood3 in a few days, to take a look at the place and tell you what state the Timber is in, whether there is any which it would be of advantage to cut at present, and whether he thinks it would be for the advantage of the estate to allow timber to the Tenant for building an additional barn, he being at all the other expence according to his proposal. I do not r〈eco〉 lle〈c〉t exactly how much time there is yet to come in the Lease, you I dare say by turning to your memorandum books can tell exactly.

I was with Ld Lansdowne to day, who told me he called on you personally a few days ago, but found you were not at home. With best respects to my Mother

### I am, yours dutifully and affectionately J.B.

Tuesday afternoon Bedford Row

June 1 90

You have never sent me my Brother's letter as you said you would —I have taken measures for getting a [private ?] letter4 you desired to see and have ho[pes] of succeeding ere long; but everything is in confusion there [owing] to the removal of the books.

**700.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 130. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah: 'Fils Jeremy Bentham / Lr datd Bedford Row / June 1st 1790.'

Addressed: 'To / Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.' <sup>2</sup> Francis Hawes, a tenant of Jeremiah's, who occasionally acted as his agent in Essex.

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps the one to Jeremiah from Col. Fanshawe, mentioned in letter 706, p. 140 below.

<sup>3</sup> Eastwood, a parish in the hundred of Rochford, Essex, in which county the Benthams had several small properties (listed in a memorandum book of Jeremiah's, B.L. Add. Mss. 37336, fos. 68–100).

### 7011

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 3 June 1790

Thursday Night

You may command my Home either tomorrow Saturday Sunday or Monday for any purpose, Male or Female with or without me.

Tomorrow I attend the House of Lds whose rising is uncertain, and Prince Czartorinski2 and the French Dine with me after.

Saturday no body dines with me except Mr Smith the Solicitor and his Son who will stand in no body's way.

Sunday I have the French Vaughan and Romilly

Monday no body which I shd. think would best suit Sir Jn Parnell's3 and your purpose, and I should think he would stay Monday if you propos'd it—but as to the other days there is no body who will not sort very well with him.

As to the rest It's all Nonsense and you must have mercy upon me, for I really have material things to think of in these times.4

#### Adieu

If Dining does not suit Sr. Jn. Parnell I will be glad to see him any morning before 12.

**701.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 133. Autograph. Docketed: '1790 Jun. / Ld. L. L.House / to / J.B. Bedford Row / J.B. to invite Parnell.'

The only possible Thursday in June for dating this letter is the 3rd, as Parliament was dissolved on the 10th; Lansdowne is not recorded as attending in the House of Lords at all during June 1790.

<sup>2</sup> Probably Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (1770–1861), who became even more celebrated as a Polish patriot than his father.

3 Sir John Parnell, 2nd bart. (1744–1801), who was to have an abortive negotiation with Bentham concerning a projected Panopticon prison in Ireland. He had been appointed chancellor of the Irish exchequer in 1785. He opposed the parliamentary union of Ireland with Britain and was forced out of office in 1799, but lived long enough to be elected to the first parliament of the United Kingdom as m.p. for Queen's County, 1801.

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps a reference to Bentham's wish to have an explanatory talk with Lansdowne about his political prospects (see letter 710, p. 145 below).

### 7021

### T o A d a m S m i t h

#### Early July 1790 (Aet 42)

 A little tract of mine in the latter part of which I took the liberty of making use of your name, (the Defence of Usury) having been some time out of print, I am about publishing a new edition of it. /I am now therefore at a period at which/ Now then is the time where if I have done you or any body any injustice, I shall have the opportunity, and assuredly I do not want the inclination, to repair it: or if in any other respect I have fallen into an error I could give myself and the public the benefit of its being set right. I have been flattered by the assurance /with the intelligence/ that upon the whole your sentiments with respect to the points of difference are at present the same as mine: but as the intimation did not come directly from you, nor has the communication of it received the sanction of your authority, I shall not without that sanction give any hint, honourable as it would be to me, and great as the service is which it could not but render to my cause.

I have been favoured with the communication of a paper from Dr Reid2 of Glasgow of /an unedited/ a paper of his written on the same subject a good many years ago. He declares himself now fully of my /opinion/ way of thinking on the question of expediency and had gone a great /considerable/ length towards it at that time. The only ground on which he differs from me is that of the history

<sup>2</sup> This may only refer to Thomas Reid's letter to James Gregory, quoted in letter 633, p. 19 above, although Bentham seems to suggest a direct communication to himself.

**<sup>702.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxix: 174–5. Autograph draft, first printed, together with a proposed 'Preface' to the second edition of the *Defence of Usury* and a 'Postscript', both previously unpublished, in *Jeremy Bentham's Economic Writings,* ed. W. Stark, vol. i, 1952, pp. 188–90, 191–4, 195–207.

Adam Smith would appear to have received a communication of this kind from Bentham shortly before his death on 17 July 1790. His biographer comments 'the book had the very unusual controversial effect of converting the antagonist against whom it was written...it is reasonable to think that if Smith had lived to publish another edition of his work, he would have modified his position on the rate of interest' (John Rae, *Life of Adam Smith,* 1895, p. 423). In the opinion of Professor Stark, this remains 'an open question': all Smith did by way of acknowledgement of Bentham's letter was to send him a dedication copy of the *Wealth of Nations*: 'A present', wrote Bentham many years later, 'I had the melancholy consolation of receiving from Adam Smith at the same time with the news of the loss which, as a citizen of the world, I had sustained by his death' (in the draft preface to a pamphlet entitled 'The true alarm', written 16 March 1801, U.C. i: 621; cited W. Stark, ubi supra, i, 26–7).

/origination/ of the prejudice, of which his paper gives as might be expected an account more ecclesiastical than mine. Anxious to do my cause as much service as it is capable of receiving, I write to him now to endeavour to persuade him3 to give his paper to the world, or if he looks upon so much of it as concerns the question of utility [as] superseded by mine, that he will either consign /communicate/ the historical part, that part which he prefers to mine, to some general repository for short publications, or allow me the honour of forwarding it to the world in company with mine. The account that has been given by the Marquis de Condorcet of the sentiments of Turgot4 on the same subject is already every body's without leave: I shall /accordingly/ therefore annex by way of appendix to my new edition the original as well as a translation of that short passage. I am the more anxious to collect all the force I can muster, in as far as I find from the printed debates as well as from private intelligence that the project of reducing the rate of interest in Ireland is not yet given up: though this perseverance is hardly consistent /reconciliable/ with the account I receive from the same quarter of the impression made in that country by the Defence of Usury.5 Yet the subjecting the rate of interest to a further reduction by a new law is a much more mischievous and less defensible measure than the continuing of the restraint upon the old footing:6 and pregnant with mischiefs of a different and independent nature. It would be a tax upon the owners of money much heavier than ever was levied upon the proprietors of land: with this circumstance to distinguish it from all other taxes that instead of being brought into the treasury for the public service it is made a present of to the collectors in expectation of the good they are to do to the nation by the spending of it. If this be good thrift in the name of consistency and equality let them impose a land-tax to the same amount and dispose of the produce in the same manner. What makes my anxiety the greater is the uncertainty whether the project of plunder without profit /may not be/ is not still hovering over this island. Last year it was roundly and positively asserted in the Irish H. of Commons as if upon personal

<sup>3</sup> Bentham had written the word 'not' here but it seems to be scored through.

<sup>4</sup> For Condorcet see letter 766, n. 5. Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727–81) had been comptroller-general of finance to Louis XVI, 1774–6, but was overthrown after attempts at reform. His views on usury were given in Condorcet's *Vie de Turgot,* London, 1786, pp. 53–6.

<sup>5</sup> See above, p. 29.

<sup>6</sup> Marginal note of alternative wording: 'adds to the mischief of the old established regimen others of a new and much more serious nature'.

knowledge to be determined upon in the Cabinet here: and the administration being appealed to though they of course would not acknowledge would not contradict it. Its suspension hitherto may have resulted from nothing more than a doubt whether the nation were yet ripe, according to the Irish phrase for this mode of enrichment: as if there were a time at which a nation were riper for plunder and waste than at another. I am truly sorry I can not find time to make one effort more for the express purpose of stemming the torrent of delusion in that channel. The straw I have planted already has done something: what might not be hoped for, if you your oak-stick were added to /linked with/ it?

As the world judges, one upon examination and nine hundred and ninety-nine upon authority /trust/, the declaration of your opinion upon any point of legislation would be worth I wont pretend to guess /say/ how many votes: but the declaration of your opinion in favour of a side to which conviction and candour had brought you over from the opposite one, would be worth at least twice or thrice as many: /under/ in such circumstances the authority of the converter would tell for little in comparison of that of the proselyte, especially such a proselyte. We should have the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer abjuring his annual motion in the face of the House, and Ld Hawkesbury7 who they say is /it has been said/ is Mr Pitts tutor in this wise business, quietly and silently putting his papers and calculations into the fire.

If then you agree with me in looking upon this as a most pernicious measure you would like me to be glad to see it failed /put an end to/ and /for that purpose the acknowledgement/ the declaration of your opinion on a subject which you have made so much and so honourably your own, is an expedient to the use of which I should hope you would not see any objection: the less as you would hardly I suppose let another edition of your great work go abroad with opinions in it that were yours no longer. If you then think proper to honour me with your /permission of/ allowance for that purpose, then and not otherwise I will make it known to the public, in such words as you give me that you no longer look upon the rate of interest as fit subject for restraint: and then, thanks to you and Turgot and Dr Reid, the Defence of Usury may be pronounced in its outworks at least, a strong-hold.

<sup>7</sup> Charles Jenkinson (1727–1808), m.p., 1761–86; created Baron Hawkesbury, 1786, and Earl of Liverpool, 1796; at this time he was President of the Board of Trade.

### 7031

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 12/23 July 1790

#### Moscow July 12 1790

Your letter from Bowood of Septr 3d2 reached me at Tobolsk. Had I answered it immediately my letter would have reached a month at least sooner but as I was drawing near Petersburg and at the same time undecisive what to answer you I have not till now been able to prevail on myself to take up the pen. I had hopes to find through one channel or other the other letters of yours in which you tell me you gave me a description of [the] character and fortune of the person in question but no such letter coming to hand I was at arriving here less occupied by the object you proposed than probably I should have been otherwise. In the course of a few days, mere accident made me acquainted with a girl of one of the best families and possessed of all the qualities which I could possibly hope to find assembled in one person,3 in a few days I had proofs of my being esteemed by her as well as her family and these 〈last〉 ten days have been passed in their society. I have never known a girl more desirable; but I fear I am too much in love with her to succede. To explain this you must know that accustomed to see all matches here made by Parents her object has been to work herself up to a degree of indifference which should make her obedience less troublesome and though now having only a mother and 23 years of age she is perfectly free to choose for herself this freedom she uses only to reject all offers of interest where the character of the person does not please her, but is too suspicious to have ever found any person to whom she would venture to encourage an attachment. It is therefore by length of time only I could hope to succede: but my pursuits she knows do not permit me to spend any time here. If I go away matches of convenience will be found by her friends and when the person is not disagreeable

**703.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 139. Autograph. Docketed: '1790 July 12/23 / S.B. Moscow / to / J.B. Bedford Row.'

Addressed: 'Jery. Bentham Esqr / at W. Browne's Esqr / Bedford Row London.'

2 Missing: presumably dated 3 September 1789.

<sup>3</sup> The young lady cannot be positively identified among the large Vorontsov (Woronzow) family. Samuel had seven years previously courted unsuccessfully another Russian lady, the Countess Matyushkina (see *Correspondence,* iii, especially 157 and n.).

she will accept them. If I stay here abandoning my projects the idea alarms her. The too great interest I take making her suspicious of my sincerity; another fortnight however I propose staying and when I can tell you anything more certain you shall hear from me again. In the mean time it was necessary I should let you know how I am circumstanced as the person in question is nearly related to Ct Worontzoff the minister in England,4 possibly he may be written to, on which account as well as on others I wish you were known to him. I think somehow or other you must be already acquainted. I think it would be good he should see Q.S.P.

I had before thought it would be in England only I could find a person with whom I could depend on being happy; but this connection has made me change my opinion not only with respect to the person in question, but by giving me hopes in case of this failing of find[ing] other suitable.

From hence I go to P.P.5 and then to Petersburg; with respect to my journey to England you will perceive it to be very uncertain: but my desire is great and if my present pursuit fails I shall have a stronger motive.

I would wish to write on other subjects, as also to Q.S.P., from whom I have lately received a letter, but at present I cannot command any ideas, especially today. I am more than usually agitated and the post goes today. If you would write to me immediately your letter may reach me in two months either at Petersburg or here, don't fail to let me know what change time has made respect to your proposed6

<sup>4</sup> Count Semën Romanovich Vorontsov (1744–1832), Russian ambassador in Britain, 1784–1800, 1801–6. He was brother of the Russian Chancellor, Count Alexander Vorontsov (1741–1805). His only daughter, Catherine, became the second wife of the 11th Earl of Pembroke, and his son, Michael (1782–1856), became governorgeneral of New Russia.

<sup>5</sup> Prince Potëmkin.

<sup>6</sup> The last sentence of the letter is unfinished.

### T o t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 11 August 1790 (Aet 42)

#### My Lord

137

 I owe your Lordship my humble acknowledgements and thanks for two letters. The D. de la R's received some time since2 and Sir J. Parnell's received this instant.3 I beg leave to congratulate your Lordship and the Ladies on your safe return which I heard of but this morning from Mr. Vaughan. As for me, whether the company at Bowood receives the very insignificant addition your Lship speaks of, and whether I am ever more to enjoy a

**704.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 29. Autograph draft, written in three columns, the right-hand one containing insignificant variants from the middle one, crossed through and not printed here.

<sup>2</sup> Louis Alexandre, duc de La Rochefoucauld d'Enville (1743–92), was elected as a representative of the noblesse of Paris to the Estates General in 1789 and was one of the first peers to join with the 3rd Estate in the National Assembly. He was stoned to death by a mob at Gisors in September 1792. La Rochefoucauld wrote to Lord Lansdowne on 27 June 1790 acknowledging receipt of two letters from him, one dated 7 May, the other 6 June. Concerning the second he wrote: 'J'ai reçu avec votre lettre du 6 Juin celle de M. Bentham pour M. le Président de I'Assemblée Nationale, c'étoit alors M. l'Abbé Syeyes. Il m'a chargé de vous témoigner et à M. Bentham son regret de ne pouvoir pas entretenir l'Assemblée de cette lettre, parce que, arrivée longtems après l'envoi qu'il a bien voulu faire, elle auroit trouvé l'Assemblée occupé d'autres objets. Il m'a chargé aussi de lui dire et à vous, My Lord, que le Comité de Constitution et celui pour la Reforme de la Jurisprudence Criminelle profiteroient, autant qu'ils le pouvront, des lumières de M. Bentham; j'espere que cet estimable Jurisconsulte nous fournira quelque autre occasion de lui temoigner notre reconnaissance' (B.L. V: 131–2). Emmanuel Joseph, comte Sieyès (1748–1830), was elected president of the National Assembly on 8 June 1790.

Although it had been printed in the *Journal de Paris,* Bentham's letter of 6 April 1790 (letter 696), addressed to the president of the National Assembly, had either not been delivered, or had been ignored—as Dumont suspected (see letter 698, p. 127 above). Perhaps Lansdowne's missing letter of 6 June to La Rochefoucauld was a reminder, enclosing a copy of Bentham's letter of 6 April, unless this was an entirely fresh approach.

3 Sir John Parnell wrote to Lord Lansdowne from 37 Wigmore Street, London, on 6 August 1790: 'I received the honour of your Lordship's Letter in Ireland with Mr Bentham's Treatise on Penitentiary Houses. I have never read a more ingenious Essay on a Subject of such a nature. I am so convinced of the Utility of the Plan, that I believe it would be adopted in Ireland, but I do not know whether I am at liberty to have the treatise copied. I have the Original with me, and shall return it, when I know where to send it. I am very much obliged by your Lordships goodness to me, and beg leave to trouble your Lordship to return my thanks to Mr Bentham for his having been so obliging as to give me an opportunity of receiving the benefit of his Information on a Subject with which humanity and good Government are so much connected' (copy by Jeremiah Bentham, B.L. V: 143–4).

pleasure the loss of which I can not think of without the deepest concern depends upon contingencies unhappily not in my power

It is necessary I should explain myself, but as I wish /it is my wish/ not to explain myself /do so/ by halves, it is a task I will not attempt at present, having other letters to write by this post and being called to town tomorrow morning by engagements which will hold me for some days.4

I would not let slip a post /this earliest opportunity/ without acknowledging the favours above mentioned as a proof of the respect with which I have the honour to be

> My L Your Lship's much obliged and most ob. h. s.

Hendon. Middsx Aug. 11 1790

### 7051

### T <sup>o</sup> S i r J o h n P a r n e l l

*c.* 12 August 1790 (Aet 42)

#### Sir

 I have just reced from Ld L. your letter to him, relative to my paper on Penitentiary-Houses etc. and am much flattered by the approbation you have the goodness to express. With regard to the having a copy of it taken, I will beg leave to mention to you how I am circumstanced.

I had been wishing for some [time] to have one taken myself to send to the D. de Liancourt2 who is at the head of the Committée

**705.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 29. Autograph rough draft, written in columns, with many corrections and much crossed out. The first and third paragraphs are scored through in pencil, but a version of them must have been included in the letter sent, in order to make sense.

Sir John Parnell's letter of 16 August (707) is a reply to one from Bentham of the 12th, apparently based on this draft.

<sup>2</sup> François Alexandre Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld, duc de Liancourt (1747– 1827), president of the National Assembly for a short period after the storming of the Bastille; he emigrated to England in 1792 and took the title of duc de La Rochefoucauld after the murder of his cousin, Louis Alexandre, in that year. (See above, letter 704, n. 2.) He spent several years in the U.S.A. and corresponded with Bentham from there (see letters 1075 and 1085, *Correspondence,* v). He returned to France after the Restoration in 1815 and was able to secure practical reforms during his later political life, as well as writing much on poverty, prisons and other social and economic subjects.

<sup>4</sup> This passage foreshadows Bentham's long, explanatory letter of 24 August (letter 710).

de Mendicité,3 and at whose desire the Marquis de Cazaux4 was over in London not long ago collecting information relative to the subject of Houses of Labour and confinement. I am the more desirous that it /the whole plan/ should go before the Committee in statu quo as intimation of it had been already given to them by a friend of M. de Cazaux's and mine who though much struck with it thought it sufficient to mention it in so loose and general a manner as I fear will convey but a very inadequate idea either of the thing or of its advantages.5

It is equally so for the purpose of printing in Ireland, if you think the previous publication of the Essay will /be of use/ promote the adoption of the plan it recommends. Should any doubts /objections/ or difficulties suggest themselves I should be glad of an opportunity of endeavouring to obviate them, and should be very proud to lend any assistance in my power I may be thought capable of affording towards the accomplishment of a system of police which it gives me no small satisfaction to see revived in Ireland and in such good hands. I take this opportunity of inclosing a copy of a pamphlet I published on the general subject of Penitentiary Houses6 when it was on the carpet here in England. I think about half of the ideas suggested in it were adopted in the Bill which afterwards passed into an Act.

As to bringing in the Bill in Ireland, if any resolution is come to and publickly mentioned with regard to the time I should be glad to be informed of it and for this reason.

Thinking it hardly probable that the French Committee should be so far advanced /very speedily have got to such a degree of detail/ in their plans /schemes/ relative to that difficult subject as to preclude the taking such a matter of detail into their consideration.

If time should permit consideration [of] the article, I should be glad to take the chance /it should pass in/ for its adoption by /with/ the Irish Parliament in order that in the event of its adoption 3 The Comité de Mendicité was set up by the National Assembly in January 1790

4 Alexandre Casaux (see letter 670, n. 4).

<sup>5</sup> What seems to be an alternative wording for part of this paragraph is in an adjacent column in the draft. It reads: 'A short time ago the Marquis de Cazaux being over here at the desire of the D. de L. who etc. this idea of mine was mentioned to him by a friend of mine to whom I communicated it for that purpose but who was /though/ much struck with it thought as yet etc. I could 〈transmit?〉 the whole Essay or a considerable extract from it should go over'.

<sup>6</sup> Bentham's *View of the Hard-Labour Bill,* 1778.

to deal with problems arising from poverty and vagrancy, including the condition of workhouses and prisons. It ceased to meet after September 1791 (see *Procèsverbaux et rapports du Comité de Mendicité de la Constituante,* 1790–1791, ed. Camille Bloch and Alexandre Tuetey, Paris, 1911).

there it might go to France with the weight of such high authority in its favour.

On the other hand should the time of proposing the measure in Ireland be uncertain or very remote, the sooner it were in France the better: and for that purpose I should either take /have/ a manuscript copy taken and sent thither, or perhaps print it here and send over a part of the impression before the whole.7 I should hold myself much honoured and obliged by any information or advice you could favour me with on the subject and am with all respect

### 7061

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n <sup>t</sup> h a m

#### 14 August 1790 (Aet 42)

Hond Sir

The inclosed2 is from Sr Jn Parnell Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland: it will serve to give you some intelligence of the Inspection-House letters. I had observed not long ago in the Irish Debates that the Pentientiary Scheme was going to be proposed in Ireland, and that Sr J Parnel was to be the proposer. Conferring notes with Ld Lansdowne I found his Lordship was well acquainted with Sr John, and the letter shews you the rest.

I am sorry to tell you the recovery of Col. Fanshaw's letter seems yet problematical.3 I asked Ld L. for it by the first opportunity after you mentioned it to me. He told me he would look for it: he did so, could not find it, and wanted to persuade himself he had returned it to me. The last place there was a chance of my finding it at was not accessible to me till yesterday, and there it was not.

Addressed: 'To Jeremiah Bentham Esqr.'

Putney Heath was the new home of John Farr Abbot and his wife.

2 See letter 704, n. 3. 3 See letter 675, n. 5, and letter 676, n. 2.

<sup>7</sup> In a separate column in the draft is what seems to be an alternative wording for the end of the letter: 'But wherever it is printed, if that be its destination, I should wish first to cast an eye over it, not having done so since the year 1787 when it was written: nor since the erasures which Ld. L. to whom I had given carte blanch had the goodness to make, at my request, the rather as there is a danger of its being mixed with the observations by [me?]. Upon the whole I beg leave to refer it to your own good pleasure, sir, whether to return it [to] me now or to keep it for the present for the purpose of a copy and should' [hold myself much honoured . . . etc?].

**<sup>706.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 141–2. Autograph. Docketed by Jeremiah Bentham: 'Mr Jeremy Bentham / Letter datd Bedford Row / Sat Augt 14 or 15 1790 / Inclosing a Letter from / Sir John Parnell to the / Marquis of Lansdown / datd Aug 6 1790 / Recd at Putney Heath / on Thursday 19th Augt 1790.'

I now recollect his returning it to me at Bowood; but I also recollect his asking for it back again to shew to somebody who dropt in afterwards: and I do not recollect or believe he returned it to me a second time. His papers however were then in disorder, in consequence of some new arrangements that were then taking. He promised to remember it, and when he comes to town I hope we shall be more fortunate.

I wrote you a letter some time ago on occasion of Mr Hawes's then intended journey to Essex, and the opportunity you had told me it would afford of getting intelligence respecting the farm at Eastwood.4 You have never favoured me with any answer. I suppose he did not go that way.

Ld L. and the Ladies are got back to Bowood from their late excursion into the North. I am expected there, but I am in doubts about going. If I were to go, I should stay as long as they did, which will be till the 1st of Novr. Are you *erratic* at all this summer, or altogether stationary?

A friend of mine is just returned from Paris where he 〈had〉 been to the Jubilee—He and Smith the Member for 〈Colchester〉 travelled together.5 They were at several of 〈the〉 public meetings in the provinces and were everywhere in quality of Englishmen treated with great distinction and cordiality. Cherbourg he was at, and found it a compleat Port. The Marquis de la Fayette professes an antipathy to the English, and is violent for war: but they say he has lost a good deal of reputation as a General and man of business by the Jubilee,6 which was very ill conducted, though the people were so very generally well affected to the Revolution as not to be willing to find fault.

Adieu. Remember me respectfully and affectionately at the Heath—not forgetting the honourable gentleman,7 when he happens to make one.

Saty Aug. 14 1790. Bedford Row.

P.S. 8 Pray return me Sir J. Parnell's letter by the first opportunity from Line Inn Fields to Mr. Browne's.

4 Mentioned in letter 700, p. 130 above.

<sup>5</sup> Benjamin Vaughan, who travelled in company with Sir Robert Smyth, 5th bart. (1744–1802), m.p. for Colchester. Smyth did not stand for Parliament in the 1790 election and shortly afterwards settled in Paris as a banker; he was a sympathiser with the French Revolution and a friend of Thomas Paine.

<sup>6</sup> Vaughan sent to Lord Lansdowne a description of the Fête de la Fédération and Lafayette's handling of it on 15 July 1790. It is printed as an appendix to E. Fitzmaurice, *Life of Shelburne,* ii, 462–4. <sup>7</sup> His step-brother, Charles Abbot.

<sup>8</sup> The postscript is added on the first page of the letter.

### F r o m S i r J o h n P a r n e l l

#### 16 August 1790

London Aug. 16 1790

Sir

142

 I received the favour of your letter of 12th inst—I am much obliged by your permission to take a copy of your Essay on Penitentiary Houses, which I shall get done immediately and return you the manuscript.

I shall also avail myself of the liberty which you have given to me of publishing it (after you have seen it) in Ireland; it is the most likely method to procure the adoption of the system there in its fullest extent.

I am not yet authorized by the persons in Irish government to bring forward the measure and to provide for the expense of it, but I expect that they will direct me to do so. I shall be able, very soon (on my return to Ireland) to let you know their determination. The Bill if it is introduced next session will probably pass early in the month of March. I have already (with the approbation of Government) mentioned the subject in Parliament:2 and I have taken other steps to forward it. I was consulted in respect of buildings for a charity much connected with this system: I mentioned that I was in possession of a plan applicable to the purpose which I did not then think myself at liberty to use, but that I had hopes of obtaining further information on the subject; for this purpose I shall request permission of consulting you, when it suits your convenience.

I shall give every attention in my power to the Abstract of the Bill which you have been so good as to send to me, it contains many good provisions which may be adopted in Ireland.

**<sup>707.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 145. Copy by Jeremiah Bentham. Docketed (with letter 709): '1790 Aug 16 and 19 / Chancr Parnell London to J.B. Hendon / Penitentiary House Copies.'

<sup>2</sup> On 15 February 1790 Parnell had raised in the Irish House of Commons the ques tion of financing arrangements for disposing of felons. 'He observed that as all the American States had refused to receive them, there was no alternative, but to send them to Botany Bay, or keep them at home at hard labour...' He pointed out the expense of transportation to Australia, but 'thought the greater crimes should be so punished, though for the lesser, hard labour in penitentiary houses would be better' (*The Parliamentary Register: or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons in Ireland,* vol. x, Dublin, 1791, p. 226).

From t he M a r q uis o f Lans d o w n e c. 1 2 A u g u s t 1 7 9 0dowf LansneMarqthe uis o From

I beg leave to repeat how much I feel myself obliged by the communication with which you have honoured me.

> I am, Sir, with much respect your most Obedt Humble Servant J. Parnell

Jery Bentham Esq.

### 7081

### T <sup>o</sup> S i r J o h n P a r n e l l

17 August 1790 (Aet 42)

Hendon Aug. 17th 1790

Sir

143

 I am much obliged by the very explicit communications2 with which you have honoured me /been pleased to favour me/. With regard to the buildings for the charity I am not sure whether by the 'consultation' you do me the honour to propose you meant in the way of correspondence after your return to Ireland or in the way of a conversation here. In either way I am equally at your service. In the latter case I will wait on you with great pleasure in Wimpole Street at any time you will please to appoint: observing however that whatever time of the day your letter is put in I shall not have it till the next afternoon nor consequently can obey your commands sooner than the day after.

Have you seen Sir T. Beevor's account of the Penitentiary House established by his procurement at Wymondham in Norfolk? I mention it on account of the experimental proof it affords of the frugality of this mode of punishment, the profit of the earnings having turned out more than *double* the expence of maintenance.

I have it in the Annual Reg. for 1786, in which it is said to be extracted from the 3d Vol. of the Bath Society of Agriculture.3

**<sup>708.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 29. Autograph draft, arranged in columns.

<sup>2</sup> A letter from Parnell to Bentham seems to be missing, unless the allusion is to letter 707, and to the previous letter from Parnell to Lansdowne, 6 August 1790, quoted in letter 704, n. 3.

<sup>3</sup> *An Account of the Origin, Progress, and Regulations, with a Description of the new-established Bridewell, or Penitentiary House, at* Wymondham, *in* Norfolk. By *Sir* Thomas Beevor, *Bart., addressed to the Secretary of the Bath Society: extracted from the same Work,* [vol. iii]. *Annual Register,* 1786, xxviii, 87–93.

I take the liberty of enclosing another account from Oxford, of which the result is little less favourable. If you have not already a copy of it, this is at your service, as I dare say I shall be able to get another.4

What makes me say my 〈plan?〉 the simpler of economy is, that it was the horror of the expense of that House that put a stop to the institution of it upon a large scale in England. If an equal degree of economy could be observed in Ireland, who knows but that the earning might pay not only the expense of maintenance but the interest of the capital laid out on building? especially by the help of the additional advantages as well in point of discipline as in point of frugality of building which may be hoped for from the peculiarities of the plan which has the honour of your approbation.

### 7091

### F r o m S i r J o h n P a r n e l l

#### 19 August 1790

Sir

 I shall take it as a very great favour if you will be so good as to permit me to wait on you or if [you] would take the trouble of calling at No. 37 in Wigmore Street.

There are several circumstances connected with the penitentiary system on which I should beg leave to ask your opinion; I think in doing so I should give you less trouble than by correspondence on so complicated a subject.

I had read the papers to which you are so good as to direct my attention.2

An officer in Ireland called Inspector of Prisons brought me a treatise to prove the practicability of the earnings of prisoners exceeding their maintenance.

I have procured him a power of superintending the labour and maintenance of a number of persons in confinement in hopes that experience may justify his reasoning.

I fear that the comparative prices of labour and provisions may be less favourable to the system in Ireland than in England, but

Another copy by Jeremiah Bentham is in B.L. XXII: 452.

<sup>2</sup> That is, those mentioned in letter 708.

<sup>4</sup> Not identified.

**<sup>709.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 146. Copy in Jeremy Bentham's hand. Docketed (with letter 707): '1790 Aug 16 and 19 / Chancr Parnell London to J.B. Hendon / Penitentiary House Copies.'

much advantadge must result from the plan suggested, and if some expence should remain not provided for, the publick, who most be considerably benefitted by the exchange between the habits of profligacy and those of reformation, ought cheerfully to pay for it—

> I am Sir with much respect Yr most obedt Humble Servt J. Parnell

Wigmore Street Aug. 19th 1790 Jer.y Bentham Esq.

### 7101

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s <sup>d</sup> <sup>o</sup> <sup>w</sup> n e

24 August 1790 (Aet 42)

My Lord,

145

 My return hither brings me to the irksome but necessary task of conclusive explanation. The subject is not new to you. Since the starting of it, the sound of the word *justice* has been tingling in my ears. Every thing rests upon the coincidence or final disagreement between your Lordship's ideas on that subject and mine. When I last saw you, I could not think of attempting to talk about that or any thing serious with a man who was complaining of the gout in his head. It may be as well as it is. Conversation is apt to draw into digressions, and leave things half-explained. I revert to the first morning.2 *'Justice'* you said, *stood in your scale above 'principles'.*

**710.** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. Autograph. No docket or address. Copy in Bowring, x, 229–42, where there are a considerable number of variations, perhaps because a version of this letter was 'taken from a scroll' by Bowring.

Bentham's desire to 'explain' himself fully to Lord Lansdowne is mentioned in his letter of 11 August (letter 704) and he may have wanted to do so early in June, but have been put off by his Lordship (see letter 701, p. 13 above). Now that Lansdowne has gone to Bowood and Bentham himself has returned to Hendon after some days in London, he takes up in detail the question of his relationship to his patron, particularly as regards politics.

<sup>2</sup> This goes back to a conversation with Lord Lansdowne on 27 June 1789, of which there is a memorandum in Bentham's hand in U.C. ix: 92. It contains the following passage:

'Gave me to understand there was a negociation then depending between him and the Kg. for his coming in. Seemed to hesitate between the foreign department and Ireland. Spoke of Ireland as a thing below him, otherwise a place he should find himself much at his ease. "You and I and Romilly should govern it with a Hair." Many questions about my circumstances—my answers general—that it was true I

To a third person who should read this, the opposition might seem singular: but we understood one another, and that is the end of language. Such then is the maxim: and the application of it is, that Justice not only has been, but as it should seem will always be, on the side of other people, and never on mine. On the contrary, I will not altogether despair of satisfying your Lordship that, if not strict and absolute justice, at least some thing scarce distinguishable from it is, as to the future at least, on my side, and for any thing which it has been my fortune to hear, nothing at all like it on that of any body else.

I admitt very freely, and find the more heartfelt satisfaction in being able to acknowledge, that whatever disappointment my past expectations have met with has nothing in it absolutely incompatible with justice: adding with equal frankness that that satisfaction would altogether fail me, were the remnant of them to meet with the same fate.

Another satisfaction I have is, that there did not appear the smallest disagreement between your Lordship's recollections and mine with regard to the conversations on which those hopes were founded. You mentioned Parliament to me in the precisest terms: asking me whether I should like to have a seat there. My answer was in substance, 'that it was more than I could possibly assure myself, how far I might be able to do any thing in such a situation: that besides the want of fluency, the weakness of my voice might, for aught I knew be an insuperable bar to my being able to make myself *heard* in the literal sense of the word, in the House: but at any rate in Committees I flattered myself I might do as well as other people'. I spoke according to my fears. How could I speak otherwise on the sudden, with regard to a situation of which the idea was so new to me?—I think it was in the course of that same conversation your Lordship was pleased to say several things about my fitness in other respects for public business, and about the terms of connection in such a case between a nominor and a nominee. Admitting and not discommending the strictness of my principles and my singularities in that and other respects, you took

had nothing, but that I had been used all my life long to live upon nothing and that nothing was perfectly sufficient. Questions about my aptitude and inclination for Parliament. Answers, that my voice was the most inaudible one that ever was—that I was perfectly unfit for talking upon common-places—that if I could do any thing any where it must be in Committees, or in way of reply, taking in precis the arguments on the other side. That I never would nor ever could argue against my own opinions verbally or in writing—He said he was not the man to expect it, as the Ms. of Rockingham did'. Bowring printed the whole of this memorandum (Bowring, x, 214).

notice with declared satisfaction 'that you saw in them, however, no reason to apprehend their rendering me, as similar causes had rendered other people whom you had put into such a situation, (Ld Stanhope,3 for example) visionary and impracticable—that it was the way of some people, Ld Lonsdale,4 for instance to require of their nominees an implicit observance of their will:—that that was not your way:—and that, though as to the great lines a man of course would hardly think of pitching upon one whose notions differed capitally from his own, yet as to details you should never think of hampering men, or exacting from them any compliances incompatible with their own notions of honour and propriety'.

What was I to think of all this? Could I suppose a thing of this sort was thus thrown out without reflection or design? Was there any want of time for deliberation on your part? Are these the sort of things which people throw out without meaning? Was it that sort of thing which it was natural for a veteran statesman, a man who had been a Minister so often and in so many shapes, to toss like a bone to the first animal that came in his way, for want of knowing of its value? Was it like an expedition to the play, or a morning's walk to see pictures, a thing that might be mentioned one moment and equally out of the memory of both parties the next? Could a man with the most decided intentions have mentioned it in a more decided manner, to one of whose inclinations on that head it had not as yet occurred to him to be informed? Was there in the nature of things any other or more deliberate way of mentioning it? If it was not meant it should be taken as an offer, or raise expectations not then determined to be fulfilled, was it not natural to have intermixed something in the way of caution not to look upon it as absolute? Could I suppose that an offer thus made and dwelt upon in a *tête-à-tête* was thrown out as a mere lure, that the only intention of it was to feed me with false hopes, to sport with my sensibility and my gratitude, with my sympathy for your own afflictions, with my honest and as you well knew not interested ambition, and to rob of his tranquillity the man you were marking

<sup>3</sup> Charles, 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753–1816), who before succeeding to the peerage in 1786 sat from 1780 in the House of Commons as one of the two members for the borough of Chipping Wycombe, which was partly under Lansdowne's control. By 1789 he had become 'visionary and impracticable' in the eyes of moderate reformers by his uncompromising support of the French revolutionaries, which later went even further than that of Charles James Fox and earned him the nickname of 'Citizen Stanhope'.

<sup>4</sup> James Lowther (1736–1802), 1st Earl of Lonsdale, owned great estates in Cumberland and Westmorland. He controlled nine seats in the House of Commons and his nominees in Parliament were known as 'Sir James's ninepins'.

out for your bosom friend? What had I done to deserve, if any man could deserve, such treatment at your hands? Could I suppose that to a man tortured and worried as you had been, a man of a frame of mind surely not naturally hard, and at that time above all others worn and softened by a complication of distress,5 it was a matter of amusement to look out for some obscure and unoffending individual whom he might bite on pretence of an embrace, and that all this confidence and tenderness and kindness was only a project for a good joke?

Could there be a more decided bargain in a transaction which, from the very nature of it was all grace and kindness on the one hand, all gratitude without a grain of equivalent on the other? Was it not to every intent and purpose but the technical form of words a *promise*? Was it natural in such a case for the one party to superadd, or possible for the other to require a formal promise, or consistently with the smallest particle of gratitude or delicacy to spell for such a thing in the most distant manner, or so much as to conceive that it could add any thing to his security?— Was there any thing on my part like a declining of the offer? Was there so much as a *nolo episcopari*? Did not frankness rather outstrip delicacy than otherwise in going even so far as I did to meet it?

Did I take you unawares as designing men used to take Ld Granby? Did the idea of the business come from any body but yourself? Was there the shadow of a project or so much as a hope or thought on my part?—Lord Granby used to look upon himself as bound by such engagements though stolen from him by artifice.6 Shall Lord Lansdowne look upon such offers as nothing, because made by himself of his own accord to a man whose only reproach was that of simplicity?

That it was a decided *offer,* which when coupled with acceptance makes a *promise,* I could not suffer myself to doubt: one thing only prevented my regarding it as an *unconditional* and *immediate* one. The only vacancy apparently in view was that which seemed the natural result of your breach with Col1 Barré.7 I could not tell, from anything you had at that time said to me, whether the breach

<sup>5</sup> The mortal illness of Lady Lansdowne, who died on 7 August 1789.

<sup>6</sup> John Manners (1721–70), Marquis of Granby, distinguished soldier and Master of Ordnance in the Grafton ministry (1768–70). He was attacked by Junius for blunders arising from 'the difficulty of saying no to the bad people who surrounded him'.

<sup>7</sup> Isaac Barré (1726–1802), m.p., a close associate of Lansdowne in politics and business, and member for the controlled boroughs of Chipping Wycombe (1761–74) and Calne (1774–90). See *Correspondence,* iii passim.

was absolutely irreparable: I could not tell whether, in the event of its being irreparable, some positive engagement or considerations of expediency might not induce you to leave him in possession of his seat. These two points, it seemed natural to suppose, might one or both of them still remain undecided in your mind. This consideration was of itself perfectly sufficient to prevent my introducing the subject or saying a syllable more upon it at any time than what your own communications expressly called for. Was it for me to take advantage of a recent resentment to do any thing that might widen the breach, to endeavour to contribute directly or indirectly to your taking any step which in your cooler moments might be productive of regret? The subject was distressing to you: in the nature of things it could not but be so in the highest degree: what you found relief in telling me I heard with that sort of sympathy which you did not doubt of: what you did not tell me I forbore to ask for, conscious that nothing in my power could lessen your affliction, all that remained for me was to take care not to say anything that by prying into it and probing into it might render it more acute.

If such were my grounds for not being able to look upon the offer in any other light than that of a serious one, considering it in itself, and independently of all past discourses, how much stronger did those grounds appear when fortified by such a reference? How much had been said, and how publickly (indeed much more publickly than I wished) in the way of self-accusation for not having done any thing for me when the means were in hand? When an offer so distinct, as it seemed, was made of another matter so perfectly within power, could I draw a line and say to myself—all that has gone before had a meaning, but this which is now mentioned has none? Or would you have had me suppose that all was inanity and illusion, and that an equal and total want either of sincerity or reflection ran through the whole?

In this honourable and as it seemed to me substantial offer I beheld as I thought rich amends—*not* for any neglect in not providing for me in another way, (God knows I never had nor ever conceived myself to have the smallest foundation for complaint on that score) but for the mode in which that imaginary cause of complaint had so frequently been brought upon the carpet.

The first time of my hearing any thing to that effect was one day before dinner in your powdering-room: Lord Wycombe either present or backwards and forwards during the time. I had furnished you at your desire with a short paper on *evidence,* on the occasion

of Hastings's trial.8 It was from that slight incident you seemed to take occasion, most perfectly to my surprise, to call to mind your never having done any thing for me when in power, to speak of it with regret, to take notice of my never having asked you for any thing, to express a sort of sensibility at the thoughts of my never having done so, to remark the difference betwixt me and many others in that respect, Scotchmen in particular, to recount a conversation that had passed between you and my father on the occasion of your expressing similar sentiments to him, and in conclusion to give me a commission in form to consider what would best suit me in the event of your coming again into office. At the hearing of all this my surprize was extreme, and my satisfaction, to confess the truth, not extraordinary. Compassion, which was the *ton* that pervaded the whole, is a sentiment which it never was my ambition to excite: and the prospect it afforded me, however new and unexpected, did not, I must confess, present itself in the shape of an equivalent for a sensation which brought the blood into my face. But neither then nor ever was it in my nature to take otherwise than in good part what appeared to have kindness for its principle. It would have been rather more consistent I think with that delicacy of which on so many other occasions I have witnessed and experienced such striking and abundant marks, and not inconsistent either with the occasion, with former declarations to myself, or if I apprehend right with the common stile of civility on such occasions, if the idea of pecuniary provision had been masked under that of a regret of not having sought an opportunity of giving the public the benefit of—and so forth.

Parliament was then not mentioned, or even hinted at, unless in as far as it might be supposed to be glanced at under the name of *politics,* which it was supposed, and not altogether without grounds, that I should not be very eager to take a part in. Supposing that I should not like it seemed to me a civil way of saying that it was not designed for me. I took it for what it was, and was not so weak, with all my simplicity, as to grasp with eagerness at a shadow which was shewn me only to tell me that I must not grasp at it.

Having heard this much, I was in hopes I had heard it once for all: but a second surprize of the same kind was in reserve for me. The same history of the conversation with my father was at another time repeated publickly at dinner, in the presence of I believe

<sup>8</sup> This clearly refers to the conversation during the spring of 1788, about which Bentham wrote to his brother on 2 May of that year (see letter 620, *Correspondence,* iii, 617).

several strangers, and at any rate the usual complement of servants. I consoled myself once more under the effect by the consideration of the cause: though the cause might or might not continue, and the effect was permanent. Little ambitious of the fruits of dependence, I was of course still less ambitious of the badge. It seemed to me that, as the one had never been put into my hand, the other ought not to have been thus publickly and forcibly clapt upon my back. But though mortified, I was not angry: I have never known what it was to be angry with you for a moment, God knows you have never given me any reason for it, until now. In my own eyes it was a humiliation: but in your's it might be an elevation: my name was set down in form upon the preferment-roll: this you thought, and I dare say thought truly, would raise me in the eyes of the surrounding audience. Raise me or not in their eyes, it certainly, however, did not raise me in my own. Once more I flattered myself there was an end of such honours: could I have foreseen any day when they were to be repeated, I should have taken sufficient care to have kept out of the way of them. Still I ever thanked you in my heart: for, once more it is not in my nature, any more than I believe it to be in yours to take any otherwise than as a kindness what seemed meant as such.

One more of these honours, though not quite so heavy an one, was yet in store for me. It was at Bowood, Parry9 and Blanket10 amongst others present as well as the Ladies, and I believe once more servants. *Three* was mentioned as the number of your friends that you had done nothing for: and I was pointed to as one. How could I help myself? Complaint would have seemed at once ungrateful and ridiculous. Thus much as to what I did *not* like: what I did like I need not particularize:—every thing else you ever said to me or did by me.

Once more, it is no small comfort to me to think that in our recollections relative to the matters of fact, there did not seem to be the smallest difference between us. You agreed with me perfectly as to the offer: your only plea was a sort of presumption of nonacceptance, confirmed by a supposition, relative to my wishes, entertained by an unnamed friend of mine, and my subsequent silence?—Collect my wishes from construction, from implication,

<sup>9</sup> John Parry (1724–97), m.p., a supporter of Shelburne in 1783, thereafter a follower of Pitt, although pledged to parliamentary reform. A bencher of Lincoln's Inn, he was disappointed not to receive a Welsh judgeship and declined to stand again for the Caernarvonshire seat in 1790.

<sup>10</sup> Captain John Blankett (d. 1801), of whom Bentham never had a high opinion. See *Correspondence,* iii, 46 n. 4.

from suppositions formed by a third person?—the wishes of a man who formed as it were part of your family? of a man whom you had taken under your own roof? By what logic did you arrive at the conclusion of forbearing to ask the only one person in the world who could know anything about the matter? In either of two suppositions, what could be more simple than to put the question to me? If I accepted, you crowned my wishes, while you gratified what at one time surely were your own: if I declined, you gave me at no expence one of the highest as well as substantial demonstrations of affection and esteem one man can give another, and bound my heart to yours by every tie of gratitude. Instead of that you said nothing—turned aside from me and looked to other people: as if acting forgetfulness of your part could make me forget in reality a thing so impossible to be forgotten, and which at the time at least you certainly could neither have expected nor wished to see forgotten, as far as concerned the gratitude that in a mind not wholly insensible must have been the certain fruits of it.

But 'I had been silent'.—True it is I had so. To have been otherwise I must have thrown off two parts of my character. One is not to beg: another, not to pry into secrets, and least of all into the secrets of my nearest and dearest friends. Is there any thing wrong in either? Is there any thing for which I deserve to suffer? Lucrative things I have never begged of you, because if I had wanted money I should not have given up business, because it has never happened to me to be distressed, because it has never happened to me to covet any thing of that sort, nor do I know any thing of that sort that I should think it worth while to purchase at that price. The only thing I have coveted for these many years has been the opportunity of trying whether I could make myself of any use to the country and to mankind in the track of *legislation*; or not to frighten you with a word which you may suppose to be in my vocabulary synonymous to wild project and regeneration, *parliamentary business*: nor even that could I be said to covet till you made me: for there is scarcely such a thing as *coveting* where there has never been any *hope.* To what purpose should I have begged? to have reminded you?—Such things are not so soon forgotten. What would have been the effect of begging?—to have lessened the value of the gift to both giver and receiver.—Should I have encreased my chance by it?—I thought more highly of you than to suppose so. If I was mistaken in you, if I did you more than justice, if you part with nothing but to purchase formal homage and supplication, it is but fair to tell you, if the experience you

have had already has not sufficiently told you, I am not your man. Your whole behaviour to me, except on the single point above mentioned has been a perfect model of honour and true dignity, and sincere friendship, and generous attention. What reason had I to presume exceptions, and how was I to divine them? One simple course have I always taken to divine what would be your conduct to me, which was to consider what would be the noblest and most worthy of you.

Another reason against mentioning it to you was my aversion to the idea of prying into your secrets. Accustomed to view things in the great, this virtue, if it be one costs me less perhaps than most people. I do not so much as know the state of my own Father's affairs. He has given it me before now upon paper, and I have returned the paper unopened. Many times has he desired me to hear it, and as often have I stopped his mouth, because at other times I have observed him sollicitous to keep this or that part from me. I have my Mother's marriage-settlement in my custody as Executor to her Brother.11 My Father, I suppose, thinks I have it by heart: and I have never opened it. What communications you have made me at different times relative to the state of your affairs I have as often received with the greatest pleasure—Why? —Because it was any gratification to me to know the facts?—No: but because they were so many proofs of your friendship and confidence. Whatever you have not told me I have concluded it was your wish I should not know. So far from asking you, I have forborn for the same reason asking any body else. When any body asks me for my opinion, my way is to question them directly and without scruple with regard to all facts which I want in order to make up my opinion, and neither directly nor indirectly with regard to any others.

This was a subject of all others on which it was impossible for me to think of putting questions or entering into a jot farther than where you thought fit of your own accord to lead me. It was your breach with Col. Barré that presented the only probability of a vacancy I could observe. It was upon his going out that my coming in seemed, upon my hypothesis, to depend. Asking you to put *me* in would have been urging you to turn *him* out. I saw reasons upon reasons for not choosing to do any thing that might stand the smallest chance of rendering me accessary to any such step.

<sup>11</sup> George Woodward Grove was the brother of Bentham's mother, Alicia (d. 1759), who in 1745 married Jeremiah Bentham as her second husband (see *Correspondence,* i, 1 n. 1). Grove died in 1784 (see *Correspondence,* iii, 256–7 and 257 n. 1).

Whether he deserved it at your hands was more than I could take upon me to assure myself, having heard so very little of the particulars, and that only on one side.—The breach might not be irreparable. I could not tell what danger there might be to yourself in carrying it to such a height after so long and confidential a connection. What little I knew of the man I had never liked another reason for not combating him in an oblique way. His was a subject that for some time could scarce fail of giving you pain as often as it was brought to your recollection; and which therefore, unless when you yourself introduced it I am pretty certain of having never mentioned to you. So much for the sort of *justice* which my unfortunate expectations had been built upon. It certainly did not amount to either Westminster-Hall—or Smithfield-Justice:12 No action could have been brought upon it—No *valuable consideration,* no *quid-pro-quo* in the case most certainly. God knows it has never fallen in my way to render you the smallest particle of service!

What then was the sort of justice that stood opposed to me?— The whole extent of it I can not pretend to fathom. Two of its rules however were sufficiently announced: two classes of men have an indefeasible right to seats from you: every man who has ever given you a vote, and every man of your acquaintance who has ever tried to get in elsewhere. This is the sort of *justice* that is to shut the door against *principles,* and with them against not me only, but against all that you love or that you esteem. *Justice* is an imposing word: and the sound of it added to the singularity of the explanations that followed it left me no other choice than that of attention. I listened therefore while the explanations ran their length, picking up facts as far as they were to be picked up by listening, thinking it better to leave them in the obscurity that surrounded them than to attempt clearing it up by questioning, where the right was wanting, and choosing rather to submitt to embarrassment than to cause it to no purpose. The one thing material, the want of the disposition I had been unfortunate enough to depend upon, was sufficiently legible: and the weaker the reasons alledged for refusal, the stronger the determination they served to indicate. Having got thus much I had got enough to meditate upon, as much as I had any right to ask, and as much as it concerned me to obtain. All my regret is that these laws of justice, such as they are, were not promulgated at the time that Parliament was so distinctly men-

<sup>12</sup> Westminster Hall justice is contrasted with that of Smithfield market. A 'Smithfield bargain' was a sharp or roguish one (*Oxford English Dictionary*).

tioned to me. I should not then have had to complain of a departure from a sort of justice, according to my apprehension rather more simple and intelligible. It would then have passed as a compliment, and as such I should have been flattered with it. Willingly as I would have been excused the honour of being pointed at in public as a fit object of charity, neither in public nor in private should I have had any objection to have been mentioned, as often as you had pleased, as a fit object of choice for Parliament.

Here then, if it were in my power thoroughly to comprehend your decided inclination, and reconcile it with itself, I should take my leave of you, or rather I should not have troubled you at all: inclination, if I saw it clearly and definitively against me would leave no room for reasoning: arguing is apt enough to stifle inclination, but very ill calculated to produce it where there is none. But what perplexes me is, that to this phantom of justice not only *my* expectations have been sacrificed and our common principles, but other persons for whom it is impossible for me to doubt of your regard, whatever may be the case with respect to me. You speak of two different sets of persons for filling your three spare seats:13 the set now sitting, and another of which I am mentioned as one. The latter united in principles and affections with you and with one another: all of them honoured by your esteem and more or less of your regard: two of them in particular affectionate in their nature, and having every reason to be so in a more particular manner towards you, and distinguished by such marks of your affection and intimacy as do not appear to be possessed by any body else. The other set composed of three men who amongst them all neither possess nor pretend to possess a grain either of affection or of what we mean by *principle*: men who neither live so much with you, nor to appearance in a stile of equal intimacy, and whose principles, if they had any would be as opposite to your own as those of any three men you could meet with any where. Such in brief is the description of the two sets—what are to be their fates? The men after your own heart are to see the *everlasting gates* everlastingly shut against them: the men who neither care for you nor are cared for, are the men who are to *enter for ever into the joy of their lord.* All this you tell me in the plainest terms, and to explain a conduct otherwise so inexplicable, you give me the sound of the word *'justice'.*

<sup>13</sup> Since 1761 Lansdowne had controlled three seats in the House of Commons, one for Chipping Wycombe and two for Calne. In 1790 he extended his influence over the second seat for Chipping Wycombe, after the resignation of Robert Waller, whose family, had previously controlled it.

To come to something that shall be intelligible at least give me leave to dispose of the word *justice* and put in the room of it what you will understand by the word *politics.* This is what you really mean by justice: you have talked as explicitly to me before now. Let principles then, affection, real justice, every thing vanish before *politics*: be it so: provided that at this price politics can be seen to derive the smallest chance of compassing its object. But can it? Let us consider quietly. Is it mere numbers that are to do the business? But in this way what is it you can possibly expect to do with a parliamentary interest of which the sole constituent elements are as many votes, neither more not less, as three seats can purchase? for Lord Wycombe's is not yet at market: he is not yet 'called up' nor 'chosen for a county'.14 But let all possibilities of every kind, and impossibilities, if you will, be taken for realities, and you have four seats. Four seats are upon any plan four votes: and let the prospect of these four seats, to retreat to in case of a repulse from others, give you according to what seems to be your plan, four votes more; though as often as a repulse happens actually to take place, (for instance Mr. Baring's)15 the number is diminished, as the same seat will not hold two men at the same time. Call them however *eight* if you please: multiply them by ten and call them *eighty*:—what upon the face of God's earth are you to do with these eighty votes? What one single point can you hope to carry by it? Is it in the power of the *eight* or of the eighty votes to make you Minister again, or to keep you Minister when the Gods have made you, or so much as to keep your head from the block, were they to give their own instead of it?

One hears of two plans for carrying things in Parliament, doing it *per capita* (if one may so say with the lawyers) or *per stirpes*:—by numbers or by weight. The plan *per capita,* though rather a difficult one, has been said, I think, to have been at one time pursued by I forget what Minister (Walpole for aught I know, but at any rate you know) when he *was in,* to keep himself in:—but for a man who is *not in,* to think of *getting in* by pursuing the plan *per capita,* and

<sup>14</sup> Lord Wycombe, the elder son of Lansdowne, had been elected unopposed for one of the Chipping Wycombe seats on 15 March 1786, but had made infrequent appearances in the House of Commons during the intervals of his extensive foreign travels. He did not in fact make this seat vacant by getting elected for a county constituency as anticipated here, but remained one of the two members for the borough of Chipping Wycombe until 1802.

<sup>15</sup> Sir Francis Baring (1740–1810), m.p.; at first he was one of the two Grampound members (1784–90), thereafter he sat for the Lansdowne constituencies of Chipping Wycombe (1794–96 and 1802–10), and Calne (1796–1802). He was a strong supporter of Lansdowne's policies.

that upon the strength of four actual votes and as many possible ones, is what, I must confess, I should not have thought of.

My notion, Utopian as you may think it, is, that whatever are a man's principles, he should keep them, either till he is convinced of their being wrong, or till he can get something for them: that if he takes it into his head to part with them, otherwise than upon conviction, he should *sell* them at least, and not throw them away for nothing: and that while he thinks fit to profess them, he should think fit likewise to act up to them, and *that* not now and then at odd days, but every day. Two things, I humbly conceive, and two things only, can either put or keep you in: King's favour and weight of reputation. For the King's favour, if it really depends upon any such conditions as the possessing the difference between four and eight votes, you shall have full license to make every sacrifice. I require of flesh and blood no more than flesh and blood are equal to: if there is the smallest chance of gaining the King by it, lay your principles every one of them at his feet: send both sets of us packing, with Ld. Wycombe into the bargain: if the King says, Give your boroughs to Ld. Hawkesbury, give them to Lord Hawkesbury.16 But *does* the King's favour depend upon any such conditions? *Will* it be governed in any shape by your four or your eight votes, or rather by the difference between the four, which are your's upon any plan, and the eight (including those four) which is the utmost that upon your plan your four can give you?

Are your four or your eight votes then any better security for the requisite *weight of reputation?*—(I don't mean personal reputation —that stands upon its own basis) I mean reputation of parliamentary influence, the reputation of having under management a set of men whose sentiments carry weight with them, and draw others on their side. Managing things in this way is what I mean by managing men *per stirpes.* This was the plan you appeared in former days to pursue: and personal inclination and politics went at that time hand in hand. Dunning,17 I think I have understood from you, you had an affection for: Townsend18 at any rate: and I

<sup>16</sup> Charles Jenkinson (1727–1808), created Baron Hawkesbury in 1786 and Earl of Liverpool in 1796. He possessed much influence at court during Lord North's long ministry, but far less during Pitt's.

<sup>17</sup> John Dunning (1731–83), Baron Ashburton (1782), the close political ally and friend of the Earl of Shelburne, before he had become Marquis of Lansdowne (see *Correspondence,* iii, especially 121 n. 1).

<sup>18</sup> Alderman James Townsend (1737–87), m.p., also a political ally of Lord Lansdowne and a contact in the City. He was Lord Mayor of London (1772–3), a foundation member of the Bill of Rights Society and the founder of the Constitutional Society.

suppose Barré at one time. Dunning, though a narrow-minded man and a mere lawyer, was a most able lawyer: and I dare say drew a considerable *stirps* after him. Townsend was of use to you in the City: I believe at one time he governed it. Barré, though he knew nothing, was a good party bull-dog, barked well, and with great imposition and effect.—This was acting *per stirpes,* and having a party, and having a piece at least of a great state-engine; though if you had had a whole one, there was not a man of them that had any idea of any use it was to be put to, or any thing that was to be done with it:—(But that by the bye.) This I say, however, *was* having a party, and a party which by mere weight of reputation told in the ballance against the great aristocracy of the country: it was as they say at Cricket, *Shelburne against England.* Upon the present plan or rather no-plan, what is the party come to now? It is like the figure I have seen of Mr. Nobody at the puppet-show: —a great head without any *body* to sustain it.

As to the present Rump of the once Shelburne party, the curious thing is, there is nothing I could say to you of its insignificance in which you have not gone before me. It is not *my* opinion of them I am giving you, but your own opinion repeatedly and explicitly declared, and that to me. In the ordinary course of things it is a satisfaction to a man when he finds his own judgment of men or things confirmed by that of the public. This satisfaction (if such it were in your case) a man need not wish to possess in a higher degree than you do in the present instance. It is singular enough, but no less singular than strictly true, that from the time your choice was known to the present, I have not been in a single company (your own particular friends excepted for none of us confer about such matters or sit in judgement together over you) no—not a single man have I seen, who has not obtruded upon me his wonder at the set you have collected. A few whose degree of familiarity admitted of it, went so far as to express their surprize at not finding me in the number: but whether I who am out was alluded to or no, there was but one voice with regard to those that are in.—'How came Jervis19 to be pitched upon of all men in the world?—a very good man on board of ship, but what is he to do, or what did he ever do in Parliament?'—'Of all men in the world could he find nobody

<sup>19</sup> Sir John Jervis (1735–1823), the future admiral and Earl of St Vincent, had come into Parliament at Lansdowne's suggestion and sat as member for Launceston (1783–4) and Great Yarmouth (1784–90). He had just been elected, to Bentham's manifest annoyance, as the second member for Chipping Wycombe (1790–94). He was certainly an able man, responsible for naval reforms as well as successes at sea.

but Jekyll?20—Put Jekyll into Parliament?—it is quite a burlesque upon Parliament the very idea of it'—said another man in so many words, with a deal more to the same effect.—With others the *last* choice was matter of particular surprize: for I found he was understood to be a dull man, and that even by dull men: by men who neither had nor ever pretended to have an opinion of their own, and only spoke, as they could only speak, from his general character in the profession. Nor in all this was there any thing of party or personal dislike: among people of all sorts and characters and parties I found but one and the same language.—Such has been the gauntelope21 I have had to run.—What could I say?—I, who, as being supposed to be in the secret was examined as it were upon interrogatories.—I put on airs of significance, and said what little I could as shortly as I could:—of one, 'an old connection':—of another,—'a legacy':—of another,—'he was in before'. I suffered in all manner of ways: I suffered for you, my Lord: I suffered for myself: for if these men stand so low, where am I who have been put under their feet? All this I have had fermenting within me, without vent: for since you first began to open to me, and since I have learnt to fancy myself intitled to call you friend, in no one instance have I put any living creature between you and me.

Insignificant as they are, it would be something if they were your's: obsequiousness might make some amends for ignorance and inefficiency. But another curious thing is, that they are no more your's, than they are the King's men or Pitt's, or Fox's. Your men? could you find three men in the House that were less so or less sollicitous to appear so?—They your men?—You are their man if you please: but in what respect they are your's except by vouchsafing to sit in the seats that you have given them, I should be curious to know. I mean, as to *'principle'.* Whether they are your's or no for the purpose of being let out to private jobs, such as the Dutchess of Rutland's for example, I can not pretend to say.22

<sup>20</sup> Joseph Jekyll (1754–1837), m.p. for Calne, 1787–1816. His career in Parliament was undistinguished, but he was a k.c. and Solicitor-General to the Prince of Wales (1805). He had the reputation of a wit, but Sir Lewis Namier found it an effort to read his *jeux d'esprit* (*History of Parliament, House of Commons,* 1754–90, ii, *Members,* 674).

<sup>21</sup> More usually 'gauntlet', or 'gantlope', from Swedish *gatlopp* = 'lane course', the military punishment of having to run through a lane of soldiers who strike as one passes. The spelling changed through confusion with 'gauntlet', an iron glove of armour.

<sup>22</sup> Lady Mary Isabella Somerset (1756–1831), widow of Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland (1754–87), who rivalled the Duchess of Devonshire at this time in personal beauty and political influence. The Rutland family controlled several seats

But if they are, what is that worth to you? What satisfaction or advantage did you get, for example, in that very instance?

The use of having a practising lawyer is, the having a man who, besides whatever weight or knowledge he may have in his profession, has studied speaking and is ready upon all occasions to say any thing that is put into his mouth. His business should be to catch your opinions and argue from them in and out of the House as he would from his brief. The seat you give him is his retaining fee: if he is not your *ame damnée* he is a rebel and a traytor. A man who is ready to prove black white for any body for a guinea, is it for a man like that to pretend to have a will or an opinion of his own against that of a patron who has given him what is worth 4000? In the House, members are supposed to speak the sentiments of their electors: every where else they are supposed to speak the sentiments of the Borough-master who puts them in. Your members, if ever they open their mouths whose sentiments will they speak? Yours?—no more than they will those of the people of Calne or Wycombe. *They* speak *your* sentiments?—You will scarce venture to speak your own when they are by. When the beginnings of the French Revolution were on the carpet at Bowood, you scarce durst own your good wishes on its behalf, while Jekyll, who has so many good jokes, was exhausting himself in bad ones to endeavour to make it look ridiculous.

By what secret is one to account for this predilection of yours in favour of a set of rebels who ought to be your slaves? Is it that you mean to conceal your principles from the world, your pacifick principles for example?—So far from it, you mean to publish them, if I may believe your last words, publish them with your own mouth in the House of Lords. It is not once only that you have seemed disposed to committ yourself, even more than a man of my rashness and indiscretion could think of without apprehension in support of them. Should declarations so often repeated be ever reduced to practice, whom of all your men would you look to for assistance? To your prerogative lawyer, whose talents, if he had any would be employ'd in the support of pure and universal

in the House of Commons and the 'job' to which Bentham refers was probably the arrangement by which John Mortlock (1755–1816), m.p. for Cambridge 1784–8, put this pocket borough at the disposal of the Rutlands in return for a sinecure worth £1000 p.a. Although at first given only a commissionership of salt he secured after much badgering the lucrative appointment of Receiver-General of the Post Office. 'The quondam radical reformer finished as a dictator and grafter. He died 7 May 1816, worth £120,000' (*History of Parliament, House of Commons,* 1754–90, ii, *Members,* 170–3).

despotism?—To your joke-cracker and man of *ton,* who tells you in the House he has but one speech, *Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari,* for every thing? (I speak with the debates before me) To Mr. Baring who cleaves to the mercantile system and every hostile prejudice belonging to it, like a Bishop to the Athanasian creed? to Mr. Baring who schemes for Mr. Pitt, writes bad pamphlets for Mr. Pitt, and takes pleas from Mr. Pitt?23—or to your seaman whose principles it is to look upon all mankind as the natural prey to Englishmen whenever they are caught upon the water, as Englishmen are of sharks?—Is your own faith in the wisdom of the public, or that of the public in your's to remove all the mountains that prejudice has piled up in the way. Might not the labour of some such obscure individuals as myself in the humble character of pioneers to prepare the way before you have its use? Is the weight of your own single eloquence, powerful as I acknowledge it to be, to bear down all opposition in *both* Houses, as well in that where it *is* heard, as in that w[h]ere is can *not* be heard? While your *principles* are thus promulgating in one House, what will be the employment of your *men* in the other?—To stare at them, without knowing what to make of it, inveigh against them, or to try to laugh at them: but every man of them wishing ill to them in their hearts, and not so much as vouchsafing to dissemble it. And what will people say then of the discipline of the Lansdowne army, and of the authority of the commander? He will make his attack, not at the head of his troops, but without his troops, while his troops, like those of Genl. Bligh, direct their fire not against the enemy, but against their own General.24

Is it that you are fond of lawyers? (I mean grim-gribber lawyers25 such as these.)—No: if I may venture to believe your constant language: you *hate* lawyers: and it is not from yourself only that I hear it.—When will the claims of the men you love be put upon a par with the no-claims of the *sort* of men you hate?

Is it that it is a matter of indifference to you whether the opinions and affections of the people about you harmonize with your own?—

<sup>23</sup> Baring was a disciple of Adam Smith and at no time a mercantilist, writing indeed in favour of freer trade and influencing Pitt in that direction.

<sup>24</sup> Lieutenant-General Thomas Bligh (1685–1775) was responsible for the humiliating British defeat at St Cast in Brittany, September 1758. He was severely censured, resigned his commissions and had his name removed from the *Army List* (see J. S. Corbett, *England in the Seven Years' War,* 1907, pp. 293–9).

<sup>25</sup> Grim-gibber, or grimgribber. 'In quot. 1722 the name of an imaginary estate, extemporized in a discussion between two sham counsel respecting a marriage settlement. Hence used by Tooke, Bentham, and later writers for legal or other technical jargon, learned gibberish' (*Oxford English Dictionary*).

Nor that neither, if I may believe you. With what appearance of heartfelt satisfaction did you not speak of it to me, when you told me of the change you had found in those of your Son? did you not expressly attribute your very health and spirits to that cause?— Poor Ld. Wycombe! When his opinions and affections are become as compleatly your's as mine are I hope he will not be served as I have been.

Children a man does not choose: he must take them such as God sends them, with such opinions as they have. But Members for his Boroughs surely a man might choose, and with them the sentiments which are to pass in the world for his. There are two ways of providing for the exactness of such a representation. One is, to take low-minded men of no principles or of opposite principles, and make them swallow your's: another is to look out for highminded men whose principles agree with your's already. This last I humbly conceive to be not only the most dignified course but the surest. Parliament surely is not the only field in which work is not better done by freemen than by slaves. What is your course?—You take narrow-minded men and leave them in possession of their own no-principles without a hope or a thought of mending or changing them.

Had what relates personally to myself been the whole of my concern, I might have spared you a considerable part of this volume: but I could not altogether forget what is of rather more importance, your own reputation and the public service. To answer *my* purpose, were that all, one remove at the General Election would be sufficient, and the demands of what I look upon as justice at least all that I know of them, would be satisfied. But to answer *your* purpose, my Lord, the purpose of your consistency, of your public affections and your fame, nothing would serve compleatly, short of a general clearance, a compleat triumph of your better judgement over your worse. Worse off than you are now you can not be: and what chance can you give yourself of being better off without a trial?—You would then be represented as much as you chose to be: at the worst you might own what you liked of us and disavow the rest. You would have the commencement and germ of a little party, which if God pleased might expand, and in which the *spirit* would at least be *willing,* howsoever the *flesh* might be *weak.* 'New principles will, they must in time prevail' how often have you not said so to me for my consolation!—when will you say so to yourself for your own governance?—How is it they are to prevail, if nobody is to begin to preach them? Is it

through you you would wish to see them prevail, or in spite of you?

Whether one only of the three went out, or whether they all went out, what would you be the worse for it, or what reason would any one of them have to complain?

Mr. Morris, I think, had two merits. He had tried at Bath: and he was to help 'settle' Calne. Try at Bath?—Yes:—so he did; and you see what came of it: three votes out of—(what was the number?) forty, fifty or sixty?26 This was *his* testimonial of importance. In Westminster-Hall, in his own profession, that sordid and narrow-minded profession, which you would be glad to despise, and which I, your humble dependent, despise give me leave to say, a little more at my ease, what is he?—nothing. In the country, as something between the country gentleman and the country lawyer, he was supposed to be somebody:—and you see what it amounts to. —He has done conveyancing business for you as for others: did not you pay him for it as others have done, and at least as well as others have done? Is a seat in Parliament to be given as a fee to a conveyance? and that as a makeweight too, after another fee, which hardly was an insufficient one?—But this parliamentary fee, however, necessary or not, he has actually *had.* Is he to have another every seven years, and so on to the end of his life?—But 'he had been spending his money', I think you said, 'at Bath'—He spend money there?—how? what did he spend it in? In buying votes?—What? three votes?—Would any man in his senses go to give one farthing for three out of forty votes?—And for whom would he have been spending his money, if he had spent any?—For you?—For any body that belonged to you? If he *had* got in for Bath would this have made Bath *your* Borough? Would it have made Bath *your* Borough any more than *mine*? Not but that it would have been as much your borough as Calne is, if it is to be filled by people, who neither think with you, nor live with you nor care for you, nor are in any sort related to you except by sitting there.—But he was to *'settle'* Calne:—and his settling of Calne was to be 'an advantage to Ld. Wycombe'.—Morris settle Calne?—Let him settle Bath first, where he *has* connection, viz: three votes; it will then be time enough for him to think of settling Calne where he has *none.* And if he *had* had Bath to settle, what would then have become of Calne?—Calne want settling?—How long has that been? How long is it since you told me it was in such good order, that even the

<sup>26</sup> John Morris (*c.* 1734–1814), a Middle Temple lawyer, who stood unsuccessfully for Bath and received only three votes out of the thirty in this corporation borough. He was then returned unopposed for Lansdowne's borough of Calne, 1790–92.

feasts, which were so necessary when I first knew the place, had been given up?—But suppose it to want settling, and that he were capable of settling it, and had settled it—who would he have settled it for in that case but himself? So long as he was in for it, it remained settled: when he was out, who was to settle it then?—Is a borough thus circumstanced your borough?—No: as long as Mr. Morris is in for it, it is Mr. Morris's borough: as soon as he is out, it is any body's or nobody's. However, settle it or not, he *has* had his fee for settling;—a seven years seat in it. Is not this fee sufficient, if he had settled it to the end of time? Is the seat to be his for life? Were it to be intimated to him in civil terms that sitting in it for seven years was fee sufficient for settling it while he sat in it, would he think himself underfee'd or ill used? Would he turn upon you and endeavour to unsettle it, by way of payment for his seat?— Was it not you that gave him his silk gown?—And what has he ever done for his silk-gown, either for the public or for you? Was not the silk-gown of itself fee sufficient for doing nothing, and for the credit you have derived from the countenance this great lawyer has vouchsafed to shew you?—As for living with you much, I do not find that this has ever been the case. Why should he have lived with you? What one idea have you and he in common, except when you have the satisfaction of having conveyancing business to pay for?—Now then, my Lord, to speak explicitly as between me and Mr. Morris—What has passed previous to explanation is past: but as to the future, now that you know pretty distinctly that Parliament is not indifferent to me, if I am to understand that for such a place as Parliament such a man as Mr. Morris stands above me, my doom is sealed. It is for you to take which of us you please: —take him, and I make my bow.

Mr. Jekyll's pretensions stand upon very different ground. Weight of any kind he is not so much as supposed to have any where. His pretensions have not the support even of the newinvented laws of justice. But they have a stronger—a much stronger. Those laws are of the same cobweb texture with so many other laws: they stop small flies like me: great hornets like Mr. Jekyll laugh at them. His post in the household is that of *talebearer*: and in that station he has been pronounced necessary, absolutely necessary. I am sure I do not mistake: in this quality he has been repeatedly mentioned to me, and never in any other.— Nothing can be more explicit: nothing can be more of a piece with that frankness, which (in simple truth and without any thing of sarcasm) has so often charmed me. Frankness like this on one part

calls for equal frankness on the other. You may propose to me a place in your household below that of talebearer, below that of scullion, if you please:—when I accept of it, I shall deserve it. Things were not then explained:—now, they are. What is past is past: but as to the future, if the talebearer is to be preferred to me for Parliament, the same household does not hold the talebearer and me.

Without pretending to much veneration for him, the character I should give him were any body to ask me for it, would be such an one as he would probably be less unwilling to own: a very pretty poet, a man without his equal, perhaps, for small talk and ready wit and repartee and powers of entertainment adapted to the taste of fashionable circles—a man qualified to shine in short in almost all sorts of circles that commanding one excepted, in which the public spirit of Ld. Lansdowne, in compliment to the company and to shew his sense of the importance of the trust, has thought good to place him—or any other circle in which there may occasionally be a demand for serious knowledge. But such is not the character in which the most attention seems to be paid to him, nor that in which he was pronounced necessary, and as such has been preferred to me. I for my part, in sober sadness, know neither of that nor of any other quality in myself that can make me necessary or any thing like necessary to any body: especially to one whom a tale-bearer is also necessary. Upon this ground therefore, once more, there remains nothing for me but to make my bow.

But admitting a tale-bearer to be necessary to a great Minister, is a seat in Parliament, and that from your Lordship, and that a perpetual one, equally necessary to the tale-bearer?—Three or four years there he has had already: seven years more he will have at any rate. Is not a ten years seat in Parliament a fee considerable enough for ten or even twenty years spent in tale-bearing?—that is for the value of three or four weeks every year so employ'd, at the outside.—Would the tale-bearer, if given to understand that his interest in the borough was not a freehold, turn tail upon his patron (the subject is infectious) and turn his tales into lampoons? Would he so much as cease his tales for want of a perpetual succession of similar refreshers to the first retaining fee, and sing the song of *No pay no Swiss*?27—I should not presume so badly either of his gratitude or his discretion. Is a seat in Parliament the only sort of fee which a practising lawyer, and he not as yet very rich, nor as

<sup>27</sup> A saying with reference to the attitude of Swiss mercenaries (H. Brewer, *Dictionary of Phrase and Fable*).

yet much abounding in fees of the more substantial kind, will condescend to take? Is your Lordship's countenance and business and recommendation in his profession a matter of indifference to a man so circumstanced?—Will nothing pay him but a seat in Parliament, where he is nobody, where he does nothing, nor has any notion of any thing that is to be done?—Would visions of Welsh-Judge-ships, and silk gowns to be put on *at the second coming of our Lord* be of no value in his eyes?—Or are such contingencies baits for none but *simple* men like me?—If nothing but serving in Parliament will serve him, would not seven years warning be time enough for him to look out for another service? Could he be at a loss to meet with one, now that your Lordship has given him a lift and put him in the track, in short given him a *character*?—Or is it really the case, that, of all his numerous acquaintance, Ld. Lansdowne is the only proprietor of a borough that would not be ashamed to make this use of it?—May not those qualities which have rendered him so necessary to a great statesman and a veteran Minister be expected to render him at least equally so to many and many a patron of more ordinary mould? Could there be a more delightful tale bearer, for example, for a certain castle that we both know of, besides so many others I know nothing of?—Many are the strings *he* can not but have to *his* bow. *I* have—by this time, perhaps, I should say, I *had*—but one:—and that, (must I add?) a rotten one?

I have mentioned Swisses.—One Swiss you had, that would have lived and died with you, and been as domestic and as faithful to you as your Porter, if his Evil Genius had not whispered to you that Swisses do not serve without pay, and therefore you must be talking to him about pay. Pay, you accordingly held up to him, the only sort of pay he cared about—he caught at it, you drew it back:—and now, *he* too like other Swisses cries, 'No Swiss', Master, 'if there is to be no pay'.28

When I tell you that I should never have said a syllable to you, directly or indirectly, about pay in any shape, not even a seat in Parliament, if you had not to me, I expect to be believed: nine years experience afford a tolerable probation. Whether I served myself with you, or disserved myself with you, by this reserve, I staid not to enquire:—It is my temper: it cost me nothing to yield to it: the difficulty would have been to overcome it. You might have given away the whole Red-book twenty times over, without

<sup>28</sup> Perhaps Dumont.

my asking you for a tidewaiter's place.29 Even Parliament you might have talked to me about as long as you pleased, talked to me about other men, or even asked me who you should put there, without so much as hearing of my existence. So long as I was out of the question, and no direct comparisons made, you might have talked of your Valet-de-Chambre or your Butler to me without my proposing myself in preference.—You paid me in flattery; and that was coin which, especially from you, I always was and always should have been content to take payment in: we might have lived on so till the day of one of our deaths. How much better had it been for one of us at least, if you had kept to that plan of frugality, which my known disposition had traced out for you, instead of holding up to view, for the sake of *double-gaining* a man who was your's already, a jewel, which when it came to the push, you could not prevail upon yourself to part with but to swine!—You would then have left *yourself* in the undisturbed possession of all your seats, and *me* in the equally undisturbed possession of my peace.

Of my own chance of turning out capable of doing any thing in Parliament I shall say little here: though I could find a good deal to say on that chapter, had I any right to suppose it would be thought worth your hearing. *Faculties* depend upon *spirits*: spirits depend upon *situation.* They do so in most men: they do so particularly so in me. The spirits you see now are but the dregs of those you *might* have given me. Neither you nor I can ever know, what I *might* have been, if you had pleased. Thus much only will I add, that were I to be a discredit to you, most certainly you would not be half so anxious to see me out again, as I should be in haste to go out: and I *should* consider myself as a discredit to you, if, like your present set, I was a chip in porridge.

You have sometimes amused yourself with playing with me at *I love my love with an A,*30 and telling me what you loved me for, and in what way you thought to be the better for me.—Leaving it to Lord Lansdowne to settle with himself what Lord Lansdowne *does* love me for, give me leave to tell him what a man who has been Minister, and has no objection to be Minister again, *might* love me for.—Do you really then think me incapable of every thing but proposing impracticable projects, and throwing out odd ideas that would not have occurred to any body else? Is *good* in the smallest as well as the greatest works absolutely synonymous to *impracticable*?

<sup>29</sup> The *Royal Calendar,* an annual publication, bound in red cloth or morocco, which included lists of office-holders.

<sup>30</sup> A children's game.

In public and in private have not men concurred in attributing to me the faculty of exhausting what can be said on either side of any question I undertake?—Was not that the observation of the Abbé Morellet, in a letter which you saw?31 Has not something like it been observed by the unknown author of the French translation of the *Defence of Usury*?32 Have you yourself, with all the experience you have had of me, never made a similar observation? Did you ever happen to meet with any body who pretended to have found any thing material to glean where I had reaped?—If you have still doubts, ask Dumont, for example, who having worked *with* me, and, if I may be allowed to say so, *under* me, has had occasion to trace my steps in paths which he himself had trod before:—he himself, as you well know, neither without parts nor without knowledge. Reserving to yourself then whatever lies within the province of *judgment,* might not an use be found now and then, if it were only in the way of saving trouble, for an *invention* fertile in expedients of all sorts, and capable of presenting in all manner of shapes, not only what is best to be done, but all possible contrivances for bringing about whatever is wished to be done?—Are even *right* and *wrong beneficial* and *pernicious,* questions so compleatly useless to a man in the stations you have filled and have no objection to fill again, as not to be worth the trouble of putting an *underling* upon the enquiry? May there not now and then be a convenience in knowing a bad measure from a good one, and being able to prove it so, were it only out of spite to an adversary when he happens to propose it? Within the whole circle of *politics,* (for I will not offend your delicacy with so ridiculous a word as *legislation*) is there a spot with relation to which I could not furnish you with a tolerable answer to these questions? Do you know of any body else who, in your own judgment could give you a fuller or a better? Is there any such surfeit of men of this description in this country at this time? Are they to be had in any number from any Register-Office, like Cooks and Valet-de-Chambres? A man answering in any degree to this description, whether able or not able to speak, might I should have thought, even in Parliament, 31 A reference to Morellet's letter to Bentham of 25 March 1789 (letter 646).

<sup>32</sup> Two translations into French of Bentham's *Defence of Usury* appeared in Paris in 1790: *Apologie de l'usure, redigée en forme de lettres, adressées a un ami, traduit de l'anglais Jeremy BENTHAM,* Paris, chez Lejay fils, 1790. 122 pp. 8vo., and *Lettres sur la liberté du taux de l'intêrêt de l'argent, traduites de l'anglais Jeremy BENTHAM,* par Delessert, Paris, chez Gregoire, 1790. 69 pp. 8vo. In the one by Etienne Delessert, the editor observes in the *Avertissement*: 'On peut dire...que M. Turgot n'avait cru devoir traiter qu'une partie de la question, mais que M. Bentham la suit jusqu'à ses dernières limites'.

have been worth something to you: of still more worth even than a tale-bearer:—but it is for you to judge. 'The Newton of legislation' was the epithet given by Fitzherbert to the author of a certain unreadable quarto volume (in the presence of Charles Abbot)33 in a circle of foreign Ministers at the Hague: whence it should seem that Ld. Lansdowne is possibly not the only man who looks upon the same obscure person as 'understanding the subject a hundred degrees beyond any man in this country'.—What a pity (had Ld. Lansdowne happened to be at the same time in his thoughts) What a pity (he might naturally have said to himself) that a man like that has not been able to get an introduction to a man like Ld. Lansdowne, that he might be put into Parliament, and brought into a light where he might be looked upon—to Ld. Lansdowne whose passion for talent and merit in all its shapes not only fills up his own great and liberal mind in private life, but breaks all bounds when he is Minister and overflows into the *King's Speech.*

This is sad egotism!—but content provokes egotism, and friendship if there be such a thing, may excuse it. *Unnecessary* it has been too well proved not to be: the event will shew whether it be so much as *sufficient.*

In all this while I have never dared face my Father. I have not been able to muster up resolution to stand the parallel that by this time has so often been drawn between the conduct of a noble *Duke*34 towards *one* side of the family, and that of a noble *Marquis* towards the other; nor the strictures that have been made on the

<sup>33</sup> Bentham's step-brother, Charles Abbot, had travelled in Holland during September and October 1789. He dined five times with Alleyne Fitzherbert at the Hague in company with various diplomats, but makes no mention of Fitzherbert's remark about Bentham in his Ms. 'Travel Journal in Holland' (Colchester Mss., P.R.O. 30/9/42).

<sup>34</sup> The Duke of Leeds had secured the election of Charles Abbot, Bentham's stepbrother, to one of the two Helston seats in the parliamentary election of 1790. Abbot and James Bland Burges, the sitting member for the other Helston seat, were elected by the one surviving freeman claiming the vote for the constituency. Another pair of candidates, Sir Gilbert Elliot and Stephen Lushington, were elected by 36 freemen claiming the vote under the new Helston charter of 1762. On 22 December 1790 the House of Commons received a report from a committee on the disputed election and declared Elliot and Lushington elected. The significant comment in the first edition of Oldfield (1792) is that the Duke of Leeds had backed Penhall 'the only remaining corporator under the old charter and neglected the 36 acting under the new one. The estate of his Grace being in the neighbourhood and the members of the new corporation being mostly named out of his tenants and dependents it is most probable they will in future consult the approbation of his Grace in the persons offered to their choice as representatives' (T. H. B. Oldfield, *Entire History, Political and Personal, of the Boroughs of Great Britain,* 3 vols., 1792, i, 145). This forecast proved correct: Charles Abbot was chosen at the next election as one of the Helston membérs (1795) and began his very distinguished parliamentary career.

difference between *apparent* and *real* friendship, between *profession* and *performance.* I have *not* seen him—nor *will* I see him—untill I have it in my power to tell him distinctly, either that the Lord Lansdowne, of whose affection and esteem for me and resolutions of serving me he has heard so much from that same Lord Lansdowne, has stood to his word, and bound me to him for ever, or started from it and set me free.

I set out, I think, with acknowledging, my Lord, that as no fixed time was mentioned in what you were pleased to say to me about Parliament, though you have forgot and slighted, I can not charge you with having deceived me. What you will now do, if your ideas of justice should happily coincide with mine, is to give me an absolute and unconditional promise that I *shall* sit in the *next* Parliament, who ever else does or does not sit there. (As to the possibilities upon possibilities with which you condescended to entertain me they return forthwith to the clouds from whence they came.)—In that event, my heart, if it be worth your acceptance, is still your's. In any other, I have nothing left but to beg of you and the Ladies to forget *me* which will take you half an hour, and to study to forget you, which will be the hard task of the remainder of my life.

One thought, which hangs particularly heavy on me, I must disburthen myself of. When I was last with you, you wanted me to stay. You pressed me with a degree of earnestness I had scarce ever witnessed in you. You were ill: the gout was in your head: and in such a state, such a trifle as even my restiveness might make you worse. It hurt me cruelly to break from you: but it was necessary. I could not look as I felt without being guilty of disrespect to the Ladies, drawing attention and spoiling company. I could not attempt to look otherwise without a sort of falsehood I feared I should not be able to support. You and they know I have no liking to *last times* and an interview which, besides being a *first* time, was so likely to be the *last* of all *last times,* was more than I had force to venture upon.

It was my hope to have lived and died with you. There was not a place upon earth to which I would not have followed you:—but that must take its chance.

Hendon, Middlesex

Tuesday Aug. 24. 1790.

### T o S i r J o h n P a r n e l l *c.* 26–27 August 1790 (Aet 42)

Sir

17

 A number of circumstances you mentioned, and in particular that of the suspension put to establishments already begun, or waiting to be begun, concur in impressing me with the idea, that not a moment's time ought to be lost. On this account I find it necessary to trouble you thus early in order to beg your commands relative to the following points, viz. 1. Getting a Copy made of the Treatise you saw. 2. Getting a model made of the Building. 3. Inserting Advertisements for candidates for the *management-contract.* 4. Drawing up and printing statements relative to the plan for the use of such Candidates. 5. Appointing an Agent for the correspondence. 6. Providing funds for the above purposes. 7. Authority to act; and instructions respecting the Degree of secresy (for the present) to be observed. 8. Encouragem[en]t to be held out to undertakers. 9. Expediting the printing in Ireland.

1. *Getting a Copy taken of the treatise.*<sup>2</sup> Things are at a stand till that is done; transmitted to his Excellency3 and his orders taken upon it. You have no means I suppose of getting it done other than by putting it out to copy, which if done by a single person would be a work of time; besides that you are quitting London. By taking it to pieces and distributing it I could get it done in the compass of a day. These things are done at known prices. To cut the matter short, I will get it done. I hope to get it done by Monday night or Tuesday morning. If you disapprove of the expence it rests with me. Meantime you will be gone to Buxton. Shall I address it to you

**711.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 41–3. Fair copy in another hand, checked against Bentham's much corrected autograph draft at fos. 35–40. No docket.

Bentham's next letter to Parnell (letter 714) gives the information that this one had been sent by post to Buxton on a Monday 'after having been returned on Sunday morning from Wigmore Street'. As a contemporary footnote to the present letter explains 'Sir John was already gone' from London, and if he had departed on either Saturday, 27 August, or early on Sunday the 28th, he could have reached Buxton even by 'the circuitous road' he mentions, in time to reply on 3 September (see letter 718). It would seem that Bentham came from Hendon to see Sir John Parnell soon after receiving his letter of 19 August, and wrote what follows several days later, perhaps on the 26th or 27th.

<sup>2</sup> The manuscript of 'Panopticon'.

<sup>3</sup> John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland (1759–1841), Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1790–95.

thither for you to send to Ireland? Or shall I address it in my own name to Mr Hobart?4 If so will you write to him *en droiture* to explain the matter, or will you send me a letter for him open or sealed, to accompany the Manuscript? Or shall I write to him without any such letter?

2. *Getting a model made of the building.* This is necessary on several accounts.

1. To serve as a basis of negotiation for the Building contract.

2. To enable me to settle a number of details respecting which a variety of information not to be obtained but from persons conversant in building will be necessary to me.

3. To serve as a basis of negotiation for the managementcontract.

4. To serve as a basis of calculation, or at least of conjecture, with regard to the expense of Building.

As to the details of Construction they cannot be definitively settled, nor consequently the building contract made 'till some sort of settlement is come to with regard to the choice of the Manufacture. For suppose a peculiarly promising manufacture offers and the mode of construction fixed upon is such as puts a negative upon it? It will be my study however to give it every latitude, and I have hit upon expedients for the purpose.

What Architect to apply to? Such a man as Mr Blackburne5 perhaps would give advice, and some pupil of his might be got to execute the model. I could come at Mr Blackburne, I believe, by means of a common friend. I have some little knowledge of a very ingenious man, a Mr Revely,6 but I know not whether he has ever turned his thoughts to this particular line.

The idea of having a model was your suggestion. I had forgot that my Brother had one made which was actually before me. But I question whether in conversation we sufficiently seperated the business of getting the Model and that of getting an Architect for the contract. The former business must be a preliminary to the

4 Robert Hobart (1760–1816), later Baron Hobart (1798) and 4th Earl of Buckingham (1804); he was Irish Secretary 1789–93 (see letter 733, n. 2.)

<sup>5</sup> William Blackburn (1750–90), an architect who received first prize, offered by the Commissioners for Penitentiary Houses under the Act of 1779, for designing a male prison. It was never built, but several of his later plans, which attempted to incorporate prison reforms suggested by John Howard, were carried through, notably in Dublin and at Gloucester Gaol (1791). See H. M. Colvin, *A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects, 1600–1840,* 1978, pp. 113–14.

<sup>6</sup> Willey Reveley (1760–99), whom Bentham had first met in Smyrna and Constantinople in 1785 (see *Correspondence,* iii, especially p. 407 n. 18, and below, p. 188; see also Colvin, op. cit., 682–3).

latter, not a consequence. It was not your idea to contract with anyone 'till I had done my best towards perfecting the plan of construction. And this I could not do without the advantage of consulting some Architect whose opinion has title to confidence. The Model with the advice belonging to it is wanting *now,* and *here in England.* But an Architect for the contract I am apt to think cannot so well be had in England, as in Ireland. My reasons I will take the liberty of submitting to you by another opportunity. As to what I said about trying the experiment in the great with boards and Canvass, it was only the random idea of the moment, it is neither necessary nor perhaps practicable. The Model might and ought to be adapted to all the several Establishments to which the principle promises to be applicable. I suppose four such establishments. This may be done either by fitting up the four quarters of the circle in the different manners: or—compleating the whole circle in any one manner and making parts in it capable of being shifted. The most complicated and therefore the most compleat is the mode adapted to solitary confinement: and the variations from it would be made chiefly by the simple removal of a few different parts which different degrees of relaxation in the severity of the discipline would render unnecessary.

3. *Inserting advertisements for candidates for the managementcontract.* I beg leave to submit to you a form for that purpose.7 You mean, I presume, to take every chance for Information and opportunity of choice that advertising can give you.

In what papers should it be inserted? In all the London papers? There are, I think, about 14 or 15.

In all the Country Papers? There are, I believe, not fewer than 60 or 70. But this exclusive of Scotland: and Scotland is not to be neglected. How many times? Once in each I should think sufficient: once in each of two papers includes more readers than twice in the same paper.

Too many, I presume, cannot be *called* though perhaps one only can be *chosen.* There is no great loss of time in hearing what every man has to say, though they should be ever so numerous, and what nineteen in twenty have to say ever so irrelevant. There is no harm in hearing what comes from the remotest corner of the country: though when one comes to make *choice* as so much depends upon personal Character of which a judgment can hardly be formed without inquiries upon the spot, I have no great notion of its being

<sup>7</sup> The advertisement form is not with this draft; a revised version of it is attached to letter 714, p. 190 below.

thought eligible to treat with persons at any considerable distance from London, unless where any particular facility of making the requisite enquiries may present itself.

*Expence of correspondence.* As we shall thus be giving trouble to a multitude of people, of whom no more than one can be paid for it, it seems to me that at any rate we ought to save them as much as may be from anxiety and expence. That therefore two Letters at least should be written to each, one to inform him of the receipt of his proposals: the other to put an end to his expectations as soon as it is determined not to treat with him: and that we should pay the postage out as well as in. What will this amount to? There is no saying. There may be not twenty candidates—there may be hundreds.

4. *Drawing up and printing statements relative to the plan for the use of such Candidates.* As soon as a resolution is come to, to treat with any person, such a statement I conceive should be in readiness to be given him, if necessary that he may know what ground he goes upon and adapt his proposals to it. A tenth part of the matter comprehended in the treatise as it stands at present would be sufficient for this purpose. The whole together would only bewilder a man of this description. The drawing up this abstract would be my care of course, a considerable impression would not cost so much as perhaps half a dozen copies taken by hand.

It would be a satisfaction at least and in some instances might be perhaps necessary to a Candidate whom it was thought fit to treat with to see the Model. A Model any man may understand: few would understand the subject readily and *thoroughly* from a Draught; easy as it is, even without a Draught, to comprehend the general principle.

5. Appointing an Agent for carrying on the correspondence and upon occasion exhibiting the Model. 1. My residence not being in London would not answer the purpose. 2. The name of a man like myself not in any way of business you will see at first glance can not stand with propriety at the bottom of an Advertisement of this sort. 3. My time will be sufficiently occupied without being concerned in mechanical parts of the business that may as well be done by any body else. 4. I am not fond of accounts nor of pecuniary responsibility, and I dare say your politeness will incline you to relieve me from both these burthens. 5. My name at the bottom of such an Advertisement would publish the nature of the business in the first instance to many; and they would ask me what business I had with Schemes and Manufacturers?

A man whose profession it is to act for other people covers whatever is thought proper to be covered. You, I presume, Sir, have nobody in particular that you would prefer in this view. In that presumption I take the liberty of proposing a Man of fortune and eminence in the profession of an Attorney, for whose punctuality, integrity and moderation in his charges, I would desire to be considered as responsible. What would make him more particularly convenient to me, is, that his country house is within two miles of me. To oblige me he has consented to take this charge upon him, though not in the line of his business. His direction is William Browne Esqr. No: 9 Bedford Row London.8

	- 1. Making the Model and taking the Architect's opinion.
	- 2. Advertisements for Candidates.
	- 3. Printing statements for Candidates.
	- 4. Correspondence with Candidates.
	- 5. Taking a Copy of the treatise.

You may well imagine, Sir, I myself should not permit a business in which I am thus embarked to suffer for want of a trifling advance: but it would be affectation in me to pretend to be bountiful to the Government of Ireland.

#### **Calculation**


The Money or power of Drawing for it, I should of course beg of you to lodge in the hands of Mr Browne who would transmit the Account to you with proper vouchers.

7. Authority to act, and Instructions respecting the degree of secresy to be observed—You inclined for the reasons you mentioned

<sup>8</sup> William Browne, the legal agent and friend of the Benthams, who had a country house at Hendon.

against putting the stamp of Government in Ireland upon the Publication of the treatise. But there are many things I could wish to do as soon as maybe, and which I could not promise myself to be able to do to much effect, without being at liberty *here* to shew the authority under which I act. It is for your decision how far the assumption, and if necessary the production, of such authority *here* would be incompatible with the desire of preserving a temporary secresy in Ireland, and if the two objects should be deemed incompatible, which of them shall give way. As the House of Industry business and the Inspector-General's are both allowable, would not they be a sufficient cover for the other? An authority from you would be in a manner necessary for the purpose of engaging the attention of an Architect of eminence to such a business, by giving him a proper sense of its importance. Any ordinary Man could make the Model if I bespoke it: but an Architect of eminence and experience could hardly be applied to for his Opinion and his time taken up in my consulting with him, upon the strength of the mere profit to be got upon the making of a Model.

2. There are many persons whom it might be of use I should consult, either with regard to the mode of management, or the choice of the manufacture: Sir Thos. Bever, for example, or the persons at the head of the Oxford establishment, or such a man as Mr Arthur Young.9 None of these persons I suppose but would be proud to answer queries on the account of the Government of Ireland, or even singly of Sir J. Parnell. I could hardly ask it on my own.

3. The same with regard to the article of *health.* Some Medical men of eminence and fellows of the Royal Society that I would wish to consult, I could consult on my own Account, others that I am less acquainted with, or not at all acquainted with, I could not trouble with propriety or much hope of effect, without mentioning my authority.

From the person who undertook for the Model two other assistances might be obtained: viz:


This though it would not do for Ireland precisely, would serve at any rate for a rough calculation; and it would shew the relative expence occasioned by different parts of the design which on

<sup>9</sup> Arthur Young (1741–1820), already famous for his *Tours* and writings on agriculture, including the editorship of *Annals of Agriculture,* started in 1784.

different modifications of the structure might require to be inserted or omitted.

8. *Encouragement to be held out to undertakers.* It might be of use I should have on paper what I remember you threw out cursorily on that head, and of which I have no precise recollection. Something like the giving of a pension for life to the amount of the annual average of his savings, supposing success ascertained by, for example a five years trial. Whatever it was I suppose you would have no objection to repeat it to me upon paper, that in the way of conversation I might make use of it; especially in the form in which you mentioned which was nothing more than the opinion of the moment relative to what ought and probably would be done. What is the standard you had in view from which the savings should be computed? The present annual average expence exclusive of that of the building? In the article of felons for example I think you mentioned in a loose way the expence as being little short of £15 a head a year? Say 15l for example, is it your meaning that the contract might be made at 15l a head, and that for so much saving as shall be proved to be made out of that, the undertaker should have his pension?

9. *Expediting the printing of the treatise in Ireland*

In applying for information to people whom on account of their distance I can only address by letter it would be almost necessary I should have Copies of the treatise to send them. Suppose fifty you could send them over I suppose by the messenger. There would be no end in giving descriptions by letter. But the treatise would be imperfect without engraved plans annexed to it. Those you saw, though better than nothing do not come up to the purpose. They ought to have the latest improvements resulting from the consultations with the Architect. They ought to be copies of the draughts from which the Model is made. Another reason for accelerating the settlement and construction of the Model.

The earliness of the printing need not hinder the deferring of the publication in Ireland to the time you proposed.

You would not dislike, I suppose, to have a Copy of the correspondence with candidates etc. if not to look over at least to turn to upon occasion, if it were digested and an index made to it. Speak the word and it shall be done. Uniformity in the size of the paper and mode of writing will facilitate the consulting it. I give you this as a specimen.

In all this business there are several operations, each of which may take up a considerable length of time, and of which some may

be obliged to wait for others. Every thing is at a stand 'till I have authority to apply to an Architect, consult with him and bespeak a Model. Were I to go to work immediately, the business or such part of it as you thought fit to authorize might be in some forwardness by the time of your return hither in October. The Model I should hope might be finished, and something of a correspondence collected by that time. Were everything to wait 'till then, it would throw the whole matter I doubt very back. For it is not the Felon business alone, but the House-of-Industry business, and the Inspector-General's, I think you say, that hang by it.

I hope I have not been the means of detaining you. I could have given you nearly the equivalent of all this the day after I saw you. But I wrote it entirely over again to put it in a clearer shape, and then I have had to copy it: besides that there was a good deal to be decided before any thing could be written. Two great establishments suspended, as you were pleased to say on my account, cry aloud for every exertion I am capable of. The zeal you were pleased to express in the business, is contagious and has a full right to be seconded.

The only unpleasing part of it is the finding myself obliged to mention money, inconsiderable as the amount is, after the scenes of peculation you were speaking of to me, carried on by persons of whom many antecedently to experience must have had claims to confidence equal at least to any I can pretend to. Accounts minute, distant, frequent and public with a readiness to give reasons for every thing, to answer all sorts of interogatories, and as far as may be to anticipate them, will be found, I presume, the best security against such a disease. It is not uncommon to stickle for blind confidence: Me you cannot flatter more than by concerting with me the means of reducing confidence to its *minimum,* and putting it in the most effective manner out of my power to do wrong. The frankness of which your conversation gave me such abundant, and such pleasing marks, gives me hopes of your indulging my humour in this respect. As to the money it is as you please but the Authority you will perceive to be indispensable.

Waiting for his Excellency's fiat would lose, I suppose, at least a fortnight: you know more precisely. This fortnight may throw things so far back that at your next arrival or even departure no Model may be made and the business in little more forwardness than it is at present: and then every thing will drag on with the clog of a tedious correspondence between this country and Ireland. If under these circumstances you think it advisible to take upon you

the rest of the risk, in the pecuniary part, I am ready to go halves with you. The honour of co-operating with Sir John Parnell towards a great common end, will be my sufficient indemnification. Under such circumstances I should flatter myself his Excellency would not look upon our forwardness as a mark of disrespect to him, but the contrary, even though the plan itself should not have the honour of his approbation; especially as I understand it has already that of Mr Hobart's. And independently of the Penitentiary business, which is the only new concern, would not those others which I suppose have already obtained his sanction, the House of Industry business, I mean, and the Inspector-General's, severally or together warrant the Model which is the thing that presses.

If you think proper to make use of the margin of this paper for your answer it may save you trouble. I will not tax your politeness for circumlocutory expressions. Single words such as approved or disapproved etc. defining by brackets or otherwise the extent of the matter to which such answer is meant to comprise, will answer every purpose and a Copy of it in that state shall be returned to you.

I must defer to another day what concerns the question between an Irish and an English Architect, as likewise a few other matters. But of these there is nothing that need detain you in London.

In my letter of yesterday10 I gave you reason to expect this in the course of the present day. On second thoughts I thought it better to defer the sending of it till early tomorrow morning as by that means my messenger may if you think proper bring me back an Answer, which by the post I could not have before Tuesday, and I found by him there were no signs of your departure as today.11

> I have the honour to be with the truest respect Sir, Your most obedt: humble Servt. Jeremy Bentham

Rt. Hon: Sr John Parnell,

etc., etc., etc.

<sup>10</sup> Footnote in hand of copyist: 'Only for the purpose of announcing this': presumably a short note, which is missing.

<sup>11</sup> Footnote in hand of same copyist: 'This was a mistake, Sir John was already gone.'

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 27, 28 August 1790

#### Bowood Park, 27th Augst, 1790.

Dear Sir,

180

 Allow me to answer your very long Letter of yesterday in I hope a short one of today, not to save myself trouble, but to avoid Digressions and above all personalities.

I am impatient to set you right about your Foundation Fact, upon which we are very far from agreed; as I do solemnly assure you upon my Word and Honour, that I never made you any such offer as you suppose. I might with great propriety stop here but from motives both of Esteem and Regard, I will go farther with regard to what has past and what is to come.

While the Public has been my first object thro' Life, my Temper has insensibly and involuntarily led me to advance every body about me to the utmost of my Power: my worst Political enemies have told me, that I carried this disposition to a Failing, and experience has prov'd them to be in the right, but I have always liv'd within a very small circle, and I have been particularly Fortunate, in this respect, for I believe no Person has serv'd more people, especially considering the short Intervals [during] which I have been in Power, nor with more zeal, nor upon more disinterested principles. In 1782, I left none who had political claims upon me unprovided for, and very few who had any of Friendship or Habits. It was natural for me to regret that you were among the last, but in fact no opportunity occurr'd of serving you in the Line which I thought would have been most agreeable to you. As I have known many opportunities lost for want of knowing men's Wishes beforehand, it was equally natural for me to sound yours, in case I should return into Ministry. Finding to my surprize that your wishes were not of the nature I had suppos'd, different things were mooted, and among others Parliament, under a prepossession that it was not your object, for this plain reason, that the same reasons which made you decline the practice of your Profession applied in great measure to Parliament, which prepossession was confirm'd

**712.** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. Autograph. Printed in Bowring, x, 242–3.

Although Lansdowne refers to Bentham's letter 'of yesterday' he obviously means the long one of 24 August (letter 710), which may not have arrived at Bowood until the 26th.

by what pass'd, and would be by your words even as you now state them. It was the Incident of this conversation upon which we were both agreed in Town.2 It was *I* who referr'd first to it not you, not as an Offer, but as an Incidental conversation, nor was the word offer ever brought forward in that conversation. As to what included Ld Lonsdale's name,3 which you only say you think was coupled with it, I can only say, It is a common Place which I have, properly or Improperly I am sure mention'd to Fifty People. But allow me to add that I was much more confirm'd by repeated conversations regarding yourself, in which you stated your Happiness to depend on your perfect Independence, and every view you had to be center'd in your particular pursuits, and that you look'd where you address'd yourself only for society, in Terms of such disinterestedness and kindness, as does not become me to repeat, especially in an argumentative way. The moment you mention'd Parliament to me in town, you were witness to my astonishment, and it fully explains the forgetfullness you mention, which you attribute to Affectation certainly not one of my Failings, and you then appear'd to me to blame yourself. So far for the past.

As to what is to come, now that I know your wishes, I assure you that it will give me great pleasure if I can contribute to the completion of them, and that I will spare no pains for the purpose, so far as consists with the Engagements I have express or Implied, which have taken place when I was totally ignorant of your Inclinations, which I do not think requisite to state, feeling the Discussion of them unbecoming towards myself and others, from the same motives of delicacy, which would influence me in your case, mutatis mutandis. But I must annex two conditions, one that it must not be consider'd as the consequence of any past Engagement, which I am now disclaiming—another that it shall not be understood to be with any Political View, for you quite mistake my Plans. I wish well to what I call the New Principles, and will promote them as far as a Free Declaration of my own Sentiments in public or private will go. But Politics have given long since too much way to Philosophy, [for me]4 to give myself further trouble about them. I would as soon take England upon my back as take the trouble of fighting up a second time the game to which you allude. If I plant anymore, I have long determin'd, that it shall be like the Birds—The Trees must depend on the nature of the Soil.

3

<sup>2</sup> This would seem to refer to a recent meeting in London, perhaps early in June 1790, to which Bentham also alludes in his letter of 24 August, p. 145 above.

See above, p. 147 n. 4. 4 Bowring's insertion.

I will bestow no Pains on Fencing, much less manuring and dunging them.

I am now only afraid that you will be angry, that your sixty-one Pages have not on the one hand had the effect of subduing or terrifying me, or on the other made me angry, and that you may apprehend them to be thrown away. They have not occasion'd to me one moments Irritation—but they are not thrown away—I select with satisfaction, the Seeds of Esteem and Regard which I perceive interspers'd. It's no small pleasure to me to reflect that open and unguarded as I am well known to be in such Intimate habits as I have indulg'd with you, I have expos'd myself so little. I see the merit of the advice which is mix'd, which if I was as perseveringly ambitious as you suppose is as good as any Ld Bacon5 could have given to the Duke of Buckingam, and tho' the rest is at [the] expence of myself, and of Friends whom I highly respect and esteem, concerning whom you appear to have fallen into strange mistakes,6 I cannot help admiring the Ingenuity, with which you attach expressions to meanings and meanings to expressions to advance your argument, besides a great deal more I could say, if I was not afraid of your suspecting what I might say in the best Faith to partake of any sort of persifflage. But I consider the whole as an Ebullition, excited by Fine Feelings, and by the pique you mention arising from your Brother Abbot's being brought in for the disputed Borough in Cornwall,7 which I am sure I enter into as well as all which regards your Father's House, and wish to God I could remedye it. But as to Ebullitions, I am myself subject to them, and tho' they are more momentary, they are not half so Ingenious, and therefore not half so pardonable—You may therefore depend whatever you say or do, upon my remembring nothing but how truly I am your Affectionate Humble Serv.

#### Lansdowne.

#### P.S. Saturday 28th My Hand could not hold out to finish my

<sup>5</sup> The comparison of Bentham's relationship with Lansdowne to that between Lord Bacon and the 1st Duke of Buckingham was perhaps unfortunate: the obsequious behaviour of Bacon did not save him from impeachment.

<sup>6</sup> Those who have made a detailed study of parliamentary history for this period agree rather with Lansdowne's assessment of his friends than with Bentham's. 'His choice of Members outside his family circle is significant: Barré, John Calcraft, Dunning, James Townsend, Lord Mahon and Jekyll—except for the last, each a remarkable, though not necessary a pleasant personality; a selection unequalled by any other borough patron during the period.' (Sir Lewis Namier in *History of Parliament, House of Commons, 1754–90,* iii, *Members,* 272).

<sup>7</sup> Charles Abbot did not in fact secure election for 'the disputed Borough' of Helston in Cornwall at this time. (See letter 710, n. 34.)

Letter yesterday, but as there is no Post today, I send it by a packet. I have not wrote half so much to any body with my own hand since my Illness.

### 7131

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s <sup>d</sup> <sup>o</sup> <sup>w</sup> n e

#### *c.* 30 August 1790 (Aet 42)

My dear, dear Lord,

183

 Since you will neither be subdued nor terrified, will you be embraced? These same seeds you were speaking of have taken such root, the ground is overrun with them; and there would be no getting them out were a man to tug and tug his heart out. So parliament may go to the devil, and I will take your Birmingham halfpence2 and make a low bow, and put them gravely into my pocket, though they are worse than I threw away before: there can be no condition necessary for that, so you need not be at the expense of making any.—Quere, How much pains would it cost a man to say Yes or No; and how much time to discover his past engagements expressed or implied? What I understand by this is, that, notwithstanding ebullitions, you would not be sorry to see me; and what I am sure of is, that I should be overjoyed to see you again, not forgetting your appurtenances, if you and they would let me.

Offer?—why no, to be sure it was not—why didn't I tell you I only called it so for shortness? More shame for you that you never made me any. My model was a Scotchman I know, whom I set up in the world, and who, while he was pocketing what I had got for him by hard labour, was threatening to bring an action against me for not having made him the offers that somebody had made to somebody else.3

Now, could I, after having been counsel for J.B., and made nothing of it, be counsel for Lord L., and show how much blacker than one's hat was the behaviour of the wretch you had to deal with? and then, in the character of my Lord Judge,—how easy it

**<sup>713.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 243–4. No date is given, but Bentham may be supposed to have replied immediately to Lansdowne's letter of 27–8 August, sent by 'packet' on the 28th and probably received the same day or, at latest, on Sunday, 29 August.

<sup>2</sup> Birmingham was getting a name for cheap, artificial goods.

<sup>3</sup> To whom, among Bentham's Scottish friends, this remark alludes, has not been traced.

was to the parties to see the matter in the different lights, and yet be both of them good sort of men in their way; but this would take sixty-one pages more, and sixty-one to that, and you seem to think the first sixty-one enough, and I am sure I do; and as they would be of no use to anybody, I think they may as well sleep on in the pericranium where they lie.

My father,—believe me when I assure you upon my honour, I have never had the smallest communication with him on the subject, directly or indirectly, any more than with the Pope of Rome; and have,—for that very reason, that I might not, and no other, avoided seeing him, until now that I could talk with him about it without betraying anything.

It was using me very ill, that it was, not to get upon stilts as you did, and resolve not to be angry with me, after all the pains I had taken to make you so. You have been angry, let me tell you, with people as little worth it before now: and your being so niggardly of it in my instance, may be added to the account of your injustice. I see you go upon the old christian principle of heaping coals of fire upon people's heads, which is the highest refinement upon vengeance. I see, moreover, that, according to your system of cosmogony, the difference is but accidental between the race of kings and that of the first Baron of Lixnaw:4 that ex-lawyers come like other men from Adam, and ex-ministers from somebody who started up out of the ground before him, in some more elevated part of the country.

To lower these pretensions, it would be serving you right, if I were to tell you that I was not half so angry as I appeared to be; that, therefore, according to the countryman's rule, you have not so much the advantage over me as you may think you have: that the real object of what anger I really felt, was rather the situation in which I found myself than you or anybody; but that, as none but a madman would go to quarrel with a non-entity called a situation, it was necessary for me to look out for somebody who, somehow or other, was connected with it.

You a philosopher by trade? Alack-a-day! Well, I'll set up against you, and learn to desire nothing, aim at nothing, and care for nothing any more. Then we shall see which makes the best hand of it,—a broken minister, or a man who has served a treble apprenticeship to it in colleges, chambers, and cottages. One island, after all,

<sup>4</sup> Bowring has 'Lixmore', an obvious misprint for 'Lixnaw': the first recognized Baron of Kerry and Lixnaw was Maurice Fitz Thomas (fl. 1295), an ancestor of Lansdowne (see G.E.C., *Complete Peerage,* rev. Vicary Gibbs, ed. H. A. Doubleday and Lord Howard de Walden, vii, 200–16, including a pedigree of the family going back to very early times).

is enough for one man, unless he is a great genius like Lord Buckingham.5 So I'll go to Ireland, and govern like an angel, and double the value of your acres every year; and then you will come over, by and by, with some attorney in your hand, or some conveyancer, or somebody that knows everybody, and has no singularities, and is exactly like every other creature breathing, and down go I and my projects under the table.

Being a sort of mongrel philosopher, for my part, something betwixt the epicurean and cynic, you must allow me to snarl at you a little, now and then, while I kiss the beautiful hands you set to stroke me,—if ever I am to kiss them; in regard to which, fresh difficulties seem to have arisen, I can't tell how, God help me!—for, somehow or other, I have got into another scrape which is to me darkness unfathomable, though you, I suppose, know all about it.6

When will your door be open to me? provided always that no fair hands have been barred against me. This thought makes me droop again—I cannot keep it. I had just mustered up spirits enough to write this, and must now go to moping again, and so good-by to you.

### 7141

### T <sup>o</sup> S i r J o h n P a r n e l l

#### *c.* 30 August 1790 (Aet 42)

Sir—

 As this may possibly not be too late to catch you at Buxton, where time is much more plenty with you, I suppose, than in Ireland, I may as well trouble you now with a few more particulars as wait for your answer to my former Letter, which went on Monday by the Post directed to you at Buxton, after having been returned on Sunday Morning from Wigmore Street.

As to the mode of providing an Architect for the Building—I take this for my *datum*: that from experience you are afraid of peculation, and on that account wish to keep the business out of the Hands into which it would naturally fall.

<sup>5</sup> Bentham may have been irritated by Lansdowne's comparison of their relationship with that between Lord Bacon and the 1st Duke of Buckingham (see letter 712, n. 5).

<sup>6</sup> The 'beautiful hands' clearly refers to those of the Bowood ladies, Caroline Vernon or Caroline Fox, or both of them; Bentham fears he has inadvertently again given offence.

**<sup>714.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 50–2. Fair copy in another hand, checked against Bentham's much corrected autograph draft (fos. 44–9). No docket or address.

Your Idea was, if I understood you right, to get an Englishman over to do it by contract. Objections to this Idea strike me still pretty much as they did at first, but they would be got rid of I think by a slight modification. If indeed your meaning is to confine the contract to the Architect's own particular recompense, leaving it to him or somebody else to contract for the rest of the expence on the account of the public I perfectly concur with you. If you mean the contracting with an Englishman for the whole expence in the lump, I have some doubts whether the measure of crossing the Channel for an Architect would prove a frugal one if at all practicable. A Londoner will know nothing of Dublin prices nor Dublin workmen. A principal contractor will hardly trust his fortune and character with sub-contractors he is totally unacquainted with. If he does he must be paid proportionably for the risk he must run. No Londoner, I should think, would upon any terms undertake such a business till he had been at Dublin to look after Subcontractors and enquire about their prices: but is it to be expected that many Candidates, or so much as a single candidate, should be found, especially of any sort of eminence, that would leave his business and incurr the trouble and expence of such a journey for the mere chance of what profit may be to be made upon an expenditure of £8 or 10,000? I should hardly think it: though to be sure the probable extension of the plan would be an additional lure. It seems therefore that the plan of taking an Englishman to contract with for the whole, if at all feasible, subjects you for a certainty to an increase of expence perhaps not less than the utmost you can have to apprehend from any overcharge that may be made by an Irish one. This however is reasoning pretty much in the air. You may be apprized of facts that supersede it.

Neither could the contract made be depended upon as Shutting the Door absolutely against peculation. In any building undertaking it is rather rare, I believe, than otherwise, for the original contract to be adhered to without any variation: as the building advances, occasions for making additions or alterations present themselves: as far as these alterations extend the proprietor, if no fresh contact is made, is then at the mercy of the Builder: and in the making of such fresh contract the builder will be apt to take his advantage in proportion to the degree in which he supposes the proprietor to have the alteration at heart. A building of so new a kind seems more particularly liable to afford occasion for such changes. I shall instance an example presently.

Your objection against allowing an unlimited per-centage to the

Architect on the amount of the Expenditure I feel in its full force: it is giving a premium on profusion. To take away the temptation, why not fix the recompense, whatever be the expenditure? Settle the general plan first with the Architect, and hear his estimate without his suspecting you mean to engage with him—Suppose it £10,000—Then say to him—Upon this sum, 5 per cent for example, that is £500 you shall have at any rate but should the expenditure exceed that sum you shall have no more: only if additions should come afterwards to be made by our order to an amount at present unlooked for, you may then expect, though at our discretion an encrease of recompense.

When the temptation to profusion is thus cut off, there remains the danger of peculation by the Architect's conniving at overcharges on the part of the workmen and sharing with them in the profit. Against this you will have two remedies.

One, the obvious one of a *previous* assurance of the publication of the accounts. This of itself I should think, would be a pretty effectual one. It would have this further good effect too, that it would serve as an instruction and a guide for future proposals relative to future buildings upon the same principle: it would serve all such future Candidates as a basis to refer to and to bid upon. When the establishment is accomplished, the publishing a sort of little history of it would have its use: and to such a History these accounts would form an Appendix. To such a History the Novelty of the establishmt. may naturally be expected to draw some attention: and under such circumstances peculation must be very hardy if it looks upon itself as secure.

2d. If this be thought not sufficient, let him have also the previous assurance that the work will be *resurveyed,* and that not by any Surveyor known before-hand, but by some one or two taken by lot from the whole body of the profession, and that not till immediately before the Survey is to be made.

On this plan there seems to be a real advantage in having a Man over from England. An Irish Architect has his connections ready formed with workmen: and it may happen that among those connections there may be some intimate enough to admitt of collusion. Such connections a Stranger, how well dispos'd soever to peculate, would not find it quite so easy to form, nor prudent to attempt to form, on first setting his foot in the Country.

Upon the whole the several courses capable of being taken in this respect to stand in point of eligibility in the following Order.

1. To get an *English* Architect, if a good one can be got, to go over

and do the business for a fixed reward, engaging the working builders, not on his own Account, but on that of the public.

2. To engage with an Irish Architect on those terms or

3. To engage with an Irish Architect upon the common terms of contract: advertising and taking the best bidder.

4. To take an Irish Architect and pay him according to the present mode of a per-centage: or

5. To advertise for English Contractors, and engage with the best bidder.

My notion subject to your instructions, is to hear Mr. Blackburne with respect to the contrivances, but as an Architect to execute, I expect more from Mr Revely.2 All my knowledge of him consists in my having met with him at Constantinople in 1785–1786, where I saw him 5 or 6 times in the course of about three weeks, since which I have had no sort of communication with him. He was then at the close of an engagement with Sir Richard Worsley3 whom he had been with, taking views and drawings of Antiquities in Egypt, Greece, and other parts of the Levant. As a remarkably ingenious man I have heard him highly celebrated by infinitely better judges than myself of ingenuity in that line. His character, which has something of singularity in it, strikes me upon recollection, as being as unfavorable to peculation as can well be imagined. Open, chattering, querulous, telling one man what another says of him, and much more apt to make quarrels with people than to collude with them. As at that period he was *sur le pavé* (for he is but a young man) it seems not improbable but that notwithstanding his reputation of ingenuity, he may not be yet so thoroughly settled in business here as to be averse to the going over to Ireland, where with this basis to begin upon, and this introduction, he might find himself at the head of things. It has been suggested to me by a friend of mine (with whom this communication, as every other would be, is in perfect safety) and who knows Revely by reputation, that a man so qualified would be likely to be looked on as an acquisition to Ireland. Blackburn being at the head of this line in the profession, is probably wedded to his own ideas, and, if he is like other Men, could scarcely avoid being hurt by a thing that tended to supersede them. Revely's mind, as he is a young Man, is probably open upon this subject; and the prospect of eclipsing Mr Blackburn would be a spur to him. My notion is therefore, after

<sup>2</sup> Blackburn and Reveley. See letter 711, n. 5 and n. 6.

<sup>3</sup> Sir Richard Worsley, 7th bart. (1751–1805), whom Bentham had met on his way to Russia in 1785 (see *Correspondence,* iii, 370 n. 2).

collecting what is to be collected from Mr Blackburn, which I am told he will be very ready to communicate, to address myself to Mr Revely, and to apply to him for his opinions and for the Model.

If the Gentlemen at the head of the Management of the House of Industry approve of the Inspection plan, they will probably be glad to take your recommendatn. of Mr Revely or any body else. It seems equally probable that they will be equally glad to adopt your Ideas relative to the plan of management connected with it: and to take their share in the expence and the benefit of the advertising plan spoken of in my last. If there is nothing in their Buss, that prevents its uniting with the felon-business the two establishments might be placed Contiguous, and in that Case the same system of Inspection and the same system of guarding on the Outside might serve for both: which might be attended with several advantages, if in other respects such a junction should be thought not ineligible.

Were you to take Mr Revely for example on such terms at my recommendation, your reputation as well as mine would be in some sort pinned upon his Sleeve. Humbly conceiving that it would be equally foreign to either of us to let Mr. Revely or Mr. Any-body plunder the public of pounds that we might plunder him of shillings, I think it would not be at all difficult if he has the common sense to make him fully sensible of the Impossibility of plundering were he ever so much disposed to it. This I know, as to my own part who have more time than you, that as far as it fell within my power, there should not be a nail driven of which I did not know the why and the wherefore, though it required my going over to Ireland on purpose: and of this I should give him the most explicit warning. His Character, if it be still what it appeared to be when I saw him is so Open, that I think you would be able to look through and through him at a first interview, And the same properties would render him as far as the Connection extended, an excellent Check upon the persons, whoever they were, in whose hands the Management was reposed. This is not to be neglected for as you know much better than I, whoever was to live there would be for getting as good a House, and as much of a House, as possible. But Mr. Revely is (or at least was) that sort of Character, that if any body in such a situation had said to him, *I should like to have a shelf put up in such a corner*—would have gone to you and made a story about it.

Since I was with you, an Idea has occurred to me in proof of the likelyhood there is that occasions may present themselves of

wishing to deviate from the Original Contract. In the book the partitions that divide the cells are supposed to be all of them of brick or stone: in short *fixed.* It now occurs to me that it would be better on several accounts if a number of them were to be of wood, so as occasionally to slide in and out. 1st It might be better it should not be absolutely out of every body's power to alleviate the punishment either from the first or after a certain time, by allowing two or more to live together. This might seem a mighty trivial concern to some persons writing and reading like you and me at our ease: but to the poor devils in question it might make the Difference betwixt rapture and despair. I am speaking to one by whom this remark will I am sure be felt in its full force.

2. The more *pliable,* if one may so say, the construction is left in this respect, the greater latitude is left with regard to the choice of the Manufacture; and the less the danger lest if the one first pitch'd upon should fail, the establishment should be precluded from the benefit of taking the next most promising one in its Room.

Wooden partitions might cut off all manner of intercourse, as effectually I shod, conceive as Brick Walls by being made double and the intervals filled with Sand for example. In the mode of building used in *Japan,* the outside walls being fixed the number and relative dimensions of the apartments are varied at pleasure by partitions which shift like the scenes of our playhouses. The more an inspection-house could be made to partake of the Japaning stile in this respect, the better.4

### Advertisement5 —————————————–—————————————————

### To Manufacturers in General.

Wanted a person capable of undertaking the setting up of a Manufacture of any kind, to be carried on by new hands who will require to be taught the business. The numbers capable to being

<sup>4</sup> The fair copy ends here, apart from the advertisement; there are several pages of additional material in the autograph draft, but they are nearly all incorporated into the next letter (715).

<sup>5</sup> On a fresh sheet. This Advertisement cannot have been identical with the missing one sent to Sir John with the previous letter (711), since he quotes in his reply of 3 September a different phrasing of the passage: 'The concern may be worth the attention of persons already settled in business for themselves: as besides something certain, an encouragement will be given in proportion to the success' (see p. 198 below).

applied to it are already from two to three hundred, but in certain events it may admit of considerable extension. If the Manufacture includes different processes and operations to bring it to a Marketable state, the undertaker should be capable of giving or providing the requisite instruction in every process or operation. The concern may be worth the attention of persons already settled in business for themselves: as besides something certain, an encouragement will be given in proportion to the success. Secrecy if required will be inviolably observed. Postage need not be paid, but will be paid in return. Letters received will be immediately acknowledged. Apply (by letter only) to William Browne Esqr. No. 9 Bedford Row London.

N.B. It is not to go in foreign parts.

#### Advertisement—Observations

In framing this Advertisement, I kept two principal objects before me.

1.—The concealing for the reasons you mentioned the source from which it comes.

2.—The receiving information from as many different quarters as possible.

On the latter account I studiously avoided all unnecessary specifications, which could have had no other effect than to exclude correspondents. The offer of secresy has respect to the situation of Foremen and other subordinate managers whom ambition or disagreement with their principals might incline to listen to such an invitation, at the same time that the fear of incurring his resentment and being turned off would deter from venturing without such an assurance. A man already engag'd in business may likewise be unwilling to be known for fear of its hurting his Credit by giving occasion to people to look upon him as fickle, or his circumstances as being on the decline. Did it appear that the scene was to be out of this Island all the Manufacturers would be up in Arms with Government here at the head of them. The alarm might be lessened in some degree were it to appear that Ireland was the scene; but even that circumstance might repel a number of Candidates whose information might be of use.

### 7151

### T o S i r J o h n P a r n e l l

#### *c.* 30 August 1790 (Aet 42)

 In stating to you the reasons for the form given in various respects to the advertisement I submitted to you I omitted I believe such as relate to that clause which prohibits candidates from applying otherwise than by letter.

Verbal applications had they been admitted would have been liable to the following objections.

1. They would have taken up the time and encreased the trouble of the agent, consequently the expense of employing him.

2. If he had not made memorandums of what passed the conversations would have been liable to be inaccurately and unsatisfactorily reported to me, and then I should have had memorandums to take at second hand from him. If he had taken /been to take/ such written memorandums still they would not have been so satisfactory as statements given by the candidates themselves, and then there would have been the trouble and charge of making them.

3. As to all such conversations and any part of them I might have been kept in the dark by the agent, through negligence and you might have been kept equally in the dark by a person standing in my situation by design. I might have reported to you as most advantageous the proposals of any one whom I chose to favour suppressing others that were more advantageous. I need scarce mention how much less difficult it is to sink any thing that passes in conversation than to suppress a letter.

**<sup>715.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 28. Autograph rough draft. Pencil note at top of page, 'To Parnell III'. Possibly sent to Sir John as a postscript to letter 714 above.

At U.C. cxvii: 27 are two pages of notes arranged, in columns, headed 'J.B. to Parnell. Inspect.' These appear to summarize a memorandum on the Irish Panopticon project under 28 headings, with page references 1–18. A note in the last column on the right reads: 'I subjoin what appears to me a better form for the advertisement—I owe it to the suggestion of a friend with whom this as well as many things else is in perfect safety.'

### 7161

### T o S i r J o h n P a r n e l l

#### 2 September 1790 (Aet 42)

To the *Advertisement* proposed in my last I propose to add N.B. It is not to go in *foreign parts.* The language is not very Elegant, but I think will suit the class of people it is intended for, and will exclude the obnoxious Idea without betraying the exact scene.

Your idea of allowing convicts to buy out their times struck me as new and highly deserving of attention. I take for granted you meant it should be confined to their earnings while in the house: otherwise it would not only give impunity to the rich, but operate as a bounty upon robbery: since the more a man took the more he would have to buy himself off with: and *gangs* would indemnify one another. And care would be necessary to be taken lest by Collusion what did not come out of earnings should be placed to that account. I have a Machine put together these many Years for answering all such questions: give me an hour or two to wind it up, You shall have the pro and con in its full extent any time you please. This topic may come to be considered amongst others in drawing the Bill you are so good as to allow me to amuse myself with.

To make the thing the easier to talk of, and to enquire after at the Bookseller's I have given it as you will see in the title page a particular name in a single word, viz: *Panopticon* or the Inspection-House. *Panopticon* is already in use as a name for I forget what *optical* instrument or *raree shew in* or *by means of* which you may *see everything* as the name imports.

I have given an additional puffing paragraph at the conclusion; though of that sort of stuff there was certainly no want before. But your wish was, I think, that it might catch the public, if possible, of itself, without the avowed countenance of Government. It is yours to do as you please with. Cut out this part or any other you think fit. You have bought my child after the Roman manner, by adopting it.

An engraved plan of a *Panopticon* there certainly ought to be to

**<sup>716.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 160–1. Copy. No docket.

Addressed (in the hand of a different copyist): 'The Right Hon. Sir Jo. Parnell etc etc '/ Buxton / Derbyshire.'

accompany the book. The one that accompanies the Mss. you saw is better than none at all: but if a Model is made, it will be of course much better to give a plan in its improved state; in short a copy of that from whence the Model is made.

As to the mode of printing, if it be the same to you, I should like it were in the same size with the Defence of Usury. I would beg the favour to have 750 copies sent me here: the expence of the paper, and the extra expence of working off those 750 would be my concern, and I would repay it with thanks to whoever it would be due to.2

You had the goodness to offer me some papers relative to some of the establishments to which the idea promises to be applicable.3 All manner of Documents of that sort in print or manuscript, I should be much obliged to you for—House of Industry—Jails— Hospitals—Schools etc. etc. Also the *Inspector General's treatise* which you mentioned. Likewise any papers relative to Botany Bay —And likewise any other papers that may strike you as likely to be of use in the way of furnishing *Data* for the Bill. I got over, near a twelve months ago, the Journals of both Houses as low down as they were then to be bought. How low that is I cannot pretend to say: for, the occasion blowing over, I have not yet, to confess the truth got the box home. Could you *honestly* supply me with any that are not to be bought? A copy of an unpublished fragment of a suspended work which I thought then of publishing on *Parliamentary Tactics*<sup>4</sup> on the occasion of the commencement of the French business shall follow you to Ireland, with two others which I will beg the favour of you to present for me to the Speakers of the two Houses.

Mr. Orde's Education-plan it happens oddly enough that I have never yet seen.5 I shall immediately now: and if I should find anything to say upon the subject, as I probably shall, the experience I have of your indulgence leaves me little doubt of a hearing. Do you happen to want a plan of Education just now, or a plan of

<sup>2</sup> Marginal note: 'Copies of the Panopticon requested'.

<sup>3</sup> Marginal note: 'Papers requested'.

<sup>4</sup> See letter 641, n. 5.

<sup>5</sup> *Mr Orde's Plan of an Improved System of Education in Ireland; submitted to the House of Commons, April 12, 1787; with the Debate which arose thereon. Reported by J. Giffard, Esq.,* Dublin, 1787. Thomas Orde, afterwards Orde-Powlett (1746–1807), 1st Baron Bolton, was a friend and supporter of Lord Lansdowne when a British m.p.; appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, 1784–87, he introduced a scheme of education which was largely endorsed by the Irish House of Commons, but after the death of the Viceroy, Lord Rutland, in 1787, and Orde's resignation, no steps were taken to implement the scheme.

anything else? These are my amusements. One thing is pretty much the same to me as another: and it is more pleasant to a man to write to some purpose than to none.

As the Panopticon-book refers to the old view of the Hard-Labour-Bill,6 might it not be of use there should be a few copies of this view in Ireland? The rather as it fights the Battles7 of the Penitentiary plan against Transportation. If so, how many? and for speed and certainty may I address them to you through the official Channel?

I told you I stood engaged to give a Postscript to a new edition of the *Defence of Usury,* on the subject of the Reduction plan. I mean to do it as drily and concisely as possible. Could you favour me in half a dozen words with the points you still rest it upon? It would save me a world of paper in beating about for shadows. Of course I should neither mention you nor allude to you as having sent it me. I would send it you before it was printed, if you thought it worth your while to look at it. If it were my good fortune to convince you, it might be by arguments which I have [not] seen treated /touched/ upon in the debates, and which would apply to abundance of measures besides this.8

> I have the honour to be with the truest respect, Sir, your most obedt. hble Servt Jeremy Bentham

Hendon Middlesex Sept 2d 1790

<sup>6</sup> Bentham's work: *A View of the Hard Labour Bill,* 1778.

<sup>7</sup> This word is written in a different hand.

8 In a rough draft (U.C. cxvii: 49) Bentham had added: 'I mention it now because it is not improbable I might be for publishing it before you return to England. Want of time and room (nothing else) will prevent me laughing at your reasons whatever they are: for I did it to my own satisfaction. I should expect you to laugh with me, though you are I think the only man it has ever been my fortune to treat with [of?] whom I could say as much.'

### 7171

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 22 August/2 September 1790

〈I〉 have just this instant recieved a letter from Q.S.P. dated July 8th 1790.2 He mentions you that you are well and it is a great satisfaction to hear of your existence. His letter is short and the object of it to give me an extract from the London Gazette of 21st of May of the defeat of the Russian Privateer squadron and the narrow escape of Major 〈Lambro〉, useless observations on the great confidence we put in 〈him〉 might as well have been spared.3 His great success〈es〉 before seem more than sufficient to overballance the effect that this instance of failure can have on his Character as an Enterprising Privateer: and I hope care has been taken to secure to us proprietors some profits from the immense prizes he took in the beginning. 〈If〉 I were to move heaven and earth I might succede in my attachment here but I think it more advisable to 〈come〉 to England first if it be possible.4

> after a tender parting in which there seemed more than *friendship* I set off Augt 22d 1790.5

> > adieu

**717.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 152. Autograph, written on inside of envelope; edges torn. Docketed: '1790 Aug. 22 / S.B. to J.B.' The date is presumably Old Style, i.e. 2 September New Style.

Addressed: 'Jer Bentham Esqr / at W. Browne's Esqr / Bedford Row / London.' Stamp, partly illegible: 'petersburg'. <sup>2</sup> Missing.

<sup>3</sup> The account of the naval action actually appeared in the *London Gazette* of 29 June–3 July 1790, no. 13214, p. 406, col. 2, viz. *'Smyrna, May 21.* Intelligence has been received here that the Russian Squadron sailed on the 15th Instant from Zia, leaving behind on the Island all the Albanese Troops to take Care of the Fortifications; that on the 16th they fell in with the Turkish Fleet, between the Cape d'Oro and the island of Andros; that Major Lambro, the Russian Commander, began the Action with Nine Vessels against Eighteen of the Turks; that on the 18th the latter were joined by seven Algerine Xebecs, who, with great courage, attacked the Russians, killed a great number of them, sank Two or Three of their Vessels, and obliged Two to run aground on the island of Andros, where the Russians set fire to them, in order that they might not fall into the Hands of the Enemy; that Major Lambro took to his Boat, with all his Officers, and set fire to his Frigate; that the Major, who was wounded in the Action, then embarked on a small Vessel of his Squadron, passed by Micone, where he staid Three Hours, and proceeded afterwards to Cirigo; and that Two other small Vessels of the Russian Squadron also made their Escape'.

4 A reference to his courtship of the Vorontsov lady: see letter 703, p. 135 above. 5 In a letter to his father, dated 20–2 August O.S. (B.L. V:158–9), Samuel told him 'It is now five weeks that I am at Moscow'. He acknowledges receipt of a letter

### F r o m S i r J o h n P a r n e l l

#### 3 September 1790

Buxton Septr. 3d 1790

The time of my arrival here was postponed by my having come a Circuitous Road from London.

I request that you will be so good as to send the Copy of the Essay to the Rt Honble Major Hobart, Castle Dublin.2

On my arrival in Ireland, I shall get the Essay printed, and send half the Impression to you. The Engravings had better be done in London under your direction. I can delay the Publication until I receive them, perhaps the Model might be put in forwardness (tho' for the reasons which you have mentioned it could not be compleated) and an Architect whom you might choose be consulted at the present. I apprehend that the other circumstances, advertising, appointing an Agent etc. had better be postponed until the

from Jeremiah dated 20 April and also the one of 8 July, 'just this Instant brought me'. He adds 'My last letter from my Brother is dated Septr 3d 1789'. Samuel tells his father that as soon as he can see Potëmkin he will ask leave to visit England. The letter is headed 'Moscow August 1790' and the last paragraph begins: 'Augt 22. I am just this instant setting out from hence'. His immediate destination was St Petersburg, whence the letter, like letter 717, was posted. Jeremiah notes that this letter was received at Bath, 17 October 1790, so that Jeremy cannot have received the one sent to him much before that date.

**718.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 164–5. Copy in Jeremiah Bentham's hand (another copy by him is in B.L. XXII: 449). Docketed: 'Copy Lr from Sir John Parnel / to Mr Jeremy / Bentham / datd Septr. 3 1790.'

This letter is evidently in reply to Bentham's one of *c.* 27 August (letter 711).

2 A copy of a letter from Sir John Parnell to Major Hobart, dated 3 September 1790, is preserved in Jeremiah Bentham's hand in B.L. V: 162. It reads:

'I mentioned to Mr. Bentham that you have read his Essay on a proposed Plan for Penitentiary Houses, and that on your being pleased with it, that I requested his permission to send you a Copy of it, with which request he has been so good as to Comply. It seems to me, as if the Plan would be less expensive than Transportation to Botany Bay.

In every other respect it is evidently a preferable system, as it regards Justice Reformation or Humanity.

Be so good as to consider the Subject and to lay the Treatise before the Lord Lieutenant. I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you in a few days, when I shall have an opportunity of laying before you a great deal of Information on the subject which Mr Bentham was so kind as to give me. I own that I am so much a Convert to his Arguments that I hope I may be directed to carry them into Effect.'

A missing letter from Hobart to Bentham, informing him that the *Panopticon* has been printed in Ireland, is mentioned in letter 772, p. 283 below.

Sir

197

Plan shall be adopted by the Irish Government. I hope to see them in a few days, and shall not loose a moment in endeavouring to procure a decisive determination and shall immediately communicate it to you. If the Plan should be adopted it may be doubtful whether the Interference of Government should be avowed before the public opinion is formed on the Publication; but as to any effect that the mention of my Interference would have there is no reason for Secrecy. It is my duty to take preliminary Steps to forward public objects, tho' I may not be permitted to carry them into Effect. If I were not in a public situation, I should be equally anxious to promote a measure which seems to me to be very beneficial. I feel myself very much obliged by the permission which you are so kind as to give me of going halves in the Pecuniary Part in order to take the preparatory steps without which much delay must ensue.

I should think the Advertisement well calculated to procure the necessary information: I should wish that the words 'Certain encouragement will be given in proportion to the success'3 might not be used until I was authorised by government to pledge them to fulfill the Promise.

When I mentioned £15 per head as the Expense of Maintenance etc. it was an Instance of profusion £9 or £10 I think was the average expense in the Oxford work-house which was overpaid by the Labour.

If the Model is of a size that is portable it might be sent to Ireland after it had been viewed by the Persons making proposals etc.

I hope soon to be able to answer every Part of your Letter more minutely. Attention to your commands is the only return which I can make for the Assistance which you give me on this Subject, and the only Proof which I can give of my wishes to Copy the Zeal which you shew in forwarding an humane and useful Institution

#### I am Sir

your very obedt humble Servnt J. Parnell

I take the liberty of sending a Draft for £50. I beg if any further sum is requisite to be informed of it. Be so good as to send the letter to Mr Pagell with the Draft in favour of Mr Wm Brown.

The building for the use of the Experiment under the care of the

<sup>3</sup> Not the exact phrase used in the form of advertisement attached to letter 714, p. 190 above.

Inspector of Prisons has not I believe been postponed. I see by the Papers that the measure is likely to be carried successfully into Effect.

### 7191

### T o W i l l e y R e v e l e y

#### *c.* 3 September 1790 (Aet 42)

Hendon Middex Friday Sept. 1790

Dear Sir

19

 Having occasion for a little information and assistance in the way of your profession, I should be glad to call upon you as soon as it is convenient for you to see me for that purpose. To save your time and mine I enclose some papers which will serve to explain the nature of it. I send the whole together; but on glancing over the table of contents you will see that scarce a tenth of it will be necessary for you to look at as an architect. The case is, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland Sir J. Parnell has approved the idea, and desired my assistance towards the execution of it: with the view of applying the principle in all its varieties to several sorts of public buildings they have occasion for in that country. The purpose for which I wish to trouble you is to assist me in adjusting the details, to give me estimates, and to get a model made according to the plan we shall have concluded upon as soon as possible, in order to send to Ireland. I am, etc.

Mr Revely, Architect, No 42 Queen Ann Street East near Portland Chapel.

 An answer from you if left for me at Mr Browne's Bedford Row no 9 anytime to day before two o'clock will reach me here this evening. Would twelve o'clock tomorrow be convenient to you? If not, be so good as to name some other time. I *could* be with you by eleven.

The inclosed papers I send merely for the purpose of exhibiting the general idea; for I have in contemplation the departing from the sketch there given in several particulars: for example making 6 or 8 stories of cells instead of four—making the partitions mostly movable and consequently the work not upon arches, and taking

**<sup>719.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxix: 14. Autograph rough draft. No docket or address (except at end of main part of letter). For Willey Reveley see letter 711, n. 6, and *Correspondence,* iii, especially 407 n. 18.

out of the rotund two wedges, a larger one for a Governor's and a smaller for a Deputy-Governor's, enlarging the diameter to 120 feet etc. etc.

### 7201

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e E a r l S <sup>t</sup> a n h o p e

#### *c.* 7 September 1790 (Aet 42)

The author of the enclosed unpublished work, takes the liberty of begging Ld Stanhope's acceptance of such parts as have been printed principally for the sake of the last section in Ch. 5, which he imagines will be found to point out the most vulnerable part in the system of Ecclesiastical tyranny, and that which may be attacked, upon any future occasion with the fairest prospect of advantage.2

He takes the liberty of adding his hopes that his Lordship's generous efforts in behalf of religious liberty /reason/ and good morals will not be relaxed by any reflexion /considerations/ of past miscarriage.3

The most stubborn prejudices must yield as in most instances they have yielded to honest zeal when seconded by ability and perseverance.

**720.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 29. Autograph rough draft, written in columns. The date is likely to be the same as that of letter 721 below.

For Charles, 3rd Earl Stanhope (1756–1816), see above, p. 147, n. 3.

2 Evidently chapter 5 of Bentham's *Draught of a New Plan for the Organisation of the Judicial Establishment in France,* put into print in March 1790; reprinted in Bowring, iv, 285–406. In ch. 5, 'Of Judges of the Ordinary Courts', section 11 on 'Oath of Office' warns against the risks of perjury if an oath requires profession of a religious creed. In his letter to his brother Samuel of 6 December (letter 728) Bentham tells him: 'I have been printing in Nos. without publishing a work on the Judicial Establishment for the French National Assembly, to whom I have sent 100 copies.'

3 In addition to his unwavering support of the French Revolution 'Citizen Stanhope' had taken up the cause of religious reform and the removal of disabilities from dissenters. In the summer of 1789 he had introduced into the House of Lords two bills, one to relieve members of the Church of England from various penalties for unorthodoxy, the other against vexatious proceedings for recovery of tithes. Both bills were thrown out, on 18 May and 3 July (*Journals of the House of Lords,* xxxviii, 422, 488).

### 7211

### T o t h e D u k e o f G r a ft o n

#### *c.* 7 September 1790 (Aet 42)

The author of the within named unpublished work reflecting with a concern not inferior to the D. of G'.s on the tyranny exercised by the church over the consciences of men, and on its pernicious influence on the public morals takes the liberty of sending his G[race] one of the chapters2 for the sake of the last section which he thinks will be found to point out the most vulnerable part of the system and that which may be attacked, if ever any such attack should be thought fit to be made in the proper place with the fairest prospect of advantage.

The Rt. Rev. supporters of this profligate system find no difficulty in disclaiming all regard to liberty of conscience; but they will hardly deem it prudent openly to disclaim all regard /profess an equal disregard/ to truth/ veracity, which they must do ere they can say a syllable in favour of the habitual perjury held up to observation here.

He regards with sympathetic affection and respect his G[race]'s generous zeal, and *wishes* (he scarce dares say *hopes*) to see it become contagious, in the only place where it can be crowned with the fruits it so well deserves.3

**721.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 29. Autograph rough draft, written in columns.

The reply from Grafton, dated 9 September 1790 (letter 722) indicates a date a few days earlier for this letter.

2 Evidently chapter 5 of Bentham's *Draught of a Code for the ...Judicial Establishment in France.* (See letter 720, n. 2.)

3 A reference to a pamphlet by the duke, entitled *Hints, etc. Submitted to the Serious Attention of the Clergy, Nobility and Gentry, Newly Associated, by a Layman,* 1789, which ran through several editions. It included a strong attack on the liturgy and the 39 articles of the Church of England. Augustus Henry Fitzroy (1735–1811), 3rd Duke of Grafton, after a colourful social and political career, which included the unfortunate Grafton ministry (1766–70), became increasingly interested in religion and for many years worshipped at the Unitarian Chapel, Essex Street, Strand, London.

### 7221

### F r o m t h e D u k e o f G r a ft o n

#### 9 September 1790

Wakefield Lodge Septr 9th 1790.

The Duke of Grafton presents his Compliments to Mr Bentham, returning him at the same time many thanks for the work, which he has been so obliging to communicate to the D. of G., the contents of which make him desire much to possess the other Chapters.

The habitual Perjury, so justly observed upon by Mr Bentham ought, one woud conceive, to have revolted long since those Minds, which are observed to be ingenuous on all other occasions. And tho' the D. of G. agrees with Mr Bentham that this tyrannical System is most open to be attacked on that Side, which he alludes to; yet the D. of G. is of opinion, that the Attempt must be preceded by a Conviction, rather general, of the absurd Enormity of the Case; and that, to attain this, no means will be so effectual, as the perpetually exposing it to the Public Eye in the true Colours, following the Example of Mr Bentham.

### 7231

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n <sup>t</sup> h a m

#### 18/29 September 1790

#### Bender Septr 18 O.S. 1790

 I have been here near a week, but Prince Potemkin was gone to Cherson Ochakoff etc and is expected back every hour. I cannot

**722.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. Ogden Mss. 62 (1) 53. Autograph. No docket or address. An answer to letter 721.

**723.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 178–9. Autograph. Docketed: '1790 Sept. 18/29 S.B. Bender to J.B. Bedford Row.'

Addressed: 'Jer. Bentham Esqr at W. Browne's Esqr Bedford Row, London.' Postmark: 'NO. 1.' Stamped: 'p. payé paris'.

Bender (now Rumanian 'Tighina') was a growing town in Moldavia, about 60 miles northwest of Odessa, near the mouth of the Dniester.

In a letter to his father, from Bender, dated 17/28 September 1790 (B.L. V: 171–2), Samuel told him: 'We are here with an army of about an hundred thousand men doing what we can to amuse ourselves and I have the pleasure of meeting with a number of my friends and acquaintances who though assembled from different parts of the contry are all astonished to see me return here after so long a journey while they have been in a state of comparative tranquillity since I left them.'

therefore tell you anything new about how I shall be disposed of. Count Langeron2 a Frenchman who has been serving as Volunteer against the Swedes and now come to do the same against the Turks having a sudden occasion to set off for Paris takes this letter with him.

The Prince is arrived, I dined with him and he spoke more with me than with anybody. Siberia was of course the subject; but when I shall be able to talk to him sufficiently to determine my future plans is not to be guessed at. In the meantime I profit of this opportunity to tell you that I have concern with the Fur Trade from Kamchatka and on that account wish much for every information of what is done or done on that part of America by England and other nations. Moreover I shall perhaps send a party from the coast of America about Cook's river3 or elsewhere across land to Hudson's bay towards Fort York or wherever it seems most advisable. For this purpose could you contrive to send me immediately the name and situation with respect to longitude and latitude of the most western settlement belonging to Hudson's bay and to learn whether any incursions have been made towards our American sea. What people inhabit these parts their disposition etc. An Englishman would have the command of my intended expedition which would consist of 20 or 30 Russian soldiers. Let this matter be secret that is do not speak of it as intended but you may as a scheme of your own which appears feasible. Direct all you have to say on this subject to me at Shairp's Petersburg.

We have no talk of peace yet with the Turks, on the contrary we march further on in a day or two probably for Ismael Broel etc.4 Let me hear something from you by the first post as I am in hopes some how or other of seeing Petersburg at least. As to England I can say nothing, besides though I seem never now in want of money here, the finding a sum to transmit to England at the terrible course of exchange is difficult and I can't bear the idea of borrowing.

I am as well lodged here as anybody but without glass windows chairs or tables. You must have received my letter from Moscow5

<sup>2</sup> Andrault, comte de Langeron (1763–1831), a professional French soldier who left France at the Revolution and served with distinction in the Russian forces from May 1790 onwards, rising to the rank of lieutenant general and commanding divisions at Austerlitz (1805) and in the 1813–15 campaigns against Napoleon.

<sup>3</sup> During his third voyage James Cook sailed towards the Bering Straits and in 1788 penetrated a bay, subsequently known as Cook's inlet or river. This was at first thought to offer a passage into the Arctic Sea.

<sup>4</sup> Ismail, a town on the northern estuary of the Danube, with a Turkish fort.

<sup>5</sup> Letter 717. Bentham's reply is missing.

and have I hope answered it. When you have opportunity to inform me of the Dutch trade with Japan and the fur trade at Canton do it.

Millitary books by General Lloyd.6 I know not the title if the ships still go pray send one.

### 7241

### T o J e r e m i a h B e n <sup>t</sup> h a m

#### 27 September 1790 (Aet 42)

Thanks to my dear Father for his Siberian letter.2 I send him in return two other Irish ones. Ld Westmoreland's ramble as mentioned in the papers3 accounts for my not having yet received another.

*Pray return them to me by return of post.*

Sir John's of which I have no copy is immediately necessary for me to refer to—To me, Hendon, Middlesex is always sufficient.

I hope to steal a day to pay my duty to you before you go to Bath: but my motions depend upon other people whom I have occasion to see upon this business and whom I must wait for and catch when I can.

Monday Septr. 27 1790.

The four preceding numbers of the work you mention you have already. You had first the first three, and afterwards the 4th by itself. You will find them at Q.S.P. Do not think of binding till the work is finished, of which when it happens you will be apprized.4

Addressed: 'To / Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / at J. Farr Abbot's Esqr / Putney Heath.'

2 A letter from Samuel to his father, dated 22 August 1790, quoted in letter 717, n. 5.

<sup>3</sup> The viceroy left Dublin on 6 September for a tour which took him to the counties of Louth, Meath, Waterford and Cork. He made a brief return to Dublin on 29 September, but did not come back for a longer stay until 29 October 1790. Particulars of his tour were given in the *Public Advertiser,* 15, 20, 23 September, 7, 15, 18, 20, 22 October, 5, 6, 8 November 1790.

<sup>4</sup> Bentham must have received a letter from his father about binding books, but it is missing.

<sup>6</sup> Henry Lloyd (*c.* 1720–83), a soldier of fortune with service in the French, Austrian, Prussian and Russian armies. He published a *History of the War between the King of Prussia and the Empress of Germany and her Allies,* 3 vols., 1766–1782, and *A Political and Military Rhapsody on the Defence of Great Britain,* 1799.

**<sup>724.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 170. Autograph. Docketed (by Jeremiah Bentham): 'Mr. Jeremy Bentham / His letter datd Hendon / Middlx Septr 27 1790 / with copies of two others / inclosed vizl. / One dated 3d Septr from Sir / John Parnell to Major Hobart / The other from do. to Jy. B. himself same date.'

### 7251

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 17 or 18 October 1790

Bowood P. Sunday 17 Oct. 17902

 I do not venture to write upon the same paper, because I know the hands of the Sex are held in a certain veneration, which might still make a mixture not quite acceptable.3 Besides I am not very well today, and cannot turn sentences like the Ladys. I say to day, because otherwise I have enjoy'd more Health of Body and Mind this last Fortnight, than I have done for this year and a half past, during which it's inconceivable What I have suffer'd from different causes, and I am now afraid of every wind as I want if possible to get thro' the [winter?] months. I then go to Southampton on a little business for 2 or 3 days and from thence to Bath, where I mean to try the Waters for a Fortnight, and to be in London at latest by the 20th.4 I expect to find the old couple at Bath, but it will be no embarrassment.5 When I chang'd Horses at Marlborough they told me Mr Bentham had waited for me a considerable time, but had gone on about half an hour. What to Bowood I suppose— They did not know, but he had a Lady with him which unravell'd the Mystery. But well or unwell I could never let the post go without assuring you that no one knows better the difference between Honest Open Passion, which bursts no matter how, and gives fair warning, and conceal'd malice, which seeks to revenge Wounded Vanitys, which they dare not own, or to gratifye a cowardly Spirit of Envy and Ingratitude. I know the qualities which belong to both, and I have knowledge enough of Mankind to worship one in its moment of violence, among other reasons on

**725.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 180–1. Autograph. Docketed: '1790 Oct. 17 L.L. Bowood / to / J.B. Hendon / Reconciliation.'

Only the latter part of the letter from 'well or unwell', is quoted in Bowring, x, 245.

2 The date is written in another hand: perhaps wrongly, since 17 October 1790 was a Saturday.

3 A separate letter to Bentham from the ladies of Bowood is indicated, but it is missing.

<sup>4</sup> Lansdowne must have meant the 20th of November.

5 Mr and Mrs Jeremiah Bentham had travelled to Bath early in October; they had apparently heard that Lansdowne would be changing horses at Marlborough: he at first thought it was Jeremy who had inquired for him, as Bentham was expected at Bowood.

account of it's affinity to my own Temper, while if I was to dye by it, I can never forget or forgive the other. I leave it to you to make the application. If you make it right, you will make it unnecessary for me to keep the Ladys waiting Dinner longer, to assure you how

> Affectly and unalterably I must be always Yrs L.

Your Papers will be forwarded tomorrow.

### 7261

### F r o m R i c h a r d W y a t t

#### 26 October 1790

Egham Octr 26th 1790

Dear Sr

Particularly unfortunate did I consider myself by my Absence from Home, when I found yr Letter, signifying yr very kind intention of taking my House in yr way. I have now this Plea to urge for the Expectation of that Pleasure, the nearest Road to Reading, consequently to Bath is thro' Egham, from which my Abode is distant half a Mile. Some 20 years ago I had the Pleasure of receiving you as my Guest. When a man has devoted that space of Time to the Information and Improvement of Mankind, with singular Credit to His own Abilities and integrity of Heart, it highly flatters my Ambitious hopes, to renew that acquaintance, as an Honor to myself and agreeably to participate the Utile dulci. Many gratefull Thanks are due from me to the Great Author of all Goodness, Who has bestowed numberless Blessings on Me. Not among the least of These do I consider that I am enabled to gratifie Myself with the Enjoyment of my Friends, in such a manner, as They may choose, either by retirement in a spacious House, or the society of a numerous Family. How far you will indulge me by

**726.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 184–5. Autograph. Docketed: '1790 / Oct / Wyat Milton Place to J.B. Bowood.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr.'

Richard Wyatt (*c.* 1731–1813) was a wealthy landowner and j.p. in Surrey, educated at Oriel College, Oxford (b.a. 1752); through his marriage in 1766 to Priscilla Edgell he had become possessor of Milton Place and the manor of Egham. Although he mentions entertaining Bentham twenty years before, his name has not previously appeared in the *Correspondence.*

making use of each, let an early opportunity testifie. I go into Suffolk about the 10th of next month where I continue about 3 Weeks, shall not be absent from home till February unless by an accidental Avocation to Town for a Day or two. With much Regard I subscribe Myself yr Friend and humble Servt

> R: <sup>d</sup> Wyatt

### 7271

### F r o m J a m e s W a d m a n A <sup>l</sup> e x a n d e r

#### 3 November 1790

Trin: Coll: Nov: 3 1790

Dear Sir,

207

 After having made frequent visits to the Castle,2 I was yesterday so fortunate to find Harris the Keeper at home—he was so very civil and communicative that I was induced to tell him my reasons for my inquiries, he has promised me, if you should come to Oxon, to give you all the information in his power, and will esteem the perusal of your *book* a particular favor. The gaol is not yet finished therefore his salary is not finaly determined: at present he has one hundred and fifty guineas per annum, the County have the advantage of all profits arising from the labor of the Prisoners, who are at present employed some in finishing the Castle, others in mending the Turnpike road. They earn about one shilling per diem each. At present there are fifty Prisoners, when Harris first came to the Castle they amounted to above seventy, they have decreased ever since and he thinks will still continue to. I think you would be much pleased if you were to come to Oxon and see the Castle. I fear it will not be in my power to give you an adequate idea of it on paper, however if you will be so obliging as to send me your book I will shew it to Harris and note particularly his observations; if you have any particular queries you would wish resolved, I beg

**727.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 188–9. Autograph. Docketed: '1790 / Nov / 3 / Panopt / J. Alexander Oxon / to / J.B. / Hendon / Oxford Jail.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / Hendon / Middlesex.' Postmark: 'NO.4.90'. Stamped: 'Oxford'.

James Wadman Alexander (*c.* 1767–1837) was educated at Trinity College, Oxford; b.a. 1789, b.d. 1799, university proctor 1798.

2 Oxford Castle had included a prison since the Assize of Clarendon (1166). John Howard had criticised its condition in his *State of Prisons,* 1777, pp. 315–17, and in 1785 the county of Oxford purchased the castle and began improvements and extensions of the prison, adding a house of correction.

you will not hesitate writing, as you may depend on my answering them immediately—Sir George Paul3 lives at Hill House Glostershire—I am Dear Sir

> yr sincere well Wisher J.W. Alexander

### 7281

### T <sup>o</sup> S a m u e <sup>l</sup> B e n t h a m

#### 6 December 1790 (Aet 42)

'The Defence of Usury' has met with a translator in France. I am known by the name of Usury B. in Ireland. The bookseller is plaguing me about reprinting it, being continually asked for it. I have been printing in Nos. without publishing, a work on the Judicial Establishment for the French National Assembly, to whom I have sent 100 copies. I find it is beginning to have a certain reputation; but they have made scarce any use of it. It is much admired by the few who have read it here,—young women of the number: and it contributes, with other things, to the slow increase of my school. Charles is put in for a contested borough by Lord Carmarthen, now Duke of Leeds, and is likely to succeed. I quarrelled with Lord L. for not having brought me in. He made apologies promised to spare no pains to effect it another time, but would not give me a promise to turn out for that purpose any of his present crew, who, he has agreed with me, over and over again, are poor creatures; so I laughed at him, called his promises Birmingham halfpence, and so we made it up again—he styling me all this while to everybody in conversation and on paper, the first of men, diverting himself not the less with my singularities, as you may

3 Sir George Onesiphorus Paul, 2nd bart. (1746–1820), philanthropist; at this time he was improving prisons in Gloucestershire, and was responsible for the new penitentiary in Gloucester (see J. R. S. Whiting, *Prison Reform in Gloucestershire, 1776– 1820...Sir G. Onesiphorus Paul,* 1975).

**728.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 246. A quotation introduced by the statement: 'Bentham writes to his brother, Dec. 6th 1790:'

Reference is made in this letter to several matters covered in previous correspondence and the notes thereon. A new subject is the idea of Bentham becoming a member of the Irish Parliament.

In a letter to his father, dated 19/30 December 1790, Samuel wrote to say that he was still in Bender awaiting orders, had not been engaged in the successful Russian assault on Ismail and hopes he will soon be able to take the leave already promised him in England, but not as early as the coming January. He adds that he has not received any replies to the letters he wrote from Bender, but that the answers may await him at St Petersburg. (B.L. V: 174–5, 'Copy by Jr B'.)

well suppose. Poor Inspection House is taken up by the Government of Ireland; they have ordered it to be printed, and given me what money I have a mind for, to waste upon it with architects. Lord L. thinks he has persuaded them I am necessary to them, and that they must bring me into parliament there; and he is strenuous with me to go over there upon those terms,—saying, what may perhaps be true, that everything is to be done there and nothing here.

### 7291

### T <sup>o</sup> E d w a r d C o o k e

#### mid-December 1790 (Aet 42)

#### To Mr. Secretary Coke War Office Dublin.

Sir

 By commission for Sir J. Parnell I take the liberty of troubling you with the annexed paper containing a few corrections and notes for a little book of mine which I understand from him was committed to your care.2

If any of the passages in question are already printed, the corresponding corrections may be published at the end. There will be a Postscript, for the completion of which I am using my best diligence—

> I have the honour to be Sir etc.

I can say nothing as to the engravings, except that I hope to receive them before New Years day, but have no expectation of them before Xmas.

**729.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxix: 84. Autograph rough draft. The reference to the engravings for the Panopticon volume enables the letter to be dated shortly before Christmas 1790.

Edward Cooke (1755–1820) was under-secretary in the Irish military department 1789–95, and in the civil department 1796–1801. He was an m.p. in the Irish Parliament, for Lifford 1789–90, and for Leighlin 1790–1801. He became under-secretary for foreign affairs in the United Kingdom, 1812–17.

<sup>2</sup> The corrections and notes mentioned are on the other half of the sheet, headed 'Additions and corrections for Mr. Bentham's pamphlet intituled Panopticon'.

### 729*a*<sup>1</sup>

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x a n d C a r o l i n e a n d E l i z a b e t h V e r n o n

#### 1790–91

#### [Extracts from letters of various dates]

 Which of my guardian angels, I wonder, is this? The gravity and dignity bespeaks my former correspondent; but the cypher on the seal seems to indicate a new one. The ice, too, if my thermometer does not flatter me, is not quite so hard as it used to be: a spark or two of the compassion I once experienced in a manner not to be forgotten, seems to have fallen upon it. Favours like this are a bounty upon ill-humour. I must e'en pout on were it only in this view, as a froward child, that has been used to have its crying stopped by sugar-plums, keeps on roaring to get more of them. Query, what degree of perverseness would be sufficient to procure a sugar-plum from Miss F———? . . .

Come now, I will give you a piece of dramatic criticism. Did you ever happen to hear the true history of Othello, and what it was made him take on so when he found the handkerchief was gone? It was the inconvenience he considered it would put him to, to get such another in Cheapside. *A propos,* how many people have you just now at Bowood? When you write next, could not you go round the company, apron in hand, and collect enough, at a penny a-piece, to put the matter upon a level for me in point of convenience.

See what it is to be a guardian angel: to have no passions, and to be made up of nothing but prudence! Such superior beings know not how to lower themselves, even in idea, to the condition of poor, frail, suffering men: one of whom would not bate three words, though it were only on the outside, from the hand in question for elevenpence three-farthings . . .

This ought to have gone sooner, but I was in London yesterday

**<sup>729</sup>a.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 227–9. Extracts from several letters, introduced with the explanation: 'I give some further fragments of Bentham's playful correspondence with the ladies of Bowood:'. The dotted lines indicating omissions are those in Bowring. No dates are given by him, but there are internal clues which enable the extracts to be placed in the later part of the year 1790 or the first half of 1791. Some of these clues are mentioned in the notes which follow. Most of the letters seem to have been addressed to Caroline Fox.

(Friday) when yours arrived here; and to-day I could not leave off kissing it, time enough to answer it, before the post went out: so this of mine will not go from hence till Monday. —Ha! what does the fellow say? Kissing, indeed? Yes madam, with submission, kissing. Is there any law against kissing paper, and that at a hundred miles distance from the hand that wrote it? . . .

Well, it is a rare thing for one poor frail mortal to have three guardian angels, but this last is a sad severe one! You who know all my pursuits, will you be pleased to give me a list of those in which I have manifested this want of perseverance? As to the French business, the time for perseverance is at an end, and yet I persevere. A sixth number is at the printer's completed, and more than half of it printed; not to mention others, which may as well come from my executors as from me.2 It is very good in you to take me under your wing, and very natural to recommend me to your other protegés, the bishop and archbishop. Bishops must be strange bishops, if angels speak to them in vain. Under such inspiration, it would be incredulity to doubt the willingness of their spirit; but what could their flesh do for others in an assembly that has decreed to reduce them to skin and bone? No, madam; there, or elsewhere, I persevere, with reverence be it spoken, for mere perseverence' sake, and without the smallest prospect upon earth. I have preached to them: they have turned their backs upon preachments, with a contempt scarcely exceeded by that which they have manifested over and over again for their own successors, for ever and ever, whose hands they are tying knot after knot, satisfied that, with the present irregularly chosen and semi-aristocratically composed assembly, so lives and dies all will of their own, together with all common honesty and common sense. They have rejected my preachments; and now what remains for me, but to take a leaf out of the book of disappointed preachers my predecessor and first namesake among the number, and follow up my rejected preachments by croaking prophecies? ...

O rare Mr. Romilly! What a happy thing it is to 'succeed beyond expression,' where a man would wish beyond expression to succeed!3

<sup>2</sup> An allusion to the *Essay on Political Tactics* (1791), of which Bentham only put into print Essay VI and part of Essay V at this time (see letter 732, p. 217 and n. 4, and J. H. Burns, *loc. cit.,* p. 106).

<sup>3</sup> There is a reference to a 'superlative about Mr R.' in letter 691 (above, p. 119), and the words 'succeeded here beyond expression' occur in letter 765 (below, p. 271 and n. 7).

What would Mr. Romilly give to see this concluding paragraph, were it possible that a success, which is no secret even to me, should be so to the succeeder? You angel, who know everything that passes, or does not pass in the bosom of me, a sinner, so much better than I do myself, say how long I have entertained so heroic a friendship for Mr. Romilly? That I regarded and esteemed him, on account of so much as I know of his political principles, I was myself aware; but friendship is with me a sacred name, scarcely employed till after a degree of mutual explanation and *épanchement du coeur* which seemed approaching, but, as yet, has scarcely taken place betwixt me and Mr. Romilly. Howsoever that be, to confess the truth, (for I know you love to amuse yourself with confessions,) this late inexplicable success of his is somehow or other better calculated to raise him in my esteem, than in my affection. To have seen the same thing in Runic characters, would have given me a satisfaction tolerably pure; but in this delicate Italian, the dose is rather of the strongest. To be thus lugged in, head and shoulders, a man need not repine; otherwise, to be sure, never was man lugged in, head and shoulders, in a more egregious manner than this same happy one Mr. Romilly. As to the news you ask about Bowood, this is another instance of omniscience overshadowing ignorance. D———l a bit, madam angel, would Sancho Panza have answered in my place, did I say a syllable that I know of about news. I was neither in the humour, nor had any pretension to put any such queries; but there are some sorts of news which one gets without asking, and which jump into one's mouth without its being so much as opened for them. O rare, once more, Mr. Romilly! Did you not hear a gun go off? No, not I. Well, now we are talking about a gun: I will tell you a story about an acquaintance of your cold uncle's. The business that you know of has led me of late to consult with an architect, a man of *vertu,* that other great men have consulted likewise.4 Calling at his house t'other day, by appoint-

<sup>4</sup> 'The business that you know of' refers to the Panopticon penitentiary scheme for Ireland, about which Bentham began to consult the architect, Willey Reveley, in September 1790 (see letter 719). The idea of Reveley dealing with Panopticon business in Ireland was discouraged by Bentham in April 1791 (see letter 760). A Memorandum supplied to Bowring many years afterwards by Mrs Reveley gives additional information concerning the relations between her first husband and Bentham at that time. It is printed in Bowring, x, 251–2.

Mrs Maria Reveley (née James) is better known as Mrs Maria Gisborne (1770– 1836). She married the poet, John Gisborne, in 1800, a year after her first husband's death, and they lived for many years in Italy, where Percy Bysshe Shelley became a close friend. His poetical *Letter to Maria Gisborne* was written from Leghorn during her visit to England in 1820.

ment, at half-past 12, no Mr. R. was there, nor was expected till 2. Instead of him, I was introduced to the pretty Mrs R., an old Constantinople acquaintance. He came in rather sooner than expected, and found us occupied—how do you think? Just as you and I might be: she at her pianoforte—I scraping upon a fiddle. He could not imagine who his wife had got with her. There were but two fiddle-players ever came there—Mr such-a-one and Mr such-a-one. And he knew that they were both at a great distance. Besides being pretty, which is nothing to anybody but her husband, and painting, and speaking all languages as well as any master ever heard, she plays upon the pianoforte beyond expression, which will doubtless give you satisfaction on account of my fondness for music, not to mention virtuous and accomplished pretty women, who are to me what pretty pictures are to your cold uncle. I question whether I shall be able to fix him in Ireland, (an idea not of mine, but of Mr Vaughan's, if you please,) even if I go there. He is loath to leave his papa, a queer impertinent old prig, whom I saw; and he is frightened out of his wits at the thoughts of oath boys and white boys,5 whom he conceives, form all the Dublin company.

He talks of going backwards and forwards to do the business if he gets it, in which case his rib, which is the best part about him, would, I suppose, be left behind. I intend to have a magnificent organ, you must know, to help to humanize, amongst other things, my brute in human shape. It would be a good thing to bribe her with a magnificent organ, and the place of organist, were it only to take this poor innocent creature out of the way of such specious men as your cold uncle and his grave son, who, it seems, are not unknown here. The way is, for one of them to go on pretence of inquiring for the other. What charming things are paternal and filial affection! but they are their own sufficient reward, neither will get any other there...

Does your omniscience know anything stronger than vanity? Yes! my discretion; and I will give you the most convincing proof of it. Not a creature will ever know from me of my having received this angelic letter, more than he knows of any of the former ones: that is, not a creature breathing, except such as may have heard of them from the writers. If there be such a thing as self-denial virtue, this is; for never was King of Siam vainer of his white elephant than I am of this favour from the whitest and most beautiful of all hands.

<sup>5</sup> Irish agrarian terrorists of the period.

—I mean, always provided you will be quick and give me such another: otherwise it will go to all the papers, and eclipse the Munro and Mac-what-is-it? controversy. Is not this in your catalogue of honest note?

### 7301

### F r o m R i c h a r d P r i c e

#### 4 January 1791

Dear Sir,

 I have this morning received your letter,2 which, having been directed to Newington instead of Hackney, has been too long in coming to me. In the second volume of my book on Annuities, I have published Tables which give the produce or amount of an annuity of £1, for any term of years, at any rate of compound interest; but this book is out of print, and I am now employed in correcting the press for a new edition of it.3 They also make a part of Mr Smart's Tables of Interest; but this book is likewise not easily to be found, and therefore I have taken out of that copy of it which I possess, the two enclosed leaves, which will give you the information you desire, without any farther trouble.4 When you have done with them, be so good as to return them to me, that I may restore them to the book from which I have taken them. It is probably very needless to tell you that any annuity multiplied by the numbers, even with the years in these leaves, will give the amount of that annuity in those years at the rate of compound interest specified at the head of the columns. Thus £200 *per ann.* bearing 4 per cent. compound interest, and forborne for 18 years will produce twenty times 200, but that is £4000. On twenty years it will amount to 200, multiplied by 29.778—that is, £5,955 12s.

I am glad, dear sir, of this opportunity of assuring you that I am,

**730.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 246. Introduced by the statement: 'Dr. Price writes to Bentham from Hackney on the 4th January 1791:'. Price was an older member of the Bowood circle than Bentham, who had not always agreed with his political pamphlets but respected his economic theories (see *Correspondence,* i, 310 and n.; ii, 23 and n., 214n.).

2 Missing.

<sup>3</sup> *Observations on Reversionary Payments, on Schemes for Providing Annuities for Widows ...and on the National Debt...Also, an Appendix containing ...Tables, showing the Probabilities of Life in London, Norwich and Northampton, etc.,* first pubd. 1771; 5th edn., 2 vols., 1792. A 6th edn., enlarged by W. Morgan, appeared in 2 vols., 1803.

<sup>4</sup> Probably the 2nd edition of John Smart's *Tables of Interest, Discount, Annuities, etc.,* 1726, first published as *Tables of Simple Interest and Discount, etc.,* 1707.

with great respect and the best wishes, your very obedient and humble servant.

### 7311

### T o G e o r g e W i l s o n

#### *c.* 7 January 1791 (Aet 42)

Hendon, Friday, January, 1791.

My dear Wilson,

 Nothing can be more judicious than the advice you give me to write readable books: to show my gratitude, suffer me, who am your senior, to treat you with another. Get business. Don't complain for this time that you have been preaching to the winds; you have been preaching, you see, to an echo: I don't mean one of your vulgar echoes, but such a one as they have in Ireland, which, when a man says to it, 'How d'ye do?' answers, 'Pretty well, I thank you.' What! your notion is, then, that I make my books unreadable, for the same reason that asses stand mute—out of pure sulkiness. As to the book in question, there will be another obstacle to its general circulation here, which is, that it won't go to the booksellers at least for a long time, if ever.2 Be listened to in France? No, to be sure it won't. But you seem to have forgotten, that it is the continuation of a work begun before that matter had been ascertained. As to the unpopular form, it was determined by the popular occasion. If I give it up, I am fickle: if I go on with it, I choose a form that is unpopular, and write books that are unreadable. So you have me either way, or to speak more intelligibly, *quacunque viâ datâ.* If you have got a receipt for making readable books, please send copy thereof per return of post, together with a ditto of your own making for a pattern.

You have as good a chance for putting the house of our Lady at Loretto3 into a parcel as my Inspection-house, by sending to

**731.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 246–7. Undated but placed by Bowring immediately after the text of letter 730. The next Friday was 7 January and internal evidence would seem to confirm this date for the letter, which is thus introduced: 'To some remarks which Wilson had been making on his style he thus replies:'. Wilson's communication is missing.

2 Bentham seems to refer to his unfinished 'Essay on Political Tactics'.

3 The Holy House at Loreto, an episcopal see in Ancona, Italy, is a large stone building containing a statue of the Virgin Mary and Child, probably a work of the 15th century, but believed at one time to have been miraculously transported, with the house, from Jerusalem before its capture in the 13th century by the Turks.

Brown's to-day, or Saturday. Neither angels, nor any other messengers, have brought it yet from Ireland. To make amends, if you will send the enclosed to Spilsbury's, you may get, in some state or other, but *toujours* without a title-page, a scrap of my horn-book for infant members, which I am going to publish without the rest—more food for speculation, and another bait to catch good advice.4 The title-page you may send him by another opportunity. Seriously though, I am greatly obliged to you for the access you have got for me to the Contracts. I shall hardly be at leisure to profit by it these ten days or a fortnight, but that I suppose will make no difference.—Yours ever.

Remember me affectionately to Trail, when you write. I had the pleasure of seeing his letter at Romilly's.

How is Trail's Irish brother to be directed to?5 I mean at Dublin. If I knew his correspondent there, I would send him this last No. and the preceding one,—as far as No. 4, I think, he has. I remember something about Stafford Street—was that a temporary lodging, or a friend's?

### 7321

### F r o m E t i e n n e D u m o n t

#### 7 January 1791

 En arrangeant mes papiers, ce matin, mon cher Monsieur, je trouve sur ma table une note que vous y avez laissée le 3e Janvier,2 et qui m'avoit échappé dans le fatras qui couvroit ma table. Ce qui me surprend, c'est que j'ai demandé deux fois au portier si vous n'étiez point venu, et il m'a toujours répondu que non. J'ai été en Bedford row chez Mr Brown avec Romilly 〈mais?〉 vous étiez sorti. J'avois beaucoup d'envie de vous voir avant mon départ, et j'aurois été à Hendon, si j'en avois eu le loisir, depuis que vous y

<sup>4</sup> i.e. 'Essay on Political Tactics'. Thomas Spilsbury was a printer and publisher, with premises at Snow Hill, London, from 1781 until his death in 1795.

<sup>5</sup> Probably Bentham means William Trail, chancellor of Down and Connor. See above, p. 80, n. 4.

**<sup>732.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 197. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 Jan 7 / Dumont Lansd. House to J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'Jer. Bentham Esqr Hendon / Middlesex.' Postmark: 'penny post paid'.

<sup>2</sup> Missing.

êtes retourné. Je suis bien fâché que nous nous soyons cherché reciproquement sans nous rencontrer.

J' n'ai pas eu votre nouveau numero sur l'etablissemt. judiciaire,3 et je desire beaucoup de le voir. Je voulois vous demander un ordre sur votre libraire pour en acheter trois ou quatre exemplaires complets qui me sont instamment demandés. Je ne suis pas moins impatient de voir votre tactique,4 mais je vous conjure d'achever ce qui concerne les tribunaux.

Je pars Lundi matin Mr. du Chastelet.5 Si vos affaires vous conduissent Dimanche en ville, je serois le matin jusqu'à onze heures à Lansdown house, et j' y rentrerai à neuf ou dix heures pour y coucher.

Je serai à Paris jusqu'au 23 ou 24 Janvier, où les lettres me parviendront sous l'adresse de Mr. Et. Claviere,6 administrateur des assurances sur la vie, rue Amboise, près du théatre Italien—je serai à Geneve Fevrier et Mars, il ne faut que mon nom sur l'adresse —et de retour à Paris où je passerai Avril et suivant les circonstances, une partie de Mai: je me propose cependant d'être a Londres au commencement de Mai.7

Je vous souhaite une bonne santé, et je vous prie de me croire avec une affection particulière

### Tout à vous Dumont

#### Lansdown house

7e Janvier 1791

3 Apparently an addition to Bentham's *Draught of a Code for the Organisation of the Judicial Establishment in France,* printed in March 1790.

4 That is, a continuation of Bentham's *Essay on Political Tactics,* intended as the first section of a larger work and being translated into French by Dumont. In 1816 Dumont brought out the *Tactique des Assemblées Legislatives, suivie d'un traité des sophismes politiques: ouvrages extraits des manuscrits de M. Jérémie Bentham...,* 2nd edn., 2 vols., Paris, 1822. In the 'Discours préliminaire de l'éditeur' Dumont gave his account of how Bentham began this work (pp. ix–xii) as an offering [*offrande*] to the Etats-Généraux, commenting 'Les états-généraux étaient assemblés et l'ouvrage de M. Bentham était loin d'être fini. .. Non seulement il est incomplet, mais de plus, il paraîtrait suranné à plusieurs égards. Il était fait pour les circonstances' (p. xii).

5 Achille François de Lascaris d'Urfé, marquis du Chastellet (1759–94), a distinguished French soldier, who rose to the rank of general in 1792 but was arrested as one in touch with the Girondins in September 1793 and took poison in prison, 20 March 1794. Chastellet was paying a visit to England at this time and Dumont found his company congenial on the journey back to France (E. Dumont, *Souvenirs sur Mirabeau,* ed. J. Bénétruy, 1951, pp. 145–6).

6 Etienne Clavière. See above, p. 68 n. 1.

7 Dumont left London with Chastellet on 10 January, arrived in Paris on the 14th and after three weeks there travelled on to Switzerland in February (Dumont, op. cit., 145–8, 292–3).

### 7331

### T o E v a n N e p e a n

#### 11 January 1791 (Aet 42)

 Mr Bentham presents his Compliments to Mr Nepean, and by instruction from Sir J. Parnell takes the liberty of troubling him with a packet for Major Hobart.2

### 7341

### T <sup>o</sup> S i r J o h n P a r n e ll

#### *c*. 11 January 1791 (Aet 42)

Hendon Middlesex Jany 11—1791

Dear Sir

 I inclose an advertisement for the Letters on the Panopticon, in order that, if you think proper the book may be published forthwith, without waiting for the Postscript and the engravings. Mr Conyngham was to set out as [of] tomorrow, and on Sunday I saw Mr Revely the Architect, and gave him instructions to ask Mr Conyngham in your name to take charge of 250 copies of the engraving of Plate 1. I now send him instructions in the event of his not succeeding with Mr Conyngham to address them to Major Hobart through the medium of Mr Nepean.

**733.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 33. Autograph draft. No docket or address.

This appears to be Bentham's first contact with (Sir) Evan Nepean (1751–1822), who had become an under-secretary of state during the Shelburne ministry and remained in this office under Pitt. He became Secretary to the Admiralty in 1795 and was created a baronet in 1802. For a few months in 1804 he was Chief Secretary for Ireland and ended his administrative career as governor of Bombay, 1812–19.

2 Robert Hobart (1760–1816), later Baron Hobart (1798) and 4th Earl of Buckingham (1804). He had served in the American war and in parliament; he was aide-decamp to the Viceroy of Ireland 1784–8, and Chief Secretary 1789–93. After a career in India 1794–8, he assisted in the union with Ireland 1799–1800, and thereafter served in various cabinets in the United Kingdom until his accidental death.

**734.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 33. Autograph draft. Although there is no docket or address this letter would appear to be intended for Sir John Parnell; his assistant, R. H. W. Conyngham, the Cashier or Teller of the Exchequer in Ireland, was evidently in London. Failing him as a messenger to take the packet of plates for the *Panopticon* to Ireland, Bentham wishes to use the channel of communication from the Treasury to Major Hobart, the Irish Chief Secretary.

### F r o m W i ll e y R e v e l e y

#### *c.* 11 January 1791

Tuesday evening

Dear Sir,

219

 I have drawn the design as well as I can I think many people would make a better hand of the Glory etc. and recommend you to put it into the hands of some engraver used to engrave these things. Bell's publications,2 the poets etc. have things of this kind.

I am Dear Sir your most obedt and obligd servt Willey Reveley

P.S. Mr Harding3 has taken out such part of his blunder as does not touch the aqua-tinta. I enclose a proof that you may see. I have 100 of Plate 1st which send tomorrow morning to Mr Nepean. I have 70 or thereabouts of Plate IInd which I shall wait your determination about before I send them.

**<sup>735.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxviii: 174. Autograph. No date, docket or address. As Bentham mentions in his letter of 11 January (letter 734) that he saw Reveley on Sunday, it may be reasonably conjectured that this Tuesday was the 11 January, especially as Reveley mentions that he will send 100 copies of Plate I to Nepean the next day. Copies of the two plates are in U.C. cxv: 43–5.

<sup>2</sup> John Bell (1745–1831), bookseller and publisher of *The Poets of Great Britain complete from Chaucer to Churchill,* 109 vols. in 18mo., 1777–82.

<sup>3</sup> Probably Edward Harding (1755–1840), or his brother, Sylvester (1745–1809), who together ran a book- and print-shop in London from 1788. Edward became librarian to Queen Charlotte in 1803 and Sylvester was a well-known artist.

### F r o m W i ll e y R e v e l e y

#### *c.* 12 January 1791

Dear Sir,

20

 You know most likely by this time that I sent the message about the candles and the Boy saw them packed up.

I am sorry you are displeased at my observations I make them all with a view to your service and you need never attend to them when you disapprove of them. I wish when you are resolved to have any thing done that you would express yourself accordingly and then I will not reason on the subject. It is not many days since you expressed a desire to know my opinion on the subjects as they occur and now you apply the harsh word *absurdity* as if I had said it. I know that these lines might be clear to opticians as fluctions are to mathematicians, but my idea was that to the mass of those whose concern is prisons and felons, every thing should be as simple as possible, as it is necessary that many persons not versed in opticks should understand the present subject.

The haste you have always expressed has not allowed me time to ask any questions and it is much easier to *add* to a copper plate than *to take out.*

I allow the talent of smoothing difficultys etc. to be as you say but you will not deny that it is necessary to think of those difficulties, and to point them out. It will be better to put the plate into the hands of Mr Alken2 at once and to have it compleated in a proper manner than to suffer the writing engraver to blunder over it, for in reality his mistakes take so much time to correct that it saves no time at all.

I shall send for the Plate 2 this morning and keep it till your presence or orders informs me what to do with it.

I propose to put the U and S thus in the inspectors Lodge that is in a white circle near the front, the lattice must go much lower else sitting he will not see, indeed the whole must be blind else he cannot see from the upper lodge to the lower cell.3

**736.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxix: 16. Autograph. No date, docket or address. From internal evidence this letter would seem to have been sent the day after letter 735.

<sup>2</sup> Probably Samuel Alken (fl. 1780–96), a well-known engraver of the day.

3 Another diagram on the left side is crossed out in the original and not reproduced here.

Plate 3 is not yet finished but I expect if from day to day.

I must ask Mr Alken how far he can make alterations in the plate as I doubt if he can match the *tints* should *they* want piecing.

I shall be at the opera rehearsal tomorrow evening and at a neighbours house on friday evening and will be out at short intervals in the day or as little as I can help.

I send 100 plate 1st to Mr Nepean this morning.

I sent note of plate 2n not knowing your idea on the subject but this is again starting difficultys you will say because you ordered me to send them but the proposed alterations were thought of when you gave me those orders.

#### I am Dear Sir

your most perplexed humle servt Willey Reveley

P.S. it appears singular that when so many lines point out an *imperfect* view of the cells there is none to point out the *perfect* view, I know very well the reason the question is *how others less acquainted with the subject may be struck with* this effect of the lines. I send herewith a plate with pencil lines to shew the manner I propose.

### 7371

### F r o m S a m u e <sup>l</sup> B e n t h a m

#### 12/23 January 1791

Jassy Jany 12th O.S. 1791.

 Here am I still waiting for I know not what, in expectation of setting off every day for England: but at the same time every event influencable by the first mover here is so uncertain, that I can scarcely prevail on myself to take any step preparative to my departure.

**737.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 199–200. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 Jan <sup>12</sup> 23 / S.B. Jassy to J.B. Bedford Row.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr at William Browne's Esqr / Bedford row / London.'

Jassy (now Iasi), Moldavia, Rumania, was a larger town than Bender and nearer the west for Samuel. It had been a cultural centre for centuries, the seat of an archbishopric and a university.

The reason of my writing to you now is to tell you that I mean to take Paris in my way and may stop there a few days or a fortnight according as what is going on there may more or less interest me. Count Langeron2 a Colonel in the French service and Volunteer with us furnishes me with recommendations to the principle people of different parties.

If therefore you write immediately to Paris your letter may arrive there perhaps before me, for, although I hope to set off in a week or ten days at furthest I shall probably stop a few days at Vienna. Have you published anything since the Defence of Usury? have you not been tempted to meddle in the disputes which ferment so violently in France. I have read some hundreds of pages of verbiage on Liberté and droits d'homme, which a few lines of your principles would shew as clear as the sun at noon. Perhaps you are persuaded that those who are cool enough to reason justly and are capable of clear ideas have no influence over the spirit of party. Give me however your opinion and if there be any observations you would wish me to make give me your instructions.

Remember also that it is I know not how long not having your letters by me but I believe it near 2 years since I have had a word from you.3 If you have written within these last six months your letters lay at Petersbourg, from whence I have not dared to have them sent, not knowing ever where I shall be in the course of a week. Tell me therefore what you may have to say about my arrival. I shall rather wish to have lodgings elsewhere than at Q.S.P., but at the same time I would rather suffer inconvenience than displease him.

I do not permit myself to think of the pleasure of being amongst you on account of the impossibility of fixing my departure. I always fear some reason may be found to put off my journey again: but I am fully resolved upon visiting you ere many months elapse, and as I said before it is most probable I shall set out in ten days time. Direct your letter to Paris à Monr Monr B-Colonel au service de Russie et Chevalier de l'ordre de St. George *poste restante.* Should any circumstances which I may learn at Vienna render it imprudent to pass by Paris I may take another road but at present I foresee no such inconveniency. Count Langeron takes this to Vienna. I hope to overtake him as well as Count d'Arm〈and?〉 4 grandson to the

<sup>2</sup> See above, p. 203, n. 2.

<sup>3</sup> Bentham had in fact written several times (see letter 620, *Correspondence,* iii, 616–19, and letters 671 and 728 above).

<sup>4</sup> Partly obliterated by seal: probably comte Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie Du Plessis, later duc de Richelieu (1766–1822). He was grandson of the previous

duc de Richlieu who left 〈this?〉 place a fortnight ago, with some of these I may get on to Paris if circumstances admit of their going there.

### 7381

### T <sup>o</sup> W <sup>i</sup> ll i a m P i t t

#### 23 January 1791 (Aet 42)

Dollis's near Hendon Middlesex, Jany: 23d 1791.

Sir

 Before the meeting of Parliament, I hope to have the honour of presenting you with the printed account of a plan I am at work upon at the desire of the Government of Ireland, contrived upon principles simple as they are new, for the construction of a Penitentiary House. As a fruit of it, fearful of losing a year, I will already hazard in general terms a proposal for carrying into execution the Penitentiary system, somewhat I hope improved, at about half the annual expence of that pursued on board the Hulks, with about half the proportion of capital required for building upon the late Mr. Blackburn's plan, and that too to be reimbursed, by an extra-rent accumulated at compound interest by the end of a term not longer than that of a short lease:—the best system at half the expence of the worst: and that too not felt for a moment in the shape of a public burthen.2

Mr. Blackburn, in the event of the plan's being adopted by the Irish Parliament, was, under my direction, to have had the

holder of the title and had been first gentleman of the bedchamber at the French Court until October 1789, when he moved to the court at Vienna and in the following year entered Russian service. He served with the Prince de Ligne at the capture of Ismael in December 1790, and became a general.

**738.** <sup>1</sup> Stanhope Mss. 749, Kent Record Office, Maidstone. Fair copy, with Bentham's autograph signature. Docketed: 'Mr. *Bentham* / Plan for the Management / of a Penitentiary *House* / No 15 23 Jany 91.'

Addressed: 'Rt Hon. W. Pitt.'

There is a copy among the Sidmouth Mss., Devon Record Office, 152M/C1812/OH; and an autograph draft, with some variations of wording and order, in B.L. V: 201–7.

With this letter Bentham opened his long and eventually unsuccessful negotiation with the British government for the construction of a new kind of penitentiary in England. A thorough study has recently been made in two articles by L. J. Hume: 'Bentham's Panopticon: an administrative history', *Historical Studies,* xv, no. 61 (October 1973), pp. 703–21; xvi, no. 62 (April 1974), pp. 36–54.

2 William Blackburn (1750–90), the architect Bentham had wished to employ on the Irish Panopticon scheme. He died on the way to Glasgow to design a new prison there.

construction of the building, if the Irish Government had thought fit to accede to the extra demand he made for lending himself to the execution of a plan, which he foresaw and reluctantly and unwittingly, though very pointedly, acknowledged would turn his own into waste paper. It was from him I happened to learn, that the Penitentiary system possessed, at least not longer ago than last year, a place of some favour in your thoughts.

Considering the pressure of the time, your goodness will, I hope, excuse a communication in some degree premature.—I feared the letting the recess pass altogether unimproved. The plan might have found the door shut against it by pre-engagement. The bad tidings of the New-Wales3 establishment might have already brought a succedaneum to your view. You might have definitively closed the account of the Supplies.

Copies of my pamphlet from Dublin are expected every day. I forget whether it was this day (Sunday) fortnight or this day three weeks that Sir J. Parnell shewed me a letter from Major Hobart speaking of the impression of being finished.4 —Meantime, not to affect mystery, I submitt to you two short outlines: one of the plan of construction: the other of a plan of management.

There is a reason for not losing time. On board one of the Hulks, the prisoners are perishing between ⅕ and ⅙ of them in a year—I have counted—It is the habitual rate—I speak from the Reports. Their employment is—fouling the ship—or, in the Contractors language, 'keeping it clean': a task easy to 7 or 8, impossible to 7 or 800. The ship is kept for them to clean: and they are kept to clean it. This mortality he calls *'health'.* Would this be the employment of any one of the hulks, if that of any of the others were of much use?

Next to the honour of serving the public well, would be the satisfaction of seeing it well served. Should the manager be rejected, the plan of management, or at least the plan of construction, may be accepted.—Or, if you prefer the hulk-discipline, this offer may preserve it to you on better terms.—I have the honour to be

> with all respect, Sir Your most obedient humble Servant Jeremy Bentham.

Rt Hon. W. Pitt.

<sup>3</sup> New South Wales is also thus alluded to as 'New Wales' in the draft.

<sup>4</sup> This reveals that Parnell had been back in London and in consultation with Bentham early in the New Year (see letter 733).

#### No. 1

### Outline of the Plan of Construction of a Panoptican Pentitentiary House, as designed by Jeremy Bentham of Lincolns Inn Esqr.

 The building *circular*—The Cells occupying the Circumference —The Keepers etc.—the Center—an *intermediate annular Well* all the way up, crowned by a *Skylight* usually open, answering the purpose of a *Ditch* in *fortification,* and of a *Chimney* in *ventilation*— The Cells, laid *open* to it by an iron *grating.*

The *Yards* without, laid out upon the same principle:—as also the *communication* between the building and the Yards.

By *blinds* and other contrivances, the *Keeper concealed* from the observation of the Prisoners, unless where he thinks fit to shew himself: hence on their part the sentiment of an invisible omnipresence. The whole circuit reviewable with little, or if necessary, without any, change of place.

One station in the Inspection-part affording the most perfect view of *two* Stories of Cells, and a considerable view of another: the result of a difference of level.

The same Cell serving for *all* purposes: *work, sleep, meals, punishment, devotion*: the unexampled airiness of construction conciliating this economy with the most scrupulous regard to health.—The Minister, with a concealed, though numerous, auditory of Visitors, in a regular *Chapel* in the *center,* visible to half the Cells, which on this occasion may double their complement.

The *sexes,* if both are admitted, *invisible* to each other—*Solitude* or limited seclusion, *ad libitum.*—But, unless for punishment, limited seclusion in assorted companies of two, three and four is preferred: an arrangement, upon this plan alone exempt from danger. The degree of *seclusion* fixed upon may be preserved, in all places, and at all times *inviolate.* Hitherto, where solitude has been aimed at, some of its chief purposes have been frustrated by occasional associations.

Thus simple are the leading principles.—The application and preservation of them in the detail, required, as may be supposed, some variety of Contrivance.

The Approach, *one* only—*Gates* opening into a walled *Avenue* cut through the Area. Hence, no strangers near the building without *leave,* nor without being *survey'd* from it as they pass, nor without being known to come on purpose. The Gates, of *open* work, to *expose hostile* mobs: on the other side of the road, a wall with a

branch of the road behind, to *shelter peacable* passengers from the fire of the building. A mode of fortification like this, if practicable in a city, would have saved the *London prisons,* and prevented the unpopular accidents in Saint George's Fields.

The *surrounding wall,* itself surrounded by an *open palisade,* which serves as a fence to the grounds on the other side—Except on the side of the Approach, *no public path* by that fence.—A *centinel's walk* between: on which no one else can set foot without forcing the fence, and declaring himself a trespasser at least, if not an enemy. To the four walls, four such walks *flanking* and *crossing* each other at the ends.—Thus each centinel has two to check him.

#### No 2

### Outline of a Plan of Management for a Panopticon Penitentiary House.

I would undertake

1. To furnish the Prisoners with a constant supply of wholesome *food,* to the extent of their desires, such privations excepted as may be inflicted in the way of punishment, or, if absolutely necessary, as a spur to industry.—A state of constant famine, and that under every modification of behaviour, as in some establishments, I can *not* approve.

2. To keep them *clad* in a state of Tightness and neatness superior to that is usual among the lower classes, or even in the improved prisons.

3. To keep them supplied with *beds* and *bedding* competent to their situation, and in a state of cleanliness scarce anywhere conjoined with liberty.

4. To ensure to them a sufficient supply of artificial *warmth,* whenever the season renders it necessary, and thereby preserve them from being obliged, as in other establishments, to desist from or relax in their work, as well as from suffering by the inclemency of the weather.

5. To keep constantly from them, in conformity to the practice so happily received, every kind of *strong* and *spirituous* liquor, unless in as far as ordered in the way of medicine.

6. To provide them with *spiritual* and *medical* assistance constantly resident on the spot.

7. By a mixture of laborious employment with sedentary to make and maintain such a *distribution* of their *time,* as, deduction made of what is necessary for meals and repose, and on Sundays for

devotion, shall fill up the whole measure of it with either productive labour or profitable instruction.—To allow them for *sleep* the *sex horas,* the time Ld Coke allows for his Student, and no more: not to have them stewing or shivering in bed for 16 hours together, as in other improved prisons, to save candles.

8. To attach them to industry by allowing them a *share* in the produce.

9. To convert the prison into a School, and by an extended application of the principle of the *Sunday-Schools,* to return its inhabitants into the world instructed, at least as well as from an ordinary School, in the common and most useful branches of vulgar learning. (Extraordinary culture of extraordinary talents is not in this point of view worth mentioning: it would be my private amusement: in the account of public benefit I should take no credit for it.)

10. To ensure to them the means of *lively hood* at the *expiration* of their terms: by giving, to every one of them that wanted it, a trade not requiring confidence on the part of the employer, and for the produce of which I could engage to furnish them a demand.

11. To lay for them the foundation-stone of a *provision* for *old age,* upon the plan of the Annuity-Societies.

12. To pay a *penal sum* for every *escape,* with or without any default of mine, irresistible violence from without excepted.

13. To *insure* their *lives* for an under-premium, at a rate grounded on an average of the number of deaths among imprisoned criminals. 14. To take up my ordinary *residence* in the midst of them, and in point of health to share whatever might be their fate.

15. To present to the Court of King's Bench, on a certain day of every Term, and afterwards print and publish at my own expence, a Report, exhibiting in *detail,* the state not only *medical* and *moral,* but *economical,* of the establishment: and then and there to make answer upon oath to all such questions as shall be put to me relative thereto, not only on the part of the Court or of the Officer of the Crown, but, by leave of the Court, on the part of *any other person whatsoever: questions* the answer to which might tend to subject me to *conviction* for any capital or other *crime, not* excepted: treading under foot a maxim invented by the guilty for the benefit of the guilty, and from which none but the guilty ever derived any advantage.

16. By neatness and cleanliness, by diversity of employment, by variety of contrivance, and above all by that peculiarity of construction, which, without any unpleasant or hazardous vicinity,

enables the whole establishment to be inspected almost at a view, it should be my study to render it a *spectacle,* such as persons of all classes would in the way of amusement be curious to partake of: and that, not only on Sundays at times of Divine Service, but on ordinary days at meal times or times of work:—providing thereby a system of inspection, universal, free, and gratuitous, the most effectual and permanent of all securities against abuse.

For any one who should be apprehensive of seeing the condition of convicts made too desirable, I have only this answer—Art lies in meliorating man's lot: any bungler may make it worse.—At any rate what you take from severity you might add to duration.

—————

You see the use of a *rent,* and that a high one, payable by me, for a building not yet erected, but under my direction, *to be* erected. The interest of the public is thus compleatly mine. Every penny spent beyond necessity lays a tax upon me.

On my part I should wish to stipulate

1. To have the office assured to me *during good behaviour*: a phrase which in the ordinary terms means for life, but which on terms like the above, means simply what it says.

2. The station of *Jailor* is not in common account a very elevated one. The addition of *Contractor* has not much tendency to raise it— Education, profession, connections, occupations, and objects, considered, I hope I should not be thought unreasonable, in wishing to be preserved from being altogether confounded with those by whom the situations have been hitherto filled, and from finding myself a sufferer in estimation by having performed a public service. In this view two expedients present themselves: one is the assurance of your assistance towards the obtaining a Parliamentary sanction for the offer of standing examination in manner above mentioned: the other is an eventual assurance, that if after a fair trial the success of the undertaking, and the propriety of my conduct in it, should appear to have been fully ascertained, I shall be recommended to his Majesty's grace, for a mark of distinction, not pecuniary, such as may testify that I have incurred no ultimate loss of honour by the service and afford me some compensation for the intervening risk.

I should require no new confidence. Give the convicts to me as they have been given to the hulks. Capital I should want little or none: the subsistance-money is Capital: that you would have security for. The Hulks are and must be impenetrable to the public eye: they need more than human goodness to ensure them from

abuse. My prison is transparent: my management, no less so. The Hulks Masters have from year to year to do as they please. A summons from the King's Bench might oust *me* the same day.—I am no Nabob. I want no Jury. I would have none. The best friend to innocence I know of is open and speedy Justice.

Of the dispositions I should bring with me to such an enterprize, or the motives that have urged me on to it, I shall say nothing— You would enquire. What is public I will mention. The books I send will shew by their dates that the subject had occupied a warm place in my thoughts, four years, and thirteen years before any personal views had mixed with it. Those views are but of yesterday. I began with planning for A. and B. to execute—you will see I did —Every page of the tract just printed (4 years ago sent over in manuscript)5 will shew it you: since then, views rising upon views have drawn my affections after them: till at last I said to myself— Alas! where is the stranger who will enter as deeply as the contriver into the spirit of the contrivance?

### 7391

### T <sup>o</sup> W <sup>i</sup> ll i a m M i t <sup>f</sup> o r d

#### late January 1791 (Aet 42)

#### Dear Sir,

 The inclosed2 will help give you an /serve to give some/ idea of the occasion for which I troubled /business which occasioned my troubling/ you. The same moment that made me so much in debt to your politeness made me also a debtor to Mr. Steele.3 Not having the honour of being personally known to him let me beg the favour of you to present to him one of the copies in my name I expect the engravings4 every day. As soon as received/ When I receive [them] /copies of them likewise shall wait upon you.

**739.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 25. Autograph draft on the fourth page of the sheet containing letter 740. It is headed in pencil 'To Ld Grenville / to Mitford'.

William Mitford was chief clerk in the Treasury, 1783–1807.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 740.

3 Thomas Steele (1753–1823), m.p. for Chichester and junior secretary to the Treasury, December 1783–February 1791. 4 The plates for *Panopticon.*

<sup>5</sup> Towards the end of 1786 Bentham had sent over from Russia an outline of a Panopticon scheme, but on 25 May/5 June 1787 wrote to his father asking him not to let the pamphlet go to press until he returned to England (see letter 593, *Correspondence,* iii, 547). Bentham had actually drafted a letter to Pitt early in 1787, offering to run a penitentiary on the lines of the pamphlet. That draft is docketed: '1787 / Panopt. / J.B. Crichoff / to Hon. W. Pitt London / Not sent / First intended Proposal' (see letter 590, *Correspondence,* iii, 534 n. 1).

### 7401

### T o B a r o n G r e n v i ll e

#### late January 1791 (Aet 42)

I don't know whether I have made a mistake.

I do myself the honour to present to your Lordship a /slight/ short sketch of a plan I have been at work upon for a Penitentiary House at the desire of the Irish Government. I do not know whether I made a mistake in addressing to Mr Pitt in the first instance a proposal relative to the disposal of convicts which the advantages derivable from that plan have enabled me to make.2 Its connection with the subject of finance seemed to refer it primarily to his particular department: and /in consideration/ on account of the degree whatever it may be of personal confidence which it may be thought to require it was more natural to address it to a Minister. It seemed to appertain in the first instance to the department of finance in whose recollection it was possible I might have preserved a place [rather] than to one with respect to whom it had not been my fortune to possess that advantage. If the proposal should have appeared worth notice he will /it will of course be/ communicated it to your Lordship if it has not been already.

The Plates which I am just enabled to present to your Lordship, and of which I also enclose duplicates to /that Gentleman/ Mr Pitt will serve I hope together with this verbal outline to give a tolerable conception of the plan as far as it comes within the province of Architecture: though the exhibiting in detail the reasons /considerations/ and uses in which every particular contrivance that has been hit upon and every choice that has been made have been grounded, the justifying it against all objections that can be made

2 Marginal insertion by Bentham: 'I addressed it to him in the first instance because'.

**<sup>740.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 25. Autograph draft. As this letter refers to Bentham's letter to Pitt of 23 January (letter 738) it may be dated a few days later. It was apparently sent with letter 739.

William Wyndham Grenville (1759–1834) had been m.p. for Buckingham (1782–4) and for Buckinghamshire (1784–90), with various posts in Pitt's administration. He became Speaker of the House of Commons in January 1789 but resigned in June on appointment as Secretary of State for Home Affairs. In November 1790 he was created Baron Grenville of Wotton-under-Bernwood. In June 1791 he became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and remained in that post until 1801. From February 1806 to March 1807 he was Prime Minister in 'the Ministry of All the Talents'.

to it, and the delineation and justification of a plan of management adapted to it and connected with it required a description of /greater/ more extent, which is not as yet quite finished though I hope /to see it so/ it will be so in the course of a few days.

The quarto pamphlet which /accompanies it/ I do myself the honour to inclose,3 has no connection with the rest. The subject of it bears a particular relation to a /former/ late situation of your Lordships. Arriving at that instant from the press I thought it might serve in quality of a Nuzzier4 to help introduce /its/ the Author to your Lordship's notice.

If it /the request were not/ were not taking an unreasonable liberty, it would be a satisfaction from [for?] me now to hear from your Lordship or Mr Pitt, whether the communications now made have been deemed in any part of them so far worth notice as that it should be worth my while to give any further attention to it /the subject/ with reference to this country: and whether in case of the affirmative you would choose to receive a copy of the Postscript in question in MS while another copy is in on its way to Ireland, or stay till a printed copy comes over from thence which may be an affair of some weeks.5

### 7411

### T <sup>o</sup> S i r J o h n P a r n e ll

#### 1 February 1791 (Aet 42)

Hendon Feby 1 1791.

Dear Sir

 Along with this you have (I hope so at least) an impression of each of the three plates. The two first finished: the other finished all but the writing, which I was forced to have added by a pen. I suppose there will be blunders. I can not be living at the Writing Engravers: and the Architect can neither read nor spell. Moreover

<sup>3</sup> Probably Bentham's *Essay on Political Tactics,* printed by Payne at this time, 1791.

4 More usually spelt 'muzzer': a word used in Arabic and Persian to signify a present made by an inferior to a superior: a 'late situation' would seem to refer to Grenville's Speakership.

5 That is, a postscript to the Irish *Panopticon* volumes, which might still further delay publication.

**741.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 34–5. Autograph rough draft, divided into six parts, which do not follow on consecutively in the original. For printing here the letter has been rearranged in the order Bentham seems to have intended for the fair copy, as indicated by his pencil numbering of the parts.

he has made the annulars well 3 foot wider than we had agreed on, at the expence of the Chapel Galleries which he has made so many feet narrower than he had himself proposed. He is like you, of 〈those?〉 *who* would not have anybody go to church.

—————

I 〈scrawl?〉 on improving as well as I can. Here is a printed edition of my Outline,2 enriched with a quotation from a Grave Author. If you dont know who [he] is, ask the Primate and he will tell you—I had forgot you are a reprobate and quarrel with Bishops: I worship them. Whether they have places kept for them in the Lord's House is their concern: in the mean time they have seats in the H. of Lords.

Had there been more time I would have added a Frontispiece: a great gogle eye with rays round it representing the Panopticon out of a triangle.

This would have been demonstration. I have no hands. You should have had a pretty sketch of it had I had one of your boys at my elbow.

No Postscript yet: a good part of my time has been consumed /employed/ in acting as whipper in to Architects, Drawing-Engravers, Writing-Engravers and Copper-Plate-Printers. But with the paper I sent on the 22d and the engravings I send now I fancy you will find /think/ you have enough for present use. If they dont satisfy /this does not do/ I doubt my long-winded Postscript will not stand a much better chance. I have been working like a horse: but work grows up under my feet.

—————

I inclose you a paper which you will make what use of you think fit; it forms a sort of sequel to the former one.3 If the project sinks it shall not be for want of any thing I can do to /set/ put it upon its legs. I should humbly conceive that as times go, and according to what you have been used to in Ireland if you got a new and good plan at somewhat less expence than that of the old bad one, you will not be badly off upon the whole. Had I even the offer I should not choose to go over [to] such a country with a fresh load for it in my hand. My plan would be this. To pay in the first place as a rent

<sup>2</sup> The sheet describing Panopticon.

<sup>3</sup> Marginal insertion: 'except that as you will see it is not for the newspapers: very likely for no eye but your own'.

interest for the money laid out in building at the exact rate you borrowed it at: in the next place to take upon me the repairs: in the third place to pay an extra-interest to equal amount for the purpose of /ensuring the reimbursement/ reimbursing by accumulation at compound interest by the end of a moderate term: say 21 years a term equal to that of a short lease, to deduct this from the present annual expense per man and to take for the subsistance of such as come into my hands somewhat less than the remainder. Thus for suppositions sake


This saving then you would get immediately: the 4 at the end of the 21 years: and upon my death or removal the benefit of my economy if it produced any which is what every body would know as well as I—You had the goodness to say I should know what the present annual expence is: if I do not find it amount to a sum which would enable me to undertake the business upon such terms, I shall be rather surprized.

Should the plan fall to the ground altogether, its fate and the effect of the part I have borne in it will be whimsical enough. You had determined upon the Penitentiary System: you gave notice accordingly in the H. of Commons: a new and unexpected aid to it4 drops /into your lap/ down /upon/ to you from the clouds: you have the system to double the effect for half the money: and it is this very assistance frightens you and kicks the system out of doors. If you wont have a good and cheap prison, then have a dear and bad one. Dont let me be your hindrance. Let them have studies to work in, dining rooms to eat in, boudoirs to pout in, and bedchambers to sleep in, Chapels at a distance to pray and chatter in—support the front with Corinthian pillars and the sides with Caryatids and River Gods. Build it upon the plan of Stowe, 900 foot from end to end: Ld Buckingham who understands economy will send you a model.5 Give your Jailor ten or twenty thousand /capital to/ to

<sup>4</sup> Marginal insertion: 'Quod op〈tant〉 divini promittere nemo audeat'.

<sup>5</sup> This passage from 'Let them have studies' down to 'send you a model' is an insertion and obviously ironical: Bentham is picturing as an alternative to his economical prison a luxurious building like Stowe House, near Buckingham, which

〈stock?〉 him with: give him a large salary and no benefit from the work, and /over him set/ set Superintendents and Committees over him without interest to plague him and turn his management plans topsy-turvy, and everything will be as it should be.

Some gentleman I think you told me was saying they /the prisoners/ would get out of this prison of mine.6 If you think so to prevent this put them at one end of a street with the Jailor at the other, give them 16 hours as our Pentientiary Act does to work at it /undisturbed/ unobserved and then you will be sure of them. To speak honestly, as the case /matters/ stood at first the gentleman had /something of reason/ right on his side; it was natural to judge from the engraved plan, and from that I suppose he judged. Gentlemen of great business and in high stations, as I suppose he is, cant look narrowly into trifles: the first glance was of course upon the engraved plan, and that I suppose was the last. No wall there round the building: nor any bar to the windows. Set it down in the street as it stands, without walls or bars to it with the prisoners all round and the Keepers on the inside, to be sure the Prisoners in the lower stories would not stay long: the Keeper might cry stop thief but that they would not care for. What is worse here is a second edition of my prison, and no bars to the windows yet: I could not afford bars. I had neither time nor money for it. However there are Walls in the third edition of it with a few other things besides: and as to bars the gentleman who probably can afford it, may have as many put as he pleases and then let them get out if they can. Whoever he is I should like to have /the honour of his company/ him in a jail of mine that he might see whether it was so easy. This is all the revenge I wish to take of him for telling me that I cant make a cage that will keep a bird in. Let him come with a plan[?] of action and a grant of an annuity to me in his hand, for so long as he shall stay, my life for his he does not get out in a hurry. I fancy he would find it not so much the easier to a man to get out as he may think for being never out of the Keepers eye.

But not to trust to bars or walls or palisades or centinels or Keepers' eyes, make me Jailor, and every man that gets out I pay

was regarded as exceptionally large in an age of huge country mansions. It had been erected and extended by the Grenville family, particularly by the 1st Marquis of Buckingham (1753–1813). It remained the principal seat of the family until 1923, when it became Stowe School.

<sup>6</sup> In his reminiscences, Bentham stated that the gentleman who made the comment was Lord Westmorland, the lord lieutenant of Ireland: 'an architectural plan of the prison contemplated was put by the Chancellor of the Exchequer into the hands of his Excellency. "They will all get out," were the very words of the answer, as reported to me.' Bowring, xi, 104.

for: if they run away I run away too: and so you will have a clear stage. Then you go to work and get a blind Jailor and put him a quarter of a mile off from the Prisoners and every thing is secure. Seriously though, now you have got the plan in its improved state, if the Gentleman will take the trouble to cast an eye /over/ on it, I shall be a little disappointed if he does not say his doubts are at an end.

I know in general, but not yet in particular for I have had no time /not had a moment to know/ what a friend of our's7 said to you on a certain subject: it is for you to judge and not for me to say whether it would be any use to any body to have it so.

—————

I have something on that subject upon paper which when you were at Buxton he designed for you, and which he has reproached me for /never/ not forwarding to you. I could hand it to you at any time if it would answer any purpose.8

But perhaps you have more industry and more resource than you know what to do with already in and about a certain Bench: and would rather see the whole stock of those troublesome commodities removed to the other side of the way.

—————

I fancy when my letters get over to Ireland they are delivered instanter to your Kitchen-maid to light fires with: unless perhaps Major Hobart's seizes them *in transitu.* Three weeks ago almost on the Jan. 4th went one of them begging for the love of God a few of my own books: then another two days after, then /a third/ an enclosure on the 22:9 If there don't come a few soon, I sing a song and desert:10 I knew a Sir J. Parnell once, from Ireland, who drank claret and seemed to be a good sort of a man: but there is a Chancellor of the Exchequer there who drinks /has taken/ Lethe water instead of wine. Should you happen to come across him, do play him a trick and [put] a drop of the word-remembering water we were talking of in to his glass /can/.

Allow me a little laugh now I am in the mood for it, and believe me when serious, Dear Sir, very truly and respectfully yours

<sup>7</sup> 'Ld L', that is, Lord Lansdowne, is crossed out in the draft.

9 No letters, or drafts of letters, to Parnell or Hobart, dated 4, 6 or 22 January 1791, have been found.

10 A partially crossed-out marginal insertion reads: 'Let me know whether there is a place on the opposition vacant that would hold me.'

<sup>8</sup> Marginal alternative version: 'I have /something/ what he designed for you/ I could shew you what he said upon paper to I suppose the same effect, and what he has reproached me for /never/ not sending to you which I could send you if it would be of any use'.

### 7421

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u g h a n

#### 2 February 1791

 They say wits often jump upon the same thing. I had just been supposing I should incur your displeasure for having detained three Numbers of *The Literary Gazette* since Wednesday; and it seems you have some fancy about me. Let us barter thoughts, and matters will stand as they *ought* to do. Let the things, therefore, you have put together 'be put asunder.'

I know Mr Christie, who is properly a physician, but he has lately taken to trade. He has had many books from me, at his desire, to assist in his pamphlet.2 I suppose he wants more of your time than a man who has given it all away can spare.

I wish much to have a copy of your pamphlet for the Duke de Liancourt.3

### 7431

### F r o m J o s e p h J e k y ll

#### 12 February 1791

Dear Sir

 I am infinitely obliged by the Communication of your Plan2 and will present the other Copies to Sr. C. Bunbury3 and Mr. Powis.4 There are one or two other Members of our house, Mr.

**742.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 247. Quoted with the introductory note: 'A letter from Benj. Vaughan, dated February 2, 1791, has the following passages:'.

2 Thomas Christie (1761–96) studied medicine in Edinburgh and London, but after 1787 devoted himself to literature; he was a frequent contributor to the *Gentleman's Magazine* and a founder of the *Analytical Review* in 1788. He was sympathetic with the early stages of the French Revolution and visited France in 1789 and again in 1792. The work referred to may have been rather more than a pamphlet: his substantial reply to Burke's *Reflections,* entitled *Letters on the Revolution of France,* part I, 1791.

<sup>3</sup> Probably Bentham's recently printed *Essay on Political Tactics.* For the duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, see above, p. 138 n. 2.

**743.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 217–18. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 Feb 12 / Panopt / Jekyll Temple to / J.B. Bedford Row / On receiving plan.'

Bentham had said hard things about Jekyll in his long letter to Lansdowne of 24 August 1790 (letter 710, p. 159 above), but was now prepared to make use of him.

<sup>2</sup> *Outline of the Plan of Construction of a Panopticon Penitentiary House* (reprinted in Bowring, xi, 96).

3 Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, 6th bart. (1740–1821). See *Correspondence,* iii, 217 and n.

4 Thomas Powys (1743–1800), 1st Baron Lilford, was for most of his career m.p. Wilberforce5 and Sr. Wm. Dolben6 in particular, who are well intitled to an Inspection of it, though I am not aware that the Nature of the Structure will come under the immediate Consideration of Parliament.

Any Hints from you, who have turned this important Subject so minutely in your Mind, will merit our best Gratitude.

> I remain Dear Sr very truly yrs Joseph Jekyll

Temple

237

Feby 12 1791

### 7441

### T <sup>o</sup> R <sup>e</sup> <sup>g</sup> i n a <sup>l</sup> <sup>d</sup> P <sup>o</sup> <sup>l</sup> <sup>e</sup> C a r e w

*c.* 12 February 1791 (Aet 42)

Dear Sir

 Inclosed you have the old Inspection-House, ground young again, new christened, and so altered you will hardly know it again —I hope not for the worse—The Government of Ireland, at whose desire I have been nursing it, talk of standing Godfathers—Plate the 3d shall follow in a day or two—Plate the 1 is only what you saw

With this or after it you will have two copies of a scrap, which in a still more incomplete state you also saw—Will you do me the favour to present one of them to the Speaker in my name2

At what hour of the day has one a tolerable good chance of finding you at home?

*Howards objection*<sup>3</sup> I hope you will allow to be at an end—If this

for Northamptonshire (1774–97) and a strong opponent of Pitt in the early years of his ministry. Soon after the outbreak of the French Revolution he went over to the administration and received a peerage in 1797.

5 William Wilberforce (1759–1832), the statesman and philanthropist, with whom Bentham was to have considerable dealings concerning prison and poor law reform.

6 William Dolben (1726–1814), m.p. for Oxford University, 1768–1806; best known for his support of Wilberforce in the abolition of the slave trade. The 'Sir' is a mistake: he was a younger son of Sir John Dolben, baronet (1684–1756), and had no title.

**744.** <sup>1</sup> Pole Carew Mss. Autograph. No docket, cover or address. The date would seem to be about the same as letter 743.

2 The single-sheet *Outline of the Plan of Construction of a Panopticon Penitentiary House.*

<sup>3</sup> Pole Carew supported the movement for prison reform, including John Howard's agitation for more fresh air in gaols.

is not airy, Salisbury Plain is not airy—I am fighting *your's* together with other peoples' 〈battles?〉 upon paper—With a little assistance from your candour, I have little doubt of mastering it— I am, My dear Sir,

> With all respect Your's ever Jeremy Bentham

R.P. Carew Esqr

### 7451

### F r o m S i r C h a r <sup>l</sup> e s B u n b u r y

#### 19 February 1791

Whitehall

Feby 19th 1791

 Sr. Charles Bunbury presents his Compliments to Mr. Bentham, and returns him many Thanks for the obliging Present of an ingenious Plan of a Pentientiary House transmitted to him by Mr. Jekyll.2

### 7461

### T <sup>o</sup> R <sup>e</sup> <sup>g</sup> i n a <sup>l</sup> <sup>d</sup> P <sup>o</sup> <sup>l</sup> <sup>e</sup> C a r e w

#### 19 February 1791 (Aet 43)

Dollis's near Hendon, Middlesex Sat:y Feby 19. 2 o'clock

Dear Sir

 It is but this moment that the post has brought me a note from my Father inclosing your favour of the 16th.2 The choice being now reduced to Hopson's,3 I will wait upon you with pleasure tomorrow.

I am sorry your servant should have had so much trouble. The Porter at Lansdowne House could have given him the same information at a cheaper rate. The above date will serve you as a memorandum of my lurking place. I lead a good life if an old proverb is to be believed. Bene vixit qui bene latuit. I have the **745.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 223–4. Docketed: '1791 Feb 19 / Panopt / Bunbury Whitehall / to / J.B. Hendon / On receiving Plan.'

<sup>2</sup> See letter 743.

**<sup>746.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Pole Carew Mss. Autograph. No address, docket or cover.

<sup>2</sup> Missing. 3 Hobson's choice; that is, no choice at all.

honour to be known to the Postman, the Carriers, and nobody else: and am, in whatever hole I hide myself

> Dear Sir, Ever Your's Jeremy Bentham

### 7471

### T <sup>o</sup> E <sup>v</sup> a n N e p e a n

#### 22 February 1791 (Aet 43)

### Dollis's near Hendon Middlesex Feb. 22nd 1791.

Sir

 Having been occupied for some time past in planning a penitentiary establishment for Ireland at the desire of Administration there, an advertisement I had occasion to insert produced near 500 letters, 5 of which, all from the same person, I take the liberty to inclose.2 It was about a week ago or more that I sent them to our friend Mr. Vaughan, and from his answer I was led to conclude that he had written to you in a way which would have rendered this application from a stranger unnecessary.3 Instead of that he now gives me the letter which I also inclose.4 I am just informed that in pursuance of general orders already issued the convict in question is to be sent off within three days. The perusal of the letters produced the same sort of effect on Sir John Parnell that it has since done on the persons to whom Mr. Vaughan alludes, and he met me halfway in observing that if the establishment in

**747.** <sup>1</sup> P.R.O., H.O.42/18, fo. 34. Not in Bentham's hand, except for the signature and the last two lines of the postscript. No docket or address.

A draft of the letter in B.L. V: 225–8 is docketed: 'J.B. Bedford Row / to / Nepean / Whitehall / for Chapman / sent by Miss Johnson ½ after 2 / 1791 Feb. 22.' Miss Johnson is described in a letter of William Browne as a 'friend' of William Chapman (H.O.42/18, fo. 52). Her address is given first as No. 2, St John Street, West Smithfield; later as c/o the White Horse, New Charlton, near Woolwich, i.e. not far from the Hulks. She evidently acted as an intermediary between Chapman and the various persons interesting themselves in the convict's case: he had been tried and convicted at York Assizes in March 1789, for an intent to defraud George Burdon of £27, three shillings, and sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment.

2 The letters from Chapman to Bentham are missing.

3 The letters to and from Benjamin Vaughan are missing.

4 This may refer either to a letter of Chapman to William Browne of Bedford Row, dated 8 February 1791 (H.O.42/18, fo. 26), or to an earlier one dated 5 February (fo. 23), or to a missing one of 30 January mentioned in that letter. Other correspondence on the case is in this Home Office file, including a letter from Browne to Nepean, dated 23 April 1791, stating: 'In the absence of Mr. Bentham I take the

question were to take place in Ireland, a Man like this might be of considerable use, and in expressing an intention of making application here in his behalf. The intimation which the Man has since received that he was upon the list of the convicts ordered for transportation was not at that time known: and I need scarce observe to you that anything which the Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer could say to you in consequence of advice not yet sent by me would come by many days too late.

To deal candidly with you, I do not find that the Man's character preceding the incident which gave occasion to this sentence, was such to point him out very clearly as a fit object of an unconditional pardon, nor do even his friends consider it as an event very anxiously or decidedly to be wished for on their account or his own. I am however assured, that to the talents of which you have a specimen before you, he adds a thorough knowledge of the branch of Manufacture to which he was bred: whence it seems reasonable to expect that in an establishment where a watchful eye and a tight hand could be kept over him his acquaintance with the manners of Convicts and the mode of managing them might render him of considerable use. If therefore the powers possessed by your department should warrant it, you may perhaps concur with me in thinking that the relief the best adapted to his qualities and character is the specific relief he himself sues for, reserving for a future contingent period the transferring him to the projected Penitentiary-House in Ireland, if such a thing can be done. In this point of view, one of the improved prisons such as the Gloucester or Oxford Penitentiary-house would be the most eligible place, that he might learn by experience the plan of management and discipline pursued there, if such a transference were practicable.

As to the question started by Mr. Vaughan whether I have or have not the honour to be known to you, it is no otherwise material than with a view to the credit that may be due to the facts I have had occasion to state. The authority I have from the Administration of Ireland would appear in a letter from Sir John Parnell which I have at your command. But the Man's best plea for mercy is contained in his own letters.

Some time ago I took the liberty of recommending to your care

liberty of inclosing a Letter I have reced from the Convict Chapman and also a Petition...' (H.O.42/18 fo. 69). The efforts of Bentham and Browne were at least successful in preventing Chapman's transportation to Botany Bay, and a letter addressed to Nepean by Chapman, dated 10 May 1791, refers to his efforts to get accepted for the Royal Navy and Lord Hood's willingness to take him aboard H.M.S. *Victory* (fo. 71).

through the medium of the Architect Mr. Reveley, some impressions of engravings for the work which is to be published in Ireland relative to the projected Penitentiary-House.5 In a letter of the 11th instant I received from Sir John Parnell on the 15th he observes that they were not then arrived; by which means the publication which he has all along considered as a necessary preliminary to the mention proposed to be made of the system in Parliament was delayed.6 May I beg the favour of a line to tell me whether they have been forwarded, and whether I may have permission to send any more in the same manner? Along with them went a short note from me stating that it was by instructions from Sir John Parnell that I begged the favour of you to address them to Major Hobart.7 Sir John had previously told me he would mention it to you.

> I have the honour to be Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

P.S. As the Man has had grounds to hope, as you will see, that application would be made on his behalf, if the specific mitigation he prays for cannot be granted him, would not humanity and the regard due to whatever can affect in the remotest manner the reputation for good faith on the part of Government, suggest an unconditional pardon as a preferable measure to an absolute denial of all relief? I am told that it has not been usual to order a Man for transportation after serving so long a portion of his term as this Man has done (four years out of seven) on board the hulks. He was not of the class of daring offenders; the transaction for which he suffered was simply of that sort which is denominated *swindling.*

Copies of the letters that were written to him by my direction are equally at your Command: but I thought it unnecessary to burthen you with them in the first instance.

#### Evan Nepean Esq:r

Any commands from you would find me to day at Mr Brown's No 9 Bedford Row, at which place I might be directed to at any time.

See letters 733 and 734.

<sup>5</sup> The Irish edition of *Panopticon.*

<sup>6</sup> The letter of 11 February from Parnell is missing. 7

### 7481

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 23 February 1791

 Does not the Book upon Tactics answer the Inclo'd questions,2 and many more which the same Line of Inquiry may suggest. If so why should not Mr. Bentham as well as Rousseau give a constitution to Poland?3 If he will with this view answer the Inclo'd questions by referring to his Book or otherwise as he must at this time have the subject at his Fingers ends, Ld Lansdown will undertake to transmit the answers, and to take no atom of the credit to himself, but in that case He thinks Mr. B. should send the Book perhaps the French Numbers4 with an English Letter (for he understands English) to the King of Poland—Ld L. will undertake to transmit it, and is sure that it [will] be rec'd and answer'd in the handsomest manner imaginable, but he will consider the matter and do what ever seems best to himself—Ld Lansdown having nothing in view in either Instance but Mr B's Honour and Glory.

I have had another thought about the Plans,5 which I cannot put to paper, but will mention to Mr Vaughan, unless you can make it suit you to come and dine here on Wedy with Vaughan and Romilly—

Adieu in haste

—————

Printed in Bowring, x, 247–8.

2 There were two sets of questions, only one of which is included in this manuscript. The second set, with Bentham's answers to both sets, are appended to letter 749 and printed below, pp. 250–4. They had been sent with a letter from Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski to Lord Lansdowne, dated 4 January 1791 (Lansdowne Mss.). In it the Prince expresses warm appreciation of the kindness shown to his son, who has returned to Poland and is full of praise for Lansdowne's treatment of him.

<sup>3</sup> Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) had written *Considérations sur la gouvernement de Pologne et sur sa reformation projettée,* published after his death, Paris, London, 1782. The second part of his *Confessions,* giving an account of his life after 1741, had appeared late in 1789.

<sup>4</sup> 'Essay on Political Tactics, and the issues of the *Courier de Provence* in which instalments of Bentham's 'Draught of a New Plan for the Organisation of the Judicial Establishment in France' had appeared: see p. 124 n. above and p. 244 below.

5 What these Plans were does not emerge from the Correspondence, unless the Panopticon scheme is meant, but this seems unlikely.

**<sup>748.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxxiv: 82. Autograph. No signature. Docketed: '1791 Feb. 23 / Ld L. Berkeley Square / to J.B. Hendon / Polish Queries / Received 24. Answered by next post.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esq.r / at Mr Smith's / near the 8 mile stone / Hendon / Middlesex.'

1

An Officer actually either in the Sea or Land Service, is he allowed setting up for Member of Parliament, or voting for a Member, though besides he was possessed of all the qualifications which the law requires to be returned Member, or to vote for a Member.

2

Is he obliged to obtain a leave of absence from his commanding officer, or the War Office, before he sets out to act as Candidate, or as Elector.

3

Is he free from duty during the whole time of his being a Member of Parliament and in case he should be ordered back to his Corps by his Commanding Officer in time of Peace, is he obliged to answer the call.

4

If he should happen to trespass against the military laws, does he incurr the Penalties thereof without being allowed claiming the privilege of a Member of Parliament.

5

During the time of his attendance in Parliament does he receive his full pay.

6

How many Military Members are there allowed to have a seat in the House of Commons and are they to be of any particular Rank, or can they be chosen promiscuously out of any.

### 7491

### T <sup>o</sup> t h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> f L a n s d o w n e

#### 24 February 1791 (Aet 43)

Hendon, Middlesex. Thursday Feby 24, 1791.

My Lord

 It is very flattering to me to find myself in possession of such a place in your Lordship's thoughts. I never heard of your Lordship's

**749.** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. Autograph. No docket or address.

having ever been accused by any body of either the attempt or the disposition to assume credit for ideas originating from other people. I never accused your Lordship to any body of any such disposition any more than of any other which you would be unwilling to possess. I never had any dispute about the property of an idea with any one. I know of no great credit that is to be got from any answer that can be given to such questions: none I am sure that I am at all disposed to scramble for. The assurance your Lordship is pleased to send me for my encouragement is addressed, permit me to say, to the man whom imagination presents to you, and not to the man with whom you have been made acquainted by experience. Being neither insensible, nor desirous of being thought so, to your Lordship's kind anxiety to serve me, I send such answers as it lies in my power to furnish at the moment to both strings of questions:2 who they are attributed to is a matter of real and unaffected indifference to me.

I am much obliged by your Lordship's offer of sending the Essay on Tactics and the Nos. on the Judicial Establishment to the King of Poland, and will profit by it with thanks: they could not pass through any hands so likely to procure attention to them. As to the writing a letter for the sake of extracting an answer which would be given of course, it is a task I am too lazy for. To expressions of real esteem or affection from persons who have any title to either, I am by no means insensible: but to Chinese compliments of all sorts it is not easy for any one to conceive how perfectly indifferent I am, from whatever quarter they may come. I have seen at different times several letters of his Polish Majesty's, and am I believe in possession of one. I used to hear a good deal of him from Mr. Lind, who came back hither as Governor to his nephew, and, without the title, (which our King would not allow) was his virtual *Chargé d'affaires.* Lind was the first of the few disciples my mission has produced me: and a more obsequious one, prophet need not wish for. He would print in his own name blindfold whatever I wrote: and my plague used to be to get him so much as to look at it. I once wrote a letter in that way to the King of Poland which Lind's Clerk put into his Cypher without his Master's ever having looked at it.3 For these twenty years and more I have been in the habit of conceiving the King of Poland as a

<sup>2</sup> The second set of questions, in French, concerning procedure in the House of Commons, is appended to this letter, with the answers to both sets (pp. 247–54 below).

<sup>3</sup> For Bentham's close relations with John Lind, see *Correspondence* i and ii passim, especially i, 23n. and iii, 15 and n. 2. Lind had died on 12 January 1781.

man a hundred degrees superior in every personal point of view to the highest of his brethren. As to telling him so, it is what I really have no stomach for: the less, convinced as I am, how inferior my means of judging must be to those of his Valet-de-Chambre.

As to my Brother, I am under no sort of apprehensions of its being too late for him to receive any recommendations, which your Lordship may be disposed to honour him with.4 I for my part, do not expect to see him for months. But all that is as it may happen.

As to your Lordship's commands in relation to the Plans,5 whether they shall be signified to me in person, or through Mr. Vaughan, or in any other manner, depends altogether upon your Lordship's pleasure. I know of nothing that should prevent my waiting on your Lordship on Wednesday.

The answers I send to the two strings of questions are in several instances rather what I expect to find conformable to the truth, than what I know to be so. Your Lordship certainly does not expect me to be much acquainted for instance with the practice of Court-Martials. To give a positive answer in every particular would require researches which I have neither time nor access to make. I could not without delaying my answer a post, nor then with any convenience, so much as search the Statute Book. Let me beg of your Lordship therefore not to send the answers in my name, much less in your Lordship's, without laying them before Mr. Romilly, who if it be suggested to him will talk them over with Mr. Wilson,6 who having been Counsel for persons prosecuted before Court Martials, knows probably more of the practice of those Courts than either of us. I mean if Mr. Wilson should be accessible: but I fear he will be gone either on the Circuit, or to some Sessions.

Along with my Essay on Tactics, the Prince should have the pamphlet of Mr. Romilly's alluded to in my Preface.7 This will be the more useful, as being in French: but I question whether there be any copies in England, except one which Mr. R. has, and one which I believe I have. If he can find time this vacation, and Mr. Vaughan can find the English Manuscript of it, I am to print it to add to my Essay. As it gives things merely as they are, without stepping out of its course to say any thing about *'esprit or but',* it may be questioned whether of itself it might not have the effect of puzzling foreigners as much as of informing them. The very desire of receiving information on those heads discovers such a measure of

<sup>4</sup> This must refer to another letter from Lansdowne, which is missing.

<sup>5</sup> See above, p. 242, n. 5. 6 George Wilson.

<sup>7</sup> Romilly's *Règlemens observés dans la chambre des Communes,* 1789.

intelligence as it may be difficult to find in this country, at least among those who have any share in the Government of it. A consciousness of the importance of the *'Rituel'* and what concerns *'le petit service de la Chambre'* is another mark of a sort of intelligence of which I do not see much appearance in France. Of my book the small part which is printed does not touch upon any article in either string of questions: the remainder not being printed, nor so much as put into its last form, of course can not be referred to. Your Lordship is abundantly apprised that what I profess to understand, or to be able to find out, is what it is most for the *advantage* of any country that the Law relative to any head *should* be. If I touch any where upon what I conceive the Law *actually to be,* it is only in the way of illustration. I would not, were all the crowned heads in Europe to join in begging of me, sit down to write a law-book, shewing what the law *is* any where, with any other view. As to the finishing my work on Tactics, and even drawing up a *Rituel* and applying it to the local circumstances of Poland, it is what I should have no objection to, if I saw any probability of its being made use of. But it is not the request of any individual howsoever distinguished, unless perhaps it were the King, that I should look upon as affording me any such probability. When I speak of engaging in any such business, I mean in the event of the Penitentiary System's being dropped, or after it is established. But all this is scarcely worth thinking of. If the Prince or any body else thinks my answers worth paying for, they will send me whatever there is in French or Latin relative to the proceedings of the present Diet: which I believe is reducible to a few numbers of a French Journal now discontinued. Even what there is in Polish, such as the Laws and Public Acts from the commencement of the present reign I should not be sorry to have, though all the use they could be of to me would depend upon the chance of getting here and there a scrap translated for me upon occasion, by some Pole whom I may happen to meet with.

I am forced to write as things come into my head, not having time to marshal them: still less have I time to copy the questions opposite to my answers. That will be work for the amanuensis whom on account of the illegibility of my hand your Lordship will doubtless employ to copy whatever is to go to Poland. I have in that view put correspondent numbers to the French part of the Questions.

I am in but an indifferent mood for writing, not being altogether well to day, as your Lordship will but too readily perceive: but I

would not let the day pass without testifying the respect with which I have the honour to be,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient and most obliged humble Servant Jeremy Bentham.

Answers to the Questions relative to the competition between Parliamentary and Military Duty, under the English Law8

247

Question 1 Answer to Question 1

No Military commission in any branch of the service takes away or diminishes any right whatever that a man may otherwise possess of being elected a Member of Parliament, or giving his vote to a candidate for that office.

Question 2d – Answer

Neither right exempts a man in any respect from Military Law. Whatever obligation he is under of obtaining leave of absence for any other purpose, he is accordingly equally subject to with regard to this: but it is believed that few instances if any have occurred of a man's having been refused such leave with a view of preventing him from exercising either right: and, at least in the instance of the more important right of the two, viz. that of standing as Candidate, it is supposed that if any specific ground could be produced to prove that the leave in question was refused with that view, such refusal would be deemed a proper subject for complaint before the House of Commons.

Question 3 – Answer

See the answer to Question 2d. A Member of Parliament, holding a military commission is not less subject to Military Law than any other person holding the like commission. *He* accordingly can not plead to his Military Superior his right of attending in Parliament as a ground for not obeying a Military call. But the House has

<sup>8</sup> For the wording of these Questions, see letter 748, p. 243 above. The answers are in Bentham's hand.

always exercised a right of compelling the attendance of its own Members. This right it has always been in use to enforce of itself by arrest performed by its own officer, the Serjeant at arms: and where it has thought proper, it has frequently called in the authority of the King, by *Addresses* for that purpose, compliance with which, it is believed has never been refused. If then an Officer who had a seat in the House, were to suspect that he was kept to his military duty for the purpose of preventing his attendance in Parliament, though without being able to produce any specific grounds for such suspicion, the natural course for him to take would be to plead his military obligation in excuse for not obeying some one or other of the general orders of attendance which are not unfrequently issued by the House: some friend of his whom he had instructed would then get up and say, that he wished for nothing so much as to be at liberty to attend his duty at the House. It would then rest with the Secretary at War to consider whether in point of prudence it would not be best to grant or procure from the King such leave as would enable the Military Member to give the attendance he desired to give, or whether to run the risk of the odium he might be exposed to, if a motion were to be made in the House to address his Majesty for that purpose. When General Burgoyne was ordered to join the captive army which he had quitted in America, nobody contested the right, he only complained of the exercise of it as a hardship.

The circumstance of peace or war it is apprehended makes no difference with regard to the right: since at the eve of a war military attendance is no less necessary than at a time of actual war: and the nation may at any time be at the eve of a war, without the Parliament's knowing any thing of the matter.

 Question 4 – Answer See again Answer to Question 2d

When the King has ordered a Court-Martial to sit for the trial of any Officer who has been a Member of the House, and the charge has been such as hath required personal appearance, it has been usual for the King to give notice thereof to the House: and it has not been usual for the House to insist upon the attendance of such Member, after such notice, and before the conclusion of the trial.

To insist upon such a thing would be to pass a sort of *prejudgment* on the Military charge. This, it is believed the House has never yet done, nor would easily be persuaded to do without some specific grounds for imputing corrupt and oppressive views to the persons at the head of the Military department, more palpable than are ever likely to appear. In such a case whether the House would take upon itself to address, and whether the Ministers would take upon themselves to refuse compliance, are questions not of *right* but of *discretion,* and the result would depend upon the temper of the times.

The King, it is to be observed may at any time, take from any man any military commission without reason given: consequently without ordering a Court Martial, and from an Officer who is in Parliament just as well as from any other. This right has now and then been exercised. Regiments have been taken away under circumstances which left no doubt in the mind of any man that it has been for no other reason than that the parliamentary conduct of the officer has been displeasing to the Crown. But whatever expressions of dissatisfaction such acts of power have produced, *in* as well as *out of* the House, nothing has ever been said in prejudice of the right.

#### Question 5th Answer

No deduction has ever been made from an Officer's pay, on account of his attendance in Parliament. Were he to absent himself from Military duty on this account without leave, his

pay would not cease of course. By sentence of a Court Martial he might be punished in such a case in this way as well as in any other. But [of] deprivation of pay without any other punishment, few instances it is believed, if any, have occurred in practice.

Question 6. Answer

There is nothing in the Law of Parliament to hinder the whole House from being composed altogether of Military Officers, any more than of any other particular denomination whatsoever, not being specially incapacitated. There are certain classes of persons of whom no single individual can sit in the House, such as certain Judges, certain Officers of the Revenue, Scotch and English Peers, etc. But where the *class* is not excluded, the number of *individuals* admissible but of that class is not in any instance limited.

Questions avec Réponses sur le Rituel de la Chambre des Communes en Angleterre

Question lre Quelles sont les conditions requises pour qu'une motion soit acceptée ou rejettée, c'est-àdire pour qu'on la mette en délibération.

#### Question lre – Réponse

Pour être mise en déliberation il ne faut à une Motion que d'être *secondée* c'est-à-dire que de trouver un Membre par dessus celui qui l'a proposée, qui s'élève et dise—Je seconde cette motion: c'est-à-dire je me joins au proposant pour requirer qu'on en aille là-dessus aux voix. Il ne dépend pas ni de l'Orateur, ni d'aucun autre individu, d'étouffer une motion d'aucune manière.—Voilà la règle générale. Il y a quelques exceptions particulières, par exemple la règle qui défend de faire aucune motion après une certaine heure sans permission spéciale accordée par la Chambre etc: mais apparemment ce n'est pas là ce que l'on cherche.

Question 2de Un autre Membre que celui qui propose une

Question 2de – Réponse

Non pas de sa seule autorité. Mais chacun est le maître de proposer soit retranchement soit addition, soit changement à la motion déjà faite ce qui s'appelle par un nom commun *amendement*:

motion a-t'il le droit d'y faire des retranchments ou d'y ajouter. Question 3me Lorsqu'on est convenu de déliberer sur une motion y a t'il un terme fixe après la Résolution duquel il est indispensable d'aller aux voix, et peut-on éluder la loi pour faire trainer la question si l'on a intérêt à empêcher qu'elle ne soit decidée.

251

et c'est alors sur l'amendement que l'on procède tant pour aller aux voix que pour discuter, avant de procéder sur la motion originale.

#### Question 3me – Réponse

Point de tel terme fixe. Une motion étant sur le tapis, chaque Membre peut à tout moment proposer que l'on en dispose de telle ou de telle entre plusieurs manières, par exemple en allant la-dessus aux voix directement, ou en ordonnant l'ajournement pour un jour fixe, ou pour un jour qui ne viendra jamais, etc. Quant à la priorité entre toutes ces différentes manières de disposer d'une motion principale (car il y en a jusqu'a 8 ou davantage) il y a des règles là-dessus qu'il seroit trop long de détailler ici.

Pour ce qui regarde la faculté de trainer une question en longueur, d'après les règles il sembleroit que cela pourroit se faire à l'infini: mais dans la pratique c'est bien autre chose. Car si chacun a le droit de parler aussi longtems que bon lui semble, chaque autre a également le droit ou au moins la faculté physique de ne pas écouter. Aussi y a t'il des pratiques reçues pour faire finir soit le discours de quelque individu qui soit, soit la discussion entière. Dans le premier cas on donne des signes d'impatience—on fait comme involontairement des bruits pour étouffer la voix, on se mouche, on tousse, on gratte sur le plancher avec les pieds etc: dans l'autre cas l'on crie comme de concert *Question*! *Question*!—ce qui veut dire Président proposez maintenant au sujet de la motion, la question *oui ou non* pour qu'on aille là-dessus aux voix.—Il est vrai que les regles défendent indistinctement à tout le monde de faire le moindre bruit capable de gêner le droit que chacun a de se faire entendre: mais que peut une loi, lorsque la majorité de ceux qui en sont les maîtres sont d'accord pour l'enfreindre?—N'est-ce pas là, dirà t'on, un moyen par lequel la majorité qui est presque toujours le

parti ministériel, peut à chaque occasion réduire au silence tout ce qui n'est pas de leur côté?— Dans le vrai, peut-être que cet abus arrive quelquefois: mais non pas qu'il soit fréquent au point que les inconvéniens en approchent de ceux que pourroit entrainer l'abus contraire. En général les personnes dont on coupe le discours, ce ne sont pas les membres de la minorité, ce sont les ennuyeux des deux partis. Si l'abus prévaloit sur l'usage utile, ce seroit les orateurs les plus puissans de la minorité que l'on feroit taire par préférence: au contraire ce sont ceux-là qui trouvent généralement, comme tout le monde sait, le plus d'attention, même dans le parti adverse.

Question 4me – Réponse

Par *'Grands Committés'* l'on veut dire apparemment le Committé composé de la Chambre entière.

*'L'Esprit et le but'* de cette institution est assez évidemment de donner plus de maturité aux decisions. C'est par ce moyen qu'un même projet de loi peut être discuté sous differens aspects, et même à plusieurs reprises sous le même aspect—Dans la Chambre comme telle on ne considère le projet qu'en bloc: dans le Committé de la Chambre on le discute article par article. Dans la Chambre même chacun ne peut parler (selon les regles) sur une même motion qu'une seule fois: dans le Committé de la Chambre chacun peut parler sur chaque point autant de fois que bon lui semble. De ces deux modes, celui-ci est bon pour empêcher que rien ne soit perdu des lumières que l'Assemblée peut fournir: l'autre pour mettre quelque frein au monopole qui sans celà pourroit s'établir en faveur des plus entreprenans et des plus accredités.

Lorsque l'Orateur (ou éviter l'équivoque) le Président général de la Chambre quitte son siège, son fauteuil de Président, c'est pour faire place à un Chairman (Homme au fauteuil comme qui diroit *Fauteuillier* ainsi que dans l'ordre des

Question 4me Quel est l'esprit et le But de l'Institution des Grands Committés et pourquoi l'orateur quitte -t'il son siège.

Avocats à Paris on dit Batonnier) Président du Committé composé de la Chambre entière. C'est ce changement de Président qui est le signe visible de la transformation de la Chambre en Committé.

Dans l'ordre chronologique, d'où est venue l'institution de ces *Grands* Committés?—Evidemment de celle des *Petits,* appellés pour faire distinction, *Select Committees.* Divers motifs d'utilité ont dû faire rejetter sur des parties de l'Assemblée des parties d'un travail qui auroit été trop grand pour le tout.—Toute affaire n'a pas assez d'importance pour occuper la Chambre entière—Un corps nombreux tend à trainer les affaires en longeur, à force de multiplier les discussions et les incidens, et même les hors-depropos, à raison de son nombre—différens committés peuvent embrasser autant d'affaires différentes à la fois, ce que ne peut pas faire une seule et même chambre—etc etc.—Voila comme ont dû commencer les *petits committés*—Enfin quelqu'un a dit—cette affaire est de trop d'importance pour etre confiée à un petit nombre d'individus: faisons tous ensemble le travail qu'on est dans l'usage de confier a un *Committé.* En en prenant le travail, on a du prendre naturellement et presque sans y songer les formes: et voilà la Chambre entiére métamorphosée en Committé. Le Président général n'a pas pu servir de Président aux Committés particuliers. Souvent il en siégeoit plusieurs à la fois; et dût-il n'y [en] avoir qu'un, le Président général avoit ses affaires à lui quand le Committé avoit les siennes. Un petit Committé a donc dû avoir un Président à lui qui ne soit pas le Président Général: delà la première fois que la Chambre s'est transformée toute entière en Committé, on a dû dire, *Mais puisque nous sommes en Committé, il nous faut un Président autre que l'Orateur: ce Président particulier élu, il faut que l'Orateur lui cède sa chaise, placée, comme vous voyez, dans l'endroit le plus commode a cet effet de toute la salle.*—Ce

coup d'œil raisonné, ce petit historique, ne se trouvent nulle part, ni l'un ni l'autre, dans les livres: mais ils sont ecrits assez lisiblement dans la chose même.

Question 5me Qu'elle est l'autorité de l'Orateur pour régler l'ordre et la marche des affaires dans la chambre?

 Question 5me – Réponse Dieu merci, aucune: sauf celle qui s'exerce en presence de la Chambre sous le bon plaisir de la Chambre par l'Orateur qui n'est que le Commis *ad hoc,* le Serviteur de la Chambre. Si de son propre chef il possédoit le moindre droit de ce genre, il ne lui faudroit que peu de chose pour acquerir un *veto* virtuel, et même plus qu'un veto dans toutes les affaires:—et nommément il ne peut pas, par exemple, lever la séance.

Question 6me – Réponse

Elle est comprise dans celle donnée a la quatrième question.

Question 6me Combien des fois un Membre peut-il parler au plus dans une seance?

N.B. Dans les questions, en suivant l'usage de la langue Françoise, on s'est servi du mot *déliberation.* Dans les reponses on a eu soin d'éviter ce mot, à cause de l'équivoque qu'il renferme. Dans la nomenclature aussi que dans la pratique Françoise, tout se trouve confondu de ce qui demande d'être le plus soigneusement distingué par qui veut ou être entendu ou se faire entendre: sous le mot *Motion,* proposition et discours tenu pour faire passer cette proposition en acte: sous le mot *déliberation,* discussion (c'est a dire la somme des discours de part et d'autre) et l'arrêté quelconque par où finit cette discussion. C'est par ce moyen que la Tactique des Assemblees Politiques est au même point de perfection a peu près en France, que le seroit la Tactique Militaire, ou bien l'Anatomie, s'il n y avoit que deux mots pour expresser *front, flanc* et *derrière.* Une petite Mappemonde de ce Chaos, (sans pourtant qu'on en ait épuisé tous les trésors) se trouve dans le fragment imprimé en Anglois qui probablement accompagnera ces réponses.9

9 The *Essay on Political Tactics* (see p. 245 above).

### 7501

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x

#### late February 1791? (Aet 43)

Just returned from the post-house, where I ran in my own proper person, with my letter in my hand, as fast as my heels could carry me. There lies your note,2 and here sit I, eyeing it as the cat did the gold-fish in a pail of water, longing to devour it, and terrified from so much as touching it by the idea of the impression under which it was written. What heroism! Had you been Mrs Bluebeard, the fatal closet would never have been opened, and the world would have remained for ever deprived of so edifying a history. What if, after all, you should be laughing at me? I suspect it terribly; and that your taking me at my word, is a contrivance for turning the tables on me, and punishing my feigned anxiety with a real one.. ..

My ideas just now are a jumble of architecture, and Lord L., and natural philosophy, and two Minervas, and two hundred and fifty felons, and Miss F.: the flower of the creation and the dregs of it, all afloat together. The dregs are all I ought to be thinking of, but how is it possible?3 . . .

The state this same Panopticon book is in, is that in which a copy of it has been taken for the press in Ireland; but as there are things which, though one addresses to the world in general, one could not address to everybody in particular, especially where one is under continual terrors of giving offence, I may perhaps find a leaf or two which I may see occasion to draw a curtain over, somehow or other, which if anybody thinks fit to undraw, it is no fault of mine. Had Miss E. 4 such a person as an aunt at her elbow, I should make no scruple of addressing the whole to the great aunt as it stands, that she might hand it down from niece to niece with or without reserves, as to her wisdom might seem meet; but as you have no such piece of furniture upon whom I could unload myself of the

2 Missing.

4 Elizabeth Vernon.

**<sup>750.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 273–5. Undated. Introduced by the statement: 'There are some amusing references to the Panopticon project, in a letter to Miss F.'

Although placed by Bowring among correspondence which can be dated in 1792, internal evidence indicates a date shortly before the end of February 1791 for this letter.

<sup>3</sup> The 'architecture' is that of the Panopticon penitentiary, 'Lord L.' is Lord Lansdowne, the 'two Minervas' Caroline Vernon and her sister. Elizabeth; 'the felons' are the convicts on the hulks.

burthen of responsibility, it concerns me to take care of number one, and not get into any more scrapes, with so terrible a one, which I am not yet clear of, before my eyes. But do not make a handle of this, to send the whole back again unlooked at, for I stake my whole credit with you, upon my leaving nothing in the smallest degree dubious, which it shall be possible for you to set eyes upon, without your own act and deed. Please to observe, that it was not only designed for publication, but addressed originally to my father, besides having since passed through the censor's office, as above-mentioned. It would be necessary you should have read it, were I to lay the projects upon projects I have built upon it at your feet, which I should beg permission to do, if—Oh heavens! there I am at a cruel stand—if you did not live in an enchanted castle, with a guard of hobgoblins all round it. The magician I have offended leaves me no rest. The day I sent the letter that was returned me, I made a second attempt to see Lord W.,5 and had actually learnt of the porter that he was at home, though not very well, when out rushed a furious dragon, breathing fire and smoke at me. I lost my senses to such a degree that I had not power to make any inquiries how long the monster had been there, how long he was to stay, whether he had flown thither with Miss E. and you upon his back, or whether he had left you with a guard of any and what sub-dragons at the other castle. I crawled back as well as I was able to Bedford Row, from whence I came; and thus it was that the two letters which have brought me into this scrape, instead of being addressed at once to Bowood, from whence your thunderstriking note6 that speaks of them is dated, went under cover to the Great Dragon of Berkeley Square.7 Yesterday I saw Lord W. at last, at Mr Vaughan's, together with a pretty young prince he brought in his hand, whose name begins with a Cz.,8 and whom I suppose you know; and Dr Blagden,9 Secretary of the Royal Society; and Mr Vaughan, and Mr Reveley, whom Mr V. had invited out of pure kindness to me, not having ever set eyes on him before. The conversation was all general. I found no more occasion

<sup>5</sup> Lord Wycombe.

6 Neither this note, nor the two letters from Bentham mentioned, appear to have survived.

<sup>7</sup> Lord Lansdowne.

8 The younger and more celebrated Polish patriot, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (1770–1861), son of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski (1731–1823), who may have brought from his father the questions answered by Bentham in letter 749.

9 Sir Charles Blagden (1748–1820), m.d. Edinburgh, 1768; he became secretary of the Royal Society in 1784 and later served as a medical officer in the British army until 1814.

than I had courage to talk to Lord W. about dragons, though we talked a good deal about elephants, as well as about an animal bigger than an elephant, and bloodthirsty into the bargain, and who, instead of exterminating all other animals, has himself been exterminated. It was a pretty little party. Your whole triad loves and protects Mr Vaughan. Methought I heard, every now and then, a sound like that of three humming-birds fluttering about the table. If it was you, I dare believe you were amused. Lord W., at coming in, took Mr Reveley by the hand, with his wonted courtesy. *'Ah,'* said I, (no, I did not say any such thing, any more than I thought it,) *'beware of specious men.'* Talking of Abyssinia, and so forth, he (Lord W. I mean) laid me flat on my face, with a volley of Herodotus in the original. *'How good-natured* and *well-bred is Lord W.,'* (says Reveley to me, just after he was gone,) *'he has the air, without anything at all of the* airs, *of the man of quality.'* Moreover, the Great Dragon had appeared to him in a dream, and said to him, *'Be of good cheer: thou shalt build the Panopticon: and thy fame shall go forth amongst the nations.'* This is all I know about the dragon, except what there is in the Apocrypha.

Did it ever happen to you, in communing with Miss V., to drop a word about the presumptuous mortal who writes thus to you? Tell her with what devotion I embrace the tip of her left wing. She is helping, I suppose, to train the beautiful little cherubim at the castle.10 I have not yet forgot the kiss I obtained of the eldest, for worshipping her on the fiddle.

### 7511

### F r o m E <sup>v</sup> a n N e p e a n

#### 28 February 1791

#### Sir,

 I am extremely sorry that you have had occasion to send to me a second time for an answer to your letter.

The parcells which you allude to are still in the office with many others, all of which would have been sent away, had there been occasion to despatch a Messenger to Ireland, as they are rather too

<sup>10</sup> Warwick Castle, where Caroline Vernon often visited her sister, the Countess of Warwick, and the children: Elizabeth Greville and her younger sisters (see letters 823 and 824).

**<sup>751.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 229–30. Autograph signature. Docketed: '1791 Feb 28 / Nepean Whitehall / to J.B. Bedford Row.' A reply to letter 747 above.

bulky for the post, and if you have any others, I shall have pleasure in forwarding them by the first opportunity.

I have taken care to prevent the removal of Chapman2 from the Hulks and have instituted an enquiry into some circumstances he has stated, without committing him. I have the honour to be

Sir

Your obedt Hble Ser Evan Nepean

28 Feby 1791 J. Bentham Esq

### 7521

### F r o m S i r C h a r <sup>l</sup> e s B u n b u r y

#### 2 March 1791

Barton March 2d 1791

Sir,

 I received your's,2 but I never heard that Mr Blackburn had published, or even written a Pamphlet on the Penitentiary Houses3 —I often talked to him on the subject, and wished him to write down his Remarks, which he said he would, but when I enquired for them, he pleaded want of Leisure.

I shall see his Brother in Law when I return to Town next week, who I make no doubt, will let me see any Papers, if there are any, he has left on that subject, and with his Leave, I will transmit them to you.

> I am, with great Regard, Your very obedt servt Charles Bunbury

2 The convict in whom Benjamin Vaughan and Bentham were interesting themselves. See letter 747, p. 239 above.

**752.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 231–2. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 March 2 / Sir C. Bunbury Barton / to / J.B. Hendon / will enquire for Black / burn's Pamphlet.'

Addressed: 'To / Jeremy Bentham Esqr / Dollis's / Hendon / Middlesex.' Franked: 'Bury / March two 91 / C. Bunbury.'

2 Missing.

3 William Blackburn had produced several plans for prisons, but no general pamphlet on the subject, so far as can be discovered.

### 7531

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x a n d C a r o l i n e a n d E l i z a b e t h V e r n o n

#### 5 March 1791 (Aet 43)

The enclosed is sent to show how much I prefer the possibility of affording your tea-table half an hour's amusement to that bubble reputation, which I prefer to everything else. You will see how a rebellious disciple of mine libels me, in writing to another Scotch rebel like himself.2 Unfortunately I am obliged to return the letter, or I should either have cut out the passage, or altered it into a panegyric. The danger is, its falling into the hands of a certain person, who has had an account open for these two or three months, in which everything that tells on that side is viewed through a magnifying glass, and entered in large letters.3 You saw, I suppose, the two preceding letters from the same hand. Since I saw you all together, and not before, I have read a note written three months ago, in I am not sure whose hand, but I believe Miss V.'s.4 The affectation of being piqued at my setting myself down at the distance to which I had been thrown, is more flattering to me than a thousand kind speeches, and would go nigh to cure, if it were in the power of words to cure, a mortification which has recurred at least fifty times a-day for above these three months, and every time accompanied with a degree of pain, which, some how or other, has not undergone that abatement by time that I expected it would. Don't let Miss V. think there is no such thing as prudence anywhere but in Albemarle Street. All the ideas I could muster were not enough to answer the demands that were made upon me for building prisons and castles in the air: had I read the letter at the time in which it was put in my hand, instead of thinking fifty times a-day of what I had better never have thought at all, I should never have been able to find thoughts for anything else. March 5, 1791.

**<sup>753.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 248. Introduced by the statement: 'Bentham writes to the ladies of Bowood, then removed to Albemarle Street, March 5, 1791:'. No 35, Albemarle Street was the London residence of Richard Vernon, Caroline's father.

<sup>2</sup> No clue to the sender and recipient of this missing enclosure is found in the *Correspondence*: George Wilson and James Trail were the Scottish friends most likely to be writing about Bentham to one another.

<sup>3</sup> Possibly he means Lord Lansdowne.

<sup>4</sup> That is, Caroline Vernon's.

### 7541

### F r o m J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 16 March 1791

My dear Jere,

 The Inclos'd,2 I hope will give you as much pleasure as it does me; I dare say you saw in some of the Papers an account of Genl Tomara's and two other Russian Officers being at Vienna, and that from thence, they were to go to Leghorn and the Archepelago. Sam, it seems was of his Party, and as the destination was to view and give directions to the Russian Vessels, it in some measure accounts for their engaging him to be of their Party.3

I saw Mr. Aust4 of the Secretary of State's office yesterday who read to me a Part of a Letter he had just reced from Whitworth5 at Petersburg, which instead of Clearing up, serves to heighten the Mistery about the Journal to the Kirgese from Tobolsk, which in a former letter he told Mr. Aust he had sent hither directed to him, and that he took it for granted it wou'd be to be found among the Papers of his office, whereas by this last letter, in answer to Mr. Aust's having at my request enquired of Whitworth about it, as it had not been rec'ed Whitworth now tells him that in fact he never had it, but that Mr. Bentham (Sam) would be the bearer of it himself, as he was coming over to England, and one may conclude that therefore Sam was or had lately been himself at Petersburg, tho' the Inclosed Letter mentions nothing of it. However, as we have reason from all accounts, to expect to see him soon, in

**754.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 242. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 Jeremiah B to J.B.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / Hendon / Middlesex.'

2 Missing. Perhaps it was a letter, dated 18 February, sent by Samuel from Vienna and forwarded to Bentham by his father, 'after having been kept God knows how long' (see Jeremy to Samuel, 1 April 1791, letter 756).

3 The *Public Advertiser* of 10 March 1791 contained a report on the Russo-Turkish war, headed 'Vienna Feb. 19', including the statement 'It is expected that the Russian General Mr. Tamar will set off in a few days .. .for Trieste', where, it was added, he would take command of 14 ships. This was General Vasily Stepanović Tamara, later Russian envoy to Turkey, 1798–1803.

<sup>4</sup> George Aust, a clerk in the Secretary of State's office, 1765–82, thereafter in the Foreign Office. He acted until 1790 as a deputy writer for the *London Gazette.*

5 Charles Whitworth (1752–1825), later Earl Whitworth (1815), Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at St Petersburg, 1789–1800.

propria persona; the accomplishment of that expectation will I flatter myself be productive of the greatest pleasure to

### your and his affectionate Father Jh Bentham

Q.S.P. St. James Park, Wedy March 16 1791

### 7551

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u <sup>g</sup> h a n

#### 17 March 1791

 The news from France is very good again, notwithstanding M. de Condé may enter France with 1500 (not 15000,) all he has got, pursuant to his engagements.2 The Jacobins are at least preaching up tranquillity. A Baltic fleet is preparing—but I doubt it's going. I wait Romilly's answer before I reply to you.3 The story of the new metal is recanted in form.

March 17, 1791.

### 7561

### T <sup>o</sup> S a m u e <sup>l</sup> B e n t h a m

#### 1 April 1791 (Aet 43)

No. 9, Bedford Row, April 1, 1791.

 I write this from Mr Browne's, people chattering round me. It is of no use to make long preachments, or give histories. Yours, of February 18th, from Vienna, is before me: it was sent to me the 16th, after having been kept, God knows how long, for Q.S.P. did not tell me when it was received. When you arrive in London, come, the first thing you do, to Mr Browne's. I don't know whether you

**755.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 248. Quoted with the introductory note: 'Benjamin Vaughan says, March 17, 1791:'.

2 See below, p. 314 n. 4.

3 A letter from Bentham is indicated, which is missing.

**756.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 248–9. The introductory note states: 'Bentham addressed to his brother the following letter to await his arrival at Paris. The colonel was at this time on his way homeward from Russia:'.

know that I have left Crichoff for years, and live altogether at Zadobras.2 You will learn at Mr B.'s where Zadobras is. Lest you should not, know that it is eight miles from Crichoff, near a place called Hendon, four miles beyond Hampstead or Highgate, which you please. Hampstead is the road you must take, as the other would be unfindable. It is the first house, or rather hut, you come to, when you are passed the eight mile stone on the way to Mill Hill. At Hampstead you have only to ask the road to Hendon—it is the great one. Q.S.P. will easily excuse your not first calling upon him, upon your telling him you were determined upon calling upon me, if I was living, as you had never heard from me. Let me hear immediately from you as soon as you arrive at Paris, as I dare say you will lounge there long enough to hear from me in answer before you come away. Lord L., who sees all your letters, talked of writing one for you to the Duke de la Rochefoucauld: whether he has, I don't know—but it will be no matter.

You have a slave with you, I suppose, of some sort or other. Don't bring him to me, as he would be a nuisance. Mr Browne will tell you what to do with him, as also with your baggage. You may leave it at his house, if you will, till we have conferred and agreed where you are to be. The fact is, they go to bed at ten o'clock at Q.S.P. and would be frightened at people's calling, as they would upon you. Besides, your servant, black or white, would put them in a panic. I will explain all this fully when we meet. Come upon you ten toes: you are man enough to walk eight miles. If you fear our being at a loss for conversation, you may put a pack of cards in your pocket. I received yours to me, of I know not what date, telling me how to direct to you; also, the long letter mentioning, *inter alia,* the amphibious contrivances.3 I gave in a proposal to our Potemkin two months ago; but the Potemkins never give answers. Happily my proposal is in little danger of being out of date; Pole Carew, with whom I am on terms, and others, protect me.4 You will stare when you come to see it. I am helping to govern Ireland with an old shoe of yours; but they are a sad crew.5

<sup>2</sup> Bentham is referring humorously to London as Crichoff and Hendon as Zadobras, familiar names to the brothers from their residence in Russia.

<sup>3</sup> Probably Samuel's letters of 12/23 October 1788 and 12/23 July 1790, letters 627 and 703.

<sup>4</sup> A reference to the Panopticon project for Ireland and to the English scheme proposed to Pitt, 'our Potemkin' (see Bentham's letter of 23 January, letter 738).

<sup>5</sup> Perhaps what Bentham actually wrote in the missing original was 'I am hoping to govern Ireland'; the 'old shoe' being the Panopticon scheme, first drafted by Samuel in Russia.

### 7571

### T o E v a n N e p e a n

#### 3 April 1791 (Aet 43)

 Mr Bentham presents his Compliments to Mr Nepean, and takes the liberty of sending him the inclosed,2 as a continuation of the History of the Convict Chapman.

April 3d 1781 [1791]3

### 7581

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u <sup>g</sup> h a n

#### 4 April 1791

 The news from France good, except that Mirabeau remains ill.2 Dr. Price, also, I fear, is dying.3 People in general reprobate Pitt's war.

### 7591

### T <sup>o</sup> S a m u e <sup>l</sup> B e n t h a m

#### 5 April 1791 (Aet 43)

Go to M. Gautier, Rue des Capucines, vis-à-vis l'hôtel de la Mairie.2 He is a great merchant or banker, or both, of the house of Gran or Grand. He translated the 'Defence of Usury' into French;3

**757.** <sup>1</sup> P.R.O., H.O.42/18, fo. 63. Autograph. No docket or address.

2 Missing, unless the letters of March, exchanged between William Browne, acting on behalf of Bentham, and the convict Chapman, are meant. The originals of these are in H.O.42/18, fos. 47–56. See letter 747, n. 4.

3 The dating '1781' is obviously a slip.

**758.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 249. Introduced by the statement: 'There is a short but pithy note, from Vaughan, of April 4, 1791:'.

2 Mirabeau had died on 2 April.

3 Richard Price died on 19 April 1791.

**759.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 249. Quoted with the introductory note: 'In a letter to Colonel Bentham, of April 5, 1791, Bentham says:'.

2 M. Gautier, a Genevese banker in Paris, who had married the daughter of Etienne Delessert, 'the incomparable Madame Gautier', with whom Romilly corresponded.

3 A footnote by Bowring comments: 'This, I believe, is an error. The translator of the "Defence of Usury" was M. Delessert.' He is certainly credited with the editing of one of the two translations which came out in Paris at this time, but that edition may well have been a collaboration, since the Gautiers both understood English. On

but, I believe, does not care to have it known, as he, or somebody belonging to him, had smarted for that crime. Your errand is to ask him, whether he has anything for Mr Romilly. Mr R. expected, before this, to have received something from M. Dumont of Geneva; and if it was not left with M. Gautier, it must have been with someone or other of their common friends.4 Romilly is at the bar, about Wilson's standing—an intimate of mine, connected as well through the medium of Wilson and Trail as of Lord Lansdowne. Dumont is also intimate—a zealous disciple, and who half-translated, half-abridged, some papers of mine, relative to French business. By-the-by, he has a mother and sisters, or other near relations, settled at Petersburg, in some line of trade, and was in Russia as bear-leader for many years. On the 'Judicial Establishment,' my papers are six numbers, which are not yet finished perhaps never may be. They, and my 'Essay on Political Tactics,' Romilly sent to Gautier not long ago.5 There, I suppose, you might see them, were it worth while, which it is not. When your name is mentioned to Gautier, he will probably recognise it, and ask you after me; but he has never seen me.

### 7601

### T <sup>o</sup> W <sup>i</sup> ll e y R <sup>e</sup> <sup>v</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>l</sup> e y

#### 13 April 1791 (Aet 43)

Hendon, Middlesex Wedn. 13 April 1791

Dear Sir

 Coming here this afternoon from London I receive your letter2 of Monday in which you inform me of your intention of going to Ireland tomorrow or Friday, telling me withal that *'the reason of your going is more about my Panopticon'* than about a business of your own. What should have led you to think of going to Ireland

4 On the 5 April Romilly wrote to Dumont expressing disappointment at only having received one letter from him since Dumont's departure from London in January. The final paragraph of that letter of 5 April contains the well-known, albeit inaccurate, remark: 'Bentham leads the same kind of life as usual at Hendon: seeing nobody, reading nothing and writing books which nobody reads' (*Memoirs ...of Romilly... with Correspondence,* 2nd edn., i, 417).

264

See note 3 above.

5

<sup>7</sup> April Madame Gautier wrote to Romilly: 'Nous avons reçu ces jours derniers encore un paquet de vous, Monsieur, contenant les réflexions de M. Bentham sur notre ordre judiciaire .. .' (*Memoirs ...of Romilly...with Correspondence,* 2nd edn., 1840, i, 417). For Delessert's relations with Bentham, see above, p. 168, n. 32.

**<sup>760.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxix, 15. Autograph draft. No docket or address. 2 Missing.

now on the account of the Panopticon or on any account of mine, is more than I can imagine, and to prevent all mistakes on that account, I think it necessary to tell you so as explicitly as I am able. As I never did desire you or wish you to go on my account, so neither would I choose to have it thought that I desired you or any body to go there on any account of mine: and as the bare circumstance of your going there at this time and speaking of the Panopticon as you naturally would do may not improbably give occasion to its being thought that it was on my account you went, whether you said any thing on the subject or no, it is not improbable but that in writing thither I may mention that this is not the case.3

What I did take the liberty to desire of you was, that you would /let me have/ give me a prospective view of the building at Chapel time with the audience, as you had had the goodness to offer me, as likewise a small addition to the plate. As it does not suit you to do either I must either do without both, or find somebody else to do them, which will easily be done. As to the number already printed off it was no secret to me when I made you that request; it does not yet amount to 500 which is the number of copies of the Irish edition: the whole English edition would have had the benefit of it.

As the business you have of your own determines you to go I wish you a good and pleasant journey: and if you could contrive without inconvenience to yourself to take with you for me the plates that were sent to Mr Nepean, I should be much obliged to you, and any expence it would occasion I beg to know [and] I would repay you with thanks. In this view I enclose you a note for Mr Nepean:4 for I much fear that of all that were sent to him not a single one has ever gone. What have gone have been sent by me in small parcels by the post.5

You ask me 'whether if any thing on the Panopticon business should cause you to stop I suppose you would be paid for the delay?' My answer is, that if you do stop there on that business or

<sup>4</sup> Letter 761.

<sup>3</sup> Marginal insertion: 'My wish is that you would not /advice to you accordingly is not to/ say a syllable there either about the Panopticon or about me, unless it be in the way of giving any answer as you can not avoid giving to any question that may be put to you.'

<sup>5</sup> Marginal addition: 'Mr Nepean's office is in Ld Grenville's office just by the Treasury Whitehall. His house is in St. James's Place. Should he not be in the office when you call there, there will be clerks there, I suppose, who will either let you have the impressions, or tell you what to do in order to get them. I am, Dear Sir Yours etc. J.B.'

do any thing at all in relation to it it will be entirely your own doing: which I think puts the 'hardship' out of the case, and who it is that will think of paying you a farthing for it is more than I can imagine.

P.S. Pray let me know whether you take the impressions or no

### 7611

### T <sup>o</sup> E <sup>v</sup> a n N e p e a n

#### 13 April 1791 (Aet 43)

 Mr Bentham presents his compliments to Mr Nepean, and begs the favour of him to permitt the bearer Mr Revely, who is going to Ireland to take whatever parcels Mr Nepean has been troubled with by Mr Bentham's means addressed to Sir J. Parnell or Major Hobart.2

Hendon Middlesex April 13th 1791

Sent by King's Cart April 14th ½ after 7 in the morning.

### 7621

### T <sup>o</sup> C a r o <sup>l</sup> i n e F o x

#### [?]mid-April 1791 (Aet 43)

 Do you know the proper name of this flower? and the signification of that name? *Fuchsia* from *Fuchs* a German Botanist.2 *Fuchs* did you know as much? is German for a certain lady's *name.*

**761.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxix: 15. Autograph draft on back of sheet containing letter 760. No docket or address.

2 In his letter of 28 February (letter 751) Nepean had revealed that none of the packets left in his office for despatch to Parnell or Hobart had been sent.

**762.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. ix: 94. Autograph draft. Printed version in Bowring, x, 275–6, introduced by the statement: 'The following letter to the same lady accompanied a coloured drawing of a fuchsia—a flower then rare, but now as common as it is beautiful.'

At the beginning of the autograph draft is a note added later in Bentham's hand: 'A present of a Fuchsia—a flower then rare but now as common as beautiful, accompanied this letter to Miss Fox.' A second note by Bentham at the top of the draft adds that: 'The present was not the plant itself, but a coloured drawing taken as the letter says from a print of Curtis's and not from nature.' Above these notes is a further one in red ink, not in Bentham's hand, explaining that 'The first sentence following is on a small piece of paper stuck to the top of the letter.'

2 The plant was named in 1703, when first introduced into Europe, after Leonhard Fuchs (1501–66), a Tübingen professor, who was a pioneer of botanical studies, but had not, as Bentham supposed, discovered the fuchsia.

You are a philosopher: you know the influence of the association of ideas. When last at Bowood you were pleased to accuse me of indifference to Fuchsia—pretty accusation was not it? J.B. indifferent to Fuchsia. I half suspect a little malice in the case: and that more was understood of German than was acknowledged. It is an old amusement of some people to observe what I am fondest of and charge me with dislike to it. Will you hear what an innocent man has to say for himself? At first sight Fuchsia's own proper merits had made an impression on me, and such a one as ought to have saved me from the imputation: what is more the charms it had from relation were at the time of the charge not unknown to me. I pleaded generally not guilty protesting innocence, and as usual in like cases with little appearance of success. What could I do? Beset as I was, I chose rather to see condemnation passed on me than bring to light the strength of my cause, produce my German evidence, and prove guilt to be impossible. The place was infested as usual with third persons, painted French women and Irish cormorants, hovering as you may remember over Fuchsias, Geraniums, Myrtles, and devouring them with their eyes. Hoping no offence, I have taken the liberty to reserve a small sprig for myself, to set up at home in the part of the room, where a good Russian puts his Saint—Should I ever become a convert to the Negro Religion, it will serve me for my Fetish: Fuchsia has more properties than Meinherr Fuchs with all his learning was able to discover. Fuchsia is symbolical, emblematical, typical: but I must stick to generals, for if I attempt to draw parallel lines, I shall make blots and fall into a scrape: all I shall say is, there are different species of Fuchsia: some if the truth may be spoken with all their beauty, not altogether free from formality and a little affected others superior to all formality, and pure from all affectation. A man need not be a Linnaeus to descry the difference.

This Birmingham Fuchsia after all now it is come does not answer expectation: the one I saw before and which suggested to me the idea of endeavouring to get another such seemed upon recollection much better done but perhaps the supposed difference may be owing more to the different degrees of interest with which I viewed them than to any real difference in the object themselves, another subject for your philosophy to exercise itself upon. Upon taking notice of the paleness of the leaves, the lady who got it for me observed that this was made from no better a model than a coloured print of Curtis's:3 whereas the other was made from the 3

William Curtis (1746–99), the English botanist and entomologist, had started

plant itself, of which no specimen she said is to be had at this time of the year. The red stripes on the leaves I am positively assured are according to nature. How that can be I cannot pretend to say: but at any rate the green is of such a colour as surely no natural plant of the kind could ever have exhibited, unless peradventure at the eve of its dissolution. Why then says the indignant Fuchsia pester me with such trumpery? Because, because, now I will answer you honestly—In the first place because in order to know whether and how to send it,4 I was forced to ask Ld L. which I did before I knew that what I had to send was not fit to send: whereby Ld. L. and Ld. Henry who was by, heard that I had something to send to Ampthill: and so the intelligence might get to Warwick and from thence to Ampthill where expectation if not prevented might be raised, and Miss E and Miss F might be upon the look out for a Collar of Brawn at this holiday time or a barrel of Oysters, or something else that was good and valuable to make them welcome where they are; and the good family wanting something for a side dish: if not for the value of it, but to look pretty upon the table, and being disappointed might look cool upon them.

In the next place you have heard probably of the Billets de confiance which they coin at Birmingham for some Banks at Paris; they are promises fairly printed in good copper to deliver French money for a certain number of them on demand: the value of the copper is not equal to that of the Money promised, but as it is not greatly inferior, it is preferred to paper. This indifferent representation of Fuchsia then you may consider as a billet de confiance which when Nature will permit the real Fuchsia to sit for her picture will be exchanged if you permit5 it for a better.

So much for counterfeits.

the *Botanical Magazine* in 1781. An illustration of a fuchsia appeared in volume iii (1790), p. 97.


### 7631

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u g h a n

#### 16 April 1791

 Nothing very new. Pitt much chagrined; the war, (if to be, which I doubt, as Prussia must see our support soon die away,) the war, I say, very unpopular: Pitt exposed abroad and at home; no further use for him in German politics, and then. . .

France *à l'ordinaire,* except that the separation of the two powers (of state) makes fermentation, and the aristocracy still talk of counter-revolutions.2

April 16, 1791.

### 7641

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u <sup>g</sup> h a n

#### 25 April 1791

 If the king of France provokes the nation once more, he will be called by a new name.2 The aristocracy should experience one more blow, the new-officering of their army.3

I will write about your philosophy soon; but our people will not concur.4

April 25, 1791.

**763.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 249. The first of three extracts, introduced by the statement: 'Three brief notes, from Vaughan, follow:'.

2 The independence of the French judiciary from the legislature, made law on 24 August 1790 and followed by judicial reforms.

**764.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 249–50. The second of the three extracts, chiefly concerning French affairs.

2 Suspicion of the royal family grew after the *journée des poignards* (28 February 1791) and the King's attempt to go to Saint-Cloud (18 April), to which this remark may allude.

3 In February 1790 the National Assembly had abolished the purchase of commissions and decreed that every citizen was eligible for every military rank. In April 1791 the discharge of all serving army officers was discussed, but in May it was decided instead to require from them an oath of loyalty to the new Constitution. The oath was strengthened after the royal flight to Varennes in June and stipulated that officers should obey only the decrees of the Assembly. More than 1500 officers refused to take the oath and most of them left France (see Spenser Wilkinson, *The French Army before Napoleon,* Oxford, 1915, pp. 113–15).

4 A missing letter from Bentham seems to be indicated.

### 7651

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x

### *c.* 30 April 1791 (Aet 43)

 When will the unreadable letter get a reading?2 Heaven knows. If I was afraid to look at it at first, the two angelic ones that succeeded it have made me more and more so. Come—you shall understand exactly how it is with me. Did it never happen to you to find yourself half awake after a pleasing dream, still wrapped up in it, afraid above all things of losing it, keeping as still as a mouse, and staving off to the last moment the operation of turning on the other side, for fear of putting an end to it. Who would change a pleasing illusion for an unpleasing reality?—I would not, I am sure.

Do you know why it was Jepthah sacrificed his daughter?3 Was it that he wanted to get rid of her? No such thing: there was not a better behaved young woman in the whole parish, and she was the only string he had to his bow. Why then? Because he had said he would; and if he had not been as good as his word, he would have been accused of inconsistency, he thought, and want of perseverance, in all the Jerusalem newspapers. He wished his tongue had been cut out a thousand times over, rather than he had said any such thing: and yet you see, poor Miss Jepthah went to pot, notwithstanding. Had there been such a person as a Pope in the neighbourhood, he would have gone to his shop, and bought a dispensation: but Popes were not as yet invented in his days.

Some historians tell a story of Curtius, that when he was got to the edge of the gulph, and saw how deep and black it looked, his heart misgave him, and he began casting about to find excuses to get out of the way of it. They had given him a wrong horse: if he jumped in with this it would break a set, he would just go to the stable and change him, and come back again; unfortunately some

<sup>3</sup> Jephthah fulfilled 'a vow unto the Lord' by making a burnt offering of his virgin daughter, because she was the first person to greet him when he returned home from his victory over the Ammonites (*Judges,* chap. xi, verses 30–40).

**<sup>765.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 276–7. No date given. Introduced by the statement, referring to letter 762: 'Again he writes to the same lady:'. The context suggests late April or early May 1791 as the probable date and the reference to 'nine days ago' in letter 774, which can with some probability be dated 9 May, would put this letter about 30 April.

<sup>2</sup> Apparently an allusion to the note from Miss Fox mentioned in letter 750. Neither that letter, nor 'the two angelic ones that succeeded it', appear to have survived.

boys that were standing by, began to set up a hiss, so he set spurs to the poor beast, and in they went together.4

When Sir Thomas More was going to have his head chopt off, and bid Jack Ketch not meddle with his beard, as that had not committed any treason, do you think it was a matter of indifference to him whether his head was off or on?5 I question it. The case was, he had got a trick of talking in that manner: and it was as natural to him as to ask what o'clock it was, or to observe it was fine weather.

I remember when I was a boy, and had occasion sometimes to pass through a churchyard of a night, I used to set up a singing: Was it from high spirits? The deuce a bit: on the contrary, my heart was going pit-a-pat all the while, and I fancied I saw a ghost perched upon every tombstone.

When Miss F. takes upon her the part of the accusing angel, how happy would it be for me if my kind good friend Miss E., would take upon her that of the recording angel.6 I would not willingly put her to the expense of any of her precious tears on purpose; but if she has any that she does not know what to do with, she cannot make a more charitable use of them than by dropping them upon some of the severest of Miss F.'s accusations, as she enters them; but, above all things, let her begin with the words:—'has succeeded here beyond expression,'7 which are more cruel than a thousand accusations. How does my other patroness all this while, and where is she?8 On duty at the castle, I suppose: this is all the news I ask for.

I hope there is a letter on the road for me—you need not be at the trouble of looking for any more excuses for delay. The budget is empty, for between us, they are all used.

4 The legend of Mettius Curtius, a noble Roman, who was said to have leapt on horseback into a chasm, which appeared in the Forum at Rome in 362 b.c., because soothsayers had declared the abyss could only be filled by throwing in the most precious treasure of the city: as the earth closed over him he shouted that Rome possessed no greater treasure than a brave and gallant citizen.

5 One of More's jokes on the scaffold, first recounted in William Roper's *Life of More,* Paris, 1626.

6 Elizabeth Vernon.

7 Bowring has a footnote to this quotation: 'The words used in announcing to Bentham Romilly's arrival at Bowood, and the impression he had made. (see p. 187).' The main reference to Romilly on that page, however, is to his later courtship at Bowood of Anne Garbett, the future Lady Romilly. Bowring might also have referred to vol. x, p. 188, where there is Bentham's request in a letter to the ladies 'But be sure disavow, at any rate, the superlatives about Mr R., and above all things if it was genuine' (see above, p. 211).

8 Caroline Vernon, who paid long visits to her sister at Warwick Castle.

What made me write so foolishly? come—I'll tell you: for I have made my head to screw off and on, and I can set it on my knee, and open it, and see what is in the inside of it. It was a few grains of ill-humour mixed with a great many more of quill-driver's vanity. It sounded in my ears as if it ran well, and was sharply said: though at bottom it was nothing but a common schoolboy's sentiment in man's language. The turn of a sentence has decided the fate of many a friendship, and, for aught we know, of many a kingdom. Not that I need load quill-driving with it, for I believe there are few men, and as few women, to whom it has happened at some time or other when a speech has appeared to come *pat,* to out with it, though half-conscious, at the same time, it were better let alone.

### 7661

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u <sup>g</sup> h a n

#### 3 May 1791

Stocks here are lower.

You hear of Fayette's restoration.2

There is still fermentation at Paris.

Assignats at 7 or 8 per cent. discount.3

The question about Avignon is on the tapis.4 Lord Stanhope having just returned me Condorcet's report,5 I shall read it, and write to you.

May 3, 1791.

**766.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 250. Extracts from another letter of Vaughan's.

2 After the death of Mirabeau, Lafayette regained influence at court, but not his popularity. He suppressed a riot in April 1791 and offered his resignation from command of the National Guard in Paris, but it was not accepted.

3 The *assignats* instituted by the National Assembly in 1790 were intended as bills of exchange against 'national property' (chiefly the confiscated church lands); they rapidly turned into a paper currency which progressively lost its face value as more and more *assignats* were printed, with insufficient gold and silver backing.

4 The annexation of the Papal *enclave* at Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin, not completed until September 1791.

5 Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet (1743–94), *philosophe,* politician and pamphleteer. Although not elected to the National Assembly until September 1791 he had already on several occasions addressed it and made communications to it. In March 1791 he was appointed by Louis XVI one of the six commissioners of the Treasury and the report mentioned may be one signed by himself and four others entitled: *Rapport sur le choix d'une unité de mesure, lu à l'Académie des Sciences le 19 Mars 1791,* Paris, 1791, 12 pp. Condorcet went into hiding during the Terror, but was found and poisoned himself in prison.

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 3 May 1791

Paris 3d May 1791

Dear Brother,

273

 I arrived here yesterday morning, and as my first business was to go to the Post Office. I there found yours of the 1st and another of the 5th April.2 In the course of the day I called on Gautier, who, upon learning my Name asked if I was not the Author of some Pamphlets relating to the present State of this Country, in short, took me for you, and upon finding I knew nothing of any such productions of yours he gave me seven small Pamphlets of your's with another entitled A Sketch of the Reign of George the 3d.3 I have only dipped into them as yet, but am very anxious for your pursuing the Subject for reasons to be discussed when we meet. Gautier said nothing of the Translation of Usury. He has a packet for me to bring for Mr Romilly, but I think he said he had nothing from Dumont.

You seem not only to expect but in a slight degree to wish me to stay here till I can hear from you in answer to This; my stay here promises to be pleasant enough to make me stay an indefinite time but my anxiety to reach England increases as I approach it, the more so, as if I delay, People whom I should otherwise see, will have quitted town and be dispersed. I may perhaps come to some determination before this is dispatched as the Post does not go out these two days. I should like to make acquaintance with Duke de Rochefoucault on account of the active part he ostensibly at least has in the present arrangements the more so as I have a letter for him from an Intimate of his a German compte Sickergen,4 an

**767.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 246–8. The first part of the letter, as far as the paragraph ending 'overawed by party Spirit' (p. 276) is a copy in Jeremiah Bentham's hand and docketed: 'Copy / Col. Bentham's letter dated / Paris May 3d 1791.' The second part, evidently not forwarded to his father by Jeremy for obvious reasons, is in Samuel's own hand and is docketed: '1791 May 3 / S.B. Paris / to / J.B. Bedford Row / Reced at Hendon / May 9th.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / to the care of William Browne Esqr / Bedford Row / London.' Postmark: 'MA/9/91'.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 756 and what is quoted by Bowring in letter 759.

3 See letter 759 n. 3.

<sup>4</sup> Probably a mis-reading by Jeremiah of 'Sickengen' in the missing original. Karl Heinrich Joseph, Graf von Sickengen had been the representative of the Palatinate

Intimate and I may say an Admirer of mine, the only German whom I much admire, and the only male liason I found for the making in Vienna. I seem to be here in no want of acquaintance conducive to any objects I may have in view. A letter which I brought from Prince de Ligne5 of Vienna (whom I forgot in speaking above of his Countrymen) to the Marquise de Coigny6 , might have alone be[en] sufficient for my purposes; I have besides here an intimate Russian Army comrade the young Duke de Richlieu. He is 2 or 3 days ago returned from England, and seems disposed to give me most of his time during my Stay. He invited me yesterday to dine at his House but I made him rather take me to a Table d'Hôte, where there might be more to be seen and heard. In the evening we were with Made Coigny and Lady Gower7 at the Theatre de Monsieur, and this evening I am to call on Lady Gower to go with her to another theatre, where we shall profit for, perhaps, the last time of my friend Richlieu's Aristocratical Privilege of the best Box, which was attached to his Post. He tells me at least that it seems nearly settled that he should give up his Place, and leave all open for the new men that are to be put about the King. Lord Gower I have not yet seen. Mr Simolin8 was mighty civil. I dine with him today. If I determine to go to Court, that will keep me till about Tuesday next. The Anglinensi[?] is so great here that people affect not only our Dress, but even our awkwardnesses, half the young men one meets are indistinguishable by sight from Englishmen. In Italy, and even in Germany one sees the same disposition in some degrees. I have sent to find out Mrs Perkins,9

in France, 1768–77, and minister plenipotentiary of Bavaria to France, 1777–91. He died in Vienna on 31 July 1791.

5 Charles Joseph, prince de Ligne (1735–1815), an Austrian subject born in Brussels, who fought in the Seven Years' War, became a favourite successively of Maria Theresa, Joseph II and Catherine the Great of Russia, whom he accompanied on the excursion to the Crimea. He distinguished himself at the siege of Belgrade (1789) and ended as a field-marshal. He was also a patron of learning, who knew Voltaire and Rousseau.

6 Samuel must mean the notorious duchesse de Coigny: Anne Françoise Aimée de Franquelot de Coigny (1769–1822), whose husband had been a marquis when she married him in 1785.

7 Elizabeth Sutherland (1765–1839) was Countess of Sutherland in her own right. In 1785 she married George Granville Leveson-Gower, who became Earl Gower in 1786 and was British ambassador in Paris, 1790–2. In 1833, after a long public career and the acquisition of vast estates, he was created Duke of Sutherland.

8 Ivan Matveyevich Simolin, Russian diplomat, who had been envoy to Britain (1779–85) and then went to France (1785–1800). See *Correspondence,* ii and iii, especially iii, 261–2.

<sup>9</sup> Probably the Mrs Perkins, friend of Mrs William Browne of Bedford Row,

and have for answer that she will be at home and glad to see me any time in the afternoon. I was mighty glad to hear from Lord Gower yesterday that in all probability matters will be settled between my two Countries without coming to blows, however great the superiority of English Sailors, dear must it cost to get the better of a Country, the resources of which are indefinite, and where no one dares or even is disposed to oppose their being expended at the will of an obstinate Sovereign. At Dinner at Simolin's we were only Three, but at the same time perfectly three distinct persons, partaking no wise the character of Unity, for Paul Jones10 was the Third. After dinner I made another fruitless attempt on Rochefoucault. In the evening Lady Gower, Lady Sutherland I mean, took me to call on Made Coigny, and we three went to Richlieu's box at the Opera, where we found him mightily pleased at having reced news of the Cross of St. George being given him for his Ismail's Exploits. You will easily conceive that such company with good Music made me well contented with my Existence. This morning I stayed at home reading chiefly your Productions, waiting for a Ticket of Admittance to the Assemblée Nationale till half past one when Richlieu called on me to make some Visits. At going out I found a note from Made Coigny inviting me to Supper and enclosing the order of admission which by mistake had been left at the Porter's. Richlieu was engaged to dinner so that I was reduced for the first time that I remember to make a Dinner by myself. I made him however direct my Servant to what to bring me and there I got a good dinner at least and met a Vienna acquaintance whom I had dined with at Prince de Ligné's, also the Commander of a Sloop who had been in the South Seas since Perouse.11 After dinner Richlieu came and took me to the Opera Box, and when we parted I went to Made Coigny's. We were a small Party of one female besides herself and of four Males, I believe I was the oldest. The Politiques of the Day afforded much Conversation but whatever the subject might be, it was treated pleasantly; with one of them I got on Philosophical Subjects in

London, whom Jeremy himself had visited on the way through Paris in August 1785 (see *Correspondence,* iii, 360).

<sup>10</sup> Admiral John Paul Jones, with whom Samuel had been associated in the Russian navy (see letter 627, p. 3 and n. 8). Jones had come to France in 1790, after visits to several other countries. He returned to Paris, after a short trip to London, in May 1790 and lived there until his death on 18 July 1792 (S. E. Morison, *John Paul Jones: a Sailor's Biography,* Boston, Mass., 1959, pp. 391–406).

<sup>11</sup> Jean François de Galaup de la Perouse (1741–88), French circumnavigator.

which occasionally all joyned and [. ..?]12 and some others he is to make me acquainted with and as he is a member of the Assemblée, he calls on me tomorrow morning to take me there. As it was near two o'clock when I came home it is time I should go to sleep. I wonder at myself giving you all these details, it is a long while I have been out of the habit of giving them to anybody. At Turin and at Genoa I passed my time in much the same way, about a week at Each place, but I never could prevail on myself to write a word. I believe it is the satisfaction in having at last received Letters from you that move[s] me.

Last night supt at Made Coigny's according to a formal Invitation given me at my presenting my Letter of Introduction.

Beaumarteau13 was of the party and entertained us by reading a new piece of his, a continuation of the Marriage of Figaro, but mighty pathetic. He kept us till five in the morning hearing the overflowings of his amour propre delivered with Elegance.

I am just come from the Assemblée Nationale where the making small notes and bad Copper to change them against was debated with much Vehemence. The very few who had tolerable clear Ideas on that part of political economy were scarcely heard and perfectly overawed by party Spirit.14

Now for discussing the article of arriving, aboding, figuring etc. You tell me to come first straight to Mr Browne's, from thence to you. Certainly this is what I would most wish: but when Q.S.P. knows this will it not give him real uneasiness? know it he will, for he will question and I cannot lye, with my tongue, yes: but so many precautions necessary to deceive that not worth while to save him the degree of suffering.

With respect to my abode he has written to me to Leghorn that my mother has set about preparing a bed and chamber for me: to this I shall now answer that from the impossibility of conforming

12 Illegible and not identified.

14 The next paragraph begins the part of the letter in Samuel's own hand: a part obviously not sent on by Jeremy to his father because it discusses how to avoid offending him by Samuel's expression of a wish to lodge elsewhere than at Queen's Square Place.

<sup>13</sup> Clearly a mistake (perhaps made by the copyist, Jeremiah Bentham, and not in the lost original), for 'Beaumarchais', whose comedy *La Folle Journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro* had had an unprecedented success in Paris in 1784. Pierre Augustin Caron (1732–99) added 'De Beaumarchais' to his name after his first marriage to a wealthy widow. The sequel to the *Barber of Seville* and *Figaro,* which Samuel heard him read, was *L'Autre Tartufe ou La Mère Coupable.* It was the last considerable work of Beaumarchais, first performed in Paris on 6 June 1792 and a comparative failure. The text is in E. Fournier: *Œuvres complètes de Beaumarchais,* Paris, 1876, pp. 165–96.

myself to the regularity of his house I should be a very inconvenient lodger, and that I will by no means expose myself to giving him in that way uneasiness: how or where I mean to lodge I shall say nothing. He will conclude I have w〈ritte〉n to you and perhaps may enquire in which case you 〈may say what you?〉 please. If you would quit your Zadobras that 〈we may be〉 together while I am in town it is your con〈venience〉 that should be most consulted in the lodgings: but if you call that being *idle,* and have no other way of disposing of me find me a Lodging of 3 rooms in a good part of the Town. I hope to spend but little time in town and rather to visit such of my friends as will take me in at their country houses. When I left Jassy having no servant but Russians with me, I left them and was served in the road by those of my travelling companions: so that unless I find a prodigy I shall come to England without any. There I must find a man who dresses hair and shaves to make a valet de chambre of, and I suppose while in Town I must have a carriage and consequently another servant. A carriage I would buy to take with me to Russia, and a pair of horses likewise as without that I must have to hire 6 ordinary horses at Petersburg according to what will probably there be my rank: but I suppose job horses best while in England as they may be taken and let go occasionally.

I have fixed no time for my stay in England. Letters from Russia, treatment and pleasure in England in various ways must influence.

I cannot tell you for certain if I shall wait your answer or not before I set off. I rather believe I shall not: but least [lest?] I should write to me immediately as before *post restante.* Write to me also at Dover, and let me know if you would still have me call at Bedford Row or [go] straight to Q.S.P. and from there to you. If I find no letter I shall go to Bedford Row.

### 7681

### T <sup>o</sup> S i r C h a r <sup>l</sup> e s B u n b u r y

#### 6 May 1791 (Aet 43)

Sir

 On calling on friday last at my friend Mr Browne's no 9 Bedford Row, I found the Paper relative to the Settlements in New

**<sup>768.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxix: 83. Autograph rough draft, with headnote: 'Sent a fair draft of this with great additions and alterations May 6th 1791 by a Gray's Inn Porter'.

South Wales for which I am indebted to your obliging remembrance of me.2 How long it had lain there, or how it found its way thither from Lincoln's Inn to which place it was directed, I had no opportunity of learning, the family not being in town.3 Any further communications that may be too bulky for the post, I must beg the favour of you to transmitt /if too bulky for the post/ to me by one or other of the Hendon Carriers who set off from the Bell and the Bull in Holborn.

The establishment in question presents a truly curious scene of absurdity /imbecility/ improvidence and extravagance.4 The impossibility of success in every imaginable point of view stands demonstrated /is painted/ upon the very face of the accounts in the most glaring colours: though the inconveniences attending it are less instead of greater than a priori there was reason to expect, though the proofs of its ineligibility have instead of going beyond reasonable /natural/ expectation have fallen short of it.

I feel myself strongly tempted to give /attempt/ before the public a sketch /slight picture/ of it as soon as I have a little leisure.5 I do not see how it is possible for any gentleman to include so large a field in the compass of a speech. The field seems to be too extensive to be comprized by /embraced in the compass of/ a single speech in Parliament.

Were demonstration to be given, as irrefrangable as any in [history?] would it stand any chance of producing any good effect? /answer any good/ on Ministry, on Parl's purpose or in the [country?] I have great doubts about it, in this, and in every thing and

2 No doubt one of the papers concerning New South Wales laid on the table of the House of Commons on 8 April 1791. Bunbury, supported by Joseph Jekyll, had called for such papers on 9 February and again on 21 February, with reference to the failure to pass a bill for reformation of offenders in the previous session, the bad state of the jails and the need for new penitentiaries in Britain, even though 'The necessity of transportation was universally allowed' (a sentiment with which Bentham would not have agreed). Debrett: *Parliamentary Register,* 1790–91, xxviii, 343–6 and 399–401; 1791, xxix, 81–96 (copies of papers).

3 Marginal note: 'My present abode not being at Linc Inn'.

4 Marginal note: 'I mean on the part of those who planned not on the part of those who have conducted it'.

5 Marginal insertion: 'I hope and /dare believe/ trust you will represent the principal features of it in their proper colours. But'. Bentham had begun to collect material on the convict settlement as part of his Panopticon campaign (e.g. U.C. cxix, 33–100; clxix, 179–200), leading to his pamphlet, *Proposal for a new and less expensive Mode of employing and reforming Convicts,* 1792, and the later extensive essays: *Panopticon versus New South Wales, in Letters to Lord Pelham: a Comparison of the Panopticon System with the Transportation,* 1802, and *A Plea for the Constitution, an Exposure of the Illegalities committed in the Government of New South Wales,* 1802, reprinted in Bowring, iv, 173–248 and 249–84.

of parliament in particular.6 I doubt the disposition of the public is to give carte blanche to the Ministry, and that of the Ministry of course to take it.

May I take the liberty of asking you whether you or the gentlemen you act with have any thing determinate to come forward with in relation to the Penitentiary-System: any specific plan of construction, any specific plan of management, any calculation with regard to the expense. Whether upon comparison of the two you look upon Mr Blackburne's7 plan as preferable to mine: or rather of what mine might be made to be: if so, on what are the principal points on which the preference turns? Could you favour me in that event with any specific objections that I might either recognize the justice of them, which if convinced of it I would do without reserve, or do my endeavours to answer /obviate/ them now before the publication of my book is compleated.

The object and result of the communication made to Parlt. should have been to shew to how much a head per annum the expence has amounted and may be expected to amount to—This is not stated—and from the data I do not see how it can be collected. Were any calculations of this sort made at the time of planning the establishment?8 Might it not be of use to ask them in Parlt. either one of four things—they would produce their calculations—they would confess they had made none—or they would be silent—or they would expressly refuse to answer—In any of these events the question would not be thrown away.

Some time ago I took the liberty of sending you a copy of the Irish edition of the original Letters which comprise the body of my book—I now send the first part of the Postscript which is printing here: along with the 2d part when compleated will be sent the reimpression of the Letters.

On what grounds can they think of defending it? As the mere ground of a drain provision for carrying off convicts? It is of all the most expensive, to say nothing of good morals. As a scheme for colonialism with a view to /national wealth by/ the increase of

<sup>6</sup> Marginal addition: 'Are there an[y] people in Parliament or elsewhere that would attend to it'.

<sup>7</sup> Marginal addition: 'When your more important engagements admitted of your bestowing so much time upon the subject as to cast an eye over the sheets I now send it would /interest me much/ be a satisfaction great advantage to me to know'. For Blackburn's plan, see above, p. 172, n. 5.

<sup>8</sup> Marginal insertion: 'in order that in this point of view / a ...[two lines illegible] this mode of disposal of convicts in comparison with the several others that are in competition with it'.

trade, it is surely of all that9 [ever] was or could be devised the most hopeless.

You will see /observe/ me fighting the present Penitentiary Act: it is not for the pleasure of fighting it, but because the continuance /so great a part/ of it is absolutely incompatible with the only plan of management that appears to me an eligible one.

### 7691

### T <sup>o</sup> J e r e m i a h B e n t h a m

#### 9 May 1791 (Aet 43)

Hendon May 9 1791

Hond Sir,

 I began to be rather uneasy at hearing nothing from my Brother: if you have experienced any such Uneasiness on your part the Inclosed will serve to remove it.

> Yours dutifully and affectionately JB

To Jeremiah Bentham Esqr Queen's Square Place Westminster

### 7701

### T <sup>o</sup> R <sup>e</sup> <sup>g</sup> i n a <sup>l</sup> <sup>d</sup> P <sup>o</sup> <sup>l</sup> <sup>e</sup> C a r e w

#### *c.* 9 May 1791 (Aet 43)

 Here is another of *nous autres intrigans* coming upon the stage —a certain Knight and Colonel *in partibus*—I shall have him come and elbow me and say—What business have you to be protected by Mr Pole Carew? What business have you with my ideas?—That I may not use him any worse than robbing him, here follows a

9 Marginal alternative wording: 'which whether the most unpleasant or no is certainly that which affords the clearest results'.

**769.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. XXII: 469. Copy by Jeremiah Bentham, followed by a copy of the first part of the letter of 3 May (767) from Samuel Bentham, to which it clearly refers.

**770.** <sup>1</sup> Pole Carew Mss. Autograph. No docket, date, or address. The letter of 9 May from Pole Carew (771) would appear to have crossed this one, as it makes no reference to the news of Samuel's arrival in Paris.

passage out of a letter I received an age ago from him, and which I ought to have told you of when I saw you last.2

'Have you any intercourse at present with Carew and the quondam Harrises?3 I suppose little with the former, and none with the latter. It will cost not much trouble to let me know of a little of their present situation and how to direct to them, and I should much wish to find them out were I to come to England. Miss Gorman (?)4 I think was placed some how or other about the Queen or her daughters. If you can give me any news of her or her father, pray do. With respect to Pole Carew, I have a mind to write him a long letter; but as to will it and to write it are very different I can not engage myself to it.'

So far the aforesaid gentleman—he was then I don't-know-where all—he is now at Paris—after having been at Vienna, and Turin, and I don't know where besides. A few days more may bring him to England—so that you have escaped his long letter, which, reckoning it at the length of this is no bad riddance. Let me now then at last assure you with what truth I am,

> My dear Sir, Your most obliged humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

2 Bentham is informing Pole Carew of his brother's arrival in Paris. The earlier letter of Samuel, from which Bentham quotes, is missing.

3 That is, Sir James Harris and his wife, Harriot, who had become Baron and Baroness Malmesbury in 1788 and were later to become Earl and Countess of Malmesbury (1800). They had been well-known to Samuel and to Pole Carew when Harris was British ambassador at St Petersburg (1777–83). See *Correspondence,* iii, passim.

4 He must mean Miss Jane Gomm, who was mentioned in a letter from him of 23 October 1783 from St Petersburg (*Correspondence,* iii, 216 and n. 5). She is listed in the *Royal Kalendar* for the years 1787–1813 as English teacher in the royal nursery of Queen Charlotte. Her father, William Gomm (1728–92), had worked as a contractor for the Russian government, constructing the port of Onega on the White Sea. After the failure of his enterprises his friend, Sir James Harris, made him his secretary at the British Embassy in St Petersburg and later at the Hague (see Francis Carr-Gomm, ed., *Letters and Journals of Field-Marshal Sir William Maynard Gomm,* 1881, p. 23).

### 7711

### F r o m R e g i n a l d P o l e C a r e w 9 May 1791

Dear Sir

 I have not been unmindful of your wishes, tho' I have not been able to forward their accomplishment. Mr Steele2 has more than once spoken to Mr Pitt upon the Subject of your Proposal, and the Minister has promised to consider of it, but amidst the Multiplicity of Business now crowding upon Him I do not wonder if he has not yet been able to give it that Consideration which it deserves.

In the meantime I accidentally fell in with Mr Adam—the Architect a few Days ago who has been turning his Thoughts to the building of a Penitentiary House at Edinburgh which is in Contemplation.3 The Subject is new to him and I having mentioned that an ingenious Friend of mine had invented a Building which promised to unite in it many singular advantages for such a purpose, he is very desirous of seeing the Plan and would be very ready I doubt not to communicate any Observations that might occur to him after seeing it, and be much obliged for the Lights which he would receive from it. As His is to be erected in another Country, it will not interfere with yours and as I conceive you to be more interested in the success of a good Thing, as an object of Publick Utility than of any Private Benefit, I presume you will have no Objection to communicate with Mr Adam upon the Subject. But I have been so prudent hitherto as not to mention your name to him, that you might use your own Discretion in that Respect. Adam lives in Albemarle Street.

I will not forget to seize any Opportunity that shall appear to be

**771.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 249. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 May 9 / P Carew / Charles Street / Berkeley Sq. / to / J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'Jeremiah Bentham Esq. / at Dollis's / Hendon / Middx.' Franked: 'London May 9 1791 Free R Carew'. Postmark: '9/M/91'.

Printed in Bowring, x, 252–3.

2 Thomas Steele. See above, p. 229, n. 3.

3 Robert Adam (1728–92), the architect, of Adelphi fame. His improvements in Edinburgh included three designs for a new gaol, 'proposed to be situated upon Calton Hill'. The foundation stone for the new Bridewell, which was part of the scheme, was laid on 30 November 1791, but Robert Adam did not live to see the buildings completed. His brother, James, took over responsibility and corresponded with Bentham (see below, letters 848 and 850). The original designs are among the Adam drawings in the Soane Museum, London. See A. T. Bolton, *The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1758–94,* 2 vols., 1922.

favourable for promoting your wishes with the Minister, but I am afraid that during this Session there is little Hope. Believe me

> Sincerely Yours R. Pole Carew

May 9— 1791

### 7721

### T <sup>o</sup> R o b e r t H o b a r t

#### *c.* 9 May 1791 (Aet 43)

Sir

283

 It is some time since I concluded that the Penitentiary project on your side of the water was at an end, or at least my share in it. You inform me that the Book is now printed and could be delivered, if the Postscript were complete.2 Hence I learn that it is not yet delivered, nor untill the Postscript be complete, is to be. Sir J. Parnell seemed not to want the Postscript: liking the book as it stands at present. My answer was that as to that matter it might be as he pleased: provided the plan as there expressed had many imperfections in it which the attention I had bestowed upon it in consequence of that with which it had been honoured in Ireland had enabled me to cure: but that rather than the season should be lost or any favourable occasion let slip I had no objection to the Letters being made public provided it were made equally public, that the defects which might come to be discovered in it would probably not be without a remedy. It is now a long time since I sent him an Introduction and Advertisement to be printed and annexed to it with that view.

My directions have been all along to send you the sheets as fast as printed off: and these directions /which directions I am assured/ have all along been observed;3 the speed with which they succeed one another will depend upon the operations of the press. If /it be material to you to know/ you wish to know to a day when it will/ I could by the time an answer from you arrives inform you I believe

**<sup>772.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 30–32. Autograph rough draft, with many corrections and some gaps. No docket, date or address. Pencil headings on each page 'To Hob'. The reference to the sessions of parliament being at an end indicates a date soon after 5 May, when the Irish House of Commons adjourned until the end of the year.

<sup>2</sup> The communication from Hobart is missing.

<sup>3</sup> Marginal addition: 'As far as p. 80 making the 5th sheet of Part 2d will I believe wait on you by this post'.

within a few days, and perhaps my reply and the last sheet may come at the same time. But now the Sessions is at an end, I do not for my own part see how days or weeks or even months can make any difference.

You will have the goodness to excuse my confessing that I am not sure whether I apprehend right the object of your letter. If it be to get the sheets as fast as they are printed off, it is what has been all along done, or the assurances I have from time to time received in consequence of my directions have been false. If it be to convey to me an intimation that the despatch the business has met with on this side of the water has not corresponded to expectations that have been entertained on yours and a desire to have the delay accounted for it is a desire I could very easily comply with and should now comply with were I sure of /satisfied/ of its /existence/ being entertained.

I thought the body of the work had been long ago published— Past letters of mine shew how I came to think so.

I thought the project had been long ago at an end: at least my share in it.

I should not have /imagined/ that dispatch at this time could make any difference: Your Parlt. there does it meet again before next winter?

My Postscript has a good deal of matter in it which would not have been there had I conceived myself to be working for Ireland. A more extensive plan after having been so long pursued can not be suddenly contracted. The book will certainly be out of the press here within a fortnight from this day.

Sir J.P.4 /before he leaves Ireland/ will have the goodness before he leaves Ireland to turn to a list of memorandums given him at his desire.

I received some time ago £42 odd from Sir J. Parnell. On Friday I am assured the account will be in readiness to send you.

The difficulty of expressing the parts of a cylindrical building on a flat surface will I doubt leave the plates intelligible to few, notwithstanding the pains taken with the explanation of them. If it be designed to take the sense of the public, I do not see how it can be fairly taken without a model, which any man who has an exhibition of any kind at Dublin, would I suppose be glad to add to it and rather consent to pay for it, especially if given him by authority, than expect to be paid. Mr Dance5 the Architect, who

<sup>4</sup> Sir John Parnell, who would be coming to London.

<sup>5</sup> George Dance, junior (1741–1825), architect, patronised by Lord Lansdowne,

gives the plan the most thorough approbation and with great candour prefers it to his own Newgate for a prison as well as to his own St. Lukes for an Hospital, tells me a model may be had for about £25.

My letters,6 if burnt paper could be recalled into existence, could afford a list and that not an inconsiderable one of questions and of requests some of them I hope not very unreasonable: the same list which might also serve for promises, for non-performances, for perplexities in consequence, not to mention expences that can not be charged.

Occupations /Business/ of superior importance will justify as well as account for the fate which /that /has hitherto attended the inconsiderable one/ the trifling one/ with which I have been concerned. But if the time of sufficient leisure on your side the water is really arrived my capacity of service depends upon the degree of assurance I am able to entertain of a measure of attention /sort of encouragement/ exactly the reverse of /diametrically opposed to/ of which that I have hitherto experienced will serve for a perfect model in the way of contrast.7

My pace is that of the Sloth or that of the greyhound according as I find spurs. It is not in my power to write quick under the persuasion that what /whatever/ I write will be to no purpose.

I write desiring the book may be printed in a certain form—I receive no answer, and the book is printed in a different one.

I write desiring that the number of copies printed may be 1250 that on paying for them I may have 750 for this country. I /depend on/ lay my account with receiving that number, and abstain from printing it here in consequence. No notice taken. I find out the Printer by accident, and I find that no more are printed than 500.

I send a sheet with a few /emendations/ corrections and additions: desiring that if any of them /if any/ as could not be engrafted onto the body of the book [they] might be printed at the end of it. No notice taken. The book comes over and none of them are in it.

I send an Introduction and an Advertisement to be inserted at the end—No notice taken—No Introduction no Advertisement.

I send an /explanatory sketch/ outline first in Ms then in print to be sent if approved of to the newspapers. No notice taken No such sketch published that I know of.

Sir Francis Baring and other friends of Bentham. Newgate Prison and St Luke's Hospital, London, were among his well-known works.

7 Marginal addition: 'Excuse my frankness, I speak plainly: but I bear no malice.'

<sup>6</sup> Several more letters from Bentham, in addition to those of which drafts survive, are implied, but these are missing.

I send request after request that I may have a few copies of what is printed—at my own expence, and by the post for speed without regard to the expence—I send an order for that purpose for the Printer, requiring nothing but a signature—No copies no notice— But a fortnight or three weeks after the last request come six copies by the Messenger.

I beg to know what are the numbers actually printed, that I may know what to do about reprinting here. No notice: but having made discovery of the Printer for the first time by his name in the title page, I write to him, and learn it at last from him

I sent amongst other things an Introduction to be prefixed to the *Letters* on the supposition of their being printed. It is not annexed to any of the 6 copies that have been sent me. I stand much at a loss if I have it not in some shape. If it be not printed, I should be glad to have the Ms back again if it be in existence. I suspect that the use of it is in great part superseded by this time.

### 7731

### T <sup>o</sup> S i r J o h n P a r n e ll

*c.* 9 May 1791 (Aet 43)

Dear Sir

 It is as I said. I have kicked the Penitentiary-business out of doors. It is not a little flattering to me to think of the negative I possess on the measures of his Majesty's Government in Ireland. I look upon myself as a fourth estate. Is there any other measure you Gentlemen in administration speak well of, and would wish to have knocked on the head. You know where to apply. This job has cost you £92 odd shillings. The next may perhaps be done cheaper: the few pounds I have added to it of my own are /have/ not /been/ all laid out in the purchase of so capital a share in Government.

You say We have not got your Postscript2 yet—but indeed you have not—Heaven knows when you will.3

You grew tired of it: I did the same. Ennui is catching. Some contagions are caught by letters: a more subtile medium the negation of letters infected me. I am of an obsequious frame—

**<sup>773.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 53. Autograph rough and incomplete draft. No docket, address or date. It would seem to be about the same date as letter 772.

<sup>2</sup> That is, the Postscript to *Panopticon.*

<sup>3</sup> Marginal addition: 'Some prophets can prophecy whatever they have a mind [to] and as fast as they have a mind. I am not of that race. I am like Balak the son of

si dixeris aestuo, sudo4 . As soon as the thing became a bore to you, I found it out by sympathy—it became a bore to me.

### 7741

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x

#### *c.* 9 May 1791 (Aet 43)

 Tell me, said I, nine days ago, either that I have not offended, or that I am forgiven. Ten days which have elapsed since, have lowered my pretensions. Tell me now, it would be a kindness done to me, that I *have* offended, and am *not* to be forgiven. Bid your maid or your man tell me so. Anything would be a favour in comparison of this inexplicable silence. For five minutes together I cannot fix my thoughts to any other subject. My business is retarded, my spirits sunk, and my health hurt by it. The post, if I wait for it, reaches between one and two: if I go to meet it, as I have frequently, at about twelve, the hours that precede that time are wasted in anxiety, those which follow it in disappointment and despondence.2 There goes two, and there is an end of hope for the remainder of the day. The causes of your silence were not difficult to imagine. I left nothing to imagination. I begged for an immediate answer, in words which surely did not indicate unconcern. Ten days you will believe have hardly lessened it. Surely these were not the sentiments which commenced the correspondence—What, what is it I have done to alter them?

I have a long letter from my brother, which, if it came from a person not related to me, you would find an interesting one.3 Your circle contains the only persons with whom I could trust it: no one else so much as knows of its existence. In the condition I am in I can

Zippor: what the Ld puts into my mouth that do I speak. And when those who profess to cooperate with me are mute, the Ld gives me no instructions. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.'

Bentham's recollection of the Old Testament was inaccurate: it was Balaam who said to Balak 'the word that God putteth in my mouth that shall I speak' (*Numbers,* xxiii, 38).

<sup>4</sup> 'If you say I feel hot, I sweat.'

**774.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 277. No date given. Introduced immediately after letter 765 with the statement: 'Another letter has this passage.' The allusion to 'a long letter' from his brother, not yet answered, may refer to Samuel's communication of 3 May 1791 (letter 767), which Bentham received on 9 May and answered the same day. That would seem to indicate 9 May as the date of this letter also.

2 Bentham was evidently residing at Hendon when he wrote this letter (see letter 775).

<sup>3</sup> Probably letter 767.

neither send it you, nor, what is worse, answer it, though it requires an answer, and that a speedy one.

If this is to continue how bitter will be the remembrance of former favour! The kinder your letter was, the less I can bear to look at it.

If an advocate were needful, I should have hoped to have found one not far from you: but friends and advocates, I think, are all gone.

My great employment has been hunting for grounds of self accusation: no very pleasant one, while the bushes are beating, and still less where game has been found. Was it ever yours? I suppose not: may you never have the experience in it that I have!

If I have offended has not my punishment been sufficient?

### 7751

### T <sup>o</sup> S a m u e <sup>l</sup> B e n t h a m

#### 9 May 1791 (Aet 43)

Hendon, Middlesex, Monday, 9th May, 1791

 You are a noodle. Nobody will think of stirring from town these two months; the parliament, at least, will not break up till that time. I stated the doubt to Lord Lansdowne, and possibly he may answer it.

I send him your letter, (*i.e.* the first sheet,)2 as I have done all the letters. At his house you will find ladies prepared to like you, and who do not dislike me; but proud, and virgins, and the most terrible of prudes.

Ask your philosophical friends about the discovery, or pretended discovery, of a Mr Trouvelle,3 who undertakes to empty the sea and carry the water up to the clouds, and is patronised, and the thing ordered to be done, by the National Assembly. This is scarcely exaggeration. Yes, your kind letter came to me at once. You have, indeed, no need to call at Browne's, unless you choose it, provided

**<sup>775.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 253. Probably not the whole letter, as Bentham is likely to have written more fully in reply to Samuel's one of 3 May (letter 767).

<sup>2</sup> The first sheet was the one copied by Jeremiah (see letter 767, n. 1).

<sup>3</sup> Jean Baptiste Emmanuel Hermand de Trouville (1746–1813), hydraulic engineer, who put forward many startling projects, including the one to which Bentham refers —a machine for carrying rivers and even seas over mountains, considered by the National Assembly in September 1790.

you can find a place for your baggage *ad interim*; but that as you please. The person I spoke of is still much at your service.

### 7761

### T o K i n g G e o r g e t h e T h i r d

#### 11 May 1791 (Aet 43)

May it please Your Majesty,—

 The enclosed account of an amphibious vehicle for the conveyance of armies, with their appendages, is an extract of a letter from my younger brother, Samuel Bentham, a colonel in the Russian service. The regiment of which it speaks was given him for his services in the defeat of the Captain Bashaw, off Oczakoff, in October, 1789, together with the order of St George, which he has your Majesty's gracious permission for wearing in his own country.

The invention struck me at first glance as that sort of one which a subject of your Majesty's ought not to make public, without first using his humble endeavours to know your Majesty's pleasure. Bridges rendered needless: rivers, the broadest and most rapid, no obstacles to the largest army,—all by a modification given to the structure of a baggage-wagon! Expense saved too, instead of increased. The contrivance as simple as it has been proved to be effectual. Long, very long may it be, before any demand occurs for an invention of any such nature, in your Majesty's immediate service! But even now, in the East Indies, perhaps, it might have its use. Had General Howe, or Lord Cornwallis, or General Burgoyne, been thus provided—But I will not any farther obtrude upon wisdom the suggestions of ignorance.2

In its infant state, it appears to have been practised with approbation in the Russian army; but the subsequent improvements which place the importance of it in a very different light, do not appear to have been ever known there. Detesting barbarity, the

**<sup>776.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 260–1. Introduced by the statement: 'The discovery of his brother, to which reference is made in the correspondence from Zadobras, Bentham was induced to bring to the notice of George the Third; but I cannot find that any answer was given to the letter, which I have found among Bentham's papers, even if it was forwarded to the King.'

No such letter appears to be among the royal archives at Windsor Castle.

<sup>2</sup> The implicit thought is that the outcome of the American War of Independence might have been different if Samuel's device had been available to the three best known British generals involved: William Howe, Viscount Howe (1729–1814), Charles Cornwallis, 2nd Earl Cornwallis (1738–1805), and John Burgoyne (1722–92).

regiment he has chosen, is in a station many thousand miles distant from the seat of war. As far as depends upon myself, the idea remains a secret even to my father, whom I have accordingly been obliged to leave in ignorance of the whole letter, though full of little personal matters, such as a father would have been glad to see. Unqualified of myself to determine whether publication in such a case, be, or be not, a matter of indifference, I have hitherto abode by the old rule—*'Quod dubitas ne feceris.'* Submitting the determination thus absolutely, and in the first instance, to the first and most competent of all judges, I have fulfilled what appears to me the duty of a good subject. If, within a month from the present date, I receive no commands from your Majesty to the contrary, my doubts will be resolved; and I shall conclude myself in possession of your Majesty's permission to speak of this invention, as a man might of any other, without reserve.

Being in the track of presumption, I will presume so much further, as to lay at your Majesty's feet an invention of a very different nature, of which, though the superstructure be my own, the fundamental idea originated with the same person,—a sort of building, which I call a Panopticon; because to an eye stationed towards the centre, it exhibits everything that passes within it at a view. Your Majesty's approbation, could the man of science and humanity be consulted at my humble distance from the King, would be one of the first honours it could receive. It has been brought to its present state from the first crude conception, as exhibited in the first of the enclosed plates, at the desire of your Majesty's servants in Ireland, in the view of its being made use of *there. Here,* (not to mention the other purposes to which it might be applicable,) one-half, at least, of the present expense of maintaining *felons* might be saved by it at the first outset; and that without prejudice to the settlement in New South Wales; to which, considered in the light of a colony, every male, exceeding a small overplus above the number of females, is, in point of morals and population, worse than useless.

The original letters, descriptive of the sort of building, and of its principal uses, refer only to the original rude sketch. The enclosed copy, printed at Dublin, is in the imperfect state (without introduction or advertisement) in which, by mistake, it has been sent to me. I am reprinting it here, together with a postscript, of which the first part gives a detailed account of the invention in its present less imperfect state, including some improvements that have occurred since the engraving of the plates; and the other, of a plan

of management, such as the construction had in view. The reimpression of the letters is nearly finished. The first part of the postscript now accompanies the plates, and the second is in considerable advance. A copy of the whole, when completed, will be sent to your Majesty's library. The sheets now sent may serve till then for the explanation of the plates.

Your Majesty needs not be told to what a disadvantage a building of this nature must be represented on a flat surface. I have thoughts of getting a model made; and, could I flatter myself so far as to hope that your Majesty would condescend to honour it with a glance, I should not hesitate.

I am, with all humble respect, may it please your Majesty, your Majesty's dutiful subject,

Jeremy Bentham

Dollis's, near Hendon, Middlesex,

May 11, 1791.

### 7771

### T <sup>o</sup> R <sup>e</sup> <sup>g</sup> i n a <sup>l</sup> <sup>d</sup> P <sup>o</sup> <sup>l</sup> <sup>e</sup> C a r e w

#### 11 May 1791 (Aet 43)

Wedny, evening May 11—1791

Dear Sir

 The Printer has not made the progress, I find that, he assured me some time ago he actually had done—I have therefore no copy at present in readiness to send to Mr Steel—There is enough however in readiness to answer any purpose of Mr Adam's: I accordingly take the liberty of troubling you with a copy for him, which I have not directed to him not knowing which of the Mr Adam's it is, nor what his Xtian name—I send a duplicate of Postscript Part I containing a description of the building which being in the state in which it is to be published, title page excepted may as well lie upon one of your shelves as in the warehouse—I am, dear Sir,

with the utmost thankfulness, Ever Your's J. Bentham

2 P.S. The inclosed note you will have the goodness to direct to Mr Adam.

**777.** <sup>1</sup> Pole Carew Mss. Autograph. No docket or address. A reply to letter 771.

2 The postscript is at the top of the page. If a note was sent to Robert Adam with the copy, it is missing.

### 7781

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 12 May 1791

Thursday Morning 8 o'clock

I rec'd yours last night at 11 o'clock too late to answer it.2 I have been considering it since, but am at a loss what to suggest, as things are very much chang'd since my time. I will consider it further against we meet.

I shew'd your Brother's letter as you desir'd, and forwarded it yesterday3 to Queen's Square. As to his Question about the Town's emptying, The Town always empties after the Birth Day— I calculate that we shall be to go about the 1st of June.

As to Lady Ashburton nothing can be done; it will only serve to laugh at when we meet.4 Adieu.

7791

### T <sup>o</sup> S a m u e l B e n t h a m

12 May 1791 (Aet 43)

London, 12th May, 1791.

 No!—it is I that was the noodle; the town always empties immediately after the birth-day, viz., June the 4th,—so says

**778.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 210–11. Autograph. Docketed: 'Ld L. L. House / to J.B. Bedford Row / 1791.'

Addressed: 'To Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / at Mr Brown's / Bedford Row.' Undated, but 12 May, which was a Thursday, seems the likely date (see n. 3 below).

<sup>2</sup> Missing.

<sup>3</sup> Presumably the first part of Samuel's letter of 3 May, received by Jeremy on 9 May (see above, letter 767, n. 1). In B.L. V: 207 is a letter to Jeremiah Bentham, viz. 'Lord Lansdown presents his Compliments to Mr. Bentham and has the pleasure of inclosing to him one of his son's letters, and will send him any other that he may hereafter meet with. / Lansdown House / May 9th'. As Lord Lansdowne refers to forwarding the letter 'yesterday', 11 May, or possibly 10 May, would seem the actual date of sending: there would scarcely have been time by the 9th.

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps a reference to the fact that Lady Ashburton, widow of John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton, was a tenant of Jeremiah Bentham's at No. 19 Duke Street, Westminster ('Ledger, Rental, etc.' of Jeremiah Bentham, 1731–95, B.L. Add. Mss. 37336, fo. 95).

**779.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 253.

Lord L.: he thinks of going the 1st of June; therefore, now you have received this, order horses.2 As to your staying there, it would not be any money in my pocket, which is all I care about; but I thought it was a pity that, being on the spot, you should leave any amusement behind you. But, hark ye! Mr Sir! you must not think of coming to me first—you must alight first upon the land where form is substance . .. As to my looking out for such lodgings for you as will be most convenient for myself, that's your Gallo-Russian palavering: how can I tell when you will come? and how can I tell what friend of yours you would like to live nearest to? There now, away with you to Q.S.P. Have a letter ready for me in your pocket to inform me of your arrival; if it is at the general penny post-office, in the Haymarket, before 9, or at least before 7, I shall have it the next day between 12 and 1, if I happen to walk to the office,—if not, between 1 and 2. If you arrive in town early—for example, about 12 or so—then you may come to breakfast with me the next morning; if not till latish, then you must sleep there, not only that night, but the next. The safest way is, to settle with yourself to stay with them two nights, at all events; that will be sure to satisfy them, and by that time I can have received a letter which will tell me when to expect you.3 Name your hour, and I will meet you at Highgate church, which is a pleasanter road than Hampstead. If I am not there at the time, come on to the White Lion: inquire your

2 A reference to the information given in Lansdowne's letter of 12 May (778), p. 292 above.

<sup>3</sup> Bentham suggests that his brother should spend two nights with their father and stepmother at Queen's Square Place before coming out to Hendon. In a letter to Jeremiah from Paris, dated 12 May, Samuel acknowledged one from his father of 8 March, observing 'You tell me, Sir, that my mother has been so kind as to prepare a bed and chamber for my arrival. I naturally expected that after so long an absence you would be desirous I should take up my abode in your house as a means of our being more together; but give me leave, Sir, to express my fears that perpetual inconvenience might arise to us all from such an arrangement. The kind of regularity which you have been long habituated to and which at your time of life must be particularly necessary to your ease, would be too much interrupted by the different kind of people I may have to do with, and from the late and uncertain hours I must unavoidably keep, unaccustomed as I am to any kind of restraint, an anxiety not to derange your family would destroy all my comfort' (B.L. V: 251–2).

Jeremy had already explained to his father Samuel's wishes and on 13 May Jeremiah wrote to tell the latter: 'On Wednesday the 11th instant your Brother came and dined with us, and gave me the pleasure of knowing you was at Paris, and that I might be dayly in expectation of seeing you...I hope my dear Son, that you will come directly to your Fathers House, which you will find ready to recieve you, and where you may stay as long or as short a time as may be agreable to you. I shall not want to monopolize you, and shall therefore be contented if you should be inclined to make any other Place or House your Head-Quarters . ..' (B.L. V: 253–4).

way for Finchley church, and when you are there, for Dollis's.4 In the great northern road, about a mile or mile and half beyond Highgate, in the way to Barnet, you will come to a nursery-ground in the road. At the top of the hill, on the left hand, is a public-house, called the Bald-faced Stag: at the bottom, before you come to the Bald-faced Stag, is another,—the sign the White Lion, I believe. Close to this White Lion is the stile that goes to Finchley church, which is about a mile distant. You might write to me from Dover, if the post sets out before you do. The place has been lately under repair; everything is dirt and confusion, which you will not mind.

### 7801

### T <sup>o</sup> S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 12 May 1791 (Aet 43)

12th May, 1791.

Spite of parliament, the town will be empty the instant after the birthday—viz., 4th June: so says Lord L., who himself leaves on the 1st. But you will have heard this already from Lord G.: therefore order the horses, and away with you. You will find at the post-office at Dover, a letter in the same strain, in which I have written fuller.2

The letter to Dover contains projects for our meeting,—but not of importance enough to make it by any means worth your while to take that route in preference, should there be anything to attract you towards either the Rouen road, or that by Lille. Taking the latter route, you might see something of the state of affairs in the towns where there has been aristocracy and commotions.

### 7811

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u g h a n

#### mid-May 1791

I have taken much pains with the Bishop of Autun, through a

<sup>4</sup> Bowring has 'Dallis's', obviously a misprint.

**780.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 253–4.

<sup>2</sup> This indicates that letter 779 was sent to Dover, whereas this shorter one went to Samuel's address in Paris in the hope of catching him before he left for England.

**<sup>781.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 255. Placed by Bowring immediately after letter 782 with the introductory note: 'Benjamin Vaughan writes to Bentham, (May, 1791):'.

common friend, respecting weights and measures. I will, some time or other, tell you what I urged. The consequence was, that the Bishop of Autun was stated as saying, in the N(ational) A(ssembly) that the English *approved* of what the French were doing: the very reverse of the fact.2 The last report makes the matter worse than ever, for the reason you mention. I have stated this also; and my friend writes, that he shall speak to Condorcet; but it is all in vain.3 If the French have a right direction, they are ingenious and laborious; but here they miss the mark, from being unacquainted with good instruments, and their use, which, if used, would prove that even the best fall short of the necessary perfection in the case in question.

I shall be glad to see your *warming* scheme for your Panopticon. They have been doing something with the House of Commons within this fortnight.4 The *airing* or *cooling* part of the scheme, if I remember, made no subject of our conversation.

I see English newspapers at free cost, morning and evening. I take in the *Journal des Debats,* and *des Decrets,* (and the *Proces Verbaux,* by volumes only;) but I think I can find you a partner in your *Moniteur,* or *Gazette Nationale,* and send it you with the *Leyden Gazette.*

Return me the enclosed. Burke has lost and Fox gained by the discussion; and the court (whose tool B. is, or appears to wish to be) can be pleased by the issue in *no* shape.5

<sup>2</sup> Talleyrand, titular bishop of Autun, had published under the official imprint: *Proposition faite a l'Assemblée Nationale sur les Poids et Mesures, par M. l'Evêque d'Autun,* Paris, 1790. In May 1790 the Assembly passed a decree establishing a uniform system of weights and measures, and hopes were expressed that the Royal Society and the Parliament of Britain would co-operate with l'Académie des Sciences. Sir John Riggs Miller had already taken up the matter (see his *Speeches in the House of Commons upon the Equalization of the Weights and Measures of Great Britain... also, a General Standard proposed for the Weights and Measures of Europe,* 1790, a work including his correspondence with Talleyrand on the subject).

<sup>3</sup> Presumably concerning the report by Condorcet previously mentioned (see letter 766).

<sup>4</sup> Following the report of a committee to inquire into the temperature in the House of Commons, clay and iron pipes were constructed to convey hot and cold air into the House; they ran under the floor to within two feet of the Clerk's table and two thermometers were used to measure the temperature. The work was completed on 30 April 1791 and cost over £1,300 (*Morning Post and Daily Advertiser,* 3 May 1791; see the *History of the King's Works,* vi, 1973, p. 525).

<sup>5</sup> Perhaps an account of the debate in the House of Commons, during which Burke repulsed Fox's expressed wish that they might remain friends despite their differences over the French situation (6 May 1791, *The Senator,* 1st ser. iii, 30–90).

### 7821

### F r o m J a m e s A n d e r s o n

#### 15 May 1791

 Of Sir J.S.2 you entertain, with justice, a high opinion, respecting his industry and application. In these respects, perhaps, I know no man who is his equal,—and I believe his dispositions at bottom are very good. But as to the stretch of his parts, these are very moderate,—you must not, therefore, expect that he can ever be pleased with (read forgive) the man who exposes his errors in public. His foible is vanity. I do not, therefore, think he is at all an object for you to fight with; and the public will give you credit for overlooking him. Blackstone, Smith, and some others, you ought to take notice of. Even, perhaps, Hume, who is among the most superficial political reasoners, may get a set down as you go by, because of his name,—but a serious answer to Sir J.S. would be absurd. This I speak *between ourselves,* merely for a clue to direct you. For as to hurting Sir J.,—he is among the last persons I would wish to prejudice the public against,— for I think he has a serious desire to do good, and he has the art of picking up ideas from one and another, and then bringing them out in some measure as his own. He may thus be the means of doing much good,—and I am happy in being able to say that he has, in this way, been already of much use, and may be of more. His *Statistical Account of Scotland* will, I really believe, be the best that ever was published,—and the pains he has been at to bring that forward, to my certain knowledge, have been such as scarce any other man could have submitted to. I think myself capable of some exertion; but I do not believe I

**782.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 254–5. Introduced by the statement: 'From a long letter of Dr. Anderson, the editor of the Bee, what follows seems worth preserving:'.

A letter from Bentham, to which this would seem to be a reply, is missing. For James Anderson (1739–1808), see *Correspondence,* iii passim, especially p. 25 and n. 3. In 1783 Bentham had attacked Anderson's proposals concerning West Scotland fisheries, but they were soon reconciled, and Anderson praised *The Defence of Usury* in the *Monthly Review* (see above, p. 35 and n. 4). In 1790 Anderson started in Edinburgh a periodical, *The Bee,* which ran until 1794. The government threatened proceedings against those responsible for some of the political articles, but dropped the case.

2 A footnote in Bowring, x, 254, identifies this reference as 'Sir John Sinclair' (1754–1835). He was m.p. for three different constituencies, 1780–1811, including Caithness, 1790–6, and became a baronet in 1786. Sinclair was one of the prime movers for the Board of Agriculture, of which he became president, 1793–8 and 1806–14. His *Statistical Account of Scotland,* the first volumes of which impressed Bentham, was started in 1790.

could have done the half of what he has done. Besides these causes I have for respecting him, I lie under such obligations to him for his ready assistance to me in helping my correspondence, that could I be capable of doing anything to hurt him, I should be a wretch who should be detested.3

As to the idea of *contracts,* which your friendship makes you think of for me, I have it not at present in contemplation. The great point, at present, should be to bring the general plan to bear,—and I see nothing so against that as its superior excellence. I have no expectation of your succeeding with Pitt,—unless you have made your application through the medium of some party connexion. Were your plan demonstrably capable of saving some millions of lives each year,—and, what is of more consequence to him, some millions of money,— I would not give one penny for your chance of success, unless your application was through a *proper channel,* and if it be through that *proper channel,* were it as expensive as the Botany Bay establishment, I would not despair of seeing it adopted.

As to Pitt, he is a very Jew,—he will say, at this moment, the very reverse of what he intends to do, if he think it can effect any little object. I would as soon believe that the wind which now blows in at my window, told me in what point it was to be a month hence, as I would trust to a word that he says. This need not, however, prevent you from making use of him, if you find it can be done. I would trust to him as a tool of mine, however, and not put myself in his power as a tool of his.

You know that I would rather walk a dozen of miles than write a letter at any time, and I always put it off till the last hour. This letter should have been written four days ago; but this is the last day I prescribed for detaining it. I must now, of course, write, though I feel myself in one of those testy humours when a person would send half the world to Botany Bay, if he thought they were to meet with half their deserts. Even in that humour, however, the thoughts of a friend produce a kind of a suavity of disposition that nothing else could effect. I am most anxiously interested in the success of your plan, though the gloomy bile that possesses me makes me fear that, on account of the bad properties of your assistant,4 and other little

<sup>3</sup> At this point Bowring comments: 'On the subject of a proposal of Bentham, that Dr. Anderson should make Panopticon tenders to the government, he says:'.

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps a reference to Willey Reveley.

arts that you are not calculated to countervail, your work may be pilfered from you, and you get nothing but vexation for your pains. I will expect to hear from you as soon as possible; and it will give me very particular satisfaction if I find I can be of any use to you about it.

I have got a great acquisition to my Bee last day, the remarks made by an old, shrewd, sagacious, witty judge on the Scotch bench,—Lord Gardenstone,5 on a tour he lately made through Italy, etc. It is the same person who writes the remarks on the plays in the Bee. You will, by that specimen, see he thinks for himself, and says what he thinks.

I have a character of your *great favourite,* Lord North, ready for insertion.6 But I get so many communications from others, that I must make my own give way. It was intended to have followed in the second number after Mr Fox, and has not yet got a place. It will be followed by that of *my* favourite, Lord Chatham; but when, the Lord knows.

### 7831

### T <sup>o</sup> T h o m a s C h r i s t i e

#### 24 May 1791 (Aet 43)

Mr B. presents his compliments to Mr C. with many thanks for his obliging perusal, and can not help wishing that the French Constitution had been as well formed as it has been expressed2 Sent May 24th 1791 pr penny post

<sup>5</sup> Francis Garden, Lord Gardenstone (1721–93), Scottish judge and wealthy eccentric. He was a frequent contributor to *The Bee* and the author of *Travelling Memorandums, made in a Tour upon the Continent of Europe in the Years 1786, 1787, and 1788,* Edinburgh, 1791, 1792 and 1795.

<sup>6</sup> Ironical: Bentham had no love for Lord North.

**<sup>783.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cvii: 77 *verso.* Draft on the back of a page of unrelated notes.

<sup>2</sup> Perhaps Christie, who was writing on the subject, had sent him a draft of his comments on an early version of the new *Constitution Française,* which was not published in a revised form until September 1791 (see letter 742, n. 2).

### F r o m R e g i n a l d P o l e C a r e w 26 May 1791

Dr Sir

29

I have infinite Pleasure in conveying to you the enclosed,2 which I have just received from Mr Adam, and which I have only detained long enough to shew it to Mr Steele with whom I think it has had its Effect.—The Session is now drawing to a Conclusion, and when it is over I hope there will be an opportunity of getting your Plans and Proposals deliberately considered. There is no Chance or I think Possibility of obtaining such an Examination till that Moment shall be arrived, but I will not neglect pressing it whenever I shall think the favourable moment is come.

> I am Dr Sir yrs most Truly R. Pole Carew

May 26th 1791

**784.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 255–6. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 May 25 / Panopticon / R.P. Carew London / to / J.B. Hendon / Inclosing Adam's.' No address.

2 A letter from Robert Adam to Pole Carew, viz.: 'Sir / I arrived last night at Edinburgh, and in my way from London, perused your friend Mr Bentham's book which afforded me the highest pleasure. It consists of so many parts that require both study and attention, that though I may venture to say in General that it is one of the most ingenious plans I ever saw, yet it will require some time before I can give any observations worthy of Mr Bentham's notice, which upon turning in my mind and making some sketches, I think he would like to see, I will boldly communicate to him, Submitting them to his Superiour judgement.

The reason my troubling you with this line is to beg that if it is not disagreeable that Mr Bentham would be so good as to inform me, to whom he has sent his Book and plans here, as I would communicate with him on that subject and get his aid, to endeavour to influence our Magistrates here, who are attached to Mr Blackburn's Ideas, and join with me in shewing them the infinite superiourity of Mr Bentham's Inspection principle over his, and everything of the kind hitherto thought of.

Sir / Your most Obedient and very humble Servant / Robt Adam / Edinr 23d May 1791.' (B.L. V: 257. Docketed by Bentham: '1791 May 23 / Copy / Rt Adam Edinburgh / to / P. Carew Charles Str / Berkeley Square / Approves Panopticon.')

### 7851

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 26 May 1791

 Here am I at length. I arrived last night. I cannot come to you tomorrow, nor can I promise for Saturday. However be at home Saturday I will endeavour to come by 9 in the morning or if my business in Town keeps me here in the morning I will try to come in the afternoon. On Sunday my father desires you will dine here. I will almost promise to see you before that time. If nothing better I will come to fetch you for dinner. I might have written to you sooner had I known how to direct my letter.

Q.S.P. Thursday morning.

### 7861

### F r o m J a n I n g e n h o u s z

#### 27 May 1791

Dear Sir

I have the honour to acquaint you, that I recieved a copy of your book *Panopticon* containing three copper plates, and the second volume *Postscript,* that I received also three copies of a paper *Outline of the plan*—. As there was no writing or direction accompanying these productions, by which I could be guided in the fulfilling of the authors intentions, I begg the favour to communicate to me your orders there about. I intend to send some things to Holland in a few days, and must write to the Society of Science of Haerlem, of which I have the honour of being a member. If it is your intention to present the Copy now in my hands to that society it will be convenient, either that you should send with it a letter to that learned body or that you give me your orders about it, in the

**785.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 260–1. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 May / S.B. Q.S.P. / to / J.B. Hendon / Arrival.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr. / Hendon / Middlesex.' Postmark illegible. Stamped: 'Penny Post Paid W.WE'. The day of the month is not given, but the last Thursday in May was the 26th.

Addressed: 'to / Mr. Bentham / Hendon / Midlesex.' Postmark: 'pat ...' For Jan Ingenhousz see above, p. 109 and *Correspondence,* ii, especially 183, n. 6.

**<sup>786.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 258–9. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 May 27 / Ingenhousz Covt Garden / to J.B. Hendon / Panopticon.'

mean time recieve my thanks for the oportunity you gave me of perusing this valuable work, which I think, contains very usefull views worthy to be followed by all wise governments

> I am respectfully your obedient humble servant J. Ingenhousz

Covent garden Fryday 27 May 1791

### 7871

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u g h a n

#### 27 May 1791

Payne is writing a book against Kingship.2 Assignats at 14 per cent, discount, but Paris tranquil; and the whole owing to nonpayment of taxes, for nothing from foreign powers warrants the fall.

Some of our ministry have been for an alliance with France. Russia holds firm, as also Denmark. I lent3 your book at Lansdowne House, and consequently can say nothing about it. What am I to say for keeping one of these papers a day? *Diem perdidi*! Will you let the punishment of conscience be the whole?

### 7881

### T <sup>o</sup> J a m e s A n d e r s o n

#### 28 May 1791 (Aet 43)

Dear Sir,

Begging your pardon, I should think the offer of contracting, if it suited you in other respects, might be made without solicitation; nor need it wait for the complete architectural representation of the

**787.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 255. A quotation only.

<sup>3</sup> Possibly should read 'left'. The book would be *Panopticon.*

**788.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 256–8. Introduced by the statement: 'In answer to Dr. Anderson's letter on the subject of contracting for Panopticon, Bentham in a communication of 28th May, goes into details of the matter thus:'. Anderson's letter was that of 15 May (letter 782).

<sup>2</sup> The first part of Tom Paine's *Rights of Man* had appeared in March 1791; the second part, 'combining principles and practice' was published in 1792, but would already be in preparation. In July 1791 Paine contributed an essay to the single issue of a proposed periodical, *Le Républicain* (Paris), started by Brissot and Condorcet in a campaign for the abolition of the French monarchy.

building. Your offer would be very simple. 'Prisoners cost you at present so much a-head; give me such a building as this, the rent of which will amount to so much a-head, I will keep your prisoners for so much a-head more.' The strength of your cause will lie in the cheapness of your terms; if your terms are rejected, you have kissed nobody's ——, and you are but where you were.

With regard to economy, I will unbosom myself to you without reserve. Part of my expedients you will find in print. I was afraid of giving the whole of them, or placing them in the clearest point of view of which they were susceptible, for fear of being beat down, or seeing others reap the fruit of my labours. A man who begins with saving 50 per cent. to the nation, may be allowed to think a little for himself.

*Potatoes.*—I have been afraid to show how immense the saving may be, by the exclusive adoption of this article. You value the price at 1d. for 4 lb. But even at your price, the saving would be very great. I speak still at random; I have other *data,* but have not yet had time to sift the matter to the bottom. Along with the house you would get some land. The current penitentiary notions represent this as necessary, though it is not necessary to keep off other buildings, etc. Wandsworth, which would be my place, has as much land as cost £5000.

*Clothing:—*

*Stockings* unnecessary—unless on Sundays, upon the *open chapel* plan, which would well pay for them.

*Shoes*—Wooden, instead of leather; slippers perhaps for Sundays.

*Coat, etc.*—I have patterns of very good cloth, linsey woolsey, which cost but 1s. per yard (yard wide,) retail, dyeing included; consequently, wholesale less. Dyeing costs something, and is best omitted, as without it, cloth washes the better. Sleeves, one shorter than the other, for the reason above-mentioned in my book. If washing were rejected as superfluous, might not the cloth be of the natural brown, or black wool?

*Shirts*—rejected as unnecessary—this saves one-fourth perhaps of the cloth of the coat.

*Skirts*—long enough—but all unnecessary fullness, as for plaits, etc.—worked wristbands, and worked collars rejected.

*Hats* and *Caps*—unnecessary.

On Sundays, when they have no work to keep themselves warm, and spend a good deal of time out of doors in the open school, those who choose it, to be at liberty to wear their week day waistcoats and breeches under their Sunday ones.

*Bedding*—Hammocks, if cheaper than bedsteads. Bed, straw frequently changed, put in a sack. Instead of a pair of sheets, another sack, (though finer,) with a short flap to turn down under the chin. In sheets on the common plan, there is a deal of unnecessary amplitude, for the mere purpose of *tucking in.*

*Blanketing*—The coat, waistcoat, and breeches, will go in part of it, especially if in a hammock, and in a building kept to the same temperature in winter, every part of it, by constant fires: never under temperate, viz. 55°. In clothes and bedding, no one article that will not wash.

*Working-hours.*—You will see in my book, how, by mixture of employment, sedentary with laborious, and the preference given to sedentary, making even airing times as profitable as any other, I get sixteen and a half profitable hours; very nearly twice as many as our Penitentiary systems allow.

*Potatoes—dressing.*—You will have seen in the section on *warming,* how frugal the mode of dressing will be. I make each man's allowance more than any man can eat; what is left with the skins, etc., goes to feed hogs or other cattle. In proportion as a man gets better food out of the share I allow him of his earnings, he will eat so much the less of potatoes: here will be another great saving.

Each man's mess separate, in a separate tin pan—the pans square, of the same size and shape. In these same pans they are dressed, (by steam,) and when dressed, pan and all are put together into trays, so many in a tray, and thus twisted up by the crane to the several galleries, and from thence distributed in a trice among the cells. Or, the trays being made of tin, or of wood lined with tin, they might be dressed in the tray, and so tray and all be twisted up without the trouble of shifting.

Billingsley2 (see the Bath Memoirs for '78, or Annual Register, 1786) got 30,800 lbs. on an acre; rate of expense such that 10⅔ lbs. cost him one penny. This he seems to look upon as a good crop; but the sort not being mentioned, seems to have been taken without choice. Young (Ireland, i. 21)3 says, a good English acre should produce at least 480 bushels of the cluster potato. He reckons 70 lbs. to the bushel; this makes 33,600 lbs. Expenses supposed not greater than Billingsley's, this gives about 12 lbs. for one penny.

3 Arthur Young's *Tour in Ireland,* 1780.

<sup>2</sup> John Billingsley (1749–1811), whose account of the 'Culture expences, and produce of six acres of Potatoes' was reprinted, from the *Memoirs* of the Bath Society, in the *Annual Register* for 1786, 'Useful projects', pp. 86–7. He wrote for the Board of Agriculture a *General View of the Agriculture of Somerset.* 1794. and other works.

He makes eightpence a bushel (70 lbs.) the average prime cost in Ireland, where husbandry is so bad, and labour not cheaper than here, considering how little is done for money; that is, 8¾ lbs. for one penny. Young, everybody says, is inaccurate; therefore, this is only matter for inquiry. Six hundred was the number of bushels, Howard,4 who was a very accurate man, told me he got of *his* potato, from but indifferent land. I took a memorandum of this, a pretty full one, from his own mouth; but God knows what is become of it: 200 only he got, at the same time, from a piece not worse of the same field, of some other sort of potato. So far I remember with certainty.

I told you before I had not yet had time to set my shoulders to these calculations. I throw out these hints, undigested as they are, thus early, for your consideration, in hopes of your picking out something that may be of use to you in the event of your making any such offer. But having thus unbosomed myself to you, I rely on your honour, not to make the offer till you have communicated it to me, and till you hear from me that the terms of it will not prejudice my negotiation. But this need not hinder your saying in general terms, that with such a building, you could undertake the business on such terms as to reduce greatly the expense. I have heard nothing all this while from A(dam), which makes me suspect I shall find him jealous and adverse. No such thing. I have just received a letter of his from my friend, to whom he says, 'the reason of my troubling you is, to beg, if it is not disagreeable, Mr B. would be so good as to inform me to whom he has sent his book and plans here; as I would communicate with him on that subject, and get his aid to endeavour to influence our magistrates here, who are attached to Mr Blackburne's ideas, and join with me in showing them the infinite superiority of Mr B.'s inspection principle over his, and everything of the kind hitherto thought of'.5 This you see is explicit enough: his absence accounts for his silence. He had been on the hunt for me, and could not find me out. I write to him to let him know about you; but as you had been to inquire after him, I suppose you and he have met before now. As there seems no contrariety of interests, if you feel yourself inclined for the contract scheme, perhaps you would not do amiss to make Mr A. your confidant, speaking of it as a thing I had suggested to you; in short,

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps Charles Howard, who contributed articles on agriculture to various journals, and later on an essay on 'Farm-yard management' to *Georgical Essays,* ed. A. Hunter, 1804.

<sup>5</sup> See the letter from Robert Adam to Pole Carew quoted above in letter 784, n. 2.

making what use of my name you choose. You might then, as if from yourself, speak of the great disadvantage to the scheme from my not being there; in short, propose as in my former letter, etc.; taking this along with you, that it is very uncertain whether I should be able, owing to my own affair, and to my brother who is just arrived. It is what I should not have the smallest inclination for, on any other supposition, than that of a probability of its being of service, either to the plan or to you. For travelling is a disagreeable operation to me, and in a carriage that holds four, a perfect punishment. It was not Sir W.F., but G.F., a very different and very superior man. The other is an applewoman.6

28th May, 1791.—I have no time to finish. I enclose two patterns of the cloth above-mentioned. Perhaps you may know of something cheaper and better. I am aware of its not being very lasting; but I think it is better to have it cheap, with frequent change.

### 7891

T <sup>o</sup> R <sup>o</sup> <sup>b</sup> e r t A d a m

#### 28 May 1791 (Aet 43)

Hendon Middlesex May 28, 1791

I need scarcely assure you how flattering it is to me to find my gimcrack so well approved of by so able and eminent a judge, nor what satisfaction it would give me to see the execution of it in such good hands.2

I shall think it long ere I take the /I long to take the/ benefit of the instruction your politeness has in store for me: and should be glad to hear when you expect to be on the return; the rather as I

<sup>6</sup> This must allude to a passage in Anderson's letter of the 15th omitted by Bowring: 'W.F.', called by Bentham 'an applewoman', was probably Sir William Fordyce (1724–92), a successful physician and author of medical works; he was, however, almost ruined financially by the speculations of his banker brothers, Alexander and David; 'G.F.' would be George Fordyce (1736–1802), another successful physician from Aberdeen, an old friend of the Benthams and the father of Samuel's future wife (see above, p. 67, n. 2).

**<sup>789.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxix: 17–18. Autograph draft. No docket or address. That a letter in some such wording was sent to Adam is evident from the reply of 7 June (letter 792).

<sup>2</sup> Bentham alludes to the letter of 23 May from Adam to Pole Carew, quoted above in letter 784, n. 2.

shall not think I have done justice either to the public or to the invention such as it is without giving it the benefit of your corrections and improvements, if the period be not too far distant. No one could possibly come to the subject more ignorant than I did, and having no professional reputation to maintain you would find me just as open to correction as the youngest of your pupils.

As to facilitating your application to the gentlemen in question, I know of nothing I can do better than to send you some more copies of what is printed of the book which you have to distribute among them as you think fit, as they will find in it the leading points argued more at large than can possibly be done *vivâ voce.*<sup>3</sup> Whatever errors there may be in it4 /the detail/ will not prejudice the cause, as they will not be binding upon you. Unfortunately it is that sort of building which it will be more difficult to represent upon a flat surface than perhaps any other that was ever yet imagined. As soon as I have settled all the parts I intend to have a model made. Perhaps you might contrive to put /get/ together something /put together/ on paste board if it were only in paste board.5

The person to whom I had sent so much as you have seen is an old acquaintance of mine, Dr James Anderson of Coatfield. Having mentioned to me amongst other things that some people had been talking with him on the subject of Penitentiary Houses, I sent him my plan which was unknown to him that he might make what use he thought fit of it, and send me such /any/ hints as /that/ might occurr to him. Architecture is a subject I know he has turned his thoughts to. He has written a little book on smoaky chimnies, and in the miscellany he published under the name of the Bee are some elucidations relative to the origin and advantages of the Gothic stile, which to me who know nothing about the matter were new and seemed ingenious. I question whether it will be in his power to contribute much to the reception of the plan though he certainly will not want for inclination. I believe his opinion would have some weight with Mr Stirling6 (the present Ld Provost is not he?) but he I understand is now in London. Perhaps likewise with Mr David

<sup>3</sup> Marginal alternative wording: 'I send also an order to the Printer to send you half a dozen at a venture and the inclosed will produce you any number more you may have occasion for, that it may be by then in readiness to obviate any doubts that may occurr when you are not present to resolve them'.

<sup>4</sup> Marginal alternative wording: 'If there be no defect in the general idea'.

<sup>5</sup> The passage from 'Unfortunately' to 'paste board' is a later addition, partly written in the margin.

<sup>6</sup> James Stirling (d. 1805), was lord provost of Edinburgh in 1791 and again in 1794–5 and 1798–9. He was made a baronet in July 1792, for political services, particularly the handling of riots.

Steward7 the Banker who having been Provost is one I suppose of the Magistrates, and who I imagine would not think the worse of the plan from knowing that it has the unreserved approbation of his uncle Dr G. Fordyce who has the charge of his eldest son here, and to whom I have been obliged in the manner you have seen. If any of the gentlemen in question after hearing what you will have to say to them with relation to the plan persist in their attachment to Mr Blackburn's, they will differ not only from every body in as well as out of the profession it has been my fortune to meet with, but also from Mr. Blackburn himself of whom I could give you a history too long for paper, and who would have been glad to have executed my plan in Dublin for the Irish Administration at whose desire it is, as I suppose you know, that I am at work upon it. My plan of management between which and the plan of construction there must of course be an intimate connection is8 as /no less/ different from the common ideas. If the assistance of one who has turned his thoughts so much to both branches of the subject should appear to you likely to be looked upon by the gentlemen in question as capable of being of use you are welcome to speak of me as one who would think it much for his advantage to lend any assistance he may be capable of to Mr Adam.9

I am sorry to have been the means of your spending so much time to no purpose: had I known /been apprised/ of your wishes I would with pleasure have saved you the trouble: I live in a hole in the ground unknown to every body but the Postman in which I put myself in order to be out of the way of every sort of interruption. When I can find time to be visible I come to town. Let me know your hours and when I hear of your being in London and I will call upon you without ceremony.

But this need not hinder me from having in the meantime the benefit of any hints with which you may be disposed /find time/ to favour me either with the pen or the pencil—The roughest scratch without the smallest regard to appearance so as the idea be but expressed will be sufficient.

<sup>7</sup> David Steuart (d. 1824) had been lord provost, 1780–2. He had published plans for a new prison in Edinburgh in 1782 (see *Correspondence,* iii, 167 n. 5).

<sup>8</sup> Marginal alternative wording: 'The sheets you will receive will [be]'.

<sup>9</sup> Marginal alternative wording: 'If either should be deemed worthy of the attention of the gentle Magistrates of Edinb. you are welcome to speak of me as one [who] would take a pleasure in rendering any assistance in his power to so laudable a design, and who would think it very much for his advantage to cooperate with Mr Adam'.

### 7901

### T o t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 1 June 1791 (Aet 43)

I know of nobody who is in any sort of scrape but myself; who surely, for once at least, am rather more unfortunate than culpable. As for my refusing to meet the ladies at your house, let them but speak the word, and I will go and plant myself there, inside or outside, rain or shine, from this day to that, if that will be any satisfaction to them. As to my celibacy, I don't know very well how the stigma could be wiped off, at least in time, and if it were, it might be only making bad worse,—since it is a thousand to one, but the female Yahoo would be still more intolerable than even the male one.2 Such is my ignorance and stupidity, I cannot, for the life of me, beat it into my head, how it is that three ladies should commit themselves more by going to one unmarried man's house to dinner together, with one, two, or three other persons of their choice, than by going singly to another unmarried man's house to, and before, and after dinner. If it really stuck there, married ladies, I can't help thinking, need not be wanting, such as they would have no objection to accompany anywhere, where they wish to go, and who, partly for the frolic, partly in the benevolent view of releasing a proscribed man from a banishment which sits, he need not say how heavy on him, would give them the sanction, and me the honour of their company. I mean always by the help of a word or two, which, I am sure, would not be grudged. Thus much I have said, not in the hope of softening flint, nor for the sake of striking fire with it, but merely to show your Lordship, that it is not with my own goodwill that I submit to the mortifications to which I am doomed.

**790.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 258. The introductory note merely says 'Bentham wrote to Lord Lansdowne, June 1, 1791:'.

The three ladies are clearly the Bowood trio: Caroline Vernon, her sister Elizabeth, and Caroline Fox.

<sup>2</sup> In a letter to her brother, Henry, Lord Holland, Caroline Fox wrote, on 20 June 1791, 'We did not dine with poor Mr. Bentham. We pretended we could not unless he was married first, but he very sagaciously answered he should then be less valued than before, and the female Yahoo more obnoxious than himself. Since then we have heard no more of him' (Holland House Papers, B.L. Add. Mss. 62175, fo. 44).

### F r o m J a n I n g e n h o u s z 2 June 1791

Dear Sir,

309

 According to the Contents of your letter,2 I have sent the two volumes of your work with one of the three copies of the prospectus printed on one sheet of paper in 40, to the Society of Sciences of Haerlem, requesting to look upon it only as a rough scets [sketch] of what the author intends to make of it. I wrote to Mr Van Marum3 Director of this society, that it will give satisfaction to the author, if some ingenious men will communicate him their reflexions. I also inform him that the plan will probably soon be executed in Irland.

To prove to you that I have not neglected to fulfill your desire of possessing a copy of the description of the new electric machine I have recieved it by the last male and send it to you. It proves to be of an immense force for reason of the perfect insulation of the prime conductor; it has the great advantage of granting from the same conductor negative or positive electricity ad libitum. I hope it will amuse you so as to order one to be made, the first in Great Brittain.

> I am respectfuly yours J. Ingenhousz.

Covent garden juin 2. 1791

### 7921

### F r o m R <sup>o</sup> <sup>b</sup> e r t A d a m

#### 7 June 1791

Dear Sir,

When I returned yesterday from an excursion I made to the West of Edinr. I found your very obliging Letter, and also the

**791.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 262–3. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 June 2 / Ingenhousz London / to / J.B. Hendon / Panopt sent to V. Marum / Electric Apparatus.'

Addressed: 'to / Jeremy Bentham Esqr / Hendon Midlesex / near London.'

<sup>2</sup> Missing; evidently an answer to the previous letter of Ingenhousz (786).

<sup>3</sup> Martin Van Marum (1750–1837), horticulturist and scientific writer. In 1791 he published *Lettre à M. J. Ingenhousz ... contenant la description d'une machine électrique,* Haarlem, 1791. Among his other writings are *La correspondance de A. Volta et M. Van Marum, publiée par J. Bosscha,* Leiden, 1905.

**792.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 264–5. Copy. Docketed: '1791 June 7 / R. Adam Edinburgh / to / J.B. Hendon / Copy.' No address.

Copies of the treatise on the Panopticon, with the plans Elevations and sections both of your own and the Russian design, lying at my sister's house.

I wish it was in my power to enter more fully into the subject, than it will be possible for me to do for sometime owing to the multiplicity of Designs, I have to make, for almost every part of this Country; I am however glad to find, that it is not probable that the Gentlemen of the County of Midlothian and the Magistrates of Edinr. will be able to do anything to their Bridewell or house of correction, till they have raised money for that purpose, and that I am persuaded they cannot do till summer 1792, which will afford me an opportunity of explaining to you in person, what I shall only hint at present.

The friend2 to whom you send the letter in the Case with the Books, I found had been at variance, and engaged in a paper war with some very respectable Gentlemen in this Country, amongst whom were some of my most intimate acquaintance and friends, and though he has great merit in his way, is certainly not Popular. After reflecting as much on this subject as the shortness of time would permit me, I came to the determination to delay sending him your letter till I received an answer from you on this business. I fear his interference might hurt, and could not essentially serve the cause. All the gentry of this Country are Architects, they know, or think they know much more than any Professional man, be he ever so eminent. It has been my constant study to try if I can root out this absurd Idea of theirs and I flatter myself I am rather gaining ground upon them. But no sooner would your friend take up this affair, than others would combat all his notions, form a million of Panopticons fraught with every kind of absurdity, and by that means put it out of the power of any one man of knowledge to convince them of their folly, and would end in their executing perhaps the worst design of the Cluster, only because the designer was a Lord, or Gentleman reckoned famous for taste, and the corrector of all plans, publick and private, by which correction this Town and Country is crowded with bad taste bad designs and wretched proportions. The Idea that struck me was, that by forming a plan entirely upon your principle, adapting it to our Situation, our necessities, and within the reach of the money we could afford to lay out; and by talking of this plan, and of the great ingenuity of the Inventor and the Invention, in which I always disclaim all merit, except inso far as relates to the abovementioned

<sup>2</sup> Probably James Anderson is meant (see letter 789, p. 306 above).

Articles, the curiosity of the Publick would be raised, the execution of a design upon Mr Bentham's principle insisted upon, and that design to be carried into execution by me.

The alterations I have made, may perhaps be honoured with your approbation, or at least may furnish hints for you to consider and improve, The Provost and Magistrates I am in high favour with. They have consulted me about a square they intend to build in the new Town. The Gentlemen of the County, particularly the Duke of Buccleugh the Earl of Hopetown,3 and many others, I am in intimacy with. I therefore imagine it would be dangerous to let any person, however well he may be inclined interfere4 at least at present, and if it should strike you in the same way, I will return your letter. If not I will instantly send it, after receiving your Answer.

After you have seen the drawings I am just making upon your principle of invisible inspection, I propose to have a neat model of [it] made in London, should it meet with your approbation and I am convinced the Gentlemen will not grudge the expence.—The post is just going off, so that I am obliged to conclude without saying one half of what I intended.


I have taken the liberty of sending this under Mr Carew's cover, and hope you will make my apology to him.

<sup>3</sup> 'Buccleugh' and 'Hopetown' inserted in pencil. Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch (1746–1812) was a great agricultural improver. John Hope, afterwards Hope Johnstone, 3rd Earl of Hopetoun (1741–1816), was created a baron of the United Kingdom in 1809, after raising the 'Hopetoun Fencibles'.

<sup>4</sup> 'interfere' pencilled in.

### 7931

### F r o m R e g i n a l d P o l e C a r e w

#### 14 June 1791

 Oh! that I had legs like my friend Bentham, said I, when strolling about this evening, then would I never be at rest; but as I am but a poor mortal, to whom some repose is necessary, after fourteen hours' fatigue, how can I better employ it than in doing myself the honour of addressing his high and mighty indefatigableness, to express my humble hopes that he and his illustrious brother would condescend to step a little this way.

Seriously speaking, if I and my chateau survive *this day,* we shall be very happy to receive you and your brother, the colonel: I should perhaps have been afraid to have trusted myself and property with you alone on this day, but, in company with your brother, I think I might have ventured, as he has felt some of the advantages arising from the existence of hewers of wood and drawers of water.

I have just now established a new ferry from Plymouth Dock to Torpoint, which is about a mile and a half from this house,2 and, I trust, you will not be able to give a good reason why you should not cross it a few days hence. Indeed, you did give me some reason and hopes that I might see you both here soon. By telling me by return of post that you are setting out, you will convey a very substantial pleasure to yours, very sincerely,

#### R. Pole Carew.

P.S.—I know not where to write to the colonel, but trust that the contents of this letter will find him.

**793.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 259. Introductory note: 'Sir R. P. Carew writes from Antony House, near Plymouth Dock, June 14, 1791:'. Antony House was built on the site of an ancient castle and completed, from designs of James Gibbs, in 1721, at the expense of Sir William Carew. Many of the apartments were enlarged and improved by Reginald Pole Carew.

<sup>2</sup> The Torpoint ferry from Devonport across the estuary of the rivers Tamar and Tavy into Cornwall still operates, now as a busy car-ferry. Antony House is midway between the villages of Torpoint and Antony.

### 7941

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 20 June 1791

#### B. Park Monday June 20 17912

 Your Letter3 found us deliberating whether you would like better to come here with or without your Brother, for I take it for granted you do not mean to give up Bowood for the Summer. We reserve till then telling you all we think about the Col. But there must be nothing of *Old* Kindnesses in little or in great Character.— Tho' I do not pretend to rival Mr. Pitt, I am enough of a Negotiator to know the Dangers of suffering Principles to be Lodg'd. In the mean time we are much oblig'd to you for your communication, some part of which I have no doubt is true and certainly is interesting. I have reason to doubt about another part which regards C. Fox, which indeed can't be. Adieu with many sincere complimts from the Ladys which I know to be more valuable than Old or New Kindnesses elsewhere.

### 7951

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u g h a n

#### 24 June 1791

I beg your mercy—I left a *Moniteur* in a hackney-coach, but I send a journal instead. Pray return the *Moniteurs.*<sup>2</sup>

Send for an essay on *'Landed Property,'* printed at Walters': it is in your own way.3

**794.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 268–9. Autograph. Docketed: 'Ld L. Bowood / to / J.B. Hendon / 1791 June 20.'

Addressed: 'Jer. Bentham Esqr / near the 8 mile Stone / Hendon / London / Middlesex.' Franked: 'Calne June twentieth 1791 Fr Lansdown'.

Printed in Bowring, x, 258.

<sup>2</sup> The date is added in Bentham's hand.

<sup>3</sup> Missing, unless the letter of 1 June (790) is meant. It may only have been quoted by Bowring.

**795.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 259–60. Introductory note: 'The next letter is from Benjamin Vaughan:'.

<sup>2</sup> *Le Moniteur,* started on 24 November 1789, was given special facilities by the French government, including its own press-box (a *loge grillée*) at Versailles and copies of the principal speeches by deputies. It soon became the most convenient source for current affairs in France.

<sup>3</sup> *An Essay on the Right of Property in Land, with Respect to its Foundation in the*

The French at Paris are perfectly quiet, but emissaries are endeavouring to excite the inactive citizens to claim votes. A modest attempt of *aristocracy.*

We have no just accounts of the French refugees, nor do I hear more of the Prince of Condé's manifesto.4

Your *Irish* book is much wanted at Paris to keep up my reputation.5 I have only the postscript.

June 24, 1791.

### 7961

### T <sup>o</sup> t h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> f L a n s d o w n e

#### 25 June 1791 (Aet 43)

The *Comparative Estimate* is, after all, not Porter's, but a Dr Ewart's, a physician, a brother of the diplomatic Ewart.2 Porter is the 'commercial friend' therein spoken of, as having furnished the materials. Porter is a Scotchman.3 He and the Ewarts were schoolfellows. Porter was a schoolmaster, somewhere in Great Britain then a language-master in Petersburg; then crept by degrees there into a commercial house.

*Law of Nature: its present Establishment by the municipal Laws of Europe; and the Regulations by which it might be rendered more beneficial to the lower Ranks of Mankind.* Printed for J. Walter, Charing Cross, London, 1782. John Walter (d. 1803) was also the publisher. The anonymous author was William Ogilvie, professor of humanity at King's College, Aberdeen, and he was highly critical of the existing distribution of land ownership.

4 Louis Joseph, prince de Condé (1736–1818), had fled from France in 1789 and early in 1791 began to organise a royalist invasion army at Worms in the Rhine Palatinate. Early in June 1791, however, Louis XVI wrote commanding him to return to France and support the new constitution on pain of confiscation of his estates. Condé replied with a manifesto against the revolution published at Worms, 18 June, and noticed in the London *Public Advertiser,* 22 June 1791 (*Mémoire adressé à l'Assemblée nationale et au peuple français, par Louis-Joseph de Bourbon-Condé, en réponse au décret du 11 du mois de juin*).

<sup>5</sup> That is, the Irish edition of the *Panopticon.*

**796.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 258–9. Introductory note: 'A letter to Lord Lansdowne, dated Saturday, June 25, 1791, has these passages:'.

Clearly it is a reply to letter 794, but references in the first three paragraphs must allude to a previous letter of Bentham's, which is missing.

<sup>2</sup> The diplomatist was Joseph Ewart (1759–92), British envoy to Prussia, 1788–91. His medical brother was Dr John Ewart (d. 1800), who became a physician to the forces (see A. Peterkin and W. Johnston, *Commissioned Officers in the Medical Services of the British Army,* 1660–1960, 2 vols., 1968, i, 116).

<sup>3</sup> William Porter (1741?–1815), a Scottish merchant in Russia, who assisted the Empress Catherine in forming the Imperial Academy at St Petersburg. He was later a commissioner of revenue for Scotland. He married a sister of Joseph Ewart in 1797 (*Gentleman's Magazine,* May 1815, lxxxv, 474).

Nothing can exceed the contempt with which the Russians treat Pitt's skill in foreign politics. W. told a certain person, P. had been making proposals to the emperor, silly beyond expression, which he would not mention then, but would in six weeks' time.4

What concerns C. J. Fox, was probably misconceived.5

My brother without me, possibly; I, not without him certainly; with him, possibly, now that I have got a license. I wonder whose idea it was that he and I were like Castor and Pollux; or like Lord and Lady Pembroke; or like the *ci-devant* Marquis and Marquise *de tel ou de tel, de tel lieu,* not liking to be at the same place:6

I wonder what ladies there are at Bowood; and whether there be any part of the summer when a man would stand a chance of seeing them all three. I worship but at one altar: but that, as everybody knows, has three sides to it. As to comparisons between that and another sex, whoever makes them, none have ever been made by me. Comparisons, where there is competition, are, according to the proverb, odious: when there is none, incongruous.

The passage about 'lodging principles' is Arabic to me. I have sent it to the decipherer's.

While they smile—if, peradventure, they continue to smile—I will console myself as well as I can under other mortifications: not as being indifferent to them, nor conscious of having deserved them, but because I cannot help it. Those who meet with mishap, look around them for consolation, which, wherever they happen to meet with it, ought not to be grudged. I hope this will not be mistaken.

Having said thus much, should I ever find myself again in a place where, to confess the truth but plainly with myself, I have no great business, I shall obey injunctions, and neither say, nor look, nor think anything about old kindnesses: while on one part, they

<sup>4</sup> 'P' is obviously 'Pitt', but it would be unsafe to guess the identity of 'W': possibly the Russian ambassador, Worontzoff (Count Semën Romanovich Vorontsov), a friend of Samuel.

<sup>5</sup> Bentham is retracting what he had evidently said about Fox in his previous, missing, letter, which Lansdowne had told him could not be true (see p. 313 above).

<sup>6</sup> Castor and Pollux were the inseparable brothers of Greek mythology; Lord and Lady Pembroke were Henry Herbert, the 10th Earl (1734–94), and Elizabeth, second daughter of Charles Spencer, 2nd Duke of Marlborough. They were married in 1755, but in 1762 the earl caused a great scandal by throwing up his court appointments and running off with a Miss Hunter, a daughter of a Lord of the Admiralty, by whom he had a child; Pembroke soon returned to his wife, however, and was restored to favour at court. Bentham had met Lady Pembroke at Bowood in the 1780s and found that she was still 'on bad terms with her lord; and no wonder, for Lord Pembroke was a *roué* and openly unfaithful' (Bowring, x, 122).

cannot be too thoroughly forgotten; on the other, what is past is past, and not to be recalled.

### 7971

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 27 June 1791

 Ld Wycombe was gone somewhere by water and though he was expected back that day I did not choose to wait for the chance of seeing him, the less so as Grove place2 being but six miles I might soon learn of his return. I left therefore a note for him offering to come to him directly as I should hear of his arrival if I could spend any time with him. The next day I received a fine written formal friendly letter to tell me he must go to Bowood and no arrangement for our meeting there or elsewhere. Lady Malmesbury was alone at home till Saturday evening. Ld M. was gone to Portsmouth. I shall probably go there tomorrow or next day and I know not whether I shall return here or not: meaning to be in town in the course of the week. I shall then wish to spend some time with you at Hendon and Dover Street: as I think we may be more to ourselves there than elsewhere. You may write to me immediately and if you have them with you send me my russian composed songs. I have not one atom of news to tell you from hence. The escape of the King and royal family of France occupies people most.

Monday morning Grove Place

**797.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 208–9. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 June 27 / S.B. Grove Place / to / J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'Jere: Bentham Esqr / Hendon / Middlesex.' Postmark: 'JU.28.91 C.' Stamp illegible.

<sup>2</sup> Grove Place, Nursling, Hampshire, had been since 1784 the residence of Lord and Lady Malmesbury when in England. They had become friends of Samuel and Jeremy, when the former Sir James Harris was Ambassador to Russia (see above, p. 281, n. 3).

### 7981

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 28 June 1791

#### Grove place June 28th 1791

Tomorrow I set out from hence for Portsmouth or rather for the fleet where I shall probably stay but one day so that Fryday or Saturday I trust I shall be in Dover Street. I have recieved yours and accede to the visit to Bowood and the rest of your plan.2 Although the newspapers have brought the King of France back to Paris we have news here of his being safe in the Emperor's dominion somewhere near Luxembourg.3 I hope Panopticon will be finished till which no new objects must take our attention.

### 7991

### T <sup>o</sup> t h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> f L a n s d o w n e

#### 29 June 1791 (Aet 43)

Hendon, Wednesday, June 29, 1791.

Poor Louis!2 he has done himself up at a fine rate! To get upon a perch, and cackle out, 'I have been, not only a coward, but a hypocrite, for these two years.' and that before he was out of the cage! Rare sport for the Paynes and the Robespierres. I wonder how Mr Burke's little flirtation with Antoinette3 stands at present. As to the proclamation, it was not by her, but by one of her

**798.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 270–1. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 June 28 / S.B. Grove Place to J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'Jer. Bentham Esqr / Hendon / Middlesex.' Franked: 'Southampton June twenty eight / 1791 / Malmesbury.' Postmark: 'FREE . . P JU.30.91'. Stamped: 'Southampton'.

2 A missing letter from Jeremy is indicated.

3 An error: King Louis XVI had been captured at Varennes on 20 June.

**799.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 259. Follows immediately after the text of letter 796, but seems to be a quotation from a separate letter.

<sup>2</sup> King Louis XVI. The flight to Varennes had taken place during the night of 20 June and the return of the captives to Paris on 25 June was quickly known in London. Louis had left behind him an autograph address to the French people, denying all he had said in his Declaration to the National Assembly on 23 April, in support of the new Constitution then being drafted. It is to this address that Bentham would seem to be referring.

3 His famous adulatory passage about Queen Marie Antoinette in *Reflections on the French Revolution* (1790).

necessary women. But the loss of Mirabeau is sadly felt in the insipid, undignified, ill-reasoned answer.

### 8001

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 3 July 1791

We go into Wales2 on Wednesday, but will certainly be return'd before the end of the month, so that if you have any Devotion in you you may acquit yourself of it Either in August September or October as you feel dispos'd towards the three Deities, who have chose[n] a month apiece in their natural order, and if your Brother is not too much captivated with Lady Malmesberry to endure the simplicity of your Religion he will be very welcome.

Affairs in the North look very gloomy, and I don't see how either England or Prussia3 can extricate themselves without falling into another extreme.4 As to France I am astonished to see What Wisdom a Nation which has always been accounted a Foolish one can shew.

#### Adieu

**800.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 272–3. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 July 3 / Ld. L. Bowood / to J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'To Jer. Bentham Esqr / near the 8 mile Stone / Hendon / London / Middlesex.' Franked: 'Calne July third 1791 / Fr. Lansdown'. Stamped: 'Calne'. Postmark illegible.

Printed in Bowring, x, 261.

<sup>2</sup> Bowring has 'South Wales'.

<sup>3</sup> Bowring erroneously has 'Russia' instead of 'Prussia'.

<sup>4</sup> The triple alliance of Austria, Britain and Prussia did not prevent Catherine II of Russia from dictating her own peace terms to Turkey and it was feared in Britain that only war would stop further Russian expansion in Poland: in the event Prussia shared in the second partition of Poland in 1792 and Austria in the third partition in 1795.

### 8011

### J e r e m y a n d S a m u e l B e n t h a m t o B a r o n S t . H e l e n s

#### 8 July 1791 (Aet 43)

I have just heard that a servant of yours is on the point of setting off to return to you; and having been in this country for about six weeks on an indefinite furlough, I would not let slip the opportunity of recalling myself to your remembrance.

Since I saw you, I have been just equipping flotillas, and fighting on board them, and view them visiting my ever-beloved Siberia: in short, the inquiry, how utility is to come of it, is what must forever occupy me: it makes but little difference to me what be the country. I have at present the command of a regiment of two battalions: one of them on the Irtish, the other near Kiaktha: 2800 miles one from the other. Projects of discovery and improvement, some executed, others, I hope, executing, and many more to execute, occupy me, and these battalions are subservient to these projects.

After having come from the distant battalions, coasting all along the frontiers, I arrived at Bender and Jassy, where I spent four or five months with Prince Potemkin, and in February last set out for England, passing through Trieste, Venice, Leghorn, Geneva, and France. I arrived here about a month ago: I have not yet fixed the time of departure, but believe it will be in the course of the summer.

To help load your servant, I send you a parcel of things of my brother's—none of which are published. That on the Judicial Establishment, you may perceive, is not finished, and heaven knows when it will be. When he began it, his opinion of the French National Assembly was much better than it is at present. They had not at that time laid violent hands on private property with so flagrant, and so unnecessary a disregard to the feelings of individuals. The 'Panopticon' invention, of which the fundamental idea was mine, is taken up by the Administration in Ireland, by

**<sup>801.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 261–2. Introduced by the statement: 'The letter to Lord St. Helens, which follows, dated 8th July, 1791, though written in the name of Colonel Bentham, is the joint production of himself and his brother:'.

Alleyne Fitzherbert became Baron St. Helens in the Irish peerage in 1791, and a peer of the United Kingdom in 1801. He had known Samuel well in Russia when British envoy at St Petersburg (1783–7). See *Correspondence,* iii, especially 185, n. 4.

whose order, the letters that form the body of the work were printed. The postscript he prints here, to be reprinted there. If you look at any part, do not let it be at Part I. and the postscript—it contains nothing but dry details, relative to the mode of construction. Postscript, Part II., which is the last, you will perceive is not quite finished; but as it does not want much of being so, I thought I might as well send it, trusting to chance for an opportunity of sending the remainder. How much pleasanter it would have been for him if you had been still in Ireland, or, where the newspapers have been placing you, in England!2 As to any use that the Judicial Establishment has been made of in France, much boast is not to be made. The D. de la Rochefoucauld, La Fayette, etc., when I came through Paris, took notice, that some few of the ideas had been adopted, and pretended very much to regret that more were not in the same case, but that it was in English, (Mirabeau was to have taken it up, but I know not what accident prevented him,) time was wanting for giving it the consideration it deserved, and the leading men were wedded to systems of their own, etc.

The 'Panopticon' plan, as far as we have had opportunities of observing, is approved by everybody, architects themselves not excepted, some of the most eminent of whom are adopting it in preference to their own ideas.

### 8021

### T <sup>o</sup> R e g i n a <sup>l</sup> <sup>d</sup> P <sup>o</sup> <sup>l</sup> <sup>e</sup> C a r e w

#### 20 July 1791 (Aet 43)

No 2 Dover Street July 20th 1791

 Alas! Alas!—the spirit is willing: but the flesh is weak. The activity of my legs availeth little while my Brother is tied by the leg, and consequently I, by business that will keep us in, or in the neighbourhood of, this wicked town for I can't tell what length of time, certainly beyond the time that you talked of spending this summer in Devonshire.2

I was so much in earnest in my wishes of complying with those which you have the goodness to express that I had formed projects

**802.** <sup>1</sup> Pole Carew Mss. No address, cover or docket.

<sup>2</sup> Fitzherbert had been Chief-Secretary for Ireland, 1787–9, then British envoy at the Hague, 1789–91.

<sup>2</sup> A mistake: Antony House was, and is, in Cornwall.

of learning Chemistry over again on the new (i:e: the French) principles at Antony-house (Chateau-Antoine I mean) in the court of the Seigneur, fancying it would be an amusement to him to travel the same road.

I found your letter3 yesterday at Hendon, nor have I seen my Brother since, nor shall I see him before the post goes out from hence, he being at Chatham at this present writing: the above is therefore grounded on nothing more than a general knowledge of the state of his engagements. I wish I could recollect what you told me of your intended motions that we might see what chance there was of our being able to bring ours to coincide with them during any part of the season for rustication.

No, Sir—the Rights of men did not produce the destruction of any thing but what was meant to be destroy'd: viz: beef, pudding, claret and time. It is to you Jure-divino men, as to the Dragon of Wantley,4 that 'Houses and Churches' were but as 'Hens Geese and Turkeys'. Is it true that the Archbishop of Canterbury was seen to 'Ride in the whirlwind and direct the storm' at Birmingham sitting astride a broomstick in his best bib and tucker, with his Privy-Councillor the Devil at his elbow?5

4 A humorous ballad, probably of the 17th century, about a Yorkshire dragon slain by a local resident; a burlesque opera of the same name by Henry Carey, was produced in 1734 (Sir P. Harvey, *Oxford Companion to English Literature,* 1932, p. 236).

5 An allusion to the 'church and king' riots which began on 14 July in Birmingham, when the windows of a hotel in which 90 persons were celebrating the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille were broken, and disorder lasted until troops arrived late on Sunday, 17 July. Priestley's house was damaged and his library destroyed by the mob. Bentham's reference to the archbishop is a misconceived joke: John Moore (1730–1805), who was Archbishop of Canterbury, 1783–1805, was a philanthropist and moderate reformer.

<sup>3</sup> This may refer to Pole Carew's letter of 14 June (793), since 'the activity of' Bentham's 'legs' is mentioned, but there may have been another one, as a quick answer to letter 793 was expected.

### 8031

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### 21 July 1791

Pembroke 21st July 1791

I intended writing to you from Bowood but I am always agitated at parting with Lord Wycombe, and can think of nothing but what regards him, and he did not set out till the day we did.

As to Foreign Politicks, I cannot help looking upon the Emperor2 as the Arbiter of Europe, and I believe him to be full as ambitious as his Brother only with more Art, more Prudence and Truth. The French Nation seem to be the Favourites of Providence, but it appears that Monsr de Calonne will never rest till he gets some of his Friends hang'd.3

You misapprehended me, when you suppos'd that one only of the Ladys remain'd each month. It is that one was to preside each month. However I had forgot that one generally goes to Warwick at the end of the Season, and two remain at Bowood till I go to Town, but the Warwicks have not fix'd their own time of going to Warwick, nor is it quite fix'd whether any will go this year.

We are all much delighted with South Wales—I write from the house of a Lady, who is so transcendently beautyfull, that we all agree, if you were but to see her, you would not be able to write a word for a year. Adieu

**803.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 274–5. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 July 21 / Ld L. Pembroke / to / J.B. Hendon.'

Addressed: 'To / Jer. Bentham Esqr / near the 8 mile stone / Hendon / London / Middlesex.' Franked: 'Pembroke July twenty-third 1791. Fr. Lansdown'. Postmark: '25/A 91 Pembroke'.

The second paragraph of the letter is quoted in Bowring, x, 262.

2 Leopold II (1747–92), who had succeeded his brother, Joseph II, as Emperor of Austria, in 1790. He formed an alliance with Prussia against France, but died before war broke out.

<sup>3</sup> Calonne was acting as the agent in Britain of Artois and Condé and assisting French emigrés to escape (see above, p. 62, n. 6).

### 8041

### F r o m R e g i n a l d P o l e C a r e w

#### 22 July 1791

 As I am come a great way, so would I stay a great While to receive you here; What say you to four weeks longer. Tell me that it will enable you to give me your Company and Your Chemistry for three weeks and you will make me happy.

But I am frightened at the name of Chateau Antoine; when I reflect that mine is a strongly built Castle, and that the Bastille was in the faubourg St. Antoine. But if these Reflections neither prevent your coming nor excite in you when here the Spirit of Demolition, I shall leave it to its fate when you are gone. In the meantime I take the Opportunity while I can, of sending you this *Lettre de Cachet* enjoining you and your Brother to render yourselves here instantaneously upon pain of incurring our high displeasure, et sur ce je prie Dieu de vous avoir dans sa Digne et Sainte Garde.

à vous

R. Pole Carew

Antony July 22 1791

### 8051

### T <sup>o</sup> R e g i n a <sup>l</sup> <sup>d</sup> P <sup>o</sup> <sup>l</sup> <sup>e</sup> C a r e w

#### 12 August 1791 (Aet 43)

Dover Street No 2 Aug 12—1791

If wishes could have convey'd us, we should have been with you long ago: but business has hitherto rendered it impracticable. My Brother went into the country upon some business yesterday: I expect him back tomorrow, or at furthest by Saturday. Monday or Tuesday he hopes to be able to set his face your way: but it still

**804.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 276. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 July 24 / Pole Carew Plymouth / to / J.B. Dover Street.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / no 2 Dover St.' Franked: 'Plymouth July twenty four 1791 / Free R. Carew'. Stamped: 'Plymouth'. Postmark illegible.

Printed in Bowring, x, 262. A reply to letter 802.

**805.** <sup>1</sup> Pole Carew Mss. Autograph.

Addressed (on separate cover): 'Reginald Pole Carew Esqr m.p. / Anthony House / Plymouth.'

depends upon contingencies: and if he does, he can not stay with you more than a few days. As for me I have scarce any hope of being able to accompany him.

### 8061

### T <sup>o</sup> R e g i n a <sup>l</sup> <sup>d</sup> P <sup>o</sup> <sup>l</sup> <sup>e</sup> C a r e w

#### 20 August 1791 (Aet 43)

What accompanies this goes in its present form which I have not seen and which I dare say is incompleat in order to take the chance of my Brother's being still with you, in hopes of its having the benefit of a consultation.

Saty Aug. 20 1791

### 8071

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 22 August 1791

If you call on the Millwright tell him that I believe I shall have occasion for a *Fly* therefore he should make preparations for it although I am not certain of wanting it.

He must consider also how the smaller cog'd wheels which are to drop alternately into connection with the great wheel shall be sure not to drop cog upon cog, but cog into space between cogs; cutting the cogs to a sharp edge would I suppose answer this purpose: but of this he must have had experience and be well aware.

I have seen a blockmaking machine here like Taylor's.2

**806.** <sup>1</sup> Pole Carew Mss. Autograph. No docket.

Addressed: 'Reginald Pole Carew Esqr m.p. / Anthony House / Plymouth.'

Samuel Bentham wrote to Pole Carew on 15 August: 'Tomorrow evening (God willing) I set out from hence to the end that I may present myself to you at Anthony as soon as the mode of conveyance admits of.. .My Panopticon brother is vexing himself sorely that he cant come too; or rather that I rule him with a rod of iron and wont let him come. I have no notion of his running up and down the country, it is enough if I do that. Let him mind the business at home, besides I have enough of his company and choose rather to have you all to myself...' (Pole Carew Mss.).

**807.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 282–3. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 Aug 22 / S.B. Plymouth to J.B. Dover Street.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / 2 Dover St.' Franked: 'Plymouth August twenty two 1791 Free R. Carew'. Postmark: 'FREE/AU[24?]/91/A'. Stamped: 'Plymouth Dock'.

<sup>2</sup> See letter 627, n. 15.

We are this instant setting out for Mr Rashleigh's.3 The Commissioner dined with us yesterday.4 He is amazingly civil, very zealous for the service but muddleheaded. I have been on board the Trial5 and saw the Keels but mine will be much better.

#### Monday Morning.

Thursday we shall be back and I have written to Peake6 to come to breakfast on Fryday. Louis7 packed my things miserably. Let this give you courage.

### 8081

### T <sup>o</sup> S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 23 August 1791 (Aet 43)

 Ay—I knew how it would be: I knew there would be some pretence or other for idling and outstaying the time. There is no harm done. Dumont is 'one hundred miles off,'—I suppose at Bowood; Romilly not yet returned from the circuit; Wilson only will be with me, cheated by assurances (made before I received your letter) of your return in time.2 He sets out for Paris on Friday. I shall load him with copies, (if I can,) three or four to be in readiness for the Daudelon and the Coigny.3 The letters must go after-

<sup>3</sup> Philip Rashleigh (1729–1811), of Menabilly, Cornwall; mineralogist; m.p. for Fowey, 1765–1802. Pole Carew's grandmother was a Rashleigh: he and the Benthams had helped Philip with his scientific enquiries in 1783 (see *Correspondence,* iii, 199 n. 2, 207, 212, 220).

<sup>4</sup> Robert Fanshaw was commissioner resident at Plymouth dockyard in 1791 (*Royal Kalendar* 1791, p. 136).

<sup>5</sup> H.M.S. *Trial,* a cutter of 123 tons, launched at Plymouth in 1790 and listed until 1813 (J. J. Colledge, *Ships of the Royal Navy: an Historical Index,* Newton Abbot, 2 vols., 1969, i, 569).

<sup>6</sup> Probably (Sir) Henry Peake, master shipwright (see *Correspondence,* ii passim and iii, 3, n. 10).

<sup>7</sup> Louis, the French servant of Samuel, who appears in the correspondence from time to time hereafter.

**<sup>808.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 262–4. Introduced by the statement: 'This invitation [from Pole Carew] was accepted by the colonel, but not by Bentham. A few extracts from Bentham's letter to his brother, during his visit, are amusing; the technicalities in them refer to Sir Samuel's mechanical inventions:'.

The allusions to the Panopticon Table and other internal evidence point to Tuesday, 23 August, as the date of this letter.

<sup>2</sup> A missing letter from Samuel a day or two earlier than that of 22 August (807) is indicated.

<sup>3</sup> Perhaps Madame Daudelon, wife of the 'Mr. Daudelon', mentioned later in the letter, and the duchesse de Coigny (see above, p. 274 n. 6).

wards. I hope, by that time, to load him with copies of the Table likewise: I have it before me, but not in a sendable state. I hardly expect it will be in such a state by tomorrow's post—it must, I think, by Thursday's; therefore, at any rate, stay thou for it till it comes.

A letter from Parson Williams4 —very reverential: that matter is at it should be.

Mr Buggins,5 a fine man—lives in a fine house, and is never up before eleven. I have not seen him yet; but am told there is no talk of his going into the country soon. For *sight-worthy* persons at Plymouth, More6 mentioned Mudge,7 whom you know of old; and a man whose name begins with a T, and has two syllables in it— Turner or Teacher,8 it may be, for aught I know; he has, I think, a place in the yard—it may be Clerk of the Check, for aught I know; not that he knows anything—but he knows everybody. I have begun *economizing*—but this Table, while it lasts, is an interruption and a plague.

Flash-Pump9 —is pretty well settled with regard to all the capital points. Out of fun, I won't tell you anything about it till I see you; but do you settle it with yourself in the meantime, that we may compare notes. This will increase the chance of settling it well.

Your business at church on Sunday, I take for granted, was to return thanks for Tree Nail Engine: next Sunday, if you go, pray for the softening of Mr Pitt's heart.

Don't omit to consult with Carew about the advisability of preserving the anti-colonizing, and any other obnoxious passages.

Alas, that I am not with you! but the Lord's will be done! Cast about with Carew all sorts of measures that appear to hold out a chance of bringing Panopticon to bear here;—the bribery plans, for example, in the event of its not getting a hearing otherwise.

5 Not identified; evidently an employer of labour.

6 Not identified.

7 Either Thomas Mudge (1717–94), the horologist, who had retired to Plymouth in 1771 and was improving chronometers for use at sea; or his brother, John Mudge (1721–93), surgeon and physician, who practised in Plymouth for many years, f.r.s., writer on medical and scientific subjects, friend of Reynolds, Dr Johnson and James Northcote (see *Mudge Memoirs,* ed. S. R. Flint, Truro, 1883).

<sup>8</sup> Bentham was mistaken: the Clerk of the Checque at Plymouth in 1791 was John Lloyd; he may have been thinking of T. Tovrey, First Master Shipwright's Assistant, 1788–93, or G. Thomas, Clerk of the Surveyor, 1791–2.

<sup>9</sup> Bowring has 'Flush-Pump' but this must be a misprint, as there is a long description of a flash-pump in U.C. cvi: 8–14.

<sup>4</sup> Possibly Lloyd Williams, vicar of Whitchurch, husband of Ann, the elder daughter of G. W. Grove (see n. 12 below and *Correspondence,* i, 162, n. 5).

This as from yourself: anything of that sort will come better from an intriguing Russian like you, than from a reformer like your betters. The completion of the book, and the production of the Table, will be a fresh incident, which will warrant his giving them a fresh fillip.

A fly is a thing that can be put on at any time—*Dieu merci.* But *Dieu* has set his face against poor Plaining-Engine, and sent a bit of a fever to the head man who was to have set about it. Mr Cooper,10 whom I visited this morning, could not pretend to show me anything of it, but said that it had been begun upon, but that it was a new business, and required a good deal of thought. The fever is not to last longer than tomorrow or next; but there is a great *disette* of hands—many works of art at a stand on that account and, in short, the colonel could not do better than send his chest of tools there, and lend a hand himself. So now you find there is employment for you, I hope you will come and take it, and not stay lounging there any longer. I have offered my services at 6d. a-day, acknowledging that 3d. would be a great deal more than they would be worth. The complaint of want of hands general, as More told you; out of 150 that he wants, he can get but 80; he gives 25s. or 26s. a-week, to some of them at least, if not to all. Well— Plany, when once born, will, I hope, do something towards remedying the grievance. You see we must try somebody else for Tree Nail Engine.

You must not go to Bowood without me. I wish to go there, and am determined to go there,—that is, if you go, and not otherwise. It will be necessary to go there if we go on our mechanical excursion, for the sake of getting letters, etc. I have proposed to Townsend,11 that if he goes with us, that shall be our starting-post. I have been writing a letter to Mr Daudelon, in your name, for you to see.

From Basingstoke we will go to Whitchurch, which is 12 miles on the way towards Bowood. There we shall see our cousin and ward12 transact a little business I have to do there, and be at the house of a friend, who has often given me invitations, and will unquestionably be glad to see us. From thence is but 22 or 23 miles to Townsend's

<sup>10</sup> Perhaps a misprint by Bowring for 'Hooper', the man mentioned in letters 809 and 812; evidently he was, like More, employed by the Benthams to engage labour for constructing Samuel's planing engine and other inventions.

<sup>12</sup> Bentham's deceased uncle, George Woodward Grove, had had a country house at Whitchurch, Hants. Jeremy had received a legacy from him and was his executor. The cousin and ward would be Susannah, the younger daughter of Grove; she was about 19 years of age in 1791 (see *Correspondence,* iii, 257 n. 1, 296 and n. 3).

<sup>11</sup> Joseph Townsend (1739–1816), rector of Pewsey, Wilts., for whom Bentham had a high regard (see *Correspondence,* iii, 57 and n. 10).

living of Pewsey, where he probably is, and from whence he will take us to Bowood, which is 14 miles on foot or horseback, though, at least, 20 in a carriage.

I charge you, on your allegiance, do not go now to Bowood with or without Lord Wycombe, but come back to London, as we agreed, for a variety of reasons.

Louis should go before to Bowood to meet us—there are several there who talk French.

In writing to Segur,13 etc., about Panopticon, it should be considered, that it would be worth while trying to have the contract there; for that purpose, the first thing to be done is to learn the expense per head of the present establishment for the confining of prisoners,—Bicêtre for example. The Comité de Mendicité either knows this, or could know it. It is a principle recognised lately by the National Assembly, that inventors ought to have the profits of their inventions: their Law on Patents is grounded upon it.

Your *Frenchwomen* might be written to confidentially to get an architect to join us in fighting up Panopticon—his profit being on the building—ours on the management. I think of sending them my letter and proposal to Pitt, which, with or without alteration, may serve for France. Vaughan is again pressing for the books for the Comité de Mendicité.

### 8091

F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 30 August 1791

Aug. 1791.

 Here am I still without Panopticon tables. On Sunday I was given to expect them, nothing came, on monday nothing on Tuesday which is today no post and therefore nothing. Your *orders* were not to come away till I get these tables. Your general *instigations* are to come away immediately. If I get them tomorrow I shall set out next day—in short the day after I get them I come away and not till then.

13 Louis Philippe comte de Ségur d'Aguesseau.

**809.** <sup>1</sup> King's College, Cambridge. Bentham Ms. 86/3. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 / Aug. 30 / S.B. Plymouth / to / J.B. Dover Street / Reced Sept. 1st.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esq / 2 Dover Street / London.' Franked: 'Plymouth August thirty 1791 / Free R. Carew'. Postmark: 'FREE/P/SE/1/91'. Stamped: 'plymouth dock'.

To Re gi nal d Pole Care w 1 Septe mber 1791

Flies I supposed wanting to Plany, how could you suspect I meant treenail Engine of which I had never spoke about the machinery.2 I sleep a good deal and mechanize but little.

We talk much of Panopticon and are impatient for the tables. Peake3 the Uncle is arriving. Hooper4 promises to be useful.

Anthony

329

day of month on outside. To Jeremy Bentham.5

### 8101

### T <sup>o</sup> R e g i n a <sup>l</sup> <sup>d</sup> P <sup>o</sup> <sup>l</sup> <sup>e</sup> C a r e w

1 September 1791 (Aet 43)

Dover Street Thursday Sept. 1—1791

This comes to you with my kind hopes that you have sent my Brother packing long before it reaches you, for he is much wanted hereabouts.

To day I receive a letter from him dated Tuesday,2 telling me that at that time no Table was arrived. On sending to the Printer's, he assures me that he sent one by the post on Friday—that there is a possibility of its not having gone time enough for that day's post. If it went by Friday's, it ought, I think to have been received at Plymouth on Sunday: if by Saturday's, at any rate on Monday. It ought to have gone by Thursday's post, according to my prediction: for I had a proof that day, and that same day he assured my servant before the Posthour that another proof should go in time to you.

To make sure, I send you a copy today myself along with this: but it will be a vexatious thing if the first has miscarried, and my Brother has been idling with you all this while till these presents arrive to give him his release.

It seems not altogether improbable that the Pitts will spear3 us

3 Not identified; probably a brother of Henry Peake and uncle of Jack Peake.

<sup>3</sup> That is, file away the Panopticon proposal for future attention.

<sup>2</sup> Samuel had thought that fly-wheels were lacking from the planing machine ('Plany'), not the 'treenail' engine (see letter 807, p. 324 above).

<sup>4</sup> See letter 808, n. 10.

<sup>5</sup> Last three lines added in another hand, perhaps that of Lady Bentham, at a later date.

**<sup>810.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Pole Carew Mss. Autograph. No docket. 2 Letter 809.

for this Autumn, and by that means the Pitt to his great contentment spear Panopticon for this year. The papers mention his having taken a house for 6 weeks to attend his Majesty at Weymouth: and Miss Gomm in a note to my Brother of the 29th mentions his being to set out for that place 'in a few days'.4 —This migration will afford Col. Gadabout a plea for scampering off to Weymouth, on pretence of intriguing, which will delight him of all things.

Just now comes the Printer's Boy, who tells me that he himself put the copy in question into the post on Monday, and not before. It therefore arrived at Plymouth yesterday (Wednesday). Thursday the day at soonest my Brother leaves you, and Saturday morning, at soonest, if not then not before Monday morning, for the post I think avoids getting to town on the Sabbath, he arrives here.

Well the Lord's will be done.

Preliminaries have been signed on the part of Turkey and Russia at Szistova:5 terms, as agreed with us, with no other difference than an armistice of 8 months instead of 4.

The express with the news arrived here this morning. S.B. has just had it from Ld Elgin.6

### 8111

### F r o m S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### 1 September 1791

 Yesterday we received Panop: Table.2 We have both been occupied in considering and criticizing it since and have a little more to do with it.

Peake the Uncle is arrived here but I have not yet seen him.

For these reasons I fear I shall not be able to set off tomorrow

<sup>4</sup> Jeremy was clearly opening his brother's correspondence sent to Dover Street: for instance the letter from Miss Gomm and the one from Lord Elgin mentioned in the last paragraph of this letter (see n. 6 below).

<sup>5</sup> Following a truce between Austria and Turkey a Congress met at Sistova during the winter of 1790–1 and a peace treaty was signed there on 30 August 1791; Russia signed preliminaries of peace with Turkey at Galatz on 11 August 1791, confirmed by the Treaty of Jassy, 9 January 1792.

<sup>6</sup> Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766–1841), at this time envoy to Austria (1790–2); later while ambassador to the Porte (1799–1803), he arranged for the transport of the Elgin Marbles from Athens to London.

**811.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 284–5. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 Sept 1 / S.B. Plymouth to J.B.' Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esq / 2 Dover St / London.' Franked: 'Plymouth September one 1791 / Free R Carew'. Postmark: 'FREE / SE 3 91 / P'.

<sup>2</sup> The Panopticon Table, which had, after much delay, been sent off by the printer on Monday, 29 August (see letter 810, p. 10 above).

morning but certainly shall not excede Saturday, which will bring me to town Monday Morning to breakfast.

Thursday Septr 1st

31

### 8121

### F r o m R e g i n a <sup>l</sup> <sup>d</sup> P <sup>o</sup> <sup>l</sup> <sup>e</sup> C a r e w

#### 7 September 1791

you heard from your brother how I set off with Fanshawe.2 I arrived in due course of time without any *disagreements.* Let us know how long you stay where you are; and pray tell me Hooper's christian name and direction.

Wednesday Septr 7th—91 Hooper speaks highly of Murdock3 the inventor of the boring machine and of his being disengaged. If you should learn any thing about him pray let me know.

### 8131

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> f L a n s d o w n e

#### 5 October 1791

Bowood Park 5th Octr 1791

I answer'd the Inclos'd2 by saying that we had some French Company, but that *I* hop'd it would [not?] deter them from the Honor they intended us on Fryday, that we din'd at ½ past 5, and

**812.** <sup>1</sup> Pole Carew Mss. In another hand at the end of letter 810. May be a draft of a letter, or part of a letter, to Bentham, after his brother had rejoined him at No. 2 Dover Street.

<sup>2</sup> Probably Robert Fanshaw (see above, p. 325 and n. 4).

<sup>3</sup> William Murdock (1754–1839), a Scottish engineer, who changed his name from 'Murdoch' because of English difficulties in pronouncing it; inventor of coal-gas lighting and many other improvements.

**813.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 288. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 Oct. 5 / Ld L. Bowood / to J.B Dover Street.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / No 2 Dover Street.'

2 A letter from Jeremiah Bentham to Lord Lansdowne, viz. 'Bath, Orange Grove No 15 / Sept 29th 1791 / My good Lord, / Mrs. Bentham and I having been upon a ramble for the past two months to Portsmouth and a variety of other Places including the time we have been here, where my own health made it necessary for me to stay

that *I* hop'd they would stay *that Night,* that their sons knew they were welcome to every House of mine at all times.

My answer to yours3 is that *we* shall be very happy to see you and your Brother for as *many* days and nights as you can spare, at the same or different times as may be most convenient, and that I shall be very glad to make the acquaintance of such a Man as you describe Mr Moore.4

Mr Garbett5 is not just now at Birmingham, but he may be return'd by the time you mention—The Ladys desire their compts and I beg mine to your Brother.

### 8141

### F r o m S a m u e <sup>l</sup> R o m i ll <sup>y</sup>

#### 8 October 1791

Dear Bentham,

I am prevented from going to Bowood by some business which makes it necessary for me to be in Town for a fortnight longer and then it will be too near the term for me to venture out of Town. It is not Law business which I mention that I may not increase your

against our Inclination during the late sultry hot weather, and our Intention being to leave Bath this day sennight on our return to Town, we propose the Day following to do ourselves the honor of paying our respects to your Lordship at Bowood, where possibly we may chance to meet my two Sons, or at least one of them, the Coll having given me to understand by a letter I received from him a few days ago, that he intended paying you a visit either some time in the first week in October or very soon after, which visit may prevent my seeing him for sometime, who to me is a kind of "rara avis in terris" so soon as I could wish, it is an additional Inducement for our Calling for a few hours at Bowood, if by the favour of a Line I find it will be agreable to your Lordship, to whom Mrs. Bentham desires me to present her best Compliments with those of / my Lord, / your Lordship's / most obedient hble Servt / Jereh. Bentham. / Lord Lansdown.' Copies of this letter and the original of Lansdowne's reply, dated 1 October 1791, are in B.L. V: 286–7.

3 A missing letter from Bentham.

4 Not identified: perhaps the same man as 'More' mentioned in letter 808, p. 326 above.

5 Either Francis Garbett, the father of Anne, the future Lady Romilly, or her grandfather, Samuel Garbett, whom Bentham describes in his reminiscences as 'a manufacturer of oil of vitriol' (Bowring, x, 187). He was a man of substance, described as of 'Poole Hall, Warwickshire', and an authority on finance. He kept up a correspondence with Lord Lansdowne, still preserved at Bowood (see *Romilly-Edgeworth Letters, 1813–1818,* ed. Samuel Henry Romilly, 1936, Introduction, p. 4; also C. G. Oakes, *Sir Samuel Romilly, 1757–1818,* 1935, pp. 99–102).

**814.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 292–3. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 Oct. 10 / Romilly Grays Inn / to / J.B. Dover Street / Tactics.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esq / Dover Street.' Printed in Bowring, x, 264.

Fr o m Ben ja mi n Vau g han Oct o ber 1791

ill humour against our profession. I believe you understood from me before what from excessive Caution I repeat that if you think my part of the Tactics worth printing it is to be without my name but indeed I think it cannot be worth printing.2 If you do print it I would advise you to prefix as a Motto which will show d'avance that we are not disappointed at its want of success

> Quis legit haec? Vel duo vel nemo3 Yrs sincerely S.R.

8 Oct. 1791

3

### 8151

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> f L a n s d o w n e

#### 9 October 1791

B.P. Fryday

The old couple have breakfasted here, but would not stay Dinner or Bed—Your Father seems in a very declining State, and poor Mrs Bentham could not refrain from Tears speaking of his Life, with regard to the House which he has let to Lady Ashburton.2 They are gone by slow Journies to London. Of course, I said nothing about their Sons coming here.

### 8161

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u g h a n

#### October 1791

I presume the progress of conventions to have been natural at least, if not wise, in America.

<sup>2</sup> Bentham had intended to extend what was published in his *Essay on Political Tactics* (1791) and evidently Romilly had written material for a new edition (see letter 732, n. 4).

<sup>3</sup> 'Who reads this? Either two or none.'

**815.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 290. Autograph. Docketed: '1791 Oct 9 / Ld L. Bowood / to / J.B. Dover Street / Q.S.P.'s case "declining".'

<sup>2</sup> 19 Duke Street, London. See letter 778, n. 4.

**816.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 264–5. Introduced by the statement: 'In answer to an inquiry of Bentham's as to the constitution of the American Convention, Benjamin Vaughan gives this explanation:'.

A clue to the dating is the placing of this extract in Bowring immediately after

That country was without a government when it revolted from England. The several parts of it chose deputies to frame the respective governments of those parts; and the governments so framed differing from the simple form of the constitutive assembly, and being experiments, but designed to be experiments rigorously pursued, the public kept the power of modification in its own hands, by reserving to itself the right of deciding changes; either making a tacit or express provision for that purpose. Principles of a constitutional nature are so different from the common objects of government, that I cannot wonder that they were thought to admit of being referred to different bodies, or at least of being discussed under different regulations. A complex government is naturally farther removed from the people than an assembly composed of deputies only; to say nothing of the advantage of making the discussion more solemn, and having the people partaking in it, by keeping distinct from legislation what respects a constitution.

As the people had nothing but charters, etc., in America before the revolution, histories of the revolution, like those of Ramsay2 and Gordon,3 (joined to the provisions of the constitutions themselves on this subject,) must be supposed likely to give the requisite information on this head, and Stockdale4 will furnish the above.

<sup>2</sup> David Ramsay, *The History of the American Revolution,* 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1789; 2 vols., London, 1790.

<sup>3</sup> William Gordon, *The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America, including an Account of the late War, and of the Thirteen Colonies, from their Origin to that Period,* 4 vols., printed for the author, London, 1788.

<sup>4</sup> John Stockdale, bookseller and publisher.

the letter of 8 October from Romilly (letter 814). Vaughan had 'disappeared' by mid-December 1791 (see letter 826, p. 348 below). Bentham's inquiry presumably concerned the constitutional Convention of 1787 at Philadelphia and the American Constitution then drawn up.

### 8171

### T o J e a n P h i l i p p e G a r r a n - d e - C o u l o n

#### October 1791 (Aet 43)

#### (Translation.)

Cocceius, seeking help for the Prussian code, thought he had done much in looking over the whole extent of Germany.2 But your views, Sir, have embraced the whole world. Fifty ducats, extorted from the purse of the royal miser, was the price at which a Prussian chancellor valued that code of legislation which was entitled to the preference—such was the honour he did to the political knowledge of the whole empire. It remained for a Frenchman to conceive, that genius was not exclusively confined to certain geographical division, and that the most appropriate reward for services of this order was the certainty of obtaining the attention of the representatives of a great and free nation.

I was far from home, Sir, when I learned by chance, in reading one of the Logographs, the distinction as flattering as unexpected, for which I am indebted to your eloquence.3 Little surprised that an

**817.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 268–9. Introduced by the statement: 'It appears that Dumont suggested to Bentham the desirableness of his addressing the National Assembly of France on the subject of Law Reform. I find, in Dumont's handwriting, the translation of a letter which he drew up, in order that Bentham might address it to Garran, member of the National Assembly of France.' As Bentham refers in letter 820 to a missing letter from himself to Garran as 'ma premiere du [mois] courant', i.e. November, this earlier communication must have been written in the later part of October (see also note 3 below).

Jean Philippe Garran-de-Coulon (1748–1816), was a French lawyer, later a judge. Elected to the States-General in 1789, he was a member of the Legislative Assembly in 1791 and spoke frequently on legal questions. He became a member of the Convention and the Council of the Five Hundred, and was later a strong supporter of Napoleon.

<sup>2</sup> Samuel von Cocceji (1679–1755), professor of law at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, later Chancellor of Frederick the Great and reformer of the Prussian legal code. Bentham cites the work of Cocceji on the Prussian Code in his *Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation* (see *C. W.,* pp. 23 and n., 306).

3 On 16 October 1791 Garran had proposed that the National Assembly should enlist the aid of foreign experts, as well as Frenchmen, in drawing up a code of laws. He cited Bentham's *Draught of a New Plan for the Organisation of the Judicial Establishment in France* and commented: 'Jérémie Bentham a fait ce travail considérable dans le seul but d'être utile a un pays né à la liberté, uniquement pour contribuer, autant qu'il était en lui, au perfectionnement d'une Constitution qui doit avoir de si grands effets sur le bonheur de l'espèce humaine. Les idées neuves et utiles qui se trouvent dans son ouvrage rendent désirable qu'il veuille bien nous aider de ses vues pour la réformation de nos lois civiles et l'institution d'une procédure vraiment propre à instruite les juges.'

Garran also proposed that the National Assembly 'vote des remerciements a

English work had not awakened the attention of the Committee of the preceding Assembly, I abandoned, on reflection, that which, in zeal, I had undertaken, and from that moment thought no more of labouring for France. I feel that I should labour with redoubled energy if I could anticipate the chance of being useful by seconding the labours of so many enlightened men.

I take the liberty to request, Sir, you will accept a copy of such of my works as have been printed. Two are incomplete for the same reason—one on Judicial Establishments, the other on Parliamentary Tactics; and, though printed, have never been sold. If your leisure should allow you to glance over any part of them, I should wish it were the preface to the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation—where the outlines of the character of my writings will enable you to judge how far they can usefully be applied to France.

In the event of my being honoured by a commission on the part of the Assembly, to communicate to them my ideas upon the subjects in question, would it be unreasonable on my part to hope for a copy, by their order, of the documents it is necessary I should be furnished with for that purpose? I mean the Procès-Verbal of the late Assembly, the decrees of that Assembly in their systematic order, and the acts of the present Assembly as they came out: to which may be added the Logograph, as containing the fullest and exactest account of the debates—that is, of the reasons for and against every measure, without which, the bare acts would be but a very imperfect guide.4 The Procès-Verbal I took in, together with

Jérémie Bentham pour son travail sur l'établissement de l'ordre judiciaire en France et qu'il soit particulièrement invité a vous communiquer ses vues sur les lois civiles et sur la réforme de la procédure. Au surplus, pour que vous ne votiez pas des remerciements sans connaissance de cause, je demande que l'Assemblée nationale nomme des commissaires chargés de lui rendre compte du plan de Jérémie Bentham, sur l'ordre judiciaire en France (Applaudissements.)'

Vincens-Planchut and Couthon, however, opposed giving a vote of thanks to a man who was still living, to which Garran replied: 'Jérémie Bentham a fait un ouvrage très long, très considérable, plein de vues extrêmement philosophiques, relatif à l'ordre social qui s'établissait de nouveau en France: Jérémie Bentham a fait cela par amour pour la Révolution française; c'est le moyen le plus sur d'obtenir de tous les savants étrangers des vues extrêmement utiles, que de voter des remerciements à celuis qui a donné, d'une manière aussi désintéressée et aussi noble, un si magnifique exemple.'

Another member said they ought not to give a vote of thanks to the author of a work with which several members were unacquainted, and the question was referred to the Committee of Legislation (*Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860,* le sér., xxxiv, 250–1).

<sup>4</sup> The *Journal logographique* was started early in 1791 by Le Hodey, who, by employing as many as fourteen reporters at a time to take down as much as they

a number of other periodical accounts of the proceedings of the Assembly; but my copy, owing to various accidents, is too imperfect to answer the purpose. There are none of these documents, it is true, but what I could procure through the ordinary channels; but the truth is, that, besides so great a part of my time, the French Revolution, since the commencement of it, has cost me, in one way or other, purchase of books and other printed documents, printing of books never offered for sale, paying of copyists, etc. etc., considerably more than the amount of what, during the same interval, I have spent upon myself. I neither meant to ask, nor ever would accept, though it were offered me, any pecuniary reward, nor any other indemnification for any expenses I have been at, or may be at in future; but as far as concerns a copy of such documents as are at the immediate disposal of the Assembly, the idea of receiving them from the bounty of the Assembly, will, I hope, not appear to you an unreasonable one. This expectation, however, on which I do not by any means lay any stress, I beg leave to submit, without reserve to your better judgment and friendly determination. You will easily perceive, that, under such circumstances, the distinction is much more my object than a pecuniary saving to so inconsiderable an amount.

### 8181

### T o C a r o <sup>l</sup> i n e F o x

#### [?]November 1791 (Aet 43)

 Lord Lansdowne has trumped up a story about certain songs having been asked for by Miss F. Five times was the number mentioned, which consequently requires five letters. Being taxed with fiction, he unloaded his pockets before me of their contents, including about fifty letters, among which were to have been the five, or some of them; but is unable to find one. It is an old manoeuvre, and will not pass upon anybody, not even upon me. The notice, however, having been given in form, with threats of disgrace in case of neglect, I must act as if it were true. Well, here it is—the same song—it has cost me hours after hours—pieces of

could of the speeches in the Assembly, achieved almost verbatim records of the debates until the *Journal* ceased publication on 10 August 1792.

**<sup>818.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 266–7. Introduced, without any indication of date, by the statement: 'To Miss F——, Bentham writes:'.

The date of letter 819, which may refer to the same song, or even be a surviving part of the same letter, suggests the later part of November for this letter.

days, as many as there are days in a week at least; and what will anybody be the better for it?2 When you ordered it, you did not want it; and now you have got it, you won't make use of it. I am recommenced wild beast, and growl as every wild beast will do when you touch his chain. Not a syllable did I get from you before, nor shall I now,—not so much as the direction of a letter; and the notice, supposing it genuine, was to come in *circumbendibus* through two different channels. Here is the song, extracted from me, in the most dexterous manner; and not only that, but paper enough to singe a goose with, without anybody committing himself. I don't like such sort of dealings, not I. I have read Cocker's Arithmetic,3 — I like to see a debtor and creditor side fairly balanced,—needs must when —— drives. Peace and quietness are my aim; but Lord L., who knows the necessities of an election, and who will never let me alone, insisted upon having, not only song, but letter; so you have him to thank for it. The old story—providence in plenty; but all of it on one side. The ice becomes the colder, I think, when the three Dianas get together: they are like snow, saltpetre, and sal-ammoniac: there is something Greenlandish, too, in the air of that old castle. Hear me, madam! If I don't get something better, by return of post, than a note in solemn form, and that from one hand only, the whole correspondence goes, the next day, to, I need not say where—I leave to imagination to conclude the sentence. I thought we had got our *quietus* when the metaphysical disputations were adjourned to Lansdowne House; but fate would have it otherwise. My brother, who is too good to you, talks of sending you a Russo-French song,4 music composed, and given him by a Countess Golofkin,5 or Go-lovekin, as you may be pleased to call her,—which said song Miss F. will neither have the industry to learn, nor the punctuality to acknowledge the receipt of. I send it rather as a literary curiosity than for its excellence; but though his *Vishoblagorodinship*<sup>6</sup> gives a toss of his head, and observes that such accomplishments there exhibited are common among the ladies of that country, found something original in it, and not unpleasing; and, at any rate, it is easy, which is no bad recommendation in this

<sup>2</sup> The song sent does not seem to be the Russian one mentioned later in the letter.

<sup>3</sup> Edward Cocker (1631–75), teacher of, and writer on, penmanship and mathematics. His *Arithmetic,* first published in 1664, went through over one hundred editions in the succeeding century and a half.

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps one of the Russian songs mentioned in Samuel's letter of 27 June (797).

<sup>5</sup> Probably the celebrated Countess Ekaterina Ivanova Golovkina (1701–91).

<sup>6</sup> Bentham is referring to his brother, as his 'high-mightiness', using a Russian term; *Visho-blagorodin* means 'High Lord'.

idle world—curiosity I call it, speaking as an Englishman. But it must be copied out first, which will give occasion to the said Miss F., after consultation with Miss V., and consent given by beg of Lady W., to Miss E. in her next epistle to Lord Henry7 , to desire him to tell Mr Faure8 to intimate her wishes to Lord Lansdowne, that his lordship would have the goodness to send somebody to Mr Bentham that he may remind his brother of it.

### 8191

### T o C a r o <sup>l</sup> i n e F o x

#### 22 November 1791 (Aet 43)

When the song is sung, the two notes in the second bar of the 6th pair of lines, as likewise those in the 3d bar circumscribed in pencil, may be omitted in playing, in which case the hand will be free to play only the symphony. When there is no singing the small accompanying note in each bar struck through with the pencil may be omitted: and the thumb is accordingly marked as coming upon the note above in that chord. I was afraid of writing the marks indelibly for fear of making a puzzle.

Now I have done my duty and performed my promise my humble advice is not to torment yourself about the fingering in any part, but to play the song, if at all, in your own way.

#### Nov:r 22 91

<sup>7</sup> Miss Caroline Vernon, her sisters, Lady Warwick and Elizabeth Vernon, and Lord Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice.

<sup>8</sup> Bowring misprints the name of the Lansdowne House librarian as 'Favre'.

**<sup>819.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Holland House Papers, B.L. Add. Mss. 51967, fo. 19 (temporary number). Autograph. A strip at the bottom of the sheet, which may have contained the signature, has been torn off. What remains is evidently only part of a letter, possibly the sole surviving section of the original of letter 818.

### 8201

### T o J e a n P h i l i p p e G a r r a n - d e - C o u l o n

#### 25 November 1791 (Aet 43)

Dover street, à Londres, ce 25 novembre 1791.

Par la prochaine diligence, je prendrai la liberté, Monsieur, de vous envoyer le livre anglais intitulé: le *Panoptique,* promis dans ma première du...courant:2 ci-joint je vous envoie l'extrait qu'un ami a fait en français du même ouvrage. Je désirerais en faire hommage à l'Assemblée, pour y être lu, au cas qu'il vous parût de nature à fixer ses regards; enfin, c'est à vos lumières que je le confie; et si vous avez quelques conseils à me donner là-dessus, j'en profiterai avec reconnaissance.

Quant au projet dont il s'agit, la conviction la plus intime, soutenue par l'opinion unanime de ceux qui en ont eu connaissance,

**820.** <sup>1</sup> *Archives Parlementaires,* 13 Dec. 1791, ser. 1, xxxvi, 46. Preceded in this printed version by the paragraph: 'M. Garran-de-Coulon. Un citoyen de la Grande-Bretagne, très distingué par son esprit méditatif, son connaissances et son amour des hommes, M. *Jérémie Bentham,* m'a prié d'offrir a l'Assemblée nationale, l'un de ses ouvrages, plein de vues utiles sur les prisons, maisons de correction et écoles. Permettez-moi de vous communiquer la lettre très courte qu'il m'a écrite à cette occasion:'.

There is another printed copy, a page taken from *Panoptique,* the French translation of the *Panopticon,* in B.L. V: 306. This version differs in a few spellings from the one used here: the alternative spelling 'o' in words like 'connoissance', 'devroit', etc., and the omission of 'y' before 'voulez vous savoir'. In B.L. V: 301 there is also a printed *Extrait du Procès-verbal de l'Assemblée Nationale,* 13 Dec. 1791, viz.:

'Un membre a fait Lecture d'une lettre adressée à M Garran par M Jérémie Bentham qui respire le plus ardent amour de l'humanité. Il offre de la part de ce généreux Anglais un ouvrage sur la réforme des prisons, maisons de correction et de Secours. M. Bentham propose de venir en France établir une prison selon sa methode et de s'en faire lui même très gratuitement le géolier.

L'assemblée a décrété la mention honorable de cet hommage dans le procès verbal, renvoié l'examen de l'ouvrage au Comité de Législation et ordonné l'impression de l'extrait que M Bentham en a fait faire lui même pour l'Assemblée Nationale.

Collationné à l'original

Par Nous Secrétaires de l'Assemblée nationale à Paris le 15 Xbre 1791 Claude Fauchet Jaucourt

Thuriot.'

The summary in French was printed in *Archives Parlementaires,* ubi cit. pp. 61–73. There is a translation into English of the letter in Bowring, x, 269, in which some liberties are taken with the French, including the misleading phrase 'as promised in my last letter' for 'promis dans ma première du [mois] courant'.

<sup>2</sup> 'mois' should be supplied in the space left blank in the official version, evidently because Bentham's translator omitted the word. The letter mentioned as having been sent earlier in the month, with a promise of a copy of *Panopticon,* is missing.

m'a décidé à ne rien négliger pour en effectuer l'introduction. La France, de tous les pays celui où une idée nouvelle se fait le plus aisément pardonner, pourvu qu'elle soit utile; la France, vers laquelle tous les yeux se tournent, et de qui l'on attend des modèles pour toutes les parties de l'administration, est le pays qui semble promettre au projet que je vous envoie sa meilleure chance. Y voulez-vous savoir à quel point est montée ma persuasion de l'importance de ce plan de réformation, et sur les grands succès qu'on en peut attendre? Laissez-moi construire une prison sur ce modèle, et je m'en fais geôlier: vous verrez dans le mémoire même, que ce geôlier ne veu point de salaire, et ne coûtera rien à la nation. Plus j'y songe, plus ce projet me paraît de ceux dont la première exécution devrait être dans les mains de l'inventeur. Si, chez vous, on pense de même à cet égard, peut-être qu'on ne répugnerait pas à se prêter à ma fantaisie. Quoi qu'il en soit, mon livre renferme les instructions les plus nécessaires pour celui qui en serait chargé; et comme ce gouverneur de prince dont parle Fontenelle,3 *j'ai fait mon possible pour me rendre inutile.* (*Applaudissements.*)

Je suis avec respect, Monsieur, votre très humble et très obéissant serviteur

#### Jérémie Bentham

### 8211

# T <sup>o</sup> J <sup>a</sup> <sup>c</sup> q u e s P i e r r e B r i s s o t d e W a r <sup>v</sup> <sup>i</sup> ll <sup>e</sup>

#### *c.* 25 November 1791 (Aet 43)

I have to thank you, my worthy friend, for your kind letter,2 received through the hands of a gentleman,—Bancal3 I believe his name is,—and several pamphlets of yours which accompanied it. I write this not for the sake of telling you with what pleasure I remember you, and how much I wish to be remembered by you, nor for the sake of letting you know what a great man I am become here, upon the strength of being able to reckon M. Brissot in the

<sup>3</sup> Bernard le Bovyer de Fontenelle (1657–1757), centenarian and prolific author of works on numerous subjects.

**<sup>821.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 226. Misplaced by Bowring among correspondence of 1789–90: it is clearly of the same date, or within a day or so, of the letter to Garran (820).

<sup>2</sup> Missing.

<sup>3</sup> Jean Henri Bancal des Issarts (1750–1826), a lawyer and a deputy in the National Assembly; he was a moderate who later served in the Council of the Five Hundred but retired early from politics.

number of my friends: I have too proper a sense of the value of your time to think of taking up any part of it with common compliments or even amicable remembrances.

It is for the sake of sending you a book, which I send likewise to M. Garran de Coulon, containing an account of a project of improvement for which there is but too much room in every country, and, I am afraid, not least in France: it is a mill for grinding rogues honest, and idle men industrious. I shall say no more about it, as it says but too much for itself.

To M. Garran de Coulon I send an extract of it in French, done by a friend of yours, which I wish to get before the National Assembly in some shape or other. The interest he has been pleased to take in my works in so public a manner, pointed him out as the properest person, indeed the only person, to whom I could send it, though, in every other respect, the most perfect stranger to me. I shall say no more to you. You love your country, you love mankind, you love that sort of morality, and that alone, which has their happiness for its object. If you think the project a good one, —such a one as promises to that end,—anything I could say to you in private would be unnecessary; if otherwise, anything I could say to you in the same manner would be to no purpose.

Look first at the large table at the end: it may perhaps save you the trouble of looking into the book: at any rate, do not plague yourself with the architectural details. Run over the preface and the contents before each volume. Supplicate Madame Brissot's protection for it; and if she has patience to read any part of it, let it be the letter on Schools. The book, though printed, has never been made public here. If you can find time for reading anything more about it than as above, the best way would be for you to get from M. Garran the memoir in French, which was too long, as you will see, to copy; and I suppose he would make no difficulty in showing you a short letter which accompanied it.

### T o W i ll i a m P i t t

#### 26 November 1791 (Aet 43)

#### Dover Street No 2 Novr 26th 1791

Sir

34

I herewith take the liberty of sending you a copy of my book on the construction and management of Penitentiary and other prisons, in the state in which it has lain some time in readiness for publication. Allow me to hope that another Session will not commence before you find yourself at leisure to take some notice of a proposal which I addressed to you on that subject ten months ago,2 and which has since been put into your hands at different times by Mr Wilberforce and Mr Steele. A saving of more than one half the present expense, and the saving the least part of the advantage —these few words, while they bring back the proposal to your recollection, will not I hope place its claim to your attention in an unfavourable point of view. I have the honour to be, with all respect,

### Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

R.Hon. W. Pitt.

**822.** <sup>1</sup> King's College, Cambridge. Ms. 72. Autograph. Docketed: '26 Novemr. 91 / Mr. Bentham / Penitentiary Houses etc.'

Copy in B.L. V: 298, docketed: '1791 Nov. 26 / Panopt. / J.B. Dover Street / to / Rt. Hon. W. Pitt Downg Street / Copy / Lett. 2d.' There is also a rough draft of this letter in Bentham's hand, with several additional passages crossed out, in B.L. V: 296–7.

<sup>2</sup> See letter 738.

### 8231

### T o L a d y E l i z a b e t h G r e v i ll e

#### 27 November 1791 (Aet 43)

### Hendon, Middlesex, 27th November, 1791.

Honoured Madam,

May it please your ladyship! I am the young man who was taken from behind the screen by my good Lady Warwick, in the room where the pianoforte is in Warwick castle, to wait upon your sweet person, and had the honour and happiness of accompanying you with the violin in one of Signor Bach's sonatas. I hope your ladyship's condescending goodness will excuse my freedom in addressing you, as I hereby make bold to do, wishing for the felicity of serving your ladyship in the capacity of musical instructor, or anything else I should be found capable of, being turned adrift upon the wide world, and out of place at this time. I served the Hon. Miss F——, 2 whom belike your ladyship knows, —she being, as I am informed, your ladyship's cousin-german, for ten long years, and hoped to have served her 'till death, had I not been, with grief be it spoken, forced to quit her service by hard usage. She was a dear lady, and a kind compassionate good lady, as I have heard everybody say, and to be sure so it must be, as everybody says so,—to everybody but poor me. To be sure it must have been my own unworthiness, therefore it would be very unreasonable for me to complain. I am sober and honest, willing to turn my hand to anything, and not at all given to companykeeping, as I am sure my said late honoured lady, notwithstanding what has happened, will be ready to say for me. Dr Ingenhousz, who is my lady's head philosopher, being somewhat stricken in years, I was in hopes of being promoted to his place, when Providence should please to call him away, considering that we are all mortal; but my evil star has ordered it otherwise. The times

**<sup>823.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 265–6. Introduced with the explanation: 'Bentham went to Bowood at the end of 1791. Amusing enough are some of the exhibitions of his playfulness. He wrote to Lady E—— G—— the letters which follow:'.

The recipient can be identified as Lady Elizabeth Greville, eldest daughter of George Greville, 2nd Earl Brooke and Earl of Warwick, by his second wife, Henrietta, daughter of Richard Vernon. This young lady was thus a niece of Caroline Vernon and a 'cousin german' of Caroline Fox; at this time she was a child of 8 or 9 years. <sup>2</sup> Caroline Fox.

being hard, I am willing to serve for small wages, having had nothing given me to subsist upon, in all the ten years, except the direction of a letter, and a message or two, and they were given me by other people. As to playing on the pianoforte myself, I thought it better not to trouble myself with any such thing, for fear of spoiling my teaching; by reason I have known your fine, tasty, fashionable, flourishing masters, who, instead of attending to their pupils, chose rather to keep playing themselves, for the sake of showing a fine finger. I am used to travelling, and am willing to attend your ladyship all the world over, as likewise to any part of England or Scotland; particularly the latter, which is the most delightful country upon earth.

I hope your ladyship will pardon my making so bold; but I have a brother, a colonel by trade, who has a good mistress, who has given him leave to go about for awhile and see whether he can do anything to mend himself. As it has become the fashion for ladies to practise shooting, I think that he may find employment by teaching them that, or anything else in the art of war—think him qualified, as there would be no objection to his teaching,—although I can't say I ever knew him draw a long bow,—to turn philosopher, as he has made greater bounces in his time than Philosopher Ingenhousz. Having learned metaphysics of the celebrated Miss V.,3 would be qualified as usher to a metaphysical academy, but would prefer private service. These few lines conclude with humble duty from,

> Honoured madam, Your ladyship's most obedient, Humble servant to command

P.S.—O dear! O dear! well, what a lucky thing it was I happened to mention Scotland; it has brought the charmingest thought into my head that ever was. Did your ladyship ever hear of a place called Gretna Green?4 They have a way of playing duets there, and such duets, it beats all the concerts in the world; Signor Bach's music is nothing to it. There is no such thing as learning them at home: one must absolutely go there first to see the manner of it.

<sup>3</sup> Caroline Vernon.

<sup>4</sup> After the Act of 1754 making clandestine marriages illegal in England, Gretna Green, nine miles over the Scottish border from Carlisle, became notorious for runaway marriages registered in the presence of witnesses by any obliging layman, such as the village blacksmith. Not until the passage of a law in 1856 requiring one of the parties to reside in Scotland for 21 days before marriage did the practice end.

There is a gentleman always, and a lady; and then a blacksmith in a black gown plays with his hammer dub-a-dub-dub, and yet it is but a duet after all. Well, now, as your ladyship, I have heard, likes travelling, and Scotland is the delightfulest country in the world, how comical it would be if your ladyship were to take a trip next Saturday to Gretna Green, and I were to attend your ladyship, as, to be sure, you could never think of going such a journey alone, and I would come slyly, just as it was dusk, and meet you just behind the Green-house, and nobody should know anything about the matter, and I would have a chaise-and-four ready, and off we would go with a smack, smack, smack! to Gretna Green! And then Lady W. would cry—Where is Lady E.? and Lord W. would cry— Where is Lady E.? and nobody would know. And then all the servants would be called up, and there would be such doings, and all the while we should be playing duets at Gretna Green! and then we should come home again; and then there would be such a laugh; and then Lady W. would cry—How comical Mr Bentham is!—I do vow and declare there is never a man shall play duets with my E. but Mr B.

P.S.—Pray dear, sweet, good my lady—there's a dear lady don't say a word to any living creature about this as it would quite spoil the joke.

### 8241

### T o L a d y E <sup>l</sup> i z a <sup>b</sup> e t h G r e <sup>v</sup> <sup>i</sup> ll <sup>e</sup>

#### 29 November 1791 (Aet 43)

Dover Street, 29th November, 1791.

Honoured Madam,

This makes bold to inform you that my lady2 and I have made it up, and she has given me what is my due, and more too, and a dear, sweet, good lady she is; wherefore I have altered my mind, hoping no offence, and as I stay in my place, have no call to go with anybody to Gretna Green, unless it be with my lady. As everybody is willing to do the best they can for themselves, hope your ladyship won't be angry, as a rolling stone gathers no moss, as the saying is; and it cannot be expected a person should leave a good place, unless

**<sup>824.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 266. The second exhibition of Bentham's 'playfulness' (see letter 823, n. 1).

<sup>2</sup> Presumably Caroline Fox is meant, although the reference to Gretna Green is rather bold.

it were to better himself. Should anything amiss happen another time, should be very proud to serve your ladyship, or anybody. My brother being still disengaged, if agreeable, could venture to recommend him—and am,

> Honoured madam, Your ladyship's very humble Servant to command.

### 8251

### T o C a r o <sup>l</sup> i n e V e r n o n

#### [?]mid-December 1791 (Aet 43)

December, 1791

 Lord Lansdowne gives me pain. A friend of mine, who is intimate with Madame Helvetius,2 having put into my hands a couple of remarkable letters of her husband's, in which he condemns his friend, Montesquieu, for his aristocratical principles, predicts the immediate success of the Esprit des lois,3 and its subsequent downfall, as well as the prevalence of democratical principles, I communicated them, as a literary curiosity, to Lord Lansdowne. They interested him, and, as a proof of it, 'they ought to be translated into English, and published with a commentary,' says he,—'suppose now you were to do it.'4 'There are friends of ours, my lord, who could do it better—they are more in the habit of doing such things.' 'What, Mr. V—?'5 'the same' 'Ay! see what comes of my proposing it: if anybody else had proposed it to you,

**825.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 270–1. An incomplete draft is in U.C. ix: 93. It is headed 'To Miss V. Dec. 1791' and ends with the words 'This was the very language on a former occasion when my . . .' The final paragraph is missing altogether in this draft.

<sup>2</sup> Bentham had a high opinion of Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–71), from whose writings he derived some of his utilitarian ideas. The widow was the gifted Anne Catherine, comtesse de Ligniville d'Autricourt (1719–1800), whose house at Auteuil became the rendezvous of many celebrities. The correspondence of Helvétius was included in his *Œuvres complètes* (7 vols., Deux-Ponts, 1784), i, 209–97, and in another edition (5 vols., Paris, 1795), v, 103–220.

<sup>3</sup> 'Esprit des lois' is inserted in Bentham's hand in the draft: Bowring mis-spells the last word 'Loix'. Bentham had mixed feelings about Montesquieu, and considered that the popularity of his *De l'esprit des lois* (1748) would not last (see Bowring, x, 143).

<sup>4</sup> There are double quotation marks in the draft of this sentence, but not in the remainder of the paragraph, which is largely the report of a conversation with Lord Lansdowne. To make clearer who is speaking single quotation marks have been inserted.

<sup>5</sup> Probably Benjamin Vaughan.

or nobody, it might have been done. What, I suppose, if your orders were to come from Warwick, then perhaps it would be done!' 'O yes!—to be sure—that or anything else.' 'What! then you are serious?'—'Quite so,—that is, first the petition goes from hence to Warwick, then orders from thence to Ampthill,6 then other orders from thence to Dover Street, and then the business is done in a trice. But the orders must be particular, and tell me what it is I am to do, otherwise, how am I to know whether I do right'—'Oh, no, you know what to do well enough.' 'Indeed! not I' —then a look of dissatisfaction. 'Well, as you will, you know I have no interest in it—not I.' 'My dear lord, my wish is to comply with yours; but then I must know what it is distinctly; else, what can I do?' 'I have no interest in it.' This was the very language on a former occasion, when my intractableness brought me into a disgrace, from out of which I am not yet perfectly recovered.

Now, my dearest and most respected friends, suffer me to call you by that name—help me, pray do, to satisfy him, which you can, if you please; and which you will, if you believe me, that I regard him with the same tenderness as ever.7 Suffer him not to fancy himself that I am of the number of those, who, upon the first rebuff that any wish of theirs happens to meet with, think themselves licensed to forget past kindnesses, and to fly off from their best and kindest friends and benefactors.

### 8261

### T <sup>o</sup> t h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> f L a n s d o w n e

#### 20 December 1791 (Aet 43)

#### Dover Street Decr. 20 1791

By the Morning Chronicle of today I find that something was done in the National Assembly on the 13th instant which it concerns me to be apprised of.2 The Journal des Debats et Decrets which I take in says not a syllable about the matter. The account in the Morn. Chron. besides being so short is evidently inexact, and differs, I am told, from that in another paper of yesterday, which I

<sup>6</sup> 'Ampthill' inserted in Bentham's hand, in the draft.

<sup>7</sup> Bentham fears that his 'intractableness' may have offended Lord Lansdowne and asks for the good offices of the ladies of Bowood.

**<sup>826.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. Autograph, without signature. No docket or address.

<sup>2</sup> See letter 820.

have not seen. The Moniteur I thought I took in in confederacy with Mr. Vaughan, but since he has disappeared, that has disappeared also.

So much for preamble. The prayer of the petition is that your Lordship would have the goodness to send me from Wycombe (whither doubtless they have followed you) the Moniteur, and eke the Logographe: to wit the No. of each which gives an account of the affair in question. To entitle myself to ask the favour with the better grace, I have just put up into a cover directed to your Lordship the former No. of the Logographe together with the Constitution which I borrowed of the file of Moniteurs at Bowood. The last you are the better intitled to from having bought it with the pretty little Edition which I have before me.

A smooth-faced smirking Major3 who has just left me professes to be altogether with me about Panopticon, but talks in the same strains as the wild Irishman did of the immobility of the still higher powers—'Any specific objection that one could endeavour to remove?'—not the shadow of one—It was a very pretty thing upon paper—but—But what?—Oh, nothing at all:—to know whether it was what it appeared to be might require some small matter of consideration: and it does not appear that they have any for that or any thing else. In Ireland it is not yet published: but he declared his intention of publishing it immediately upon his return in the view of getting it universally called for, as he made no doubt it would be, by the public voice.

'You received an account from me'—Y——e——s, he hummed and ha'd for an apology, but could find none to relieve him from his embarrassment—'You are very poor, I hear: if you are so poor as to be objects of charity, you shall have mine: if not, you may as well pay me one of these days what I have laid out for you.'—Yes, when he got back to Ireland it should be done—A model we had agreed about the necessity of—'What I suppose you can't afford to pay for one?'—He could not say *that*—he thought it might be proper—'Well—I am going to have some models made, and you shall have one of them for nothing: what I have already laid out for you you will pay me or not pay me as you think proper.' I should not have talked to him exactly in that way, but for a sort of a silentious morgue, which I thought it might not be amiss for him to unlearn: whether habitual, or assumed to treat me with is more than I can pretend to say, not having ever had the honour of

<sup>3</sup> Probably Major Robert Hobart, later 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, at this time Irish Secretary. See p. 172, letter 711, n. 4.

seeing him with any body else. We parted however, I should have said, we continued, very good friends, and in conclusion he begged two copies of the English edition of me for the edification of himself and a travelling companion (not named) during their journey back to Ireland.

I got from him that the expence of Botany-Bay to Ireland was what he was almost afraid to mention—not less than from £25 to £30 a year a head.

I asked him about the long street of I think 1900 feet long, mentioned in the letter your Lordship had the goodness to shew me—He knew nothing about the matter—in short Montaigne's device might have been his—*'Que sais-je?'*

Has the dispersion taken place yet?—I don't mean that of babel, but of a rather more modern Castle4 —What signifies my asking? Alack-a day, let there be ever so much loquacity, none of it will fall to my share.

### 8271

### T o C a r o <sup>l</sup> i n e F o x

#### [?]December 1791 (Aet 43)

I send you a roasted lord for breakfast, or for after breakfast, as you please,—a courtly lord,—a deserter from your uncle.2 I roast him, however, not for being a lord, nor a courtier, nor a deserter, but for being a rival of mine, and because it will not be of so much prejudice to him, as it may be of use to me. I have sent a double portion, that you may give a slice, if you please, to another uncle,3 (I mean the cold one;) but upon the condition that, at any time, you should happen to be witness to his dropping of his own motion anything, or any word, that by any construction can be deemed a kind one, with reference to me; anything that could afford a willing interpreter a pretence for supposing that the dish

<sup>4</sup> Either Bowood or, more probably, Warwick Castle, where Caroline and Elizabeth Vernon would be visiting their sister, and perhaps Caroline Fox visiting her aunt.

**<sup>827.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 267–8. Introduced by the statement: 'Bentham sent to the Bowood ladies, with a copy of Panopticon, the letter which follows:'. As he refers to the recipient's 'uncle', she must have been Caroline Fox: the Vernons were half-sisters of Lord Lansdowne's second wife.

<sup>2</sup> Apparently he is referring to *Panopticon* as a breakfast dish and puns on the other meaning of 'roast', i.e. to criticise.

<sup>3</sup> Lord Lansdowne was an uncle of Caroline Fox by his marriage to her aunt; another uncle was Charles James Fox, to whom Bentham suggests the second copy of *Panopticon* might be given, if he shows interest.

could be at all relished for the cook's sake. Should no such sign ever make its appearance, my instructions and humble petitions are, that you would keep the share designed for him till you see me metaphorically, or if you would permit it, literally at your feet.

### 8281

### F r o m J e a n P h i <sup>l</sup> i p p e G a r r a n - d e - C o u <sup>l</sup> o n

#### 22 December 1791

22 Xbre 1791

Il y a bien du temps, Monsieur, que je vous dois des remerciemens pour l'envoi que vous avez eû la bonté de me faire, et pour la lettre qui l'accompagnait,2 et, j'ai trop de respect pour votre opinion, pour ne pas vous rendre compte des motifs qui m'ont empêché jusqu'à présent de vous répondre. J'avais toujours espéré que le Comité de législation ferait son rapport sur celui de vos ouvrages qui lui avait été renvoïé par l'Assemblée-Nationale pour l'examiner. Malheureusement ce Comité a toujours été chargé de détails pressés qui absorbent tout son temps. Il a été composé, contre mon avis, de 48 personnes,3 ce qui n'est pas le moïen d'aller bien vite, et quoique j'eusse l'honneur de le présider, il m'a été impossible d'obtenir un moment pour cet examen.

Vous nous avez trop montré, Monsieur, que vous n'aviez besoin des remerciemens qui ne peuvent pas vous être refusés, pour offrir à la liberté et à l'humanité de nouvelles preuves de votre zèle et vos lumières. L'Assemblée-Nationale a accueilli cette offrande comme elle le devait. Elle y a vû, suivant l'expression d'un de vos plus grands poëtes, qui était digne de chanter la liberté

#### *on public virtue every virtue joined*

J'ai l'honneur de vous envoïer l'extrait du procès verbal de l'Assemblée.4 Vous y remarquerez l'ordre d'imprimer votre extrait, pour mettre tous les députés à portée de le méditer avant que cet object puisse être discuté. Je vous enverrai quelques exemplaires quand l'impression sera achevée. Un citoïen m'a demandé à traduire l'ouvrage, et je lui ai fait communiquer l'un

**<sup>828.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 302–3. Autograph. No docket or address. There is an English translation in Bowring, x, 269–70.

<sup>2</sup> An acknowledgement of the copies of *Panopticon* sent with letter 820.

<sup>3</sup> Bowring has 'sixty-eight'.

<sup>4</sup> See letter 820, n. 1.

des exemplaires que vous m'aviez addressé et que j'avais remis à ces comités de legislation et des secours publics.

Quant à moi, Monsieur, j'emporterai tous les ouvrages que vous avez daigné m'envoier, à Orléans, où je vais aller comme grand procurateur de la nation auprès de le haute-cour Nationale. Je prévois que j'aurai quelques jours de libres avant le rassemblement des grands jurés, et je les emploïerai à méditer vos écrits, qui ne sont pas faits pour être parcourus. Je profiterai alors de l'invitation que vous avez bien voulu me faire d'en raisonner avec vous. Je n'ai encore lû que votre fragment sur le gouvernement, et il m'a prouvé combien vous aviez connû long-temps avant notre révolution les principes qui l'ont assurée, et dont il eut été à désirer que notre constitution ne se fut jamais écartée.

> Recevez, Monsieur, l'assurance de tout mon respect. j. ph: Garran.

P.S. j'ai fait passer à M.M. Condorcet et Brissot le paquet que vous m'aviez envoïé pour eux.5

### 8291

### T <sup>o</sup> T h o m a s J o h n e s

#### December 1791 (Aet 43)

Hendon Middlesex

Mr Bentham presents his compliments to Mr Johns, and understanding that he has done the Panopticon plan the honour to recommend the adoption of it in Radnorshire, takes the liberty of sending a few copies of an explanation without which he apprehends the advantages of it will be but imperfectly apprehended by those who have not had like Mr Johns the opportunity of hearing them stated by the Architect. If more /copies of the enclosed paper are wanted there are more of them/ are wanted there are more at Mr Johns's service, who having had so few copies of the inclosed papers had probably none to give with the plates.

<sup>5</sup> See letter 821.

**<sup>829.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 54. Incomplete autograph draft. If sent, a date towards the end of 1791 would seem likely for this letter.

Thomas Johnes (1748–1816) was m.p. for Cardigan Boroughs (1775–80), Radnorshire (1780–96) and Cardiganshire (1796–1816). From his appointment as Auditor of the Land Revenue in 1781 he appears to have supported in Parliament each successive administration. He translated into English Froissart, Joinville and Monstrelet.

### T o J o h n C o a k l e y L e tt s o m [ ? ] a n d O t h e r s

#### [?]December 1791 (Aet 43)

#### Gentlemen

35

 At the conclusion of this address you will see the name of one who in the autumn of 17852 had the pleasure of making acquaintance with several of you, and who retains a pleasing sense /remembers with pleasure/ the civilities with which he was honoured there. In turning in my thoughts the invention /idea developed/ of which the enclosed /accompanying/ volumes3 contain an explanation /the development/ I was naturally led to send my thoughts in quest of every application that could be made of it. Latest though by no means last in importance came the sort of establishment in which you are more particularly interested, I mean a Lazaretto. On casting [a glance?] the volumes above alluded to will shew you that with views not dissimilar though with different and very inferior merits I have happened to strike into the same line with my late excellent and much respected friend John Howard: the uncalled /unbidden/ successor of an uncalled predecessor.4 If in that branch of his line which respects you I should be happy /fortunate/ enough to be a means of perfecting /contribute anything towards/ accomplishing the object which you appear to have so much at heart, and which he took up accordingly, it will afford me the sincerest pleasure /the satisfaction will be an ample payment/ for any trouble it may have occasioned me.

The same causes /considerations/ which rendered the establishment of a Lazaretto in this country so much the object of your wishes in 1786 the date of your letter to Mr Howard, have not I presume lost any of their force. I have therefore no doubt of experiencing your indulgence for any hints which it may be in my power to suggest to you with a view to its accomplishment.

The great point at which the plan stuck originally, and sticks still, is I take for granted that of the expense. If friends /could be/

**<sup>830.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. cxvii: 26. Autograph draft. Undated. Headed in pencil 'Lazar Letter'.

<sup>2</sup> Perhaps a slip for '1788'. Bentham was on the way to Russia in the autumn of 1785 and not back in England until February 1788.

<sup>3</sup> Evidently a set of the *Panopticon* volumes.

<sup>4</sup> John Howard, the prison reformer, had died on 20 January 1790.

were found, without any expense5 to the Government and the nation at large, the necessary legal powers I suppose would not be refused.

### 8311

### [ ? ] T o C a r o l i n e F o x

#### [?]December 1791 (Aet 43)

 Burke was one of our party,—saving aristocracy. 'We are all aristocrats,' says he, 'I take for granted,' looking round him. I answered, as Miss F. would have done, with a smile. Where my notions happened to coincide with his, which was in one instance, perhaps, out of a quarter or half-a-dozen, I chimed in with him; where we differed, I held my peace: why should I have let it go, and broken that of the company, by running a tilt against a man who was strewing flowers on my head, not to mention the good he seemed disposed to do to the cause. Be that as it may, I kept my tongue in order; but to little purpose, for democracy sniggered in his countenance.

<sup>5</sup> This may refer to the fund raised in 1786 for erecting a statue to Howard and improving prison conditions. On 27 June 1787 Dr John Coakley Lettsom (1744–1815), one of the trustees of the £1500 collected, reported that as Howard absolutely refused to agree to the statue the money not claimed back would be devoted to prison reform; in March 1790 over £750 still remained in the hands of the committee (*Annual Register,* 1787, lvii, pt. 1, 464; 1790, lx, pt. 1, 278).

**<sup>831.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 267. No indication of date or recipient is given except the placing of this extract immediately after letter 818. Bowring comments: 'Of Burke, Bentham had begun to entertain a very mean opinion. He was engaged at this time in writing, for the *Annual Register,* articles on the war, and on general politics.' As France did not go to war with Austria and Prussia until April 1792 this remark would suggest a somewhat later date for the letter, but in his unreliable reminiscences Bentham told Bowring 'I met Burke once at Phil. Metcalf's. He gave me great disgust. It was just at the dawn of the French Revolution...' (Bowring, x, 564). Bentham went on to say that 'when Burke wrote the *Annual Register,* he did not mention the Panopticon among the useful suggestions of the day'. A date late in 1791 would seem the most likely for this letter.

### 8321

### T o C a r o l i n e F o x a n d C a r o l i n e a n d E l i z a b e t h V e r n o n

#### 2 February 1792 (Aet 43)

#### Dover Street, February 2, 1792.

I am glad to find you have begun to feel something like remorse; it is a virtuous sentiment,—do not struggle to suppress it. It has, however, a little more work to do yet, or it has worked to little purpose. If it be still true that you have no possibility of seeing me anywhere but at Lansdowne House, it remains as true as ever, that I have no possibility of seeing you any more.2 Excuse me; but the footing on which your compassion would replace me, is not now a tenable one. My mind was made up, and everything arranged; such work is not to be done only to do over again, nor to be done for nothing—No! indeed it is not. If the unintentional offence is to have its intended effect, and my exclusion from your house is to remain in force, I remain excluded from every house which has your eyes for guards to it. What desperation suggested, reflection has confirmed. To what purpose depart from my resolution? What is it I have to lose? If it would not be any pleasure to you to see me, what pleasure can I have in seeing you? If it would, is it possible you can persist in excluding me from the only place to which you can give me a right to come?—At Lansdowne House. Yes, surely, whenever it so happens, with, I mean always, the greatest pleasure; so long as yours were likewise open to me; but if it should not so happen? I am at Lansdowne House—if you will have the goodness to recollect, not when I please, nor even when you please, but when the owner of it pleases. In the course of last winter, for example, two or three times; one of the times I saw Miss V.—how? through a telescope, amidst a cluster of ladies whose faces were scarce known to me. What charms do you suppose an intercourse like that can have for a man of my habits and turn of mind? What should I lose by losing it? What is it you supposed me

**<sup>832.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 271–3. Introduced by the statement: 'The letter which follows, in which a little disappointment and annoyance is obviously united with the pleasantry and irony of its style, was addressed to the ladies of the Bowood family, on occasion of their having denied themselves to Bentham when he called:'.

<sup>2</sup> A message, perhaps in writing, would seem to have been sent to Bentham indicating that the ladies, when in London, would see him at Lansdowne House only, not at the Vernon residence in Albemarle Street.

to have looked for in the company from which you have banished me? I will tell you as if you did not know. A society of two or three, since one is too much to hope for, whose prudence and intelligence authorized me, while their kindness invited me to unbosom myself to them without reserve; who would listen, not with *derision,* but with satisfaction, to my notions and my projects, my hopes and my apprehensions, my disappointments and my successes; by whose judgment I might be enlightened, and by whose sympathy I might be soothed; to whom, should any occasion happen, I might even look for marks of reciprocal confidence, without fearing the imputation of impertinence. This, or something which seemed not altogether incapable of being improved into it, I have now and then enjoyed, by short snatches, at Bowood and elsewhere. This, if such had been your pleasure, I might have enjoyed without disturbance in Albemarle Street; but what room could I have hoped to have found for it, in the promiscuous bustle of an accidental dinner, two or three times a-year, at Lansdowne House? You who know in such perfection everything that women ought to know, may please to recollect that houses too have their sex: that there are some at which a man may beg to be let in without being ashamed; others at which no man deserves to be let in, who will be content to beg for it.

One comfort I have left me, that the disgrace I had to swallow was not embittered by the consciousness of anything on my part that could have led me to expect it.

Two years and more are elapsed, since I received an invitation, which has not been forgot by anybody; had I then understood it time enough, and accepted it, how, *then,* I wonder, should I have been received?3

With repulsive looks, short answers, and concerted silence? Would the fourth teacup have been kept carefully out of the way, and the time of your breakfast have been fixed to the exact moment, whatever it might prove, when the door had been heard to shut upon me? Had I happened to have found any advice to beg, or paper to put into your hands, would the communication have been received with a tone made up of indifference and impatience, and a look of surprise at the presumption that could have dictated so ridiculous a liberty?

Had my title to consider the sentiments which dictated the invitation, as subsisting, suffered any diminution in all that while? So many marks of sympathy and kindness—so many letters which,

<sup>3</sup> No record of this earlier invitation has been traced.

estimating them by my wishes, I found cold, and short, and few, but which now are too much otherwise to be trusted in my sight,4 was I, from all this, to conclude myself thrown back into the condition of a stranger, and that the favour shown me in those early days was become too much for me?

Is it for any want of Lord Lansdowne's sanction that you found it necessary to consider the permission as withdrawn? Lord Lansdowne, to whose kind suggestion I so plainly owed it at the time, who has so often rallied me for my non-acceptance of it, and oftener in the presence of those who had given it than otherwise. Was it for want of knowing how to prevent my availing myself of it?—was it for want of expecting me to do so?—was it for want of notice of my intended intrusion, that you were driven to so ingenious an expedient for cutting it short, and punishing it? Would Lord Lansdowne have reminded me of the invitation so lately as he did, if he had received the smallest intimation from you to prevent my executing my threats?

I have really nothing to accuse myself of, unless it be excess of prudence. Miss V.'s arrival in town not being so early as that of Miss F. and Miss E., I would not venture till she came. I announced myself to the servants as coming with a message from Lord Lansdowne, that it might appear a matter of necessity to receive me, and that I might appear to them to be indebted to my mission, and not to myself, for whatever notice might be taken of me. I do think I enter, at least as well as any other *man* upon earth could do, into the spirit of all your scruples and your delicacies, and with very little exception, even in the midst of my sufferings from them, admire you but the more. Believe me, you can scarcely be more awake to what may be, or may be thought, propriety on your part, than I am. But unless some recent aversion be at bottom, I really cannot find out what it is your delicacy, three of you as you are, could have had to apprehend from a man like me; still less had I taken upon me to execute my threats in their full extent, and bring with me another person,5 whom you may recollect by the relation he bears to an old gentleman who had the exclusive honour of being the subject of your inquiries, the situation he is in, being your security against his presuming upon such a mark of notice on the manner a younger son of his might have done. But why do I talk of delicacies? as if your experience were less mature,—your prudence less confirmed, or less superior to censure, now that you

<sup>4</sup> The previous limited correspondence with Caroline Vernon and Caroline Fox.

<sup>5</sup> Bentham had apparently suggested bringing his brother Samuel to see the ladies.

thought fit to punish me for obeying the invitation, than two years ago when you vouchsafed to honour me with it?

Now will I be generous to you. If you cannot muster up kindness enough to enable you to receive my visits without repugnance, I shall not be the only sufferer: you will, in that case, have the consciousness of having inflicted an unmerited wound, which it was out of your power to cure; and this consciousness, if I know anything of you, will not sit lightly on you. I say *kindness;* for if the statement be wanting, you know me too well to think the momentary expression of it could either satisfy me, or pass upon me; you owe it to me, as well as to yourselves, not to make any such attempt. Accept in that case my forgiveness; you have need of it. But if without effort, as well as without compliment, you can say to me, 'your visits would give us pleasure,' what possible consideration can excuse you from listening to the suggestions of compassion, when backed by the commands of justice? The sufferings I have endured will serve, then, but to heighten the value of the amends you have in store for me. Do you fear my becoming troublesome? correct me, or even discard me at any time. Whatever place I may have enjoyed in your favour, I am, and ever shall be, your debtor for; your grateful and insolvent debtor. The smallest hint from Lord Lansdowne would do it,—this would be the gentlest of a thousand modes. I need not repeat to you the severest. I could fain find excuses for what is past, and so I could, perhaps, had I any encouragement to look for them. Some of you, I doubt, were not chidden quite so severely, some years ago, as you ought to have been, for tearing flies' wings off, or holding them in the candle. You saw, in thought, a male creature in your power, and mistaking cruelty for delicacy, you thought to give yourselves a moment's amusement at his expense. It did not occur to you at the instant, so completely as it ought to have done, who that male creature was, or what you knew of him, and what you had seen of him, nor that the parts of his character which made him such good sport, ought to have saved him from being the object of it. When ready to sink under his distress, he looked into every eye for mercy, and found none; sentence had been passed before he had made his appearance, and no fresh council could be held to give him a reprieve.

Now, retire each of you to your pillow; and, to-morrow, let the coldest hand among you, write to me:—'Mr Bentham, we had once a friendship for you; but the humour is past, and you must not see us any more.'

I have been forced to write this at odd times, when I could escape from my brother's, as well as every other observing eye. I have had him to comfort all this while, as well as to get rid of; for to this moment he knows nothing of the whole affair, but by the effect he has seen it have on me. You may think this odd—but it is most true; and if you knew our way of dealing with each other, you would easily conceive it.6

### 8331

### T o W i l l i a m P <sup>i</sup> tt

#### February 1792 (Aet 43)

#### Dover Street No. 2 Feb:y 10th 1792

Sir

 Recent considerations and calculations have enabled me to put my proposal of Jan:y 23d 1791 relative to the Penitentiary system into a shape which removes altogether what I have all along understood to be the only objection to which that system has been looked upon as exposed.2

I am now ready to execute the plan stated in that proposal at an expence per man less by 25 per cent than that of the Hulk system: *taking on myself all expence of building,* and that *without* any *advance* to be made by Government for that purpose. £184 a man was to have been the least amount of that expence, as I now find by the Report made to the House of Commons in 1784.

Sir Charles Bunbury is ready to express his entire approbation of my plan, together with the most zealous wishes for its adoption, on all occasions, public as well as private, without reserve: and Lord Auckland, I have some reason to flatter myself, (though without having as yet been honoured by any direct communication from him) would not be backward in the expression of similar sentiments. The suffrages of these gentlemen, the original patrons of the Penitentiary system, may, I hope, afford some presumption that

6 Bowring adds (p. 273): 'The effect of the letter was an immediate invitation.'

In B.L. V: 317 is a memorandum in Bentham's hand headed 'Panopticon Papers— Copies / Titles as sent to G. Rose Esq. Palace Yard 12 Feb. 1792.'

<sup>2</sup> This new offer goes much further than the first approach to Pitt on 23 January 1791 (letter 738) and the reminder on 26 November (letter 822).

**<sup>833.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> P.R.O.30/8, Chatham Papers, vol. 113, fos. 80–1. Docketed: 'Mr. Bentham / rel. to Penitentiary / Houses etc.' A draft in B.L. V: 315–6 is docketed: '1792 Feb. 10 / J.B. Dover Street / To Rt. H. W. Pitt Downing Street / Letter 3 / Fresh proposal / Brouillon.'

the spirit of it has at least not suffered by the amendments I have presumed to make in it.

I have the honour to be, with all respect,

Sir,

Your most obedient and humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

Rt Hon. W. Pitt etc. etc. etc.

### 8341

### T <sup>o</sup> B a r o n A <sup>u</sup> <sup>c</sup> k l a n d

#### 14 February 1792 (Aet 43)

Ld Auckland Copy

No 2 Dover Street Feby 14 1792

My Lord,

 Some time ago I learnt from Sir Charles Bunbury that your Lordship had been pleased to express a desire of seeing me on the subject of the Penitentiary System, and the new lights I have been endeavouring to throw on it.2 He likewise informed me of your having since called on him when he was unfortunately from home. If your Lordship has found time to travel through the tedious book he put into your hands, I should be very happy to wait on your Lordship anywhere, and lay before you the endeavours I have used in the view of bringing the system once more upon the carpet, and

**834.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 318–9. Autograph copy. Docketed: '1792 Feb. 14 / J.B. Dover Street / to / Ld. Auckland Lambeth Palace.'

William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland (1744–1814), after holding various ministerial posts, had been created a baron in the Irish peerage in 1789, had negotiated the treaty on the Netherlands with the Emperor Leopold and the King of Prussia in 1790, and was about to become British ambassador at the Hague.

Eden had published *Principles of Penal Law* in 1772, and Bentham had corresponded with him in 1778 concerning the parliamentary bill which became the Penitentiary Act of 1779 (19 Geo. III, c. 74). See letters 238–41, *Correspondence,* ii, 90–3.

<sup>2</sup> In U.C. ix: 15 is a copy of a letter from Lord Auckland to Sir Charles Bunbury, dated 25 December 1791, acknowledging receipt of a letter of the 23rd and a package containing 'Mr Bentham's Book'. He observes 'I am quite sorry not to have known sooner that this work could be purchased at Paynes .... It is no small merit in our enterprise to have given rise to such a work as Mr Bentham's; I shall proceed immediately to a careful perusal of it; I shall be glad of an early occasion to express my acknowledgement to him, and will endeavour to meet and converse with you on the whole subject as soon as I can go to Town or wherever it may best suit your convenience'.

the proposal (grounded on the principles laid down in the Book) which I have ventured to make to Mr Pitt in consequence. You will find the only objection, viz: the expence, and in particular the great advance, supposed to be necessary for the building, compleatly done away.

As to the Book, it was compleated and printed at the desire of Administration in Ireland: it has never gone to any Booksellers:3 any number of copies are at your Lordships command at any time.

Intent on truth and nothing else, I made the best case I could against the opinions I found standing in my way: and that without staying to enquire, or so much as choosing to know, to whom they respectively belonged. Should it turn out that any of them were at any time your Lordship's, and that now they are so no longer, I shall look upon it as a circumstance peculiarly fortunate, as the declared approbation and support which your Lordship's candour would insure to me would in that case operate with redoubled force—I have the honour to be with all respect

> My Lord your Lordships most Obedient humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

### 8351

### T o J <sup>a</sup> <sup>c</sup> q u e s P i e r r e B r i s s o <sup>t</sup> d e W a r v i l l e

#### 17 February 1792 (Aet 44)

 You have not time for writing letters, my good friend—have you half a minute for reading them? The prayer of this humble petition is, that you would have the goodness to transport yourself to the committee-rooms—you know of what committee—and deposit upon the bureau thereof what is above, to the end that, if by God's grace your decree of I don't know how many months ago, for the printing of my long-ago-forgotten paper about the Panopticon, should by miracle get executed, the above supplement may be added to it, and the above corrections made in it.2 Should

<sup>3</sup> Correcting Auckland's impression that it could be purchased at Payne's bookshop.

**<sup>835.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 278–9. Introduced by the statement: 'Considerable delay took place in the printing of the Panopticon, as ordered by the National Assembly, in consequence of which Bentham wrote to Brissot on the 17th of February, 1792.'

<sup>2</sup> Bowring does not print these additions and corrections.

the printing be too far advanced for the MS. to be corrected, let the corrections be printed at the end. God prosper you, together with the state, of which you are one of the pillars! You are a pretty set of people! You will neither do anything yourselves, nor let anybody do anything for you. What a pretty account you will have to render to your constituents at the end of your two years, of your Civil Code, your Code of Procedure, etc. You will tear off this English diatribe, unless you have a mind to see it printed as a second supplement.3

### 8361

### F r o m B a r o n A <sup>u</sup> <sup>c</sup> k l a n d

#### 19 February 1792

Sir

Jeremy Bentham Esqr Beckenham Kent Febry 19th 1792

I have received the honour of your letter of the 14th Inst addressed to me at Lambeth Palace, and I am glad to have the occasion of expressing my acknowledgements to you for the perusal of a Work from which I have derived great Information and Satisfaction—My admiration of ingenious ideas express'd in liberal and elegant language is not affected by the consideration that some of these ideas differ from mine and are levell'd against an undertaking which in concurrence with the late Sr Wm Blackstone I had a principal share in bringing forwards, and which I left under the respectable Protection of Sr Chas Bunbury, Mr Howard, Dr. Fothergill2 and Sr. Gilbert Elliot—I shall be glad to converse fully with you on the subject, and if ever I should be so far settled in this Country as to have the means of promoting such parts of your humane Views as I think practicable. At present my situation in the foreign line3 suspends my attendance in Parliament.—

### I am with great and sincere Esteem Sir your most obedt Humble Servant Auckland

<sup>3</sup> Bentham would seem to suggest tearing off the latter part of his letter, probably from the sentence 'You are a pretty set of people'.

**<sup>836.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. ix: 16. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 Feb. 19 / Ld Auckland Beckenham to J.B. Dover Street.'

<sup>2</sup> John Fothergill (1712–80), physician and philanthropist (see *Correspondence,* iii, 217 and n. 3).

<sup>3</sup> Although Auckland was thinking of returning to the Hague in mid-February he

### F r o m E a r l S t a n h o p e

#### 19 March 1792

Mansfield Street March 19th 1792

 Earl Stanhope presents his Compliments to Mr Bentham, and returns him a great many thanks for his obliging Present of his Panopticon.

Earl Stanhope returns herewith the French Memoire that Mr Dumont lent him. Ld. S. has received great pleasure from the perusal of it.

### 8381

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s d o <sup>w</sup> n e

#### 4 April 1792 (Aet 44)

Dover Street April 4th 1792

My Lord

36

We are duly sensible to the proof we have been honoured with of your Lordship's kind remembrance of us. The little caprices which have manifested themselves in the disposition of the effects were neither altogether unexpected nor of very material consequence: the loss resulting to me from the £10 a year extorted from Lady Ashburton is reduced by agreement to £30 a year payable for 14 years: and upon the whole an event of a nature so liable to produce disunion promises to insure an intimacy much closer than before between the two families.2

did not actually do so until early May 1792 (Auckland Papers, B.L. Add. Mss. 34441, fo. 386; 34442, fo. 251). It appears unlikely that his 'situation in the foreign line' prevented him attending Parliament: a letter of 17 February to Lord Henry Spencer tells him that he has been visiting his eldest brother and the Duke of Marlborough and that he has not seen any ministers for a fortnight, and on 20 February he says he is shortly going into London for four days to attend royal levées and drawing rooms (Add. Mss. 34441, fos. 340–1, 349).

**837.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 320–1. Docketed: '1792 Mar 19 / Panopt / E. Stanhope Manfd Street to J.B. Dover Street / Thanks for Panopticon.'

Addressed: 'Mr Bentham / No. 2 Dover Street.'

**838.** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. No docket or address. Although written as a reply from the two brothers the letter speaks of 'the loss to me' (that is, Jeremy).

<sup>2</sup> Lady Ashburton, the widow of Lansdowne's friend and political adherent, John Dunning, Baron Ashburton, had been a tenant of Jeremiah Bentham at 19 Duke

We beg leave to congratulate your Lordship and Lord Henry on the happy return of Lord Wycombe, and remain with the most respectful attachment

#### My Lord

Your Lordship's obedient humble Servants S. and J. Bentham

Marquis of Lansdowne.

### 8391

### F r o m F r a n <sup>c</sup> i s B a r i n g

#### 30 April 1792

Devonshire Square 30 April 1792

My dear Sir,

I took the liberty of leaving cards to request the favor of your company and that of Colonel Bentham on Tuesday the 8th in the expectation that you would meet some of your friends on that day, but I find from Mrs Baring that the party will meet here on Sunday next when I hope you can indulge us with your company.—And if you are also disengaged on Tuesday the 8th we shall dine at home when we may talk over the very strange and extraordinary situation of affairs on the Continent. Will you be so good as to mention this to your Brother and believe me

### Most truly and faithfully Yours F. Baring

Street, Westminster since midsummer 1791. In his will, dated 19 June 1788, Jeremiah had provided that his wife, Sarah, might continue to live in this leasehold property so long as she wished, if she became his widow and did not re-marry. This provision was revoked by a codicil, dated 31 October 1791, in which it was noted that because the house had become unoccupied 'and for other Considerations' Jeremiah had let it to Lady Ashburton for 14 years, with the reservation that Sarah would be entitled to occupy it after the first seven years on giving Lady Ashburton half a year's notice in writing; in the meantime Jeremiah left his house at Queen's Square Place in trust to John Sharpe Palmer, one of his executors, so that Sarah could continue to live there for so much of the seven years, as she should continue his widow.

In fact Sarah chose to reside elsewhere and Jeremy was able to take possession of Queen's Square Place himself soon after his father's death.

**839.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 322–3. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 Apr 30 / Baring Devonshire Square / to J. / and S.B. Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'To Jeremh Bentham Esq. Dover Street.'

Francis, later Sir Francis, Baring (1740–1810) was the brother of the widowed Lady Ashburton. See above, p. 156, n. 15. His wife was Harriet, daughter of William Herring of Croydon.

### 8401

### T o F r a n c i s B a r i n g

#### *c.* 2 May 1792 (Aet 44)

I was at Hendon /in the country/ when your obliging letter arrived /came to/ Dover Street. I was in the country from whence I am but this instant [returned]. My Brother I find has already paid his acknowledgements to you and Mrs B.—We are fortunately disengaged on Sunday and shall with the greatest pleasure avail ourselves of you kind invitation for both days, and I shall come gaping countryman like with my mouth wide open for the political part of the entertainment.

### 8411

### F r o m J a n I n g e n h o u s z

#### 25 May 1792

 Dr. Ingenhousz's 〈complime〉nts to Mr. Jerem. Bentham, and sends him back the three volumes of his usefull work on the *Πανóπτιχον*<sup>2</sup> which he was so generous as to send him, in the erroneous opinion that the former Copy, he gave the Dr formerly, was incompleat.

The Dr thinks it wrong to keep it as he has allready a compleat one. But he keeps the coper plates belonging to it, as there where none Compleat with the former copy—Mr. Bentham aught to observe that the three volumes the Dr sends back are not to be disposed of as a compleat set, for insteat of a 3rd volume the 2d volume is double.

If Mr Jer Bentham will remembre to his brother his promise to look for a Siberian load stone, if he should have one left, he will oblige the Dr. The Loadstones the Dr wants are not such as have a good shape to be cut regularly. The wors[t] figure of such stones

**<sup>840.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 323. Scribbled draft reply in pencil in Bentham's hand at the end of letter 839.

**<sup>841.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 324. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 May / Ingenhousz Marylebone Street / to J.B. / Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'to Mr Bentham / Queen Square Place, / Westminster.' 'No. 2 Dover Street' is crossed out in the address.

<sup>2</sup> 'Panopticon'.

are equaly good for his purpose, as he wants to pound them into a fine powder.

Marylebone Str. 25 May 1792

### 8421

### T <sup>o</sup> S i r C h a r l e s B u n b u r y

#### 30 May 1792 (Aet 44)

Queen's Square Place Westminster May 30 1792

Dear Sir,

 You were kind enough to give me the option whether I would or would not have the mention of my name accompany that of my proposal:—Yes or no, depends upon the company you propose to place me in, yourself or Mr Campbell.2 —No, if I am to be held up to the public as a man who for the sake of making the money that Mr Campbel has made wants to do the same sort of work that Mr Campbel has done, only at a less price—Yes, if you think yourself warranted in speaking of me as a person who from motives similar to those which actuated the original patrons of the Penitentiary system, was ready, and as you conceived able, to execute all that they wished for with improvements beyond what they had hoped for, and that at a less expence than that of the Hulks, and with-out any advance on the part of Government.

The truth is I should be sorry to see my proposal brought into view of the house, especially with anything that marks me for the author of it, unless it either receives the countenance of Administration, or is shewn in its proper colours: which it could hardly be said to be if mentioned in so general a way that all the good points

**842.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 325–6. Autograph draft. Docketed: '1792 May 30 / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Sir C. Bunbury Whitehall / Answer to question whether J.B.'s name should be / mentioned by Sr C. in his speech in the H. of Commons. / Quere if sent?'

Whether this and the following communication to Rose (letter 843) were sent or not, it is evident that Bentham had conversed with Bunbury on the way the Panopticon proposal was to be introduced into the House of Commons.

<sup>2</sup> That is, Bentham does not want to appear as offering himself as a cheap alternative to Duncan Campbell, who had been appointed superintendent of the hulks at Woolwich after the passing of the Hulks Act of 1776, to provide receptacles for convicts who could no longer be transported to the American colonies. The hulks became known as 'Campbell's Academy'. He was also put in charge of those at Portsmouth and Plymouth (W. Branch-Johnson, *The English Prison Hulks,* 1957, pp. 3–4, 9, 29).

in it, and all it has to distinguish it from the tag rag and bobtail of White-Negro drivers are out of view—

> I am, Dear Sir, with all truth and respect Yours ever Jeremy Bentham.

Sr C. Bunbury

### 8431

### T <sup>o</sup> G e o r g e R o s e

#### 30 May 1792 (Aet 44)

Queen's Square Place Westminster May 30th 1792

Dear Sir,

 Sir Charles Bunbury, more by his seeking than mine, took up the Panopticon plan, before it was honoured with your notice, though not till more than a twelvemonth after I had sent it to Mr Pitt. Sir Charles is not now to be kept back any longer from making some mention of it in the House: he had taken an engagement, he said, which somehow or other he must acquitt himself of. All I could obtain of him was, to say he would mention the matter first to Mr Dundas,2 and tell him it was by my desire he did so: the former caution I find he has observed; the latter I rather think escaped him, and whatever he said, Mr Dundas, I understand made no answer. Sir Charles's intention, into which I threw in all my weight is to defer the going into the matter at large in his way till next Session, but he was obliging enough to ask my consent to make use of my name. To find myself held up to the House as a Projector who to make the money Mr Campbell has done wanted to carry on the same sort of trade with Mr Campbell, but could not get Administration to have anything to say to him, as it is not the truth, so neither would it be very flattering to me: as little can I

**<sup>843.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 327–8. Autograph draft. Docketed: '1792 May 30 / Panopt J.B. Q.S.P. / to Rose / O. Palace Yard / Quere whether sent?' In view of Bentham's reminder to Rose on 25 June (letter 844), it would seem that a version of this letter was in fact sent.

<sup>2</sup> Henry Dundas, later 1st Viscount Melville (1742–1811), who now appears for the first time in the Panopticon story, in his capacity as Pitt's Home Secretary, 1791–4; besides holding other ministerial offices Dundas served as Secretary for War, 1794– 1801, and First Lord of the Admiralty, 1804–5. He was impeached for malversation

expect that you or any other member of Administration should stand up and make a decisive declaration in favour of a plan, which you have not had time to give a sufficient examination to: but what I should be much flattered by, and what perhaps you might not be averse to do for me, if such should be your sentiments, would be to say that such a proposal had been put into your hands, that as far as you had been able to look into it it seemed to promise not amiss, and that as soon as time permitted it was your intention to look further into it so as to give it an answer. Something not much short of this even Mr Pitt and Mr Dundas might perhaps be disposed to say, if I did not interpret too much in my favour what you said to me on that head: but this must be as they please. My language ever since I had the honour of seeing you3 has been the same to all sorts of persons:—that I had no doubt but that Administration meant to give my proposal fair play:—that I did not wonder at their not finding any more time for it at such a period:—that I had every reason to be pleased with the notice that had been taken of it: that my confidence was in them; and that as it was my good fortune not to want anything from Parliament, it was not my wish to trouble anybody else.—With these feelings and this language it would be rather hard upon me, if against my wishes it were to get into Parliament only to have cold water thrown upon it. Mr Dundas's silence, if accurately reported, does not seem a very favourable omen for me:—I have not the smallest fears of *anything* man can say against it:—the apprehension some people have been forward to instill into me is that gentlemen may have their leanings, and on that account say *nothing* to it. I have the honour to be, with much respect,

Dear Sir,

Your obliged and most obedient humble Servant Jeremy Bentham.

G. Rose Esqr.

in 1806, and although considered guilty of negligence, was acquitted of all charges of corruption and restored to the Privy Council.

<sup>3</sup> This indicates that Bentham had already had an interview with Rose.

### T o G e o r g e R o s e 25 June 1792 (Aet 44)

Dear Sir,

369

It would be no wonder if among the multiplicity of more important business /pressing concerns/ that of mine (I mean the Panopticon Convict proposal) should have escaped your memory. Whether it has or no, your goodness will I doubt not excuse the liberty I am taking in thus endeavouring to recall it. While Parliament was sitting, all my care was to keep the business /quiet/ from getting into the house /other hands/, in which, not without difficulty I succeeded.2 My apprehension now is lest by having been out of mind during the time of comparative leisure when it would have been possible to attend to it it may find itself postponed by your departure for Hampshire to another season of business when the same necessity which has postponed it hitherto would again shut the door upon it, and so on.3 While this business hangs in suspense, my Brother, whose assistance I should stand much in need of is kept from going to Russia where he is loudly called for, and I myself from [accepting?] an invitation from the Department of Paris which I should feel myself strongly tempted to comply with if there were no hopes here.

4 If the business is to be negatived here, or what would be the same thing to me adjourned sine die, the sooner I knew as much the more I should be obliged to you, that I may attend to /my Brother may be at liberty to go back to Russia where he is loudly called for, and I to profit by/ an invitation from the department of Paris to set up Panopticons there, which in that case strange as it may seem I should not hesitate to comply with.5

**844.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 329 and 330–1. Two autograph drafts of a letter, the second of which is the fuller and is used here. The first is dated 'Q.S.P. West. June 25, 1792' and docketed: '1792 June 25 / J.B. Q.S.P. to Rose. O. Palace Yard / Reminding of Panopticon.' The second draft has no date or docket. A letter based on these drafts was evidently sent, as Rose replied on 2 July (letter 845).

<sup>2</sup> Parliament rose on 15 June 1792.

<sup>3</sup> What follows is not included in the first draft, which ends: 'Your departure for Hampshire might have shut the door against it till the return of the next busy season, a delay which as I am circumstanced would probably be equivalent to a negation.'

<sup>4</sup> What follows is on a separate page (fo. 331 recto).

5 On 19 May Clavière had written in a letter to Dumont, for whom he was trying to arrange a visit to Paris: 'Votre ami Bentham n'auroit-il point le courage de vous

2, 3 J uly 1792 To Fran ci s Bu rt o n

### 8451

# F r o m G e o r g e R o s e

#### 2 July 1792

Dear Sir,

I have had several Conversations with Mr. Dundas respecting your Plans for Penitentiary Houses and he will speak to you on the Subject himself at the earliest Opportunity.

I am

Dear Sir Your faithful humble Servt George Rose

Old Palace Yard July 2. 1792

### 8461

### T o F r a n <sup>c</sup> i s B u r <sup>t</sup> o n

#### 2, 3 July 1792 (Aet 44)

Queen's Square Place Westmr July 2d 1792.

Dear Burton

Inclosed you have the proposal I mentioned, together with a preceding one which it did not occurr to me to mention. What also did not occurr to me, was that Mr Dundas has been long in possession of a copy of the book you were kind enough to mention to him.2 He took notice, I think, to you of his having seen that or the proposal. Of the latter however I think I told you of his having

**845.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 334–5. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 July 2 / Rose Old Palace Yard to J.B. Q.S.P. / Dundas visurus.' Clearly a reply to the final version of letter 844.

**846.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 332–3. Autograph draft. Docketed: '1792. July 2 and 3 / Panopt. / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / F. Burton Linc. Inn.'

Francis Burton (?1744–1832) was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford; called to the bar in 1768, he became a King's Counsel in 1788 and a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, of which he became Treasurer in 1792. He was Recorder of New Woodstock and a justice at Chester, as well as m.p. for Heytesbury (1780–84), New Woodstock (1784–90) and Oxford (1790–1812).

2 Bentham's *Panopticon; or, the Inspection House,* with Postscripts, 3 vols., 1791.

accompagner pour solliciter l'essai de son panoptique' (Dumont Mss., B.P.U. Geneva 33/1, fo. 374).

bestowed some testimony of general approbation, upon Mr Rose's making him hear of it. This, combined with other instances of apparently studied silence, and with the intelligence given by the enemy of a connection betwixt him and Duncan Campbell (I know not whether upon any grounds) confirms one's apprehension of the consequence of the video meliore proboque. If this be the danger, the more they hear of this business from respectable people of different descriptions, the more difficult they may find it to indolence or private affection or interest to the prejudice of public interest. The mention you so kindly made of it and intend making of it promises therefore, besides being so honourable to the projector, to be of real use to the project. Next to adopting it, the greatest favour they could do me would be to reject it: they would then leave my brother at liberty to go to one country where he is pressingly summoned, and me to another where I am invited by the Department of Paris to do what I am solliciting to do here. /In some opinions it will reflect no great credit on the Ministry/ It is for the Ministry to judge how far it will be for their credit, that /if/ a man with such a proposal in his hand should after so many years hard labour and a year and a half's patience be driven into a foreign country by the inability of getting a hearing in his own. As for tumults I neither court them nor fear them—Believe me, most thankfully, Ever yours

Jeremy Bentham.

P.S. Since I wrote the above which I kept till I could rummage out an old unpublished pamphlet which courts the honour of your acceptance I received a letter from Mr Rose3 in which he says 'I have had several conversations with Mr Dundas respecting your plans for Penitentiary Houses, and he will speak to you on the subject himself at the earliest opportunity'

I shall be happy to shew you the model whenever it suits you to drop in upon me.

Did Sr C Bunbury tell you as he told me of a conversation between him and Mr Campbell in which Mr Campbell began with I am sorry Sir Chs that you should be so much my enemy etc. while [?] not conceiving that Sr Ch. could have any other view in the matter than setting up a hungry jailor in the room of an overgrown one. This was viewing the matter in the good plain mercantile point of view. Should Mr Dundas view it through the same

<sup>3</sup> Letter 845.

medium, which I hope he will not, I trust at least that will not be the case with Mr Pitt.

### 8471

### F r o m F r a n c i s B u r t o n

#### 4 July 1792

Blooms[bury] Sqe. 4 July 92

Dear Bentham,

I am much obliged to you for the packet I received yesterday and promise myself great pleasure as well as instruction from the contents.

Early on Monday morning last I sent Mr. Dundas your 3 volumes with a letter respecting them, in which I said that if they interested him as much as they had me, Mr. Pitt might likewise possibly think them worth his perusal, especially as I was sure the subject of them would be discussed in the next session unless some similar Plan was previously adopted. If this or anything else I can do will tend to bring it under consideration, I shall think a good point well gained.

Business has prevented me from calling in Q.Sq.Place as I intended, but I hope soon to have opportunities enough.

> I am Yrs very sincerely F. Burton

### 8481

### T o J a m e s A d a m

#### 13 July 1792 (Aet 44)

Queen's Square Place Friday morng

Dear Sir,

I have something to say to you, which would be better said earlier than later, and therefore if you will give me leave I will do

**847.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 336–7. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 July 4 / Panopt / Burton Bloomsbury Sq. / to / J.B. Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esq / Queen Sqe Place / Westminster.'

**848.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 356. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 July / J.B. / to J. Adam Albemarle Street.' The exact date was certainly Friday, 13 July, since Samuel Bentham, in a letter dated 14 July, informed Lord Elgin: 'Mr A. has just been with us: it has turned

myself the pleasure of calling on you in Albemarle Street as soon as my servant can get back with your answer, and in the meantime am

> Yours truly Jeremy Bentham

### 8491

### W i l l <sup>o</sup> f J e r e m y B e n <sup>t</sup> h a m

#### 15 July 1792 (Aet 44)

This is the last Will and Testament of me Jeremy Bentham of Lincoln's Inn and of Queen's Square Place Westminster Esquire Barrister at Law—Whatsoever I have power to dispose of I leave to my Brother herewith revoking all former Wills and Testaments. Witness my hand at Queen's Square Place this fifteenth of July one thousand seven hundred and ninety two

#### Jeremy Bentham

out as I expected. The Panopticon idea has been if not actually spoiled by him, I hope, but at least very much impaired' (B.L. V: 343). Samuel had apparently suggested earlier that either his brother or himself should accompany Lord Elgin to Edinburgh, where the new prison was being built according to the plans of the late Robert Adam, modified by his brother, James. Lord Elgin replied on 11 July: 'It has only this Evening been settled that I am to go to Scotland tomorrow; and I am sorry that my arrangements are such as to prevent me offering you a place in my carriage. I have several places to call at, and things to do, in my way.

In passing through Edinr. I shall make every enquiry in my power relative to the Bridewell now building. Should any *questions* occur to you, further than what you mention'd, pray write them, and send them to Downing St. tomorrow, before the post hour—or direct these to me at Edinr....' (B.L. V: 338).

In his letter of 14 July to Lord Elgin Samuel says: 'When I returned yesterday I found your very obliging letter...' Elsewhere in the long draft of this reply he quotes the letter of Robert Adam to Jeremy approving of the Panopticon principle (letter 792) and notes 'Neither the late Mr Adam ever took any notice of my Brother afterwards nor his brother till now that my Brother called on him.' (B.L. V: 340–4. Docketed: '1792 July 14 / Panopt / S.B. Q.S.P. / to / Ld Elgin Edinburgh.')

**849.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. XVII: 47–8. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 July 15th The Will of Jeremy Bentham.'

Finally superseded by his last will, dated 13 April 1830 and proved at London 21 June 1832, P.R.O. Prob. 11/1801, fos. 3(v)–5(v). Samuel Bentham died in 1831, a year before his brother. For a previous will, see *Correspondence,* i, 134.

### 8501

### T o G e o r g e R o s e 16 July 1792 (Aet 44)

### Copy

Queen's Square Place July 16th 1792

Dear Sir

 Excuse the liberty I take in taking you for my confidant. I am duly sensible to the honour of your good opinion in favour of the Panopticon plan and to the endeavours you have so kindly used in support of it.—What I apprehend, and what I even suspected from your letter2 is, that they have been ineffectual: if so, the last favour I have to ask of you, nor that an inconsiderable one, is that you will have the goodness to tell me so. I have been assured most positively that the plan never will be adopted, let what will be thought of it: for that the gentleman to whose department it more particularly belongs has personal predilections which are incompatible with it, and connections much too strong for a stranger like me to get the better of. Useless as it would be for me to allow myself to think about the cause, I will state to you with great simplicity the grounds I myself have found for being apprehensive of the effect. At different times variety of people have mentioned it to him—always with approbation—no token of disapprobation on his part—nothing of objection—at the same time not a syllable that could have led any body to suspect that he had ever heard of it from me, or meant to have anything to do with me. Two very recent instances of this reserve have happened to come within my knowledge since I was honoured with your letter. Mr Burton (the King's Council) altogether without my privity mentions the Panopticon book to Mr Dundas, and asks leave to *lend* it him: Mr Dundas, having had the book these three months from me, and being just come from talking about it with you, suffers it to be sent to him as a thing he had never before heard of. On Monday the 2nd instant I am favoured by you with the information that Mr Dundas 'will speak to me on this subject himself at the earliest opportunity:' —the Wednesday following, Mr Adam having desired an audience

**<sup>850.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 347–8. Autograph copy. Docketed: '1792 July 16 / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to Rose O Palace Yd / Copy.' A corrected draft docketed 'Brouillon', is in B.L. V: 349–51.

<sup>2</sup> That this refers to Rose's brief note of 2 July (letter 845) is made clear by the later reference to 'the fortnight which has elapsed'.

gets one immediately, the Panopticon plan is spoken of as a thing of his, executing at Edinburgh and by him, Mr Dundas congratulating him and speaking of the satisfaction with which he shall see the progress of it there in September: while I the author, eighteen months after a proposal from me had been given in, and three months after an audience had been announced to me for the then next week, am adjourned to an *earliest opportunity* which seems to be rendered but the more uncertain as well as distant by the fortnight which has elapsed in consequence.3 Either I am mistaken, or when a man in power is determined to crush a proposal which he can find nothing to say against, he does by it exactly as Mr Dundas has done by mine. If these appearances speak true, and Mr Dundas chooses rather to see corruption corrupted under Mr Campbel than reclaimed and for ever provided for by me at a less price, the public is without remedy: but I would not take it for granted, without using this one effort to learn whether that is really the case. If it be, it remains for me to beg pardon of Administration and of myself for having suffered myself thus long to harbour the idea that acknowledged utility could create a title to attention.

Circumstanced as I am, even the word *no,* were it pronounced speedily would be a favour to me. My Brother the Colonel, whose assistance would be essential to me, not to say indispensable, and who in spite of admonitions has been waiting to his great risk, and in no small degree to his prejudice, can not without making an absolute sacrifice of himself wait many weeks, perhaps not many days, longer. The expediting of this word *no* is therefore the favour I have now to sollicit from your friendly hand: being with great truth,

### Dear Sir, Your much obliged and most obedient humble servant Jeremy Bentham

#### G.Rose Esqr:

3 Bentham almost seems to be claiming that he was the author of the Edinburgh prison scheme he had discussed with Robert Adam, as well as the Panopticon plan for England (see letter 848 and n. 1).

### F r o m G e o r g e R o s e 20 July 1792

Sir,

376

I am extremely sorry that Mr Dundas's engagements and mine prevented our Meeting since I received your Letter: he left Town two Days ago not to return till Tuesday or Wednesday and I am under the Necessity of going into Hampshire tomorrow for 8 or 10 Days: I will certainly talk to Mr Dundas on the Matter immediately after my Return and if your Brother should not happen to be gone I shall be very happy to see you both together.

> I am Sir, Your most obedient humble Servt George Rose

Old Palace Yard July 20th 1792

### 8521

### F r o m <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s d o <sup>w</sup> n e

#### 22 July 1792

Penrith 22d July 1792

Dear Bentham

 On my arrival here last night I rec'd three Letters from you two of the 16th June and one of the 21st2 —If they had been, or rather if one of them had been, directed to Bowood or London, it would have certainly prevented all the confusion which ensued,

**851.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 352–3. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 July 21 / Panopt / Rose O. Palace Yard / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / Will confer with Dundas.'

Added in pencil in Bentham's hand:

'Tuesday Aug 1 Mr Rose came to town\*

Thursday Aug 9 Mr Bentham having heard nothing from Mr R. sent a card at 9 in the morning when he was at home.'

\*A mistake: Bentham must mean either Tuesday, 31 July, or Wednesday, 1 August 1792.

**852.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 354–5. Autograph, but unsigned. Docketed: '1792 July 23 / Lord L Bowood / to J.B. Q.S.P. / Panopticon for / Clayton, Castle York / Sent one by York Coach / Novr 2 1792.'

2 All three missing.

but what is past cannot be help'd, and you had better say nothing to Ld Wycombe about it. In future you will remember it is a Rule to direct to Lansdown House, except you are quite sure that I am at Bowood.

I should acknowledge a subsequent Letter3 which I rec'd in due course but too late to do any good, and would have answer'd it notwithstanding, but I was out of humour, and I make it a Rule never to write to my Friends when I am so—I am now in very good humour again, by means of the Ladys Fine Weather and Fine Sights, and have sent to Mr Cross4 your note about the Budding Machine, who will take care to forward it to you, and I intended these two or three days to write to tell you, that I went to see the Jail at York, and found the Jail Keeper as able Intelligent a Man in his business, as I can possibly conceive a Man to be; and his Character which is universally good confirms my notion of him. I describ'd to him as well as I could your Plan, and he seem'd struck with it, and I promis'd to send him one of your Books, upon which he should write his Remarks—but I think it would be much better for you to send him one, and to open a correspondence with him. If you think not, have the goodness to send Fowre5 a Note, desiring him from me to send one by the Machine directed

To Mr Clayton6

Castle

York.

The Ladys desire their Compliments and I beg mine to your Brother.

Adieu in haste,

3 Also missing.


<sup>6</sup> William Clayton, who was paid no salary as keeper. In 1782, when John Howard visited the prison at York, there were 69 debtors in it and 13 felons. He called it 'a noble prison for debtors, which does honour to the country', but called attention to the darkness and the lack of ventilation in the cells, and the presence of a sewer in one passage. In the fourth edition of his book Howard thanked 'the public-spirited Gentlemen of this County' for the notice taken of his suggestions, which included the building of a new prison for felons and the separation of young from old offenders (J. Howard, *State of the Prisons in England and Wales,* 4th edn., 1792). The new gaol was not, however, begun at York until 1802 and it was completed in 1807.

### 8531

### F r o m t h e M a r q u i s o f L a n s d o w n e

#### August 1792

 You that have wings to fly, and do not fly, to the greatest scene which can come within the human comprehension, deserve everything which you describe, and everything which can befall you. I never knew a sensible physician, who did not acknowledge, that change of air, scene, and exercise, was a certain remedy for every disorder of body and mind which was curable; but such a scene as this, must not only even at present, but for evermore, by furnishing the mind with such food for reflection, as must lift him one hundred feet above all other men. We, whose wings are clipped by a variety of relations in life, must content ourselves with such occupation as a cottage which I have just bought, between Christ Church and Lymington.2

I will certainly lay the books on the Table, as you recommend; but you must be conversable, as the persons I have to please are not easily imposed upon, and insist upon the truth. I write in great haste, but I am in great hopes of persuading you to secure a superiority under which I may be the first to feel.

### 8541

### F r o m <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s d o <sup>w</sup> n e

#### August 1792

 Our new acquisition in Hampshire has so completely captivated us, that we have nothing left to wish. Sea air, as pure as can be imported from America—for it completely looks down the Channel; thirty feet of gravel—the smoothest of all sands for miles —a mine of antediluvian shells to philosophize upon; Christ Church, etc. etc. This cottage is, therefore, quite at your service—but what

**853.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 279. One of two undated extracts, introduced by the statement: 'At this period I find Lord Lansdowne writing to Bentham with great satisfaction, on the subject of a purchase he had lately made in Hampshire:'.

<sup>2</sup> Lansdowne would seem to be suggesting that Bentham devote himself to philosophy rather than the mundane pursuits with which lesser mortals must content themselves.

**<sup>854.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 279. The second undated extract, introduced by the words 'And again:'.

is there here to keep pace with all we hear?—a *pavilion; wines innumerable; a table so plentiful, and yet so refined; such selection of company; the resistance of ladies overcome;* and the great point of a *precedent granted.*

It would seem as if the ancient volupté of France was banished by the Republicans, and took up its seat at the side of the Bird-cage Walk, St James's Park.2 Allow old friends to congratulate you upon this new road for happiness; and be so good to tell your brother, whenever he wants to rest his appetites from such profusion, I hope that he knows where he will be extremely welcome.—Adieu.

### 8551

### F r o m F r a n <sup>c</sup> i s B u r <sup>t</sup> o n

#### 2 August 1792

Linc Inn 2 Aug: 92

Dear Bentham,

The daily necessity of going to Bloomb. Sqr and Lincoln's both upon repairing and law business has carried both myself and my servants so different a route from Q.Sq.Place that I have delayed returning your papers longer than I intended; but you shall certainly receive them in 2 or 3 days.2

Wyatt3 shall not long remain unacquainted with the obliging and liberal offer of Coll Bentham and yourself, and I shall be happy to bring together such artists. I am glad the conference with Mr Wilkinson4 ended so much to your satisfaction. The Poor house I mentioned was for the parishes of Montgomery and Welsh Pool, and I believe some others; but the rest of the particulars I am at

<sup>2</sup> Lansdowne is congratulating Bentham on his inheritance of Queen's Square Place and the company he entertains there.

**855.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 357–8. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 Aug. 2 / Panopt / Burton Linc. Inn / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / Papers kept / Wyat.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esq / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.' Postmark illegible.

2 A missing letter from Bentham is indicated by this passage and the allusions to Wyatt and Wilkinson in the next paragraph.

<sup>3</sup> James Wyatt, the architect (1746–1813), had been appointed Surveyor to Westminster Abbey in 1776 and nine years later Surveyor of the Ordnance. In 1796 he was to become Surveyor-General and Comptroller of the Works. His work included the county bridewell at Petworth (1758–8), and alterations to the King's Bench prison and Marshalsea (1803–5).

4 Not identified: possibly John Wilkinson, the ironmaster (1728–1808).

present unacquainted with. I shall know them at the latest when I reach W.Pool the week after next and you shall then have them, if not earlier.

> I am Yrs ever F. Burton

### 8561

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s d o <sup>w</sup> n e

#### 9 August 1792 (Aet 44)

Q.S.P. Thursday Aug. 9 1792

Poor France turned into a Bedlam! Yet I am almost tempted to take a peep into one of the cells.2

My dear Lord,

I am a wretch and a beast,—with two such kind letters3 before me, and not a syllable of an answer sent in all this while. Sympathy may perhaps dispose you to forgive me; for though I do not lay it down to myself as a rule not to write when I am in an ill humour, yet I find such an effect to flow but too naturally from such a course.4 People we use ill, and so I use you ill: such is the sort of justice that reigns in this sublunary world: the next world that is made, the moon I suppose will be undermost: if so, as it will be the reverse of the present one, I should like to live in it. Were I to begin, I should never know when to stop, and so I'll stop without beginning. Dumont, whom you are to see on Saturday can tell you some of the most prominent of my chagrins. The next project I present to Administration either here or in Ireland, shall be a scheme for employing £120 a year a head in colonization instead of £60, or introducing into jails some vice that nobody as yet knows of, or destroying one half of the prisoners and letting the other half go loose. If a Sir J. Parnell or a Mr. Rose tell me the plan is an abominable one, and that they will hear no more of it, I shall then be sure of its being to be adopted without delay.

The letter in which you tell me, that if I had directed differently, things might have gone otherwise gave me a sensation I am unable

**<sup>856.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. Autograph, unsigned. No docket or address. The letter is in two parts, dated 9 and 12 August, presumably sent together.

<sup>2</sup> Written at the top of the first page: evidently a postscript.

<sup>3</sup> Probably the two quoted by Bowring (letters 853 and 854).

<sup>4</sup> Alluding to the remark of Lansdowne in his letter of 22 July (letter 852) that he never wrote to his friends when 'out of humour'.

to describe.5 I have since heard to my great comfort that they are as well as they are: but I think there is no fear of my forgetting the injunction in case of doubt to direct to Lansdowne House.

Many thanks for your Lordship's kind remembrance at York. A copy of the book has been in readiness some time, unfortunately the copies I had of the prints are either exhausted or lost or mislaid in the confusion of moving: to get more requires exertion, of which I can scarce muster enough to lift my hand up to my ear or walk across the room. There goes my Puss playing with a leaf: while others are playing with the pictures of them: happy the animals that can find any thing they like to play with! as for me I shall find neither amusement nor quiet till I have crawled back again to the miserable cottage. If you happen to have a little gout to spare do lend it me, that I may have the pleasure of getting well of it.—I never knew much of Dr. Grew,6 and it is at least 25 years since I opened him. I know he was once high in credit and I never heard of his having fallen: but others having observed since may have seen more. Bonnet7 of Geneva has done something about leaves; and Bonnet, his countryman tells me, is at Bowood. The justest and most comprehensive as well as concisest account of the business of vegetation I believe to be Fordyce's Elements of Agriculture:8 and there your friend, whoever he is would get chemistry as well as agriculture: if I wanted to know what was known or thought upon the subject I think I should take Fordyce's thin 8vo in my hand with Grew's Folio, and Bonnet's Quarto laying open upon the table: protesting all the while that it was not I that put Grew there, whatever may be insinuated: in the first place, I had no interest in doing so: in the next place I would prove myself a hundred miles off when the discovery was made: in the third place the Tables at Bowood are in no great danger of suffering any more by any intrusions of mine—I shall say no more, lest instead of having exculpated myself I should be said to have betray'd myself and rendered my guilt no longer dubious. My notion is that there was something supernatural in it, and that the book found its way upon the table without hands: it puts me in mind of a ball I lost about

<sup>5</sup> Letter 852.

<sup>6</sup> Nehemiah Grew (1641–1712), plant physiologist; m.d. Leyden, f.r.s. and Fellow of the Royal Society of Physicians; his published works included the *Anatomy of Plants,* 1682.

<sup>7</sup> Charles de Bonnet (1720–93), naturalist and philosopher, author of numerous works, including *Recherches sur l'usage des feuilles dans les plantes,* 1754.

<sup>8</sup> Dr George Fordyce (1736–1802), the friend of the Benthams (see above, p. 67, n. 2). His works included the *Elements of Agriculture,* 1765.

five and thirty years ago, as I was playing with it by myself doors and windows shut in a paved hall of which every part was visible; we have a piece of the Devils hand-writing at Queen's College Oxford which found its way upon the table in the same manner. If Bonnet should be found dull, be it remembered I do not answer for his being otherwise—Now, my dear Lord, if after all this ill usage, you could prevail upon yourself to give me another line or two now and then, it would be great charity: were I to keep it a day unanswered I should keep it a fortnight or a month, till it were a hobgoblin to me: but I will begin answering it before I open it.

#### Sunday Aug. 12th 1792

It is all over with the poor Poles: so far is know[n] to every body: but some of the particulars as they have come to our offices are as follows. The poor King9 wrote a letter t'other day in the stile of the most abject submission to the Empress. 'What was it he had done to offend her?' and so forth: comes an answer in a stile of correspondent haughtiness, insulting him with the judgment given against him in the court of Providence, upbraiding him with his blindness and temerity, and concluding with 'Your loving sister as you behave yourself.' Upon the receipt of this he calls a council of war, the advice of which is to quit Warsaw and retreat towards Cracow as being a more defensible country: whereupon his resolution is, to get together what troops he can, and with them—do what?—go over to the Russians and sign their confederacy. Such is his comment upon the text Vivre libre ou mourir. It is wonderful to think of the barbarity with which that poor man has always been treated by her. When she made her progress down the Dnieper, there was he for weeks nay months together kicking his heels waiting to be admitted into her adorable presence at a miserable Polish Village. When she let him in, he looked pale and frightened out of his wits. His great object was to get a few minutes alone with her without asking it in form in order to gain some point or other or at least to bring her to behave with common civility to him upon the strength of old acquaintance: her great object was to prevent him: and being determined upon it she

<sup>9</sup> Stanislas Poniatowski (1732–98), known as King Stanislas Augustus, had been put on the Polish throne in 1764 by Catherine II of Russia, one of whose lovers he had been. He accepted the Partition of 1772, but thereafter encouraged the reform party in Poland, which obtained from the Seym (Diet) a new constitution on 3 May 1791. It was abrogated after the Russian invasion of 19 May, and the 2nd Partition of Poland followed in 1793. Stanislas resigned the throne after the 3rd Partition of 1795 and was the last king of independent Poland.

succeeded. Upon her retiring into a withdrawing room she had in the barge he followed her: two of her attendants who were there, supposing they might be spared, thereupon withdrew: in the great room they were at cards as usual at several card-tables: before the King had time to speak two words, 'Mr. such an one' said she, calling out from her withdrawing room into the great room, 'it is very hot, I see you are sadly crowded there come we'll take compassion of you, you shall have one of your tables here.'—So away went the poor King, without being able to say a syllable to her but in a crowd. This from an eye witness. The man from whom I had the above particulars has just been dining with us: your Lordship can not be at a loss to know who he is, but as he had been just reading the official despatches, he desired not to be mentioned. You are an excellent Doctor, and I will send you a little Madrid chit-chat for your fee, were it not for the injury I should do to my rest by sitting up any longer. However Dumont is to leave tomorrow, and I will load him with so much as I am able to recollect of it—Oh, naughty Queen of Spain, as naughty as Antonietta: and poor Charles or whatever his name is (for I forget) as blind and as contented as his cousin Louis.10

Now for a most prodigious great secret—a secret of state, a great Court secret—the Q—n—Aye the Q—n but do not let it go an inch farther for it was told me in the most perfect confidence is actually going to take a six weeks course of lectures in Botany the person from whom I had it was sent for to Windsor yesterday to be of the party—I will not say whether it was Lady Cremorne11 or Lady Cardigan12—it would be ungenerous—Suffice it that it is a very respectable person with whom I commune and talk loyalty and godliness, and lament the wickedness of this sinful world— Be pleased to connect this important fact with the discovery of the book of botany upon a certain great table upon which it had conveyed itself without hands. When I wrote last I was entirely ignorant of what I have been now mentioned about her M——y: yet even then I saw there was something mysterious in it, as I

<sup>10</sup> Charles IV (1748–1819), the Bourbon King of Spain, whose wife Maria Louisa Theresa of Parma (1754–1819) was notoriously the paramour of the court favourite, Godoy (Alvarez de Faria, Rios Sanchez y Zarzosa, Manuel de Godoy, Duke of El Alcudia, 1767–1851).

<sup>11</sup> Hannah Fearne (1740–1826) of Philadelphia, a grand-daughter of William Penn, who became the second wife of Viscount Cremorne in 1770.

<sup>12</sup> Elizabeth Waldegrave (1758–1823), Countess Cardigan, daughter of the 3rd Earl Waldegrave and second wife (1791) of James Brudenell, 5th Earl of Cardigan (1725–1811). Her husband was George III's Keeper of the Privy Purse, and she was a lady of the bedchamber to Queen Charlotte, 1793–1809.

ventured to pronounce. If certain inward lights I feel twinkling within me do not deceive me, there is something magnetical in the business: insomuch that when the affections of a certain Queen veer towards a certain point, the affections of certain other sovereigns veer by a certain inexplicable sympathy to the corresponding one.13

I think I see something magnetical too in this Christchurch cottage: I have my alarms for my good friend Mr. Rose. I have it under his hand14 that he had received an irresistible call that way-ward: he had dreamt one night that Christchurch streets sounded hollow as he trod—Well—if it must be so it will be so, and Ld. Malmesbury will have his revenge: and so the world goes round.

Well—now the Christchurch cottage is acquired, the Bowood cottage is out of favour, I suppose, and at any body's service. If so, rather than it should go a begging, might an old friend be indulged with the refusal of it?—I happen to have nothing of the kind at present, and [a] little snug place I could take and run down to now and then when I had a mind to bury myself, might have its convenience. Nobody need be apprehensive for some time to come of my looking upon it as beneath me, for being still on this side the herring-pond and not having yet plunged into the elevating vortex, my 100-foot superiority has not yet begun to manifest itself. When it does, a person whom I have hitherto made a point of treating with affability may be one of the first to feel it.

There are mysteries about the time and place of this Botanical lecture that at present I am not able to unravel. For the person in question returns from Windsor hither on Wednesday, and the newspapers are full of the approaching expedition to Weymouth.15 Well hath it been said, the ways of Princes are inscrutable.

<sup>13</sup> A rumour that Queen Charlotte was taking up the study of botany, in which King George III had been for some time much interested.

<sup>14</sup> A missing letter from George Rose is indicated. He was apparently visiting Lord Malmesbury at Grove Place, Nursling, Wiltshire.

<sup>15</sup> The King and Queen left for Weymouth on Friday, 17 August 1792 and returned to London on Monday, 1 October (*The Diary; or Woodfall's Register,* 18 August, 2 October, 1792).

### 8571

### T o E t i e n n e D u m o n t

#### 16 August 1792 (Aet 44)

#### Queen's Square Place, Aug. 16th 1792.

 You will not wonder at the disorder in which you find my papers. It was never supposed that any body would see them but myself before they went to the Printers. Therefore do not conceive yourself injured because you are puzzled. You would have them and there they are for you in God's name.

A great part of the ground you will find trodden over in two languages. That which is in French contains the latest views of it. The English has scarce been looked at these 8 or 10 years.2

You will do well to make what use you can of such part of the matter as stands in the tabular form. The tables will give you comprehensive views, and in some instances regular tables of contents upon a large scale.3 The facility or even possibility of understanding what you see will depend in a great measure upon the order in which the parts of it present themselves to your view: and yet unfortunately the proper order will in many instances be very difficult to find. There is a clue to it everywhere: but unfortunately that clue is only in the author's mind. I have employed some hours now in putting the numbers on the divisions and arranging them: but I can not answer for my having put the numbers right in every instance: besides that new views would be continually suggesting alterations in the order: and what I have done in this way is but little in comparison of what I have been obliged to leave undone. Everything depends upon order: for it is by that means only that I can guard not only against repetitions but contradictions. Had I been less sollicitous on this head, the

**857.** <sup>1</sup> Dumont Mss., B.P.U. Geneva 33/1, fos. 61–2. Autograph.

Dumont was now engaged in editing, with a view to publication in French, Bentham's 'Plan of a Penal Code' and other material. His letter to Bentham of 23 August is docketed 'Employ'd on J.B.'s Penal Code' (see below, p. 387, n. 1: also letter 878, p. 405).

<sup>2</sup> Bentham had begun work on his 'Plan of a Penal Code' in the summer of 1778 and continued it for the next four or five years. He then conceived the idea of writing in French not just the Penal Code but a 'Projet d'un corps complet de droit'. Both the English and the French Mss. are now scattered in a number of boxes in the University College collection.

<sup>3</sup> These tables (or some of them) are now in U.C. xcix: 6–30, 135–71.

work large as it will be would have been at least twice thrice or four times as voluminous.

What you will see in English under the head of Indirect Legislation Emploi des moyens de prevention indirects ou eloignés contre les delits is I suppose not more than ⅙ part of what I have in English under that head: but I believe the quintessence of it will be found in the French.4

The shapeless papers on the influence of Place and Time on Legislation, and the transplantation of the Laws of our country into another were put in to fill up the case.5

I have a good deal about Punishment written some years before anything that I now send: but I thought there was quite enough without it.6

Do not expect to find the contents of the three cases answer to the title at the back: except in the instance of that which is lettered Particular Titles and which contains such titles as were taken from the several sorts of offences.

### 8581

### T o P h i l i <sup>p</sup> M <sup>e</sup> tc a l <sup>f</sup> <sup>e</sup>

#### 18 August 1792 (Aet 44)

Q.S.P. Saty Aug 18 1792

Dear Phil

 Sr George2 and his exotics dine with us on Monday. We

4 Mss. for the work on 'Indirect Legislation' (cf. Dumont, *Traités de législation civile et pénale,* 1802, iii, 1–199) are now in U.C. lxii, lxxxvii, xcix and cx.

<sup>5</sup> These Mss. are now in U.C. lxxxviii: 1–51, xcix: 174–9, and c: 5–35 (see Dumont, op. cit., iii, 325–95; Bowring, i, 171–94).

6 Bentham had written a substantial part of his projected 'Theory of Punishment' between 1776 and 1778: the Mss. are now scattered in a number of U.C. boxes.

**858.** <sup>1</sup> New York Public Library, Manuscript Division, Montague Collection. Autograph. Docketed by Bentham: 'Aug 20 / 〈P. Metcalf〉 to J.B. / and J.B. to / P. Metcalf / Dinner appointment with the Chinese.' A portion torn away obliterates part of the wording of the docket, but the missing words were certainly 'P. Metcalf' (the way Bentham always spells Metcalfe's name).

Addressed: 'J. Bentham Esqr.'

2 Sir George Leonard Staunton (1737–1801), Irish physician and diplomat, m.d. Montpellier (1758), f.r.s. (1787), Hon.d.c.l. Oxon. (1790); he practised in the West Indies, where he became a lifelong friend of George, later Lord, Macartney, whose secretary he was in Madras, 1782–6, and whom he accompanied on the mission to Peking later in this year 1792.

depend upon the honour of your company as promised. We shall expect you ¼ before 5.

J and S.B.

I will attend your Summons

P.M. 3

### 8591

### F r o m E <sup>t</sup> i e n n e D u m o n <sup>t</sup>

#### 23 August 1792

J'aurois dû vous répondre ou vous aller voir, mon cher Bentham, mais je me suis livré à ma paresse ordinaire—vous aviez très bien deviné que je dînerois chez vous le 24 avec Romilly et Gallois,2 mais écrivez-moi un mot pour me faire savoir s'il n'est rien survenu, et si nous devons aller demain chez vous. Je veux aussi vous demander la permission de vous mener un autre convive, mon ami Chauvet,3 à qui je sais très bien que je ne puis faire un plus grand plaisir, mais comme vous avez déjà beaucoup de monde, je vous prie de me marquer sans façon si vous n'aimez pas mieux renvoyer à mon retour de Bowood et dans ce cas, je ne lui dirai rien.

J'ai employé quelques jours à parcourir les manuscrits et sur-tout les tables. Quoique j'eusse les plus hautes idées de l'ouvrage, mon attente est encore surpassée. Il y a de quoi faire rentrer dans le néant tout ce qu'on a publié sur ces matières. J'aurai beaucoup de renseignements à vous demander, mais je ne veux pas vous fatiguer avant mon retour de la campagne. Je travaillerai jusqu' alors à des parties détachées et j'ai déjà mis la main a l'œuvre. Comme il y a

3 At the foot of the page: obviously a reply by Metcalfe.

**859.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 359. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 Aug 23 Dumont Kensington / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / Employ'd on J.B.'s Penal Code.'

Addressed: 'To / Jeremy Bentham Esqr / or in his absence / to the Col. Bentham / Queen's square place / Westminster.'

Partially translated in Bowring, x, 286, but wrongly dated 23 October.

<sup>2</sup> Jean Antoine Gauvain Gallois (*c.* 1755–1828), French politician and author; he had translated from the Italian Gaetano Filangieri's *La science de la législation,* 1786; later he was a supporter of Napoleon and became President of the Tribunate (1802) and its Secretary (1804).

<sup>3</sup> Probably David Chauvet (1738–1802), the Swiss writer and friend of Dumont. He lived in Kensington Square and took an active interest in Genevan affairs, in 1801 sending to Lord Hawkesbury a memorandum, drawn up with Dumont and D'Ivernois, enumerating Swiss grievances against France.

un ordre réel dans l'ensemble, il n'y a pas d'inconvénients à traduire des morceaux séparés. Je vous réïtere mes remerciements pour ce travail qui me fera sortir de l'inertie, et qui m'arrache au tourment de l'ennui. Mes amitiés au cher colonel.

#### Tout à vous Dumont

J'ai vu Mr. de Narbonne,4 arrivé hier, et sauvé par miracle. Ce qu'on a repandu sur la mort de Mr. de la Rochefoucault est heureusement faux,5 mais il est très vrai que Clermont Tonnerre6 a été tué. Les détails de la cruauté populaire font frémir. La Fayette est decreté d'accusation, il ne veut pas reconnoître le nouveau gouvernement, les députés qui alloient à son armée ont été emprisonnés à Sédan. Kersaint7 étoit du nombre.

#### Kensington Jeudi matin 23

#### Le porteur attendra la réponse

<sup>4</sup> Count Louis de Narbonne-Lara (1755–1814), French politician and general, minister of war, December 1791–March 1792. Denounced after 10 August 1792 by the Jacobins he escaped with the help of Madame de Staël to Switzerland and then to England, which he was ordered to leave after the outbreak of war with France in February 1793. He was later an aide-de-camp to Napoleon and his ambassador to Austria, 1813.

5 A footnote in Bowring, x, 286 is wrong about Dumont. The duc de La Rochefoucauld was still alive on 23 August: his assassination occurred on 14 September 1792 (see letter 865).

6 Stanislas Marie Adelaide, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre (1757–92), French politician, who supported the monarchy in the National Assembly and published an unpopular *Analyse de la constitution,* 1791; he was thrown from a window to his death by a Paris mob in August 1792.

<sup>7</sup> Gui Simon de Coetnempren, comte de Kersaint (1742–93), a French naval commander who published proposals for reform of the forces and the administration in general in *Le bon sens,* 1789. Appointed a vice-admiral he addressed the Convention on 1 January 1793 in favour of war with England, but he opposed the death sentence on Louis XVI and was himself executed in December 1793.

### 8601

### F r o m S i r G e o r g e L e o n a r d S t a u n t o n

#### [?]24 August 1792

 Sir George Staunton presents his Respects to Mr. Bentham, and returns him Kaempfer's Japan with many Thanks.2

Sir George Staunton requests the favor of Mr. Bentham and Colonel Bentham's Company to a family Dinner on Sunday next.

Bèntinck Street, Wednesday

### 8611

### F r o m F r a n <sup>c</sup> i s B u r <sup>t</sup> o n

#### 27 August 1792

Chester Circuit 27 Augt 1792

Dear Bentham,

I fully intended writing to you from Pool; but the delay I trust is immaterial, and the occasion of it has been a little business and a great deal of correspondence caused by the birth of a little daughter.

No Plan for the Poor house is yet formed, nor are they yet prepared to receive proposals, tho' they have begun to make bricks, and I think, to collect some other material: but they are principally employed in ascertaining the numbers for which it must be calculated, which they expect to amount to 500.

I have procured for you a printed copy of their act2 and will bring it with me. You will there find the names of 21 directors, but

**860.** <sup>1</sup> Hyde Collection, Four Oaks Farm, R.F.D. No. 3, Somerville, New Jersey. No docket, address or postmark.

Perhaps this invitation was in return for Bentham's hospitality on Monday, 22 August (see letter 858). If so, the note may be dated Wednesday, 24 August, or a subsequent Wednesday before the middle of September 1792, after which Sir George was en route for the Far East.

<sup>2</sup> The *History of Japan,* 1727, was a translation from the German work by Englebert Kaempfer (1651–1716), the traveller and botanist, whose manuscripts were purchased by Sir Hans Sloane.

**861.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 361–3. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 Aug 27 / Panopt / Burton Northop Wales / to J.B. / Q.S.P. / Welsh Pool Poor house.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esq. / Queen Sqr Place, / Westminster.' Franked: 'Northop Aug: twenty seventh 1792 / Free F. Burton'. Postmark: 'Free P.AU.30.92'. Stamped: 'Northop'.

<sup>2</sup> 'An Act for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor, belonging to the Parishes of *Montgomery* and *Pool,* and certain other Parishes and Places therein

by what I picked up, a Mr Griffiths and a Mr Pugh, the former one of the present Bailiffs of Pool, will be most likely to take the lead; and I prepared him in some degree for a favourable reception of your plan.

Mr Wyatts engagements were the only reason of your not seeing both him and me; for I never got an answer to my note and lost him from Town on a suddain and unexpectedly. On my return I hope to be more fortunate, and intend being there before the end of next week.

I find an incredible difficulty in prevailing on magistrates to take the trouble of setting prisoners on work where the numbers are very few, tho' the difficulty appears easily surmountable. I should be glad however of a little conversation with you upon that subject.

I am Dr. Sir,

yours very sincerely, F. Burton.

### 8621

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s d o <sup>w</sup> n e

#### 2 September 1792 (Aet 44)

Q.S.P. Sunday Sunday Sept. 2 According to your calculation a French Letter gets stale in the compass of four and twenty hours. If five or six times the hours have given that quality to a letter you shewed me of my old friend Roger,2 I should be much obliged to you for the loan of it for two or three days. I might as well have not read it at all as post through it in the manner I did in the midst of a circle of people—By the bye, is the said Roger come to town, and visible?—for I long much to see him.

————— 3 That letter is now at Tunbridge Wells\* —and before that was

**862.** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. Autograph. No docket or address.

mentioned in the Counties of *Montgomery* and *Salop'* (*Statutes at Large, 1790–4,* p. 285).

<sup>2</sup> Probably Roger Metcalfe, whom Bentham had met in Paris in 1785 (see *Correspondence,* iii, 348–9).

<sup>3</sup> What follows is on the back of the sheet in an unidentified hand, but it is obviously an answer to Bentham's note. The asterisked footnote, however, is in Bentham's hand.

<sup>\*</sup> Asked for by J. B. for Bowood: from whom if obtained, it is humbly desired to be sent back as soon as read.

with Mr. Dundas, as a good acct. of the present state of France— If it is returned tomorrow I will send it to you.—St. Helens is at last gone;4 I hope to recover health and looks.

Ld. Gower returned.5

Articles of impeachment preparing against the Queen.6

### 8631

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s d o <sup>w</sup> n e

#### 3 September 1792 (Aet 44)

Queens Square Place Monday Septr 3—92 O the tyranny of Aristocracy! Give it a furlong, it will take a mile—A *Veto* kept me once from Brussels: and now comes a *Lettre de Cachet* ordering me to Paris.2 The Belgic work was not hot enough: the innocent blood of a 'poor philosopher' was to be reserved to dye the handkerchiefs of the Parisian Amphitrites. It is an observation I have collected of old from very high authority, *nothing short* of instantaneous obedience will satisfy Kings and 'Monsters': it might have been added, or those who have been used to serve Kings and who harbour Monsters: such is the contagion of bad company. A conspiracy is formed against my life by 'persons who are always in the right' and the *ci-devant* servants of persons who *can do no wrong:*—but cui bono? Why serve me like Uriah?—I have no wife. No consideration for the shock to the feelings of Mr. Dundas: who for this fortnight past has been waiting for 'an early

<sup>4</sup> Lord St. Helens was ambassador to Spain, 13 June 1790–18 January 1794, with an interval between 4 June 1792 and 11 March 1793, during which Francis James Jackson was minister plenipotentiary. His departure in August 1792 was on holiday.

<sup>5</sup> Lord Gower, the British ambassador to France, was ordered to return for his own safety from Paris in mid-August 1792 (*Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord Auckland,* 4 vols., 1862, ii, 433). He arrived at Dover on 1 September and set out the next day to wait upon the King at Weymouth.

6 Marie Antoinette.

**863.** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. Autograph. There is also a draft in U.C. ix: 94. That is in Bowring's hand and a note in red at the top states: 'This is a duplicate of the Letter which follows the succeeding one from Lord L——, and to which in some sort it seems to be an answer, as it makes reference to the Antediluvian Shells.' Bowring seems to be referring to letter 854, but there must have been another letter from Lansdowne, with contents answered in this reply. There is a printed version in Bowring, x, 279–80, containing a number of inaccuracies.

<sup>2</sup> Presumably a missing letter from Lansdowne suggesting that Bentham might go to France, perhaps as an envoy.

day to sollicit permission' to see the Pavilion at the side3 of St. James's Park.

What is said about the *budding-machine* I take to be an insidious method of accusing me of not *accusing the reception* of the said machine—but did not I an age ago?4

Three Monsters and an Ex-minister jammed into a *soi-disant* Cottage, and amongst all four *'nothing left to wish for*!'—a pretty story indeed! I would as soon believe the most miserable of all 'miserable cottagers' had nothing left to wish for.—*Pauvre miserable*!—thou art not the only *mecontent,* if thou art the only honest one—as if for example a cottage as far from London as the old Castle could supersede the necessity of one at half an hour's distance, like the one at Stretham for example, or that at Hendon: the latter of which by the bye is still untenanted—a vacant sanctuary, with the spirit of legislation fresh upon it.

A low bow for the 'Antediluvian Shells':—but the Gardener laid me in t'other day a stock of brooms, and while there is a *'singlestick'* of them left, there will be food enough for poor *'philosophy',* which must forget itself strangely, ere it can think of going to fish for Antediluvian shells among Sea-*Monsters.*

As to *precedents,* there need be no want of them—I speak of those in point and unexceptionable ones: the thing wanting is a disposition to pursue them.—At present the Pavillion is turned into a Hospital for Refugees—Vaughan consigns me a cargo on Saturday —I have obligations of the same sort to Dumont: and now while I am writing, comes a note from Romilly announcing similar ones for tomorrow; and what if after all I should have poor La Rochefoucault to house instead of his housing me?—What a terrible thing is hunger! While the Great Inn in Berkeley Square is shut up, it will send French Dogs to eat Dirty pudding at my poor Alehouse! Be pleased to observe, that *action lies* (ask Jekyll else) for shutting up the doors of Houses of call when Travellers are hard pinched: and to take notice, that if they don't thrive with me, I shall clap them on board the Hoy, and send then to Xchurch5 to fatten upon Ante-diluvian shell-fish. In the mean time, as I have scarce French enough to cry *'Kindly welcome, Gentlemen,'* could not Mr. Dubarry6

<sup>3</sup> A footnote: 'Was there not malice at the bottom of the original?—did not the idea come from Derbyshire? Was not this *writing* libels? Stopping and getting out at the commencement of the *avenue,* on pretence that the carriage could not come up, was *acting* one'.

<sup>4</sup> See letter 852, p. 377 above.

<sup>5</sup> An abbreviation for 'Christchurch'.

<sup>6</sup> Peter Debary, the tutor of Lord Henry (see p. 104 above).

be prevailed upon to lend me his little ragamuffin now and then to serve as waiter and interpreter? If I had him here with such another as himself, I could make them earn their living at one of the Colonel's Sawing-machines.

As to 'Ladies' and *'Offences'*—for the first moment, possibly, but for the second, no living being, cat, dog, man, lady-monster ever gave me offence that had not studied it.

### 8641

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s d o <sup>w</sup> n e

5 September 1792 (Aet 44)

Q.S.P. Wedny Sept. 5—92

Lady Sutherland2 told S.B. yesterday, that it was with regret she quitted Paris—so far from having any apprehensions about personal safety—and they left behind them her Grandmother and the children, for some little reasons of convenience. From the house where this was mentioned it would naturally, had it been of an opposite case, found its way to Weymouth3 —but there is doubtless more discretion than to send thither any such unwelcome pictures.

The Chevalier Jerningham4 was saying that the Queen had been actually separated from the King—what his authority I know not possibly no other than the motion made for that purpose in the Assembly.

What will be more acceptable at Weymouth, it seems pretty clear from all the French papers of the 1st, that all business in the Assembly was put a premature end to the preceding day at 4½ by the emissaries of the self-created Municipality, or the mob in their interests, who had made their way in by force.5 What confusion this incident may have been attended with can only be guessed at, since had it been ever so great, the papers could not venture were they disposed to give an account of it in the present state of things.

**864.** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. Autograph. No docket or address.

<sup>2</sup> The wife of the British ambassador, Lord Gower, and a countess in her own right. See above, p. 274, n. 7.

<sup>3</sup> Where King George III and Queen Charlotte were residing during part of the summer.

4 Edward Jerningham (1727–1821), a fashionable poet and dramatist.

<sup>5</sup> The Commune of Paris ignored the Legislative Assembly and allowed the August and September massacres to take place; when the Assembly met on 2 September for its last few days the majority of members at least condoned the actions of the Commune and its Vigilance Committee (see p. 404 below).

### F r o m t h e D u c d e L a R o c h e f o u c a u l d -L i a n c o u r t

#### 10 September 1792

Monsieur,

394

La nouvelle horrible que je viens d'apprendre de l'assassinat de Mr de la Rochefoucauld, mon cousin et mon ami, le plus digne et le plus respectable des hommes, le plus fidèl ami de la justice et du bien public, me met dans une telle affliction qu'il m'[a] été impossible de me rendre aujourd'hui à l'honneur de votre obligeante invitation, dont je me faisois un plaisir veritable.2 Recevez-en mes excuses et l'assurance des sentimens sincères avec lesquels j'ai l'honneur d'être Monsieur Votre très humble serviteur

Liancourt

Londres le lundi 10 7bre 1792

### 8661

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>t</sup> h e M a r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L a n s d o <sup>w</sup> n e

10 September 1792 (Aet 44)

1792 Sept. 10th Monday—Q.S.P.

 Melancholy news! my dear Lord—by and by there will not be a single honest man left in that accursed country.

Liancourt was to have dined here—instead of him comes a note from him that Rochefoucault is murdered.2

This is enough I doubt to spoil your dinner as it has ours.

**865.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 363–4. Autograph. Docketed: '1782 Sept / Duc de Liancourt Hotel Adelphi / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / Murder of D. Rochefoucault.'

Addressed: 'Monsieur Bentham Queen's Square Place, Westminster.'

Partly translated in Bowring, x, 285–6, but wrongly dated and annotated (see letter 859, n. 5).

2 Romilly wrote to Dumont on 10 September, 'I have seen the Duke of Liancourt twice, and am to dine with him to-day at Bentham's: I like him extremely' (*Memoirs ...of Romilly...with Correspondence,* 2nd edn., 3 vols., 1840, ii, 5).

**866.** <sup>1</sup> Lansdowne Mss. Autograph. No docket or address. <sup>2</sup> Letter 865.

### 8671

### T o A n d r e w L i n d i g r e n 18 September 1792 (Aet 44)

#### 18 Sept 1792

Last Friday came Mr. Dundas, saw Panopticon model and machinery, admired or pretended to admire, and said he would call the beginning of this week to settle about terms. He asked where we proposed to put it: I answered on the original Penitentiary ground at Battersea rise, to which he acceded without objection.2 Now then for Mr Bowdler3 —Have you ever mentioned Panopticon to him? if so, what does he say to it? Where is he? By only signing a paper, any two of the three intended Supervisors4 of whom he is one, could put us in possession of the ground, supposing the money to be forthcoming, at a minutes warning. Sir Gilbert Elliot is in Scotland: but Sir Charles Bunbury, who is near at hand, has declared his readiness to do what depends upon him in relation to the business. As to the money Government will find it by this supposition, or if they had rather, we will find it. True it is that the clause which give the 'Supervisors or any two of them, their workmen or agents . . .the power to take possession of.. .the premises' adds ...'for the uses and purposes of this act'—see Stat 19 G.3. ch. 74 § 12. But what is the meaning of that limitation? only that it shall be for the general /publick/ purpose of the Penitentiary System, and not for any private purpose of their own:

**867.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 365–6. Autograph draft. Docketed: '1792 Sept 18 / Panopticon / J.B. Q.S.P. / to Lindigren / to canvass Bowdler / Dundas's 1st Visit the Friday before.'

For Andrew Lindigren or Lindegren, an old friend of the Benthams, see *Correspondence,* ii, 246, n. 2. He is listed as a Portsmouth merchant in the *Universal British Directory,* 1791.

2 Benjamin Vaughan wrote to Lord Lansdowne on 22 September 1792: '. .. At last she [*sc.* Mrs Vaughan] has resolved on taking up her quarters in Finsbury Square (in the City). This quits us with Bentham, who seems in good humour with a favourable visit paid him yesterday by Mr. Dundas which is to be followed by another to "treat about terms".' (Lansdowne Mss.)

<sup>3</sup> Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), philanthropist and author. He was one of three commissioners, with Sir Gilbert Elliot and Sir Charles Bunbury, who enquired into the state of penitentiaries in 1781. A friend of John Howard's, he continued some of his work by tours of prison inspection. He gave the word 'bowdlerize' to the English language by editing *The Family Shakespeare,* 1818, in which words were omitted 'which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family'.

<sup>4</sup> Under an Order in Council of 2 March 1781, Elliot, Bunbury and Bowdler were appointed as supervisors of the buildings to be erected in accordance with the Penitentiary Act of 1779 (19 Geo. III, c. 74).

what particular steps they take afterwards for the carrying that system into execution, is a matter which the owners of the land have nothing to do with, and can not be understood to take away or restrain the Supervisors' power of getting the premises into their hands. If they misuse their power afterwards and infringe in any instance the directions of the Act, it is for the Crown or any other persons concerned to call them to account for it. But by the supposition whatever departure is intended afterwards to be made from such directions /will be/ is made with the concurrence of the Crown. I say the right of the Supervisor to take possession of the premises for the benefit of the public is in no ways affected by the use they make of them when taken possession of: if it were, the owners of the land, if ever they wished to have it back again needed but to watch for any little departure intended or unintended from the directions of the Act (which in respect of the then intended Penetentiary system are not in every instance perfectly intelligible or consistent) in order to get the land back again with £200,000 worth of buildings upon it, and so knock the whole system on the head. Two things the Supervisors could not hinder our doing: setting up the Panopticon immediately in any other place, or setting it up in that very place as soon as Parliament meets and an Act can be passed for that purpose: what we want of them is to enable us to begin so much sooner than we could otherwise.

8681

T <sup>o</sup> R <sup>i</sup> <sup>c</sup> h a r d C l a r k

#### 24 September 1792 (Aet 44)

Dear Sir,

 A gentleman of the name of Winterbottom called here about a week or ten days ago wishing to settle the business between me and Mr Bristow.2 Finding him a stranger to the transaction, and that it would take more time to possess him of it than I had then to spare, I intimated to him that I conceived it might be much better

**868.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxxiii: 60. Autograph. Docketed: 'Sept 24, 1792.'

<sup>2</sup> George Bristow was a partner in the firm of Bristow and Winterbottom, attorneys, Merchant Taylors Hall, 30 Threadneedle Street, London; he was later Clerk of the Merchant Taylors Company.

Alderman Richard Clark (1739–1831), an attorney and a friend of Jeremiah Bentham. He had been Lord Mayor of London in 1784–5 and was to become Chamberlain of the City in succession to John Wilkes, 1798. (see *Correspondence,* i, ii and iii passim, especially i, 90 n. 1.)

settled with you as a common friend to both parties, if you would be kind enough to undertake the trouble. He immediately assented, and it is at his instance that I write this, which I could not do then, on account of some business which called me into Essex. When you and I had a little conversation on the subject, I recollect your proposing that Mr Bristow and I should split the difference. These terms I am willing to accede to, and upon these terms to pay the money immediately. The difference is £7: £63 being the fine taken of my father at a period since which neither rent nor other profit has been raised to me directly or indirectly, and £70 the sum to which Mr Bristow's demand was reduced by the paper which I shewed him. £66.10s. then is the money which upon this footing I should have to pay—besides the heriots and fees—I beg the favour of an answer as soon as convenient, and am with all respect and regard.

Dear Sir,

Your most obedient humble servt Jeremy Bentham.

Mr. Alderman Clark.

### 8691

### F r o m J e a n A <sup>n</sup> <sup>t</sup> o i n e G a u v a i n G a l l o i s

#### 4 October 1792

#### Kensington le 4 8bre 1792

J'ai l'honneur de présenter mes Compliments à Monsieur Bentham et de le prier de vouloir bien nous permettre à M. de Talleyrand et à moi de lui présenter aujourdhui avec M. de Montmorency,2 Mr de Beaumetz3 qui a le plus grand désir de faire

**869.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 367. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 Oct 4 / Gallois Kensington Sq., / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / to introduce Beaumetz.' Translation in Bowring, x, 286.

In an undated letter from Gallois to Dumont, evidently written on 3 October 1792 or shortly afterwards, is the information 'nous dinons demain pour la seconde fois chez notre ami Bentham avec M.M. de Talleyrand, Montmorency et Baumetz' (see also letter 871).

2 Matthieu Jean Félicité de Montmorency-Laval, duc de Montmorency (1766– 1826); as a member of the Estates-General he had supported the abolition of feudal rights, but left France after 10 August 1792 and later became a strong royalist. He was minister for foreign affairs under Louis XVIII (1821–2) and created a duke.

3 Bon Albert Briois de Baumez (1759–*c.* 1801), president of the French National Assembly, 1790. Author of *Code pénal des jurés, ou recueil de toutes les loix criminelles du royaume,* 1792, and other legal works. He left France in the autumn of 1792 for Germany and England; went on to America (1794) and eventually to India (1796).

connaissance avec Monsieur Bentham dont il a été à portée de connaître particulièrement et d'estimer les travaux, comme Membre du Comité de Législation de l'Assemblée Constituante.

Gallois

### 8701

### F r o m J e a n M a r i e R o l a n d d e l a P l a <sup>t</sup> i è r e

#### 10 October 1792

### Paris, le 10 Octobre 1792, l'an 1.er de la République Françoise.

J'ai l'honneur de vous adresser ci-joint, Monsieur, un imprimé revêtu du sceau de l'Etat, de la Loi du 26 Août dernier, qui confère le titre de Citoyens François à plusieurs Etrangers. Vous y lirez, que la Nation vous a placé au nombre des amis de l'humanité et de la société, auxquels Elle a déféré ce titre.

L'Assemblée Nationale, par un Décret du 9 Septembre, a chargé le Pouvoir exécutif de vous adresser cette Loi: j'y obéis, en vous priant d'être convaincu de la satisfaction qu j'éprouve d'être, dans cette circonstance, le Ministre de la Nation, et de pouvoir joindre mes sentimens particuliers à ceux que vous témoigne un grand Peuple dans l'enthousiasme des premiers jours de sa liberté.

Je vous prie de m'accuser la réception de ma Lettre, afin que la Nation soit assurée que la Loi vous est parvenue, et que vous comptez également les François parmi vos Frères.

> Le Ministre de l'Intérieur de la République Françoise Roland

M. Jérémie Bentham à Londres.

**870.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 370. Printed sheet, with autograph signature, and with printed copy of *Loi qui confère le titre de Citoyen François à plusieurs Étrangers* [26 August 1792], B.L. V: 371–2. A translation of the letter is given in Bowring, x, 282.

Jean Marie Roland de la Platière (1734–93) was French Ministre de l'Intérieur, March–June 1792 and August 1792–January 1793. Although he did nothing to stop the August rising in Paris and merely protested against the September massacres which followed, he thereafter opposed the Terror and resigned in opposition to Louis XVI's sentence of death. He committed suicide in November 1793 after the execution of his celebrated wife.

### 8711

### F r o m J e a n A n t o i n e G a u v a i n G a l l o i s

#### 15 October 1792

#### Kensington 15 8e 1792

 M. de Baumetz avait écrit en notre nom à Monsieur Bentham combien nous aurions de plaisir à dîner demain Mardi chez lui; il lui rappelait en même tems qu'il nous avait promis de venir déjeuner le même jour avec nous et le priait de vouloir bien s'en souvenir. Cette lettre au lieu d'être portée a Monsieur Bentham à été, par méprise, envoyée en France dans un paquet d'autres Lettres, et elle ira chercher vainement Monsieur Bentham dans sa nouvelle Patrie, c.a.d. dans son grand Panoptique, je me suis chargé de répéter à Monsieur Bentham que nous espérons avoir le plaisir de le voir demain matin à Kensington et de l'accompagner ensuite dans sa retraite.2

G.

### 8721

### F r o m S i r G e o r g e S <sup>t</sup> a u n <sup>t</sup> o n

#### 15 October 1792

I understand this island is increasing in population, and decreasing in religious fervour. Very few friars have been made for some time, and not a nun these twenty years. None can be professed without a permission from the court of Lisbon; but if the zeal had been very strong, the license would probably have been obtained from so bigoted a princess as the Queen of Portugal.2 She gave

**871.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 368. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 Oct 15 / Gallois Kensington Sq., / to / J.B. Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place.'

**872.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 286. Introduced by the statement: 'A letter from Sir George Staunton, dated Madeira, October 15, 1792, has this passage:'. Staunton was en route for China with the Macartney embassy.

2 Queen Maria I, Francesco (1734–1816), who succeeded to the throne of Portugal in 1777 and under clerical influence undid many of Pombal's reforms.

<sup>2</sup> The letter from Baumez to Bentham is, for the reason given, missing: sent accidentally to France it would be searched for in vain in Bentham's 'new country', here described as 'son grand Panoptique'.

much more latitude to the Inquisition than the Marquis of Pombal3 had allowed in the reign of her predecessor, and a persecution was commenced against Freemasonry; but there being a great number of persons of that confraternity among the principal natives of this island, a strong remonstrance was sent to Lisbon, and, probably through the influence of the Chevalier de Pinto,4 an edict has been published restricting the imprisonment in the Inquisition to two months, and forbidding any punishment without the previous approbation of the sentence by one of the Secretaries of State. This check has stopped the career of the Inquisition; and the Freemasons can drink three times three, without the danger of any other death than that of drunkenness.

### 8731

### F r o m B e r n a r d F r a n ç o i s C h a u v e l i n

#### 16 October 1792

Londres le 16 Octobre 1792 1'an ler De la République

J'ai l'honneur, Monsieur de vous transmettre une lettre que le Ministre de l'intérieur m'a chargé de vous faire parvenir.2 La Nation française en inscrivant votre nom dans la liste de ceux qu'elle appelle à la jouissance entière de ses nouveaux droits s'est honorée autant qu'elle vous honore et vous permettrez à un concitoyen qui pour estimer vos vertus et applaudir à votre mérite n'a pas attendu cette déclaration solennelle de l'opinion de son pays, de vous féliciter de l'hommage qui vous a été rendu.

> Le Ministre plénipotentiaire De la République française, F. Chauvelin.

3 Sebastian Joseph de Carvalho e Mello, Marquis of Pombal (1699–1782), who reorganised Portugal after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755; his reforms included the banishment of the Jesuits and the curbing of the Inquisition: he was dismissed from office by the reactionary Queen Maria I in 1777.

<sup>4</sup> Probably Caballero Luiz Pinto de Balsamão (1735–1804), Portuguese plenipotentiary in London, 1775–88 (see *Correspondence,* iii, 70 n. 4).

**873.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 369. Fair copy, with autograph signature of Chauvelin. A translation is given in Bowring, x, 282.

Bernard François Chauvelin (1766–1832), later marquis de Chauvelin, was sent as French ambassador to London, 1792–3; he was asked to leave after Louis XVI's execution. Imprisoned by the Robespierrists, he escaped the guillotine and lived to be a prominent liberal in later French politics.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 870.

### 8741

### T o J e a n M a r i e R o l a n d d e l a P l a t i è r e

#### *c.* 16 October 1792 (Aet 44)

Jeremy Bentham to the Minister of the Interior of the French Republic—Respect,

The letter of the 10th instant, by which you notify to me the honour done me by the last National Assembly, in placing me among the small number of foreigners upon whom it was pleased to confer the title of French Citizen, requires that I should acknowledge its reception, and declare whether I consider Frenchmen as among my brethren.

To a question so marked by frankness, I must frankly reply. If, in recognising the duties attached to so honourable a distinction, I considered myself released from any of these I have contracted towards the country in which I was born, I should give but feeble evidence of my fidelity in the discharge of new engagements. Thus, if unfortunately I were forced to choose between incompatible obligations imposed by the two positions, my sad choice, I must own, must fall on the earlier and stronger claim. Happily, from the point of view whence I have always rejoiced to regard this question —delicate as it is interesting—the incompatibility appears ideal, purely ideal. It cannot exist in my eyes between the permanent interests of the two nations—whatever be the difference of their local position—whatever the diversity of their laws. And this conviction is no vain compliment to you: it is not the outbreak of a momentary enthusiasm, but the reasoned result of a bold and vigorous investigation.

The different forms of the two governments present no obstacle to my thoughts. The general good is everywhere the true object of all political action,—of all law. The general will is everywhere, and for every one, the sole external index by which the conformity of the means to the end can be decided. Professions the most opposed are conciliated—nay, they are prescribed by the varieties of position. Passions and prejudices divide men: great principles unite them. Faithful to these—as true as they are simple—I should think myself a weak reasoner and a bad citizen, were I not, though a royalist in London, a republican in Paris. I should deem it a fair

**<sup>874.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 282–3. Introduced by the statement: 'Bentham answered the communication of the French government in these terms:'.

consequence of my being a royalist in London, that I should become a republican in Paris. Thus doing, I should alike respect the rights and follow the example of my sovereign, who while an Anglican in England, is a Presbyterian in Scotland, and a Lutheran in Hanover.

Having given this explanation, I have only a word to add,—one word with reference to the question, whether I consider all Frenchmen as my brethren?—Indeed, I do: every Frenchman is a brother to me; when, indeed, was he otherwise?

But if anything could weaken the enjoyment which the acquisition of so honourable a title brings with it—it would be the sight of so many unfortunate beings who have to deplore its loss. Because they have ill estimated the movement of the general will, they are crushed with all the weight of its indignation. The marked difference which separates their political opinions from mine, weakens in no respect the sentiments of sorrow which their position inspires. But it is in civil troubles that motives equally pure lead to conduct the most opposed. In my estimate, these victims are too few to be proscribed as a measure of precaution—but too many to be sacrificed as a measure of punishment. It was after having fought to the number of ten thousand that the insurgents of Chatillon2 were received with kisses of fraternity, and promises of amnesty from their generous conquerors. And these insurgents were the aggressors; but the poor refugees have only committed the offence of not emancipating themselves suddenly from the prejudices of ages—and their imperfections are but the consequence of mistakes as to the advent of an epoch they had not foreseen. If I am not deceived, it would be easy to draw up a declaration—even an oath —by which, without wounding their conscience or their weakness, the Republic might obtain every security in the nature of things obtainable. Such a motion, were I in a position to make it, would I be the first to propose. Even were I certain that there was not one among them that was not the irreconcileable enemy of the established order—not one who, if he dared, would not make me his first personal victim, I would not the less propose such a measure not the less defend it. For every punishment that is not needed is really a lawless punishment; and in cases of civil war, the end is answered when the minority is subdued: and merely to prove that there is a desire to do mischief without proving the power of doing so, is to prove nothing to the purpose.

<sup>2</sup> Chatillon-sur-Sèvre was seized by Vendean royalists in August 1792. A later occupation was bloodily suppressed in 1793.

### 8751

### F r o m B o n A l b e r t B r i o i s d e B a u m e z

#### 3 November 1792

#### Londres 3 9bre 1792

Je vais, Mon cher Concytoien, essaier à Paris d'établir la différence qu'il y a entre la qualité de Cytoien voiageant et celle d'émigré que je déteste et que je ne puis consentir à recevoir des mains d'une loi même injuste. Quelques personnes m'assurent, qu'on me prendra par forme d'explication. Quelques autres me promettent le contraire. Je vais savoir ce qui en est. Je regrette de quitter l'angleterre. Je regrette surtout les conversations que vous m'aviez promises et auxquelles je me préparois en lisant ce que vous avez imprimé. Je vous assure que c'est une vraie peine pour moi, et une peine de cœur, que de quitter un païs où l'on a été si bon pour moi, et où je n'ai rencontré que des qualités attachantes. Comme personne ne m'a mieux traité que vous, comme vous étiez une des personnes que je désirois le plus de connoitre et de qui une bonne récéption devait me faire le plus de plaisir, je n'ai pas besoin d'ajouter que je vous regrette plus que personne en Angleterre, et que dans les projets que je forme pour y revenir bientôt, vous entrez pour beaucoup. Je vous le prouverai à mon retour si vous m'assurez que mes visites ne vous sont pas importunes. Si vous avez quelques commissions à me donner à Paris, vous savez que je serai bien heureux de m'en occuper.

Recevez l'assurance de tous les sentiments que vous savez si bien inspirer, et que je vous ai voués avec toute la franchise d'un bon Républicain.

**875.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 373. Autograph, but unsigned. Docketed: '1792 Nov. 3 / Baumetz Kensington / to / J.B. Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham Esqr / Queen Square Place / London.' Translation in Bowring, x, 286–7.

### 8761

### F r o m S a m u e l R o m i l l y

#### 5 November 1792

Chapelier,2 Beaumetz, and Montmorency all set out yesterday for Paris, thinking it better to expose their lives to Marat,3 and Marat's friends, than to incur perpetual banishment and confiscation of their property.

### 8771

### F r o m B e n j <sup>a</sup> m i n V <sup>a</sup> u g h <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### 8 November 1792

The English citizen V. to the French citizen B.; alias, the city mouse to the court mouse.

You and your company are certainly more of a treat than your good dinners, (though so very good.) But till Mr. M. 2 comes to town, I am obliged to keep an eye to our kittens in —; who are always frolicking when the mouse is absent: consequently, it is more convenient to me to see you, than to be seen by you. Name your day, with your brother and Cn. Ry.,3 (omitting Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday,) and give me the earliest notice.

My young architect is named Alexander:4 his residence, Weston Street, Tooley Street. I know not who is the mayor, or who the committee, at Rochester; but any navy or Kent people will inform

**876.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 287. A quotation introduced by the statement: 'On the 5th November, Romilly says:'.

2 Isaac René Gui de Chapelier (1754–94), French politician.

**877.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 287. Introduced with the comment: 'Benjamin Vaughan writes this lively note on the 8th November:'.

The letter would seem to be in answer to a missing letter of Bentham's making various inquiries. For Vaughan's movements, see above, letter 867 n. 2, p. 395.

<sup>2</sup> Possibly William Manning, father of Mrs Vaughan.

<sup>3</sup> Probably Samuel Romilly.

4 Daniel Asher Alexander (1768–1846), an architect who had a large practice; he designed gaols at Dartmoor and Maidstone and became Surveyor to the London docks in 1796.

<sup>3</sup> Jean Paul Marat (1743–93), as the leading member of the *comité de surveillance,* set up by the commune of Paris, bears the main responsibility for permitting the rising in August 1792 and the September massacres. His brief career thereafter as a Paris deputy to the Convention was ended by his assassination by Charlotte Corday on 13 July 1793.

you. The bridge is not to be rebuilt, but only widened, and perhaps the two middle arches thrown into one.5

I shall leave to the other citizen *Russe,*<sup>6</sup> to go to Portsmouth, and bring back knowledge, on condition that he tells it all when he returns. The papers on this subject will be returned to-morrow.

Vale et me ama.

### 8781

### F r o m E t i e n n e D u m o n t

#### 23 November 1792

Adieu! I quit Bentham for Bentham, and am occupied this morning with a chapter that enchants me.

### 8791

### F r o m J u l e s P <sup>a</sup> u l B e n j <sup>a</sup> m i n D e l e s s e r t

#### 30 November 1792

 Vous avez bien voulu, Monsieur, me permettre de vous écrire; le désir de vous remercier de vos bontés m'en fait un devoir. Je conserverai toujours le souvenir des instants que j'ai passés chez vous et le regret qu'ils ayent été si courts.

Mon voyage jusques ici a été aussi agréable que la saison et mon ignorance de la langue pouvoit le permettre. Je n'ai eu il est vrai que peu de tems pour observer le pays et connoitre les habitans,

<sup>5</sup> The bridge over the river Medway at Rochester, originally constructed about 1392, was considered the finest in England after London Bridge. In 1793 widening of it was started and continued until 1803, when lack of funds stopped work on it. The old bridge was pulled down in 1856 (see *Reports and Documents relating to Rochester Bridge; printed at the Request of the Commonalty,* 1832; E. Hasted, *The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent,* 2nd edn., 12 vols., 1798, iv, 83).

<sup>6</sup> Samuel Bentham.

**<sup>878.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 287. A quotation (perhaps translated from French), introduced by the statement: 'In a note of Dumont (23d November) he concludes thus:'.

Dumont is clearly referring to the editorial work he is doing on Bentham's 'Penal Code'.

**<sup>879.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 375–9. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 Nov. 30 / De Lessert Amsterdam / to / J.B. Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'Jérémie Bentham Esqr / Birdscage Walk / St James Parck / London.' Postmark: 'DE / 18'.

A translation into English in Bowring, x, 283–4, contains errors and makes omissions.

mais assez pour être frappé de la vérité de ce qu'un de vos auteurs a dit—

'That it is a country where ye earth is better than ye air, and profit more in regard than honour, where there's more sense than wit, more good nature than good humour and more wealth than pleasure. Where a man would choose rather to travel than to live, shall find more things to observe than desire and more persons to esteem than to love.'2

Vous avez paru souhaiter d'avoir quelques informations sur la politique intérieure de la Hollande et sur les dispositions des habitans. Je voudrois pouvoir vous satisfaire: à tout hasard je vais jetter sur le papier ce qui me vient dans l'esprit: Comme j'écris sans prétentions vous me lirez avec indulgence.

Les Hollandois sont très divisés d'opinions: mais il conservent dans leur manière de les manifester l'apathie et la lenteur de leur caractère. Il faudroit de grands efforts pour les mettre en mouvement. Ce n'est pas comme en France où l'on fait des révolutions avec des chansons: Le Hollandois avec son caffé sans sucre, sa pipe et son genièvre est aussi heureux que le François dans son assemblée de Section. Le peuple vit dans l'abondance, il a peu de sujets de se plaindre et devroit être disposé à rester neutre et à laisser tranquillement les gens au-dessus de lui terminer les querrelles politiques. Il est pourtant assez généralement disposé à 'soutenir le prince': Le Stathouder avoit su se l'attacher dans les derniers troubles et il a cultivé son affection. Dans quelques villes il adopte le parti contraire. A Amsterdam et presque partout ailleurs les négociants sont la pluspart très patriotes et désirent et espèrent des changements.

Il y a peut-être quelques mécontents dans les assemblées des états mais les bourguemestres et les autres magistrats sont tous du parti du prince: Les officiers du corps militaire sont dans les mêmes sentiments. Quant aux soldats la plupart sont Allemands et ne savent qu'obéir.

Les chefs des patriotes cherchent sans doute à se remuer pendant que les exilés intriguent en France: Les efforts des premiers ne peuvent être heureux que par ceux des autres et il faudroit que les françois les soutinsent d'une manière efficace. Je ne sais quelles sont à cet égard les dispositions de leur gouv[ernem]ent: Ici l'on

<sup>2</sup> A quotation from Sir William Temple's *Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands,* latest edn., ed. Sir George Clark, Oxford, 1972, p. 97. The book was first published in 1673, translated into Dutch that year and into French in 1680: it ran through several editions.

craint ou l'on croit qu'ils ne préparent quelque invasion. Le décrêt qui déclare libre la navigation de l'Escaut, et l'entrée des Vaisseaux de la République dans ce fleuve, annoncent en effet qu'ils sont peu disposés à ménager la Hollande et qu'ils cherchent à exciter des prétextes de querelles. L'Angleterre devroit les retenir mais la déclaration qu'elle a remise aux Etats Généraux a fait peu d'effet: On l'a trouvée trop modérée et pour lui donner du poids il auroit fallu un armement.

Si les François veulent entrer on aura peu de chose à leur opposer. L'on convient généralement que les moyens de résistance sont près que nuls: Une armée de 30 M hommes seulement pour défendre un pays étendu et des places mal fortifiées: Des troupes peu exercées pour résister à des soldats aguerris et triomphants: La marine délabrée et les secours de l'Angleterre inutiles pour arrêter une invasion par terre. Il reste l'inondation, moyen aussi funeste au pays qu'aux étrangers et que la division des habitants rendroit probablement difficile si d'ailleurs l'approche des gelées ne présentoit une impossibilité physique.

Si les François songent à troubler ce pays-ci et s'ils réussissoient à changer le gouvernement, à chasser même le chef, il[s] réussiroient cependant mal à propager tous leurs principes. Les habitudes des habitants ou si l'on veut leurs préjugés, leurs présenteront les mêmes obstacles qu'ils trouvent dans le Brabant. Vous savez que les Belges sont divisés comme autrefois en Vonckistes et Vandernootistes:3 Ceux-sont soutenus partous les gens puissants et par le clergé qui a conservé une grande influence. Ils montrent de l'énergie et veulent leur ancien gouvernement. Ils pourront embarasser les François.

Il parroit que les puissances conféderées se déterminent à pousser la campagne prochaine avec vigueur. Mollendorf4 est désigné pour général. L'on assure que l'Impératrice de Russie

<sup>3</sup> Followers of the Belgian lawyers and politicians, Jean François Vonck (1743–92) and Henri van der Noot (1731–1827), who respectively led the democratic and statist parties and worked for the liberation of Belgium from Austrian rule, though differing on the best methods: Vonck opposing Noot's plan of using Prussian and Dutch troops and wishing to rely on national forces only. In the event Belgian soldiers succeeded in liberating Brussels in December 1789, but Noot secured the credit and became chief minister, arrogating power to the estates of Brabant, whereas Vonck wanted a national assembly to discuss the constitution. In 1790 the Vonckists were suppressed and their leader fled to France, but his influence sustained the democratic movement.

4 Richard Josef Heinrich von Möllendorff (1724–1816), Prussian count and general; he commanded the troops which dismembered Poland in 1793, after which he was promoted to field marshal and governor of mid-Prussia; he succeeded the Duke of Brunswick as commander of the Army of the Rhine in 1794.

garantit au Roy de Prusse les Etats et promet son assistance en cas de Rebellion. Il fait avancer toutes les troupes et l'autriche met aussi en mouvement ses dernières ressources.

Les François comptent sur la Bravoure de leur soldats, ils sont animés par des succès, la discipline et la confiance sont rétablies dans leurs armées: Ils ont enfin un grand avantage sur leurs ennemis celui d'avoir porté hors de leur pays le théâtre de la guerre.

Ces préparatifs font redouter une longue suite de calamités; la guerre et les dissensions intestines menacent toutes les contrées de l'Europe. L'Angleterre seule peut procurer la paix. Sa puissance, sa sagesse, la neutralité qu'elle a soigneusement observée la designe comme médiatrice. Son intérêt doit aussi l'y porter: La liberté et la licence qui parcourent ensemble l'Europe pourroient troubler son bonheur.

L'Espagne et la Hollande sont vivement intéressées à cette pacification et chercheront à la presser. La France même devroit la désirer: ses victoires l'épuisent, enfin elle peut lasser la fortune et elle doit redouter des revers.

L'on assure que [votre?] ministère s'occupe de ces négociations. Que leur succès seroit glorieux pour l'Angleterre et satisfaisant pour l'humanité!

L'on épuise les ressources de l'imagination pour trouver les causes de la retraite des Prussiens. Non content de celles que présentent les fautes de la campagne l'on va même jusques à croire que Dumouriez a su profiter de la faiblesse d'Esprit du Roy de Prusse et de ses allentours dont l'attachement aux follies des illuminés est bien connu. L'on raconte à ce sujet d'assez plaisantes histoires de visions et d'apparitions dont on dit que l'on l'a frappé. Quoi qu'il en soit il est impossible de ne pas mépriser ceux qui en sont l'objet.

L'on ne sait quel sera le sort des émigrés ils passent par milliers par ce pays-ci pour se rendre chez vous: Le gouvernement ne les laisse pas séjourner et montre ses inquiétudes par un article de la publication qui porte, 'que les étrangers qui peuvent être l'objet des recherches et des réclames de leur patrie sont invités à ne pas se rendre sur le territoire des provinces, attendu qu'ils ne doivent pas s'y croire à l'abri des recherches ou des réclames.'

Excusez, Monsieur, tout ce verbiage, j'ai été trop long et me hâte de finir.

Veuillez présenter mes devoirs à Monsieur votre frère; à Mr. Romilly et à Mr. Trail. Je ne puis assez regretter que mon départ

précipité m'ait empêché de leur faire mes adieux. J'ai passé chez eux plusieurs fois et n'ai pu les rencontrer. Je compte sur leur amitié et leur bienveillance.

Agréez l'assurance de mon dévouement. Je suis avec respect

 Votre très humble et Obéissant serviteur D.

Amsterdam le 30 9e 1792

### 8801

### F r o m B <sup>a</sup> r o n S t. H e l e n s

20 December 1792

#### Bath 20th December 1792.

 I am extremely obliged to you, my dear Sir, for your letter,2 but I assure you that you very much over-rate and over-thank me for my feeble efforts in the Cause in question. I am certainly well pleased that the invention should be yours, because I think it does you infinite honour: but had it been that of a perfect stranger, I should have recommended it with the same zeal, being persuaded that it's adoption would be a most important public benefit.—au reste, I am utterly unable to divine when and where I may have been fortunate enough to produce the favourable impressions to which you seem to allude. I shall be in town about New Year's Day, and will call upon you immediately after my arrival, which indeed I should have done equally, if I had not heard from you. During my late tour I have seen some of our most celebrated provincial places of confinement, and particularly that at Gloucester, but the plan of none of them seems to me to be in any degree comparable to yours. I confess however that I have still my doubts whether, if your Government-House be completely surrounded by the exterior building, it will be sufficiently provided with air and light: and I also think that with regard to your brother's *panpracticons,* he ought to devise some scheme according to which they may be made

**<sup>880.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. ix: 17. Autograph. Docketed: '1792 Dec 20 / Panopt / Ld St. Helens Bath / to / J.B. Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'Jeremiah Bentham Esqr / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.' Postmark: 'bath'.

<sup>2</sup> Missing: Bentham had obviously written to him recently about the Panopticon project.

to repay gradually their own expence; since, otherwise, (not to mention economy) their effect would be that of a bounty from the publick purse enabling a parcel of raggamuffins, brought up to nothing but roguery and idleness, to manufacture goods at a cheaper rate, or, which is the same thing, at a higher profit than the honest, regular-bred, industrious workman.—But of this more when we meet. In the mean time pray make my best remembrances to the Colonel, and believe me ever, my Dear Sir, with the truest regard and Esteem

most faithfully yours St. Helens

### 8811

### F r o m t h e M <sup>a</sup> r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L <sup>a</sup> n s d o w n e

#### 20 December 1792

Be so good not to mention to any body living the measure about which I consulted you yesterday for particular reasons, which I will explain to you— Excuse this scribble.

Thursday Morng.

### 8821

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup> U n k n o w n C o r r e s <sup>p</sup> o n d e n t

#### [?]Late in 1792 (Aet 44)

When a man takes upon him to inform another, what were, or were not the feelings of that other, upon such or such an occasion,

**<sup>881.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxxiv: 83. Autograph, unsigned. Docketed: '1792 Dec. 20 / Ld L. Berkeley Square / to J.B. Q.S.P. / Secrecy injoined.'

**<sup>882.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 277–8. Introduced by the statement: 'The following letter is so characteristic of the writer, that I introduce it without naming the party to whom it was addressed, or the subject to which it refers:'.

No date is given, but the letter is placed by Bowring among correspondence during the later part of 1792. There is no clue to the identity of the recipient, with whom there had clearly been an exchange of several letters. 'A discussion of a law question' suggests a legal acquaintance of Bentham's. He seems to have used expressions which Bentham regarded as 'exceptionable' and 'improper' but would have preferred not to point out. His 'style of address' would also seem to have given offence, and its continuance to be 'a complete bar to all intercourse with him, but what was barely necessary', although Bentham expresses 'an unfeigned desire' to renew it.

(a thing not often done, I believe,) and that with certainty, he runs no small risk of finding himself under a mistake. Such happens to have been your case, in yours of the 28th. It is truly painful for me to tell you so; but it is what you have forced me to do, or submit to a sort of dictation, the most extraordinary I have ever happened to meet with. Suffer *me,* then, to inform *you,* if you will allow me to know anything of my own thoughts,—that whatsoever happen to be my feelings or my opinions, it is my constant wish, and I believe my usual practice, to avoid introducing the expression of them where the subject does not call for them; but that whoever calls for them, and will have them, if he gets them at all, gets them as they are. Without making use of words so vague as 'exceptionable' or 'improper,' know then, that whatever my opinion was of the expressions in question, at the time of my receiving this last letter of yours,2 such it was precisely at the respective times of my writing those two notes:3 such, I do believe, it would equally be fifty years hence, to which time I would much rather have reserved the expression of it.

When, with so much self-complacency, you express yourself altogether unconscious of anything in your manner of expressing yourself, but what is most unexceptionable, I do not perfectly understand what it is you mean: whether it is that matter of a nature at once invidious and irrelevant, introduced without provocation into the discussion of a law question among friends is noways exceptionable, or improper; or that no such matter has place in any of your letters. If the latter interpretation be the right one, the cause, I hope, is to be found in a want of recollection, to supply which, I will send you as a specimen one of two sheets of which your letter is composed; the whole of which appears to me to come within the meaning of those epithets, and such as consequently might have been saved in the lump, not only without injury to the business, but to very great advantage.

That I take the liberty of thus giving an explanation, which seems rather forbidden than called for by the expressions of soft complacency above noted, is owing to the unfeigned desire I entertain of seeing the renewal of an intercourse which I little apprehended would have suffered any such interruptions. If upon a review, such a style of address be judged altogether suitable to the person and the occasion, the consequence is, that in the intercourse with that person, the same style of address would be ordinarily

2 Missing.

<sup>3</sup> Both missing.

observed. The consequence again would be a complete bar to all intercourse with him, but what was barely necessary. Certainly with respect to you, I will not take upon me to assume: but as to myself, I am certain of two things; one is, that I never experienced such a style of address *from,* the other is, that I never used it *to* any human being. Generosity would preserve me from using it to any one who was a dependant; the fear of ridicule, to any one who was not so.

### 8831

### T <sup>o</sup> J <sup>a</sup> m e s A n d e r s o n

#### [?]January 1793 (Aet 44)

When your imagination painted your old friend in such terrible colours, you had forgot two things: one is, that no man, who was born white, becomes coal-black all of a sudden; the other is, that no man does mischief without a motive.

What motive had I to do you mischief? What provocation had you given me? You have now given me provocation, and I have not the smallest particle of desire to do you mischief more than I had before; the regret of having been the unintentional cause of uneasiness to you, is the only sentiment that dwells with me. It so happens, too, that my brother, whose opinions of you, and dispositions towards you, were never other than friendly, saw my letter before it went. He happened to be sitting by me while I was writing it;2 I handed it to him, and he returned it to me without a comment. Forgive me, forgive yourself, and believe me now as ever, your faithful friend.

P.S.—I send this letter open through your son; if he does what I should do in his place, it may save both of you a tedious and useless correspondence; if he think it worth his while to wish for further explanations, he can get them through me with infinitely less

**883.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 288. Undated, but placed by Bowring among dated letters of January 1793, with the explanation: 'Replying to a very cold, touchy, and reproachful letter of Dr Anderson's, in which he accuses Bentham of conduct both unfriendly and ungentlemanly, on the ground of his having communicated to Dr. A.'s son, some particulars of a lawsuit, with which Bentham had no reason to suppose him unacquainted, Bentham uses this language:'.

The letter from Anderson is missing; for Bentham's previous relations with him see letter 782, p. 296 above; also *Correspondence,* i–iii, especially i, 292 n. 8.

<sup>2</sup> That is, the missing letter to Anderson's son, which caused annoyance to the doctor: he had a numerous family (thirteen children by his first wife) and the son concerned has not been identified.

trouble than from you. I am sure it will be more pleasing to him to see you in good humour than in bad, and, therefore, I shall not show him your letter unless he and you both insist upon it.3

### 8841

### T <sup>o</sup> T h o m <sup>a</sup> <sup>s</sup> L <sup>a</sup> <sup>w</sup>

#### January 1793 (Aet 44)

Q.S.P., January, 1793.

Sir,

 I have just heard from my friend Mr Wilson,2 of Lincoln's Inn, that, on his meeting you at your brother's,3 you were pleased to express an inclination to become acquainted with the author of the Defence of Usury. The author of the speculative Defence of Usury, has an unfeigned ambition to become acquainted with the author of the practical and practised Mocurrery system. With these dispositions, third persons and formal introductions seem superfluous. In the morning, I never see anybody, whom I can possibly help seeing;—but everybody must dine. If you will favour me with your company to dinner on Monday or Tuesday, I will take care there shall be nobody else—perhaps not even my brother, whom, at another time, I flatter myself you would not be displeased to know; or, if it be more agreeable to you, I will accept of a *tête à tête* dinner from you with equal pleasure. When two people are together, they have their own talk; but when they are to have a third, they don't know what talk they are to have. I mention those two early days, for afterwards it is very uncertain what command I shall have of

2 George Wilson.

<sup>3</sup> Bowring adds (p. 288): 'The letter, however, had not its intended effect—. The reply [also missing] is endorsed by Bentham "Implacable"; and I believe correspondence thereupon ceased'.

**<sup>884.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 287–8. Introduced by the statement: 'The intercourse between Bentham and Mr. Law had its origin in the correspondence which follows:'.

Thomas Law (1759–1834) had been a member of the Board of Revenue at Fort William, Calcutta, and had published a *Letter to the Board submitting...a Revenue Plan for Perpetuity,* Calcutta, 1789, expanded into a *Sketch of the late Arrangements with a View of the Rising Resources of Bengal,* London, 1792. 'Mocurrery' was an Indian legal term for letting lands on lease, and Law continued to write on what he called 'the Mocurrery System' until 1820.

<sup>3</sup> Either John Law (1745–1810), bishop of Clonfert (1782), bishop of Killala (1787) and bishop of Elphin (1795); or more probably Edward Law, later 1st Baron Ellenborough (1750–1818), who was the leading counsel in the defence of Warren Hastings, 1788–95. He became Attorney-General in 1801–2 and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 1802–18.

my time. My usual hour is five, but any other is equally convenient to me. If neither of those days should suit you, I dine at home today; my brother has a mechanical man to dine with him, but he can dispose of him as he pleases, and we should form two distinct parties, which would be but little in one another's way.

I am, Sir, etc.

### 8851

### F r o m T h o m <sup>a</sup> <sup>s</sup> L <sup>a</sup> <sup>w</sup>

#### January 1793

Weymouth Street, January, 1793

Dear Sir,

For so I must address you, after your most liberal letter,2 —I will wait upon you to-morrow at half-past four, that I may not suffer anxiety, for I feel a woman's eagerness to meet a gentleman of such an enlightened mind. I send you Adam Smith, 3d vol., with some notes that may convey an idea of a —3

Yours most faithfully,

### 8861

### F r o m S <sup>a</sup> m u e l R o m i l l y

#### January 1793

Lincoln's Inn, January, 1793

Dear Bentham,

 I have got your manuscript copied, but I have not sent it you, because I wish to make two or three extracts from it; and I have

**885.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 288.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 884.

<sup>3</sup> Bowring seems to have omitted a word or phrase here.

**886.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 288. Introduced by the explanation: 'Bentham consulted Romilly on the publication of his pamphlet, *Truth v. Ashurst.* Romilly's opinion is conveyed in these words:'.

The pamphlet criticised the charge to the Grand Jury of Middlesex, on 19 November 1792, by Sir William Henry Ashurst, or Ashhurst (1725–1807), a judge of the King's Bench, who was a Commissioner of the Great Seal (1792–3) between the resignation of Lord Thurlow and the appointment of Lord Loughborough as Lord Chancellor (see letter 890, n. 1). The charge was mainly concerned with seditious meetings and corresponding societies. Bowring notes that Bentham's pamphlet was dated 17 December 1792 but that 'Romilly's judgment decided the non-publication

been so much taken up with other business, that I have not had time to do it. I have had leisure, however, to read it again, and to form a decided opinion, that the publication of it is not likely to do good, and may do harm. The praise given to the French would, I have no doubt, throw discredit on all the truth it contains. If, however, you disregard my opinion, and resolve to publish it, I will return it you immediately. If you can lend me the proceedings of the Irish Catholics, I will be much obliged to you for it.2

### 8871

### T <sup>o</sup> T h o m <sup>a</sup> <sup>s</sup> L <sup>a</sup> <sup>w</sup>

#### 2 February 1793 (Aet 44)

Queen's Square Place.

Dear Sir,

 If you have any curiosity to see a native of Siberia, not of Russian, but of the aboriginal Siberian race, such a personage will dine with me, in company with the chaplain to the Russian embassy,2 on Wednesday. At the same time and place will appear Mr Wilson,3 in some measure for the sake of staring at the Siberian, but much more for the sake of admiring Mr Law, in hopes of his being attracted hither partly by the sort of bait above-mentioned, partly by the opportunity of settling with the said Mr Wilson the proposed meeting in Weymouth Street. At the same time, you would see two or three other friends of Mr Wilson's and mine, who are ambitious of making your acquaintance, and whose acquaintance, a man of your views and feelings cannot but be glad to make.

The precipitation with which you terminated your too short visit, left me no time to think of two requests I had to make to you—

at the period when that judgment was given'. It was in fact not published until 1823: *Truth versus Ashurst; or Law as it is, contrasted with what it is said to be* (T. Moses, 1823). It was reprinted in Bowring, v, 231–7.

<sup>2</sup> Probably the pamphlet entitled *Proceedings of the Catholic Meeting of Dublin, duly convened on Wednesday, October 31, 1792, at the Exhibition-Room, Exchequer-Street,* Dublin, 1792. The booklet in which it appeared also contains three other items concerning the General Committee of the Catholics of Ireland, which sat in Dublin, 1792–3.

**<sup>887.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 289. Introduced by the comment: 'A letter to Mr. Law of February 2, 1793, and his reply, are characteristic of both:'.

<sup>2</sup> Yakov Ivanovich Smirnov (1759–1840), who succeeded the Benthams' friend, Samborskiy, as chaplain to the Russian embassy in 1780, and who was also pastor of the Russian church in London, 1780–1840. See *Correspondence,* iii, 163 n. 12.

<sup>3</sup> George Wilson.

the one that you would have the goodness to keep in store for me the memorandums I understood you had made, relative to the subject of my Defence of Usury; the other, that if your partiality for my productions should lead you through what I have written on the Judicial Establishment, you would do it pen in hand, and allow me the opportunity of profiting by any remarks it might suggest to you.

### 8881

### F r o m T h o m <sup>a</sup> <sup>s</sup> L <sup>a</sup> <sup>w</sup>

#### 4 February 1793

Weymouth Street, February 4, 1793.

Dear Sir,

Your polite note2 is so full of kindnesses, that I know not which most to thank you for. That of your promise to fix a day to favour me with your company, and to prevail on Mr Wilson to come also, I prefer. Your brother, the colonel, was enjoying practical gratifications, whilst we were indulging in speculative ones. He was *even* with *us.* I am obliged by his card, and am desirous of having the honour of his acquaintance. Alas! I am obliged to go for a few days to Ireland, and to set off on Tuesday next, my brother3 having particularly desired me to see him in Dublin. Your pamphlet on the Judiciary Establishment is gone to be bound, and it will receive my greatest attention, for, in Asia, courts are much wanted, and good laws. I was reading it, when Colonel Bentham was amusing himself with the *Essay on Woman.*<sup>4</sup> His Panopticon would, methinks, be a good building for a jealous man. The genuine native of Siberia I should behold with eagerness as a *rare animal,* but mere curiosities, in general, have very little attraction. *Cui bono* is my question. Your brother is pleased with *novelties.* Immediately upon my return, I shall claim your promise, and hope that your brother will accompany you.—I remain, etc.

**888.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 289.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 887.

<sup>3</sup> This would be John Law, the bishop (see letter 884, n. 3).

<sup>4</sup> The obscene parody of Alexander Pope's *Essay on Man,* adapted and privately printed by John Wilkes from verses written by his crony, Thomas Potter (1718–59).

# T o H e n r y D u n d a s

#### 4 February 1793 (Aet 44)

Queen Square Place, 4th February, 1793.

Sir,

417

 Marie Duquesneau, a Frenchwoman, who, for about a fortnight or three weeks, has lived with me in the capacity of cook, has just brought me an order, signed by his Majesty, and countersigned by Mr Dundas, directed to a person by the name Monsieur Duquesneau, who, she says, is her husband, enjoining him, in pursuance of the late act, to quit the realm on or before the 6th instant, which is the day after tomorrow. She appeared to me in great affliction, saying that her husband had lived in this country these ten years, and prefers it to his own; that he is a journeyman shoemaker by trade, and can have a very good character from the master for whom he has worked for these last four or five years. Upon my questioning her whether her husband may not have been meddling with politics, and whether that may not have been the occasion of his receiving such an order, she assured me to the contrary with great earnestness, saying that he is altogether at a loss to conceive how government should be so much as apprised of his existence, unless it be by means of a man who obtained £50 of him, on pretence of taking him into partnership, and who, he apprehends, may have taken advantage of the late act, in the view of getting rid of him and his demand. Certain that nothing can be more foreign to your intentions than to convert an instrument of public security into an engine of private injustice and oppression, I take

William Huskisson (1770–1830), the future President of the Board of Trade, had been private secretary to Lord Gower, the British ambassador in Paris, and was at this time (1793–5) Superintendent of Aliens, in the branch of the Home Office carrying out the provisions of the Aliens Act of January 1793. In 1795 he succeeded Nepean as Under-Secretary for War and Colonies (see J. R. Dinwiddy, 'The use of the crown's power of deportation under the Aliens Act 1793–1826', *Bulletin of the*

**<sup>889.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 290. The royal order is also printed on p. 290 and Bowring notes (p. 289): 'I find in Bentham's handwriting the following endorsement on the King's warrant:

<sup>&</sup>quot;King's Order of Banishment to Duquesneau, under the Alien Act,—acting functionary Huskisson, afterwards cabinet minister. The order being groundless, J.B. Q.S.P. attended at the Alien Office to prove it so to be. Huskisson was haughty and unreasonable, but yielded, though with a bad grace".'

the liberty of conveying to your notice the statement which has been made to me. My intention is to give him the offer of living at my house, as above, from the day in which the order begins to be in force—viz. Wednesday—to the end that if he really be a dangerous person, the officers of government may know where to meet with him, and if not, that he may not be in the power of his adversary to get him sent away, or committed without the knowledge of his friends; and if not, that he may find protection with me, against any project for hurrying him, or getting him even thrown into jail, without the knowledge of his friends.

P.S. The person suspected to have been the author of the information is one Frederick Grote, a German, a jeweller, whose promissory note to Duquesneau, dated 11th January, 1792, for £37,1s. 6d., I have now before me. The ground of suspicion is, that upon some words happening lately between them on account of the non-payment of the money, Grote said to Duquesneau, he *would take care and do for him.*

The person for whom Duquesneau works, is a Mr John ——, a master shoemaker, No. 44, Castle Street, Oxford Market, whose certificate in his favour lies before me.

### 8901

### T o B <sup>a</sup> r o n L o u g h <sup>b</sup> o r o u g h

#### 2–9 February 1793 (Aet 44)

Queen's Square Place Westmr. 2d Feb. 1793.

My Lord,

 I understood lately from Ld St. Helens that in consequence of the mention he had made of a species of building contrived by my Brother and me under the name of a *Panopticon* with a plan of management grounded on it adapted to the purposes of a Penitentiary house your Lordship had been pleased to honour the idea with your approbation, and to express an intention of calling some day to see the models at my House. Lest my address should have

*Institute of Historical Research,* xli (1968), 193–211; also C. R. Fay, *Huskisson and his Age,* 1951, pp. 65–6).

**890.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 381–2. Autograph rough draft. Docketed: '1793 Feb. 9 / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Ld Loughborough / Panopt.' Although the draft has 2 February 1793 as the date, the one on the docket may indicate when the letter was actually sent.

Alexander Wedderburn (1733–1805), 1st Baron Loughborough, 1780, later Earl of Rosslyn, 1801, was about to become Lord Chancellor. For previous references to him, see *Correspondence,* ii and iii, especially ii, 18 n. 5.

escaped your memory, I take the liberty of inclosing it together with a copy of an unpublished work in which the principles of construction and management are developped at large. If it were possible at this time for your Lordship to bestow a glance on a subject of such inferior importance, it might rather to be on the third volume which relates to the plan of management than to the 1st and second which refer to a plan of construction which besides the difficulty of comprehending it without a model has been departed from and as we hope improved upon in several respects in the models which have since been made. Mr. Francis Burton besides seeing the models has read the book from beginning to end and is as able as I am sure he would be willing to give your Lordship any account of it that might be desired. Mr. Douglas2 would have mentioned the subject to your Lordship t'other day had there been opportunity, and would at any time take any commands your Lordship might have for me in relation to it. A proposal grounded on it has been for more than two years before Mr Pitt, and another for some months before Mr Dundas, who a little before his last visit to Scotland called and saw the models together with some machinery contrived by the colonel my Brother for the employment of prisoners, proposed of his own motion calling again to talk about terms and made an appointment accordingly, of which I have not yet been fortunate enough to reap the benefit. He as well as Mr. Pitt have been pleased at different times to express their approbation of the plan in terms of no ordinary strength to different persons from whom I have chanced to hear of it, but between approbation and adoption there is an unfathomable chasm, which a word from your Lordship would however unquestionably be sufficient to close. The subject can not have been altogether unnoticed by your Lordship in your judicial sphere, and the patronage of a plan which unites novelty to obvious and undisputed utility might perhaps appear not ill calculated to throw lustre on the still more elevated station, which your Lordship has just been called to fill.3 Livelyhood ensured to prisoners after enlargement, Provision ensured to the convicts after the expiration of their terms, the annual expence diminished by one fourth, the first expence of building and stock struck off altogether: these are among the advantages which the proposal offers in point of economy. The morality which though not quite so palpable an

<sup>2</sup> Probably Sylvester Douglas.

<sup>3</sup> The lord-chancellorship made vacant in June 1792 by the forced resignation of Lord Thurlow and filled by Lord Loughborough from 28 June 1793.

object may perhaps /not/ appear to your Lordship the superior /inferior/ one has been provided for by means which I flatter myself will appear not less effective.

### 8911

### T <sup>o</sup> E va <sup>n</sup> N <sup>e</sup> <sup>p</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### 14 February 1793 (Aet 44)

Q.S.P. Feb. 14 1793

Dear Sir

The inclosed is from Chapman the Convict on board the Stanislaus Hulk, the same man whose transportation to Botany Bay you had the goodness to get suspended in consequence of the letters I took the liberty of sending you.2 The indulgence he sollicits of serving in the Navy for the small remainder of his time is so moderate, that I flatter myself you will not be disinclined to obtain it for him at a juncture when able and willing men may be of use: even as a bargain you may perhaps deem it not a disadvantageous one for his Majesty's service. Thus I should think he might be of use in various ways and I do not see any in which he is likely to do mischief. I enquired into his case and saw people of great credit who were by no means favourably disposed to him and find him to have nothing of the robber, highwayman, housebreaker, pickpocket or thief: he was in fact, a swindler, but a regular sober one, trading upon his own bottom and I believe without accomplices, and laying up money in the funds, as I was informed by a man of character, who had received several sums in trust of him for that purpose, little suspecting the unlawful means by which it had been obtained. He professes repentance, and I do not see why it may not be true.

The information given by him in relation to the convicts was at my desire signified at a time when I had grounds for expecting that information of that kind might eventually be of use to me: the account of the sickness and of the alledged cruelty as far as I recollect came spontaneously, and if it be true surely not improperly, from him. If there be any truth in it, you will see the abuses that may exist without remedy under the management of a *good man,*

2 See letter 747, p. 239 above.

**<sup>891.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 383–4. Autograph draft. Docketed: '1793 Feb. 13 / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Nepean Whitehall / with Chapman's applications.'

for were he the best of men these things may happen without his knowledge: in a Panopticon, forgive me for saying, nothing of this sort could happen from the *worst.*

In justice to the man [his] application ought to have been forwarded to you much sooner: but it was kept first *for* Sir Charles Bunbury and afterwards *by* him: and the truth is that after so much reason as I have had to regret the having meddled with the subject, every step I feel myself called upon to take in relation to it is as irksome to me as hard labour to the idlest of the poor wretches I would have wished to serve.

#### I am, Dear Sir, etc.

It would be of infinite use to me, and I should conceive of not the least disservice to anybody, if you could have the goodness to inform me, (whether it is owing to mere want of time, or to a determination made in the negative that the matter remains in its present state) whether if at this or any future time application were made for a second audience which was spontaneously and repeatedly promised at the time of the first, there would in your opinion be any chance of its being granted.3

### 8921

### T <sup>o</sup> J o h n F o r <sup>b</sup> e s

#### 16 March 1793 (Aet 45)

Queen's Square Place Westminster March 16th 1793

Sir

 In addition to the distinguished part you bear in the affairs of Ireland, I know of no reason I can give for the liberty I am taking

**892.** <sup>1</sup> U.C. clxxiii: 2. Autograph. Docketed: 'Queen's Square Place Bentham.'

Addressed: 'Forbes Esqr m.p. / Dublin.' Postmark: 'MA.16.93.E.'

John Forbes (died 1797) was m.p. for Ratoath, 1776–83, and for Drogheda County and Town, 1783–96. He moved regularly for the exclusion of placemen from the Irish parliament and strongly supported Catholic emancipation.

<sup>3</sup> Above this draft postscript Bentham has a scored-out paragraph reading: 'P.S. I don't know whether it be worth while to mention, that rather than the Panopticon plan should not have a trial, I would sacrifice to it the garden that you saw, and erect a Panopticon in it, without requiring a penny till the day when everything was in readiness to receive the prisoners. Upon those terms, whatsoever may be the objections to it, pecuniary risk to government will hardly I believe be of the number.'

with you but the very slight acquaintance I had the honour of making with you at Bath and Lansdowne House. Should your notions happen to coincide with mine I make no doubt of your standing up against the mode of taxation threatened if the papers say true by Sir J.P.2 and remonstrated against on the inclosed sheet. I send another copy to my public-spirited friend Mr T. Law (brother of the Bishop) of whom as a visitor and an idle man I have begged the favour to take on him the charge of publishing and circulation. I should not have troubled you with this but for the uncertainty of his being still in Ireland.3 He would doubtless be happy to take any commands you might have in relation to the subject. You will be successively loaded with the remaining sheets, three at least, as the Printer tells me. Heads of argument Law- Taxes—1. To contributors a tax on distress. 2. To non-contributors a denial of justice. 3. To contributors ruined before judgement, denial of justice following tax upon distress. 4. Throw the burthen where there is least benefit—(*non-litigants* having *gratis* the *security* which the litigants pay for) 5. No check, but an encouragement to litigation— 6. Contrary to Magna Charta (Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus justitiam)4 7. Why resorted to notwithstanding, and acquiesced under.—

As a substitute for the tax in question and even as far as it goes for taxation in general, another unobserved resource presented itself to me a great many years ago, which I have half a mind to propose to Mr. Pitt, who to judge from the attention Mr Dundas and he are now at last bestowing on the Panopticon plan, may possibly not be indisposed to listen to it. I will not hazard the mention of it till the arguments in justification of it are in a

2 On 8 February 1793 Sir John Parnell proposed in the Irish House of Commons new taxes to raise £10,000, including 'a Tax of 6 per cent. on the entrance of Judgments' and a provision for 'Declarations and Replications in the courts to be raised to 6d. bills and answers the same' (*The Diary; or Woodfall's Register,* 16 February 1793, where the date is incorrectly given as 7 February).

<sup>3</sup> As a reply to Parnell's proposals it appears that Bentham was having printed in England material for a pamphlet, which was published in Ireland before the end of March under the title: *A Protest against Law Taxes, skewing the Peculiar Mischievousness of all such Impositions as add to the Expence of an Appeal to Justice,* 48 pp., Dublin, printed by P. Byrne, 1793. Thomas Law did not in fact take charge of the publication, probably because he returned to England during March (see letter 893, p. 423 below). According to Bowring it was Law's brother, the bishop of Killala, who got the pamphlet published in Ireland (see letter 894, n. 1). Forbes may, of course, have assisted.

<sup>4</sup> Part of clause 40 of Magna Carta: 'To no one will we sell, to no one deny justice'. The full reading, which somewhat alters the sense is: *Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus, rectum aut justitiam.*

condition to accompany it. Not improbably I may print them5 as the accompaniment [to] the present little tract.

On your next visit to this Island, I should be proud to wait on you at my house as above to testify the respect with which I have the honour to be Sir,

### Your most obedt and humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

Mr Forbes

### 8931

### F r o m T h o m <sup>a</sup> <sup>s</sup> L <sup>a</sup> <sup>w</sup>

#### 1 April 1793

#### Weymouth Street, 1st April, 1793.

Dear Sir,

 I am just favoured with your letter,2 and shall be most happy to read your publication.3 The Protestants in Ireland are most enraged at this Government for making them be just to the Roman Catholics.4 I am preparing a speech for Wednesday—this is the beginning. If you tell me it is nonsense I will burn it. We feel philanthropy, but have many obstacles to oppose. At what hour in the morning shall I wait upon you?

P.S.—I send you this immediately, that, if you please, you may invite him for to-morrow morning, and come to give instructions. Dumont dines here to-morrow. He wants your papers to resume his labours.

**893.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 291.

2 Missing; evidently the letter to Law mentioned in letter 892: it may 'just' have been received through having been first sent to Ireland.

<sup>5</sup> Evidently the material for *Supply without Burthen,* which Bentham did in fact publish, together with *A Protest against Law Taxes,* in an English edition, London, 1795, with a note 'Printed in 1793, and now first published'. The two pamphlets were reprinted in Bowring, ii, 573–83, 585–98.

<sup>3</sup> *A Protest against Law Taxes.* See letter 892, n. 3.

<sup>4</sup> Acting on instructions from William Pitt, official pressure was used by Lord Westmorland to get a Catholic Relief Act passed by the Irish parliament in April 1793

### 8941

### F r o m T h o m a s L a w

#### early April 1793

#### Weymouth Street, April, 1793.

Dear Sir,

 May the publication2 have all the good effects you wish it the benevolence and truth of your arguments ought to influence Ministers, but alterations are not easily caused. My India views are now the objects of delight to the mighty Dundas—he has been very candid and liberal—he acknowledges that he was not aware of the extent of the trade from Bengal carried on clandestinely—in short, Monopoly is giving way, and my *rising resources* are admitted. I expect 20,000 tons of sugar next year. How many manufacturers, merchants, seamen, ship-builders, and agents will be employed by these means! How India and Great Britain will be enriched!

### 8951

### T o B e n j <sup>a</sup> m i n V <sup>a</sup> u g h <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### 8 April 1793 (Aet 45)

#### Monday April 8th 1793

Along with my humble respects, I send Mrs. Vaughan2 half the mortal part of a little innocent, whose education was carried on under my own eye. His physical qualities are well spoken of by the learned: and in respect of moral qualities he was at least upon a par with those individuals of our own species who are the only ones that have a vested remainder in a certain kingdom,3 on which

**894.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 290–1. Introduced by the statement: 'The Bishop of Killala and Achonry (Law) was the instrument of publishing Bentham's book on Law Taxes in Ireland. His brother (Thomas) writes:'.

<sup>2</sup> *A Protest against Law Taxes*: see letter 892, n. 3.

**895.** <sup>1</sup> American Philosophical Society. Copy.

No clue to the subject of this letter appears elsewhere and one can only conjecture that Bentham was sending Mrs Vaughan half an animal, probably a lamb, slaughtered the previous evening.

2 Sarah, daughter of William Manning, a prosperous London merchant, married Benjamin Vaughan in 1781.

<sup>3</sup> Bentham is referring facetiously to the 'kingdom of heaven', comparing the slaughtered 'little innocent' to the 'little children' in the Authorized Version of the Bible: 'for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven' (Matthew, 19: 14; Mark, 10: 4); or possibly 'the poor in spirit' (Matthew, 5: 3).

you appear to set a value, before the sentence of proscription had been passed on Kings and Kingdoms. The immortal part began to wing its way yesterday evening about 6 o'clock. Q.S.P.

### 8961

### T <sup>o</sup> E va <sup>n</sup> N <sup>e</sup> <sup>p</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### 16 April 1793 (Aet 45)

 My business yesterday was, to dun you—not for your pudding as you might imagine, but for your pardon, for which I am myself dunned without mercy, as you might imagine... I will be responsible for Mr. Chapman's fidelity to the *Vestal*. . . I wonder how long the Honey-moon of a Minister lasts. Is there any Almanack that would tell one?

### 8971

### T <sup>o</sup> E va <sup>n</sup> N <sup>e</sup> <sup>p</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### *c.* 25 April 1793 (Aet 45)

 Mr. Bentham presents his Compliments to Mr. Nepean, and takes the liberty of submitting to him the present letter from Chapman the convict, which he has but just received, and which is the last of several on the same subject.2 He never gets my letters till several days after I send them by penny post.3 This looks as if

**896.** <sup>1</sup> Quotation in Francis Edwards Ltd Catalogue 971 (1973): *Autograph Letters and Manuscripts,* p. 10: '52 Bentham (Jeremy) autograph draft of <sup>a</sup> letter signed, 1 *page,* 4to, *Queen's Square Place, Westminster,* 16 April 1793 to Evan Nepean (later Governor of Bombay) a light hearted letter about a pardon for William Chapman, *lightly mounted down one edge, Bentham's autograph endorsement and revisions.'* The item was sold to a Japanese bookseller and bought by a customer in Japan, who has not been traced.

For previous correspondence concerning the convict see above, letters 747 and 891; Bentham contacted Nepean about Chapman again about 25 April (letter 897).

**897.** <sup>1</sup> P.R.O., H.O. 42/25, fo. 114. Autograph note, with a letter from William Chapman to William Browne, dated 19 April 1793, to which is appended another note by Bentham. Docketed: 'William Chapman'.

<sup>2</sup> The letter from Chapman is addressed to 'William Browne Esqr / Bedford Row / London.' It replies to one from Browne of the 15th and expresses anxiety about his pardon getting through in time for him to board the *Vestal*; he is equally willing to serve on the *Camel,* but adds: 'In respect of my Ld Hood I cannot think of giving you any further trouble upon that Head.'

<sup>3</sup> The letters from Bentham and Browne to Chapman are missing.

they were stopped to be opened, which for aught I know may be right and necessary.

J.B.4

### 8981

### T o B e n j <sup>a</sup> m i n V <sup>a</sup> u g h <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### 26 April 1793 (Aet 45)

#### Doctor's Court Friday April 26th 1793

The coffee you give forms so perfect a contrast with everything else one finds at your house, that I am scandalized at the thought of it. For the credit of your consistency I send you a machine, in which the best of all possible coffee has been made, in the judgement of the best Judges. I send indeed two, one to remain with you, if you will honor it with your acceptance. That not being as yet seasoned, nor consequently fit for us, I send another which when it has done its office for this *evening,* you will have the goodness to present in my name to my worthy friend and patron, whose dinner I am about to eat, your brother (W.V.)2

Proportions 3½ water (measured by coffee-cups) to one of coffee. By the benefit of this hint, consistent coffee may be drunk to the end of time: not to mention the faculty of heightening and lowering the strength of the infusion *secundum artem,* according to idiosyncrasy. Both coffee pot and machine should be previously heated with boiling water. Economists perform one colation; but if the coffee is once perfectly covered by the water, it is a question among the learned, whether what is gained in strength by this means, be not lost in delicacy.

To season the *new* machine, that is to drive away the scent of the *rosin* or what ever else that gives a smell is contained in the *solder,*

The spelling of some words by the copyist is probably not Bentham's.

<sup>4</sup> Appended to Chapman's letter is a second note by Bentham, viz. 'Mr Benjamin Vaughan, who has all along interested himself about this man, has given me a letter to Captain Hallowell of the Camel, who is his relation, and for whom he thinks he can answer. Were this opportunity to pass by I should have more Captains to hunt out, more letters to write etc. / J.B.'

**<sup>898.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> American Philosophical Society. Copy. No docket or address.

<sup>2</sup> William Vaughan (1752–1850), merchant and author, younger brother of Benjamin. He was a director, later governor, of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, a Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society, and a supporter of the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor; between 1793 and 1797 he published pamphlets advocating the construction of wet docks for the port of London.

what is in *tin* should be well boiled two or three times at the interval of a day or two, and the *flannel* or what ever else the *strainer* is made of, should likewise be boiled in coffee grounds.

This peace offering to Mrs. Vaughan. On my return I looked at your note, saw the hour, and shall never be able to see her face again.

The Colonel has a project, litteraly on the anvil, for furnishing your fire place in an unexampled manner. If experience will not satisfy you, take authority. The Duke of Dorset,3 having resided at Versailles so many years to no purpose, that is, not having been able to learn the art of coffee making to equal perfection in that ci-devant first of coffee making countries, sent a humble petition for one of our machines.

N.B. Coffee to be drinkable, must be made from Mochea. Your West India coffee is only fit for negroes. I had a promise of some coffee worthy of the machine, but the promise has not yet been fulfilled, otherwise you would have had coffee and machine together.

### 8991

### F r o m t h e M <sup>a</sup> r q u i s <sup>o</sup> <sup>f</sup> L <sup>a</sup> n s d o w n e

#### April 1793

 Mr. Bentham's Company at Dinner will satisfye some Ladys, that it was not his regarding them as Monsters but his being taken up with some profound meditation on the affairs of France or some such thing which Ld. L. assur'd them must be the case, which prevented him returning their Curtsie in the Park lately, and he will likewise see a pretty French Lady2 who speaks English very prettily, and has seen Mr. Pitt Mr. Fox and Mr. Grey,3 but

<sup>3</sup> John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745–99); educated at Westminster school; succeeded his uncle, 1769; he was Ambassador to France, 1783–9; Lord Steward of the royal household, 1789–99; an early patron of cricket.

**899.** <sup>1</sup> Yale University Library, Osborn Mss. Docketed: '1793 Apr / Ld L. Berkeley Sqr / Curtsey.'

The Sundays in that month were 7, 14, 21 and 28 April.

<sup>2</sup> Perhaps Adelaide de Filleul (1761–1831), whose first husband, the comte de Flahault, was guillotined during the Terror. Lord Wycombe had helped her to escape to England. Her second husband (1802) was José Maria de Souza-Botelho, for many years Portuguese ambassador in Paris. She wrote 'bad novels' (see Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3rd Baron Holland, *Memoirs of the Whig Party during my Time,* 2 vols., 1852, i, 19).

<sup>3</sup> Charles, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845), the future prime minister, at this time in the House of Commons supporting Fox against the Pitt government. He was m.p. for Northumberland 1786–1807, Appleby May–July 1807, and Tavistock July–November

cannot think of leaving England without seeing Mr. Bentham also.

Ld. L. is very much concern'd to hear that Col. Bentham's accident proves so serious,4 and so are the Ladys. Sunday Morng 8 o'clock

### 9001

### T <sup>o</sup> H e n r y D u n d <sup>a</sup> <sup>s</sup>

#### 20 May 1793 (Aet 45)

May 20th, 1793.

Sir,

Taking up in the country the newspapers of Saturday, I see the public service threatened with a resignation which has but too strong an appearance of being a speedy one.2 Fortunate as I had thought myself in the notice with which I understood the Panopticon proposal to have been honoured, permitt me to express the anxiety I cannot but feel at the apprehension of seeing it turned over into *any* other hands. The intimation I received some time ago that you had conceived a favourable opinion of my plan,3 that the discussion of it with me waited only for the first vacant day that could be found for it, and that the whole day (convivial hours

1807, when he succeeded to his father's earldom. He continued to urge parliamentary reform throughout the 1790s, first held office in the Grenville administration of 1806–7, and as prime minister 1830–4 carried through the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832.

<sup>4</sup> A letter from Bentham giving this information may be inferred: there is no other mention of an accident to his brother in the surviving correspondence of this time.

**900.** <sup>1</sup> P.R.O., H.O. 42/25, fo. 121. Autograph. Docketed: '20 May 1793 / M. Bentham/ R.21.'

A printed version is in Bowring, x, 292–3, but it differs in a few phrases and words from this final form and was perhaps based on a draft retained by Bentham.

2 Rumours that Dundas was about to give up the Home Office appeared in, for instance, the *Morning Chronicle,* 17 May 1793. That paper also reported the following day the debate of the 17th in the House of Commons on the India Bill, when Fox commented that Dundas had wide powers of patronage as a Secretary of State and as Treasurer of the Navy, in addition to being President of the Board of Control. Dundas replied that he had undertaken the first-mentioned office not by his own wishes but as a temporary arrangement from which he received no emoluments. Sheridan observed that he took this to imply that Dundas would soon be succeeded at the Home Office. The ministerial newspaper, *The True Briton,* of 21 May, denied the rumour, but the *Morning Chronicle* was still speculating on the subject on 31 May and 7 June. Dundas did not in fact give up the office until the end of June 1794.

<sup>3</sup> The Bowring version reads: 'The intimation I received some time ago, *that a determination had been made in its favour between you and Mr Pitt.'* Bowring italicised this passage, which was significantly omitted from the actual letter sent.

included) would be bestowed upon it, will I hope be considered as a sort of engagement to save me from the misfortune of so undesirable a change. Had that expectation been realised at an earlier period, I had thoughts of profiting by it to speak of another object of my ambition, which as it is I must take the liberty of stating to you in the compass of a letter, and therefore narrowly and imperfectly, lest the mention of it should come too late.

Meaning to get good payment for making others work, there is a line in which it would be matter of amusement to me to work hard in my own person, and that for nothing. The render of my humble services in that line may be considered as a tribute of acknowledgment, or the employment as an object of sollicitation, as you please.

The penmanship of the Statutes, I have observed, has every now and then become the subject of a dissatisfaction which has been repeatedly and publickly expressed. With what degree of justice is a question I never thought of proposing to myself with reference to the present or any particular conjuncture. Between twenty and thirty years have passed over my head, since the notion came across me, that the business of that department did not stand in general upon so good a footing as it might, nor as I flattered myself it might one day be in my power to place it on, were it to be intrusted to my charge. This, if a presumptuous, was no idle thought: for, how little soever may have been done by Nature, I question whether there be that man living in whom zeal and industry have been more assiduous in that line. The business of tracing out the several circumstances and contingencies for which provision may require to be made in the tenor of a law, is a business I have been so long used to travel over for my amusement and that in almost every possible direction, that the operations of it are become rather a mechanical process than a matter of study: so that though in any instance I should have the misfortune to find myself differ in opinion from those under whose authority I had to act, I should still have the satisfaction of doing so much for their accommodation, as to furnish them with as simple a stock of considerations in the way of precaution and objection and defence, as they would have curiosity to see or patience to attend to. The business too of weighing words and syllables is a business which has occupied as much attention on my part, as it can have occupied on the part of the most experienced Chancery Draughtsman or Special Pleader.

Something in the way of legislation may be deemed wanting for

*Hindostan.*<sup>4</sup> Divested of all local prejudices, but not the less sensible of their force, and of the necessity of respecting them, I could with the same facility turn my hand to the concerns of that distant country, as to those of the parish in which I live.

The books which I take the liberty of sending you as specimens, in addition to what you have seen already, you certainly will not read: but should it be thought worth while to dip into them with this particular view, they will be in readiness for the purpose. That on the *Judicial Establishment,* that on *Parliamentary Tacticks,* that on the *Emancipation* of the *French Colonies,*<sup>5</sup> and the just-printed one on *Law-Taxes,* remain for different reasons as yet unpublished. Some of them might lead you to take me for a Republican: if, I were, I would not dissemble it:—the fact is, that I am writing against even *Parliamentary Reform,* and that without any change of sentiment.

To make the trial of my services with the least risk and to the greatest advantage, the following is the course I would take the liberty to suggest.—Let a business of any kind, with such instructions as were thought necessary, be put into my hands: let the same business with the same instructions be put into the hands of any other person. Each having drawn his Bill, let the other be called upon to give his observations on it: but, that my comment might be the freer, my wish would be, that the person whose composition was the object of it, might remain unknown to me. In this way a very instructive experiment might I conceive be made, and that without any *eclat*: there would be no *placing* nor *displacing:* whoever is in possession of the emolument might continue so, and while that remained entire, any part of the duty would be the less missed. Indeed this is the only footing on which I could think of offering my services: for it is *accuracy* only and not *expedition* that I could undertake for:—the obligation of getting a given business dispatched by a given time, would, for some time at least, if not for ever, be too much for me.

My success in this line, should I be thought to have met with any, will have been the result, not of any incommunicable talent, but of a method which I should have little doubt of being able to transmitt to any young man of tolerable abilities who could find

<sup>4</sup> Bentham mentions Indian affairs, because Dundas was President of the Board of Control.

<sup>5</sup> First printed under the title: *J.B. to the National Convention of France* (London, R. Heward, 1793); published in 1830 as *Emancipate your Colonies! Addressed to the National Convention of France, anno 1793. Shewing the Uselessness and Mischievousness of Distant Dependencies to an European State.* Reprinted in Bowring, iv, 407–18.

adequate inducements for giving himself the trouble of attaining it. When I had brought the matter to this point, my object would have been accomplished. My reward would be, the satisfaction of having made improvement take root in so important a branch of science: that reward being already reaped and gone, then would be the time for the ordinary emolument, the Salary whatever it be, to revive for the benefit of my successors. Pupils are not wanting to the Conveyancer, to the Special Pleader, or to the Chancery Draughtsman: instruction in the superior line of Parliamentary penmanship would, I presume, be still less in danger of going a begging, if suitable encouragement were to be annext to it. The £600 a year which I have heard spoken of as the Salary, I must confess I do not look upon as any thing like adequate, so long as Salary is thought fit to be annext to Office. The situation ought to be, not a step *to,* but a step *above,* professional practice: superior talent ought not to be liable to be called off from so superior a publick duty by the petty concerns of private clients. Responsibility, and on that account official title and high dignity, with a Salary proportioned to the dignity, ought to accompany a function of so much real importance. Having divested myself of all interest, I speak without bias on the head of emolument, and therefore with the less reserve. I hope I speak clearly enough on that head not to be mistaken. What I *do* sollicit is the labour: what I could *not* so much as *accept,* were it ever so much pressed upon me, is the emolument or any part of it. I could easily shew you that the disclaimer is a necessary one, and not chargeable with either affectation or even oddity:—but I have already attempted but too much upon your time.

I have the honour to be, with all respect,

Sir

Your most obedient and humble Servant Jeremy Bentham.

Rt. Hon: Hy Dundas

### 9011

### T o S a m u e l B e n t h a m

#### *c.* 21 May 1793 (Aet 45)

You must not stay lounging there beyond this week. Next week Pitt and Dundas are to come to see Panopticon together: and nobody can say how soon in the week; for the whole-school-days end this week, and though they don't break up yet awhile, the next week and so on, will consist chiefly of half-holidays.2 If you don't come in time to make the Raree-show, I must turn you off, and take the jiggumbobs into my own hands. My fainting fits, at the thoughts of losing the dear body, are cured. I am assured distinctly that Panopticon would not be at all affected by it; but what is better, there is no danger of having anybody else to deal with; their myrmidons give out by authority that Dundas's exit is no nearer than it was when he came in; and that Pitt himself knows no more who is to be the successor than the Pope of Rome.3 They professedly keep the seals dangling in the air to catch renegadoes: if they would lend them me awhile, I would set them a-dancing at the end of a fishing-rod before the bedchamber window at a certain house.—Pounce would go the glass, as if the *citoyen* had been dashing at a mouse. Various of Pitt's friends, yea, manifold, I am told, have been at him with mallets, beating Panopticon into his head: your duke,4 I suppose, mediately, if not immediately, of the number. Nobody can be better known anywhere, I am positively assured, than your humble servant is, and always has been, in the cabinet,—sins and blasphemies of all sorts, of course, included: so much the better, as they don't seem to stand in the way of his salvation. What my enemies, if I have any, say of me, I am not told; but the account my friends give of me is, that I am *mad;* for which I make them a low bow; for *madness,* forsooth,

**901.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 291. Introductory note: 'Bentham writes thus gaily to his brother on the subject of Panopticon in May, 1793:'.

It would seem that this was sent after letter 900, as the rumours of 'Dundas's exit' had been contradicted on 21 May (see letter 900, n. 2).

<sup>2</sup> Parliament was not prorogued until 21 June 1793, but there was an adjournment for Whitsun, 18–21 May, and short sittings on many days in that month.

3 Dundas remained Home Secretary until early July 1794; his successor was the Duke of Portland, who led a substantial section of the Whigs into support of the Pitt administration.

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps the Duke of Dorset, who was friendly with the Benthams at this time. See letter 898, n. 3.

being interpreted, means *vartue:* this last offer seems to be regarded as an egregious instance. Chuckle-heads, who have been used all their lives long to see chess, and battledore, and shuttlecock played at for nothing,—can't bring themselves to conceive that anybody in his senses should be able to find amusement in a game that anybody has ever been paid for playing at. The offer, such as it is, seems to have come seasonably enough, and not to be in any great danger of being rejected. The deficiency seems to have been very generally felt, and openly enough recognised; and it was observed, that if nothing be gained, nothing can be lost by the experiment.

### 9021

### F r o m W i l l i <sup>a</sup> <sup>m</sup> M <sup>a</sup> i n w <sup>a</sup> r i n g

#### 29 May 1793

Hanover Square Wednesday Evening 29 May

My Dear Sir

 I am very unlucky in my Engagements. tomorrow is the County Day (as we term it) at the Sessions for Middlesex which obliges me to dine at the Sessions House with the Magistrates. I would else with great pleasure have dined with you and should have been very happy to have met the party you mention—

> I am Dear Sir very sincerely yours W. Mainwaring

**902.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 389–90. Docketed: '1793 May 29 / Mainwaring Hanover Sqre / to / J.B. Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'J. Bentham Esq. / Queen Square Place, Westr.'

Apparently a reply to a missing letter of invitation from Bentham. William Mainwaring (1735–1821) was m.p. for Middlesex, 1784–1802; he was chairman of Middlesex and Westminster quarter sessions, 1781–1816, and first prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas, 1768–94. A Pittite, he spoke little on major political issues, but his interests included the Westminster police and the transportation of convicts.

### 9031

### F r o m B e n j a m i n V a u g h a n

#### 4 June 1793

Will you forgive me?—Wilberforce came to me yesterday, to give me nearly carte blanche over a slave-bill,2 and then dined with me, and carried me to the House for that and Lambton's motion;3 but neither having place, I went back to read my packet letters, and superintend insurances to many thousand pounds amount. I could say much more; but come on Saturday se'ennight, and I will introduce you and your brother to M. de Narbonne.4 The Bishop of Autun5 also dines with me, with Grey,6 and perhaps Sheridan.7 —Yours affectionately

All well at Paris, 27th May, and plenty of corn in France.8

**903.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 293–4. Introductory note: 'On 4th June, there is the following, from Benjamin Vaughan to Bentham.'

<sup>2</sup> Following Wilberforce's motion of 22 May 1793 in the House of Commons for preventing the supply of foreign powers with slaves, a bill was introduced, but it was defeated on the third reading on 12 June by 31 votes to 29 (*Parliamentary History,* xxx, 949).

3 On Monday, 3 June, William Henry Lambton (1764–97), m.p. for Durham, stated in the House of Commons that he would not bring forward his motion concerning parliamentary reform, owing to the indisposition of Pitt. It was postponed until 10 June, but had not been debated by the time parliament was prorogued on the 21st (*Parliamentary Register,* 2nd ser., xxxv, 618–9; *The Senator, or Clarendon's Parliamentary Chronicle,* vii, 892).

<sup>4</sup> Count Louis de Narbonne-Lara, who was about to be expelled from Britain (see above, p. 388 n. 4).

<sup>5</sup> Talleyrand, who had been placed on the list of *émigrés* by the French government and stayed in England until January 1794, when he went to the United States of America; in 1796 he returned to France.

<sup>6</sup> Charles Grey (see above, p. 427 n. 3).

7 Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), the dramatist and m.p. He remained loyal to Fox over the French Revolution and became Treasurer of the Navy in the Ministry of All the Talents, 1806–7.

<sup>8</sup> France had been at war with Britain since February 1793 and the First Coalition against her had been formed.

### T o E va n N e p e a n

### 1 July 1793 (Aet 45)

Queen's Square Place Monday July 1 – 1793

Sir,

435

 Mr. Bowdler, (whom with scarce any previous introduction I found perfectly ready to do whatsoever depended upon him towards facilitating the business) informed me on Saturday2 of a fact which to those on whom the deciding on the Panopticon proposal and the providing a spot for the establishment depends, may perhaps appear not unworthy of their notice. After Islington and Limehouse had successively been rejected, a situation near Wandsworth was next proposed, and, on account of its too great vicinity to that Town, by which it was apprehended the inhabitants might conceive themselves aggrieved, objected to (I believe it was by some of the Judges) and on that account given up. The spot now in question was then afterwards proposed, under the idea of its standing clear of the objection which had been fatal to the former choice. The persons on a majority of whom the confirmation of the choice had been made to depend were 15: viz: the 12 Judges, the Chancellor, the Speaker and the Lord Mayor. Of these, 14 signed the certificate of approbation; it went without the signature of the 15th, not on account of his disapproving it, but merely on account of his not being then in the way, under which circumstance, in consideration of the unanimity of his colleagues, it was thought not worth while to delay the business for the sake of a signature which in point of legal efficacy was superfluous.—I have the honour to be,

#### Sir,

you most obedient and humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

Evan Nepean Esqr

**904.** <sup>1</sup> P.R.O. H.O. 42/26, fo. 162. Autograph. Docketed: 'Queen's Square Place 1 July 1793 / Jere: Bentham Esq / R the same day.'

2 Either in person on Saturday, 29 June, or in a letter, perhaps the one alluded to in letter 907, p. 437 below.

Draft in B.L. V: 391–2. Bentham's docket on the draft reads: '1793 July 1 / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Nepean Whitehall / Battersea rise approved / by 14–15.'

### 9051

### T o E va n N e p e a n

#### *c.* 26 July 1793 (Aet 45)

With respect to Mr. Pitt, if you have nothing to tell me, I have no motive for wishing to trouble you. But what I wish for extremely, and what I attempted in vain the two last times of my attendance, is to learn how matters stand about the papers from Chamberlayne2 and White.3 If you have anything to tell me on that subject, I will wait your leisure: but if not, I wish you would have the goodness to send me a verbal message to that effect into the room where I am waiting, whereby you would save me from spending my mornings /kicking my heels/ here. If there be the least probability that it would be of any use for me to stay in town tomorrow, tell me so, and so it shall be: but if not I would wish rather to be doing something in the country till the next chance comes, than nothing here.

### 9061

### F r o m E va <sup>n</sup> N <sup>e</sup> <sup>p</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### *c.* 26 July 1793

Dear Sir,

I wish you would take the trouble to call here for a few minutes

yr faithfully, Evan Nepean

#### Friday

**905.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 395. Autograph draft. Docketed: 'Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Nepean Whitehall / Further pressing for the papers / relative to the land from / Chamberlaine and White for the / purpose of ascertaining the parcels / and the proceedings with a view to the treaty with the Archbp of York and Earl Spencer.'

William Markham (1719–1807) had been Bentham's old headmaster at Westminster school, and became Archbishop of York in 1777. George John Spencer (1758–1834), 2nd Earl Spencer (1783), had moved over with the Duke of Portland to the support of Pitt; appointed First Lord of the Admiralty (1794) he greatly improved naval administration. His friendship with Samuel Bentham did not prevent him from opposing the Panopticon scheme, as subsequent correspondence shows.

<sup>2</sup> William Chamberlayne was Treasury Solicitor, 1775–94.

<sup>3</sup> Joseph White was assistant solicitor to the Treasury, 1781–94, and Treasury Solicitor, 1794–1806.

**906.** <sup>1</sup> Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Autograph. Docketed: 'July

### F r o m T h o m a s B o w d l e r 28 July 1793

Sir

437

 I cannot help thanking you with another letter2 to express the pleasure I have felt in reading the Work which you were so good as to give me. About Ten Years ago my thoughts were a good deal engaged on those subjects which have lately occupied Yours, but for some Years past I have paid little attention to them. Your Book has however brought me back to the Subject, and I assure You it is not Compliment, when I say, that I think you have thrown a great deal of light upon it. I was particularly pleased at finding so clearly stated in Your Book, the advantages of a Military Guard, and surrounding Wall completely detached from all buildings. These and some other points I have often debated with my friend Howard. The defects in the Penitentiary Act3 are certainly numerous. I have felt many of them, and tho in some few things I may perhaps think that you go too far, yet I assure you I think the Legislature in indebted to You for shewing so very clearly, how ill suited that Act is to the purpose for which it was intended. May I request the favour of You to oblige me still more by giving me the first Volume of Your Work, for you may recollect that it was only the second and the third which I received. I intend staying about ten Days longer in this place, a Stage Coach from the Golden Cross, Charing Cross, would convey it to me, and Thos Bowdler Esqr, Cowes, Isle of Wight would be a sufficient direction.

<sup>3</sup> The Act of 1779 (19 Geo. III c. 74).

Friday / Nepean Whitehall / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / Reced by J.B. at the office from Nepean himself / It was to tell me that Battersea Rise could not / be bought by Government, but that I must treat / for it myself.'

Addressed: 'Jere: Bentham Esq.', followed by the signature 'Evan Nepean', perhaps as a frank in case Bentham had gone home. This note may have been sent through to the room where Bentham was waiting for a reply to his plea in letter 905 for 'a verbal message': 26 July was the last Friday in the month.

**<sup>907.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 393–4. Autograph. Docketed: '1793 July 28 / Panopt / Bowdler Cowes / to / J.B. Q.S.P.'

<sup>2</sup> The previous one is missing. Bentham had proposed getting into touch with, Bowdler in September 1792 (see above, letter 867 and n. 3) and had either sent him the second and third volumes of *Panopticon* since then, or 'given' them to him in person on 29 June (see above, p. 435).

I beg my best Respects to Coll Bentham if he is still with you and remain

Your Most Obedt Humble Servt Thos Bowdler.

Cowes July 28th 1793

9081

### T <sup>o</sup> E va <sup>n</sup> N <sup>e</sup> <sup>p</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### 2 August 1793 (Aet 45)

#### Queens Square Place Aug. 2d 1793

Sir,

*I should be very glad to find that this has reached your hands before Mr. Pitt has been troubled on the subject.* I know of nothing that could warrant us in proclaiming on the part either of the *Archbishop* or of *Lord Spencer* any disposition to refuse a *full and adequate* price: and I know of nothing that can warrant *me* in endeavouring to obtain the estate at a farthing less. A price can hardly be termed *adequate,* if in addition to the present value of the

**908.** <sup>1</sup> P.R.O., H.O. 42/26, unnumbered fos. Autograph. No docket or address.

This letter is followed in the Home Office files (H.O. 42/26, fo. 10) by one from John Reeves to Evan Nepean, dated 5 August 1793, which reads: 'Dear Sir, / I have looked into the Penitentiary Act 19. Geo. 3 c. 74—and have particularly considered sect. 5—And it appears to me that Mr. Bentham's Proposal does not at all square with the design of the legislature. / It was certainly intended by the Parliament to provide for a public Institution to be regulated by Public Officers—such is the nature of the supervisors, and of the estate of the prison being invested in the Clerk of the Peace of the Home circuit. Mr. Bentham's on the other hand, is a private concern, and the very principle, upon which the activity and vigor of the design are to depend for motion, is that the prisoners and everything in the prison are his private concern. / I do not think Mr. B's plan can be carried into execution under the Authority of that Act. / I cannot, at the same time, refrain from expressing my regret, that a man with all the spirit, which he seems to possess, should be disabled from serving the Public. / I am, dear Sir, / Yours truely / John Reeves. / P.S. I should add, that I do not think the valuation that, it seems, has been made of the spot of ground, can be proceeded upon, so far as to make a purchase of it, without the Government being thereby pledged to build, and make their institution according to the plan of the Penitentiary Act.'

Attached to this letter is a folder marked 'Letters from M. Bentham', but it is empty: perhaps letter 908 was one of those in it formerly.

John Reeves (1752?–1829) had been Chief Justice of Newfoundland, 1791–2; he held a number of official appointments in England and became King's Printer, 1800; his *History of English Law,* 5 vols., 1783–1829, was for a time a standard work.

estate, considered as productive of its present rent, it does not contain something by way of allowance for what may be termed a *fancy* value, a value grounded on the notion of what an estate so circumstanced in point of situation might be expected to sell for at a future period, over and above the allowance to be made for the natural fall of money in a country where prosperity is so much on the increase. If the Proprietors sell at a price *less* than this, I think they may be said to sell at a *loss*: and it is an injustice into which I hope I shall never suffer myself to be betrayed, the seeking to make use of the powers of government: to procure myself a *gain* at the expense of another man's *loss.* The value found by the Jury was £6,600: the price offered by the *Supervisors* (as appears by Mr. White's Paper) £6,000: the price required by the late *Lord Spencer's Agent* (Mr. Parker, as Mr. White told me) £10,000. Mr. Parker evidently stood for what I call a *fancy* value: the value found by the Jury was, I take it, nothing more than what was considered as the *times price,* or at the utmost, as the *ordinary* price of an ordinary estate productive of so much rent. Though the present is certainly not the best of all *times* for selling land, yet it is as certainly a vast deal better than that at which Mr. Parker made his demand: for the present depression can not be considered as any thing but *temporary,* not to say momentary: and to the depression of that time (for it was at the close of the American war, and before any prospect of peace) no bounds were at that time visible. For my *own* part, if the *£10,000* would now be accepted, I should be extremely well content to give it. At so near a vicinity to the Metropolis and to the River, the land would for the purpose of a bulky manufacturing establishment of the kind in question be better worth £10,000 than an estate of equal quantity and rent at a distance might be worth £6,000. I state to you *my own* personal inducements, to account to you for *my own* offers: in a public point of view you certainly do not stand in need of any thing I can say to convince you how much depends in an institution of this sort upon the *vicinity* of the *public eye.*

It will occurr to you that neither the Archbishop nor the Earl could, though willing, dispose of their respective interests without the sanction of Parliament: but, supposing them willing, the Penitentiary Act is out of the question, and the business could be done either by a separate act in the nature of a private one, or by a clause in a public one, should any be thought fit to be passed for the general purpose of the establishment: in either case it would be a matter of course and in my humble conception so much so, as

not to leave the most scrupulous Minister any difficulty about acting on the presumption of it.

The sudden appearance of the difficulty did not leave me recollection enough at the instant, nor indeed *sang froid* enough till now, to view the matter in this light: if it had, so far from wishing you to trouble Mr Pitt to such a purpose, I should not have so much as consented to it; for independently of the regard due to the interests of the Proprietors, I am too sensible of the liberality that has been manifested towards me to consent that Ministry should take upon themselves any responsibility, of which the necessity could be superseded by any sacrifice which it could be in my power to make. I have the honour to be, with great respect, Sir,

> Your most obedient humble Servt Jeremy Bentham.

### 9091

### T <sup>o</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup> U n k n o w n C o r r e s <sup>p</sup> o n d e n t

#### *c*. 11 August 1793 (Aet 45)

 I have just seen Nepean. The Ministry are afraid to act under the Penitentiary act, but will bring in a bill to get me Battersea Rise next session; and, in the meantime, recommend it to me, to try what I can do, under these circumstances, towards getting it immediately by consent of the proprietors. I am this instant sitting down to try my eloquence upon them.

### 9101

### T o A <sup>r</sup> <sup>c</sup> <sup>h</sup> <sup>b</sup> i s h o <sup>p</sup> M <sup>a</sup> r k h <sup>a</sup> <sup>m</sup>

#### 11 August 1793 (Aet 45)

My Lord,

Three or four and thirty years ago the hand which now addresses you was not unknown to you. The occasion of its troubling

**909.** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 294. A quotation introduced by the observation: 'Bentham had his hopes excited almost as often as they were depressed, by the vicissitudes to which his Panopticon scheme was exposed. In a letter of August 1793, he writes:'.

The date would seem to be some days after the letter of 2 August (908), that is, after Nepean had been advised by Reeves that new legislation might be required.

**910.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 401–4. Autograph draft, with considerable crossing out. Docketed: '1793 Aug / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Archbishop of York / Bishops Thorpe / Letter 1.'

your Grace is as follows.2 It may perhaps be in recollection of your Grace, that in the month of Sept:r 1782 in virtue of the powers created by the Act of 19 G. 3 ch. 74 commonly called the Penitentiary Act a piece of land at Battersea-Rise wherein your Grace in right of your See and the late Earl Spencer3 were jointly interested, after great consideration was pitched upon to be purchased as the fittest possible for the site of the then intended Penitentiary Houses, the value assessed by a Jury at £6,600 and everything done towards the completion of the purchase, but the paying of the money, which was to have been issued by the Treasury. A joint invention of my Brothers and mine has enabled me to form a plan for carrying into execution the spirit of that Act, with alterations and additions4 which the gentlemen to whom the execution was at that time to have been committed have appeared in the light of improvements and the plan after having been mentioned in Parliament by Sir C. Bunbury has accordingly been honoured by the acceptance of Mr Pitt and Mr Dundas.5 The intention was accordingly to have issued the money at this time out of the Treasury, and to have taken possession of the land as a matter of course under the Act, and in execution of the Inquest of the Jury. It occurred to me however that as in the eleven years interval that has elapsed the national prosperity has received so happy an increase what was an adequate price then could scarcely be deemed so now.6 I accordingly declared to Administration my readiness to make up such /what/ supplemental compensation might be requisite at my own charge, and for that purpose requested that a sum proportionable might eventually be added to the advances that were to be made to me. The request together with a similar one for the benefit of the occupying tenants for whose

<sup>2</sup> These first two sentences are crossed out in the draft, but it would seem from the Archbishop's reply (letter 911) that the final version of the letter sent to him included some such passage referring to the fact that Bentham had been a boy at Westminster school when Dr William Markham was the headmaster (see *Correspondence,* i, 11 n. 2).

<sup>3</sup> John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer (1734–83).

<sup>4</sup> Marginal note by Bentham in pencil: 'The cost of building which when added to that of fitting out and stocking could have been not less than £250,000 is struck off at a stroke with almost half the present annual charge of maintenance.'

<sup>5</sup> Marginal insertion: 'Prisoners are to be maintained, the Buildings erected, and the Land paid for on my account, though the purchase money is to be advanced by Government in the first instance.'

<sup>6</sup> Marginal alternative wording: 'considering the increase of national prosperity, and the consequent diminution in the value of ready money, what was an adequate price then could scarcely, notwithstanding the present depression, be deemed so now'.

interests I could find no provision made in the Act was acceded to as soon as made: and the answer given was, that to save time the price originally found should be paid, and possession taken *instanter* but that for the benefit of the proprietors a new valuation should be made at any time if they desired it. When every thing was agreed on, and Articles on the point of being signed, doubts suggested themselves to Administration how far they would be warranted in this part of the design by the letter of the that Act: it was accordingly determined to avoid if possible the grounding any proceeding upon it, and instead of doing so, to bring in a special Bill for the purpose /occasion/, a measure which they have been pleased to indicate to me their determination of taking at the commencement of the next session, regretting that it was not taken before. Mr. Nepean accordingly in announcing to me that determination expressed his intention of waiting immediately upon your Lordship with a view of stating how much the public service was interested in the immediate acquisition of the ground before the forms of Parliament could be gone through with, and in requesting accordingly your Lordship's concurrence for that purpose. Upon my expressing my suspicion that your Grace's present residence was not within the limits of any excursion which it would be possible for him to make, he then desired that as the business must be done by writing, and the facts were more present to my mind than they could be to his, not to mention his own situation overwhelmed as it is but too visible with business, I would take that charge upon myself. It is to this circumstance that your Grace /Lordship/ owes the being addressed on this public occasion by an individual and inferior hand, which has not the honour to be known to you. To say that compliance would be a favour done to myself would be to rest the cause on a ground as unsuitable to its own dignity as to that of your Grace. The best I can hope for, but this much I may demand with confidence, is that the individual and every thing that concerns him may be altogether /put aside/ overlooked. I take the liberty of inclosing a copy of my proposal in the original form in which it obtained acceptance: of the specific articles that have been drawn up in consequence I have not a copy at present in my hands, nor indeed till this matter of the ground be adjusted can they be settled *in terminis* in every article. Of the book, in which the plan of management is developped and justified, a copy will also wait upon your Grace by the first conveyance. That it may be seen that the Penitentiary system in its present form is not disapproved of by the gentlemen by whom it was to have been carried into execution

in its original one, I enclose two letters, one from Sir C. Bunbury, the other from Mr. Bowdler:7 to show the unsollicited sentiments entertained of it by a worthy Judge, of the value of whose judgement no man can have had better opportunities of forming a due estimate than your Grace, I add a letter from Mr Francis Burton, in doing which under the impossibility at his distance of obtaining his consent in any time, I have taken a liberty for which I have no doubt of his forgiveness. These testimonials, my Lord, in addition to the suffrage of a Ministry who /could have found/ had nothing but their good opinion of the plan to bias them in its favour will I flatter myself leave little doubt in your Grace's mind that the public would be your Grace's debtor for the compliance which in the character of an Agent for the public I have taken upon me to sollicit. I am reduced to call in testimonials: for unless presump tuousness were to be desired the forming any thing like a /mature/ judgement of a plan of such extent amidst such a bulk of documents might require such a measure of delay as would be in effect a negative.

Should your Grace see reason to honour me with a compliance it would be a powerful assistance to the design, if you would have the goodness to give intimation of such compliance to Lord Spencer (who is now at Althorp) accompanied with any words of approbation which your Grace may think fit to add with a view of recommending the business to his notice. In conversation about a month ago when with Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas8 I told them that by means of some mechanical assistances, similar to some with which they saw me provided, I would not absolutely despair of being in readiness to receive my prisoners by the meeting of Parliament: in consequence they desired me to begin my arrangements immediately, though at that time nothing was signed nor so much as specifically settled: and now I am urged to engage to have the buildings in

8 Marginal substitution: 'honoured me with a call at my house, I was mentioning to them'.

<sup>7</sup> Insertion all round the edges of the draft in very small writing: 'who by a[n] exertion of magnanimity as honourable as it is rare have been led to embrace /not only/ a plan which not only fills up in another mode the situation they had accepted of but which, though directed to the same end, yet with respect to the means puts a negative /combats in almost/ every instance the ideas /regulations of the Statute/ which they had contrived and which they had undertaken to execute. As to the Supervisor who had taken no part respecting the acquisition of the ground when spoken to about it some months ago by my Brother he wished us success, but was too much out of heart at the thought of the former disappointment to set his mind to it anew or even to suffer himself to believe that Administration would ever realise the hopes /expectations/ they had then given us'.

readiness in six months under a penalty of five thousand pounds.9 Nine hundred was the number /of prisoners to be 〈provided for under the Act〉: <sup>10</sup> I am to receive a thousand. This will help your Grace to conceive how material in a season which will soon be imminent a single day may be. I have the honour to be

> with all respect and veneration My Lord, Your Grace's most obedient and humble servant.

P.S. Your Grace will have the goodness to return the letters at your leisure. Any commands your Grace may have for me in relation to this subject may be addressed either to me at my own House as above, or to Mr Nepean or to me sealed or open under cover to Mr Nepean.

### 9111

#### 13 August 1793

### F r o m A <sup>r</sup> <sup>c</sup> <sup>h</sup> <sup>b</sup> i s h o <sup>p</sup> M <sup>a</sup> r k h <sup>a</sup> <sup>m</sup>

#### Bishopthorpe Aug. 13. 1793

Dear Sir,

 I venture to address you in these terms, as I can assure you with truth that I have a pleasurable recollection of our former connexion. I very well remember your early scholarship and talents, and am very glad that the public is likely to derive from them a substantial benefit.2

I have a very imperfect remembrance of the act which was passed eleven years since upon the design of a penitentiary House but I have always understood that it was not well considered, nor am I correctly informed upon what grounds the business was suspended, any more than that the expence was terrifying. You are aware that the choice of Battersea Rise, for the situation, presents some

<sup>9</sup> Marginal addition: 'Four years was the shortest time looked for in the previous plan. Five years was the shortest time looked to' 〈for the completion of the business under the Act〉. The phrase in brackets is crossed out in the draft, but something like it would have been required in the final version to make sense.

<sup>10</sup> The phrase in brackets is crossed out in the draft, but something like it must have gone in.

**<sup>911.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 405–6. Autograph. Docketed: '1793 Aug 13 / Panopt / Archbp of York Bishopthorpe / to / J.B. Q.S.P.'

<sup>2</sup> For Bentham's relations with Dr Markham when he was at Westminster school, see especially *Correspondence,* i, 11 n. 2 and Bowring, x, 26–7.

difficulties; such however as are surmountable. The interests of many are to be adjusted. The Arch B. of York, the See of York, Lord Spencer the Lessee, and his under-tenants, have their several claims. In the share of this business which falls to me, you shall meet with no obstructions, both from the dutifull attention which I owe to the public service, and my particular regard, as far as it can be shewn, to you.

I will confess to you, that to my understanding, the undertaking appears to be vast—at the same time it would be unjust to suspect, that you are not perfectly master of a subject to which you have given so much consideration and indeed I can more than presume it from the zeal and the confidence which appear in the whole complexion of your thoughts, but however laudable that zeal is, I am afraid it may have betrayed you into a carelessness of your own interests, particularly in subjecting your self to unnecessary penalties, which it would be unfair in government to exact, unless the failure is attended by some criminality.

I shall write to Lord Spencer by this day's post.

If your Brother is still in England I beg leave to offer by best compliments to him, and wish you to believe me

> Dear Sir your most faithfull and obedient servant W. Ebor

### 9121

### T <sup>o</sup> E <sup>a</sup> r l S <sup>p</sup> e n <sup>c</sup> e r

#### 13 August 1793 (Aet 45)

13 Aug 1793 Queen's Square Place Westmr Aug 13th 1793.

My Lord,

 It may perhaps be in the recollection of your Lordship, that in the month of Sept:r 1782, in virtue of the Statute 19th Geo: 3.

There is a draft of the letter in B.L. V: 396–400. It is headed: 'Mr. Bentham to Earl Spencer—Letter 1. Brouillon.'

**<sup>912</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Spencer Mss., Althorp, 2nd Earl Misc. Box 12. Autograph. Docketed: 'Mr. Jeremy Bentham / Rd 14 Aug. 1793 / Ansd.' An enclosure in a copyist's hand is headed: 'Proposal for a new and less expensive mode of employing and reforming Convicts.'

ch. 74, commonly called the *Penitentiary Act,* a piece of land at Battersea-Rise, wherein the late Earl your father and the Archbishop of York in right of his See were jointly interested, was, after great consideration pitched upon as the fittest possible to be purchased for the site of the then intended Penitentiary-Houses, the value assessed by a Jury at £6,600, and everything done towards the completion of the purchase, and the paying of the money, which was to have been issued out of the Treasury. The documents, communicated to me by the Sollicitor of the Treasury, lie before me. The Penitentiary system was a subject to which I had turned my thoughts as early as Howard, or, I believe, any body whom he has left behind, and at length some new ideas in Architecture have enabled me to form a plan for carrying into execution the spirit of that system, with some alterations and additions, which in the eyes of his Majesty's Ministers, as well as of the gentlemen to whom the execution of it was at that time to have been committed, have appeared in the light of improvements: and the plan, after having been mentioned in Parliament by Sir. C. Bunbury, has been honoured by the acceptance of Mr Pitt and Mr Dundas. The cost of *building* which when added to that of *fitting up* and *stocking,* could not on the former plan, have been set at less than £250,000, is upon the present plan struck off at a stroke, together with almost half the present annual disbursement for maintenance. The Prisoners are to be maintained, the Buildings erected and the Land paid for, on my account, though the purchase money is to be advanced by Government in the first instance. The intention was accordingly to have issued the money immediately out of the Treasury, and to have taken possession of the Land as a matter of course, under that Act, and in execution of the Inquest of the Jury. It occurred to me however, that considering the increase of national prosperity, and consequent diminution in the value of ready money, what was an adequate price *then,* could scarcely, notwithstanding the present depression, be deemed so now. I accordingly declared to Administration my readiness to make up what supplemental compensation might be deemed equitable, at my own charge, and for that purpose requested that a proportionable sum might eventually be added to the advances to be made to me. The request, (together with a similar one for the benefit of the occupying Tenants, for whose interests I could find no provision made in the Act) was acceded to as soon as made: and the answer given was, that to save time the price originally fixed by the Jury should be paid, and possession taken

*instanter,* but that, for the benefit of the Proprietors, a new valuation should be made at any time, if they desired it.

When everything was agreed upon, and Articles in form on the point of being signed, doubts suggested themselves to Administration, how far they could be warranted in this part of the design, by the letter of that Act: and it was accordingly determined to avoid if possible the grounding any proceeding upon it, and instead of doing so, to bring in a special Bill for the occasion: a measure which they have been pleased to intimate to me their determination of taking at the very commencement of the next Session, regretting that it was not taken in the last. *Mr. Nepean* accordingly in announcing to me that determination expressed his intention of waiting immediately upon your Lordship (as well as the Archbishop) with a view of stating how much the public service was interested in the immediate acquisition of the Ground, before the forms of Parliament could be gone through with, and in requesting accordingly your Lordship's concurrence for that purpose. Upon my expressing my suspicion that your Lordships present residence might not be within the limits of any excursion which it would be possible for him to make, he then desired that as the business must be done by writing, and the circumstances were more present to my mind then they could be to his (not to mention his own situation, overwhelmed as was but too visible, with business) I would take that charge upon myself. It is to this circumstance that your Lordship owes the being addressed on this public occasion by a private hand, which has not the honour to be known to you.

Under this disadvantage, though it was impossible for me to decline a business which is so much my own, I could not but feel no small degree of embarrassment. The compliance I am thus reduced to the necessity of requesting is a favour, a very essential and valuable favour, but to which in my personal capacity I cannot make the smallest title. With regard indeed to the passing of a Bill so supported and so much in course, a Bill which subjects the Proprietors to no obligation, to which they have not already been subjected under the former Act, and of which the effect is confined to the alteration of a circumstance altogether foreign to their interests, it would be affectation in me to express any doubts of what would be done by Parliament, or to pretend to suppose that any concurrence on the part of individuals could be looked upon as necessary. But with respect to the immediate possession, which is the object of the liberty I have presumed to take, we are altogether in the hands of your Lordship and his Grace. Even here, were the

public alone concerned, it would be injustice to your Lordship's personal character, not less than to your public and exalted station, to presume anything like hesitation on your part. But, the fact is, and it would be equally disingenuous and fruitless for me to attempt to dissemble it, that between the interest of the public and my own personal interest, there is on the present occasion (what it has been my study to effect throughout) an inseparable connection insomuch that to avoid the prejudice that would result from the delay, and to obtain the advantages that would accrue from the gaining so much time, I may be well called upon and am perfectly well content, to pay—for example to the amount of four hundred pound—provided I could have possession before the week were at an end: which sum, being added to the originally-assessed price of £6,600, would make £7,000: and this to be paid on taking possession over and above whatever sum may be awarded in the nature of a supplemental compensation, the estimate to be made, either by a Jury or by private reference in the usual mode, at the option of the Proprietors, and in either case to be dispatched with every degree of expedition that depended upon me.

About a month ago, one day when Mr Pitt and Mr Dundas were honouring me with a call at my house, I happened to let drop in conversation, that by means of some mechanical assistances, similar to some to the use of which they had been witnesses, I would not absolutely despair of being in readiness to receive my Prisoners by the meeting of Parliament:—in consequence they desired me to begin my arrangements immediately, though at that time nothing was signed nor so much as specifically settled: and now I am urged to have the buildings in readiness in *six months,* under a penalty of five thousand pounds. *Five years* was the shortest time looked to under the former plan: *nine hundred,* the number of the Prisoners:—I am to receive *a thousand.* This will help your Lordship to conceive, how material, at a season which will soon be precarious, a single day may be.

The putting the matter upon the footing of a fresh valuation, a mode of considering it, which supersedes the necessity of recurring to the present rent, or to any other particular circumstances that may have an influence upon the value, will I should humbly presume, supersede thereby the necessity on the part of your Lordship of any *previous* reference to any Steward or Law-Agent, a measure scarcely compatible with the degree of dispatch I am obliged to sue for: and it is this consideration that with-holds me from making the offer of any specific sum a liberty I might other-

wise have hazarded, though under the ignorance I am in with respect to the rental and other circumstances, it could not have been other than a very random cost.

Whether the estate be in settlement or no makes no sort of difference. In either case your Lordship is equally competent to give present possession, which is all that is at present wanted: for in short a simple acquiescence until the Act can be passed would answer every purpose: and in either case an Act of Parliament will be equally necessary, both on account of the interest of the Archbishop, and to take the Land out of the hands of the subsisting Act.

I wrote by a former post to his Grace, as being at the greatest distance: more copiously as to some points, less so as to others, as having the honour to be not absolutely unknown to him. To him I inclosed some papers expressive of the concurrence of the originally appointed Supervisors: a concurrence which, as far as Sir C. Bunbury was concerned, had indeed already been expressed in the House of Commons. My original Proposal, if I can get a copy ready time enough, shall wait upon your Lordship by the next post, if not by the present, together with a printed but unpublished book in which the principles whereon the plan is grounded are developped at large. I have the honour to be, with all respect,

> My Lord, Your Lordships most obedient and humble Servant Jeremy Bentham.

P.S. Any commands your Lordship may have for me in relation to this business may be addressed either to me as above, or to Mr Nepean alone, or to me, sealed or open under cover to Mr Nepean.

I send a copy to the Archbishop.

Rt. Hon. Earl Spencer.

### F r o m E a r l S p e n c e r

#### 15 August 1793

#### Letter I. Copy

Althorpe 15 Aug. 1793.

Sir

450

 I am to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th instant; and in answer to it must first observe that, circumstanced as I am with respect to that part of my estate at Battersea to which (though very imperfectly acquainted with the proceedings you allude to in the year 1782) I conceive your attention to be directed, it will be impossible for me to give any decisive answer on this subject without being first informed of the sentiments and inclinations of the Archbishop of York upon it, and even should they be favourable to the undertaking, I must absolutely decline proceeding in the very precipitate manner you propose, because I apprehend that the very possession you want is not in my power to grant, part of the land being (I believe) out on Lease.2

I should undoubtedly be very unwilling that any scheme of real public utility, or even that the interests of a person who has had the merit of projecting such a scheme should appear to be obstructed by any objections unnecessarily persisted in on my part, but I can hardly conceive it possible that you can really be subjected to a penalty for not doing what seems to be absolutely impracticable without the authority of Parliament, and your proposal is of such magnitude, and may eventually have such important effects on all the rest of my property, and on the situations of all my tenants in the neighbourhood, that I am persuaded you can not think me unreasonable in refusing to accede to it *instanter,* without being much better informed on the subject than I now am. I am, Sir,

> Your very obedient humble servant Spencer.

**913.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 409–10. Copy in Bentham's hand. Docketed: 'Panopt / Ld Spencer Althorpe / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / Copy / Letters 1 and 2 / 1793 Aug. 15 and 27.' (The docket covers letter 918 as well as 913.)

There is a draft of this letter in the Spencer Mss., Althorp, 2nd Earl Misc. Box 12. It varies in a few phrases from the final version.

<sup>2</sup> The draft at Althorp has added at this point: 'by me to several Tenants on different Terms'.

### T o A r c h b i s h o p M a r k h a m

#### 15 August 1793 (Aet 45)

#### Queens Square Place Aug. 15. 1793

My Lord,

451

 I owe your Grace my earliest and most grateful acknowledgements for the honour of your letter: the very first words of it were sufficient /enough/ to call forth all my sensibility. This will I hope have been preceeded by a copy of mine /my letter/ to Ld Spencer. I was so sure of your Grace, that I would not send it /the original/ off till the time by which I calculated it would meet with /according to my calculation would afford it/ the support I promised myself. Your Grace seems to wish /express a curiosity/ with regard to the cause that *suspended* the execution of the original plan: it was precisely the terrific aspect of the expense: this at least was the reason and the only reason assigned to me in conversation with the Marquis of Lansdown several years ago: I remember his very words. 'We talked the matter over fully one day, Ld Sydney and I at this table, he sitting where you do now; and we agreed the country could not bear it.' So far the Marquis; who at the time he spoke of was at the head of the Treasury and Lord Sydney2 Secretary of State. But though suspended the plan was never given up; for in the year 1784 a Committee of the House of Commons made a Report in which the resumption of it was recommended: and not above a twelvemonth I think it was before my proposal in its first shape was sent to Mr. Pitt, that the late Mr Blackburn the Architect was sent for by him and had a long audience of him on the subject, as also of Ld Thurlow,3 as Blackburn himself told me.

The apprehension your Grace is pleased to express with regard the clause of indemnification relative to subsequent offences are not peculiar to your Grace: Administration struck it out: objected also to the Article of life insurance, the latter I kept in by reason, and the other by main force; but the risk /obligation/ is lessened /somewhat lightened/ by modifications which I flatter myself will

**<sup>914.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 407–8. Autograph rough draft. Docketed: '1793 Aug. 15 / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Archbishop of York / Bishops Thorpe / Letter II.'

<sup>2</sup> Thomas Townshend (1733–1800), created Baron Sydney in 1783.

<sup>3</sup> Edward Thurlow (1731–1806), Baron Thurlow, had been Lord Chancellor 1778– April 1783 and again from December 1783 until June 1792, when Pitt compelled him to retire.

not impair the spirit of it. There were no contests but of this kind. Your Grace's kindness however need not be under any apprehension on my score. Dexterity and Good will being rendered equally unnecessary by my Brother's mechanical contrivances, my Prisoners will be Joiners, Cabinet-Makers, Wheel-wrights, Musical- Instrument makers, makers in short of almost everything that is made in wood. The gain it is true might have been made greater, indeed much greater, by substituting a steam engine: but I shall at least be secure against loss. We have nothing to apprehend, but from the dangers which Arkwright's inventions had to struggle with in their infancy;4 I mean riots: but against them too we are prepared. My Brother whom your Grace is so kind to enquire after is still in England, indeed I cannot part with him: he has been absent above a week on an expedition of business to Birmingham Sheffield and Manchester from whence I expect him home in a few days. We shall humbly hope, upon your Grace's return to this neighbourhood for the honour of shewing you besides what Mr Pitt and Mr Dundas saw, models of the Panopticon, Wheels made with less expence of skill than pins, and by a train of operations equally diversified. Wheels were chosen to begin with, as exercising the greatest variety of contrivance. To every thing of this sort I am but the fly upon the wheel: and though I was a sort of an architect, as your Grace may see in the book which I hope you have received it was only through necessity, for as soon as he came to England, I was glad to resign the rule to better hands.

The difference between the two letters will shew /the justice I did to/ how well I knew your Grace's motives, and how studious I was not to hazard my cause, by applying to any other.

<sup>4</sup> A reference to the troubles of Sir Richard Arkwright (1732–92), the inventor of the spinning-frame and other devices; his mill at Chorley was destroyed by a mob in 1779 and his patents were cancelled in 1785, as they were held to restrict unduly rival manufacturers.

### 9151

### T o E a r l S p e n c e r

#### 16 August 1793 (Aet 45)

#### Mr Bentham to Earl Spencer Letter 2d Copy.

Queen's Square Place Westmr Aug. 16 1793

My Lord,

 If your Lordship will have the goodness to cast a second glance upon my letter, you will perceive that the *Articles* in which the penalty was proposed to be inserted are there spoken of as not signed, it could not therefore have been any part of my meaning to represent myself as actually exposed to any such penalty: my meaning was simply to convey to your Lordship an idea of the importance attached by Administration to that degree of dispatch, which it was not less my own wish to effectuate.

Your Lordship's politeness does me no more than justice in being assured that I can not deem unreasonable on your Lordship's part a refusal to accede to any such proposal *instanter* under the circumstances your Lordship is pleased to mention: in what degree the particulars of the business might be present to your Lordship's mind, was a matter of accident altogether out of my knowledge, and in respect of which I could do no otherwise than take my chance.

No doubt but that the effect of such an alienation upon the Value of the rest of your Lordship's property in that neighbourhood is an object that has as strong a claim to consideration as the amount of the price obtainable for that particular part: nor should I be at all surprised if that effect should at first blush be apprehended to be prejudicial. For my own part I have no such apprehensions: nor will your Lordship, I hope when the particulars of the plan, as far as this question is concerned have been more fully laid before you. The *persons* of the prisoners will be altogether out of sight, not only of any house at present existing, but of any house

**<sup>915</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 411–18, 419–23. Fair copies, not in Bentham's hand. There are drafts, partly autograph, in 424–31, 432–52. Docketed: '1793 Aug. 16 / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to Earl Spencer / Letter 2d.'

A substantial part of the letter is printed in Bowring, xi, 107–12, beginning 'No doubt but the effect of such an alienation' and ending 'as Blackburn himself told me'. Several paragraphs in the middle are also omitted by Bowring.

that can ever be built upon any other part of your Lordship's estate. The whole Thousand will be inclosed in a single *building* of 140 foot diameter; that building, so far from being an eye-sore, will, I hope I may venture to say, be an ornament to the neighbourhood: not less than the Rotunda at Ranelagh is, to which it will have a considerable degree of resemblance. It will be compleatly inclosed by walls, with Guard-Houses on the outside, occupied by Guards, who by the height of their situation will be enabled to observe not only what is doing within, but what is doing without, to a considerable distance: who of course can be sent to, or even called to, at a much greater distance than the situation of the ground and other objects may in every instance admitt of their commanding with their eye: and who of course will have orders to lend their aid at all times, and during the night-time more especially, to put a stop to any misdemeanour that may be attempted within the circle of their cognizance, and to apprehend the authors: I say, during the *night-time:* for the plan of management requires the walling to be well lighted all round without as well as within. The Neighbourhood therefore, being watched and guarded and even in some degree lighted at the expense of the establishment, will, instead of suffering in point of security, be greatly benefited. On the other side of each of the two roads which bound the premises on the East and on the West, the land, I observe, is occupied by Gardeners, whose grounds as such, being inclosed by walls, must at present be in a considerable degree exposed to depredation. These grounds would receive an immediate benefit by the protection afforded them by the Watch houses.

I take the liberty of inclosing two sketches, which I happen to have by me: the more finished one gives a general idea of the plan of the building in its present shape: the rough one will serve to exhibit the intended proportion according to a more recent determination, together with a new contrivance for indicating the hour to the Neighbourhood all round at a greater distance than can be done by any dial-plate or number of dial-plates.

As to the system of *guarding* and the intended position of the Watch-houses, the plate No 3, accompanying the book which I hope Your Lordship has received, will represent it with sufficient accuracy for the present purpose.

To the protection of an armed force, I think I may venture to add as an accession to the Neighbourhood, the authority of a Magistrate ready at all times, and at all hours to direct its application. Though I am not at present in the commission of the Peace,

yet having been bred to the bar, and having succeeded about 1½ year ago to the estate of my late Father, who was in the Commission for two Counties, I may without much presumption suppose it not unlikely that if I thought fit (and in such a situation I should think fit) to have my Name inserted for Surry it would not be rejected, and in that case, and in that situation, I may leave it to your Lordship to judge whether the Neighbourhood would be likely to find me negligent of their service.

Before I quit the subject of security give me leave to assure your Lordship, that any further measures, which might suggest themselves to your Lordship in this view, would not find me backward in adopting them, nor is it a small expence that would prevent me.

So much with regard to *security*—Is the establishment likely to present anything disgustful or unpleasant to the Neighbourhood?— Your Lordship may soon judge. Adopting in their fullest energy the ideas of Howard with regard to the importance of publicity, it is part of my plan, as your Lordship may have observed, and indeed the main pillar of it, to give the establishment such a face as may attract to it persons of all classes, but particularly of the superior ranks of life, whose inspection as such would afford the most powerful check to mismanagement: on Sunday in particular it would be my endeavour to render it, by means of the Chapel which is inclosed in the center of the building, a sort of place of public entertainment suitable to the day, like that afforded by the Magdalen,2 and the Asylum.3 Your Lordship will judge how far it would be possible to carry on any such plan, if the establishment or anything belonging to it ever suffered to be in the smallest particular an object of disgust.

It is in that view, as well as in the view of making the residence to which I have doomed myself the more comfortable, that I should make a point of giving to the place considered at large what embellishment it may be susceptible of: nor does it appear to me that it would be a departure from the true spirit of the institution, if while, with reference to the class of persons for whose correction it is designed, it is seen to have the properties of a prison

<sup>2</sup> Probably a reference to the Magdalen House 'for the reception of penitent prostitutes' founded in 1758 and at this time in a large building erected in 1769 in St George's Fields, Southwark (B. Lambert, *History and Survey of London,* 4 vols., 1806, iii, 174–7).

<sup>3</sup> Probably referring to the Asylum for Female Orphans and other girls under 12 founded by Sir John Fielding and other gentlemen in 1758 and housed near the crossroads from Westminster Bridge and St George's Fields (B. Lambert, op. cit., iv, 155–7).

and an establishment for forced labour, to the Neighbourhood and to passengers it should wear the aspect of a *ferme ornée.*

Allow me here to represent to your Lordship, how much reason the neighbourhood will have to rejoice at the change of plan which in the room of three men of rank, subject to no controul but what has reference to the prosperity of the establishment itself, and they not resident, substitutes a single individual like myself. By an article which I took care to insert, I am subjected, as your Lordship may have observed, to be removed or censured by the Court of Kings Bench in a most summary way, at a minute's warning: and by the terms of that article, should I ever recede from any of my engagements, whether as to those points in which the neighbourhood as such wou'd be interested or any other, there is not that individual so obscure, who might not make his appearance in court, in person and without any expense and face to face call me to account for the failure.

But along with the good company (it may be supposed) may come *bad:* and will come, were it only to visit their friends in durance.—No such thing, my Lord.—*See* them they may indeed, but not hold the smallest converse with them, unless I please: such is the construction of the building. No man who does not come decently clad, will be admitted: every man will be liable to be searched, were it only that he may not conceal any instruments of hostility or escape: every man will be liable to be questioned as well as searched, if I or mine see cause: nor can any man at all get in without presenting himself to his examiners. To the Officers of the Police the establishment will be open of course, and thither they will come at times not foreknown, if there be any prospect of prey, while to a malefactor, who is once within my gates, escape will be impossible—Under these circumstances will a man whose conscience accuses him of a crime come and plunge into the net?—Impossible —He has everything to fear, he has nothing to gain by it. In Newgate and other Prisons upon the common footing, containing criminals as yet untried, men of similar characters cannot be excluded, because before trial no man can be precluded from concerting his defence with whosoever may present themselves in the character of his friends: neither can they be subjected [to] examination in the way of questioning because such examination could be inconsistent with the freedom of admission which is deemed essential to that purpose.—No, my Lord—the last place in which a felon at large will think of trusting himself of his own accord, will be my Penitentiary House.

Allow me here to mention a circumstance which in this point of view may perhaps appear to your Lordship tolerably conclusive. If, setting aside the contrivance of the Plan, one man more than another should be supposed to have a just view of the probable effects in this as well as other particulars, it should be Mr Nepean, who has had so much occasion to consider it. T'other day in conversation, *'I want a little bit of ground* (says he) *in the country, within reach of London to build a house upon:—do you happen to know of any such thing? Yes, says I, I do: there is a board up advertising ground to be let on a building lease, close to the premises, just on the other side of one of the roads that bounds them.—oh—is there?* (says he) *then I will go and look at it; its just the spot for me—its vicinity to the Panopticon would be a recommendation to me.*

No wonder indeed if people enough should be found, who hearing that police want to come *among* them, as report might say, that it is at no great distance, and knowing nothing as yet of those circumstances of the Plan which would render that vicinity an advantage instead of prejudice should be more or less alarm'd at it: nor, considering the differences of men's tempers and casts of character, is it possible to say, that there should be no body who, even after hearing everything that could be urged to dispel such apprehensions, might remain dissatisfied. But in estimating the effects of the measure upon the value of your Lordship's estate, the true question is, as your Lordship's discernment will, I make no doubt, acknowledge, not what may be the notions of a few individuals for a moment, and before the true nature and effects of it can have been known, but what will be the sentiments and feelings of the public in general, after those effects have been indicated by experience. In proportion therefore as I may have succeeded in dispelling any apprehensions that may have presented themselves to your Lordship at a first glance, previous to a knowledge of the circumstances, in proportion I shall have succeeded in rendering your Lordship indifferent to what may be the apprehensions of the neighbourhood or any body else, under the same disadvantage. Will any such apprehensions, supposing them formed, have any duration? No, my Lord,—So far from flying from the spot, Builders will flock to it, were it only for the benefit of the protection afforded by the Guard.

But let me admit, for argument's sake (and it is only for argument's sake) that the neighbourhood and even the *value* of *your* Lordship's *estate* would ultimately be rather prejudiced than served by the establishment—will your Lordship's candour allow me to

enquire, whether, under the particular circumstances of the case, that would be a just motive for opposition or present to a person in your Lordship's situation a probable prospect of opposing with success.

The materials for judging have in some particulars not presented themselves yet to your Lordship's view: allow me to perform that office.

Publicity, as I have already observed, is of the very essence of the institution: it is with a special care to that advantage, that the spot in question was made choice of. And by whom made choice of? Not by the supervisors only, but by the most respectable and competent body that could be devised: a body composed of the twelve Judges, with the addition of the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker and the first Magistrate of the Metropolis: of these 15, 14 (as Mr. Bowdler one of the appointed supervisors informed me) or at least 13 actually signed the instrument of approbation: and if it went without the signature of the other or the two others, it was —not because after so great a majority the person or persons in question not being on the spot, it was thought not worth while to delay the measure for the sake of adding their signatures to the rest.

Another circumstance may in this view be very material for your Lordship's consideration. Before this place occurred, (not to mention two that are not to the present purpose) another had been made choice of: viz: a spot much nearer Wandsworth, and so near, that its vicinity, and the disgust that the Inhabitants conceived on that account (your Lordship will remember the plan then in contemplation was one which prescribed none of the antidotes above stated) was made a ground of objection. This ground of objection was accepted as conclusive by the very tribunal I am speaking of: such was its becoming tenderness for the feelings of individuals: and by that very same high and considerate tribunal was the choice of the very spot now in question confirmed without a dissenting voice—as being free from the objection which had put a negative upon the other. The rejection itself appears by the report which I inclose: the reason of it as above stated (a matter which must be known in the neighbourhood I mean in Wandsworth) I had from the supervisors, and the difference is indeed apparent on the face of the present spot. For, my Lord, what are the buildings that (except in the way of distant prospect as London may be) are in sight of it?—Two or three Cottages of no value, and a Public House that would make a fortune by the choice. Did your Lord-

ship's Agents (I should have said those of the late Earl) make any objection then? I never heard they did: but if they did they were over-ruled. The choice, your Lordship will have the goodness to observe, is not now to be made: it is a *res acta*: in succeeding to the estate, your Lordship found it with this obligation lying upon it. The only questions there can be (I rely upon your Lordship's goodness for forgiveness if zeal has betrayed me into error) the only questions at least I can see, are that which regards the *time,* and that which regards the *price:* and even this latter was no question, until out of respect for justice it was made so by me.

Your Lordship then will have the goodness to consider how the case stands, with regard to the place in question. The Penitentiary establishment is determined on by Parliament. The spot for the reception of it, it is determined shall be a spot in which *vicinity* to the *Metropolis,* and to the *River,* should be accompanied with that degree of elevation which is deemed essential to the health of so numerous an assemblage of persons, so subjected to confinement: this decision is given, with respect to the *sort* of place by a subsequent committee of the House of Commons, with respect to the *individual* place, by that same Committee (see the report of 1784)4 in confirmation to that given by the twelve Judges, added to the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker, and the first Magistrate of the Metropolis: the measure had already been sanctioned and the price of the place assessed under the Act of Parliament by the verdict of a Jury. An improvement is afterwards devised in this system, an improvement deemed such in spite of predilection and every personal motive, by the very persons (for such is their generosity and public spirit) whom it throws out of office. It is deemed such, and as such adopted and patronized, by an Administration, with whom the Author had not the honour of the most distant connection or prospect of connection whatsoever. This improvement can not, any more than the original plan, do without a spot to rest upon. The building to be erected in conforming to this improvement must then be set down in some Neighbourhood, and that a Neighbourhood possessed of the above-mentioned disadvantages. What then is to be done? Shall the establishment be turned off, on account of this improvement, from a more eligible to a less eligible neighbourhood, or for want of a Neighbour-

<sup>4</sup> Report from the Select Committee respecting the Laws for the Punishment of Offenders, *Commons Journal,* xxxix, 1040–6 (22 March 1784). Sir Charles Bunbury reported that the Committee approved a site of 82 acres at Battersea Rise 'as proper for the erection of Penitentiary Houses for both Males and Females'.

hood that might like to receive it, is it to be supposed that an establishment of such public importance will be set aside altogether?

A prison can not exist, but it must exist in some Neighbourhood: it cannot exist in a town, but it must exist in a *crowded* Neighbourhood, a Neighbourhood beyond comparison more exposed to the objection supposed, than the place in question can be: is there then no such thing as a Prison to be built anywhere?

How was it with regard to the immense House of Correction at Clerkenwell?5 Is there anything like a reason for apprehending that such a prison as the one proposed, can be more incommodious to the distant inhabitants of Battersea and its Neighbourhood, than the actually existing one must be to the inhabitants of the *contiguous* House of Correction in the *crowded* neighbourhood of Clerkenwell?

No Man, give me leave to say My Lord, can be more sensible than I am to the abuses to which the maxim that *private interest should give way to public,* is liable, and is but too frequently made subservient: as if the public were made up of anything but individuals: no man who would be more resolutely bent against making himself an instrument of such abuse in any case, and above all things in a case where an interest of his own was so visibly concerned: it is a subject I have made a study of, and considered under all its faces. But in the present *instance* would it be any real *injury* to any individual? would there be so much as any real *damage?* Is the damage, if any, such as can be set in comparison with the public benefit? Does it exist in any assignable shape? Is it of such a nature to have any claim to indemnification?—Indemnification then it will have.

With regard to your Lordship's suspicion, that a part of the land in question may prove to be out upon lease, I rather think your Lordship will find the fact to be otherwise: (not that it is at all material as Your Lordship will see presently.) In the course of a visit to the spot I happened a short time ago, by accident, and without my seeking, to fall into conversation upon the subject of the Penitentiary plan with one of Your Lordship's tenants: a gardener of the name of *Glenie,* who did not know the relation I bore to it. Beginning the conversation (for he avowed a suspicion

<sup>5</sup> The Clerkenwell House of Correction, or Bridewell, was originally erected in 1615 on a site north-east of the present Clerkenwell Close. It was rebuilt in 1774–5 and again in 1818 and 1845–6, being finally demolished in 1877.

of me on that score) he mentioned it as a remarkable circumstance, that no part of the land, either *is now upon lease,* or had been for these two hundred years. His own part he spoke of as being 40 Acres: (being the upper part on which the building would be placed) and he applied the same observation to the remainder in equal quantity: (which agree exactly with the quantity detailed in the inquest of the Jury). With respect to his own part, I think he can scarcely have been otherwise than correct, in regard to a circumstance in which he was so highly interested: and that is the only part for which I should have occasion, before Parliament had had time to do its office.

I set out with observing, that *lease or no lease* is immaterial to the present purpose: and so your Lordship will find it to be. Why? Because the actual immediate possession is equally out of your Lordship's power as landlord to grant, whether there be or be not a lease, as I well knew: *that* must depend at any rate upon the occupying Tenants. Without their consent, to whom I well know I must have to apply for it after all, that of the landlord would in point of law be unavailing: since a tenant stiled a *tenant at will* is not so far *at will,* as that he can be removed, or his exclusive possession infringed upon, without a certain interval of notice: and with the consent of the Tenant on the other hand, a man might have the use he wanted were the Landlord ever so averse. So far then as *immediate* possession is concerned, it was the respect due to your Lordship, and what appeared to me to be the rule of propriety and decorum, and not any necessity in point of law, that was the motive for my humble application to your Lordship, to whose decision in that particular the same considerations will command my submission: and your Lordship will be pleased accordingly to recollect, that in the very sentence in which the request was made I added that it was not any formal act that I stood in need of troubling your Lordship for, for that the purpose would be equally answered by a simple acquiescence.

To satisfy your Lordship of the concurrence spoken of on the part of the Gentlemen who had been appointed Supervisors, I take the liberty of inclosing a letter or two: just returned by the Archbishop of York together with one I happened to have by me expressive of the spontaneous support of a respectable and learned friend, an old connection of the Archbishop's, and who may not improbably fall within the sphere of your Lordship's acquaintance. I hope the good Archbishop will pardon the liberty I may perhaps take of adding his own kind letter to the rest.

To shew your Lordship the state of the business in respect of the land in question, I also send a report of a committee of the House of Commons of the year 1784. The estimates it contains of the expence your Lordship will be pleased to observe are for 900 prisoners only, and my house is to contain 1,000. *Actual* expence, I believe was scarce ever known not to exceed the *estimated,* especially in public works, and neither that of furnishing nor that of stocking is included. Your Lordship will have the goodness to return the report, as it is not mine but Sir Cha.s Bunbury's (upon second thought I fear it must be a copy for the present, the printed original being in Mr Nepean's office, from which things are not to be got in a hurry.) Give me leave to add that though this is the last *public* testimony of the pentitentiary system's having been kept in mind (and consequently the land that had been appropriated to it) yet it never actually *has* been out of the mind of Administration. It was not more than a twelve month before my plan in its original shape had been sent to Mr Pitt that the late Mr. Blackburn, the Architect, had an audience of him on that subject, as well as of the then Lord Chancellor, as Blackburn himself told me.

I also enclose a paper, which I was supplied with by Mr. Chamberlayn Sollicitor of the Treasury, at the instance of Sir Charles Bunbury and Mr Nepean, shewing the *parcels,* and exhibiting the state of the transaction at the time of its suspension, which took place on account of the then poverty of the Treasury and nothing else, as Lord Lansdowne, by whom on consultation with Lord Sydney the suspension was determined upon, informed me several years ago in conversation at his own house. It is for want of information that Your Lordship has found it necessary to give that temporary refusal to which it is impossible for any one to impute blame: and which Your Lordship does not absolutely preclude me from hoping to see recalled.—May I flatter myself that the deficiency has now been supplied?

After the perusal of the enclosed paper, Your Lordship (I think I may venture to promise myself) will have no doubt about the spot. I think then Your Lordship will recognize that the only dwellings that can in any sense material to the present purpose be said to be *near,* are the two or three cottages and the Public-House (the sign of the *Falcon,* kept by Death). Of these the Rents can be but trifling: but be they what they may, I am perfectly ready to include them in the purchase.

The premises are almost entirely separated from all other land by

roads, and what is wanting to make the separation perfect, I am ready to supply. On the *South* side where the rising ground is (on which the building would be erected) they are bounded perfectly by the great road from London to Wandsworth. On the *West* side, they are also perfectly bounded (setting the Cottages out of the question) by another road leading down from the great road to the River. On the *North,* they are bounded compleatly by the road which runs parallel [to] the River, (the road from Battersea to Wandsworth) on the other side of which road are the Distillers' establishment and other Houses: but from these Houses the Penitentiary House would be distant the whole length of the premises, being upwards of half a Mile. Over this part of the road is thrown the scarce perceptibly rising Bridge called in the Maps York Bridge, under which runs the Brook, which after at first *bounding,* but in the lower part of its course passing through the premises, empties itself into the Thames, washing after it has passed under the Bridge a range of buildings belonging to the Distillery and reaching to the River. On the *East* side the premises are bounded (setting aside the above-mentioned Public-House at the South East corner) for about half their length by the brook above-mentioned, which after crossing the great road under a Bridge as conspicuous as York Bridge, comes out by the Public House and forms a boundary to the road, under the appearance of a ditch, till the road, as you pass along it from the Public- House, takes a pretty sudden turn to the right: at which place this watercourse, or at least a branch of it, quits the road to enter the grounds (which are here meadowland) through which it runs till it meets with the great northern road from Battersea to Wandsworth at York Bridge. It is to be observed that this Watercourse, where it enters the grounds, does not form the boundary of the premises: the land on both sides of it being (with the apparent view of making the canal spoken of in the House of Commons Report of 1784) included in the purchase.

Your Lordship then will observe that (setting aside the Cottages and the Public-House) it is only about ⅛ part of its circuit that the land wants of being compleatly insulated and bounded by roads. Would Your Lordship wish that the insulation should be compleat, in order that the separation of the premises from the other part of the fields (which I suppose are all equally Your Lordship's property) may be proportionably perfect? I will build across what may be termed the *peninsula* at my own expense a *Wall,* of which, unless it should appear more eligible to carry a road on the other side of it, Your Lordship's tenants shall have the use: and in that direction if

there should be any part which may appear eligible to Your Lordship to have detached from the rest in order to form the more convenient boundary, I shall be ready in that view, if the price comes within my reach, to purchase as far as Your Lordship pleases. As to the Public-House and Cottages, Your Lordship may well imagine that I should be glad enough to include them in the purchase and you will I suppose be of opinion, that for the sake of the public, it will be fitting they should be so included. The compulsory powers of the Act being general, and excluding (according to a general and very proper rule) all *Dwelling Houses,* it was on that account that neither the cottages nor the Public-House were included in the forced purchase of the Supervisors: but after the naked land had been secured, there was a voluntary treaty on foot, as I understand from Sir Charles Bunbury, for the purchase of the Public-House, to which purchase no reluctance on the part of the Landlord whoever he was (I suppose the ownership was in the same hands as that of the adjacent land) was testified.

Possibly with respect to such lots as are not comprised in the Verdict of the Jury, or at least some of them, a lease might be more eligible or more practicable than an absolute purchase! if so, I should have no objection, if it were of sufficient length or renewable.

It is with regret I reflect on the distance which operates as a bar to those mutual explanations by which I flatter myself your Lordship's doubts might be effectually cleared up. Does your Lordship entertain any thoughts of revisiting this neighbourhood soon? My younger Brother Colonel Bentham is at present out upon a tour which may perhaps bring him through Northampton on his way home. I don't know but I may venture to take the liberty with your Lordship in writing to him to desire him to stop there and ask permission to wait upon your Lordship with that view.6

I ought not to conclude this tedious address without making my acknowledgements for the speediness of the answer with which your Lordship was pleased to honour me. That the dispatch of mine has been so much inferior has been owing (besides the inevitable length of it) to several accidents, the difficulty of getting back some of the documents, a visit made to the spot, and the blunder of a servant, but for which it would have gone on Saturday.

<sup>6</sup> Bentham did not in the event write to his brother making this suggestion, for the reason indicated in letter 917.

To Earl Spe nce r 26 Augus t 1793

465

Your Lordship will have the goodness to return the documents at your convenience, the Proposal to Government excepted. I have the honour to be, with all respect

> My Lord Your Lordship's most obedient and humble servant Jeremy Bentham.

### 9161

### F r o m E va <sup>n</sup> N <sup>e</sup> <sup>p</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### 19, 20 August 1793

 I will let you know before six whether I can recover the plan or not—D—n Ld Spencer.

### 9171

### T <sup>o</sup> E <sup>a</sup> r l S <sup>p</sup> e n <sup>c</sup> e r

26 August 1793 (Aet 45)

26 Aug. 1793. Queen's Square Place Westmr Aug 26th 1793

My Lord

Lest, on account of a passage in my last letter2 your Lordship should be waiting in expectation of a visit from my Brother, I take the liberty of mentioning that he is arrived in town before there

**916.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 452. Autograph. Docketed: '1793 Aug 19 or 20 / Panopt / Nepean Whitehall / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / Damn Ld Spencer / will try to recover the Plan of the Ground from the / Ld Chancellor to whom he had sent it. This Plan / was lent to J.B. by Hardwick the Architect.'

Addressed: 'Jerey Bentham Esq.'

Thomas Hardwick (1752–1829) was an architect who won the competition under the Penitentiary Act of 1779 for the best design for a female prison, which was never erected. He later designed Galway County Gaol (1802–3) and the gateway (*c.* 1815) of the Millbank penitentiary, the building substituted for Bentham's panopticon. Hardwick became architect to St Bartholomew's Hospital and Clerk of the Works at Hampton Court and Richmond Palace.

**917.** <sup>1</sup> Spencer Mss., Althorp, 2nd Earl Misc. Box 12. Autograph. Docketed: 'Mr. Bentham Rd 27 Aug: 1793.' A draft of this letter is in B.L. V: 453.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 915, p. 453 above.

was time for him to have received a letter from me, had I determined to write to him for that purpose.

> I have the honour to be My Lord, Your Lordship's most humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

Earl Spencer.

### 9181

### F r o m E <sup>a</sup> r l S <sup>p</sup> e n <sup>c</sup> e r

#### 27 August 1793

#### Letter 2d Copy

Althorp Aug. 27. 1793

Sir

 I have only time before the Post goes out to acknowledge the receipt of your two Letters the one a very long one enclosing letters from the Archbishop of York etc., the other of yesterday. It happened by accident that I did not see your first letter till this morning; and having been much engaged in other business today, have not yet had time to read it over. I can only therefore acknowledge the receipt of it, and must postpone any answer it may require to an other opportunity. I am, Sir

### Your very obedient humble Servt. Spencer

### 9191

### T o B <sup>a</sup> r o n L o u g h <sup>b</sup> o r o u g h

#### 30 August 1793 (Aet 45)

Friday Aug. 30th 1793

My Lord

 In obedience to your Lordship's commands signified to me on Wednesday by Mr Nepean, I held myself in readiness to receive the

**<sup>918.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 410. Copy. Docketed: '1793 Aug. 15 and 27 / Panopt / Ld Spencer Althorp / to J.B. Q.S.P. / Copy.' The docket covers two letters, 913 as well as 918. **919.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 454. Autograph. Docketed: '1793 Aug. 30 / Panopt / J.B. / to Ld Chancellor, Bedford Square.'

#### From Bar o n Lough b orough 30 Augus t 1793

honour of a visit from your Lordship yesterday. Presuming your Lordship to have been prevented by more important business, I now take the liberty of calling in hopes of taking your Lordship's commands for some future day. I am, with all respect

> My Lord Your Lorships most obedient Servant Jeremy Bentham

Ld Chancellor

467

### 9201

### F r o m B <sup>a</sup> r o n L o u g h <sup>b</sup> o r o u g h

#### 30 August 1793

The Lord Chancellor is sorry it was not in his power to wait upon Mr Bentham yesterday but will the next time his Lordship is in Town take the first opportunity with Mr Dundas of waiting upon Mr B—

Bedford Square Augt 30th 1793

**920.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 455–6. Docketed: '1793 Aug 30 / Panopt / Ld Chancellor Bedford Square / to / J.B. Q.S.P.'

Addressed: 'Mr. Bentham / Queens Square Place, / Westminster.' Franked: 'Loughborough'.

### F r o m E a r l S p e n c e r

#### 1 September 1793

#### Copy

#### Althorp Sept. 1, 1793.

Sir

468

 I am glad to find by your letter of the 16th instant2 that both the Archbishop of York and myself were mistaken in conceiving from the expressions used in your former letters to us that you had actually subjected yourself to penalties, which (in my opinion) it would have been out of your power to avoid incurring though by no fault of your own. My reason for saying this is because I find it will be impossible for me to discuss this subject as fully as the great importance of it certainly deserves, and my engagements are such at present that I am absolutely unable to appoint a meeting with you before the 22d of this month, on which day I shall be in Town, and shall be glad to see you either at my house in St. James's Place, or any other place you may appoint, at whatever hour is most convenient to you.

It will be unnecessary therefore for me to detain you any longer by entering at all into the subject, upon which I must confess I require a great deal more information than I have yet obtained, in order to satisfy my own mind about it: but I will venture to repeat what I before said, that circumstanced as I am with respect to that part of my Estate at Battersea, it will be impossible for me to proceed a step in that business without being secure of the concurrence and consent of the Archbishop of York, with whose sentiments I am not yet sufficiently acquainted.

I return you by this post the letters you communicated to me, and take the liberty of keeping the other papers till I have the pleasure of seeing you. If you should have any thing to write before the 22d, I shall be obliged to you to send it to my house in St James's Place, from whence it will be forwarded to me, as I shall not be above a day or two at a time in the same place for the next three weeks. I am, Sir

> Your very obedient humble servant Spencer

**921.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 457–8. Copy by Bentham. Docketed: '1793 Sept 1 / Copy / Panopt / Ld Spencer Althorp / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / Letter 3.'

<sup>2</sup> Letter 915.

### 9221

### F r o m S a m u e l R o m i l l y

#### 2 September 1793

#### Edinburgh. 2 Septr 1793

Dear Bentham

 Much as I detest writing Letters especially in a place where I have so many different ways of passing my time pleasantly as I have here I should reproach myself if I were not to give you some account of a panopticon which is building in this City. As I have never heard you mention it I think it is possible that you may be entirely unacquainted with it. It is built entirely of stone and tho it was began only a year ago the shell of it is nearly finished. The plan is Adam's2 and I am informed that he admits that he took the idea of it from your brother. It is a semicircular building3 and differs from your plan very materially in this respect that the cells in which the Convicts are to work are not placed at the outer extermity of the building but look upon the annular well in the Center of which the Inspector's room is placed. At the outer extremity are Cells in which the Convicts are to sleep and in which they are to be in solitary confinement and between the two ranges of cells there is a passage into which the doors of both cells open but as these Doors are not facing each other there is no thorough light as in your designs nor the same free circulation of air. The whole side of the working Cells which lies towards the Inspectors Rooms is open and to be grated with Iron and the Inspector has no means of seeing into the Cells but from the light of the annular well which the workmen told me was to be encased with a glass sky light. There are four stories of Cells and only two Inspectors Rooms

There is a printed copy of this letter in Bowring, x, 294–5, including the diagram, but omitting the last sentence.

<sup>2</sup> That is, James Adam, the brother of Robert (see pp. 309–11 and 372–5 above).

**<sup>922.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> National Library of Scotland, Ms. 1809, fos. 168–9. Autograph. Docketed: '1793 Sept. 2 / Romilly Edinbgh / to / J.B. Q.S.P. / Penitentiary House.'

Addressed: 'Jeremy Bentham / Esqr / Queen's Square place / Westminster / London.' Postmark: 'SE2'.

<sup>3</sup> Erection of the Bridewell on Calton Hill started in 1791 and petty offenders were placed in it from 1796. It had five stories of cells in a semi-circular building, as described by Romilly, and a contemporary account notes another Panopticon feature: the Governor's house situated so 'that he can easily see all that goes on within them, and that in concealment from the prisoners'. The convicts were paid for their work and rewarded for extra effort by larger food allowances (Hugo Arnot, *History of Edinburgh,* 4th edn., Edinburgh, 1818, p. 544).

which being placed each between two stories as in your plan have a perfect view into every part of all the working cells. I am afraid you will so little be able to understand my descriptn that I must indeavour to draw some kind of plan for you

I think the want of air seems to be one great objection to this plan and another is that the Convicts in the Cells where they sleep are not exposed to any Inspection it may not be very difficult for them to make their escape especially as those cells are at the outermost part of the building it is true that this seems to have been provided against by pretty strong walls but Mr Blackburne who had a great deal of Experience on this subject had I remember very little confidence in the thickness of walls. It is true that both the objections I have mentioned are in some degree weakened by the situation of the building which stands on the side of Calton hill under the immediate view of a great neighbourhood between the new and old towns and there is always not only a free Circulation of air but 〈much?〉 wind. I am passing my time here very pleasantly principally however in a Society which you would not at all relish that of lawyers. Indeed I doubt whether this would be a very safe country just at this moment for, you to be found in, for I heard the Judges of the Justiciary Court the other day declare with great solemnity upon the Trial of Mr Muir4 that to say the Courts

<sup>4</sup> The notorious trial of Thomas Muir in August, when he was sentenced by Lord Braxfield to transportation to Australia for fourteen years. As vice-president of the Reform Convention held in Edinburgh in December 1792 Muir had championed an address from the United Irishmen, and Braxfield in his summing-up argued that

of Justice needed reform was seditious highly criminal and betrayed a most hostile disposition towards the constitution of which the Courts of Justice form a most important part. Pray remember me to the Colonel if he is with you and to Trail if he is in town and tell Trail I am very much obliged to him for his Letter from Buxton and that as I think of staying only a day or two at Glasgow I will not trouble him for the Letters which he was so good as to offer me.

> Yrs ever sincerely S.R.

### 9231

### T o A <sup>r</sup> <sup>c</sup> <sup>h</sup> <sup>b</sup> i s h o <sup>p</sup> M <sup>a</sup> r k h <sup>a</sup> <sup>m</sup>

#### 14 September 1793 (Aet 45)

Queens Square Place Wed. Sept. 14, 1793.

My Lord

The liberty I took of sending to Lord Spencer the letter2 with which your Grace was pleased to honour me would I hoped have spared me the necessity of being any further troublesome to your Grace on that score. By a passage in a subsequent letter of his Lordship which I inclose it appears that in that expectation I was rather too sanguine. I find myself obliged therefore to sollicit at your Grace's hands a few words of explanation addressed to his Lordship to satisfy that 'concurrence and consent on your Grace's part of which he expresses himself *not yet sufficiently assured,* and without which he declares it impossible for him to proceed a single step.'

From an accidental conversation which Sir Charles Bunbury had t'other day with his Lordship in the street, and which Sir Charles

advocacy of reform was tantamount to sedition. The sentence was strongly criticized by the Whigs in and out of Parliament. Muir managed to escape from Botany Bay in 1796 but died in 1799, aged only 34 (Carl B. Cone, *The English Jacobins,* New York, 1968, pp. 167–8, 172–4). Writing to Dumont on 14 September 1793 Romilly observed: 'I am not surprised that you have been shocked at the account you have read of Muir's trial; you would have been much more shocked if you had been present as I was' (*Memoirs ...of Romilly...with Correspondence,* 2nd edn., 1840, ii, 23).

**923.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 459–60. Autograph drafts. Docketed: '1793 Sept. 14 / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Archbishop of York / Bishopsthorpe / Letter III.'

There are three drafts on these two sheets: the letter of 14 September printed here; the paragraph beginning 'By some papers', which seems to be a postscript, addressed to the archbishop, although it is on a separate page (fo. 460) and is headed in pencil '1793 to Earl Spencer and Archp of York'; and (also on fo. 460) the letter printed below as letter 924.

<sup>2</sup> Letter 911.

had the goodness to bring to me immediately, I am led to flatter myself that on the 22d the appointed day of meeting I shall find his Lordships original repugnance somewhat diminished at least, if not absolutely removed. The weakness in the chance of improving some of the adjacent portions of his estates by letting these on building leases, was the damage he mentioned himself as being apprehensive of. To this observation Sir Charles replied by a suggestion which happened to occurr to him at the instant, that of the rates of the houses on Ludgate Hill and other streets in the vicinity of Newgate.3 —*'Has Mr B.'* continued his Lordship *'really the authority he professes to have from Government?'*—a question, which would hardly have been worth putting if in the event of his being satisfied of the affirmative he meant to embark in an opposition, without which a simple refusal of concurrence could not answer any purpose. In conclusion the objections he urged and the disinclination he manifested seemed if I apprehend them right to regard the degree of dispatch that had been requested rather than the matter of the request, and to point to the past rather than to the future: but of this I shall be fully satisfied on the 22d.

By some papers I have been favoured with by Sir Charles, I learn that when the negotiation was first on your carpet, it was your Grace's wish that whatever might be the purchase money might instead of being laid out in the purchase of land to the same uses, be divided in the proper proportions between the see of York and its Lessee. A decision of that nature cannot I think but be greatly to the advantage of the parties interested. The fetters by which the property is bound at present must I think lessen the value of it to the proprietors without being of use to anybody. By a Paper I was furnished with from the Treasury, I find that at your Grace's desire the purchase-money was to have been vested in the funds in the joint names if I recollect aright of the Archbishop of York and his Lessee, where it would have remained subject to the discussion relative to the partition in question: a partition which as it strikes me at the moment could hardly under the former Act have been carried into effect without a decree of the Court of Chancery. Under the Felons Act which will now be necessary that Expence will be saved

#### I am etc.

<sup>3</sup> Marginal addition: 'and which came in aid of the observations your Grace will find in my letter'.

### 9241

### T o A r c h b i s h o p M a r k h a m

#### 16 September 1793 (Aet 45)

#### Queens Square Place Sept. 16 1793

My Lord,

 In the copy of a letter of mine to Lord Spencer addressed to your Grace by post on Saturday, one of the sheets I find was omitted. I will not trouble your Grace with it now unless it be to your Grace's pleasure, as it contains nothing but a description of the land given to his Lordship, chiefly for the purpose of satisfying him that the destination of it in question would not affect any leases at present subsisting that may be his Lordships property together with an offer to perfect the insulation if his Lordship wished it, and extend the purchase.

Amidst the multiplicity of enclosures, and in the hurry occasioned by an unexpected interruption I likewise omitted to inclose as I had intended his Lordships three letters: I now take the liberty of supplying both deficiencies.

My Brother, who is now at my elbow, is duly sensible to your Grace's kind remembrances and begs his respects may accompany those of

> Your Grace's most obedient and much obliged humble Servant Jeremy Bentham

> > 9251

T <sup>o</sup> E <sup>a</sup> r l S <sup>p</sup> e n <sup>c</sup> e r

16 September 1793 (Aet 45)

My Lord

 In obedience to your Lordship's commands of the 1st instant, I propose myself the honour of waiting on your Lordship in St. James's Place on Sunday the 22d instant at 12.

**924.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 460. Autograph draft. No separate docket. Evidently the basis of a note sent as a postscript to letter 923.

**925.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 461–3. Autograph rough draft. Fair copy, fos. 464–5. Docketed: '1793 Sept. 16 / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to E. Spencer / Letter 4.'

Your Lordship having expressed a doubt as still remaining with regard to the sentiments of the Archbishop, I wrote on Saturday to his Grace, sending him a ms. copy of the printed Report which your Lordship has. Having also had occasion to speak of the Treasury Paper (I know not very well by what name to call it) reciting the proceedings of the Jury and containing /exhibiting/ the particulars of the Land, I would beg the favour of your Lordship, to forward to him that paper or a copy of it, and it may be so much the better if without inconvenience to your Lordship the communication can be made time enough for your Lordship or for myself to have heard from his Grace by the day of meeting

As a further help to his recollection I inclose him a copy of a letter of 2d June 1782 addressed to the intended supervisors by a Gentleman of the name of Joseph Banks2 writing in the character of his Grace's Agent, in which after refusing the sum offered by them he adds that he (the Archbishop) cannot by any means approve of the proposal that the see shall receive its consideration by accepting, equivalent in Land, which is proposed by Lord Spencer to be given in exchange for what is sold to the public. As far as the act binds him, he must comply, but an exchange makes no part of the Act: and in that respect his Grace is left free, and it is his meaning to continue so. The proposal made by Sir G. Elliot to his Grace he says was of another kind, and appeared very equitable: that is, he proposed that when the sum to be paid by the public was settled, it should then be calculated what was the proportionable interest of the Lessee, and what of the See of York: and that each of the two parties should receive their proportion. In that case the money would be laid out in a purchase for the See to the best advantage; not confined to Battersea or any other spot.

Standing as I do in a relation in some measure similar to that of Sir G. Elliot, having an interest in the expediting of the business, and being altogether indifferent in point of interest in respect to the disposal of the purchase-money will your Lordship pardon the liberty I take in suggesting at this early period what occurs to me in relation to that point? What were the considerations that induced (as it seems) a wish on the part of the late Earl to give his Grace an equivalent in land, meaning doubtless a smaller position

<sup>2</sup> Joseph Banks (1720–88), barrister, 1753; bencher of Lincoln's Inn, 1772; appointed chancellor of the diocese of York and vicar-general of the archbishop, 1772.

unclogged instead of a larger position clogged, as at present, (with a beneficial lease) whether the inducements remain the same, and whether if so they would produce the same impression on your Lordships mind, are matters altogether out of my cognizance, but unquestionably the acceptance of any such proposal must altogether be at the option of his Grace. Were the letter of the present act to be pursued the purchase money would (by §8) be to be laid out in the purchase of other land (*to the same uses,*) and in which case consequently the See of York and your Lordship as Lessee would have the same interests respectively in the land so to be purchased as you have now in the present Land: and such accordingly is the disposition which were I to stand in the place of the Supervisors I should be *authorized* and in order to exonerate myself (unless authorized by a Decree of the Court of Chancery to make any other disposition) *bound* to make. On the other hand, if in consideration of his wishes or the mutual interests of the parties, the letter of that Act were to be departed from, I do not well see how a proposal to the effect of Sir G. Elliot's could be rejected. The option therefore seems to lie between those two modes of division: the first is that which either of the parties *may* tie the other to if he thinks fit: the latter is what one would expect to find much the more advantageous of the two, and that not to one only of the parties but to both: but this more convenient arrangement is what no purchaser under that Act would be advised, I think, to join in without the Authority of a Decree. On the new plan, under the new Act which would at all events be necessary, that expence and delay of a Chancery suit would at any rate be saved. In case of an agreement between the parties (taking due care of future Archbishops) Parliament would adopt the agreement: in case of a disagreement Parliament would adopt the above-mentioned original disposition, or make what other arrangement it thought most conducive to their mutual advantage.

Be this as it may, should it be your Lordships inclination for the sake of the public service, to acquiesce ultimately in the sale, no difference (should any subsist) between your Lordship and his Grace with regard to the disposal of the purchase-money, would call upon either party for any further suspension with regard to the time of the acquiescence. To decide upon any such difference would be the province of Parliament: and the purchase money, if according to the provisions of the present Act, it were to be invested in the first instance in the funds, in the joint names of your Lordship, the Archbishop for the time being and some Trustee of my

nomination, (suppose Sir C. Bunbury), would be there for the disposal of Parliament, as safe as the land itself lies at present.

> I have the honour to be, with all respect, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient humble Servant

> > Jeremy Bentham.

### 9261

### F r o m A <sup>r</sup> <sup>c</sup> <sup>h</sup> <sup>b</sup> i s h o <sup>p</sup> M <sup>a</sup> r k h <sup>a</sup> <sup>m</sup>

17 September 1793

Bishopthorpe Sept. 17 1793.

Dear Sir,

 I have received the favour of your Packet, and shou'd have thanked you for it sooner if I had not been carried to distant parts of my Diocese by my necessary Business. I am newly returned and have not had time to give much Consideration to the substance of your Letter.2

When the Subject was originally discussed, I do not remember that I ever gave in any proposal, or that I ever was in any temper of mind but that of a passive Acquiescence. As to the wisdom and propriety of the Measure, I had my opinion, but beyond that I felt myself no ways concerned except in seeing that the See of York suffer'd no wrong; and that was confined to the Question between Ld Spencer and me, that the money given by the Public, shou'd be divided in just proportion to our several Interests. Between Him and his undertenants I have no concern, but after settling the general Claim of the See, it will be for Calculation to decide, to what extent my personal Claims ought to be allow'd.

I hope to be in Town before the end of next month, and shall be happy to see you.

I am dear Sir

### yr most faithfull Servant W. Ebor

**926.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 466–7. Autograph. Docketed: '1793 Sept. 17 / Panopt / Archp of York Bishopsthorpe / to J.B. Q.S.P. / Letter 2nd.'

<sup>2</sup> Letter 914.

### T o E va n N e p e a n 20 September 1793 (Aet 45)

#### Q.S.P. Sept. 20, 1793.

Dear Sir

47

 On Monday at twelve at Ld Spencer's House I am to see his Lordship for the first time. But it will be very material that you, as you had the goodness to think of doing should see him first. Suppose if more important business should so permitt, you were at that very hour to take my place? This would give you that certainty of meeting with him at home which otherwise you could not have at all or not without trouble. I would attend you to the spot and be ready to take your place as soon as you quitted it. But first I ought if possible to see you and show you the correspondence, if were it only that you might read my own words and not in his Lordship's conceptions which I have not found very correct; the uses I deemed it necessary to make of your name. He had a project for letting some of his land thereabouts on building leases: and there I find the shoe pinches. Sir Ch. Bunbury who met him by accident t'other day in the street attacked him on that ground and I believe made some impression on him: for in conclusion his objections and difficulties seemed to apply not to the transaction itself but only to the *time.* Has Mr. B. really the concurrence of Administration? was a question of his to Sir Charles. This came of my not having a scrap of a line to produce from you: though to supply the want as well as I could I had taken upon me the option of addressing his answer written to me to you unsealed. I should be sorry to see him till you had seen him: and I should be sorry you should have seen him till you had seen the correspondence that is till you had seen the state of the case and the arguments it affords. But if you do see him without having seen the correspondence, in my *hands,* let me beg of you, if he states anything from it, to desire to see at least that part of it in *his.* He would tell you for example that I represented myself as *actually* exposed to penalties in the event of his non-compliance. To you he certainly would say this, for so he

**<sup>927.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 387–8. Autograph draft. Docketed: '1793 Sept 20 Panopticon / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Nepean Whitehall / Pressing him for / support in the trouble / with Ld Spencer / Apprehension of the / effects of a / misconception on Ld Spencers / part about the penalties.'

has said to me, and I cannot beat him out of it: though words can scarce put a more peremptory negative than mine do upon that idea, in the very passage from whence he has taken it up: and as he would tell you this tout bonnement and without any marks of spleen (for there has been nothing like ill humour on either side) you would believe him: and therefore believe me guilty of a pitiful lie with which through politness or indifference you would never charge me. In applying for despatch it was necessary for me to state that Administration wished it: for if they had no such wish, what would he care for mine? My words were *'and now I am urged to engage to have the buildings in readiness in six months, under a penalty of five thousand pounds,* which (you may remember) was true, on the supposition of my having the land: and it is from this, that he conceives myself as having *actually engaged* to have the buildings in readiness within the time with or without the land. What is more he conceives the same conception to have been entertained by the Archbishop: though it is to the actual penalties contained in the proposal that the Archbishop evidently alluded not to the hypothetical one thus spoken of. It was not without reluctance I could bring myself to say anything in which you were concerned without your seeing it: yet if I had said nothing of that sort, as well might I have said nothing. Accordingly I called twice at the office with my leading-strings on my back: but finding you inaccessible I was forced either to stand still or to go alone. I called yesterday to say what I have been now writing but the D. of Gloucester2 had you prisoner, the Council was sitting, and there was no hope of seeing you. Believe me to be with

> never failing respect Dear Sir Yours ever Jeremy Bentham.

<sup>2</sup> William Henry, 1st Duke of Gloucester of the new creation (1743–1805), third son of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales; privy councillor, 1764; general,. 1772; field-marshal, 1793.

### 9281

### T o E a r l S p e n c e r

#### 21 September 1793 (Aet 45)

Mr. Bentham to Earl Spencer

Letter 5. Copy

Q.S.P. Sept. 21, 1793.

My Lord,

 In obedience to your Lordship's commands dated yesterday from St. Albans,2 I will not fail of visiting St James's Place at 12 tomorrow. Possibly curiosity might incline your Lordship to cross the Park and take a look at the Model of the Building at my House: or occasion may arise for adjourning to the premises and taking a joint view. I should be happy to attend your Lordship for both or either of those purposes.3 Time being so scarce with your Lordship, I mention these things beforehand, that if it should be agreable to your Lordship measures may be taken accordingly.

**928.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 468. Autograph copy. Docketed: '1793 Sept. 21 / Panopt / J.B. Q.S.P. / to / Ld Spencer St. James's Place / Letter 5, to meet 22.'

2 Indicates a missing note of 20 September from Lord Spencer.

3 In B.L. V: 469–74 is a much-corrected, in places illegible, draft, headed in red ink: 'J.B. to Evan Nepean. Not sent.' It is docketed: '1793 Sept. 23. / Panopt / Brouillon not sent / J.B. to / Nepean. First interview with Ld Spencer. J.B.'s reason for adhering to Battersea Rise, though Administration did not make a point of it.'

The unsent letter begins: 'I have seen Ld Spencer. He received me with the politeness which is natural to him, we parted as we met good friends, but he conceives the arrangement to be prejudicial to his interest, and therefore, for which I am sure I do not pretend to blame him, declines giving his concurrence. He says, whatever Parliament may think fit to do he must submitt to, and is perfectly well disposed to submitt to, but does not conceive it to be incumbent on him to "volunteer" a co-operation to his own prejudice.'

Bentham goes on to describe the familiar arguments he put forward for using Battersea Rise as the site for the Panopticon penitentiary, summing up with the observation: 'Removing it from the place already chosen is negativing it altogether unless some other plan, good bad or indifferent, be found.'

He adds, for Nepean's benefit, as it were: 'Meantime the situation is such as I cannot avoid mentioning. Being informed *more than once* from the highest authority that I might make my arrangements and being afterwards [asked] whether I had done so, I have taken my arrangements accordingly. I have incurred very considerable expense which but for such assurance I should not have incurred, and for which nothing but the adoption of the plan can reimburse me: and this with ready money of which if not reimbursed I shall feel the want. It concerns me therefore to know as soon as ever it may be in my power, and I must accordingly sollicit the favour of you to procure me information, whether any other spot equally capable of answering the purpose of the public and my own is ready to be assigned to me, and if not, whether I may reckon upon the support of Administration in procuring one ...'

But it will be time enough for me to know when I have the honour in person of testifying the respect with which I am

> My Lord Your Lordship's most obedient Jeremy Bentham

### 9291

### F r o m C <sup>h</sup> <sup>a</sup> r l e s [ ? ] W <sup>y</sup> <sup>a</sup> t t

#### 23 September 1793

 Mr Wyatt presents his compliments to Mr. Bentham. If he will be pleased to call in Bridge Street tomorrow morning (about 10 o clock if convenient) He may try some experiments on conveying sound through pipes—Mr. W. having joined a great number together for that purpose.

Tinned Copper Office 23 Sepr 1793

### 9301

### T <sup>o</sup> J <sup>a</sup> m e s R e d i t

#### 10 October 1793 (Aet 45)

Queens Square Place Westmr Oct 10 1793

Sir

 My Attorney is Mr Browne No 9 Bedford Row. From him, as soon as I have had time to give him instructions, which I shall endeavour to do in the course of the day, you may learn how impossible it would be for you to support the action you speak of, the demand being not only without evidence but against evidence,

Charles and John Wyatt were tinned copper manufacturers, of Tinned Copper Warehouse, 5 New Bridge Street, Blackfriars (*London Directory,* 1793 and 1795). Which of them was the sender of the letter is not clear.

**930.** <sup>1</sup> Historical Society of Pennsylvania. No docket or address.

The letter appears to be in answer to a missing letter from an attorney, almost certainly James Redit, 14 Cooke's Court, Carey Street, who appears in *Browne's General Law-List* for 1797. His unnamed client apparently meditated an action involving Bentham either as defendant or as a witness.

**<sup>929.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> D. R. Bentham Mss. No signature, docket or address. As both Jeremy and Samuel were interested in 'conversation tubes' the invitation may have been extended to either of them, but it was Jeremy who wrote to Evan Nepean on the subject on 10 November (see letter 934).

to say nothing of my utter denial, which is not evidence. At the same time, you may if you desire it learn other particulars respecting your Client, which it may not be indifferent to you to know. I am, Sir,

> Your very obedient Servant Jeremy Bentham

### 9311

### T <sup>o</sup> E va <sup>n</sup> N <sup>e</sup> <sup>p</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### 17 October 1793 (Aet 45)

Queen's Square Place Westmr Oct. 17 1793

Sir,

 Having applied to Mr. Hopson,2 one of the Exors of the late Mr. Blackburn (Architect for the once intended Penitentiary House) for a sight of such papers of his as might serve to exhibit the proceedings relative to the land fixed upon for that establishment, including such rights as might be necessary to effect the intended *cut* to and *communication with* the *Thames* referred to in the Report of the House of Commons, of March 1784 on which part of the plan no light is thrown by the papers transmitted to me from the Sollicitor to the Treasury, I received from Mr Nepean an answer dated the 24th of last month3 in which are these words 'The whole of Mr Blackburn's Plans etc. have been sent by the Executors to the Lords of the Treasury, by their order.'

This intelligence renders it necessary for me to trouble you once more, with an humble request for the necessary access to the above papers.

I am, with all respect,

Sir,

your most obedient humble Servt. Jeremy Bentham.

Evan Nepean Esqr.

**931.** <sup>1</sup> P.R.O., H.O. 42/26, unnumbered fo. Autograph. Docketed: 'Queens Square 17th Oct 1793 / Mr. Bentham / R 18th.'

<sup>2</sup> Blackburn's wife was Lydia, daughter of Joshua Hobson, so the executor may have been her father, her brother or another relative.

3 Missing.

### 9321

### T o S i r C h a r l e s B u n b u r y

#### 31 October 1793 (Aet 45)

#### Hendon Middlesex Oct. 31. 1793.

Dear Sir,

 I have just received from Mr. Philip Metcalfe a letter dated Brighton 25 Oct.2 in which are these words—'I have heard from my Brother, that they mean to erect a new Jail at Bury. Now is your time to apply to Sir Charles Bunbury who is on the spot, and I hope has some of your plans.'

Having thus legal notice of the measure, for which I am much obliged to our friend's attentive zeal, I can do not otherwise than trouble you with this letter, to say that I have put myself in a *state of permanent requisition,* ready to pay the promptest and most punctual obedience to any commands with which you may think fit to honour me in relation to the subject. With regard to any thing that is personal to myself, my wishes are abundantly gratified by the National Establishment: but for the benefit of the Country, should my humble endeavours prove successful in its service, my ambition goes to no less than the becoming under the auspices of Sir Charles Bunbury, Jailor, as Lord Kenyon3 is Chief Justice, of all England. Either I am much mistaken, or I could save money to the Gentlemen of the County, to say nothing of what they will look upon as the more important saving, that of misery and wickedness, to the Prisoners. But if those gentlemen, upon your favourable report, should do me the honour to think so, what I should be inclined to recommend, and what I imagine would recommend itself to them as the most cautious and prudent course, that can be adopted, is to wait, if the exigency be not pressing, till the practicability and utility of the Panopticon mode of construction has been proved or disproved, by the experiment which is so speedily to be made, and upon so large a scale.

I am at present occupied, at the recommendation of authority in preparing a Bill for Mr. Pitt to bring in for that purpose at the opening of the Session.4

**<sup>932.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 475–6. Copy, not in Bentham's hand. Docketed: '1793 Oct 31 / Panopt / J.B. Hendon / to / Sir C. Bunbury Bart. / Bury Jail.' 2 Missing.

<sup>3</sup> Lloyd Kenyon (1732–1802), 1st Baron Kenyon; Lord Chief Justice, 1788–1802.

<sup>4</sup> Indicating that Bentham had been in consultation with Nepean or other officials on a new Penitentiary bill. (See letter 933.)

To Phi l i p M etcalfe 31 Oct o ber 1793

483

I submit this Idea, not through laziness, but merely as that which seems to bid fairest for the approbation of third Persons. Should dispatch be preferred, I am now and at all times at the command of the Gentlemen in question, for there is no trouble which I should grudge in such a cause.

I have the honour to be, with the truest respect

Dear Sir,

Your most obedient and much obliged humble Serv. Jeremy Bentham.

P.S. Though I date as above, for the moment, you will please to consider me for all purposes of business as constantly in town. Sir Charles Bunbury.

### 9331

T o P h i l i <sup>p</sup> M e t ca <sup>l</sup> <sup>f</sup> <sup>e</sup>

31 October 1793 (Aet 45)

Hendon, Middlesex, October 31, 1793.

Dear Phil,

 Many thanks for your kind remembrance and attentive zeal. I have but just received your favour of 29th2 here, and have already written to Sir Charles, tendering my services, but recommending as *amicus curiœ,* the waiting to see the experiment tried on the great scale.

I am at present occupied in drawing a bill, at the recommendation of authority, for Mr Pitt to bring in upon the opening of the session. Lord Spencer and I parted, as we met, good friends; but nothing was to be done with him. He said, what parliament enacted, he must submit to; but it would be a prejudice to him, as it might throw a damp on his plan of letting land in the neighbourhood on building leases,—under which circumstance, it was not his business to volunteer (as he called it) a concurrence, and that it would be deserving ill of the neighbourhood, by whom his father had been

**<sup>933.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 295–6. Introduced by the statement: 'To Philip Metcalf, Bentham gives this very cheering account of his ministerial negotiations:'.

<sup>2</sup> Missing: almost certainly the letter 'dated Brighton 25 Oct.' mentioned in letter 932, p. 482 above; this would be a more likely date for a letter 'just received' at Hendon than 29 October.

blamed for the facility of his acquiescence. For all this, I am afraid I must have his land, for when circumstances come to be considered, it seems to be inevitable.

It is some time since I received intimation of the Lord Chancellor's approbation, which I hope will carry me safe through the House of Lords. This relieved me from some anxiety; since his lordship had not only conceived ideas upon the subject, but published them3 —ergo, was somewhat of a rival; and I am not sure whether he may not have a gulp or two to take before he can relish mine. Dundas was to have brought him to Q.S.P., and a day was fixed for it; but they never came. I have, however, a note from him, promising to come.

Ministry and I go on smoothly; the only contests we have had, have been of an opposite nature to what are usual in bargains. They put a negative on the Life Insuring article, as inconsistent with some rules of theirs, as likewise upon the engagement to pay indemnification-money in case of subsequent delinquencies, as unnecessary and not calculated to answer the purpose. But I stood stanch, and made them knock under, as to both articles, with the colonel's zealous approbation, who has not yet had the knout to my knowledge, whatever he may deserve, though he is as much afraid of Woronzoff as if there were one in Harley Street in pickle for him.4 All turned upon character, forsooth; it was upon that they depended; had not my character, which was perfectly known to them, been what it is, they would, as I was told over and over again, have had nothing to say to any such proposal. A damnable doctrine, for which they ought to be impeached; but I did not tell them so, there being no time for quarrelling about collaterals. I have dealt fairly by them at any rate; for I sent Dundas, long ago, the whole cargo of my reforming pamphlets; some of which were too Jacobinical to be trusted with so orthodox a man as you.

*Apropos* of Jacobinism, I begin to fear with you it has taken too strong root in France to be exterminated. Could the extermination be effected, I should think no price we could pay for such a security too dear; but whether war or peace would give the best chance for it, may be the matter of very honest difference. My concern is to see the men and money that might be employed in driving at the

<sup>3</sup> Loughborough, the lord chancellor, had recently published a pamphlet entitled: *Observations on the State of the English Prisons and the Means of improving them, communicated to to the Reverend Henry Zouch,* London, 1793.

<sup>4</sup> Samuel was still liable to recall to Russia, whose ambassador in London was Count Vorontsov (see above, p. 136 n. 4).

heart of the monster, diverted to the purpose of making distant conquests, which, according to my notions, could they be had for nothing, would be worse than useless. You know that every island we take costs money to govern and to defend, without bringing in a farthing of revenue, or of benefit in any other shape. This is the thesis of one of my Jacobinisms, which one of these days I hope for the honour of laying at your feet. But just now it seems as if the pressure of the exigency nearer home, were acting on my side, and that Grey and Jervis may have employment enough nearer home, without going to the West Indies to look for it.5 As to the colonel, he goes on very well with his gimcracks. Such of the trade as have seen his wheels, are in raptures with them, and declare that when once they make their appearance, no others will be made. But now is the season for experiment; for 'till it can be done in Panopticon, it will be hardly worth while to open shop. The paper is full, —adieu my dear Metcalf, believe me, with all affection and thankfulness, yours ever.

### 9341

### T <sup>o</sup> E va <sup>n</sup> N <sup>e</sup> <sup>p</sup> <sup>e</sup> <sup>a</sup> <sup>n</sup>

#### 10 November 1793 (Aet 45)

Jeremy Bentham Esq:, to Evan Nepean Esq: Under-Secretary of State

On Oral and Secret Conversation at unlimited distances.

Novr 10 1793 Queen's Square Place Westminster 10 Novr 1793.

Sir,

Before the experiments are made public, I must beg your indulgence for a few words relative to some political uses, not before mentioned, that might perhaps be made of the Conversation Tubes. *Conversation-Tubes for Unlimited Distances*

<sup>5</sup> Sir Charles, later 1st Earl, Grey (1729–1807), a major-general, had relieved the siege of Nieuport in 1793; thereafter he co-operated with Admiral Jervis in capturing many French West Indian islands, 1793–94. Admiral John Jervis, Earl of St Vincent (1735–1823), received his earldom after his great victory over the Spanish fleet off Cape St Vincent in 1797.

**<sup>934.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> P.R.O., H.O. 42/27, unnumbered fos. No docket. This communication suggests that Bentham had accepted Wyatt's invitation to look at his 'experiments in convey-

*Secresy—in what instances it might be material—*

*Orders to a Military Station from,*

1. *Houses of Parliament*

With regard to a communication between the Offices of the several Members of the Cabinet, I saw no more than you appeared to do, why any point should be made of *secresy:* but it was not for me to judge: still less to pass a judgment that would have been irrevocable. In some other instances that circumstance may, perhaps, be no altogether a matter of indifference.

1. Communication between both Houses of Parliament and the Horse Guards. The practicability of this communication (I mean the facility of carrying on conversation at such distances even in a low voice) is pretty well ascertained by the experiments that have been already made.

2. If the distance should not be too great (a point which might be compleatly ascertained beforehand by experiments that might be made without suspicion of the purpose in the compass of my own garden) Communication (even immediate) between the Royal Residence and the Horse Guards. 2. *Royal Residences*

3. Communication between the War Office and the Tower. This, if necessary, might be through intermediate stages. 3. *War office (to the Tower)*

4. It is, I believe, unprecedented, and would probably be unpopular, that Westminster Hall should be habitually surrounded with Guards. It seems perilous however at all times, and particularly in such as we have seen and may be exposed to see again, that the chief seats of Government and Justice should be altogether without defence against the outrages of a deluded and suddenly collected Mob. The times of Lord George Gordon's Riots, and those of Wilkes and Liberty, ought not to this purpose to be forgotten. Communication by Conversation-Tubes with a Military Station, might give all the security of a constant Guard, without any of the scandal. A posse of Constables with their staves are but a feeble instrument: and the assemblage of these defenders operates as notice of assemblage to the assailants. 4. *Courts of Justice*

ing sound through pipes' (see letter 924). Drafts of the letter and enclosure are in U.C. cvi: 4–7.

5. By a chain of Conversation-Posts, (Parish Watch-Houses for example or Rotation-Offices) hue and cry might be made, and whatever power the place affords, Civil or Military, collected, with a degree of celerity hitherto inconceivable. On this occasion the mind is naturally led to those natural seminaries of riot, the Manufacturing Towns.

Supposing it practicable, would it be worth while to establish communications of this sort with any of the Sea-Ports? (See the expence per Mile in the annexed Table).2 Are there any occasions on which the difference in point of celerity betwixt this channel and that of the Post would be worth regarding?

May not the success of the expedition depend sometimes upon a few hours?—may it not depend upon the catching of a wind?

So for defence against Invasion, and other Military purposes, Signals depend more or less upon situation; and the language is limited.

Against Stock-jobbing might not Government possess by this means an advantage similar to that which it aims at securing by the exclusive use of prohibition of certain species of coasting-vessels against Smuggling?

On these several occasions, your experienced eye will naturally carry you to Scotland and to Ireland: —mine has no acquaintance with those roads.

In the ground at Battersea-Rise pitched upon for the Penitentiary Establishment, the practicability of such a communication from London to the most distant Sea-Port might be ascertained without any intimation given of the purpose. The ground will admitt of a length of above half a mile in a strait line, of which length a tube will not improbably be laid down for the purpose of the establishment. Hundreds of miles might be made out by returns of such a tube: and if the experiment succeeded with these returns, much more would it


*Success previously ascertainable by Experiment, for any distance, without eclat*

<sup>2</sup> This Table and other supporting documents are also in H.O. 42/27, but are not printed here.

in a strait line. By this means the practicability of a communication of this sort (with *Dover* for example) might be compleatly ascertained without *eclat,* and the number of intermediate stations that would be requisite for the purpose.

If the pipes were wanted by Government for any other purpose, or were at present made in sufficient quantity without bespeaking, the mere expence of soldering the pipes together for the purpose of the experiment and then unsoldering them would be no object. I myself would not grudge defraying it. No greater length, it will be observed, would be necessary than would prove sufficient to ascertain what is the greatest distance at which the conversation can be carried on between two stations, without the intervention of a third. The greater this length, the greater the expence of the experiment, but the more perfect the instrument, and the cheaper when carried into use.

In what way can secresy be material? In this way merely— Were the precise course of the tubes known, as well as the purposes for which they were designed, the communication might be cut off when most wanted. Communications of this sort intended for security against Riots, might be cut off by Rioters. As far as the use of the security were confined to its relation to a foreign enemy, nothing could be apprehended for it in this way but on the supposition of treason acting at home in favour of the enemy.

If secresy were material to any of those purposes, it could only be in respect of the details. As a security against Riots, it would even be of use that the existence of the provision made should be known, inasmuch as prevention is better than cure. Total and perpetual secresy, would, it is obvious, be highly precarious, not to say hopeless. A temporary secresy with regard to the purpose, and even a lasting secresy with regard to the details, do not strike me as very difficult to ensure. So long as the purpose remained undivulged, the contrivance itself would never betray it. The pipes in question

*Secresy*

*how far material*

are no others than what are advertised for Water pipes. An apparatus without an apparent object excites attention: an apparatus apparently directed to a familiar object excites none.

To increase the difficulty of discovery and attack, one expedient is, to sink the pipes a considerable way under ground: another, but still more expensive one would be, to inclose them in the strong iron pipes used for water-pipes. In that case the mischief could not be effected, without being made known at least, if not prevented by the inundation. Once established, the communication might endure for ages. Once covered up, the precise course of it might remain unknown for ages.—In aid of these physical safeguards, political ones would naturally be applied. A purposed attack upon any of these instruments of public security, might and ought to be made punishable as an attack upon Government and Justice.

As to secresy, my notions of the importance of it will be implicitly governed by your's. If I receive no commands from you to the contrary within a week, I shall conceive myself left at liberty to speak of it as of any thing else. Meantime with these ideas floating in my mind, you will easily conceive that I could not avoid giving you this trouble. Putting yourself for a moment in my place, and conceiving the possible utility of the contrivance, and the possible importance of secresy to the full success of it, you will easily conceive the regrets that would have been in store for me, in the event of its presenting itself hereafter to the proper Judges, as an instrument of public security that might have had its use, if indolence or indifference on my part had not suffered it to perish.

You best know, whether there is any thing particular in the times that calls for such precautions: but a man can not be an Englishman without having his surmizes and apprehensions.— If in quiet times the use may appear less necessary in unquiet times the execution might be less easy. If in quiet times it should appear premature, in *Communication how securable against Attacks*

*Offer of Secresy in case of Orders from Government*

unquiet it might come too late.—I have the honour to be with great respect,

#### Sir

### Your most obedient and humble Servant Jeremy Bentham.

Evan Nepean Esqr etc. etc. etc.

### 9351

### T <sup>o</sup> S <sup>a</sup> m u e l B e n t h <sup>a</sup> <sup>m</sup>

#### 24 December 1793 (Aet 45)

Hendon Dec. 24 — 1793

Just received your packets of yesterday.2 I know /recollect/ nothing about the fate of the sheet in question, but it may go to Чopтy3 if it pleases, for what is on the other side is I believe about the mark, or would at any rate answer the purpose. The blame lies betwixt Mr Poole,4 and yourself and Puss,5 who by her fall is tumbled into the same predicament /gulph of reprobation/ with yourself.

I have found the 22 missing pages about which I had written to Pollard.6

I am waiting here in expectation every day of a summons from Mr Palmer.7 Till I receive it I shall hardly visit town.

I don't care for you—I am going to set up a legislation-school all of a hurry without and before Panopticon.8

**935.** <sup>1</sup> B.L. V: 477. Autograph. No docket.

Addressed: 'To / Colonel Bentham / Queen's Square Place / Westminster.' Postmark illegible.

2 Missing.

<sup>3</sup> Anglice: 'The devil'.

<sup>4</sup> Perhaps Josiah Poole (see *Correspondence,* iii, 96 n. 11).

5 Either a cat or an unidentified lady, who begins to appear at this point in the correspondence.

<sup>6</sup> A servant of the Benthams.

<sup>7</sup> Perhaps John Sharpe Palmer, the friend and executor of Jeremiah Bentham (see above, p. 364 n. 2).

8 Drafts headed 'Proposal for a school of legislation' are in U.C. cvii: 31–6. See J. H. Burns, *Jeremy Bentham and University College,* 1962, Appendix no. 2, pp. 20–27.

### T o a n U n k n o w n C o r r e s p o n d e n t Late 1793 (Aet 45)

Dear Sir,

491

The conflict betwixt the desire of seconding your wishes, and the despair of effecting it, has retarded my answer to your letter,2 to a degree which I cannot think of without compunction. Had I yielded to the first impulse that it gave me, I should have gone open-mouthed to the Admiralty, saying, O ye generation of vipers! A little reflection informed me that I had no means of impressing any of the lords, much less Lord Chatham, with any idea of any such case.3 As to Lord Chatham, you may judge of the sort of chance I should have of being listened to by him,—I who have not come across him these dozen years, when you recollect his refusal to listen to a proposal of my brother's, promising the greatest advantage to the service, without any risk, on the ground of his being a Russian spy. As to any other lord, it is a question with us whether they durst interfere in so invidious a business; it is pretty clear to me that they would not like it, and I have no acquaintance there but what is too recent and too slight to warrant my so much as asking a favour, much less the demanding justice. Your brother, as I am happy to find, has in his favour the recommendations as well as wishes from all that know him, from those in particular whose recommendations on such an occasion have, of all others, the best claim to regard. Supposing all this to be ineffectual, can there be the smallest chance that anything I could say would be of use? I, who cannot so much as pretend ever to have set eyes on him in my life, and who can have no motive to wish well to him, nor reason to think well of him, but what is afforded by a man who is the object of so unfortunate a prepossession as what you

2 Missing.

**<sup>936.</sup>** <sup>1</sup> Bowring, x, 296–7. Introduced by the statement: 'In answer to a gentleman who applied to Bentham, requesting his interest at the Admiralty, in favour of his brother, who had been accused of Jacobinism, Bentham says:'. No indication of date is given, but the letter is placed between the one to Metcalfe of 31 October 1793 and the one from Dresden, dated 15 January 1794 (letter 942).

<sup>3</sup> Sir John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham (1756–1835), and the elder brother of the prime minister, was First Lord of the Admiralty from July 1788 until December 1794, when he changed places with Earl Spencer, who had been Lord Privy Seal. Bentham had met him at Bowood in 1781 (see *Correspondence,* iii, 82), but apparently, from what he says in this letter, not since that time.

speak of. If no such prejudice exists against him, what room can such a body of recommendation allow for fear? If such a prejudice does exist, and that so strong a one as to overpower such a body of recommendation, could the interference of a stranger like myself present any ground for hope?

I beg you will be assured, that no opportunity that, to my judgment, promises any chance of being of use to you or yours, will be omitted by me, and that I am, with the truest regard, yours ever.

#### index

*Note.* This is an index of names of persons occurring in the text and notes. References throughout are to page-numbers, except in the case of Bentham's correspondents, where the figures in italic type after the sub-headings 'Letters to' and 'Letters from' refer to the serial numbers of the letters. The abbreviation 'biog.' indicates a biographical note on the person indexed.

In the case of Bentham himself (J.B.), apart from the mention of portraits and of his will, only references to his works are indexed. His father and brother, to whom constant references are made in the letters, are indexed only as correspondents.

An analytical index to the correspondence as a whole will be provided in the final volume of this part of the edition.


493

	- Letter to: *789*
	- Letter from: *792*
	- Letter from: *782*

barthélemy, François: 124n. baumez (baumetz), Bon Albert Brois de: 397, biog. 397n., 399 & n., 403, 404

Letter from: *875*

49

	- Portraits: 115 & n.
	- Will, 15 July 1792: *849*
	- *Apologie de l'usure*: 168n., 263 & n. *Defence of Usury*: 12, 20, 21, 29 & n., 30 & n., 34, 35 & n., 36, 37, 47 & n., 50n., 51 & n., 69n., 70, 71, 76, 96 & n., 125n., 132–4, 168 & n., 194, 195, 208, 209, 222, 263 & n.,
		- 273, 296n., 413, 416
	- *Draught of a new Plan for the Organisation of the Judicial Establishment in France*: 124–6, 124n., 200 & n., 201 & n., 217 & n., 242 n., 244, 264 & n., 319, 320, 336, 416, 430
	- *Emancipate your Colonies*: 23 & n., 430 & n.
	- *Essay on Political Tactics*: 29 & n., 30, 31, 33, 39 & n., 48–9, 51–2, 59– 60, 61, 68n., 69, 70, 74, 75 & n., 211 & n., 215n., 216 & n., 217 & n., 231 & n., 236n., 242 & n., 244, 254, 264, 333 & n., 336, 430
	- *Essay on Representation*: 31 & n., 41 & n.
	- *A Fragment on Government*: 36
	- *Indirect Legislation*: 386 & n.
	- *Influence of Time and Place on Legislation*: 386n.
	- *Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation*: 24 & n.,

29, 30, 34 & n., 35 & n., 36, 37, 46, 47, 50n., 63, 66, 69, 85 & n.

	- Letters to: *671*, *728*, *756*, *759*, *775*, *779*, *780*, *808*, *901*, *935*
	- Letters from: *627*, *688*, *703*, *717*, *723*, *737*, *767*, *785*, *797*, *798*, *801*, *807*, *809*, *811*

bentham, Sarah (née Farr): 14,

biog. 14n., 94, 205 & n., 276, 293n., 331n., 333

billingsley, John: 303 & n.

495

	- Letter to: *696*

buggins, Mr: 326

	- Letters to: *768*, *842*, *932*
	- Letter to: *846*
	- Letter to: *662*

calcraft, John: 182n.


camden, Earl of: See pratt



debraw, Dr John: 10

497

	- Letters to: *663*, *697*, *699*, *857*
	- Letters from: *678*, *698*, *732*, *859*, *877*
	- Letter to: *801*
	- Letter from: *880*
	- Letter from: *722*
	- Letter to: *892*

	- Letters to: *691*, *692*, *693*, *694*, *729a*, *750*, *762*, *765*, *774*, *818*, *819*, *827*, *831*, *832*

george iii, King of England: 105, 289–91, 383n., 393n.

Letter to: *775*


#### I n dex

griffiths, Mr: 390 grote, Frederick: 418 grove, Ann: See williams grove, George Woodward: 153n., 327n. grove, Susannah: 327 & n. guilford, Lord: See north gustavus iii, King of Sweden: 44 & n.


49


hobson, Mr (Joshua?): 481n.

holland, Lord: See fox


howard, Charles (agriculturalist): 304n.


Letters from: *640*, *677*

ingenhousz (ingenhausz, ingen-housz) Jan: 109, biog. 109n., 110, 300–1, 309 & n., 344, 365–6

Letters from: *786*, *791*, *841*

jackson, Francis James: 391n.

	- Letter from: *743*

jephthah: 270 & n.

jerningham, Edward: 393 & n.



Letter from: *865*


law, John (bishop): 413 & n., 416 & n., 422n. law, Thomas: 413, biog. 413n., 414, 415–16, 416, 423, 424 Letters to: *884*, *887* Letters from: *885*, *888*, *893*, *894* lee, John: 62 & n., 63 leeds, Lord: See osborne le hodey: 336n. le jay, Laurent L.E.: 96n., 168n. leopold ii, Emperor of Austria: 322 & n. lettsom, John Coakley (physician): 353–4, 354n. leveson-gower, George Granville, Earl Gower (later Duke of Sutherland): 274 & n., 294, 391n., 417n. ligne, Charles Joseph, prince de: 274, biog. 274n., 275



national assembly: See france


Letter from: *902*

nepean, (Sir) Evan—cont.

502

	- Letters to: *705*, *708*, *711*, *714*, *715*, *716*, *734*, *741*, *773*

perkins, Mrs: 274 & n.

	- Letter to: *643*
	- Letters to: *665*, *704*, *710*, *713*, *749*, *790*, *796*, *799*, *826*, *838*, *854*, *856*, *862*, *863*, *864*, *866*
	- Letters from: *635*, *636*, *639*, *648*, *661*, *670*, *674*, *690*, *701*, *712*, *725*, *748*, *778*, *794*, *800*, *803*, *813*, *815*, *852*, *853*, *854*, *881*, *899*

	- Letters from: *735*, *736*
	- Letters to: *843*, *844*, *850*
	- Letters from: *845*, *851*

sarsfield, comte de: 52n., 56

504

	- Letters to: *912*, *915*, *917*
	- Letters from: *913*, *918*, *921*, *925*, *928*

spencer, Lord Henry John: 362n.

	- Letter to: *720*

stockdale, John (bookseller): 334n.


thomas, G: 326n.


64 & n., 65, 72, 77, 80 & n., 216, 259n., 264, 408, 471


50

	- Letters to: *895*, *898*
	- Letters from: *742*, *755*, *758*, *763*, *764*, *766*, *781*, *787*, *795*, *816*, *877*, *903*

vich (ambassador): 136 & n., 315n., 484 & n.

	- Letters to: *890*, *919*
	- Letter from: 920
	- Letter from: *929*


The first five volumes of *The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham* contain over 1,300 letters written both to and from Bentham over a 50-year period, beginning in 1752 (aged three) with his earliest surviving letter to his grandmother, and ending in 1797 with correspondence concerning his attempts to set up a national scheme for the provision of poor relief. Against the background of the debates on the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789, to which he made significant contributions, Bentham worked first on producing a complete penal code, which involved him in detailed explorations of fundamental legal ideas, and then on his panopticon prison scheme. Despite developing a host of original and ground-breaking ideas, contained in a mass of manuscripts, he published little during these years, and remained, at the close of this period, a relatively obscure individual. Nevertheless, these volumes reveal how the foundations were laid for the remarkable rise of Benthamite utilitarianism in the early nineteenth century.

The Colle ct e d

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Corresponden

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W o r k s o f

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t o D e c e m b Jeremy Ben t h a m

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Correspondence

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Jeremy Bentham

**Edit e d by Al e x a n d e r Ta ylor Miln e**

Oct o b e r 1 7 8 8

volume 4

t o D e c e m b er 1793

In 1789 Bentham published *An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation*, which remains his most famous work, but which had little impact at the time, followed in 1791 by *The Panopticon: or, The Inspection-House,* in which he proposed the building of a circular penitentiary house. Bentham's correspondence unfolds against the backdrop of the increasingly violent French Revolution, and shows his initial sympathy for France turning into hostility.

**Alexander Taylor Milne** (1906–1994), scholar and historian, was Secretary and Librarian of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.

**General editor: J.R. Dinwiddy** (1939–90), historian, was educated at New College, Oxford, before being appointed successively as Lecturer 1969–78, Senior Lecturer 1978–83, Reader 1983–9, and Professor 1989–90 in the Department of History, Royal Holloway College, University of London. In 1977 he was appointed as second General Editor of *The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham,* a post he held jointly with Professor Burns until the following year, and then solely until 1983.

Free open access versions available from www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press