Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T04:38:16.292Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Jeremy Bentham

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

H. A. Hollond

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Obituary
Information
The Cambridge Law Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 1948 , pp. 3 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Law Journal and Contributors 1948

References

1 Collected Papers, p. 264.

2 Many of his works were translated into several languages. See DrLipstein's, article in the Symposium, published 1948 by Stevens, London.Google Scholar

3 The father's fortune was made by judicious investment in land.

4 ‘Scrivener’, originally meaning a professional penman, became a synonym for ‘notary public’, an official, of ecclesiastical origin, who authenticates documents for use in legal proceedings in foreign countries. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries scriveners used also to receive money to place out at interest. H.E.L. XII, 70–72. Christian, History of Solicitors, 141–154.

5 Mrs. Morel's house was on the site of the house now called ‘Grant's’, after another eighteenth century ‘Dame’. Westminster School, by Tanner, L. E.,Google Scholar Keeper of the Muniments of Westminster Abbey, p. 30.

6 Works, I, 247.

7 Apart from some Latin verses written at Oxford on the death of George II, his first publication was a letter in the Gazeteer of December 3, 1770, on the enlistment of seamen. Ogden, Appendix I to Centenary Lecture.

8 Works, X, 67.

9 Works, X, p. 35. See also VII, 219–220.

9a Charles Warren Everett, Professor of Literature in Columbia University.

10 Bentham's attitude was grossly unfair. Blackstone was among the more progressive lawyers of his day. For a balanced estimate of Blackstone see Holdsworth's H. E. L., XII, 702–37. But Bentham candidly expressed his admiration of Blackstone's presentation. ‘Correct, elegant, unembarrassed, ornamented, the style is such as could scarce fail to recommend a work still more vicious in point of matter to the multitude of readers. He it is, in short, who, first of all institutional writers, has taught Jurisprudence to speak the language of the Scholar and the Gentleman’.

11 There is no biography of Wilson in the D.N.B. There is an account of him in Works, X, 133, and of his death in 1816 in X, 487. It appears from a letter (Works, X, 247) that Wilson was junior to Bentham.

12 The year of publication, 1776, is, of course, a notable one, being that of the American Declaration of Independence, and of the publication of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.

13 Works, X, 87.

14 Works, I, 255.

15 William Petty's father, John FitzMaurice, who was created Earl of Shelburne, was second son of the twenty-first Lord, and first Earl, of Kerry. On succeeding to the Petty estates from a maternal uncle John FitzMaurice assumed the surname Petty. In 1818 the third Lord Lansdowne on inheriting the Earldom of Kerry from a cousin resumed the surname FitzMaurice.

16 Caroline Fox, daughter of the second Lord Holland, and niece of Lady Lansdowne. Bentham proposed to her by letter in 1805, a few months after Lord Lansdowne's death. He wrote to her again when a very old man and was greatly hurt by the curtness of her reply.

17 Guillotined as a Girondist in 1793.

18 Published in French by Dumont in 1816. The English version is in Works, II, 299–373.

19 Works, IV, 285–406.

20 The group included among others Washington, Priestley and Wilberforce.

21 In his later years he used to refer to the house as the Hermitage, and himself as the hermit.

22 Centenary Lecture, Appendix.

23 The Education of Jeremy Bentham, 178.

24 Theory of Legislation, 1931, p. xxxii.Google Scholar

25 Quoted by Ogden, C. K., Theory of Legislation, 1931, p. xxxiv,Google ScholarWorks, X, p. 555.

26 The Theory of Legislation, 1931, Kegan Paul & Co.Google Scholar

27 Atkinson, p. 223. It occupies pp. 1 to 187 of Vol. VI of the Works. There is no reference to any earlier publication.

28 Atkinson states that an English version of the Traité des Preuves Judiciaries appeared in 1825.

29 Works, VI, 188 to end, and the whole of Vol. VII. There is a reference (VI, p. 203) to the original editor, but no indication as to his identity.

30 D.N.B., John Stuart Mill.

31 Works, V, 61–186. It was first published in 1826. The advertisement to the first edition states, ‘This work was printed many years ago. Circumstances prevented its being at that time exposed to sale. In regard to the author, all that need be said is—that it was not by him that it was then kept back; and that it is not by him, or at his instance that it is now put forth.

If, on either accounts, it were desirable that the causes of its being thus long withheld should be brought to view, those causes would afford a striking illustration of the baneful influence of the principles and practices it is employed in unveiling, and presenting in their true colours’.

32 Works, X, 450.

33 Works, III, 433–557.

34 Wallas’ Life of Place, p. 127.

35 Works, X, 492–495.

36 Printed in Works, X, 495–497.

37 Works, III, 558–597. For the date see statement in Radicalism not Dangerous that the draft Bill was published on December 6, 1819. Works, III, 599.

38 Works, II, 599–622.

39 Works, I, 153.

40 In 1822 the Cortes decreed the translation of Bentham's works into Portuguese, at the public expense. Works, XI, 20.

41 Works, IV, 535.

42 Works, II, 267.

43 Works, IX; Book I, 1–145; Book II, 146–648.

44 Local Government in England, English edition, 1903, by Redlich, and Hirst, , p. 53.Google Scholar

45 Ogden, Centenary Lecture, 9.

45a See penultimate, para 2, Part III, Bibliographical Notes.

46 I was sorry to read a statement made by Bentham that he left the invitation unanswered for several weeks. At the time of going to press I cannot find the reference. The resolution offering him election was passed on June 25, 1817; the date of election was December 10, 1817. The Treasurer (i.e., the annual Head of the Society) for that year was Henry Martin, k.c.: Black Books of Lincoln's Inn.

47 Wallas, Life of Place, 84.Google Scholar

48 Works, VIII, 12.

49 Works, VIII, 13.

50 Works, VIII, 185.

51 Works, V, 348–382. According to X, 542, publication was in 1824, but it appears from the pamphlet itself that it was in 1825.

52 The following is an amusing example of Bentham's vitriol. It is taken from a ‘Postscript’, which was evidently not published with the original pamphlet.

The passage, p. 377, is headed ‘Lord Eldon Squeaking’. Lord Eldon is represented as answering a speech in the House of Lords, by Lord Grosvenor, on sinecures.

‘Whereupon, up rises Lord Eldon, finger in eye, answering Lord Grosvenor's digression, with a digression on calumny and firmness. Addresses, two: one to the people, the other to noble lords. For better intelligibility, behold these same addresses, in the first place, in plain English: after that, for security against misrepresentation, in Lord Eldonish.

‘1. Lord Eldon to the people, in plain English.—Have done I have done! Let me alone 1 Nay, but don't teaze me so. You had best not; you won't get anything by it. This is not the way to get me out, I can tell you that. Come now, if you will but let me alone, I'll go out of my own accord. I should have been out long ago, had it not been for you. It's only your teazing me so that keeps me in. If you keep on teaze, teaze, I'll never get out: no, that I won't’.

‘The original in Lord Eldonish.—“Perhaps it is thought that this mode of calumnious misrepresentation is the way to get me out of office. They are mistaken who think so; I will not yield to such aspersions; nor shrink from asserting what I owe to myself. Had I been treated with common justice, I should not, perhaps, have been Lord Chancellor this day; but, I repeat it, I will not be driven out of office by calumnious attack. Let me only be treated with common justice, and my place shall be at any man's disposal”.’

‘2. Lord Eldon to Lordships in plain English.—Help! help! help! Going, going! Can't stand it any longer. What! nobody lend me a hand?—nobody speak a word for me? Do not you see how it is with me? What! and will you turn against me? Better not: I can tell you that. You'll be all the worse for it. When I am put down, it will be your turn next. What will become of your privileges?—think of that! I'll tell you what, so sure as they take away my seals, so sure will they take away your privileges.

‘ Squeaking, staggering, blustering, crying out for help—all in a breath! What an exhibition! ’

‘ Original in Lord Eldonish.—“The feelings and fate of an individual are in themselves of small importance to the public, and I may be sacrificed to the insults I daily receive. But I beg noble lords to reflect, that I may not be the only sacrifice. If the object is, as it appears to be, to pull down the reputation, and throw discredit on the motives and conduct of men in high official situations, —if every man who occupies a high situation in the church” [turning, of course, to the bishops’ bench] “in the church or state, is to become the object of slander and calumny, then your lordships may lay your account with similar treatment, and be convinced that your privileges or power cannot long be respected, when such characters have been sacrificed”.

‘ N.B. At what words the tears began to flow is not reported. When a crocodile comes on the stage—Tears, tears, should be added to the Hear! Hears!’

53 Works, X 571.

54 Works, X 574.

55 Works, X. 588.

56 Works, V, 577.

57 Atkinson, 185.

58 Works, XI, 95.

59 Works, XI, 75.

60 Law and Opinion, 129, 133. I think that Dr. Zane's diatribe in Great Jurists of the World may be dismissed as unworthy of attention. Why the editor should have admitted to a volume so entitled a contribution which denied to Bentham the right to be considered a jurist at all I cannot imagine.

61 Early History of Institutions.

62 Op. cit. 125.

63 Ancient Law.

64 P. 145.

65 Redlich and Hirst, Local Government in England, 83–97.Google Scholar

66 John Hill Burton (1809–82), historian and economist, assisted Bowring in editing the Works. He contributed an introduction of eighty pages to Vol. I. His list of reforms advocated by Bentham is in the ‘Advertisement’.

67 Henry Sumner Maine (1822–88), one of the greatest jurists of the nineteenth century, was Regius Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge, 1847–54; legal member of the Council of India, 1862–9; Corpus Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford, 1869–78; Master of Trinity Hall, 1877–88; Whewell, Professor of International Law, 1887–8.

68 Men and Ideas, p. 29. The book, published in 1940, is a collection of articles and addresses by Graham Wallas, edited by his daughter Miss May Wallas. The quotation is from a foundation oration delivered at University College, London, in 1922, and printed in the Political Science Quarterly, March, 1923.

69 Published by the Manchester University Press, 1933, see pp. 26, 27.

70 P. 31.

71 Vol. II, 535–60. The first three essays have been summarised, and the last reprinted in full, by Dr. Colombos, C. J. in No. 6 of the Grotius Society Publications, 1927.Google Scholar

72 Works, X, 584.

73 Bentham's, Theory of Fictions, ed. Ogden, , 1932, p. xxxii.Google Scholar

74 Atkinson was a stipendiary magistrate in Leeds.

75 Dillon was an American judge and law professor.