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+Project Gutenberg's The English Utilitarians, Volume I., by Leslie Stephen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The English Utilitarians, Volume I.
+
+Author: Leslie Stephen
+
+Release Date: December 23, 2008 [EBook #27597]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH UTILITARIANS, VOLUME I ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Thierry Alberto, Paul Dring, Henry Craig and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ENGLISH UTILITARIANS
+
+_By_
+
+LESLIE STEPHEN
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+LONDON
+
+_DUCKWORTH and CO._
+
+3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.
+
+1900
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This book is a sequel to my _History of English Thought in the
+Eighteenth Century_. The title which I then ventured to use was more
+comprehensive than the work itself deserved: I felt my inability to
+write a continuation which should at all correspond to a similar title
+for the nineteenth century. I thought, however, that by writing an
+account of the compact and energetic school of English Utilitarians I
+could throw some light both upon them and their contemporaries. I had
+the advantage for this purpose of having been myself a disciple of the
+school during its last period. Many accidents have delayed my completion
+of the task; and delayed also its publication after it was written. Two
+books have been published since that time, which partly cover the same
+ground; and I must be content with referring my readers to them for
+further information. They are _The English Radicals_, by Mr. C. B.
+Roylance Kent; and _English Political Philosophy from Hobbes to Maine_,
+by Professor Graham.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                     PAGE
+  INTRODUCTORY                          1
+
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+  POLITICAL CONDITIONS
+
+    I. The British Constitution        12
+
+   II. The Ruling Class                18
+
+  III. Legislation and Administration  22
+
+   IV. The Army and Navy               30
+
+    V. The Church                      35
+
+   VI. The Universities                43
+
+  VII. Theory                          51
+
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+  THE INDUSTRIAL SPIRIT
+
+    I. The Manufacturers               57
+
+   II. The Agriculturists              69
+
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+  SOCIAL PROBLEMS
+
+    I. Pauperism                       87
+
+   II. The Police                      99
+
+  III. Education                      108
+
+   IV. The Slave-Trade                113
+
+    V. The French Revolution          121
+
+   VI. Individualism                  130
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+  PHILOSOPHY
+
+    I. John Horne Tooke               137
+
+   II. Dugald Stewart                 142
+
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+  BENTHAM'S LIFE
+
+    I. Early Life                     169
+
+   II. First Writings                 175
+
+  III. The Panopticon                 193
+
+   IV. Utilitarian Propaganda         206
+
+    V. Codification                   222
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+  BENTHAM'S DOCTRINE
+
+    I. First Principles               235
+
+   II. Springs of Action              249
+
+  III. The Sanctions                  255
+
+   IV. Criminal Law                   263
+
+    V. English Law                    271
+
+   VI. Radicalism                     282
+
+  VII. Individualism                  307
+
+
+  NOTE ON BENTHAM'S WRITINGS          319
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+The English Utilitarians of whom I am about to give some account were a
+group of men who for three generations had a conspicuous influence upon
+English thought and political action. Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and
+John Stuart Mill were successively their leaders; and I shall speak of
+each in turn. It may be well to premise a brief indication of the method
+which I have adopted. I have devoted a much greater proportion of my
+work to biography and to consideration of political and social
+conditions than would be appropriate to the history of a philosophy. The
+reasons for such a course are very obvious in this case, inasmuch as the
+Utilitarian doctrines were worked out with a constant reference to
+practical applications. I think, indeed, that such a reference is often
+equally present, though not equally conspicuous, in other philosophical
+schools. But in any case I wish to show how I conceive the relation of
+my scheme to the scheme more generally adopted by historians of abstract
+speculation.
+
+I am primarily concerned with the history of a school or sect, not with
+the history of the arguments by which it justifies itself in the court
+of pure reason. I must therefore consider the creed as it was actually
+embodied in the dominant beliefs of the adherents of the school, not as
+it was expounded in lecture-rooms or treatises on first principles. I
+deal not with philosophers meditating upon Being and not-Being, but with
+men actively engaged in framing political platforms and carrying on
+popular agitations. The great majority even of intelligent partisans are
+either indifferent to the philosophic creed of their leaders or take it
+for granted. Its postulates are more or less implied in the doctrines
+which guide them in practice, but are not explicitly stated or
+deliberately reasoned out. Not the less the doctrines of a sect,
+political or religious, may be dependent upon theories which for the
+greater number remain latent or are recognised only in their concrete
+application. Contemporary members of any society, however widely they
+differ as to results, are employed upon the same problems and, to some
+extent, use the same methods and make the same assumptions in attempting
+solutions. There is a certain unity even in the general thought of any
+given period. Contradictory views imply some common ground. But within
+this wider unity we find a variety of sects, each of which may be
+considered as more or less representing a particular method of treating
+the general problem: and therefore principles which, whether clearly
+recognised or not, are virtually implied in their party creed and give a
+certain unity to their teaching.
+
+One obvious principle of unity, or tacit bond of sympathy which holds a
+sect together depends upon the intellectual idiosyncrasy of the
+individuals. Coleridge was aiming at an important truth when he said
+that every man was born an Aristotelian or a Platonist.[1] Nominalists
+and realists, intuitionists and empiricists, idealists and materialists,
+represent different forms of a fundamental antithesis which appears to
+run through all philosophy. Each thinker is apt to take the postulates
+congenial to his own mind as the plain dictates of reason. Controversies
+between such opposites appear to be hopeless. They have been aptly
+compared by Dr. Venn to the erection of a snow-bank to dam a river. The
+snow melts and swells the torrent which it was intended to arrest. Each
+side reads admitted truths into its own dialect, and infers that its own
+dialect affords the only valid expression. To regard such antitheses as
+final and insoluble would be to admit complete scepticism. What is true
+for one man would not therefore be true--or at least its truth would not
+be demonstrable--to another. We must trust that reconciliation is
+achievable by showing that the difference is really less vital and
+corresponds to a difference of methods or of the spheres within which
+each mode of thought may be valid. To obtain the point of view from
+which such a conciliation is possible should be, I hold, one main end of
+modern philosophising.
+
+The effect of this profound intellectual difference is complicated by
+other obvious influences. There is, in the first place, the difference
+of intellectual horizon. Each man has a world of his own and sees a
+different set of facts. Whether his horizon is that which is visible
+from his parish steeple or from St. Peter's at Rome, it is still
+strictly limited: and the outside universe, known vaguely and
+indirectly, does not affect him like the facts actually present to his
+perception. The most candid thinkers will come to different conclusions
+when they are really provided with different sets of fact. In political
+and social problems every man's opinions are moulded by his social
+station. The artisan's view of the capitalist, and the capitalist's view
+of the artisan, are both imperfect, because each has a first-hand
+knowledge of his own class alone: and, however anxious to be fair, each
+will take a very different view of the working of political
+institutions. An apparent concord often covers the widest divergence
+under the veil of a common formula, because each man has his private
+mode of interpreting general phrases in terms of concrete fact.
+
+This, of course, implies the further difference arising from the
+passions which, however illogically, go so far to determine opinions.
+Here we have the most general source of difficulty in considering the
+actual history of a creed. We cannot limit ourselves to the purely
+logical factor. All thought has to start from postulates. Men have to
+act before they think: before, at any rate, reasoning becomes distinct
+from imagining or guessing. To explain in early periods is to fancy and
+to take a fancy for a perception. The world of the primitive man is
+constructed not only from vague conjectures and hasty analogies but from
+his hopes and fears, and bears the impress of his emotional nature. When
+progress takes place some of his beliefs are confirmed, some disappear,
+and others are transformed: and the whole history of thought is a
+history of this gradual process of verification. We begin, it is said,
+by assuming: we proceed by verifying, and we only end by demonstrating.
+The process is comparatively simple in that part of knowledge which
+ultimately corresponds to the physical sciences. There must be a certain
+harmony between beliefs and realities in regard to knowledge of ordinary
+matters of fact, if only because such harmony is essential to the life
+of the race. Even an ape must distinguish poisonous from wholesome food.
+Beliefs as to physical facts require to be made articulate and distinct;
+but we have only to recognise as logical principles the laws of nature
+which we have unconsciously obeyed and illustrated--to formulate
+dynamics long after we have applied the science in throwing stones or
+using bows and arrows. But what corresponds to this in the case of the
+moral and religious beliefs? What is the process of verification? Men
+practically are satisfied with their creed so long as they are satisfied
+with the corresponding social order. The test of truth so suggested is
+obviously inadequate: for all great religions, however contradictory to
+each other, have been able to satisfy it for long periods. Particular
+doctrines might be tested by experiment. The efficacy of witchcraft
+might be investigated like the efficacy of vaccination. But faith can
+always make as many miracles as it wants: and errors which originate in
+the fancy cannot be at once extirpated by the reason. Their form may be
+changed but not their substance. To remove them requires not disproof of
+this or that fact, but an intellectual discipline which is rare even
+among the educated classes. A religious creed survives, as poetry or art
+survives,--not so long as it contains apparently true statements of fact
+but--so long as it is congenial to the whole social state. A philosophy
+indeed is a poetry stated in terms of logic. Considering the natural
+conservatism of mankind, the difficulty is to account for progress, not
+for the persistence of error. When the existing order ceases to be
+satisfactory; when conquest or commerce has welded nations together and
+brought conflicting creeds into cohesion; when industrial development
+has modified the old class relations; or when the governing classes have
+ceased to discharge their functions, new principles are demanded and new
+prophets arise. The philosopher may then become the mouthpiece of the
+new order, and innocently take himself to be its originator. His
+doctrines were fruitless so long as the soil was not prepared for the
+seed. A premature discovery if not stamped out by fire and sword is
+stifled by indifference. If Francis Bacon succeeded where Roger Bacon
+failed, the difference was due to the social conditions, not to the men.
+The cause of the great religious as well as of the great political
+revolutions must be sought mainly in the social history. New creeds
+spread when they satisfy the instincts or the passions roused to
+activity by other causes. The system has to be so far true as to be
+credible at the time; but its vitality depends upon its congeniality as
+a whole to the aspirations of the mass of mankind.
+
+The purely intellectual movement no doubt represents the decisive
+factor. The love of truth in the abstract is probably the weakest of
+human passions; but truth when attained ultimately gives the fulcrum for
+a reconstruction of the world. When a solid core of ascertained and
+verifiable truth has once been formed and applied to practical results
+it becomes the fixed pivot upon which all beliefs must ultimately turn.
+The influence, however, is often obscure and still indirect. The more
+cultivated recognise the necessity of bringing their whole doctrine into
+conformity with the definitely organised and established system; and, at
+the present day, even the uneducated begin to have an inkling of
+possible results. Yet the desire for logical consistency is not one
+which presses forcibly upon the less cultivated intellects. They do not
+feel the necessity of unifying knowledge or bringing their various
+opinions into consistency and into harmony with facts. There are easy
+methods of avoiding any troublesome conflict of belief. The philosopher
+is ready to show them the way. He, like other people, has to start from
+postulates, and to see how they will work. When he meets with a
+difficulty it is perfectly legitimate that he should try how far the old
+formula can be applied to cover the new applications. He may be led to a
+process of 'rationalising' or 'spiritualising' which is dangerous to
+intellectual honesty. The vagueness of the general conceptions with
+which he is concerned facilitates the adaptation; and his words slide
+into new meanings by imperceptible gradations. His error is in taking a
+legitimate tentative process for a conclusive test; and inferring that
+opinions are confirmed because a non-natural interpretation can be
+forced upon them. This, however, is only the vicious application of the
+normal process through which new ideas are diffused or slowly infiltrate
+the old systems till the necessity of a thoroughgoing reconstruction
+forces itself upon our attention. Nor can it be denied that an opposite
+fallacy is equally possible, especially in times of revolutionary
+passion. The apparent irreconcilability of some new doctrine with the
+old may lead to the summary rejection of the implicit truth, together
+with the error involved in its imperfect recognition. Hence arises the
+necessity for faking into account not only a man's intellectual
+idiosyncrasies and the special intellectual horizon, but all the
+prepossessions due to his personal character, his social environment,
+and his consequent sympathies and antipathies. The philosopher has his
+passions like other men. He does not really live in the thin air of
+abstract speculation. On the contrary, he starts generally, and surely
+is right in starting, with keen interest in the great religious,
+ethical, and social problems of the time. He wishes--honestly and
+eagerly--to try them by the severest tests, and to hold fast only what
+is clearly valid. The desire to apply his principles in fact justifies
+his pursuit, and redeems him from the charge that he is delighting in
+barren intellectual subtleties. But to an outsider his procedure may
+appear in a different light. His real problem comes to be: how the
+conclusions which are agreeable to his emotions can be connected with
+the postulates which are congenial to his intellect? He may be
+absolutely honest and quite unconscious that his conclusions were
+prearranged by his sympathies. No philosophic creed of any importance
+has ever been constructed, we may well believe, without such sincerity
+and without such plausibility as results from its correspondence to at
+least some aspects of the truth. But the result is sufficiently shown by
+the perplexed controversies which arise. Men agree in their conclusions,
+though starting from opposite premises; or from the same premises reach
+the most diverging conclusions. The same code of practical morality, it
+is often said, is accepted by thinkers who deny each other's first
+principles; dogmatism often appears to its opponents to be thoroughgoing
+scepticism in disguise, and men establish victoriously results which
+turn out in the end to be really a stronghold for their antagonists.
+
+Hence there is a distinction between such a history of a sect as I
+contemplate and a history of scientific inquiry or of pure philosophy. A
+history of mathematical or physical science would differ from a direct
+exposition of the science, but only in so far as it would state truths
+in the order of discovery, not in the order most convenient for
+displaying them as a system. It would show what were the processes by
+which they were originally found out, and how they have been afterwards
+annexed or absorbed in some wider generalisation. These facts might be
+stated without any reference to the history of the discoverers or of the
+society to which they belonged. They would indeed suggest very
+interesting topics to the general historian or 'sociologist.' He might
+be led to inquire under what conditions men came to inquire
+scientifically at all; why they ceased for centuries to care for
+science; why they took up special departments of investigation; and what
+was the effect of scientific discoveries upon social relations in
+general. But the two inquiries would be distinct for obvious reasons. If
+men study mathematics they can only come to one conclusion. They will
+find out the same propositions of geometry if they only think clearly
+enough and long enough, as certainly as Columbus would discover America
+if he only sailed far enough. America was there, and so in a sense are
+the propositions. We may therefore in this case entirely separate the
+two questions: what leads men to think? and what conclusions will they
+reach? The reasons which guided the first discoverers are just as valid
+now, though they can be more systematically stated. But in the 'moral
+sciences' this distinction is not equally possible. The intellectual and
+the social evolution are closely and intricately connected, and each
+reacts upon the other. In the last resort no doubt a definitive system
+of belief once elaborated would repose upon universally valid truths
+and determine, instead of being determined by, the corresponding social
+order. But in the concrete evolution which, we may hope, is
+approximating towards this result, the creeds current among mankind have
+been determined by the social conditions as well as helped to determine
+them. To give an account of that process it is necessary to specify the
+various circumstances which may lead to the survival of error, and to
+the partial views of truth taken by men of different idiosyncrasies
+working upon different data and moved by different passions and
+prepossessions. A history written upon these terms would show primarily
+what, as a fact, were the dominant beliefs during a given period, and
+state which survived, which disappeared, and which were transformed or
+engrafted upon other systems of thought. This would of course raise the
+question of the truth or falsehood of the doctrines as well as of their
+vitality: for the truth is at least one essential condition of permanent
+vitality. The difference would be that the problem would be approached
+from a different side. We should ask first what beliefs have flourished,
+and afterwards ask why they flourished, and how far their vitality was
+due to their partial or complete truth. To write such a history would
+perhaps require an impartiality which few people possess and which I do
+not venture to claim. I have my own opinions for which other people may
+account by prejudice, assumption, or downright incapacity. I am quite
+aware that I shall be implicitly criticising myself in criticising
+others. All that I can profess is that by taking the questions in this
+order, I shall hope to fix attention upon one set of considerations
+which are apt, as I fancy, to be unduly neglected. The result of
+reading some histories is to raise the question: how people on the other
+side came to be such unmitigated fools? Why were they imposed upon by
+such obvious fallacies? That may be answered by considering more fully
+the conditions under which the opinions were actually adopted, and one
+result may be to show that those opinions had a considerable element of
+truth, and were held by men who were the very opposite of fools. At any
+rate I shall do what I can to write an account of this phase of thought,
+so as to bring out what were its real tenets; to what intellectual type
+they were naturally congenial; what were the limitations of view which
+affected the Utilitarians' conception of the problems to be solved; and
+what were the passions and prepossessions due to the contemporary state
+of society and to their own class position, which to some degree
+unconsciously dictated their conclusions. So far as I can do this
+satisfactorily, I hope that I may throw some light upon the intrinsic
+value of the creed, and the place which it should occupy in a definitive
+system.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[1] _Table-Talk_, 3 July 1830.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+POLITICAL CONDITIONS
+
+
+I. THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION
+
+The English Utilitarians represent one outcome of the speculations
+current in England during the later part of the eighteenth century. For
+the reasons just assigned I shall begin by briefly recalling some of the
+social conditions which set the problems for the coming generation and
+determined the mode of answering them. I must put the main facts in
+evidence, though they are even painfully familiar. The most obvious
+starting-point is given by the political situation. The supremacy of
+parliament had been definitively established by the revolution of 1688,
+and had been followed by the elaboration of the system of party
+government. The centre of gravity of the political world lay in the
+House of Commons. No minister could hold power unless he could command a
+majority in this house. Jealousy of the royal power, however, was still
+a ruling passion. The party line between Whig and Tory turned ostensibly
+upon this issue. The essential Whig doctrine is indicated by Dunning's
+famous resolution (6 April 1780) that 'the power of the crown had
+increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished.' The resolution
+was in one sense an anachronism. As in many other cases, politicians
+seem to be elaborately slaying the slain and guarding against the
+attacks of extinct monsters. There was scarcely more probability under
+George III. than there is under Victoria that the king would try to
+raise taxes without consent of parliament. George III., however, desired
+to be more than a contrivance for fixing the great seal to official
+documents. He had good reason for thinking that the weakness of the
+executive was an evil. The king could gain power not by attacking the
+authority of parliament but by gaining influence within its walls. He
+might form a party of 'king's friends' able to hold the balance between
+the connections formed by the great families and so break up the system
+of party government. Burke's great speech (11 Feb. 1780) upon
+introducing his plan 'for the better security of the independence of
+parliament and the economical reformation of the civil and other
+establishments' explains the secret and reveals the state of things
+which for the next half century was to supply one main theme for the
+eloquence of reformers. The king had at his disposal a vast amount of
+patronage. There were relics of ancient institutions: the principality
+of Wales, the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, and the earldom of
+Chester; each with its revenue and establishment of superfluous
+officials. The royal household was a complex 'body corporate' founded in
+the old days of 'purveyance.' There was the mysterious 'Board of Green
+Cloth' formed by the great officers and supposed to have judicial as
+well as administrative functions. Cumbrous mediaeval machinery thus
+remained which had been formed in the time when the distinction between
+a public trust and private property was not definitely drawn or which
+had been allowed to remain for the sake of patronage, when its functions
+had been transferred to officials of more modern type. Reform was
+foiled, as Burke put it, because the turnspit in the king's kitchen was
+a member of parliament. Such sinecures and the pensions on the civil
+list or the Irish establishment provided the funds by which the king
+could build up a personal influence, which was yet occult,
+irresponsible, and corrupt. The measure passed by Burke in 1782[2] made
+a beginning in the removal of such abuses.
+
+Meanwhile the Whigs were conveniently blind to another side of the
+question. If the king could buy, it was because there were plenty of
+people both able and willing to sell. Bubb Dodington, a typical example
+of the old system, had five or six seats at his disposal: subject only
+to the necessity of throwing a few pounds to the 'venal wretches' who
+went through the form of voting, and by dealing in what he calls this
+'merchantable ware' he managed by lifelong efforts to wriggle into a
+peerage. The Dodingtons, that is, sold because they bought. The 'venal
+wretches' were the lucky franchise-holders in rotten boroughs. The
+'Friends of the People'[3] in 1793 made the often-repeated statement
+that 154 individuals returned 307 members, that is, a majority of the
+house. In Cornwall, again, 21 boroughs with 453 electors controlled by
+about 15 individuals returned 42 members,[4] or, with the two county
+members, only one member less than Scotland; and the Scottish members
+were elected by close corporations in boroughs and by the great
+families in counties. No wonder if the House of Commons seemed at times
+to be little more than an exchange for the traffic between the
+proprietors of votes and the proprietors of offices and pensions.
+
+The demand for the reforms advocated by Burke and Dunning was due to the
+catastrophe of the American War. The scandal caused by the famous
+coalition of 1783 showed that a diminution of the royal influence might
+only make room for selfish bargains among the proprietors of
+parliamentary influence. The demand for reform was taken up by Pitt. His
+plan was significant. He proposed to disfranchise a few rotten boroughs;
+but to soften this measure he afterwards suggested that a million should
+be set aside to buy such boroughs as should voluntarily apply for
+disfranchisement. The seats obtained were to be mainly added to county
+representation; but the franchise was to be extended so as to add about
+99,000 voters in boroughs, and additional seats were to be given to
+London and Westminster and to Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and
+Sheffield. The Yorkshire reformers, who led the movement, were satisfied
+with this modest scheme. The borough proprietors were obviously too
+strong to be directly attacked, though they might be induced to sell
+some of their power.
+
+Here was a mass of anomalies, sufficient to supply topics of
+denunciation for two generations of reformers, and, in time, to excite
+fears of violent revolution. Without undertaking the easy task of
+denouncing exploded systems, we may ask what state of mind they implied.
+Our ancestors were perfectly convinced that their political system was
+of almost unrivalled excellence: they held that they were freemen
+entitled to look down upon foreigners as the slaves of despots. Nor can
+we say that their satisfaction was without solid grounds. The boasting
+about English freedom implied some misunderstanding. But it was at least
+the boast of a vigorous race. Not only were there individuals capable of
+patriotism and public spirit, but the body politic was capable of
+continuous energy. During the eighteenth century the British empire
+spread round the world. Under Chatham it had been finally decided that
+the English race should be the dominant element in the new world; if the
+political connection had been severed by the bungling of his successors,
+the unbroken spirit of the nation had still been shown in the struggle
+against France, Spain, and the revolted colonies; and whatever may be
+thought of the motives which produced the great revolutionary wars, no
+one can deny the qualities of indomitable self-reliance and high courage
+to the men who led the country through the twenty years of struggle
+against France, and for a time against France with the continent at its
+feet. If moralists or political theorists find much to condemn in the
+ends to which British policy was directed, they must admit that the
+qualities displayed were not such as can belong to a simply corrupt and
+mean-spirited government.
+
+One obvious remark is that, on the whole, the system was a very good
+one--as systems go. It allowed free play to the effective political
+forces. Down to the revolutionary period, the nation as a whole was
+contented with its institutions. The political machinery provided a
+sufficient channel for the really efficient force of public opinion.
+There was as yet no large class which at once had political aspirations
+and was unable to gain a hearing. England was still in the main an
+agricultural country: and the agricultural labourer was fairly
+prosperous till the end of the century, while his ignorance and
+isolation made him indifferent to politics. There might be a bad squire
+or parson, as there might be a bad season; but squire and parson were as
+much parts of the natural order of things as the weather. The farmer or
+yeoman was not much less stolid; and his politics meant at most a choice
+between allegiance to one or other of the county families. If in the
+towns which were rapidly developing there was growing up a discontented
+population, its discontent was not yet directed into political channels.
+An extended franchise meant a larger expenditure on beer, not the
+readier acceptance of popular aspirations. To possess a vote was to have
+a claim to an occasional bonus rather than a right to influence
+legislation. Practically, therefore, parliament might be taken to
+represent what might be called 'public opinion,' for anything that
+deserved to be called public opinion was limited to the opinions of the
+gentry and the more intelligent part of the middle classes. There was no
+want of complaints of corruption, proposals to exclude placemen from
+parliament and the like; and in the days of Wilkes, Chatham, and Junius,
+when the first symptoms of democratic activity began to affect the
+political movement, the discontent made itself audible and alarming. But
+a main characteristic of the English reformers was the constant appeal
+to precedent, even in their most excited moods. They do not mention the
+rights of man; they invoke the 'revolution principles' of 1688; they
+insist upon the 'Bill of Rights' or Magna Charta. When keenly roused
+they recall the fate of Charles I.; and their favourite toast is the
+cause for which Hampden died on the field and Sidney on the scaffold.
+They believe in the jury as the 'palladium of our liberties'; and are
+convinced that the British Constitution represents an unsurpassable
+though unfortunately an ideal order of things, which must have existed
+at some indefinite period. Chatham in one of his most famous speeches,
+appeals, for example, to the 'iron barons' who resisted King John, and
+contrasts them with the silken courtiers which now compete for place and
+pensions. The political reformers of the time, like religious reformers
+in most times, conceive of themselves only as demanding the restoration
+of the system to its original purity, not as demanding its abrogation.
+In other words, they propose to remedy abuses but do not as yet even
+contemplate a really revolutionary change. Wilkes was not a 'Wilkite,'
+nor was any of his party, if Wilkite meant anything like Jacobin.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[2] 22 George III. c. 82.
+
+[3] _Parl. Hist._ xxx. 787.
+
+[4] _State Trials_, xxiv. 382.
+
+
+II. THE RULING CLASS
+
+Thus, however anomalous the constitution of parliament, there was no
+thought of any far-reaching revolution. The great mass of the population
+was too ignorant, too scattered and too poor to have any real political
+opinions. So long as certain prejudices were not aroused, it was content
+to leave the management of the state to the dominant class, which alone
+was intelligent enough to take an interest in public affairs and strong
+enough to make its interest felt. This class consisted in the first
+place of the great landed interest. When Lord North opposed Pitt's
+reform in 1785 he said[5] that the Constitution was 'the work of
+infinite wisdom ... the most beautiful fabric that had ever existed
+since the beginning of time.' He added that 'the bulk and weight' of the
+house ought to be in 'the hands of the country-gentlemen, the best and
+most respectable objects of the confidence of the people,' The speech,
+though intended to please an audience of country-gentlemen, represented
+a genuine belief.[6] The country-gentlemen formed the class to which not
+only the constitutional laws but the prevailing sentiment of the country
+gave the lead in politics as in the whole social system. Even reformers
+proposed to improve the House of Commons chiefly by increasing the
+number of county-members, and a county-member was almost necessarily a
+country-gentleman of an exalted kind. Although the country-gentleman was
+very far from having all things his own way, his ideals and prejudices
+were in a great degree the mould to which the other politically
+important class conformed. There was indeed a growing jealousy between
+the landholders and the 'monied-men.' Bolingbroke had expressed this
+distrust at an earlier part of the century. But the true representative
+of the period was his successful rival, Walpole, a thorough
+country-gentleman who had learned to understand the mysteries of finance
+and acquired the confidence of the city. The great merchants of London
+and the rising manufacturers in the country were rapidly growing in
+wealth and influence. The monied-men represented the most active,
+energetic, and growing part of the body politic. Their interests
+determined the direction of the national policy. The great wars of the
+century were undertaken in the interests of British trade. The extension
+of the empire in India was carried on through a great commercial
+company. The growth of commerce supported the sea-power which was the
+main factor in the development of the empire. The new industrial
+organisation which was arising was in later years to represent a class
+distinctly opposed to the old aristocratic order. At present it was in a
+comparatively subordinate position. The squire was interested in the
+land and the church; the merchant thought more of commerce and was apt
+to be a dissenter. But the merchant, in spite of some little jealousies,
+admitted the claims of the country-gentleman to be his social superior
+and political leader. His highest ambition was to be himself admitted to
+the class or to secure the admission of his family. As he became rich he
+bought a solid mansion at Clapham or Wimbledon, and, if he made a
+fortune, might become lord of manors in the country. He could not as yet
+aspire to become himself a peer, but he might be the ancestor of peers.
+The son of Josiah Child, the great merchant of the seventeenth century,
+became Earl Tylney, and built at Wanstead one of the noblest mansions in
+England. His contemporary Sir Francis Child, Lord Mayor, and a founder
+of the Bank of England, built Osterley House, and was ancestor of the
+earls of Jersey and Westmoreland. The daughter of Sir John Barnard, the
+typical merchant of Walpole's time, married the second Lord Palmerston.
+Beckford, the famous Lord Mayor of Chatham's day, was father of the
+author of _Vathek_, who married an earl's daughter and became the father
+of a duchess. The Barings, descendants of a German pastor, settled in
+England early in the century and became country-gentlemen, baronets,
+and peers. Cobbett, who saw them rise, reviled the stockjobbers who were
+buying out the old families. But the process had begun long before his
+days, and meant that the heads of the new industrial system were being
+absorbed into the class of territorial magnates. That class represented
+the framework upon which both political and social power was moulded.
+
+This implies an essential characteristic of the time. A familiar topic
+of the admirers of the British Constitution was the absence of the sharp
+lines of demarcation between classes and of the exclusive aristocratic
+privileges which, in France, provoked the revolution. In England the
+ruling class was not a 'survival': it had not retained privileges
+without discharging corresponding functions. The essence of
+'self-government,' says its most learned commentator,[7] is the organic
+connection 'between State and society.' On the Continent, that is,
+powers were intrusted to a centralised administrative and judicial
+hierarchy, which in England were left to the class independently strong
+by its social position. The landholder was powerful as a product of the
+whole system of industrial and agricultural development; and he was
+bound in return to perform arduous and complicated duties. How far he
+performed them well is another question. At least, he did whatever was
+done in the way of governing, and therefore did not sink into a mere
+excrescence or superfluity. I must try to point out certain results
+which had a material effect upon English opinion in general and, in
+particular, upon the Utilitarians.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[5] _Parl. Hist._ xxv. 472.
+
+[6] The country-gentlemen, said Wilberforce in 1800, are the 'very
+nerves and ligatures of the body politic.'--_Correspondence_, i. 219.
+
+[7] Gneist's _Self-Government_ (3rd edition, 1871), p. 879.
+
+
+III. LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRATION
+
+The country-gentlemen formed the bulk of the law-making body, and the
+laws gave the first point of assault of the Utilitarian movement. One
+explanation is suggested by a phrase attributed to Sir Josiah Child.[8]
+The laws, he said, were a heap of nonsense, compiled by a few ignorant
+country-gentlemen, who hardly knew how to make good laws for the
+government of their own families, much less for the regulation of
+companies and foreign commerce. He meant that the parliamentary
+legislation of the century was the work of amateurs, not of specialists;
+of an assembly of men more interested in immediate questions of policy
+or personal intrigue than in general principles, and not of such a
+centralised body as would set a value upon symmetry and scientific
+precision. The country-gentleman had strong prejudices and enough common
+sense to recognise his own ignorance. The product of a traditional
+order, he clung to traditions, and regarded the old maxims as sacred
+because no obvious reason could be assigned for them. He was suspicious
+of abstract theories, and it did not even occur to him that any such
+process as codification or radical alteration of the laws was
+conceivable. For the law itself he had the profound veneration which is
+expressed by Blackstone. It represented the 'wisdom of our ancestors';
+the system of first principles, on which the whole order of things
+reposed, and which must be regarded as an embodiment of right reason.
+The common law was a tradition, not made by express legislation, but
+somehow existing apart from any definite embodiment, and revealed to
+certain learned hierophants. Any changes, required by the growth of new
+social conditions, had to be made under pretence of applying the old
+rules supposed to be already in existence. Thus grew up the system of
+'judge-made law,' which was to become a special object of the
+denunciations of Bentham. Child had noticed the incompetence of the
+country-gentlemen to understand the regulation of commercial affairs.
+The gap was being filled up, without express legislation, by judicial
+interpretations of Mansfield and his fellows. This, indeed, marks a
+characteristic of the whole system. 'Our constitution,' says Professor
+Dicey,[9] 'is a judge-made constitution, and it bears on its face all
+the features, good and bad, of judge-made law.' The law of landed
+property, meanwhile, was of vital and immediate interest to the
+country-gentleman. But, feeling his own incompetence, he had called in
+the aid of the expert. The law had been developed in mediaeval times, and
+bore in all its details the marks of the long series of struggles
+between king and nobles and parliaments. One result had been the
+elaborate series of legal fictions worked out in the conflict between
+private interests and public policy, by which lawyers had been able to
+adapt the rules fitted for an ancient state of society to another in
+which the very fundamental conceptions were altered. A mysterious system
+had thus grown up, which deterred any but the most resolute students. Of
+Fearne's essay upon 'Contingent remainders'(published in 1772) it was
+said that no work 'in any branch of science could afford a more
+beautiful instance of analysis.' Fearne had shown the acuteness of 'a
+Newton or a Pascal.' Other critics dispute this proposition; but in any
+case the law was so perplexing that it could only be fully understood by
+one who united antiquarian knowledge to the subtlety of a great
+logician. The 'vast and intricate machine,' as Blackstone calls it, 'of
+a voluminous family settlement' required for its explanation the
+dialectical skill of an accomplished schoolman. The poor
+country-gentleman could not understand the terms on which he held his
+own estate without calling in an expert equal to such a task. The man
+who has acquired skill so essential to his employer's interests is not
+likely to undervalue it or to be over anxious to simplify the labyrinth
+in which he shone as a competent guide.
+
+The lawyers who played so important a part by their familiarity with the
+mysteries of commercial law and landed property, naturally enjoyed the
+respect of their clients, and were rewarded by adoption into the class.
+The English barrister aspired to success by himself taking part in
+politics and legislation. The only path to the highest positions really
+open to a man of ability, not connected by blood with the great
+families, was the path which led to the woolsack or to the judge's
+bench. A great merchant might be the father or father-in-law of peers; a
+successful soldier or sailor might himself become a peer, but generally
+he began life as a member of the ruling classes, and his promotion was
+affected by parliamentary influence. But a successful lawyer might fight
+his way from a humble position to the House of Lords. Thurlow, son of a
+country-gentleman; Dunning, son of a country attorney; Ellenborough, son
+of a bishop and descendant of a long line of North-country 'statesmen';
+Kenyon, son of a farmer; Eldon, son of a Newcastle coal merchant,
+represent the average career of a successful barrister. Some of them
+rose to be men of political importance, and Thurlow and Eldon had the
+advantage of keeping George III's conscience--an unruly faculty which
+had an unfortunately strong influence upon affairs. The leaders of the
+legal profession, therefore, and those who hoped to be leaders, shared
+the prejudices, took a part in the struggles, and were rewarded by the
+honours of the dominant class.
+
+The criminal law became a main topic of reformers. There, as elsewhere,
+we have a striking example of traditional modes of thought surviving
+with singular persistence. The rough classification of crimes into
+felony and misdemeanour, and the strange technical rules about 'benefit
+of clergy' dating back to the struggles of Henry II. and Becket,
+remained like ultimate categories of thought. When the growth of social
+conditions led to new temptations or the appearance of a new criminal
+class, and particular varieties of crime became conspicuous, the only
+remedy was to declare that some offence should be 'felony without
+benefit of clergy,' and therefore punishable by death. By unsystematic
+and spasmodic legislation the criminal law became so savage as to shock
+every man of common humanity. It was tempered by the growth of technical
+rules, which gave many chances of escape to the criminal; and by
+practical revolt against its excesses, which led to the remission of the
+great majority of capital sentences.[10] The legislators were clumsy,
+not intentionally cruel; and the laws, though sanguinary in reality,
+were more sanguinary in theory than in practice. Nothing, on the other
+hand, is more conspicuous than the spirit of fair play to the criminal,
+which struck foreign observers.[11] It was deeply rooted in the whole
+system. The English judge was not an official agent of an inquisitorial
+system, but an impartial arbitrator between the prisoner and the
+prosecutor. In political cases especially a marked change was brought
+about by the revolution of 1688. If our ancestors talked some nonsense
+about trial by jury, the system certainly insured that the persons
+accused of libel or sedition should have a fair trial, and very often
+something more. Judges of the Jeffreys type had become inconceivable,
+though impartiality might disappear in cases where the prejudices of
+juries were actively aroused. Englishmen might fairly boast of their
+immunity from the arbitrary methods of continental rulers; and their
+unhesitating confidence in the fairness of the system became so
+ingrained as to be taken as a matter of course, and scarcely received
+due credit from later critics of the system.
+
+The country-gentleman, again, was not only the legislator but a most
+important figure in the judicial and administrative system. As justice
+of the peace, he was the representative of law and order to his country
+neighbours. The preface of 1785 to the fifteenth edition of Burn's
+_Justice of the Peace_, published originally in 1755, mentions that in
+the interval between these dates, some three hundred statutes had been
+passed affecting the duties of justices, while half as many had been
+repealed or modified. The justice was of course, as a rule, a
+superficial lawyer, and had to be prompted by his clerk, the two
+representing on a small scale the general relation between the lawyers
+and the ruling class. Burn tells the justice for his comfort that the
+judges will take a lenient view of any errors into which his ignorance
+may have led him. The discharge of such duties by an independent
+gentleman was thought to be so desirable and so creditable to him that
+his want of efficiency must be regarded with consideration. Nor, though
+the justices have been a favourite butt for satirists, does it appear
+that the system worked badly. When it became necessary to appoint paid
+magistrates in London, and the pay, according to the prevalent system,
+was provided by fees, the new officials became known as 'trading
+justices,' and their salaries, as Fielding tells us, were some of the
+'dirtiest money upon earth.' The justices might perhaps be hard upon a
+poacher (as, indeed, the game laws became one of the great scandals of
+the system), or liable to be misled by a shrewd attorney; but they were
+on the whole regarded as the natural and creditable representatives of
+legal authority in the country.
+
+The justices, again, discharged functions which would elsewhere belong
+to an administrative hierarchy, Gneist observes that the power of the
+justices of the peace represents the centre of gravity of the whole
+administrative system.[12] Their duties had become so multifarious and
+perplexed that Burn could only arrange them under alphabetical heads.
+Gneist works out a systematic account, filling many pages of elaborate
+detail, and showing how large a part they played in the whole social
+structure. An intense jealousy of central power was one correlative
+characteristic. Blackstone remarks in his more liberal humour that the
+number of new offices held at pleasure had greatly extended the
+influence of the crown. This refers to the custom-house officers, excise
+officers, stamp distributors and postmasters. But if the tax-gatherer
+represented the state, he represented also part of the patronage at the
+disposal of politicians. A voter was often in search of the place of a
+'tidewaiter'; and, as we know, the greatest poet of the day could only
+be rewarded by making him an exciseman. Any extension of a system which
+multiplied public offices was regarded with suspicion. Walpole, the
+strongest minister of the century, had been forced to an ignominious
+retreat when he proposed to extend the excise. The cry arose that he
+meant to enslave the country and extend the influence of the crown over
+all the corporations in England. The country-gentleman had little reason
+to fear that government would diminish his importance by tampering with
+his functions. The justices of the peace were called upon to take a
+great and increasing share in the administration of the poor-law. They
+were concerned in all manner of financial details; they regulated such
+police as existed; they looked after the old laws by which the trades
+were still restricted; and, in theory at least, could fix the rate of
+wages. Parliament did not override, but only gave the necessary sanction
+to their activity. If we looked through the journals of the House of
+Commons during the American War, for example, we should get the
+impression that the whole business of the legislature was to arrange
+administrative details. If a waste was to be enclosed, a canal or a
+highroad to be constructed, there was no public department to be
+consulted. The gentry of the neighbourhood joined to obtain a private
+act of parliament which gave the necessary powers to the persons
+interested. No general enclosure act could be passed, though often
+suggested. It would imply a central commission, which would only, as was
+suggested, give rise to jobbery and take power out of the natural hands.
+Parliament was omnipotent; it could regulate the affairs of the empire
+or of a parish; alter the most essential laws or act as a court of
+justice; settle the crown or arrange for a divorce or for the alteration
+of a private estate. But it objected to delegate authority even to a
+subordinate body, which might tend to become independent. Thus, if it
+was the central power and source of all legal authority, it might also
+be regarded as a kind of federal league, representing the wills of a
+number of partially independent persons. The gentry could meet there and
+obtain the sanction of their allies for any measure required in their
+own little sphere of influence. But they had an instinctive aversion to
+the formation of any organised body representing the state. The
+neighbourhood which wanted a road got powers to make it, and would
+concur in giving powers to others. But if the state were to be intrusted
+to make roads, ministers would have more places to give, and roads
+might be made which they did not want. The English roads had long been
+infamous, but neither was money wasted, as in France, on roads where
+there was no traffic.[13] Thus we have the combination of an absolute
+centralisation of legislative power with an utter absence of
+administrative centralisation. The units meeting in parliament formed a
+supreme assembly; but they did not sink their own individuality. They
+only met to distribute the various functions among themselves.
+
+The English parish with its squire, its parson, its lawyer and its
+labouring population was a miniature of the British Constitution in
+general. The squire's eldest son could succeed to his position; a second
+son might become a general or an admiral; a third would take the family
+living; a fourth, perhaps, seek his fortune at the bar. This implies a
+conception of other political conditions which curiously illustrate some
+contemporary conceptions.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[8] See _Dictionary of National Biography_.
+
+[9] _The Law of the Constitution_, p. 209.
+
+[10] See Sir J. F. Stephen's _History of the Criminal Law_ (1883), i.
+470. He quotes Blackstone's famous statement that there were 160
+felonies without benefit of clergy, and shows that this gives a very
+uncertain measure of the severity of the law. A single act making
+larceny in general punishable by death would be more severe than fifty
+separate acts, making fifty different varieties of larceny punishable by
+death. He adds, however, that the scheme of punishment was 'severe to
+the highest degree, and destitute of every sort of principle or system.'
+The number of executions in the early part of this century varied
+apparently from a fifth to a ninth of the capital sentences passed. See
+Table in Porter's _Progress of the Nation_ (1851), p. 635.
+
+[11] See the references to Cottu's report of 1822 in Stephen's
+_History_, i. 429, 439, 451. Cottu's book was translated by Blanco
+White.
+
+[12] Gneist's _Self-Government_ (1871), p. 194. It is characteristic
+that J. S. Mill, in his _Representative Government_, remarks that the
+'Quarter Sessions' are formed in the 'most anomalous' way; that they
+represent the old feudal principle, and are at variance with the
+fundamental principles of representative government (_Rep. Gov._ (1867),
+p. 113). The mainspring of the old system had become a simple anomaly to
+the new radicalism.
+
+[13] See Arthur Young, _passim_. There was, however, an improvement even
+in the first half of the century. See Cunningham's _Growth of English
+Industry, etc. (Modern Times)_, p. 378.
+
+
+IV. THE ARMY AND NAVY
+
+We are often amused by the persistency of the cry against a 'standing
+army' in England. It did not fairly die out until the revolutionary
+wars. Blackstone regards it as a singularly fortunate circumstance 'that
+any branch of the legislature might annually put an end to the legal
+existence of the army by refusing to concur in the continuance' of the
+mutiny act. A standing army was obviously necessary; but by making
+believe very hard, we could shut our eyes to the facts, and pretend
+that it was a merely temporary arrangement.[14] The doctrine had once
+had a very intelligible meaning. If James II. had possessed a
+disciplined army of the continental pattern, with Marlborough at its
+head, Marlborough would hardly have been converted by the prince of
+Orange. But loyal as the gentry had been at the restoration, they had
+taken very good care that the Stuarts should not have in their hand such
+a weapon as had been possessed by Cromwell. When the Puritan army was
+disbanded, they had proceeded to regulate the militia. The officers were
+appointed by the lords-lieutenants of counties, and had to possess a
+property qualification; the men raised by ballot in their own districts;
+and their numbers and length of training regulated by Act of Parliament.
+The old 'train-bands' were suppressed, except in the city of London, and
+thus the recognised military force of the country was a body essentially
+dependent upon the country gentry. The militia was regarded with favour
+as the 'old constitutional force' which could not be used to threaten
+our liberties. It was remodelled during the Seven Years' War and
+embodied during that and all our later wars. It was, however,
+ineffective by its very nature. An aristocracy which chose to carry on
+wars must have a professional army in fact, however careful it might be
+to pretend that it was a provision for a passing necessity. The pretence
+had serious consequences. Since the army was not to have interests
+separate from the people, there was no reason for building barracks. The
+men might be billeted on publicans, or placed under canvas, while they
+were wanted. When the great war came upon us, large sums had to be spent
+to make up for the previous neglect. Fox, on 22nd February 1793,
+protested during a lively debate upon this subject that sound
+constitutional principles condemned barracks, because to mix the army
+with the people was the 'best security against the danger of a standing
+army.'[15]
+
+In fact a large part of the army was a mere temporary force. In 1762,
+towards the end of the Seven Years' War, we had about 100,000 men in
+pay; and after the peace, the force was reduced to under 20,000. Similar
+changes took place in every war. The ruling class took advantage of the
+position. An army might be hired from Germany for the occasion. New
+regiments were generally raised by some great man who gave commissions
+to his own relations and dependants. When the Pretender was in Scotland,
+for example, fifteen regiments were raised by patriotic nobles, who gave
+the commissions, and stipulated that although they were to be employed
+only in suppressing the rising, the officers should have permanent
+rank.[16] So, as was shown in Mrs. Clarke's case, a patent for raising a
+regiment might be a source of profit to the undertaker, who again might
+get it by bribing the mistress of a royal duke. The officers had,
+according to the generally prevalent system, a modified property in
+their commissions; and the system of sale was not abolished till our own
+days. We may therefore say that the ruling class, on the one hand,
+objected to a standing army, and, on the other, since such an army was
+a necessity, farmed it from the country and were admitted to have a
+certain degree of private property in the concern. The prejudice against
+any permanent establishment made it necessary to fill the ranks on
+occasion by all manner of questionable expedients. Bounties were offered
+to attract the vagrants who hung loose upon society. Smugglers,
+poachers, and the like were allowed to choose between military service
+and transportation. The general effect was to provide an army of
+blackguards commanded by gentlemen. The army no doubt had its merits as
+well as its defects. The continental armies which it met were collected
+by equally demoralising methods until the French revolution led to a
+systematic conscription. The bad side is suggested by Napier's famous
+phrase, the 'cold shade of our aristocracy'; while Napier gives facts
+enough to prove both the brutality too often shown by the private
+soldier and the dogged courage which is taken to be characteristic even
+of the English blackguard. By others,--by such men as the duke of
+Wellington and Lord Palmerston, for example, types of the true
+aristocrat--the system was defended[17] as bringing men of good family
+into the army and so providing it, as the duke thought, with the best
+set of officers in Europe. No doubt they and the royal dukes who
+commanded them were apt to be grossly ignorant of their business; but it
+may be admitted by a historian that they often showed the qualities of
+which Wellington was himself a type. The English officer was a gentleman
+before he was a soldier, and considered the military virtues to be a
+part of his natural endowment. But it was undoubtedly a part of his
+traditional code of honour to do his duty manfully and to do it rather
+as a manifestation of his own spirit than from any desire for rewards or
+decorations. The same quality is represented more strikingly by the
+navy. The English admiral represents the most attractive and stirring
+type of heroism in our history. Nelson and the 'band of brothers' who
+served with him, the simple and high-minded sailors who summed up the
+whole duty of man in doing their best to crush the enemies of their
+country, are among the finest examples of single-souled devotion to the
+calls of patriotism. The navy, indeed, had its ugly side no less than
+the army. There was corruption at Greenwich[18] and in the dockyards,
+and parliamentary intrigue was a road to professional success. Voltaire
+notes the queer contrast between the English boast of personal liberty
+and the practice of filling up the crews by pressgangs. The discipline
+was often barbarous, and the wrongs of the common sailor found
+sufficient expression in the mutiny at the Nore. A grievance, however,
+which pressed upon a single class was maintained from the necessity of
+the case and the inertness of the administrative system. The navy did
+not excite the same jealousy as the army; and the officers were more
+professionally skilful than their brethren. The national qualities come
+out, often in their highest form, in the race of great seamen upon whom
+the security of the island power essentially depended.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[14] See _Military Forces of the Crown_, by Charles M. Clode (1869), for
+a full account of the facts.
+
+[15] _Parl. Hist._ xxx. 490. Clode states (i. 222) that L9,000,000 was
+spent upon barracks by 1804, and, it seems, without proper authority.
+
+[16] Debate in _Parl. Hist._ xiii. 1382, etc., and see Walpole's
+_Correspondence_, i. 400, for some characteristic comments.
+
+[17] Clode, ii. 86.
+
+[18] See the famous case in 1778 in which Erskine made his first
+appearance, in _State Trials_, xxi. Lord St. Vincent's struggle against
+the corruption of his time is described by Prof. Laughton in the
+_Dictionary of National Biography_, (_s.v._ Sir John Jervis). In 1801
+half a million a year was stolen, besides all the waste due to
+corruption and general muddling.
+
+
+V. THE CHURCH
+
+I turn, however, to the profession which was more directly connected
+with the intellectual development of the country. The nature of the
+church establishment gives the most obvious illustration of the
+connection between the intellectual position on the one hand and the
+social and political order on the other, though I do not presume to
+decide how far either should be regarded as effect and the other as
+cause.
+
+What is the church of England? Some people apparently believe that it is
+a body possessing and transmitting certain supernatural powers. This
+view was in abeyance for the time for excellent reasons, and, true or
+false, is no answer to the constitutional question. It does not enable
+us to define what was the actual body with which lawyers and politicians
+have to deal. The best answer to such questions in ordinary case would
+be given by describing the organisation of the body concerned. We could
+then say what is the authority which speaks in its name; and what is the
+legislature which makes its laws, alters its arrangements, and defines
+the terms of membership. The supreme legislature of the church of
+England might appear to be parliament. It is the Act of Uniformity which
+defines the profession of belief exacted from the clergy; and no
+alteration could be made in regard to the rights and duties of the
+clergy except by parliamentary authority. The church might therefore be
+regarded as simply the religious department of the state. Since 1688,
+however, the theory and the practice of toleration had introduced
+difficulties. Nonconformity was not by itself punishable though it
+exposed a man to certain disqualifications. The state, therefore,
+recognised that many of its members might legally belong to other
+churches, although it had, as Warburton argued, formed an 'alliance'
+with the dominant church. The spirit of toleration was spreading
+throughout the century. The old penal laws, due to the struggles of the
+seventeenth century, were becoming obsolete in practice and were
+gradually being repealed. The Gordon riots of 1780 showed that a
+fanatical spirit might still be aroused in a mob which wanted an excuse
+for plunder; but the laws were not explicitly defended by reasonable
+persons and were being gradually removed by legislation towards the end
+of the century. Although, therefore, parliament was kept free from
+papists, it could hardly regard church and state as identical, or
+consider itself as entitled to act as the representative body of the
+church. No other body, indeed, could change the laws of the church; but
+parliament recognised its own incompetence to deal with them. Towards
+the end of the century, various attempts were made to relax the terms of
+subscription. It was proposed, for example, to substitute a profession
+of belief in the Bible for a subscription to the Thirty-Nine Articles.
+But the House of Commons sensibly refused to expose itself by venturing
+upon any theological innovations. A body more ludicrously incompetent
+could hardly have been invented.
+
+Hence we must say that the church had either no supreme body which could
+speak in its name and modify its creed, its ritual, its discipline, or
+the details of its organisation; or else, that the only body which had
+in theory a right to interfere was doomed, by sufficient considerations,
+to absolute inaction. The church, from a secular point of view, was not
+so much a department of the state as an aggregate of offices, the
+functions of which were prescribed by unalterable tradition. It
+consisted of a number of bishops, deans and chapters, rectors, vicars,
+curates, and so forth, many of whom had certain proprietary rights in
+their position, and who were bound by law to discharge certain
+functions. But the church, considered as a whole, could hardly be called
+an organism at all, or, if an organism, it was an organism with its
+central organ in a permanent state of paralysis. The church, again, in
+this state was essentially dependent upon the ruling classes. A glance
+at the position of the clergy shows their professional position. At
+their head were the bishops, some of them enjoying princely revenues,
+while others were so poor as to require that their incomes should be
+eked out by deaneries or livings held _in commendam_. The great sees,
+such as Canterbury, Durham, Ely, and Winchester, were valued at between,
+L20,000 and L30,000 a year; while the smaller, Llandaff, Bangor,
+Bristol, and Gloucester, were worth less than L2000. The bishops had
+patronage which enabled them to provide for relatives or for deserving
+clergymen. The average incomes of the parochial clergy, meanwhile, were
+small. In 1809 they were calculated to be worth L255, while nearly four
+thousand livings were worth under L150; and there were four or five
+thousand curates with very small pay. The profession, therefore, offered
+a great many blanks with a few enormous prizes. How were those prizes
+generally obtained? When the reformers published the _Black Book_ in
+1820, they gave a list of the bishops holding sees in the last year of
+George III.; and, as most of these gentlemen were on their promotion at
+the end of the previous century. I give the list in a note.[19]
+
+There were twenty-seven bishoprics including Sodor and Man. Of these
+eleven were held by members of noble families; fourteen were held by men
+who had been tutors in, or in other ways personally connected with the
+royal family or the families of ministers and great men; and of the
+remaining two, one rested his claim upon political writing in defence of
+Pitt, while the other seems to have had the support of a great city
+company. The system of translation enabled the government to keep a hand
+upon the bishops. Their elevation to the more valuable places or leave
+to hold subsidiary preferments depended upon their votes in the House of
+Lords. So far, then, as secular motives operated, the tendency of the
+system was clear. If Providence had assigned to you a duke for a father
+or an uncle, preferment would fall to you as of right. A man of rank who
+takes orders should be rewarded for his condescension. If that
+qualification be not secured, you should aim at being tutor in a great
+family, accompany a lad on the grand tour, or write some pamphlet on a
+great man's behalf. Paley gained credit for independence at Cambridge,
+and spoke with contempt of the practice of 'rooting,' the cant phrase
+for patronage hunting. The text which he facetiously suggested for a
+sermon when Pitt visited Cambridge, 'There is a young man here who has
+six loaves and two fishes, but what are they among so many?' hit off the
+spirit in which a minister was regarded at the universities. The memoirs
+of Bishop Watson illustrate the same sentiment. He lived in his pleasant
+country house at Windermere, never visiting his diocese, and according
+to De Quincey, talking Socinianism at his table. He felt himself to be a
+deeply injured man, because ministers had never found an opportunity
+for translating him to a richer diocese, although he had written
+against Paine and Gibbon. If they would not reward their friends, he
+argued, why should he take up their cause by defending Christianity?
+
+The bishops were eminently respectable. They did not lead immoral lives,
+and if they gave a large share of preferment to their families, that at
+least was a domestic virtue. Some of them, Bishop Barrington of Durham,
+for example, took a lead in philanthropic movements; and, if considered
+simply as prosperous country-gentlemen, little fault could be found with
+them. While, however, every commonplace motive pointed so directly
+towards a career of subserviency to the ruling class among the laity, it
+could not be expected that they should take a lofty view of their
+profession. The Anglican clergy were not like the Irish priesthood, in
+close sympathy with the peasantry, or like the Scottish ministers, the
+organs of strong convictions spreading through the great mass of the
+middle and lower classes. A man of energy, who took his faith seriously,
+was, like the Evangelical clergy, out of the road to preferment, or,
+like Wesley, might find no room within the church at all. His colleagues
+called him an 'enthusiast,' and disliked him as a busybody if not a
+fanatic. They were by birth and adoption themselves members of the
+ruling class; many of them were the younger sons of squires, and held
+their livings in virtue of their birth. Advowsons are the last offices
+to retain a proprietary character. The church of that day owed such a
+representative as Horne Tooke to the system which enabled his father to
+provide for him by buying a living. From the highest to the lowest ranks
+of clergy, the church was as Matthew Arnold could still call it, an
+'appendage of the barbarians.' The clergy, that is, as a whole, were an
+integral but a subsidiary part of the aristocracy or the great landed
+interest. Their admirers urged that the system planted a cultivated
+gentleman in every parish in the country. Their opponents replied, like
+John Sterling, that he was a 'black dragoon with horse meat and man's
+meat'--part of the garrison distributed through the country to support
+the cause of property and order. In any case the instinctive
+prepossessions, the tastes and favourite pursuits of the profession were
+essentially those of the class with which it was so intimately
+connected. Arthur Young,[20] speaking of the French clergy, observes
+that at least they are not poachers and foxhunters, who divide their
+time between hunting, drinking, and preaching. You do not in France find
+such advertisements as he had heard of in England, 'Wanted a curacy in a
+good sporting country, where the duty is light and the neighbourhood
+convivial.' The proper exercise for a country clergyman, he rather
+quaintly observes, is agriculture. The ideal parson, that is, should be
+a squire in canonical dress. The clergy of the eighteenth century
+probably varied between the extremes represented by Trulliber and the
+Vicar of Wakefield. Many of them were excellent people, with a mild
+taste for literature, contributing to the _Gentleman's Magazine_,
+investigating the antiquities of their county, occasionally confuting a
+deist, exerting a sound judgment in cultivating their glebes or
+improving the breed of cattle, and respected both by squire and farmers.
+The 'Squarson,' in Sydney Smith's facetious phrase, was the ideal
+clergyman. The purely sacerdotal qualities, good or bad, were at a
+minimum. Crabbe, himself a type of the class, has left admirable
+portraits of his fellows. Profound veneration for his noble patrons and
+hearty dislike for intrusive dissenters were combined in his own case
+with a pure domestic life, a keen insight into the uglier realities of
+country life and a good sound working morality. Miss Austen, who said
+that she could have been Crabbe's wife, has given more delicate pictures
+of the clergyman as he appeared at the tea-tables of the time. He varies
+according to her from the squire's excellent younger brother, who is
+simply a squire in a white neck-cloth, to the silly but still
+respectable sycophant, who firmly believes his lady patroness to be a
+kind of local deity. Many of the real memoirs of the day give pleasant
+examples of the quiet and amiable lives of the less ambitious clergy.
+There is the charming Gilbert White (1720-1793) placidly studying the
+ways of tortoises, and unconsciously composing a book which breathes an
+undying charm from its atmosphere of peaceful repose; William Gilpin
+(1724-1804) founding and endowing parish schools, teaching the
+catechism, and describing his vacation tours in narratives which helped
+to spread a love of natural scenery; and Thomas Gisborne (1758-1846),
+squire and clergyman, a famous preacher among the evangelicals and a
+poet after the fashion of Cowper, who loved his native Needwood Forest
+as White loved Selborne and Gilpin loved the woods of Boldre; and Cowper
+himself (1731-1800) who, though not a clergyman, lived in a clerical
+atmosphere, and whose gentle and playful enjoyment of quiet country life
+relieves the painfully deep pathos of his disordered imagination; and
+the excellent W. L. Bowles (1762-1850), whose sonnets first woke
+Coleridge's imagination, who spent eighty-eight years in an amiable and
+blameless life, and was country-gentleman, magistrate, antiquary,
+clergyman, and poet.[21] Such names are enough to recall a type which
+has not quite vanished, and which has gathered a new charm in more
+stirring and fretful times. These most excellent people, however, were
+not likely to be prominent in movements destined to break up the placid
+environment of their lives nor, in truth, to be sources of any great
+intellectual stir.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[19] The list, checked from other sources of information, is as
+follows:--Manners Sutton, archbishop of Canterbury, was grandson of the
+third duke of Rutland; Edward Vernon, archbishop of York, was son of the
+first Lord Vernon and cousin of the third Lord Harcourt, whose estates
+he inherited; Shute Barrington, bishop of Durham, was son of the first
+and brother of the second Viscount Barrington; Brownlow North, bishop of
+Winchester, was uncle to the earl of Guildford; James Cornwallis, bishop
+of Lichfield, was uncle to the second marquis, whose peerage he
+inherited; George Pelham, bishop of Exeter, was brother of the earl of
+Chichester; Henry Bathurst, bishop of Norwich, was nephew of the first
+earl; George Henry Law, bishop of Chester, was brother of the first Lord
+Ellenborough; Edward Legge, bishop of Oxford, was son of the second earl
+of Dartmouth; Henry Ryder, bishop of Gloucester, was brother to the earl
+of Harrowby; George Murray, bishop of Sodor and Man, was nephew-in-law
+to the duke of Athol and brother-in-law to the earl of Kinnoul. Of the
+fourteen tutors, etc., mentioned above, William Howley, bishop of
+London, had been tutor to the prince of Orange at Oxford; George
+Pretyman Tomline, bishop of Lincoln, had been Pitt's tutor at Cambridge;
+Richard Beadon, bishop of Bath and Wells, had been tutor to the duke of
+Gloucester at Cambridge; Folliott Cornewall, bishop of Worcester, had
+been made chaplain to the House of Commons by the influence of his
+cousin, the Speaker; John Buckner, bishop of Chichester, had been tutor
+to the duke of Richmond; Henry William Majendie, bishop of Bangor, was
+the son of Queen Charlotte's English master, and had been tutor to
+William IV.; George Isaac Huntingford, bishop of Hereford, had been
+tutor to Addington, prime minister; Thomas Burgess, bishop of St.
+David's, was a personal friend of Addington; John Fisher, bishop of
+Salisbury, had been tutor to the duke of Kent; John Luxmoore, bishop of
+St. Asaph, had been tutor to the duke of Buccleugh; Samuel Goodenough,
+bishop of Carlisle, had been tutor to the sons of the third duke of
+Portland and was connected with Addington; William Lort Mansel, bishop
+of Bristol, had been tutor to Perceval at Cambridge, and owed to
+Perceval the mastership of Trinity; Walter King, bishop of Rochester,
+had been secretary to the duke of Portland; and Bowyer Edward Sparke,
+bishop of Ely, had been tutor to the duke of Rutland. The two remaining
+bishops were Herbert Marsh, bishop of Peterborough, who had established
+a claim by defending Pitt's financial measures in an important pamphlet;
+and William Van Mildert, bishop of Llandaff, who had been chaplain to
+the Grocers' Company and became known as a preacher in London.
+
+[20] _Travels in France_ (1892), p. 327.
+
+[21] See _A Country Clergyman of the Eighteenth Century_ (Thomas
+Twining), 1882, for a pleasant picture of the class.
+
+
+VI. THE UNIVERSITIES
+
+The effect of these conditions is perhaps best marked in the state of
+the universities. Universities have at different periods been great
+centres of intellectual life. The English universities of the eighteenth
+century are generally noted only as embodiments of sloth and prejudice.
+The judgments of Wesley and Gibbon and Adam Smith and Bentham coincide
+in regard to Oxford; and Johnson's love of his university is an
+equivocal testimony to its intellectual merits. We generally think of it
+as of a sleepy hollow, in which portly fellows of colleges, like the
+convivial Warton, imbibed port wine and sneered at Methodists, though
+few indeed rivalled Warton's services to literature. The universities in
+fact had become, as they long continued to be, high schools chiefly for
+the use of the clergy, and if they still aimed at some wider
+intellectual training, were sinking to be institutions where the pupils
+of the public schools might, if they pleased, put a little extra polish
+upon their classical and mathematical knowledge. The colleges preserved
+their mediaeval constitution; and no serious changes of their statutes
+were made until the middle of the present century. The clergy had an
+almost exclusive part in the management, and dissenters were excluded
+even from entering Oxford as students.[22] But the clergyman did not as
+a rule devote himself to a life of study. He could not marry as a
+fellow, but he made no vows of celibacy. The college, therefore, was
+merely a stepping-stone on the way to the usual course of preferment. A
+fellow looked forwards to settling in a college living, or if he had the
+luck to act as tutor to a nobleman, he might soar to a deanery or a
+bishopric. The fellows who stayed in their colleges were probably those
+who had least ambition, or who had a taste for an easy bachelor's life.
+The universities, therefore, did not form bodies of learned men
+interested in intellectual pursuits; but at most, helped such men in
+their start upon a more prosperous career. The studies flagged in
+sympathy. Gray's letters sufficiently reveal the dulness which was felt
+by a man of cultivation confined within the narrow society of college
+dons of the day. The scholastic philosophy which had once found
+enthusiastic cultivators in the great universities had more or less held
+its own through the seventeenth century, though repudiated by all the
+rising thinkers. Since the days of Locke and Berkeley, it had fallen
+utterly out of credit. The bright common sense of the polished society
+of the day looked upon the old doctrine with a contempt, which, if not
+justified by familiarity, was an implicit judgment of the tree by its
+fruits. Nobody could suppose the divines of the day to be the
+depositaries of an esoteric wisdom which the vulgar were not worthy to
+criticise. They were themselves chiefly anxious to prove that their
+sacred mysteries were really not at all mysterious, but merely one way
+of expressing plain common sense. At Oxford, indeed, the lads were still
+crammed with Aldrich, and learned the technical terms of a philosophy
+which had ceased to have any real life in it. At Cambridge, ardent young
+radicals spoke with contempt of this 'horrid jargon--fit only to be
+chattered by monkies in a wilderness.'[23] Even at Cambridge, they still
+had disputations on the old form, but they argued theses from Locke's
+essay, and thought that their mathematical studies were a check upon
+metaphysical 'jargon.' It is indeed characteristic of the respect for
+tradition that at Cambridge even mathematics long suffered from a
+mistaken patriotism which resented any improvement upon the methods of
+Newton. There were some signs of reviving activity. The fellowships were
+being distributed with less regard to private interest. The mathematical
+tripos founded at Cambridge in the middle of the century became the
+prototype of all competitive examinations; and half a century later
+Oxford followed the precedent by the Examination Statute of 1800. A
+certain number of professorships of such modern studies as anatomy,
+history, botany, and geology were founded during the eighteenth century,
+and show a certain sense of a need of broader views. The lectures upon
+which Blackstone founded his commentaries were the product of the
+foundation of the Vinerian professorship in 1751; and the most recent of
+the Cambridge colleges, Downing College, shows by its constitution that
+a professoriate was now considered to be desirable. Cambridge in the
+last years of the century might have had a body of very eminent
+professors. Watson, second wrangler of 1759, had delivered lectures upon
+chemistry, of which it was said by Davy that hardly any conceivable
+change in the science could make them obsolete.[24] Paley, senior
+wrangler in 1763, was an almost unrivalled master of lucid exposition,
+and one of his works is still a textbook at Cambridge. Isaac Milner,
+senior wrangler in 1774, afterwards held the professorships of
+mathematics and natural philosophy, and was famous as a sort of
+ecclesiastical Dr. Johnson. Gilbert Wakefield, second wrangler in 1776,
+published an edition of Lucretius, and was a man of great ability and
+energy. Herbert Marsh, second wrangler in 1779, was divinity professor
+from 1807, and was the first English writer to introduce some knowledge
+of the early stages of German criticism. Porson, the greatest Greek
+scholar of his time, became professor in 1790; Malthus, ninth wrangler
+in 1788, who was to make a permanent mark upon political economy, became
+fellow of Jesus College in 1793. Waring, senior wrangler in 1757, Vince,
+senior wrangler in 1775, and Wollaston, senior wrangler in 1783, were
+also professors and mathematicians of reputation. Towards the end of the
+century ten professors were lecturing.[25] A large number were not
+lecturing, though Milner was good enough to be 'accessible to
+students.' Paley and Watson had been led off into the path of
+ecclesiastical preferment. Marsh too became a bishop in 1816. There was
+no place for such talents as those of Malthus, who ultimately became
+professor at Haileybury. Wakefield had the misfortune of not being able
+to cover his heterodoxy with the conventional formula. Porson suffered
+from the same cause, and from less respectable weaknesses; but it seems
+that the university had no demand for services of the great scholar, and
+he did nothing for his L40 a year. Milner was occupied in managing the
+university in the interests of Pitt and Protestantism, and in waging war
+against Jacobins and intruders. There was no lack of ability; but there
+was no inducement to any intellectual activity for its own sake; and
+there were abundant temptations for any man of energy to diverge to the
+career which offered more intelligible rewards.
+
+The universities in fact supplied the demand which was actually
+operative. They provided the average clergyman with a degree; they
+expected the son of the country-gentleman or successful lawyer to
+acquire the traditional culture of his class, and to spend three or four
+years pleasantly, or even, if he chose, industriously. But there was no
+such thing as a learned society, interested in the cultivation of
+knowledge for its own sake, and applauding the devotion of life to its
+extension or discussion. The men of the time who contributed to the
+progress of science owed little or nothing to the universities, and were
+rather volunteers from without, impelled by their own idiosyncrasies.
+Among the scientific leaders, for example, Joseph Black (1728-1799) was
+a Scottish professor; Priestley (1733-1804) a dissenting minister;
+Cavendish (1731-1810) an aristocratic recluse, who, though he studied at
+Cambridge, never graduated; Watt (1736-1819) a practical mechanician;
+and Dalton (1766-1844) a Quaker schoolmaster. John Hunter (1728-1793)
+was one of the energetic Scots who forced their way to fame without help
+from English universities. The cultivation of the natural sciences was
+only beginning to take root; and the soil, which it found congenial, was
+not that of the great learned institutions, which held to their old
+traditional studies.
+
+I may, then, sum up the result in a few words. The church had once
+claimed to be an entirely independent body, possessing a supernatural
+authority, with an organisation sanctioned by supernatural powers, and
+entitled to lay down the doctrines which gave the final theory of life.
+Theology was the queen of the sciences and theologians the interpreters
+of the first principles of all knowledge and conduct. The church of
+England, on the other hand, at our period had entirely ceased to be
+independent: it was bound hand and foot by acts of parliament: there was
+no ecclesiastical organ capable of speaking in its name, altering its
+laws or defining its tenets: it was an aggregate of offices the
+appointment to which was in the hands either of the political ministers
+or of the lay members of the ruling class. It was in reality simply a
+part of the ruling class told off to perform divine services: to
+maintain order and respectability and the traditional morality. It had
+no distinctive philosophy or theology, for the articles of belief
+represented simply a compromise; an attempt to retain as much of the old
+as was practicable and yet to admit as much of the new as was made
+desirable by political considerations. It was the boast of its more
+liberal members that they were not tied down to any definite dogmatic
+system; but could have a free hand so long as they did not wantonly come
+into conflict with some of the legal formulae laid down in a previous
+generation. The actual teaching showed the effects of the system. It had
+been easy to introduce a considerable leaven of the rationalism which
+suited the lay mind; to explain away the mysterious doctrines upon which
+an independent church had insisted as manifestations of its spiritual
+privileges, but which were regarded with indifference or contempt by the
+educated laity now become independent. The priest had been disarmed and
+had to suit his teaching to the taste of his patrons and congregations.
+The divines of the eighteenth century had, as they boasted, confuted the
+deists; but it was mainly by showing that they could be deists in all
+but the name. The dissenters, less hampered by legal formulae, had
+drifted towards Unitarianism. The position of such divines as Paley,
+Watson, and Hey was not so much that the Unitarians were wrong, as that
+the mysterious doctrines were mere sets of words, over which it was
+superfluous to quarrel. The doctrine was essentially traditional; for it
+was impossible to represent the doctrines of the church of England as
+deductions from any abstract philosophy. But the traditions were not
+regarded as having any mysterious authority. Abstract philosophy might
+lead to deism or infidelity. Paley and his like rejected such philosophy
+in the spirit of Locke or even Hume. But it was always possible to treat
+a tradition like any other statement of fact. It could be proved by
+appropriate evidence. The truth of Christianity was therefore merely a
+question of facts like the truth of any other passages of history. It
+was easy enough to make out a case for the Christian miracles, and then
+the mysteries, after it had been sufficiently explained that they really
+meant next to nothing, could be rested upon the authority of the
+miracles. In other words, the accepted doctrines, like the whole
+constitution of the church, could be so modified as to suit the
+prejudices and modes of thought of the laity. The church, it may be
+said, was thoroughly secularised. The priest was no longer a wielder of
+threats and an interpreter of oracles, but an entirely respectable
+gentleman, who fully sympathised with the prejudices of his patron and
+practically admitted that he had very little to reveal, beyond
+explaining that his dogmas were perfectly harmless and eminently
+convenient. He preached, however, a sound common sense morality, and was
+not divided from his neighbours by setting up the claims characteristic
+of a sacerdotal caste. Whether he has become on the whole better or
+worse by subsequent changes is a question not to be asked here; but
+perhaps not quite so easily answered as is sometimes supposed.
+
+The condition of the English church and universities may be contrasted
+with that of their Scottish rivals. The Scottish church and universities
+had no great prizes to offer and no elaborate hierarchy. But the church
+was a national institution in a sense different from the English. The
+General Assembly was a powerful body, not overshadowed by a great
+political rival. To rise to be a minister was the great ambition of poor
+sons of farmers and tradesmen. They had to study at the universities in
+the intervals, perhaps, of agricultural labour; and if the learning was
+slight and the scholarship below the English standard, the young
+aspirant had at least to learn to preach and to acquire such philosophy
+as would enable him to argue upon grace and freewill with some
+hard-headed Davie Deans. It was doubtless owing in part to these
+conditions that the Scottish universities produced many distinguished
+teachers throughout the century. Professors had to teach something which
+might at least pass for philosophy, though they were more or less
+restrained by the necessity of respecting orthodox prejudices. At the
+end of the century, the only schools of philosophy in the island were to
+be found in Scotland, where Reid (1710-1796) and Adam Smith (1723-1790)
+had found intelligent disciples, and where Dugald Stewart, of whom I
+shall speak presently, had become the recognised philosophical
+authority.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[22] At Cambridge subscription was abolished for undergraduates in 1775;
+and bachelors of arts had only to declare themselves '_bona-fide_
+members of the church of England.'
+
+[23] Gilbert Wakefield's _Memoirs_, ii. 149.
+
+[24] De Quincey, _Works_ (1863), ii. 106.
+
+[25] Wordsworth's _University Life, etc._ (1874), 83-87.
+
+
+VII. THEORY
+
+What theory corresponds to this practical order? It implies, in the
+first place, a constant reference to tradition. The system has grown up
+without any reference to abstract principles or symmetrical plan. The
+legal order supposes a traditional common law, as the ecclesiastical
+order a traditional creed, and the organisation is explicable only by
+historical causes. The system represents a series of compromises, not
+the elaboration of a theory. If the squire undertook by way of
+supererogation to justify his position he appealed to tradition and
+experience. He invoked the 'wisdom of our ancestors,' the system of
+'checks and balances' which made our Constitution an unrivalled mixture
+of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy deserving the 'dread and envy
+of the world.' The prescription for compounding that mixture could
+obviously be learned by nothing but experiment. Traditional means
+empirical. By instinct, rather than conscious reasoning, Englishmen had
+felt their way to establishing the 'palladia of our liberties': trial by
+jury, the 'Habeas Corpus' Act, and the substitution of a militia for a
+standing army. The institutions were cherished because they had been
+developed by long struggles and were often cherished when their real
+justification had disappeared. The Constitution had not been 'made' but
+had 'grown'; or, in other words, the one rule had been the rule of
+thumb. That is an excellent rule in its way, and very superior to an
+abstract rule which neglects or overrides experience. The 'logic of
+facts,' moreover, may be trusted to produce a certain harmony: and
+general principles, though not consciously invoked, tacitly govern the
+development of institutions worked out under uniform conditions. The
+simple reluctance to pay money without getting money's worth might
+generate the important principle that representation should go with
+taxation, without embodying any theory of a 'social contract' such as
+was offered by an afterthought to give a philosophical sanction.
+Englishmen, it is said, had bought their liberties step by step, because
+at each step they were in a position to bargain with their rulers. What
+they had bought they were determined to keep and considered to be their
+inalienable property. One result is conspicuous. In England the ruling
+classes did not so much consider their privileges to be something
+granted by the state, as the power of the state to be something derived
+from their concessions. Though the lord-lieutenant and the justices of
+the peace were nominated by the crown, their authority came in fact as
+an almost spontaneous consequence of their birthright or their acquired
+position in the country. They shone by their own light and were really
+the ultimate sources of authority. Seats in parliament, preferments in
+the church, commissions in the army belonged to them like their estates;
+and they seemed to be qualified by nature, rather than by appointment,
+to act in judicial and administrative capacities. The system of
+'self-government' embodies this view. The functions of government were
+assigned to men already powerful by their social position. The absence
+of the centralised hierarchy of officials gave to Englishmen the sense
+of personal liberty which compelled the admiration of Voltaire and his
+countrymen in the eighteenth century. In England were no _lettres de
+cachet_, and no Bastille. A man could say what he thought and act
+without fear of arbitrary rule. There was no such system as that which,
+in France, puts the agents of the central power above the ordinary law
+of the land. This implies what has been called the 'rule of the law' in
+England. 'With us every official from the prime minister down to a
+constable or a collector of taxes' (as Professor Dicey explains the
+principle) 'is under the same responsibility for every act done without
+legal justification as any other citizen.'[26] The early centralisation
+of the English monarchy had made the law supreme, and instead of
+generating a new structure had combined and regulated the existing
+social forces. The sovereign power was thus farmed to the aristocracy
+instead of forming an organ of its own. Instead of resigning power they
+were forced to exercise it on condition of thorough responsibility to
+the central judiciary. Their privileges were not destroyed but were
+combined with the discharge of corresponding duties. Whatever their
+shortcomings, they were preserved from the decay which is the inevitable
+consequence of a divorce of duties from privileges.
+
+Another aspect of the case is equally clear. If the privilege is
+associated with a duty, the duty may also be regarded as a privilege.
+The doctrine seems to mark a natural stage in the evolution of the
+conception of duty to the state. The power which is left to a member of
+the ruling class is also part of his dignity. Thus we have an
+amalgamation between the conceptions of private property and public
+trust. 'In so far as the ideal of feudalism is perfectly realised,' it
+has been said,[27] 'all that we can call public law is merged in private
+law; jurisdiction is property; office is property; the kingship itself
+is property.' This feudal ideal was still preserved with many of the
+institutions descended from feudalism. The king's right to his throne
+was regarded as of the same kind as the right to a private estate. His
+rights as king were also his rights as the owner of the land.[28]
+Subordinate landowners had similar rights, and as the royal power
+diminished greater powers fell to the aggregate of constitutional
+kinglets who governed the country. Each of them was from one point of
+view an official, but each also regarded his office as part of his
+property. The country belonged to him and his class rather than he to
+the country. We occasionally find the quaint theory which deduced
+political rights from property in land. The freeholders were the owners
+of the soil and might give notice to quit to the rest of the
+population.[29] They had therefore a natural right to carry on
+government in their own interests. The ruling classes, however, were not
+marked off from others by any deep line of demarcation; they could sell
+their own share in the government to anybody who was rich enough to buy
+it, and there was a constant influx of new blood. Moreover, they did in
+fact improve their estate with very great energy, and discharged
+roughly, but in many ways efficiently, the duties which were also part
+of their property. The nobleman or even the squire was more than an
+individual; as head of a family he was a life tenant of estates which he
+desired to transmit to his descendants. He was a 'corporation sole' and
+had some of the spirit of a corporation. A college or a hospital is
+founded to discharge a particular function; its members continue perhaps
+to recognise their duty; but they resent any interference from outside
+as sacrilege or confiscation. It is for them alone to judge how they can
+best carry out, and whether they are actually carrying out, the aims of
+the corporate life. In the same way the great noble took his part in
+legislation, church preferment, the command of the army, and so forth,
+and fully admitted that he was bound in honour to play his part
+effectively; but he was equally convinced that he was subject to nothing
+outside of his sense of honour. His duties were also his rights. The
+naif expression of this doctrine by a great borough proprietor, 'May I
+not do what I like with my own?' was to become proverbial.[30]
+
+This, finally, suggests that a doctrine of 'individualism' is implied
+throughout. The individual rights are the antecedent and the rights of
+the state a consequent or corollary. Every man has certain sacred rights
+accruing to him in virtue of 'prescription' or tradition, through his
+inherited position in the social organism. The 'rule of law' secures
+that he shall exercise them without infringing the privileges of his
+neighbour. He may moreover be compelled by the law to discharge them on
+due occasion. But, as there is no supreme body which can sufficiently
+superintend, stimulate, promote, or dismiss, the active impulse must
+come chiefly from his own sense of the fitness of things. The efficiency
+therefore depends upon his being in such a position that his duty may
+coincide with his personal interest. The political machinery can only
+work efficiently on the assumption of a spontaneous activity of the
+ruling classes, prompted by public spirit or a sense of personal
+dignity. Meanwhile, 'individualism' in a different sense was represented
+by the forces which made for progress rather than order, and to them I
+must now turn.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[26] Professor Dicey's _Lectures on the Law of the Constitution_ (1885),
+p. 178. Professor Dicey gives an admirable exposition of the 'rule of
+law.'
+
+[27] Pollock and Maitland's _History of English Law_, i. 208.
+
+[28] A characteristic consequence is that Hale and Blackstone make no
+distinction between public and private law. Austin (_Jurisprudence_
+(1869), 773-76) applauds them for this peculiarity, which he regards as
+a proof of originality, though it would rather seem to be an acceptance
+of the traditional view. Austin, however, retorts the charge of
+_Verwirrung_ upon German critics.
+
+[29] This is the theory of Defoe in his _Original Power of the People of
+England_ (Works by Hazlitt, vol iii. See especially p. 57).
+
+[30] The fourth duke of Newcastle in the House of Lords, 3 Dec. 1830.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE INDUSTRIAL SPIRIT
+
+
+I. THE MANUFACTURERS
+
+The history of England during the eighteenth century shows a curious
+contrast between the political stagnancy and the great industrial
+activity. The great constitutional questions seemed to be settled; and
+the statesmen, occupied mainly in sharing power and place, took a very
+shortsighted view (not for the first time in history) of the great
+problems that were beginning to present themselves. The British empire
+in the East was not won by a towering ambition so much as forced upon a
+reluctant commercial company by the necessities of its position. The
+English race became dominant in America; but the political connection
+was broken off mainly because English statesmen could only regard it
+from the shopkeeping point of view. When a new world began to arise at
+the Antipodes, our rulers saw an opportunity not for planting new
+offshoots of European civilisation, but for ridding themselves of the
+social rubbish no longer accepted in America. With purblind energy, and
+eyes doggedly fixed upon the ground at their feet, the race had somehow
+pressed forwards to illustrate the old doctrine that a man never goes so
+far as when he does not know whither he is going. While thinking of
+earning an honest penny by extending the trade, our 'monied-men' were
+laying the foundation of vast structures to be developed by their
+descendants.
+
+Politicians, again, had little to do with the great 'industrial
+revolution' which marked the last half of the century. The main facts
+are now a familiar topic of economic historians; nor need I speak of
+them in detail. Though agriculture was still the main industry, and the
+landowners almost monopolised political power, an ever growing
+proportion of the people was being collected in towns; the artisans were
+congregating in large factories; and the great cloud of coal-smoke,
+which has never dwindled, was already beginning to darken our skies. The
+change corresponds to the difference between a fully developed organism
+possessed of a central brain, with an elaborate nervous system, and some
+lower form in which the vital processes are still carried on by a number
+of separate ganglia. The concentration of the population in the great
+industrial centres implied the improvement of the means of commerce; new
+organisation of industry provided with a corresponding apparatus of
+machinery; and the systematic exploitation of the stored-up forces of
+nature. Each set of changes was at once cause and effect, and each was
+carried on separately, although in relation to the other. Brindley,
+Arkwright, and Watt may be taken as typical representatives of the three
+operations. Canals, spinning-jennies, and steam-engines were changing
+the whole social order.
+
+The development of means of communication had been slow till the last
+half of the century. The roads had been little changed since they had
+been first laid down as part of the great network which bound the Roman
+empire together. Turnpike acts, sanctioning the construction of new
+roads, became numerous. Palmer's application of the stage-coaches to the
+carriage of the mails marked an epoch in 1784; and De Quincey's prose
+poem, 'The Mail-coach,' shows how the unprecedented speed of Palmer's
+coaches, then spreading the news of the first battles in the Peninsula,
+had caused them to tyrannise over the opium-eater's dreams. They were
+discharging at once a political and an industrial function. Meanwhile
+the Bridgewater canal, constructed between 1759 and 1761, was the first
+link in a great network which, by the time of the French revolution,
+connected the seaports and the great centres of industry. The great
+inventions of machinery were simultaneously enabling manufacturers to
+take advantage of the new means of communication. The cotton manufacture
+sprang up soon after 1780 with enormous rapidity. Aided by the
+application of steam (first applied to a cotton mill in 1785) it passed
+the woollen trade, the traditional favourite of legislators, and became
+the most important branch of British trade. The iron trade had made a
+corresponding start. While the steam-engine, on which Watt had made the
+first great improvement in 1765, was transforming the manufacturing
+system, and preparing the advent of the steamship and railroad, Great
+Britain had become the leading manufacturing and commercial country in
+the world. The agricultural interest was losing its pre-eminence; and
+huge towns with vast aggregations of artisan population were beginning
+to spring up with unprecedented rapidity. The change was an
+illustration upon a gigantic scale of the doctrines expounded in the
+_Wealth of Nations_. Division of labour was being applied to things more
+important than pin-making, involving a redistribution of functions not
+as between men covered by the same roof, but between whole classes of
+society; between the makers of new means of communication and the
+manufacturers of every kind of material. The whole industrial community
+might be regarded as one great organism. Yet the organisation was formed
+by a multitude of independent agencies without any concerted plan. It
+was thus a vast illustration of the doctrine that each man by pursuing
+his own interests promoted the interests of the whole, and that
+government interference was simply a hindrance. The progress of
+improvement, says Adam Smith, depends upon 'the uniform, constant, and
+uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition,' which often
+succeeds in spite of the errors of government, as nature often overcomes
+the blunders of doctors. It is, as he infers, 'the highest impertinence
+and presumption for kings and ministers to pretend to watch over the
+economy of private people' by sumptuary laws and taxes upon imports.[31]
+To the English manufacturer or engineer government appeared as a
+necessary evil. It allowed the engineer to make roads and canals, after
+a troublesome and expensive process of application. It granted patents
+to the manufacturer, but the patents were a source of perpetual worry
+and litigation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer might look with
+complacency upon the development of a new branch of trade; but it was
+because he was lying in wait to come down upon it with a new tax or
+system of duties.
+
+The men who were the chief instruments of the process were 'self-made';
+they were the typical examples of Mr. Smiles's virtue of self-help; they
+owed nothing to government or to the universities which passed for the
+organs of national culture. The leading engineers began as ordinary
+mechanics. John Metcalf (1717-1810), otherwise 'blind Jack of
+Knaresborough,' was a son of poor parents. He had lost his sight by
+smallpox at the age of six, and, in spite of his misfortune, became a
+daring rider, wrestler, soldier, and carrier, and made many roads in the
+north of England, executing surveys and constructing the works himself.
+James Brindley (1716-1772), son of a midland collier, barely able to
+read or write, working out plans by processes which he could not
+explain, and lying in bed till they took shape in his brain, a rough
+mechanic, labouring for trifling weekly wages, created the canals which
+mainly enabled Manchester and Liverpool to make an unprecedented leap in
+prosperity. The two great engineers, Thomas Telford (1757-1834), famous
+for the Caledonian canal and the Menai bridge; and John Rennie
+(1761-1821), drainer of Lincolnshire fens, and builder of Waterloo
+bridge and the Plymouth breakwater, rose from the ranks. Telford
+inherited and displayed in a different direction the energies of Eskdale
+borderers, whose achievements in the days of cattle-stealing were to be
+made famous by Scott: Rennie was the son of an East Lothian farmer. Both
+of them learned their trade by actual employment as mechanics. The
+inventors of machinery belonged mainly to the lower middle classes. Kay
+was a small manufacturer; Hargreaves a hand-loom weaver; Crompton the
+son of a small farmer; and Arkwright a country barber. Watt, son of a
+Greenock carpenter, came from the sturdy Scottish stock, ultimately of
+covenanting ancestry, from which so many eminent men have sprung.
+
+The new social class, in which such men were the leaders, held
+corresponding principles. They owed whatever success they won to their
+own right hands. They were sturdy workers, with eyes fixed upon success
+in life, and success generally of course measured by a money criterion.
+Many of them showed intellectual tastes, and took an honourable view of
+their social functions. Watt showed his ability in scientific inquiries
+outside of the purely industrial application; Josiah Wedgwood, in whose
+early days the Staffordshire potters had led a kind of gipsy life,
+settling down here and there to carry on their trade, had not only
+founded a great industry, but was a man of artistic taste, a patron of
+art, and a lover of science. Telford, the Eskdale shepherd, was a man of
+literary taste, and was especially friendly with the typical man of
+letters, Southey. Others, of course, were of a lower type. Arkwright
+combined the talents of an inventor with those of a man of business. He
+was a man, says Baines (the historian of the cotton trade), who was sure
+to come out of an enterprise with profit, whatever the result to his
+partners. He made a great fortune, and founded a county family. Others
+rose in the same direction. The Peels, for example, represented a line
+of yeomen. One Peel founded a cotton business; his son became a baronet
+and an influential member of parliament; and his grandson went to
+Oxford, and became the great leader of the Conservative party, although
+like Walpole, he owed his power to a kind of knowledge in which his
+adopted class were generally deficient.
+
+The class which owed its growing importance to the achievements of such
+men was naturally imbued with their spirit. Its growth meant the
+development of a class which under the old order had been strictly
+subordinate to the ruling class, and naturally regarded it with a
+mingled feeling of respect and jealousy. The British merchant felt his
+superiority in business to the average country-gentleman; he got no
+direct share of the pensions and sinecures which so profoundly affected
+the working of the political machinery, and yet his highest ambition was
+to rise to be himself a member of the class, and to found a family which
+might flourish in the upper atmosphere. The industrial classes were
+inclined to favour political progress within limits. They were
+dissenters because the church was essentially part of the aristocracy;
+and they were readiest to denounce the abuses from which they did not
+profit. The agitators who supported Wilkes, solid aldermen and rich
+merchants, represented the view which was popular in London and other
+great cities. They were the backbone of the Whig party when it began to
+demand a serious reform. Their radicalism, however, was not thoroughly
+democratic. Many of them aspired to become members of the ruling class,
+and a shopkeeper does not quarrel too thoroughly with his customers. The
+politics of individuals were of course determined by accidents. Some of
+them might retain the sympathy of the class from which they sprang, and
+others might adopt an even extreme version of the opinions of the class
+to which they desired to rise. But, in any case, the divergence of
+interest between the capitalists and the labourers was already making
+itself felt. The self-made man, it is said, is generally the hardest
+master. He approves of the stringent system of competition, of which he
+is himself a product. It clearly enables the best man to win, for is he
+not himself the best man? The class which was the great seat of movement
+had naturally to meet all the prejudices which are roused by change. The
+farmers near London, as Adam Smith tells us,[32] petitioned against an
+extension of turnpike roads, which would enable more distant farmers to
+compete in their market. But the farmers were not the only prejudiced
+persons. All the great inventors of machinery, Kay and Arkwright and
+Watt, had constantly to struggle against the old workmen who were
+displaced by their inventions. Although, therefore, the class might be
+Whiggish, it did not share the strongest revolutionary passions. The
+genuine revolutionists were rather the men who destroyed the
+manufacturer's machines, and were learning to regard him as a natural
+enemy. The manufacturer had his own reasons for supporting government.
+Our foreign policy during the century was in the long run chiefly
+determined by the interests of our trade, however much the trade might
+at times be hampered by ill-conceived regulations. It is remarkable that
+Adam Smith[33] argues that, although the capitalist is acuter that the
+country-gentleman, his acuteness is chiefly displayed by knowing his own
+interests better. Those interests, he thinks, do not coincide so much as
+the interests of the country-gentleman with the general interests of the
+country. Consequently the country-gentleman, though less intelligent,
+is more likely to favour a national and liberal policy. The merchant, in
+fact, was not a free-trader because he had read Adam Smith or
+consciously adopted Smith's principles, but because or in so far as
+particular restrictions interfered with him. Arthur Young complains
+bitterly of the manufacturers who supported the prohibition to export
+English wool, and so protected their own class at the expense of
+agriculturists. Wedgwood, though a good liberal and a supporter of
+Pitt's French treaty in 1786, joined in protesting against the proposal
+for free-trade with Ireland. The Irish, he thought, might rival his
+potteries. Thus, though as a matter of fact the growing class of
+manufacturers and merchants were inclined in the main to liberal
+principles, it was less from adhesion to any general doctrine than from
+the fact that the existing restrictions and prejudices generally
+conflicted with their plain interests.
+
+Another characteristic is remarkable. Though the growth of manufactures
+and commerce meant the growth of great towns, it did not mean the growth
+of municipal institutions. On the contrary, as I shall presently have to
+notice, the municipalities were sinking to their lowest ebb.
+Manufactures, in the first instance, spread along the streams into
+country districts: and to the great manufacturer, working for his own
+hand, his neighbours were competitors as much as allies. The great
+towns, however, which were growing up, showed the general tendencies of
+the class. They were centres not only of manufacturing but of
+intellectual progress. The population of Birmingham, containing the
+famous Soho works of Boulton and Watt, had increased between 1740 and
+1780 from 24,000 to 74,000 inhabitants. Watt's partner Boulton started
+the 'Lunar Society' at Birmingham.[34] Its most prominent member was
+Erasmus Darwin, famous then for poetry which is chiefly remembered by
+the parody in the _Anti-Jacobin_; and now more famous as the advocate of
+a theory of evolution eclipsed by the teaching of his more famous
+grandson, and, in any case, a man of remarkable intellectual power.
+Among those who joined in the proceedings was Edgeworth, who in 1768 was
+speculating upon moving carriages by steam, and Thomas Day, whose
+_Sandford and Merton_ helped to spread in England the educational
+theories of Rousseau. Priestley, who settled at Birmingham in 1780,
+became a member, and was helped in his investigations by Watt's counsels
+and Wedgwood's pecuniary help. Among occasional visitors were Smeaton,
+Sir Joseph Banks, Solander, and Herschel of scientific celebrity; while
+the literary magnate, Dr. Parr, who lived between Warwick and
+Birmingham, occasionally joined the circle. Wedgwood, though too far off
+to be a member, was intimate with Darwin and associated in various
+enterprises with Boulton. Wedgwood's congenial partner, Thomas Bentley
+(1731-1780), had been in business at Manchester and at Liverpool. He had
+taken part in founding the Warrington 'Academy,' the dissenting seminary
+(afterwards moved to Manchester) of which Priestley was tutor
+(1761-1767), and had lectured upon art at the academy founded at
+Liverpool in 1773. Another member of the academy was William Roscoe
+(1753-1831), whose literary taste was shown by his lives of Lorenzo de
+Medici and Leo X., and who distinguished himself by opposing the
+slave-trade, then the infamy of his native town. Allied with him in this
+movement were William Rathbone and James Currie (1756-1805) the
+biographer of Burns, a friend of Darwin and an intelligent physician. At
+Manchester Thomas Perceval (1740-1804) founded the 'Literary and
+Philosophical Society' in 1780. He was a pupil of the Warrington
+Academy, which he afterwards joined on removing to Manchester, and he
+formed the scheme afterwards realised by Owens College. He was an early
+advocate of sanitary measures and factory legislation, and a man of
+scientific reputation. Other members of the society were: John Ferriar
+(1761-1815), best known by his _Illustrations of Sterne_, but also a man
+of literary and scientific reputation; the great chemist, John Dalton
+(1766-1844), who contributed many papers to its transactions; and, for a
+short time, the Socialist Robert Owen, then a rising manufacturer. At
+Norwich, then important as a manufacturing centre, was a similar circle.
+William Taylor, an eminent Unitarian divine, who died at the Warrington
+Academy in 1761, had lived at Norwich. One of his daughters married
+David Martineau and became the mother of Harriet Martineau, who has
+described the Norwich of her early years. John Taylor, grandson of
+William, was father of Mrs. Austin, wife of the jurist. He was a man of
+literary tastes, and his wife was known as the Madame Roland of Norwich.
+Mrs. Opie (1765-1853) was daughter of James Alderson, a physician of
+Norwich, and passed most of her life there. William Taylor (1761-1836),
+another Norwich manufacturer, was among the earliest English students of
+German literature. Norwich had afterwards the unique distinction of
+being the home of a provincial school of artists. John Crome
+(1788-1821), son of a poor weaver, and John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) were
+its leaders; they formed a kind of provincial academy, and exhibited
+pictures which have been more appreciated since their death. At Bristol,
+towards the end of the century, were similar indications of intellectual
+activity. Coleridge and Southey found there a society ready to listen to
+their early lectures, and both admired Thomas Beddoes (1760-1808), a
+physician, a chemist, a student of German, an imitator of Darwin in
+poetry, and an assailant of Pitt in pamphlets. He had married one of
+Edgeworth's daughters. With the help and advice of Wedgwood and Watt, he
+founded the 'Pneumatic Institute' at Clifton in 1798, and obtained the
+help of Humphry Davy, who there made some of his first discoveries. Davy
+was soon transported to the Royal Institution, founded at the suggestion
+of Count Rumford in 1799, which represented the growth of a popular
+interest in the scientific discoveries.
+
+The general tone of these little societies represents, of course, the
+tendency of the upper stratum of the industrial classes. In their own
+eyes they naturally represented the progressive element of society. They
+were Whigs--for 'radicalism' was not yet invented--but Whigs of the left
+wing; accepting the aristocratic precedency, but looking askance at the
+aristocratic prejudices. They were rationalists, too, in principle, but
+again within limits: openly avowing the doctrines which in the
+Established church had still to be sheltered by ostensible conformity to
+the traditional dogmas. Many of them professed the Unitarianism to which
+the old dissenting bodies inclined. 'Unitarianism,' said shrewd old
+Erasmus Darwin, 'is a feather-bed for a dying Christian.' But at present
+such men as Priestley and Price were only so far on the road to a
+thorough rationalism as to denounce the corruptions of Christianity, as
+they denounced abuses in politics, without anticipating a revolutionary
+change in church and state. Priestley, for example, combined
+'materialism' and 'determinism' with Christianity and a belief in
+miracles, and controverted Horsley upon one side and Paine on the other.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[31] _Wealth of Nations_, bk. ii. ch. iii.
+
+[32] _Wealth of Nations_, bk. i. ch. xi. Sec. 1.
+
+[33] _Ibid._ bk. i. ch. xi. conclusion.
+
+[34] Smiles's _Watt and Boulton_, p. 292.
+
+
+II. THE AGRICULTURISTS
+
+The general spirit represented by such movements was by no means
+confined to the commercial or manufacturing classes; and its most
+characteristic embodiment is to be found in the writings of a leading
+agriculturist.
+
+Arthur Young,[35] born in 1741, was the son of a clergyman, who had also
+a small ancestral property at Bradfield, near Bury St. Edmunds.
+Accidents led to his becoming a farmer at an early age. He showed more
+zeal than discretion, and after trying three thousand experiments on his
+farm, he was glad to pay L100 to another tenant to take his farm off his
+hands. This experience as a practical agriculturist, far from
+discouraging him, qualified him in his own opinion to speak with
+authority, and he became a devoted missionary of the gospel of
+agricultural improvement. The enthusiasm with which he admired more
+successful labourers in the cause, and the indignation with which he
+regards the sluggish and retrograde, are charming. His kindliness, his
+keen interest in the prosperity of all men, rich or poor, his ardent
+belief in progress, combined with his quickness of observation, give a
+charm to the writings which embody his experience. Tours in England and
+a temporary land-agency in Ireland supplied him with materials for books
+which made him known both in England and on the Continent. In 1779 he
+returned to Bradfield, where he soon afterwards came into possession of
+his paternal estate, which became his permanent home. In 1784 he tried
+to extend his propaganda by bringing out the _Annals of Agriculture_--a
+monthly publication, of which forty-five half-yearly volumes appeared.
+He had many able contributors and himself wrote many interesting
+articles, but the pecuniary results were mainly negative. In 1791 his
+circulation was only 350 copies.[36] Meanwhile his acquaintance with the
+duc de Liancourt led to tours in France from 1788 to 1790. His _Travels
+in France_, first published in 1792, has become a classic. In 1793 Young
+was made secretary to the Board of Agriculture, of which I shall speak
+presently. He became known in London society as well as in agricultural
+circles. He was a handsome and attractive man, a charming companion, and
+widely recognised as an agricultural authority. The empress of Russia
+sent him a snuff-box; 'Farmer George' presented a merino ram; he was
+elected member of learned societies; he visited Burke at Beaconsfield,
+Pitt at Holmwood, and was a friend of Wilberforce and of Jeremy Bentham.
+
+Young had many domestic troubles. His marriage was not congenial; the
+loss of a tenderly loved daughter in 1797 permanently saddened him; he
+became blind, and in his later years sought comfort in religious
+meditation and in preaching to his poorer neighbours. He died 20th April
+1820. He left behind him a gigantic history of agriculture, filling ten
+folio volumes of manuscript, which, though reduced to six by an
+enthusiastic disciple after his death, have never found their way to
+publication.
+
+The _Travels in France_, Young's best book, owes one merit to the advice
+of a judicious friend, who remarked that the previous tours had suffered
+from the absence of the personal details which interest the common
+reader. The insertion of these makes Young's account of his French tours
+one of the most charming as well as most instructive books of the kind.
+It gives the vivid impression made upon a keen and kindly observer in
+all their freshness. He sensibly retained the expressions of opinion
+made at the time. 'I may remark at present,' he says,[37] 'that although
+I was totally mistaken in my prediction, yet, on a revision, I think I
+was right in it.' It was right, he means, upon the data then known to
+him, and he leaves the unfulfilled prediction as it was. The book is
+frequently cited in justification of the revolution, and it may be
+fairly urged that his authority is of the more weight, because he does
+not start from any sympathy with revolutionary principles. Young was in
+Paris when the oath was taken at the tennis-court; and makes his
+reflections upon the beauty of the British Constitution, and the folly
+of visionary reforms, in a spirit which might have satisfied Burke. He
+was therefore not altogether inconsistent when, after the outrages, he
+condemned the revolution, however much the facts which he describes may
+tend to explain the inevitableness of the catastrophe. At any rate, his
+views are worth notice by the indications which they give of the mental
+attitude of a typical English observer.
+
+Young in his vivacious way struck out some of the phrases which became
+proverbial with later economists. 'Give a man the secure possession of a
+bleak rock and he will turn it into a garden. Give him a nine years'
+lease of a garden, and he will convert it into a desert.'[38] 'The magic
+of PROPERTY turns sand to gold.'[39] He is delighted with the comfort of
+the small proprietors near Pau, which reminds him of English districts
+still inhabited by small yeomen.[40] Passing to a less fortunate region,
+he explains that the prince de Soubise has a vast property there. The
+property of a grand 'seigneur' is sure to be a desert.[41] The signs
+which indicate such properties are 'wastes, _landes_, deserts, fern,
+ling.' The neighbourhood of the great residences is well peopled--'with
+deer, wild boars, and wolves,' 'Oh,' he exclaims, 'if I was the
+legislator of France for a day, I would make such great lords skip
+again!' 'Why,' he asked, 'were the people miserable in lower Savoy?'
+'_Because_', was the reply, '_there are seigneurs everywhere_'.[42]
+Misery in Brittany was due 'to the execrable maxims of despotism or the
+equally detestable prejudices of a feudal nobility.'[43] There was
+nothing, he said, in the province but 'privileges and poverty,'[44]
+privileges of the nobles and poverty of the peasants.
+
+Young was profoundly convinced, moreover, that, as he says more than
+once[45] 'everything in this world depends on government.' He is
+astonished at the stupidity and ignorance of the provincial population,
+and ascribes it to the lethargy produced by despotism.[46] He contrasts
+it with 'the energetic and rapid circulation of wealth, animation, and
+intelligence of England,' where 'blacksmiths and carpenters' would
+discuss every political event. And yet he heartily admires some of the
+results of a centralised monarchy. He compares the miserable roads in
+Catalonia on the Spanish side of the frontier with the magnificent
+causeways and bridges on the French side. The difference is due to the
+'one all-powerful cause that instigates mankind ... government.'[47] He
+admires the noble public works, the canal of Languedoc, the harbours at
+Cherbourg and Havre, and the _ecole veterinaire_ where agriculture is
+taught upon scientific principles. He is struck by the curious contrast
+between France and England. In France the splendid roads are used by few
+travellers, and the inns are filthy pothouses; in England there are
+detestable roads, but a comparatively enormous traffic. When he wished
+to make the great nobles 'skip' he does not generally mean confiscation.
+He sees indeed one place where in 1790 the poor had seized a piece of
+waste land, declaring that the poor were the nation, and that the waste
+belonged to the nation. He declares[48] that he considers their action
+'wise, rational, and philosophical,' and wishes that there were a law to
+make such conduct legal in England. But his more general desire is that
+the landowners should be compelled to do their duty. He complains that
+the nobles live in 'wretched holes' in the country in order to save the
+means of expenditure upon theatres, entertainments, and gambling in the
+towns.[49] 'Banishment alone will force the French nobility to do what
+the English do for pleasure--to reside upon and adorn their
+estates.'[50] He explains to a French friend that English agriculture
+has flourished 'in spite of the teeth of our ministers'; we have had
+many Colberts, but not one Sully[51]; and we should have done much
+better, he thinks, had agriculture received the same attention as
+commerce. This is the reverse of Adam Smith's remark upon the superior
+liberality of the English country-gentleman, who did not, like the
+manufacturers, invoke protection and interference. In truth, Young
+desired both advantages, the vigour of a centralised government and the
+energy of an independent aristocracy. His absence of any general theory
+enables him to do justice in detail at the cost of consistency in
+general theory. In France, as he saw, the nobility had become in the
+main an encumbrance, a mere dead weight upon the energies of the
+agriculturist. But he did not infer that large properties in land were
+bad in themselves; for in England he saw that the landowners were the
+really energetic and improving class. He naturally looked at the problem
+from the point of view of an intelligent land-agent. He is full of
+benevolent wishes for the labourer, and sympathises with the attempt to
+stimulate their industry and improve their dwellings, and denounces
+oppression whether in France or Ireland with the heartiest goodwill. But
+it is characteristic of the position that such a man--an enthusiastic
+advocate of industrial progress--was a hearty admirer of the English
+landowner. He sets out upon his first tour, announcing that he does not
+write for farmers, of whom not one in five thousand reads anything, but
+for the country-gentlemen, who are the great improvers. Tull, who
+introduced turnips; Weston, who introduced clover; Lord Townshend and
+Allen, who introduced 'marling' in Norfolk, were all country-gentlemen,
+and it is from them that he expects improvement. He travels everywhere,
+delighting in their new houses and parks, their picture galleries, and
+their gardens laid out by Kent or 'Capability Brown'; he admires
+scenery, climbs Skiddaw, and is rapturous over views of the Alps and
+Pyrenees; but he is thrown into a rage by the sight of wastes, wherever
+improvement is possible. What delights him is an estate with a fine
+country-house of Palladian architecture ('Gothic' is with him still a
+term of abuse),[52] with grounds well laid out and a good home-farm,
+where experiments are being tried, and surrounded by an estate in which
+the farm-buildings show the effects of the landlord's good example and
+judicious treatment of his tenantry. There was no want of such examples.
+He admires the marquis of Rockingham, at once the most honourable of
+statesmen and most judicious of improvers. He sings the praises of the
+duke of Portland, the earl of Darlington, and the duke of
+Northumberland. An incautious announcement of the death of the duke of
+Grafton, remembered chiefly as one of the victims of Junius, but known
+to Young for his careful experiments in sheep-breeding, produced a burst
+of tears, which, as he believed, cost him his eyesight. His friend, the
+fifth duke of Bedford (died 1802), was one of the greatest improvers for
+the South, and was succeeded by another friend, the famous Coke of
+Holkham, afterwards earl of Leicester, who is said to have spent half a
+million upon the improvement of his property. Young appeals to the class
+in which such men were leaders, and urges them, not against their
+wishes, we may suppose, and, no doubt, with much good sense, to take to
+their task in the true spirit of business. Nothing, he declares, is more
+out of place than the boast of some great landowners that they never
+raise their rents.[53] High rents produce industry. The man who doubles
+his rents benefits the country more than he benefits himself. Even in
+Ireland,[54] a rise of rents is one great cause of improvement, though
+the rent should not be excessive, and the system of middlemen is
+altogether detestable. One odd suggestion is characteristic.[55] He
+hears that wages are higher in London than elsewhere. Now, he says, in a
+trading country low wages are essential. He wonders, therefore, that the
+legislature does not limit the growth of London.
+
+This, we may guess, is one of the petulant utterances of early years
+which he would have disavowed or qualified upon maturer reflection. But
+Young is essentially an apostle of the 'glorious spirit of
+improvement,'[56] which has converted Norfolk sheep-walks into arable
+fields, and was spreading throughout the country and even into Ireland.
+His hero is the energetic landowner, who makes two blades of grass grow
+where one grew before; who introduces new breeds of cattle and new
+courses of husbandry. He is so far in sympathy with the _Wealth of
+Nations_, although he says of that book that, while he knows of 'no
+abler work,' he knows of none 'fuller of poisonous errors.'[57] Young,
+that is, sympathised with the doctrine of the physiocrats that
+agriculture was the one source of real wealth, and took Smith to be too
+much on the side of commerce. Young, however, was as enthusiastic a
+free-trader as Smith. He naturally denounces the selfishness of the
+manufacturers who, in 1788, objected to the free export of English
+wool,[58] but he also assails monopoly in general. The whole system, he
+says (on occasion of Pitt's French treaty), is rotten to the core. The
+'vital spring and animating soul of commerce is LIBERTY.'[59] Though he
+talks of the balance of trade, he argues in the spirit of Smith or
+Cobden that we are benefited by the wealth of our customers. If we have
+to import more silk, we shall export more cloth. Young, indeed, was
+everything but a believer in any dogmatic or consistent system of
+Political Economy, or, as he still calls it, Political Arithmetic. His
+opinions were not of the kind which can be bound to any rigid formulae.
+After investigating the restrictions of rent and wages in different
+districts, he quietly accepts the conclusion that the difference is due
+to accident.[60] He has as yet no fear of Malthus before his eyes. He
+is roused to indignation by the pessimist theory then common, that
+population was decaying.[61] Everywhere he sees signs of progress;
+buildings, plantations, woods, and canals. Employment, he says, creates
+population, stimulates industry, and attracts labour from backward
+districts. The increase of numbers is an unqualified benefit. He has no
+dread of excess. In Ireland, he observes, no one is fool enough to deny
+that population is increasing, though people deny it in England, 'even
+in the most productive period of her industry and wealth.'[62] One cause
+of this blessing is the absence or the poor-law. The English poor-law is
+detestable to him for a reason which contrasts significantly with the
+later opinion. The laws were made 'in the very spirit of depopulation';
+they are 'monuments of barbarity and mischief'; for they give to every
+parish an interest in keeping down the population. This tendency was in
+the eyes of the later economist a redeeming feature in the old system;
+though it had been then so modified as to stimulate what they took to be
+the curse, as Young held it to be the blessing, of a rapid increase of
+population.
+
+With such views Young was a keen advocate of the process of enclosure
+which was going on with increasing rapidity. He found a colleague, who
+may be briefly noticed as a remarkable representative of the same
+movement. Sir John Sinclair (1754-1835)[63] was heir to an estate of
+sixty thousand acres in Caithness which produced only L2300 a year,
+subject to many encumbrances. The region was still in a primitive
+state. There were no roads: agriculture was of the crudest kind; part of
+the rent was still paid in feudal services; the natives were too
+ignorant or lazy to fish, and there were no harbours. Trees were scarce
+enough to justify Johnson, and a list of all the trees in the country
+included currant-bushes.[64] Sinclair was a pupil of the poet Logan:
+studied under Blair at Edinburgh and Millar at Glasgow; became known to
+Adam Smith, and, after a short time at Oxford, was called to the English
+bar. Sinclair was a man of enormous energy, though not of vivacious
+intellect. He belonged to the prosaic breed, which created the 'dismal
+science,' and seems to have been regarded as a stupendous bore. Bores,
+however, represent a social force not to be despised, and Sinclair was
+no exception.
+
+His father died when he was sixteen. When twenty years old he collected
+his tenants, and in one night made a road across a hill which had been
+pronounced impracticable. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Gaelic
+traditions; defended the authenticity of Ossian; supported Highland
+games, and brought Italian travellers to listen to the music of the
+bagpipes. When he presented himself to his tenants in the Highland
+costume, on the withdrawal of its prohibition, they expected him to lead
+them in a foray upon the lowlands in the name of Charles Edward. He
+afterwards raised a regiment of 'fencibles' which served in Ireland in
+1798, and, when disbanded, sent a large contingent to the Egyptian
+expedition. But he rendered more peaceful services to his country. He
+formed new farms; he enclosed several thousand acres; as head of the
+'British Wool Society,' he introduced the Cheviots or 'long sheep' to
+the North--an improvement which is said to have doubled the rents of
+many estates; he introduced agricultural shows; he persuaded government
+in 1801 to devote the proceeds of the confiscated estates of Jacobites
+to the improvement of Scottish communications; he helped to introduce
+fisheries and even manufactures; and was a main agent in the change
+which made Caithness one of the most rapidly improving parts of the
+country. His son assures us that he took every means to obviate the
+incidental evils which have been the pretexts of denunciators of similar
+improvements. Sinclair gained a certain reputation by a _History of the
+Revenue_ (1785-90), and, like Malthus, travelled on the Continent to
+improve his knowledge. His first book finished, he began the great
+statistical work by which he is best remembered. He is said to have
+introduced into English the name of 'statistics,' for the researches of
+which all economical writers were beginning to feel the necessity. He
+certainly did much to introduce the reality. Sinclair circulated a
+number of queries (upon 'natural history,' 'population,' 'productions,'
+and 'miscellaneous' informations) to every parish minister in Scotland.
+He surmounted various jealousies naturally excited, and the ultimate
+result was the _Statistical Account of Scotland_, which appeared in
+twenty-one volumes between 1791 and 1799.[65] It gives an account of
+every parish in Scotland, and was of great value as supplying a basis
+for all social investigations. Sinclair bore the expense, and gave the
+profits to the 'Sons of the Clergy.' In 1793 Sinclair, who had been in
+parliament since 1780, made himself useful to Pitt in connection with
+the issue of exchequer bills to meet the commercial crisis. He begged in
+return for the foundation of a Board of Agriculture. He became the
+president and Arthur Young the secretary;[66] and the board represented
+their common aspirations. It was a rather anomalous body, something
+between a government office and such an institution as the Royal
+Society; and was supported by an annual grant of L3000. The first aim of
+the board was to produce a statistical account of England on the plan of
+the Scottish account. The English clergy, however, were suspicious; they
+thought, it seems, that the collection of statistics meant an attack
+upon tithes; and Young's frequent denunciation of tithes as discouraging
+agricultural improvement suggests some excuse for the belief. The plan
+had to be dropped; a less thoroughgoing description of the counties was
+substituted; and a good many 'Views' of the agriculture of different
+counties were published in 1794 and succeeding years. The board did its
+best to be active with narrow means. It circulated information,
+distributed medals, and brought agricultural improvers together. It
+encouraged the publication of Erasmus Darwin's _Phytologia_ (1799), and
+procured a series of lectures from Humphry Davy, afterwards published as
+_Elements of Agricultural Chemistry_ (1813). Sinclair also claims to
+have encouraged Macadam (1756-1836), the road-maker, and Meikle, the
+inventor of the thrashing-machine. One great aim of the board was to
+promote enclosures. Young observes in the introductory paper to the
+_Annals_ that within forty years nine hundred bills had been passed
+affecting about a million acres. This included wastes, but the greater
+part was already cultivated under the 'constraint and imperfection of
+the open field system,' a relic of the 'barbarity of our ancestors.'
+Enclosures involved procuring acts of parliament--a consequent
+expenditure, as Young estimates, of some L2000 in each case;[67] and as
+they were generally obtained by the great landowners, there was a
+frequent neglect of the rights of the poor and of the smaller holders.
+The remedy proposed was a general enclosure act; and such an act passed
+the House of Commons in 1798, but was thrown out by the Lords. An act
+was not obtained till after the Reform Bill. Sinclair, however, obtained
+some modification of the procedure; which, it is said, facilitated the
+passage of private bills. They became more numerous in later years,
+though other causes obviously co-operated. Meanwhile, it is
+characteristic that Sinclair and Young regarded wastes as a backwoodsman
+regarded a forest. The incidental injury to poor commoners was not
+unnoticed, and became one of the topics of Cobbett's eloquence. But to
+the ardent agriculturist the existence of a bit of waste land was a
+simple proof of barbarism. Sinclair's favourite toast, we are told, was
+'May commons become uncommon'--his one attempt at a joke. He prayed that
+Epping Forest and Finchley Common might pass under the yoke as well as
+our foreign enemies. Young is driven out of all patience by the sight of
+'fern, ling, and other trumpery' usurping the place of possible arable
+fields.[68] He groans in spirit upon Salisbury Plain, which might be
+made to produce all the corn we import.[69] Enfield Chase, he declares,
+is a 'real nuisance to the public.'[70] We may be glad that the zeal for
+enclosure was not successful in all its aims; but this view of
+philanthropic and energetic improvers is characteristic.
+
+It is said[71] that Young and Sinclair ruined the Board of Agriculture
+by making it a kind of political debating club. It died in 1822.
+Sinclair obtained an appointment in Scotland, and continued to labour
+unremittingly. He carried on a correspondence with all manner of people,
+including Washington, Eldon, Catholic bishops in Ireland, financiers and
+agriculturists on the Continent, and the most active economists in
+England. He suggested a subject for a poem to Scott.[72] He wrote
+pamphlets about cash-payments, Catholic Emancipation, and the Reform
+Bill, always disagreeing with all parties. He projected four codes which
+were to summarise all human knowledge upon health, agriculture,
+political economy, and religion. _The Code of Health_ (4 vols., 1807)
+went through six editions; _The Code of Agriculture_ appeared in 1829;
+but the world has not been enriched by the others. He died at Edinburgh
+on the 21st September 1835.
+
+I have dwelt so far upon Young because he is the best representative of
+that 'glorious spirit of improvement' which was transforming the whole
+social structure. Young's view of the French revolution indicates one
+marked characteristic of that spirit. He denounces the French seigneur
+because he is lethargic. He admires the English nobleman because he is
+energetic. The French noble may even deserve confiscation; but he has
+not the slightest intention of applying the same remedy in England,
+where squires and noblemen are the very source of all improvement. He
+holds that government is everything, and admires the great works of the
+French despotism: and yet he is a thorough admirer of the liberties
+enjoyed under the British Constitution, the essential nature of which
+makes similar works impossible. I need not ask whether Young's logic
+could be justified; though it would obviously require for justification
+a thoroughly 'empirical' view, or, in other words, the admission that
+different circumstances may require totally different institutions. The
+view, however, which was congenial to the prevalent spirit of
+improvement must be noted.
+
+It might be stated as a paradox that, whereas in France the most
+palpable evils arose from the excessive power of the central government,
+and in England the most palpable evils arose from the feebleness of the
+central government, the French reformers demanded more government and
+the English reformers demanded less government. 'Everything for the
+people, nothing by the people,' was, as Mr. Morley remarks,[73] the
+maxim of the French economists. The solution seems to be easy. In
+France, reformers such as Turgot and the economists were in favour of an
+enlightened despotism, because the state meant a centralised power which
+might be turned against the aristocracy. Once 'enlightened' it would
+suppress the exclusive privileges of a class which, doing nothing in
+return, had become a mere burthen or dead weight encumbering all social
+development. But in England the privileged class was identical with the
+governing class. The political liberty of which Englishmen were
+rightfully proud, the 'rule of law' which made every official
+responsible to the ordinary course of justice, and the actual discharge
+of their duties by the governing order, saved it from being the objects
+of a jealous class hatred. While in France government was staggering
+under an ever-accumulating resentment against the aristocracy, the
+contemporary position in England was, on the whole, one of political
+apathy. The country, though it had lost its colonies, was making
+unprecedented progress in wealth; commerce, manufactures, and
+agriculture were being developed by the energy of individuals; and Pitt
+was beginning to apply Adam Smith's principles to finance. The cry for
+parliamentary reform died out: neither Whigs nor Tories really cared for
+it; and the 'glorious spirit of improvement' showed itself in an energy
+which had little political application. The nobility was not an incubus
+suppressing individual energy and confronted by the state, but was
+itself the state; and its individual members were often leaders in
+industrial improvement. Discontent, therefore, took in the main a
+different form. Some government was, of course, necessary, and the
+existing system was too much in harmony, even in its defects, with the
+social order to provoke any distinct revolutionary sentiment. Englishmen
+were not only satisfied with their main institutions, but regarded them
+with exaggerated complacency. But, though there was no organic disorder,
+there were plenty of abuses to be remedied. The ruling class, it seemed,
+did its duties in the main, but took unconscionable perquisites in
+return. If it 'farmed' them, it was right that it should have a
+beneficial interest in the concern; but that interest might be
+excessive. In many directions abuses were growing up which required
+remedy, though not a subversion of the system under which they had been
+generated. It was not desired--unless by a very few theorists--to make
+any sweeping redistribution of power; but it was eminently desirable to
+find some means of better regulating many evil practices. The attack
+upon such practices might ultimately suggest--as, in fact, it did
+suggest--the necessity of far more thoroughgoing reforms. For the
+present, however, the characteristic mark of English reformers was this
+limitation of their schemes, and a mark which is especially evident in
+Bentham and his followers. I will speak, therefore, of the many
+questions which were arising, partly for these reasons and partly
+because the Utilitarian theory was in great part moulded by the
+particular problems which they had to argue.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[35] Young's _Travels in France_ was republished in 1892, with a preface
+and short life by Miss Betham Edwards. She has since (1898) published
+his autobiography. See also the autobiographical sketch in the _Annals
+of Agriculture_, xv. 152-97. Young's _Farmer's Letters_ first appeared
+in 1767; his _Tours_ in the Southern, Northern, and Eastern Counties in
+1768, 1770, and 1771; his _Tour in Ireland_ in 1780; and his _Travels in
+France_ in 1792. A useful bibliography, containing a list of his many
+publications, is appended to the edition of the _Tour in Ireland_ edited
+by Mr. A. W. Hutton in 1892.
+
+[36] _Annals_, xv. 166.
+
+[37] _Travels in France_ (1892), p. 184 _n._
+
+[38] _Travels in France_, p. 54.
+
+[39] _Ibid._ p. 109.
+
+[40] _Ibid._ p. 61.
+
+[41] _Ibid._ p. 70.
+
+[42] _Ibid._ p. 279.
+
+[43] _Travels in France_, p. 125.
+
+[44] _Ibid._ p. 131.
+
+[45] _Ibid._ pp. 198, 298.
+
+[46] _Ibid._ pp. 55, 193, 199, 237.
+
+[47] _Ibid._ p. 43.
+
+[48] _Travels in France_, pp. 291-92.
+
+[49] _Ibid._ p. 132.
+
+[50] _Ibid._ p. 66.
+
+[51] _Ibid._ p. 131.
+
+[52] e.g. _Southern Tour_, p. 103; _Northern Tour_, p. 180 (York
+Cathedral).
+
+[53] _Northern Tour_, iv. 344, 377.
+
+[54] _Irish Tour_, ii. 114.
+
+[55] _Southern Tour_, p. 326.
+
+[56] _Southern Tour_, p. 22.
+
+[57] _Annals_, i. 380.
+
+[58] _Ibid._ vol, x.
+
+[59] _Ibid._ iv. 17.
+
+[60] _Southern Tour_, p. 262; _Northern Tour_, ii. 412.
+
+[61] _Northern Tour_, iv. 410, etc.
+
+[62] _Irish Tour_, ii. 118-19.
+
+[63] _Memoirs of Sir John Sinclair_, by his son. 2 vols., 1837.
+
+[64] _Memoirs_, i. 338.
+
+[65] _A New Statistical Account_, replacing this, appeared in
+twenty-four volumes from 1834 to 1844.
+
+[66] He was president for the first five years, and again, from 1806
+till 1813. For an account of this, see Sir Ernest Clarke's _History of
+the Board of Agriculture_, 1898.
+
+[67] _Northern Tour_, i. 222-32.
+
+[68] _Northern Tour_, ii. 186.
+
+[69] _Southern Tour_, p. 20.
+
+[70] _Northern Tour_, iii. 365.
+
+[71] Arthur Young had a low opinion of Sinclair, whom he took to be a
+pushing and consequential busybody, more anxious to make a noise than to
+be useful. See Young's _Autobiography_ (1898), pp. 243, 315, 437. Sir
+Ernest Clarke points out the injury done by Sinclair's hasty and
+blundering extravagance; but also shows that the board did great service
+in stimulating agricultural improvement.
+
+[72] Scott's _Letters_, i. 202.
+
+[73] Essay on 'Turgot.' See, in Daire's Collection of the _Economistes_,
+the arguments of Quesnay (p. 81), Dupont de Nemours (p. 360), and
+Mercier de la Riviere in favour of a legal (as distinguished from an
+'arbitrary') despotism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+SOCIAL PROBLEMS
+
+
+I. PAUPERISM
+
+Perhaps the gravest of all the problems which were to occupy the coming
+generation was the problem of pauperism. The view taken by the
+Utilitarians was highly characteristic and important. I will try to
+indicate the general position of intelligent observers at the end of the
+century by referring to the remarkable book of Sir Frederick Morton
+Eden. Its purport is explained by the title: 'The State of the Poor; or,
+an History of the Labouring Classes of England from the Norman Conquest
+to the present period; in which are particularly considered their
+domestic economy, with respect to diet, dress, fuel, and habitation; and
+the various plans which have from time to time been proposed and adopted
+for the relief of the poor' (3 vols. 4to, 1797). Eden[74] (1766-1809)
+was a man of good family and nephew of the first Lord Auckland, who
+negotiated Pitt's commercial treaty. He graduated as B.A. from Christ
+Church, Oxford, in 1787; married in 1792, and at his death (14th Nov.
+1809) was chairman of the Globe Insurance Company. He wrote various
+pamphlets upon economical topics; contributed letters signed
+'Philanglus' to Cobbett's _Porcupine_, the anti-jacobin paper of the
+day; and is described by Bentham[75] as a 'declared disciple' and a
+'highly valued friend.' He may be reckoned, therefore, as a Utilitarian,
+though politically he was a Conservative. He seems to have been a man of
+literary tastes as well as a man of business, and his book is a clear
+and able statement of the points at issue.
+
+Eden's attention had been drawn to the subject by the distress which
+followed the outbreak of the revolutionary war. He employed an agent who
+travelled through the country for a year with a set of queries drawn up
+after the model of those prepared by Sinclair for his _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_. He thus anticipated the remarkable investigation
+made in our own time by Mr. Charles Booth. Eden made personal inquiries
+and studied the literature of the subject. He had a precursor in Richard
+Burn (1709-1785), whose _History of the Poor-laws_ appeared in 1764, and
+a competitor in John Ruggles, whose _History of the Poor_ first appeared
+in Arthur Young's _Annals_, and was published as a book in 1793 (second
+edition, 1797). Eden's work eclipsed Ruggles's. It has a permanent value
+as a collection of facts; and was a sign of the growing sense of the
+importance of accurate statistical research. The historian of the social
+condition of the people should be grateful to one who broke ground at a
+time when the difficulty of obtaining a sound base for social inquiries
+began to make itself generally felt. The value of the book for
+historical purposes lies beyond my sphere. His first volume, I may say,
+gives a history of legislation from the earliest period; and contains
+also a valuable account of the voluminous literature which had grown up
+during the two preceding centuries. The other two summarise the reports
+which he had received. I will only say enough to indicate certain
+critical points. Eden's book unfortunately was to mark, not a solution
+of the difficulty but, the emergence of a series of problems which were
+to increase in complexity and ominous significance through the next
+generation.
+
+The general history of the poor-law is sufficiently familiar.[76] The
+mediaeval statutes take us to a period at which the labourer was still
+regarded as a serf; and a man who had left his village was treated like
+a fugitive slave. A long series of statutes regulated the treatment of
+the 'vagabond.' The vagabond, however, had become differentiated from
+the pauper. The decay of the ancient order of society and its
+corresponding institutions had led to a new set of problems; and the
+famous statute of Elizabeth (1601) had laid down the main lines of the
+system which is still in operation.
+
+When the labourer was regarded as in a servile condition, he might be
+supported from the motives which lead an owner to support his slaves, or
+by the charitable energies organised by ecclesiastical institutions. He
+had now ceased to be a serf, and the institutions which helped the poor
+man or maintained the beggar were wrecked. The Elizabethan statute gave
+him, therefore, a legal claim to be supported, and, on the other hand,
+directed that he should be made to work for his living. The assumption
+is still that every man is a member of a little social circle. He
+belongs to his parish, and it is his fellow-parishioners who are bound
+to support him. So long as this corresponded to facts, the system could
+work satisfactorily. With the spread of commerce, and the growth of a
+less settled population, difficulties necessarily arose. The pauper and
+the vagabond represent a kind of social extravasation; the 'masterless
+man' who has strayed from his legitimate place or has become a
+superfluity in his own circle. The vagabond could be flogged, sent to
+prison, or if necessary hanged, but it was more difficult to settle what
+to do with a man who was not a criminal, but simply a product in excess
+of demand. All manner of solutions had been suggested by philanthropists
+and partly adopted by the legislature. One point which especially
+concerns us is the awkwardness or absence of an appropriate
+administrative machinery.
+
+The parish, the unit on which the pauper had claims, meant the persons
+upon whom the poor-rate was assessed. These were mainly farmers and
+small tradesmen who formed the rather vague body called the vestry.
+'Overseers' were appointed by the ratepayers themselves; they were not
+paid, and the disagreeable office was taken in turn for short periods.
+The most obvious motive with the average ratepayer was of course to keep
+down the rates and to get the burthen of the poor as much as possible
+out of his own parish. Each parish had at least an interest in economy.
+But the economical interest also produced flagrant evils.
+
+In the first place, there was the war between parishes. The law of
+settlement--which was to decide to what parish a pauper
+belonged--originated in an act of 1662. Eden observes that the short
+clause in this short act had brought more profit to the lawyers than
+'any other point in the English jurisprudence.'[77] It is said that the
+expense of such a litigation before the act of 1834 averaged from
+L300,000 to L350,000 a year.[78] Each parish naturally endeavoured to
+shift the burthen upon its neighbours; and was protected by laws which
+enabled it to resist the immigration of labourers or actually to expel
+them when likely to become chargeable. This law is denounced by Adam
+Smith[79] as a 'violation of natural liberty and justice.' It was often
+harder, he declared, for a poor man to cross the artificial boundaries
+of his parish than to cross a mountain ridge or an arm of the sea. There
+was, he declared, hardly a poor man in England over forty who had not
+been at some time 'cruelly oppressed' by the working of this law. Eden
+thinks that Smith had exaggerated the evil: but a law which operated by
+preventing a free circulation of labour, and made it hard for a poor man
+to seek the best price for his only saleable commodity, was, so far,
+opposed to the fundamental principles common to Smith and Eden. The law,
+too, might be used oppressively by the niggardly and narrow-minded. The
+overseer, as Burn complained,[80] was often a petty tyrant: his aim was
+to depopulate his parish; to prevent the poor from obtaining a
+settlement; to make the workhouse a terror by placing it under the
+management of a bully; and by all kinds of chicanery to keep down the
+rates at whatever cost to the comfort and morality of the poor. This
+explains the view taken by Arthur Young, and generally accepted at the
+period, that the poor-law meant depopulation. Workhouses had been
+started in the seventeenth century[81] with the amiable intention of
+providing the industrious poor with work. Children might be trained to
+industry and the pauper might be made self-supporting. Workhouses were
+expected that is, to provide not only work but wages. Defoe, in his
+_Giving Alms no Charity_, pointed out the obvious objections to the
+workhouse considered as an institution capable of competing with the
+ordinary industries. Workhouses, in fact, soon ceased to be profitable.
+Their value, however, in supplying a test for destitution was
+recognised; and by an act of 1722, parishes were allowed to set up
+workhouses, separately or in combination, and to strike off the lists of
+the poor those who refused to enter them. This was the germ of the later
+'workhouse test.'[82] When grievances arose, the invariable plan, as
+Nicholls observes,[83] was to increase the power of the justices. Their
+discretion was regarded 'as a certain cure for every shortcoming of the
+law and every evil arising out of it.' The great report of 1834 traces
+this tendency[84] to a clause in an act passed in the reign of William
+III., which was intended to allow the justices to check the extravagance
+of parish officers. They were empowered to strike off persons improperly
+relieved. This incidental regulation, widened by subsequent
+interpretations, allowed the magistrates to order relief, and thereby
+introduced an incredible amount of demoralisation.
+
+The course was natural enough, and indeed apparently inevitable. The
+justices of the peace represented the only authority which could be
+called in to regulate abuses arising from the incapacity and narrow
+local interests of the multitudinous vestries. The schemes of
+improvement generally involved some plan for a larger area. If a hundred
+or a county were taken for the unit, the devices which depopulated a
+parish would no longer be applicable.[85] The only scheme actually
+carried was embodied in 'Gilbert's act' (1782), obtained by Thomas
+Gilbert (1720-1798), an agent of the duke of Bridgewater, and an active
+advocate of poor-law reform in the House of Commons. This scheme was
+intended as a temporary expedient during the distress caused by the
+American War; and a larger and more permanent scheme which it was to
+introduce failed to become law. It enabled parishes to combine if they
+chose to provide common workhouses, and to appoint 'guardians.' The
+justices, as usual, received more powers in order to suppress the harsh
+dealing of the old parochial authorities. The guardians, it was assumed,
+could always find 'work,' and they were to relieve the able-bodied
+without applying the workhouse test. The act, readily adopted, thus
+became a landmark in the growth of laxity.[86]
+
+At the end of the century a rapid development of pauperism had taken
+place. The expense, as Eden had to complain, had doubled in twenty
+years. This took place simultaneously with the great development of
+manufactures. It is not perhaps surprising, though it may be melancholy,
+that increase of wealth shall be accompanied by increase of pauperism.
+Where there are many rich men, there will be a better field for thieves
+and beggars. A life of dependence becomes easier though it need not
+necessarily be adopted. Whatever may have been the relation of the two
+phenomena, the social revolution made the old social arrangements more
+inadequate. Great aggregations of workmen were formed in towns, which
+were still only villages in a legal sense. Fluctuations of trade, due to
+war or speculation, brought distress to the improvident; and the old
+assumption that every man had a proper place in a small circle, where
+his neighbours knew all about him, was further than ever from being
+verified. One painful result was already beginning to show itself.
+Neglected children in great towns had already excited compassion. Thomas
+Coram (1668?-1751) had been shocked by the sight of dying children
+exposed in the streets of London, and succeeded in establishing the
+Foundling Hospital (founded in 1742). In 1762, Jonas Hanway (1712-1786)
+obtained a law for boarding out children born within the bills of
+mortality. The demand for children's labour, produced by the factories,
+seemed naturally enough to offer a better chance for extending such
+charities. Unfortunately among the people who took advantage of it were
+parish officials, eager to get children off their hands, and
+manufacturers concerned only to make money out of childish labour.
+Hence arose the shameful system for which remedies (as I shall have to
+notice) had to be sought in a later generation.
+
+Meanwhile the outbreak of the revolutionary war had made the question
+urgent. When Manchester trade suffered, as Eden tells us in his reports,
+many workmen enlisted in the army, and left their children to be
+supported by the parish. Bad seasons followed in 1794 and 1795, and
+there was great distress in the agricultural districts. The governing
+classes became alarmed. In December 1795 Whitbread introduced a bill
+providing that the justices of the peace should fix a minimum rate of
+wages. Upon a motion for the second reading, Pitt made the famous speech
+(12th December) including the often-quoted statement that when a man had
+a family, relief should be 'a matter of right and honour, instead of a
+ground of opprobrium and contempt.'[87] Pitt had in the same speech
+shown his reading of Adam Smith by dwelling upon the general objections
+to state interference with wages, and had argued that more was to be
+gained by removing the restrictions upon the free movement of labour. He
+undertook to produce a comprehensive measure; and an elaborate bill of
+130 clauses was prepared in 1796.[88] The rates were to be used to
+supplement inadequate wages; 'schools of industry' were to be formed for
+the support of superabundant children; loans might be made to the poor
+for the purchase of a cow;[89] and the possession of property was not to
+disqualify for the receiving relief. In short, the bill seems to have
+been a model of misapplied benevolence. The details were keenly
+criticised by Bentham, and the bill never came to the birth. Other
+topics were pressing enough at this time to account for the failure of a
+measure so vast in its scope. Meanwhile something had to be done. On 6th
+May 1795 the Berkshire magistrates had passed certain resolutions called
+from their place of meeting, the 'Speenhamland Act of Parliament.' They
+provided that the rate of wages of a labourer should be increased in
+proportion to the price of corn and to the number of his family--a rule
+which, as Eden observes, tended to discourage economy of food in times
+of scarcity. They also sanctioned the disastrous principle of paying
+part of the wages out of rates. An act passed in 1796 repealed the old
+restrictions upon out-door relief; and thus, during the hard times that
+were to follow, the poor-laws were adapted to produce the state of
+things in which, as Cobbett says (in 1821) 'every labourer who has
+children is now regularly and constantly a pauper.'[90] The result
+represents a curious compromise. The landowners, whether from
+benevolence or fear of revolution, desired to meet the terrible distress
+of the times. Unfortunately their spasmodic interference was guided by
+no fixed principles, and acted upon a class of institutions not
+organised upon any definite system. The general effect seems to have
+been that the ratepayers, no longer allowed to 'depopulate,' sought to
+turn the compulsory stream of charity partly into their own pockets. If
+they were forced to support paupers, they could contrive to save the
+payment of wages. They could use the labour of the rate-supported
+pauper instead of employing independent workmen. The evils thus produced
+led before long to most important discussions.[91] The ordinary view of
+the poor-law was inverted. The prominent evil was the reckless increase
+of a degraded population instead of the restriction of population.
+Eden's own view is sufficiently indicative of the light in which the
+facts showed themselves to intelligent economists. As a disciple of Adam
+Smith, he accepts the rather vague doctrine of his master about the
+'balance' between labour and capital. If labour exceeds capital, he
+says, the labourer must starve 'in spite of all political
+regulations.'[92] He therefore looks with disfavour upon the whole
+poor-law system. It is too deeply rooted to be abolished, but he thinks
+that the amount to be raised should not be permitted to exceed the sum
+levied on an average of previous years. The only certain result of
+Pitt's measure would be a vast expenditure upon a doubtful experiment:
+and one main purpose of his publication was to point out the objections
+to the plan. He desires what seemed at that time to be almost hopeless,
+a national system of education; but his main doctrine is the wisdom of
+reliance upon individual effort. The truth of the maxim '_pas trop
+gouverner_,' he says,[93] has never been better illustrated than by the
+contrast between friendly societies and the poor-laws. Friendly
+societies had been known, though they were still on a humble scale, from
+the beginning of the century, and had tended to diminish pauperism in
+spite of the poor-laws. Eden gives many accounts of them. They seem to
+have suggested a scheme proposed by the worthy Francis Maseres[94]
+(1731-1824) in 1772 for the establishment of life annuities. A bill to
+give effect to this scheme passed the House of Commons in 1773 with the
+support of Burke and Savile, but was thrown out in the House of Lords.
+In 1786 John Acland (died 1796), a Devonshire clergyman and justice of
+the peace, proposed a scheme for uniting the whole nation into a kind of
+friendly society for the support of the poor when out of work and in old
+age. It was criticised by John Howlett (1731-1804), a clergyman who
+wrote much upon the poor-laws. He attributes the growth of pauperism to
+the rise of prices, and calculates that out of an increased expenditure
+of L700,000, L219,000 had been raised by the rich, and the remainder
+'squeezed out of the flesh, blood, and bones of the poor,' An act for
+establishing Acland's crude scheme failed next year in parliament.[95]
+The merit of the societies, according to Eden, was their tendency to
+stimulate self-help; and how to preserve that merit, while making them
+compulsory, was a difficult problem. I have said enough to mark a
+critical and characteristic change of opinion. One source of evil
+pointed out by contemporaries had been the absence of any central power
+which could regulate and systematise the action of the petty local
+bodies. The very possibility of such organisation, however, seems to
+have been simply inconceivable. When the local bodies became lavish
+instead of over-frugal, the one remedy suggested was to abolish the
+system altogether.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[74] See _Dictionary of National Biography_.
+
+[75] _Works_, i. 255.
+
+[76] See Sir G. Nicholls's _History of the Poor-law_, 1854. A new
+edition, with life by H. G. Willink, appeared in 1898.
+
+[77] _History_, i. 175.
+
+[78] M'Culloch's note to _Wealth of Nations_, p. 65. M'Culloch in his
+appendix makes some sensible remarks upon the absence of any properly
+constituted parochial 'tribunal.'
+
+[79] _Wealth of Nations_, bk. i. ch. x.
+
+[80] See passage quoted in Eden's _History_, i. 347.
+
+[81] Thomas Firmin (1632-1677), a philanthropist, whose Socinianism did
+not exclude him from the friendship of such liberal bishops as Tillotson
+and Fowler, started a workhouse in 1676.
+
+[82] Nicholls (1898), ii. 14.
+
+[83] _Ibid._ (1898), ii. 123.
+
+[84] _Report_, p. 67.
+
+[85] William Hay, for example, carried resolutions in the House of
+Commons in 1735, but failed to carry a bill which had this object. See
+Eden's _History_, i. 396. Cooper in 1763 proposed to make the hundred
+the unit.--Nicholls's _History_, i. 58. Fielding proposes a similar
+change in London. Dean Tucker speaks of the evil of the limited area in
+his _Manifold Causes of the Increase of the Poor_ (1760).
+
+[86] Nicholls, ii. 88.
+
+[87] _Parl. Hist._ xxxii. 710.
+
+[88] A full abstract is given in Edens _History_, iii. ccclxiii. etc.
+
+[89] Bentham observes (_Works_, viii. 448) that the cow will require the
+three acres to keep it.
+
+[90] Cobbett's _Political Works_, vi. 64
+
+[91] I need only note here that the first edition of Malthus's _Essay_
+appeared in 1798, the year after Eden's publication.
+
+[92] Eden's _History_, i. 583.
+
+[93] _Ibid._ i. 587.
+
+[94] Maseres, an excellent Whig, a good mathematician, and a respected
+lawyer, is perhaps best known at present from his portrait in Charles
+Lamb's _Old Benchers_.
+
+[95] It maybe noticed as an anticipation of modern schemes that in 1792
+Paine proposed a system of 'old age pensions,' for which the necessary
+funds were to be easily obtained when universal peace had abolished all
+military charges. See _State Trials_, xxv. 175.
+
+
+II. THE POLICE
+
+The system of 'self-government' showed its weak side in this direction.
+It meant that an important function was intrusted to small bodies, quite
+incompetent of acting upon general principles, and perfectly capable of
+petty jobbing, when unrestrained by any effective supervision. In
+another direction the same tendency was even more strikingly
+illustrated. Municipal institutions were almost at their lowest point of
+decay. Manchester and Birmingham were two of the largest and most
+rapidly growing towns. By the end of the century Manchester had a
+population of 90,000 and Birmingham of 70,000. Both were ruled, as far
+as they were ruled, by the remnants of old manorial institutions.
+Aikin[96] observes that 'Manchester (in 1795) remains an open town;
+destitute (probably to its advantage) of a corporation, and
+unrepresented in parliament.' It was governed by a 'boroughreeve' and
+two constables elected annually at the court-leet. William Hutton, the
+quaint historian of Birmingham, tells us in 1783 that the town was still
+legally a village, with a high and low bailiff, a 'high and low taster,'
+two 'affeerers,' and two 'leather-sealers,' In 1752 it had been provided
+with a 'court of requests' for the recovery of small debts, and in 1769
+with a body of commissioners to provide for lighting the town. This was
+the system by which, with some modifications, Birmingham was governed
+till after the Reform Bill.[97] Hutton boasts[98] that no town was
+better governed or had fewer officers. 'A town without a charter,' he
+says, 'is a town without a shackle.' Perhaps he changed his opinions
+when his warehouses were burnt in 1791, and the town was at the mercy of
+the mob till a regiment of 'light horse' could be called in. Aikin and
+Hutton, however, reflect the general opinion at a time when the town
+corporations had become close and corrupt bodies, and were chiefly
+'shackles' upon the energy of active members of the community. I must
+leave the explanation of this decay to historians. I will only observe
+that what would need explanation would seem to be rather the absence
+than the presence of corruption. The English borough was not stimulated
+by any pressure from a central government; nor was it a semi-independent
+body in which every citizen had the strongest motives for combining to
+support its independence against neighbouring towns or invading nobles.
+The lower classes were ignorant, and probably would be rather hostile
+than favourable to any such modest interference with dirt and disorder
+as would commend themselves to the officials. Naturally, power was left
+to the little cliques of prosperous tradesmen, who formed close
+corporations, and spent the revenues upon feasts or squandered them by
+corrupt practices. Here, as in the poor-law, the insufficiency of the
+administrative body suggests to contemporaries, not its reform, but its
+superfluity.
+
+The most striking account of some of the natural results is in
+Colquhoun's[99] _Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis_. Patrick
+Colquhoun (1745-1820), an energetic Scot, was born at Dumbarton in 1745,
+had been in business at Glasgow, where he was provost in 1782 and 1783,
+and in 1789 settled in London. In 1792 he obtained through Dundas an
+appointment to one of the new police magistracies created by an act of
+that year. He took an active part in many schemes of social reform; and
+his book gives an account of the investigations by which his schemes
+were suggested and justified. It must be said, however, parenthetically,
+that his statistics scarcely challenge implicit confidence. Like
+Sinclair and Eden, he saw the importance of obtaining facts and figures,
+but his statements are suspiciously precise and elaborate.[100] The
+broad facts are clear enough.
+
+London was, he says, three miles broad and twenty-five in circumference.
+The population in 1801 was 641,000. It was the largest town, and
+apparently the most chaotic collection of dwellings in the civilised
+world. There were, as Colquhoun asserts[101] in an often-quoted passage,
+20,000 people in it, who got up every morning without knowing how they
+would get through the day. There were 5000 public-houses, and 50,000
+women supported, wholly or partly, by prostitution. The revenues raised
+by crime amounted, as he calculates, to an annual sum of, L2,000,000.
+There were whole classes of professional thieves, more or less organised
+in gangs, which acted in support of each other. There were gangs on the
+river, who boarded ships at night, or lay in wait round the warehouses.
+The government dockyards were systematically plundered, and the same
+article often sold four times over to the officials. The absence of
+patrols gave ample chance to the highwaymen then peculiar to England.
+Their careers, commemorated in the _Newgate Calendar_, had a certain
+flavour of Robin Hood romance, and their ranks were recruited from
+dissipated apprentices and tradesmen in difficulty. The fields round
+London were so constantly plundered that the rent was materially
+lowered. Half the hackney coachmen, he says,[102] were in league with
+thieves. The number of receiving houses for stolen goods had increased
+in twenty years from 300 to 3000.[103] Coining was a flourishing trade,
+and according to Colquhoun employed several thousand persons.[104]
+Gambling had taken a fresh start about 1777 and 1778[105]; and the
+keepers of tables had always money enough at command to make convictions
+almost impossible. French refugees at the revolution had introduced
+_rouge et noir_; and Colquhoun estimates the sums yearly lost in
+gambling-houses at over L7,000,000. The gamblers might perhaps appeal
+not only to the practices of their betters in the days of Fox, but to
+the public lotteries. Colquhoun had various correspondents, who do not
+venture to propose the abolition of a system which sanctioned the
+practice, but who hope to diminish the facility for supplementary
+betting on the results of the official drawing.
+
+The war had tended to increase the number of loose and desperate
+marauders who swarmed in the vast labyrinth of London streets. When we
+consider the nature of the police by which these evils were to be
+checked, and the criminal law which they administered, the wonder is
+less that there were sometimes desperate riots (as in 1780) than that
+London should have been ever able to resist a mob. Colquhoun, though a
+patriotic Briton, has to admit that the French despots had at last
+created an efficient police. The emperor, Joseph II., he says, inquired
+for an Austrian criminal supposed to have escaped to Paris. You will
+find him, replied the head of the French police, at No. 93 of such a
+street in Vienna on the second-floor room looking upon such a church;
+and there he was. In England a criminal could hide himself in a herd of
+his like, occasionally disturbed by the inroad of a 'Bow Street runner,'
+the emissary of the 'trading justices,' formerly represented by the two
+Fieldings. An act of 1792 created seven new offices, to one of which
+Colquhoun had been appointed. They had one hundred and eighty-nine paid
+officers under them. There were also about one thousand constables.
+These were small tradesmen or artisans upon whom the duty was imposed
+without remuneration for a year by their parish, that is, by one of
+seventy independent bodies. A 'Tyburn ticket,' given in reward for
+obtaining the conviction of a criminal exempted a man from the discharge
+of such offices, and could be bought for from L15 to L25. There were
+also two thousand watchmen receiving from 8-1/2d. up to 2s. a night.
+These were the true successors of Dogberry; often infirm or aged persons
+appointed to keep them out of the workhouse. The management of this
+distracted force thus depended upon a miscellaneous set of bodies; the
+paid magistrates, the officials of the city, the justices of the peace
+for Middlesex, and the seventy independent parishes.
+
+The law was as defective as the administration. Colquhoun represents the
+philanthropic impulse of the day, and notices[106] that in 1787 Joseph
+II. had abolished capital punishment. His chief authority for more
+merciful methods is Beccaria; and it is worth remarking, for reasons
+which will appear hereafter, that he does not in this connection refer
+to Bentham, although he speaks enthusiastically[107] of Bentham's model
+prison, the Panopticon. Colquhoun shows how strangely the severity of
+the law was combined with its extreme capaciousness. He quotes
+Bacon[108] for the statement that the law was a 'heterogeneous mass
+concocted too often on the spur of the moment,' and gives sufficient
+proofs of its truth. He desires, for example, a law to punish receivers
+of stolen goods, and says that there were excellent laws in existence.
+Unfortunately one law applied exclusively to the case of pewter-pots,
+and another exclusively to the precious metals; neither could be used as
+against receivers of horses or bank notes.[109] So a man indicted under
+an act against stealing from ships on navigable rivers escaped, because
+the barge from which he stole happened to be aground. Gangs could afford
+to corrupt witnesses or to pay knavish lawyers skilled in applying these
+vagaries of legislation. Juries also disliked convicting when the
+penalty for coining sixpence was the same as the penalty for killing a
+mother. It followed, as he shows by statistics, that half the persons
+committed for trial escaped by petty chicanery or corruption, or the
+reluctance of juries to convict for capital offences. Only about
+one-fifth of the capital sentences were executed; and many were pardoned
+on condition of enlisting to improve the morals of the army. The
+criminals, who were neither hanged nor allowed to escape, were sent to
+prisons, which were schools of vice. After the independence of the
+American colonies, the system of transportation to Australia had begun
+(in 1787); but the expense was enormous, and prisoners were huddled
+together in the hulks at Woolwich and Portsmouth, which had been used as
+a temporary expedient. Thence they were constantly discharged, to return
+to their old practices. A man, says Colquhoun,[110] would deserve a
+statue who should carry out a plan for helping discharged prisoners. To
+meet these evils, Colquhoun proposes various remedies, such as a
+metropolitan police, a public prosecutor, or even a codification or
+revision of the Criminal Code, which he sees is likely to be delayed. He
+also suggested, in a pamphlet of 1799, a kind of charity organisation
+society to prevent the waste of funds. Many other pamphlets of similar
+tendencies show his active zeal in promoting various reforms. Colquhoun
+was in close correspondence with Bentham from the year 1798,[111] and
+Bentham helped him by drawing the Thames Police Act, passed in 1800, to
+give effect to some of the suggestions in the _Treatise_.[112]
+
+Another set of abuses has a special connection with Bentham's activity.
+Bentham had been led in 1778 to attend to the prison question by reading
+Howard's book on _Prisons_; and he refers to the 'venerable friend who
+had lived an apostle and died a martyr.'[113] The career of John Howard
+(1726-1790) is familiar. The son of a London tradesman, he had inherited
+an estate in Bedfordshire. There he erected model cottages and village
+schools; and, on becoming sheriff of the county in 1773, was led to
+attend to abuses in the prisons. Two acts of parliament were passed in
+1774 to remedy some of the evils exposed, and he pursued the inquiry at
+home and abroad. His results are given in his _State of the Prisons in
+England and Wales_ (1779, fourth edition, 1792), and his _Account of the
+Principal Lazarettos in Europe_ (1789). The prisoners, he says, had
+little food, sometimes a penny loaf a day, and sometimes nothing; no
+water, no fresh air, no sewers, and no bedding. The stench was
+appalling, and gaol fever killed more than died on the gallows. Debtors
+and felons, men, women and children, were huddled together; often with
+lunatics, who were shown by the gaolers for money. 'Garnish' was
+extorted; the gaolers kept drinking-taps; gambling flourished: and
+prisoners were often cruelly ironed, and kept for long periods before
+trial. At Hull the assizes had only been held once in seven years, and
+afterwards once in three. It is a comfort to find that the whole number
+of prisoners in England and Wales amounted, in 1780, to about 4400, 2078
+of whom were debtors, 798 felons, and 917 petty offenders. An act passed
+in 1779 provided for the erection of two penitentiaries. Howard was to
+be a supervisor. The failure to carry out this act led, as we shall see,
+to one of Bentham's most characteristic undertakings. One peculiarity
+must be noted. Howard found prisons on the continent where the
+treatment was bad and torture still occasionally practised; but he
+nowhere found things so bad as in England. In Holland the prisons were
+so neat and clean as to make it difficult to believe that they were
+prisons: and they were used as models for the legislation of 1779. One
+cause of this unenviable distinction of English prisons had been
+indicated by an earlier investigation. General Oglethorpe (1696-1785)
+had been started in his philanthropic career by obtaining a committee of
+the House of Commons in 1729 to inquire into the state of the gaols. The
+foundation of the colony of Georgia as an outlet for the population was
+one result of the inquiry. It led, in the first place, however, to a
+trial of persons accused of atrocious cruelties at the Fleet
+prison.[114] The trial was abortive. It appeared in the course of the
+proceedings that the Fleet prison was a 'freehold,' A patent for
+rebuilding it had been granted to Sir Jeremy Whichcot under Charles II.,
+and had been sold to one Higgins, who resold it to other persons for
+L5000. The proprietors made their investment pay by cruel ill-treatment
+of the prisoners, oppressing the poor and letting off parts of the
+prison to dealers in drink. This was the general plan in the prisons
+examined by Howard, and helps to account for the gross abuses. It is one
+more application of the general system. As the patron was owner of a
+living, and the officer of his commission, the keeper of a prison was
+owner of his establishment. The paralysis of administration which
+prevailed throughout the country made it natural to farm out paupers to
+the master of a workhouse, and prisoners to the proprietor of a gaol.
+The state of prisoners may be inferred not only from Howard's authentic
+record but from the fictions of Fielding, Smollett and Goldsmith; and
+the last echoes of the same complaints may be found in _Pickwick_ and
+_Little Dorrit_. The Marshalsea described in the last was also a
+proprietary concern. We shall hereafter see how Bentham proposed to
+treat the evils revealed by Oglethorpe and Howard.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[96] Aikin's _Country Round Manchester_.
+
+[97] Bunce's _History of the Corporation of Birmingham_ (1878).
+
+[98] _History of Birmingham_ (2nd edition), p. 327.
+
+[99] The first edition, 1795, the sixth, from which I quote, in 1800. In
+Benthams _Works_, x. 330, it is said that in 1798, 7500 copies of this
+book had been sold.
+
+[100] In 1814 Colquhoun published an elaborate account of the _Resources
+of the British Empire_, showing similar qualities.
+
+[101] _Police_, p. 310.
+
+[102] _Police_, p. 105.
+
+[103] _Ibid._ p. 13.
+
+[104] _Ibid._ p. 211.
+
+[105] _Ibid._ p. 136.
+
+[106] _Police_, p. 60.
+
+[107] _Ibid._ p. 481.
+
+[108] _Ibid._ p. 7.
+
+[109] _Ibid._ p. 298.
+
+[110] _Police_, p. 99.
+
+[111] Bentham's _Works_, x. 329 _seq._
+
+[112] _Ibid._ v. 335.
+
+[113] Bentham's _Works_, iv. 3, 121.
+
+[114] Cobbett's _State Trials_, xvii. 297-626.
+
+
+III. EDUCATION
+
+Another topic treated by Colquhoun marks the initial stage of
+controversies which were soon to grow warm. Colquhoun boasts of the
+number of charities for which London was already conspicuous. A growing
+facility for forming associations of all kinds, political, religious,
+scientific, and charitable, is an obvious characteristic of modern
+progress. Where in earlier times a college or a hospital had to be
+endowed by a founder and invested by charter with corporate personality,
+it is now necessary only to call a meeting, form a committee, and appeal
+for subscriptions. Societies of various kinds had sprung up during the
+century. Artists, men of science, agriculturists, and men of literary
+tastes, had founded innumerable academies and 'philosophical
+institutes.' The great London hospitals, dependent upon voluntary
+subscriptions, had been founded during the first half of the century.
+Colquhoun counts the annual revenue of various charitable institutions
+at L445,000, besides which the endowments produced L150,000, and the
+poor-rates L255,000.[115] Among these a considerable number were
+intended to promote education. Here, as in some other cases, it seems
+that people at the end of the century were often taking up an impulse
+given a century before. So the Society for promoting Christian
+Knowledge, founded in 1699, and the Society for the Propagation of the
+Gospel, founded in 1701, were supplemented by the Church Missionary
+Society and the Religious Tract Society, both founded in 1799. The
+societies for the reformation of manners, prevalent at the end of the
+seventeenth century, were taken as a model by Wilberforce and his
+friends at the end of the eighteenth.[116] In the same way, the first
+attempts at providing a general education for the poor had been made by
+Archbishop Tenison, who founded a parochial school about 1680 in order
+'to check the growth of popery.' Charity schools became common during
+the early part of the eighteenth century and received various
+endowments. They were attacked as tending to teach the poor too much--a
+very needless alarm--and also by free thinkers, such as Mandeville, as
+intended outworks of the established church. This last objection was a
+foretaste of the bitter religious controversies which were to accompany
+the growth of an educational system. Colquhoun says that there were 62
+endowed schools in London, from Christ's Hospital downwards, educating
+about 5000 children; 237 parish schools with about 9000 children, and
+3730 'private schools.' The teaching was, of course, very imperfect, and
+in a report of a committee of the House of Commons in 1818, it is
+calculated that about half the children in a large district were
+entirely uneducated. There was, of course, nothing in England deserving
+the name of a system in educational more than in any other matters. The
+grammar schools throughout the country provided more or less for the
+classes which could not aspire to the public schools and universities.
+About a third of the boys at Christ's Hospital were, as Coleridge tells
+us, sons of clergymen.[117] The children of the poor were either not
+educated, or picked up their letters at some charity school or such a
+country dame's school as is described by Shenstone. A curious proof,
+however, of rising interest in the question is given by the Sunday
+Schools movement at the end of the century. Robert Raikes (1735-1811), a
+printer in Gloucester and proprietor of a newspaper, joined with a
+clergyman to set up a school in 1780 at a total cost of 1s. 6d. a week.
+Within three or four years the plan was taken up everywhere, and the
+worthy Raikes, whose newspaper had spread the news, found himself
+revered as a great pioneer of philanthropy. Wesley took up the scheme
+warmly; bishops condescended to approve; the king and queen were
+interested, and within three or four years the number of learners was
+reckoned at two or three hundred thousand. A Sunday School Association
+was formed in 1785 with well known men of business at its head. Queen
+Charlotte's friend, Mrs. Trimmer (1741-1810), took up the work near
+London, and Hannah More (1745-1833) in Somersetshire. Hannah More gives
+a strange account of the utter absence of any civilising agencies in the
+district around Cheddar where she and her sisters laboured. She was
+accused of 'methodism' and a leaning to Jacobinism, although her views
+were of the most moderate kind. She wished the poor to be able to read
+their Bibles and to be qualified for domestic duties, but not to write
+or to be enabled to read Tom Paine or be encouraged to rise above their
+position. The literary light of the Whigs, Dr. Parr (1747-1825), showed
+his liberality by arguing that the poor ought to be taught, but admitted
+that the enterprise had its limits. The 'Deity Himself had fixed a great
+gulph between them and the poor.' A scanty instruction given on Sundays
+alone was not calculated to facilitate the passage of that gulf. By the
+end of the century, however, signs of a more systematic movement were
+showing themselves. Bell and Lancaster, of whom I shall have to speak,
+were rival claimants for the honour of initiating a new departure in
+education. The controversy which afterwards raged between the supporters
+of the two systems marked a complete revolution of opinion. Meanwhile,
+although the need of schools was beginning to be felt, the appliances
+for education in England were a striking instance of the general
+inefficiency in every department which needed combined action. In
+Scotland the system of parish schools was one obvious cause of the
+success of so many of the Scotsmen which excited the jealousy of
+southern competitors. Even in Ireland there appears to have been a more
+efficient set of schools. And yet, one remark must be suggested. There
+is probably no period in English history at which a greater number of
+poor men have risen to distinction. The greatest beyond comparison of
+self-taught poets was Burns (1759-1796). The political writer who was at
+the time producing the most marked effect was Thomas Paine (1737-1809),
+son of a small tradesman. His successor in influence was William Cobbett
+(1762-1835), son of an agricultural labourer, and one of the pithiest of
+all English writers. William Gifford (1756-1826), son of a small
+tradesman in Devonshire, was already known as a satirist and was to lead
+Conservatives as editor of the _The Quarterly Review_. John Dalton
+(1766-1842), son of a poor weaver, was one of the most distinguished men
+of science. Porson (1759-1808), the greatest Greek scholar of his time,
+was son of a Norfolk parish clerk, though sagacious patrons had sent him
+to Eton in his fifteenth year. The Oxford professor of Arabic, Joseph
+White (1746-1814), was son of a poor weaver in the country and a man of
+reputation for learning, although now remembered only for a rather
+disreputable literary squabble. Robert Owen and Joseph Lancaster, both
+sprung from the ranks, were leaders in social movements. I have already
+spoken of such men as Watt, Telford, and Rennie; and smaller names might
+be added in literature, science, and art. The individualist virtue of
+'self-help' was not confined to successful money-making or to the
+wealthier classes. One cause of the literary excellence of Burns, Paine,
+and Cobbett may be that, when literature was less centralised, a writer
+was less tempted to desert his natural dialect. I mention the fact,
+however, merely to suggest that, whatever were then the difficulties of
+getting such schooling as is now common, an energetic lad even in the
+most neglected regions might force his way to the front.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[115] _Police_, p. 340.
+
+[116] Wilberforce started on this plan a 'society for enforcing the
+king's proclamation' in 1786, which was supplemented by the society for
+'the Suppression of Vice' in 1802. I don't suppose that vice was much
+suppressed. Sydney Smith ridiculed its performances in the _Edinburgh_
+for 1809. The article is in his works. A more interesting society was
+that for 'bettering the condition of the poor,' started by Sir Thomas
+Bernard and Wilberforce in 1796.
+
+[117] _Biographia Literaria_ (1847), ii. 327.
+
+
+IV. THE SLAVE-TRADE
+
+I have thus noticed the most conspicuous of the contemporary problems
+which, as we shall see, provided the main tasks of Bentham and his
+followers. One other topic must be mentioned as in more ways than one
+characteristic of the spirit of the time. The parliamentary attack upon
+the slave-trade began just before the outbreak of the revolution. It is
+generally described as an almost sudden awakening of the national
+conscience. That it appealed to that faculty is undeniable, and,
+moreover, it is at least a remarkable instance of legislative action
+upon purely moral grounds. It is true that in this case the conscience
+was the less impeded because it was roused chiefly by the sins of men's
+neighbours. The slave-trading class was a comparative excrescence. Their
+trade could be attacked without such widespread interference with the
+social order as was implied, for example, in remedying the grievances of
+paupers or of children in factories. The conflict with morality, again,
+was so plain as to need no demonstration. It seems to be a questionable
+logic which assumes the merit of a reformer to be in proportion to the
+flagrancy of the evil assailed. The more obvious the case, surely the
+less the virtue needed in the assailant. However this may be, no one can
+deny the moral excellence of such men as Wilberforce and Clarkson, nor
+the real change in the moral standard implied by the success of their
+agitation. But another question remains, which is indicated by a later
+controversy. The followers of Wilberforce and of Clarkson were jealous
+of each other. Each party tried to claim the chief merit for its hero.
+Each was, I think, unjust to the other. The underlying motive was the
+desire to obtain credit for the 'Evangelicals' or their rivals as the
+originators of a great movement. Without touching the personal details
+it is necessary to say something of the general sentiments implied. In
+his history of the agitation,[118] Clarkson gives a quaint chart,
+showing how the impulse spread from various centres till it converged
+upon a single area, and his facts are significant.
+
+That a great change had taken place is undeniable. Protestant England
+had bargained with Catholic Spain in the middle of the century for the
+right of supplying slaves to America, while at the peace of 1814 English
+statesmen were endeavouring to secure a combination of all civilised
+powers against the trade. Smollett, in 1748, makes the fortune of his
+hero, Roderick Random, by placing him as mate of a slave-ship under the
+ideal sailor, Bowling. About the same time John Newton (1725-1807),
+afterwards the venerated teacher of Cowper and the Evangelicals, was in
+command of a slaver, and enjoying 'sweeter and more frequent hours of
+divine communion' than he had elsewhere known. He had no scruples,
+though he had the grace to pray 'to be fixed in a more humane calling.'
+In later years he gave the benefit of his experience to the
+abolitionists.[119] A new sentiment, however, was already showing
+itself. Clarkson collects various instances. Southern's Oroonoco,
+founded on a story by Mrs. Behn, and Steele's story of Inkle and Yarico
+in an early _Spectator_, Pope's poor Indian in the _Essay on Man_, and
+allusions by Thomson, Shenstone, and Savage, show that poets and
+novelists could occasionally turn the theme to account. Hutcheson, the
+moralist, incidentally condemns slavery; and divines such as Bishops
+Hayter and Warburton took the same view in sermons before the Society
+for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Johnson, 'last of the
+Tories' though he was, had a righteous hatred for the system.[120] He
+toasted the next insurrection of negroes in the West Indies, and asked
+why we always heard the 'loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of
+negroes'? Thomas Day (1748-1789), as an ardent follower of Rousseau,
+wrote the _Dying Negro_ in 1773, and, in the same spirit, denounced the
+inconsistencies of slave-holding champions of American liberty.
+
+Such isolated utterances showed a spreading sentiment. The honour of the
+first victory in the practical application must be given to Granville
+Sharp[121] (1735-1813), one of the most charming and, in the best sense,
+'Quixotic' of men. In 1772 his exertions had led to the famous decision
+by Lord Mansfield in the case of the negro Somerset.[122] Sharp in 1787
+became chairman of the committee formed to attack the slave-trade by
+collecting the evidence of which Wilberforce made use in parliament. The
+committee was chiefly composed of Quakers; as indeed, Quakers are pretty
+sure to be found in every philanthropic movement of the period. I must
+leave the explanation to the historian of religious movements; but the
+fact is characteristic. The Quakers had taken the lead in America. The
+Quaker was both practical and a mystic. His principles put him outside
+of the ordinary political interests, and of the military world. He
+directed his activities to helping the poor, the prisoner, and the
+oppressed. Among the Quakers of the eighteenth century were John Woolman
+(1720-1772), a writer beloved by the congenial Charles Lamb and Antoine
+Benezet (1713-1784), born in France, and son of a French refugee who
+settled in Philadelphia. When Clarkson wrote the prize essay upon the
+slave-trade (1785), which started his career, it was from Benezet's
+writings that he obtained his information. By their influence the
+Pennsylvanian Quakers were gradually led to pronounce against
+slavery[123]; and the first anti-slavery society was founded in
+Philadelphia in 1775, the year in which the skirmish at Lexington began
+the war of independence. That suggests another influence. The
+Rationalists of the eighteenth century were never tired of praising the
+Quakers. The Quakers were, by their essential principles, in favour of
+absolute toleration, and their attitude towards dogma was not
+dissimilar. 'Rationalisation' and 'Spiritualisation' are in some
+directions similar. The general spread of philanthropic sentiment,
+which found its formula in the _Rights of Man_, fell in with the Quaker
+hatred of war and slavery. Voltaire heartily admires Barclay, the Quaker
+apologist. It is, therefore, not surprising to find the names of the
+deists, Franklin and Paine, associated with Quakers in this movement.
+Franklin was an early president of the new association, and Paine wrote
+an article to support the early agitation.[124] Paine himself was a
+Quaker by birth, who had dropped his early creed while retaining a
+respect for its adherents. When the agitation began it was in fact
+generally approved by all except the slave-traders. Sound Whig divines,
+Watson and Paley and Parr; Unitarians such as Priestley and Gilbert
+Wakefield and William Smith; and the great methodist, John Wesley, were
+united on this point. Fox and Burke and Pitt rivalled each other in
+condemning the system. The actual delay was caused partly by the
+strength of the commercial interests in parliament, and partly by the
+growth of the anti-Jacobin sentiment.
+
+The attempt to monopolise the credit of the movement by any particular
+sect is absurd. Wilberforce and his friends might fairly claim the glory
+of having been worthy representatives of a new spirit of philanthropy;
+but most certainly they did not create or originate it. The general
+growth of that spirit throughout the century must be explained, so far
+as 'explanation' is possible, by wider causes. It was, as I must venture
+to assume, a product of complex social changes which were bringing
+classes and nations into closer contact, binding them together by new
+ties, and breaking up the old institutions which had been formed under
+obsolete conditions. The true moving forces were the same whether these
+representatives announced the new gospel of the 'rights of man'; or
+appealed to the traditional rights of Englishmen; or rallied supporters
+of the old order so far as it still provided the most efficient
+machinery for the purpose. The revival of religion under Wesley and the
+Evangelicals meant the direction of the stream into one channel. The
+paralytic condition of the Church of England disqualified it for
+appropriating the new energy. The men who directed the movements were
+mainly stimulated by moral indignation at the gross abuses, and the
+indolence of the established priesthood naturally gave them an
+anti-sacerdotal turn. They simply accepted the old Protestant tradition.
+They took no interest in the intellectual questions involved.
+Rationalism, according to them, meant simply an attack upon the
+traditional sanctions of morality; and it scarcely occurred to them to
+ask for any philosophical foundation of their creed. Wilberforce's book,
+_A Practical View_, attained an immense popularity, and is
+characteristic of the position. Wilberforce turns over the infidel to be
+confuted by Paley, whom he takes to be a conclusive reasoner. For
+himself he is content to show what needed little proof, that the
+so-called Christians of the day could act as if they had never heard of
+the New Testament. The Evangelical movement had in short no distinct
+relation to speculative movements. It took the old tradition for
+granted, and it need not here be further considered.
+
+One other remark is suggested by the agitation against the slave-trade.
+It set a precedent for agitation of a kind afterwards familiar. The
+committee appealed to the country, and got up petitions. Sound Tories
+complained of them in the early slave-trade debates, as attempts to
+dictate to parliament by democratic methods. Political agitators had
+formed associations, and found a convenient instrument in the 'county
+meetings,' which seems to have possessed a kind of indefinite legal
+character.[125] Such associations of course depend for the great part of
+their influence upon the press. The circulation of literature was one
+great object. Paine's _Rights of Man_ was distributed by the
+revolutionary party, and Hannah More wrote popular tracts to persuade
+the poor that they had no grievances. It is said that two millions of
+her little tracts, 'Village Politics by Will Chip,' the 'Shepherd of
+Salisbury Plain,' and so forth were circulated. The demand, indeed,
+showed rather the eagerness of the rich to get them read than the
+eagerness of the poor to read them. They failed to destroy Paine's
+influence, but they were successful enough to lead to the foundation of
+the Religious Tract Society. The attempt to influence the poor by cheap
+literature shows that these opinions were beginning to demand
+consideration. Cobbett and many others were soon to use the new weapon.
+Meanwhile the newspapers circulated among the higher ranks were passing
+through a new phase, which must be noted. The great newspapers were
+gaining power. The _Morning Chronicle_ was started by Woodfall in 1769,
+the _Morning Post_ and _Morning Herald_ by Dudley Bate in 1772 and 1780,
+and the _Times_ by Walter in 1788. The modern editor was to appear
+during the war. Stoddart and Barnes of the _Times_, Perry and Black of
+the _Morning Chronicle_, were to become important politically. The
+revolutionary period marks the transition from the old-fashioned
+newspaper, carried on by a publisher and an author, to the modern
+newspaper, which represents a kind of separate organism, elaborately
+'differentiated' and worked by a whole army of co-operating editors,
+correspondents, reporters, and contributors. Finally, one remark may be
+made. The literary class in England was not generally opposed to the
+governing classes. The tone of Johnson's whole circle was conservative.
+In fact, since Harley's time, government had felt the need of support in
+the press, and politicians on both sides had their regular organs. The
+opposition might at any time become the government; and their supporters
+in the press, poor men who were only too dependent, had no motive for
+going beyond the doctrines of their principals. They might be bought by
+opponents, or they might be faithful to a patron. They did not form a
+band of outcasts, whose hand would be against every one. The libel law
+was severe enough, but there had been no licensing system since the
+early days of William and Mary. A man could publish what he chose at his
+own peril. When the current of popular feeling was anti-revolutionary,
+government might obtain a conviction, but even in the worst times there
+was a chance that juries might be restive. Editors had at times to go to
+prison, but even then the paper was not suppressed. Cobbett, for
+example, continued to publish his _Registrar_ during an imprisonment of
+two years (1810-12). Editors had very serious anxieties, but they could
+express with freedom any opinion which had the support of a party.
+English liberty was so far a reality that a very free discussion of the
+political problems of the day was permitted and practised. The English
+author, therefore, as such, had not the bitterness of a French man of
+letters, unless, indeed, he had the misfortune to be an uncompromising
+revolutionist.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[118] _History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the
+Abolition of the Slave-trade by the British Parliament_ (1808). Second
+enlarged edition 1839. The chart was one cause of the offence taken by
+Wilberforce's sons.
+
+[119] Cf. Sir J. Stephen's _Ecclesiastical Biography_ (The Evangelical
+Succession).
+
+[120] See passages collected in Birkbeck Hill's _Boswell_, ii. 478-80,
+and cf. iii. 200-204. Boswell was attracted by Clarkson, but finally
+made up his mind that the abolition of the slave-trade would 'shut the
+gates of mercy on mankind.'
+
+[121] See the account of G. Sharp in Sir J. Stephen's _Ecclesiastical
+Biography_ (Clapham Sect).
+
+[122] Cobbett's _State Trials_, xx. 1-82.
+
+[123] The Society determined in 1760 'to disown' any Friend concerned in
+the slave-trade.
+
+[124] Mr. Conway, in his _Life of Paine_, attributes, I think, a little
+more to his hero than is consistent with due regard to his predecessors;
+but, in any case, he took an early part in the movement.
+
+[125] See upon this subject Mr. Jephson's interesting book on _The
+Platform_.
+
+
+V. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
+
+The English society which I have endeavoured to characterise was now to
+be thrown into the vortex of the revolutionary wars. The surpassing
+dramatic interest of the French Revolution has tended to obscure our
+perception of the continuity of even English history. It has been easy
+to ascribe to the contagion of French example political movements which
+were already beginning in England and which were modified rather than
+materially altered by our share in the great European convulsion. The
+impression made upon Englishmen by the French Revolution is, however, in
+the highest degree characteristic. The most vehement sympathies and
+antipathies were aroused, and showed at least what principles were
+congenial to the various English parties. To praise or blame the
+revolution, as if it could be called simply good or bad, is for the
+historian as absurd as to praise or blame an earthquake. It was simply
+inevitable under the conditions. We may, of course, take it as an
+essential stage in a social evolution, which if described as progress is
+therefore to be blessed, or if as degeneration may provoke lamentation.
+We may, if we please, ask whether superior statesmanship might have
+attained the good results without the violent catastrophes, or whether a
+wise and good man who could appreciate the real position would have
+approved or condemned the actual policy. But to answer such problems
+with any confidence would imply a claim to a quasi-omniscience.
+Partisans at the time, however, answered them without hesitation, and
+saw in the Revolution the dawn of a new era of reason and justice, or
+the outburst of the fires of hell. Their view is at any rate indicative
+of their own position. The extreme opinions need no exposition. They are
+represented by the controversy between Burke and Paine. The general
+doctrine of the 'Rights of Men'--that all men are by nature free and
+equal--covered at least the doctrine that the inequality and despotism
+of the existing order was hateful, and people with a taste for abstract
+principles accepted this short cut to political wisdom. The 'minor'
+premise being obviously true, they took the major for granted. To Burke,
+who idealised the traditional element in the British Constitution, and
+so attached an excessive importance to historical continuity, the new
+doctrine seemed to imply the breaking up of the very foundations of
+order and the pulverisation of society. Burke and Paine both assumed too
+easily that the dogmas which they defended expressed the real and
+ultimate beliefs, and that the belief was the cause, not the
+consequence, of the political condition. Without touching upon the logic
+of either position, I may notice how the problem presented itself to the
+average English politician whose position implied acceptance of
+traditional compromises and who yet prided himself on possessing the
+liberties which were now being claimed by Frenchmen. The Whig could
+heartily sympathise with the French Revolution so long as it appeared to
+be an attempt to assimilate British principles. When Fox hailed the
+fall of the Bastille as the greatest and best event that had ever
+happened, he was expressing a generous enthusiasm shared by all the
+ardent and enlightened youth of the time. The French, it seemed, were
+abolishing an arbitrary despotism and adopting the principles of Magna
+Charta and the 'Habeas Corpus' Act. Difficulties, however, already
+suggested themselves to the true Whig. Would the French, as Young asked
+just after the same event, 'copy the constitution of England, freed from
+its faults, or attempt, from theory, to frame something absolutely
+speculative'?[126] On that issue depended the future of the country. It
+was soon decided in the sense opposed to Young's wishes. The reign of
+terror alienated the average Whig. But though the argument from
+atrocities is the popular one, the opposition was really more
+fundamental. Burke put the case, savagely and coarsely enough, in his
+'Letter to a noble Lord.' How would the duke of Bedford like to be
+treated as the revolutionists were treating the nobility in France? The
+duke might be a sincere lover of political liberty, but he certainly
+would not be prepared to approve the confiscation of his estates. The
+aristocratic Whigs, dependent for their whole property and for every
+privilege which they prized upon ancient tradition and prescription,
+could not really be in favour of sweeping away the whole complex social
+structure, levelling Windsor Castle as Burke put it in his famous
+metaphor, and making a 'Bedford level' of the whole country. The Whigs
+had to disavow any approval of the Jacobins; Mackintosh, who had given
+his answer to Burke's diatribes, met Burke himself on friendly terms
+(9th July 1797), and in 1800 took an opportunity of public recantation.
+He only expressed the natural awakening of the genuine Whig to the
+aspects of the case which he had hitherto ignored. The effect upon the
+middle-class Whigs is, however, more to my purpose. It may be
+illustrated by the history of John Horne Tooke[127] (1736-1812), who at
+this time represented what may be called the home-bred British
+radicalism. He was the son of a London tradesman, who had distinguished
+himself by establishing, and afterwards declining to enforce, certain
+legal rights against Frederick Prince of Wales. The prince recognised
+the tradesman's generosity by making his antagonist purveyor to his
+household. A debt of some thousand pounds was thus run up before the
+prince's death which was never discharged. Possibly the son's hostility
+to the royal family was edged by this circumstance. John Horne, forced
+to take orders in order to hold a living, soon showed himself to have
+been intended by nature for the law. He took up the cause of Wilkes in
+the early part of the reign; defended him energetically in later years;
+and in 1769 helped to start the 'Society for supporting the Bill of
+Rights.' He then attacked Wilkes, who, as he maintained, misapplied for
+his own private use the funds subscribed for public purposes to this
+society; and set up a rival 'Constitutional Society.' In 1775, as
+spokesman of this body, he denounced the 'king's troops' for 'inhumanly
+murdering' their fellow-subjects at Lexington for the sole crime of
+'preferring death to slavery.' He was imprisoned for the libel, and thus
+became a martyr to the cause. When the country associations were formed
+in 1780 to protest against the abuses revealed by the war, Horne became
+a member of the 'Society for Constitutional Information,' of which Major
+Cartwright--afterwards the revered, but rather tiresome, patriarch of
+the Radicals--was called the 'father.' Horne Tooke (as he was now
+named), by these and other exhibitions of boundless pugnacity, became a
+leader among the middle-class Whigs, who found their main support among
+London citizens, such as Beckford, Troutbeck and Oliver; supported them
+in his later days; and after the American war, preferred Pitt, as an
+advocate of parliamentary reform, to Fox, the favourite of the
+aristocratic Whigs. He denounced the Fox coalition ministry, and in
+later years opposed Fox at Westminster. The 'Society for Constitutional
+Information' was still extant in the revolutionary period, and Tooke, a
+bluff, jovial companion, who had by this time got rid of his clerical
+character, often took the chair at the taverns where they met to talk
+sound politics over their port. The revolution infused new spirit into
+politics. In March 1791[128] Tooke's society passed a vote of thanks to
+Paine for the first part of his _Rights of Man_. Next year Thomas Hardy,
+a radical shoemaker, started a 'Corresponding Society.' Others sprang up
+throughout the country, especially in the manufacturing towns.[129]
+These societies took Paine for their oracle, and circulated his writings
+as their manifesto. They communicated occasionally with Horne Tooke's
+society, which more or less sympathised with them. The Whigs of the
+upper sphere started the 'Friends of the People' in April 1792, in order
+to direct the discontent into safer channels. Grey, Sheridan and Erskine
+were members; Fox sympathised but declined to join; Mackintosh was
+secretary; and Sir Philip Francis drew up the opening address, citing
+the authority of Pitt and Blackstone, and declaring that the society
+wished 'not to change but to restore.'[130] It remonstrated cautiously
+with the other societies, and only excited their distrust. Grey, as its
+representative, made a motion for parliamentary reform which was
+rejected (May 1793) by two hundred and eighty-two to forty-one. Later
+motions in May 1797 and April 1800 showed that, for the present,
+parliamentary reform was out of the question. Meanwhile the English
+Jacobins got up a 'convention' which met at Edinburgh at the end of
+1793. The very name was alarming: the leaders were tried and
+transported; the cruelty of the sentences and the severity of the
+judges, especially Braxfield, shocked such men as Parr and Jeffrey, and
+unsuccessful appeals for mercy were made in parliament. The Habeas
+Corpus Act was suspended in 1794: Horne Tooke and Hardy were both
+arrested and tried for high treason in November. An English jury
+fortunately showed itself less subservient than the Scottish; the judge
+was scrupulously fair: and both Hardy and Horne Tooke were acquitted.
+The societies, however, though they were encouraged for a time, were
+attacked by severe measures passed by Pitt in 1795. The 'Friends of the
+People' ceased to exist The seizure of the committee of the
+Corresponding Societies in 1798 put an end to their activity. A report
+presented to parliament in 1799[131] declares that the societies had
+gone to dangerous lengths: they had communicated with the French
+revolutionists and with the 'United Irishmen' (founded 1791); and
+societies of 'United Englishmen' and 'United Scotsmen' had had some
+concern in the mutinies of the fleet in 1797 and in the Irish rebellion
+of 1798. Place says, probably with truth, that the danger was much
+exaggerated: but in any case, an act for the suppression of the
+Corresponding Societies was passed in 1799, and put an end to the
+movement.
+
+This summary is significant of the state of opinion. The genuine
+old-fashioned Whig dreaded revolution, and guarded himself carefully
+against any appearance of complicity. Jacobinism, on the other hand, was
+always an exotic. Such men as the leading Nonconformists Priestley and
+Price were familiar with the speculative movement on the continent, and
+sympathised with the enlightenment. Young men of genius, like Wordsworth
+and Coleridge, imbibed the same doctrines more or less thoroughly, and
+took Godwin for their English representative. The same creed was
+accepted by the artisans in the growing towns, from whom the
+Corresponding Societies drew their recruits. But the revolutionary
+sentiment was not so widely spread as its adherents hoped or its enemies
+feared. The Birmingham mob of 1791 acted, with a certain unconscious
+humour, on the side of church and king. They had perhaps an instinctive
+perception that it was an advantage to plunder on the side of the
+constable. In fact, however, the general feeling in all classes was
+anti-Jacobin. Place, an excellent witness, himself a member of the
+Corresponding Societies, declares that the repressive measures were
+generally popular even among the workmen.[132] They were certainly not
+penetrated with revolutionary fervour. Had it been otherwise, the
+repressive measures, severe as they were, would have stimulated rather
+than suppressed the societies, and, instead of silencing the
+revolutionists, have provoked a rising.
+
+At the early period the Jacobin and the home-bred Radical might combine
+against government. A manifesto of the Corresponding Societies begins by
+declaring that 'all men are by nature free and equal and independent of
+each other,' and argues also that these are the 'original principles of
+English government.'[133] Magna Charta is an early expression of the
+Declaration of Rights, and thus pure reason confirms British tradition.
+The adoption of a common platform, however, covered a profound
+difference of sentiment. Horne Tooke represents the old type of
+reformer. He was fully resolved not to be carried away by the enthusiasm
+of his allies. 'My companions in a stage,' he said to Cartwright, 'may
+be going to Windsor: I will go with them to Hounslow. But there I will
+get out: no further will I go, by God!'[134] When Sheridan supported a
+vote of sympathy for the French revolutionists, Tooke insisted upon
+adding a rider declaring the content of Englishmen with their own
+constitution.[135] He offended some of his allies by asserting that the
+'main timbers' of the constitution were sound though the dry-rot had
+got into the superstructure. He maintained, according to Godwin,[136]
+that the best of all governments had been that of England under George
+I. Though Cartwright said at the trial that Horne Tooke was taken to
+'have no religion whatever,' he was, according to Stephens, 'a great
+stickler for the church of England': and stood up for the House of Lords
+as well as the church on grounds of utility.[137] He always ridiculed
+Paine and the doctrine of abstract rights,[138] and told Cartwright that
+though all men had an equal right to a share of property, they had not a
+right to an equal share. Horne Tooke's Radicalism (I use the word by
+anticipation) was that of the sturdy tradesman. He opposed the
+government because he hated war, taxation and sinecures. He argued
+against universal suffrage with equal pertinacity. A comfortable old
+gentleman, with a good cellar of Madeira, and proud of his wall-fruit in
+a well-tilled garden, had no desire to see George III. at the
+guillotine, and still less to see a mob supreme in Lombard Street or
+banknotes superseded by assignats. He might be jealous of the great
+nobles, but he dreaded mob-rule. He could denounce abuses, but he could
+not desire anarchy. He is said to have retorted upon some one who had
+boasted that English courts of justice were open to all classes: 'So is
+the London tavern--to all who can pay.'[139] That is in the spirit of
+Bentham; and yet Bentham complains that Horne Tooke's disciple, Burdett,
+believed in the common law, and revered the authority of Coke.[140] In
+brief, the creed of Horne Tooke meant 'liberty' founded upon tradition.
+I shall presently notice the consistency of this with what may be called
+his philosophy. Meanwhile it was only natural that radicals of this
+variety should retire from active politics, having sufficiently burnt
+their fingers by flirtation with the more thoroughgoing party. How they
+came to life again will appear hereafter. Horne Tooke himself took
+warning from his narrow escape. He stayed quietly in his house at
+Wimbledon.[141] There he divided his time between his books and his
+garden, and received his friends to Sunday dinners. Bentham, Mackintosh,
+Coleridge, and Godwin were among his visitors. Coleridge calls him a
+'keen iron man,' and reports that he made a butt of Godwin as he had
+done of Paine.[142] Porson and Boswell encountered him in drinking
+matches and were both left under the table.[143] The house was thus a
+small centre of intellectual life, though the symposia were not
+altogether such as became philosophers. Horne Tooke was a keen and
+shrewd disputant, well able to impress weaker natures. His neighbour,
+Sir Francis Burdett, became his political disciple, and in later years
+was accepted as the radical leader. Tooke died at Wimbledon 18th March
+1812.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[126] _France_, p. 206 (20th July 1789).
+
+[127] See the _Life of Horne Tooke_, by Alexander Stephens (2 vols. 8vo,
+1813). John Horne added the name Tooke in 1782.
+
+[128] _Parl. Hist._ xxxi. 751.
+
+[129] The history of these societies may be found in the trials reported
+in the twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth volumes of
+Cobbett's _State Trials_, and in the reports of the secret committees in
+the thirty-first and thirty-fourth volumes of the _Parl. History_. There
+are materials in Place's papers in the British Museum which have been
+used in E. Smith's _English Jacobins_.
+
+[130] _Parl. Hist._ xxix. 1300-1341.
+
+[131] _Parl. Hist._ xxxiv. 574-655.
+
+[132] Mr. Wallas's _Life of Place_, p. 25 _n._
+
+[133] _State Trials_, xxiv. 575.
+
+[134] _Ibid._ xxv. 330.
+
+[135] _Ibid._ xxv. 390.
+
+[136] Paul's _Godwin_, i. 147.
+
+[137] Stephens, ii. 48, 477.
+
+[138] _Ibid._ ii. 34-41, 323, 478-481.
+
+[139] _Ibid._ ii. 483.
+
+[140] Bentham's _Works_, x. 404.
+
+[141] He was member for Old Sarum 1801-2; but his career ended by a
+declaratory act disqualifying for a seat men who had received holy
+orders.
+
+[142] Bentham's _Works_, x. 404; _Life of Mackintosh_, i. 52; Paul's
+_Godwin_, i. 71; Coleridge's _Table-Talk_, 8th May 1830 and 16th August
+1833.
+
+[143] Stephens, ii. 316, 334, 438.
+
+
+VI. INDIVIDUALISM
+
+The general tendencies which I have so far tried to indicate will have
+to be frequently noticed in the course of the following pages. One
+point may be emphasised before proceeding: a main characteristic of the
+whole social and political order is what is now called its
+'individualism.' That phrase is generally supposed to convey some
+censure. It may connote, however, some of the most essential virtues
+that a race can possess. Energy, self-reliance, and independence, a
+strong conviction that a man's fate should depend upon his own character
+and conduct, are qualities without which no nation can be great. They
+are the conditions of its vital power. They were manifested in a high
+degree by the Englishmen of the eighteenth century. How far they were
+due to the inherited qualities of the race, to the political or social
+history, or to external circumstances, I need not ask. They were the
+qualities which had especially impressed foreign observers. The fierce,
+proud, intractable Briton was elbowing his way to a high place in the
+world, and showing a vigour not always amiable, but destined to bring
+him successfully through tremendous struggles. In the earlier part of
+the century, Voltaire and French philosophers admired English freedom of
+thought and free speech, even when it led to eccentricity and brutality
+of manners, and to barbarism in matters of taste. Englishmen, conscious
+and proud of their 'liberty,' were the models of all who desired liberty
+for themselves. Liberty, as they understood it, involved, among other
+things, an assault upon the old restrictive system, which at every turn
+hampered the rising industrial energy. This is the sense in which
+'Individualism,' or the gospel according to Adam Smith--_laissez faire_,
+and so forth--has been specially denounced in recent times. Without
+asking at present how far such attacks are justifiable, I must be
+content to assume that the old restrictive system was in its actual form
+mischievous, guided by entirely false theories, and the great barrier to
+the development of industry. The same spirit appeared in purely
+political questions. 'Liberty,' as is often remarked, may be interpreted
+in two ways; not necessarily consistent with each other. It means
+sometimes simply the diminution of the sphere of law and the power of
+legislators, or, again, the transference to subjects of the power of
+legislating, and, therefore, not less control, but control by self-made
+laws alone. The Englishman, who was in presence of no centralised
+administrative power, who regarded the Government rather as receiving
+power from individuals than as delegating the power of a central body,
+took liberty mainly in the sense of restricting law. Government in
+general was a nuisance, though a necessity; and properly employed only
+in mediating between conflicting interests, and restraining the violence
+of individuals forced into contact by outward circumstances. When he
+demanded that a greater share of influence should be given to the
+people, he always took for granted that their power would be used to
+diminish the activity of the sovereign power; that there would be less
+government and therefore less jobbery, less interference with free
+speech and free action, and smaller perquisites to be bestowed in return
+for the necessary services. The people would use their authority to tie
+the hands of the rulers, and limit them strictly to their proper and
+narrow functions.
+
+The absence, again, of the idea of a state in any other sense implies
+another tendency. The 'idea' was not required. Englishmen were concerned
+rather with details than with first principles. Satisfied, in a general
+way, with their constitution, they did not want to be bothered with
+theories. Abstract and absolute doctrines of right, when imported from
+France, fell flat upon the average Englishman. He was eager enough to
+discuss the utility of this or that part of the machinery, but without
+inquiring into first principles of mechanism. The argument from
+'utility' deals with concrete facts, and presupposes an acceptance of
+some common criterion of the useful. The constant discussion of
+political matters in parliament and the press implied a tacit acceptance
+on all hands of constitutional methods. Practical men, asking whether
+this or that policy shall be adopted in view of actual events, no more
+want to go back to right reason and 'laws of nature' than a surveyor to
+investigate the nature of geometrical demonstration. Very important
+questions were raised as to the rights of the press, for example, or the
+system of representation. But everybody agreed that the representative
+system and freedom of speech were good things; and argued the immediate
+questions of fact. The order, only established by experience and
+tradition, was accepted, subject to criticism of detail, and men turned
+impatiently from abstract argument, and left the inquiry into 'social
+contracts' to philosophers, that is, to silly people in libraries.
+Politics were properly a matter of business, to be discussed in a
+business-like spirit. In this sense, 'individualism' is congenial to
+'empiricism,' because it starts from facts and particular interests, and
+resents the intrusion of first principles.
+
+The characteristic individualism, again, suggests one other remark.
+Individual energy and sense of responsibility are good--as even extreme
+socialists may admit--if they do not exclude a sense of duties to
+others. It may be a question how far the stimulation of individual
+enterprise and the vigorous spirit of industrial competition really led
+to a disregard of the interests of the weaker. But it would be a
+complete misunderstanding of the time if we inferred that it meant a
+decline of humane feeling. Undoubtedly great evils had grown up, and
+some continued to grow which were tolerated by the indifference, or even
+stimulated by the selfish aims, of the dominant classes. But, in the
+first place, many of the most active prophets of the individualist
+spirit were acting, and acting sincerely, in the name of humanity. They
+were attacking a system which they held, and to a great extent, I
+believe, held rightly, to be especially injurious to the weakest
+classes. Possibly they expected too much from the simple removal of
+restrictions; but certainly they denounced the restrictions as unjust to
+all, not simply as hindrances to the wealth of the rich. Adam Smith's
+position is intelligible: it was, he thought, a proof of a providential
+order that each man, by helping himself, unintentionally helped his
+neighbours. The moral sense based upon sympathy was therefore not
+opposed to, but justified, the economic principles that each man should
+first attend to his own interest. The unintentional co-operation would
+thus become conscious and compatible with the established order. And, in
+the next place, so far from there being a want of humane feeling, the
+most marked characteristic of the eighteenth century was precisely the
+growth of humanity. In the next generation, the eighteenth century came
+to be denounced as cold, heartless, faithless, and so forth. The
+established mode of writing history is partly responsible for this
+perversion. Men speak as though some great man, who first called
+attention to an evil, was a supernatural being who had suddenly dropped
+into the world from another sphere. His condemnation of evil is
+therefore taken to be a proof that the time must be evil. Any century is
+bad if we assume all the good men to be exceptions. But the great man is
+really also the product of his time. He is the mouthpiece of its
+prevailing sentiments, and only the first to see clearly what many are
+beginning to perceive obscurely. The emergence of the prophet is a proof
+of the growing demand of his hearers for sound teaching. Because he is
+in advance of men generally, he sees existing abuses more clearly, and
+we take his evidence against his contemporaries as conclusive. But the
+fact that they listened shows how widely the same sensibility to evil
+was already diffused. In fact, as I think, the humane spirit of the
+eighteenth century, due to the vast variety of causes which we call
+social progress or evolution--not to the teaching of any individual--was
+permeating the whole civilised world, and showed itself in the
+philosophic movement as well as in the teaching of the religious
+leaders, who took the philosophers to be their enemies. I have briefly
+noticed the various philanthropic movements which were characteristic of
+the period. Some of them may indicate the growth of new evils; others,
+that evils which had once been regarded with indifference were now
+attracting attention and exciting indignation. But even the growth of
+new evils does not show general indifference so much as the incapacity
+of the existing system to deal with new conditions. It may, I think, be
+safely said that a growing philanthropy was characteristic of the whole
+period, and in particular animated the Utilitarian movement, as I shall
+have to show in detail. Modern writers have often spoken of the Wesleyan
+propaganda and the contemporary 'evangelical revival' as the most
+important movements of the time. They are apt to speak, in conformity
+with the view just described, as though Wesley or some of his
+contemporaries had originated or created the better spirit. Without
+asking what was good or bad in some aspects of these movements, I fully
+believe that Wesley was essentially a moral reformer, and that he
+deserves corresponding respect. But instead of holding that his
+contemporaries were bad people, awakened by a stimulus from without, I
+hold that the movement, so far as really indicating moral improvement,
+must be set down to the credit of the century itself. It was one
+manifestation of a general progress, of which Bentham was another
+outcome. Though Bentham might have thought Wesley a fanatic or perhaps a
+hypocrite, and Wesley would certainly have considered that Bentham's
+heart was much in need of a change, they were really allies as much as
+antagonists, and both mark a great and beneficial change.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PHILOSOPHY
+
+
+I. JOHN HORNE TOOKE
+
+I have so far dwelt upon the social and political environment of the
+early Utilitarian movement; and have tried also to point out some of the
+speculative tendencies fostered by the position. If it be asked what
+philosophical doctrines were explicitly taught, the answer must be a
+very short one. English philosophy barely existed. Parr was supposed to
+know something about metaphysics--apparently because he could write good
+Latin. But the inference was hasty. Of one book, however, which had a
+real influence, I must say something, for though it contained little
+definite philosophy, it showed what kind of philosophy was congenial to
+the common sense of the time.
+
+The sturdy radical, Horne Tooke, had been led to the study of philology
+by a characteristic incident. The legal question had arisen whether the
+words, '_She, knowing that Crooke had been indicted for forgery_,' did
+so and so, contained an averment that Crooke had been indicted. Tooke
+argued in a letter to Dunning[144] that they did; because they were
+equivalent to the phrase, 'Crooke had been indicted for forgery: she,
+_knowing that_,' did so and so. This raises the question: What is the
+meaning of 'that'? Tooke took up the study, thinking, as he says, that
+it would throw light upon some philosophical questions. He learned some
+Anglo-Saxon and Gothic to test his theory and, of course, confirmed
+it.[145] The book shows ingenuity, shrewdness, and industry, and Tooke
+deserves credit for seeing the necessity of applying a really historical
+method to his problem, though his results were necessarily crude in the
+pre-scientific stage of philology.
+
+The book is mainly a long string of etymologies, which readers of
+different tastes have found intolerably dull or an amusing collection of
+curiosities. Tooke held, and surely with reason, that an investigation
+of language, the great instrument of thought, may help to throw light
+upon the process of thinking. He professes to be a disciple of Locke in
+philosophy as in politics. Locke, he said,[146] made a lucky mistake in
+calling his book an essay upon human understanding; for he thus
+attracted many who would have been repelled had he called it what it
+really was, 'a treatise upon words and language.' According to Tooke, in
+fact,[147] what we call 'operations of mind' are only 'operations of
+language.' The mind contemplates nothing but 'impressions,' that is,
+'sensations or feelings,' which Locke called 'ideas,' Locke mistook
+composition of terms for composition of ideas. To compound ideas is
+impossible. We can only use one term as a sign of many ideas. Locke,
+again, supposed that affirming and denying were operations of the mind,
+whereas they are only artifices of language.[148]
+
+The mind, then, can only contemplate, separately or together, aggregates
+of 'ideas,' ultimate atoms, incapable of being parted or dissolved.
+There are, therefore, only two classes of words, nouns and verbs; all
+others, prepositions, conjunctions, and so forth, being abbreviations, a
+kind of mental shorthand to save the trouble of enumerating the separate
+items. Tooke, in short, is a thoroughgoing nominalist. The realities,
+according to him, are sticks, stones, and material objects, or the
+'ideas' which 'represent' them. They can be stuck together or taken
+apart, but all the words which express relations, categories, and the
+like, are in themselves meaningless. The special objects of his scorn
+are 'Hermes' Harris, and Monboddo, who had tried to defend Aristotle
+against Locke. Monboddo had asserted that 'every kind of relation' is a
+pure 'idea of the intellect' not to be apprehended by sense.[149] If so,
+according to Tooke, it would be a nonentity.
+
+This doctrine gives a short cut to the abolition of metaphysics. The
+word 'metaphysics,' says Tooke,[150] is nonsense. All metaphysical
+controversies are 'founded on the grossest ignorance of words and the
+nature of speech.' The greatest part of his second volume is concerned
+with etymologies intended to prove that an 'abstract idea' is a mere
+word. Abstract words, he says,[151] are generally 'participles without
+a substantive and therefore in construction used as substantives.' From
+a misunderstanding of this has arisen 'metaphysical jargon' and 'false
+morality.' In illustration he gives a singular list of words, including
+'fate, chance, heaven, hell, providence, prudence, innocence, substance,
+fiend, angel, apostle, spirit, true, false, desert, merit, faith, etc.,
+all of which are mere participles poetically embodied and substantiated
+by those who use them.' A couple of specific applications, often quoted
+by later writers, will sufficiently indicate his drift.
+
+Such words, he remarks,[152] as 'right' and 'just' mean simply that
+which is ordered or commanded. The chapter is headed 'rights of man,'
+and Tooke's interlocutor naturally observes that this is a singular
+result for a democrat. Man, it would seem, has no rights except the
+rights created by the law. Tooke admits the inference to be correct, but
+replies that the democrat in disobeying human law may be obeying the law
+of God, and is obeying the law of God when he obeys the law of nature.
+The interlocutor does not inquire what Tooke could mean by the 'law of
+nature.' We can guess what Tooke would have said to Paine in the
+Wimbledon garden. In fact, however, Tooke is here, as elsewhere,
+following Hobbes, though, it seems, unconsciously. Another famous
+etymology is that of 'truth' from 'troweth.'[153] Truth is what each man
+thinks. There is no such thing, therefore, as 'eternal, immutable,
+everlasting truth, unless mankind, _such as they are at present_, be
+eternal, immutable, everlasting.' Two persons may contradict each other
+and yet each may be speaking what is true for him. Truth may be a vice
+as well as a virtue; for on many occasions it is wrong to speak the
+truth.
+
+These phrases may possibly be interpreted in a sense less paradoxical
+than the obvious one. Tooke's philosophy, if so it is to be called, was
+never fully expounded. He burned his papers before his death, and we do
+not know what he would have said about 'verbs,' which must have led, one
+would suppose, to some further treatment of relations, nor upon the
+subject, which as Stephens tells us, was most fully treated in his
+continuation, the value of human testimony.
+
+If Tooke was not a philosopher he was a man of remarkably shrewd cynical
+common sense, who thought philosophy idle foppery. His book made a great
+success. Stephens tells us[154] that it brought him L4000 or L5000.
+Hazlitt in 1810 published a grammar professing to incorporate for the
+first time Horne Tooke's 'discoveries.' The book was admired by
+Mackintosh,[155] who, of course, did not accept the principles, and had
+a warm disciple in Charles Richardson (1775-1865), who wrote in its
+defence against Dugald Stewart and accepted its authority in his
+elaborate dictionary of the English language.[156] But its chief
+interest for us is that it was a great authority with James Mill. Mill
+accepts the etymologies, and there is much in common between the two
+writers, though Mill had learned his main doctrines elsewhere,
+especially from Hobbes. What the agreement really shows is how the
+intellectual idiosyncrasy which is congenial to 'nominalism' in
+philosophy was also congenial to Tooke's matter of fact radicalism and
+to the Utilitarian position of Bentham and his followers.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[144] Published originally in 1778; reprinted in edition of EPEA
+PTEROENTA or _Diversions of Purley_, by Richard Taylor (1829), to which
+I refer. The first part of the _Diversions of Purley_ appeared in 1786;
+and the second part (with a new edition of the first) in 1798.
+
+[145] _Diversions of Purley_ (1829), i. 12, 131.
+
+[146] _Ibid._ ii. 362. Locke's work, says Prof. Max Mueller in his
+_Science of Thought_, p. 295, 'is, as Lange in his _History of
+Materialism_ rightly perceived, a critique of language which, together
+with Kant's _Critique of the Pure Reason_, forms the starting-point of
+modern philosophy.' _See_ Lange's _Materialism_, (1873), i. 271.
+
+[147] _Ibid._ i. 49.
+
+[148] _Diversions of Purley_, i. 36, 42.
+
+[149] _Ibid._ i. 373.
+
+[150] _Ibid._ i. 374.
+
+[151] _Diversions of Purley_, ii. 18. Cf. Mill's statement in
+_Analysis_, i. 304, that 'abstract terms are concrete terms with the
+connotation dropped.'
+
+[152] _Ibid._ ii. 9, etc.
+
+[153] _Ibid._ ii. 399.
+
+[154] Stephens, ii. 497.
+
+[155] _Life of Mackintosh_, ii. 235-37.
+
+[156] Begun for the _Encyclopaedia Metropolitana_ in 1818; and published
+in 1835-37. Dugald Stewart's chief criticism is in his Essays (_Works_,
+v. 149-188). John Fearn published his _Anti-Tooke_ in 1820.
+
+
+II. DUGALD STEWART
+
+If English philosophy was a blank, there was still a leader of high
+reputation in Scotland. Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) had a considerable
+influence upon the Utilitarians. He represented, on the one hand, the
+doctrines which they thought themselves specially bound to attack, and
+it may perhaps be held that in some ways he betrayed to them the key of
+the position. Stewart[157] was son of a professor of mathematics at
+Edinburgh. He studied at Glasgow (1771-72) where he became Reid's
+favourite pupil and devoted friend. In 1772 he became the assistant, and
+in 1775 the colleague, of his father, and he appears to have had a
+considerable knowledge of mathematics. In 1785 he succeeded Adam
+Ferguson as professor of moral philosophy and lectured continuously
+until 1810. He then gave up his active duties to Thomas Brown, devoting
+himself to the completion and publication of the substance of his
+lectures. Upon Brown's death in 1820, he resigned a post to which he was
+no longer equal. A paralytic stroke in 1822 weakened him, though he was
+still able to write. He died in 1828.
+
+If Stewart now makes no great mark in histories of philosophy, his
+personal influence was conspicuous. Cockburn describes him as of
+delicate appearance, with a massive head, bushy eyebrows, gray
+intelligent eyes, flexible mouth and expressive countenance. His voice
+was sweet and his ear exquisite. Cockburn never heard a better reader,
+and his manners, though rather formal, were graceful and dignified.
+James Mill, after hearing Pitt and Fox, declared that Stewart was their
+superior in eloquence. At Edinburgh, then at the height of its
+intellectual activity, he held his own among the ablest men and
+attracted the loyalty of the younger. Students came not only from
+Scotland but from England, the United States, France and Germany.[158]
+Scott won the professor's approval by an essay on the 'Customs of the
+Northern Nations.' Jeffrey, Horner, Cockburn and Mackintosh were among
+his disciples. His lectures upon Political Economy were attended by
+Sydney Smith, Jeffrey and Brougham, and one of his last hearers was Lord
+Palmerston. Parr looked up to him as a great philosopher, and
+contributed to his works an essay upon the etymology of the word
+'sublime,' too vast to be printed whole. Stewart was an upholder of Whig
+principles, when the Scottish government was in the hands of the
+staunchest Tories. The irreverent young Edinburgh Reviewers treated him
+with respect, and to some extent applied his theory to politics.
+Stewart was the philosophical heir of Reid; and, one may say, was a Whig
+both in philosophy and in politics. He was a rationalist, but within the
+limits fixed by respectability; and he dreaded the revolution in
+politics, and believed in the surpassing merits of the British
+Constitution as interpreted by the respectable Whigs.
+
+Stewart represents the 'common sense' doctrine. That name, as he
+observes, lends itself to an equivocation. Common sense is generally
+used as nearly synonymous with 'mother wit,' the average opinion of
+fairly intelligent men; and he would prefer to speak of the 'fundamental
+laws of belief.'[159] There can, however, be no doubt that the doctrine
+derived much of its strength from the apparent confirmation of the
+'average opinion' by the 'fundamental laws.' On one side, said Reid, are
+all the vulgar; on the other all the philosophers. 'In this division, to
+my great humiliation, I find myself classed with the vulgar.'[160] Reid,
+in fact, had opposed the theories of Hume and Berkeley because they led
+to a paradoxical scepticism. If it be, as Reid held, a legitimate
+inference from Berkeley that a man may as well run his head against a
+post, there can be no doubt that it is shocking to common sense in every
+acceptation of the word. The reasons, however, which Reid and Stewart
+alleged for not performing that feat took a special form, which I am
+compelled to notice briefly because they set up the mark for the whole
+intellectual artillery of the Utilitarians. Reid, in fact, invented what
+J. S. Mill called 'intuitions.' To confute intuitionists and get rid of
+intuitions was one main purpose of all Mill's speculations. What, then,
+is an 'intuition'? To explain that fully it would be necessary to write
+once more that history of the philosophical movement from Descartes to
+Hume, which has been summarised and elucidated by so many writers that
+it should be as plain as the road from St. Paul's to Temple Bar. I am
+forced to glance at the position taken by Reid and Stewart because it
+has a most important bearing upon the whole Utilitarian scheme. Reid's
+main service to philosophy was, in his own opinion,[161] that he refuted
+the 'ideal system' of Descartes and his followers. That system, he says,
+carried in its womb the monster, scepticism, which came to the birth in
+1739,[162] the date of Hume's early _Treatise_. To confute Hume,
+therefore, which was Reid's primary object, it was necessary to go back
+to Descartes, and to show where he deviated from the right track. In
+other words, we must trace the genealogy of 'ideas.' Descartes, as Reid
+admitted, had rendered immense services to philosophy. He had exploded
+the scholastic system, which had become a mere mass of logomachies and
+an incubus upon scientific progress. He had again been the first to
+'draw a distinct line between the material and the intellectual
+world'[163]; and Reid apparently assumes that he had drawn it correctly.
+One characteristic of the Cartesian school is obvious. Descartes, a
+great mathematician at the period when mathematical investigations were
+showing their enormous power, invented a mathematical universe.
+Mathematics presented the true type of scientific reasoning and
+determined his canons of inquiry. The 'essence' of matter, he said, was
+space. The objective world, as we have learned to call it, is simply
+space solidified or incarnate geometry. Its properties therefore could
+be given as a system of deductions from first principles, and it forms a
+coherent and self-subsistent whole. Meanwhile the essence of the soul is
+thought. Thought and matter are absolutely opposed. They are contraries,
+having nothing in common. Reality, however, seems to belong to the world
+of space. The brain, too, belongs to that world, and motions in the
+brain must be determined as a part of the material mechanism. In some
+way or other 'ideas' correspond to these motions; though to define the
+way tried all the ingenuity of Descartes' successors. In any case an
+idea is 'subjective': it is a thought, not a thing. It is a shifting,
+ephemeral entity not to be fixed or grasped. Yet, somehow or other, it
+exists, and it 'represents' realities; though the divine power has to be
+called in to guarantee the accuracy of the representation. The objective
+world, again, does not reveal itself to us as simply made up of 'primary
+qualities'; we know of it only as somehow endowed with 'secondary' or
+sense-given qualities: as visible, tangible, audible, and so forth.
+These qualities are plainly 'subjective'; they vary from man to man, and
+from moment to moment: they cannot be measured or fixed; and must be
+regarded as a product in some inexplicable way of the action of matter
+upon mind; unreal or, at any rate, not independent entities.
+
+In Locke's philosophy, the 'ideas,' legitimate or illegitimate
+descendants of the Cartesian theories, play a most prominent part.
+Locke's admirable common sense made him the leader who embodied a
+growing tendency. The empirical sciences were growing; and Locke, a
+student of medicine, could note the fallacies which arise from
+neglecting observation and experiment, and attempting to penetrate to
+the absolute essences and entities. Newton's great success was due to
+neglecting impossible problems about the nature of force in
+itself--'action at a distance' and so forth--and attention to the sphere
+of visible phenomena. The excessive pretensions of the framers of
+metaphysical systems had led to hopeless puzzles and merely verbal
+solutions. Locke, therefore, insisted upon the necessity of ascertaining
+the necessary limits of human knowledge. All our knowledge of material
+facts is obviously dependent in some way upon our sensations--however
+fleeting or unreal they may be. Therefore, the material sciences must
+depend upon sense-given data or upon observation and experiment. Hume
+gives the ultimate purpose, already implied in Locke's essay, when he
+describes his first treatise (on the title page) as an 'attempt to
+introduce the experimental mode of reasoning into moral subjects.' Now,
+as Reid thinks, the effect of this was to construct our whole knowledge
+out of the representative ideas. The empirical factor is so emphasised
+that we lose all grasp of the real world. Locke, indeed, though he
+insists upon the derivation of our whole knowledge from 'ideas,' leaves
+reality to the 'primary qualities' without clearly expounding their
+relation to the secondary. But Berkeley, alarmed by the tendency of the
+Cartesian doctrines to materialism and mechanical necessity, reduces the
+'primary' to the level of the 'secondary,' and proceeds to abolish the
+whole world of matter. We are thus left with nothing but 'ideas,' and
+the ideas are naturally 'subjective' and therefore in some sense
+unreal. Finally Hume gets rid of the soul as well as the outside world;
+and then, by his theory of 'causation,' shows that the ideas themselves
+are independent atoms, cohering but not rationally connected, and
+capable of being arbitrarily joined or separated in any way whatever.
+Thus the ideas have ousted the facts. We cannot get beyond ideas, and
+yet ideas are still purely subjective. The 'real' is separated from the
+phenomenal, and truth divorced from fact. The sense-given world is the
+whole world, and yet is a world of mere accidental conjunctions and
+separation. That is Hume's scepticism, and yet according to Reid is the
+legitimate development of Descartes' 'ideal system.' Reid, I take it,
+was right in seeing that there was a great dilemma. What was required to
+escape from it? According to Kant, nothing less than a revision of
+Descartes' mode of demarcation between object and subject. The 'primary
+qualities' do not correspond in this way to an objective world radically
+opposed to the subjective. Space is not a form of things, but a form
+imposed upon the data of experience by the mind itself. This, as Kant
+says, supposes a revolution in philosophy comparable to the revolution
+made by Copernicus in astronomy. We have completely to invert our whole
+system of conceiving the world. Whatever the value of Kant's doctrine,
+of which I need here say nothing, it was undoubtedly more prolific than
+Reid's. Reid's was far less thoroughgoing. He does not draw a new line
+between object and subject, but simply endeavours to show that the
+dilemma was due to certain assumptions about the nature of 'ideas.'
+
+The real had been altogether separated from the phenomenal, or truth
+divorced from fact. You can only have demonstrations by getting into a
+region beyond the sensible world; while within that world--that is, the
+region of ordinary knowledge and conduct--you are doomed to hopeless
+uncertainty. An escape, therefore, must be sought by some thorough
+revision of the assumed relation, but not by falling back upon the
+exploded philosophy of the schools. Reid and his successors were quite
+as much alive as Locke to the danger of falling into mere scholastic
+logomachy. They, too, will in some sense base all knowledge upon
+experience. Reid constantly appeals to the authority of Bacon, whom he
+regards as the true founder of inductive science. The great success of
+Bacon's method in the physical sciences, encouraged the hope, already
+expressed by Newton, that a similar result might be achieved in 'moral
+philosophy.'[164] Hume had done something to clear the way, but Reid
+was, as Stewart thinks, the first to perceive clearly and justly the
+'analogy between these two different branches of human knowledge.' The
+mind and matter are two co-ordinate things, whose properties are to be
+investigated by similar methods. Philosophy thus means essentially
+psychology. The two inquiries are two 'branches' of inductive science,
+and the problem is to discover by a perfectly impartial examination what
+are the 'fundamental laws of mind' revealed by an accurate analysis of
+the various processes of thought. The main result of Reid's
+investigations is given most pointedly in his early _Inquiry_, and was
+fully accepted by Stewart. Briefly it comes to this. No one can doubt
+that we believe, as a fact, in an external world. We believe that there
+are sun and moon, stones, sticks, and human bodies. This belief is
+accepted by the sceptic as well as by the dogmatist, although the
+sceptic reduces it to a mere blind custom or 'association of ideas.' Now
+Reid argues that the belief, whatever its nature, is not and cannot be
+derived from the sensations. We do not construct the visible and
+tangible world, for example, simply out of impressions made upon the
+senses of sight and touch. To prove this, he examines what are the
+actual data provided by these senses, and shows, or tries to show, that
+we cannot from them alone construct the world of space and geometry.
+Hence, if we consider experience impartially and without preconception,
+we find that it tells us something which is not given by the senses. The
+senses are not the material of our perceptions, but simply give the
+occasions upon which our belief is called into activity. The sensation
+is no more like the reality in which we believe than the pain of a wound
+is like the edge of the knife. Perception tells us directly and
+immediately, without the intervention of ideas, that there is, as we all
+believe, a real external world.
+
+Reid was a vigorous reasoner, and credit has been given to him by some
+disciples of Kant's doctrine of time and space. Schopenhauer[165] says
+that Reid's 'excellent work' gives a complete 'negative proof of the
+Kantian truths'; that is to say, that Reid proves satisfactorily that we
+cannot construct the world out of the sense-given data alone. But,
+whereas Kant regards the senses as supplying the materials moulded by
+the perceiving mind, Reid regards them as mere stimuli exciting certain
+inevitable beliefs. As a result of Reid's method, then, we have
+'intuitions.' Reid's essential contention is that a fair examination of
+experience will reveal certain fundamental beliefs, which cannot be
+explained as mere manifestations of the sensations, and which, by the
+very fact that they are inexplicable, must be accepted as an
+'inspiration.'[166] Reid professes to discover these beliefs by
+accurately describing facts. He finds them there as a chemist finds an
+element. The 'intuition' is made by substituting for 'ideas' a
+mysterious and inexplicable connection between the mind and matter.[167]
+The chasm exists still, but it is somehow bridged by a quasi-miracle.
+Admitting, therefore, that Reid shows a gap to exist in the theory, his
+result remains 'negative.' The philosopher will say that it is not
+enough to assert a principle dogmatically without showing its place in a
+reasoned system of thought. The psychologist, on the other hand, who
+takes Reid's own ground, may regard the statement only as a useful
+challenge to further inquiry. The analysis hitherto given may be
+insufficient, but where Reid has failed, other inquirers may be more
+successful. As soon, in fact, as we apply the psychological method, and
+regard the 'philosophy of mind' as an 'inductive science,' it is
+perilous, if not absolutely inconsistent, to discover 'intuitions' which
+will take us beyond experience. The line of defence against empiricism
+can only be provisional and temporary. In his main results, indeed, Reid
+had the advantage of being on the side of 'common sense.' Everybody was
+already convinced that there were sticks and stones, and everybody is
+prepared to hear that their belief is approved by philosophy. But a
+difficulty arises when a similar method is applied to a doctrine
+sincerely disputed. To the statement, 'this is a necessary belief,' it
+is a sufficient answer to reply, 'I don't believe it,' In that case, an
+intuition merely amounts to a dogmatic assumption that I am infallible,
+and must be supported by showing its connection with beliefs really
+universal and admittedly necessary.
+
+Dugald Stewart followed Reid upon this main question, and with less
+force and originality represents the same point of view. He accepts
+Reid's view of the two co-ordinate departments of knowledge; the science
+of which mind, and the science of which body, is the object. Philosophy
+is not a 'theory of knowledge' or of the universe; but, as it was then
+called, 'a philosophy of the human mind.' 'Philosophy' is founded upon
+inductive psychology; and it only becomes philosophy in a wider sense in
+so far as we discover that as a fact we have certain fundamental
+beliefs, which are thus given by experience, though they take us in a
+sense beyond experience. Jeffrey, reviewing Stewart's life of Reid, in
+the _Edinburgh Review_ of 1804, makes a significant inference from this.
+Bacon's method, he said, had succeeded in the physical sciences, because
+there we could apply experiment. But experiment is impossible in the
+science of mind; and therefore philosophy will never be anything but a
+plaything or a useful variety of gymnastic. Stewart replied at some
+length in his _Essays_,[168] fully accepting the general conception, but
+arguing that the experimental method was applicable to the science of
+mind. Jeffrey observes that it was now admitted that the 'profoundest
+reasonings' had brought us back to the view of the vulgar, and this,
+too, is admitted by Stewart so far as the cardinal doctrine of 'the
+common sense' philosophy, the theory of perception, is admitted.
+
+From this, again, it follows that the 'notions we annex to the words
+Matter and Mind are merely relative.'[169] We know that mind exists as
+we know that matter exists; or, if anything, we know the existence of
+mind more certainly because more directly. The mind is suggested by 'the
+subjects of our consciousness'; the body by the objects 'of our
+perception.' But, on the other hand, we are totally 'ignorant of the
+essence of either.'[170] We can discover the laws either of mental or
+moral phenomena; but a law, as he explains, means in strictness nothing
+but a 'general fact.'[171] It is idle, therefore, to explain the nature
+of the union between the two unknowable substances; we can only discover
+that they are united and observe the laws according to which one set of
+phenomena corresponds to the other. From a misunderstanding of this
+arise all the fallacies of scholastic ontology, 'the most idle and
+absurd speculation that ever employed the human faculties.'[172] The
+destruction of that pseudo-science was the great glory of Bacon and
+Locke; and Reid has now discovered the method by which we may advance to
+the establishment of a truly inductive 'philosophy of mind.'
+
+It is not surprising that Stewart approximates in various directions to
+the doctrines of the empirical school. He leans towards them whenever he
+does not see the results to which he is tending. Thus, for example, he
+is a thoroughgoing nominalist;[173] and on this point he deserts the
+teaching of Reid. He defends against Reid the attack made by Berkeley
+and Hume upon 'abstract ideas.' Rosmini,[174] in an elaborate criticism,
+complains that Stewart did not perceive the inevitable tendency of
+nominalism to materialism.[175] Stewart, in fact, accepts a good deal of
+Horne Tooke's doctrine,[176] though calling Tooke an 'ingenious
+grammarian, not a very profound philosopher,' but holds, as we shall
+see, that the materialistic tendency can be avoided. As becomes a
+nominalist, he attacks the syllogism upon grounds more fully brought out
+by J. S. Mill. Upon another essential point, he agrees with the pure
+empiricists. He accepts Hume's view of causation in all questions of
+physical science. In natural philosophy, he declares causation means
+only conjunction. The senses can never give us the 'efficient' cause of
+any phenomenon. In other words, we can never see a 'necessary
+connection' between any two events. He collects passages from earlier
+writers to show how Hume had been anticipated; and holds that Bacon's
+inadequate view of this truth was a main defect in his theories.[177]
+Hence we have a characteristic conclusion. He says, when discussing the
+proofs of the existence of God,[178] that we have an 'irresistible
+conviction of the _necessity_ of a cause' for every change. Hume,
+however, has shown that this can never be a logical necessity. It must
+then, argues Stewart, be either a 'prejudice' or an 'intuitive
+judgment.' Since it is shown by 'universal consent' not to be a
+prejudice, it must be an intuitive judgment. Thus Hume's facts are
+accepted; but his inference denied. The actual causal nexus is
+inscrutable. The conviction that there must be a connection between
+events attributed by Hume to 'custom' is attributed by Stewart to
+intuitive belief. Stewart infers that Hume's doctrine is really
+favourable to theology. It implies that God gives us the conviction, and
+perhaps, as Malebranche held, that God is 'the constantly operating
+efficient Cause in the material world.'[179] Stewart's successor, Thomas
+Brown, took up this argument on occasion of the once famous 'Leslie
+controversy'; and Brown's teaching was endorsed by James Mill and by
+John Stuart Mill.
+
+According to J. S. Mill, James Mill and Stewart represented opposite
+poles of philosophic thought. I shall have to consider this dictum
+hereafter. On the points already noticed Stewart must be regarded as an
+ally rather than an opponent of the Locke and Hume tradition. Like them
+he appeals unhesitatingly to experience, and cannot find words strong
+enough to express his contempt for 'ontological' and scholastic methods.
+His 'intuitions' are so far very harmless things, which fall in with
+common sense, and enable him to hold without further trouble the beliefs
+which, as a matter of fact, are held by everybody. They are an excuse
+for not seeking any ultimate explanation in reason. He is, indeed,
+opposed to the school which claimed to be the legitimate successor to
+Locke, but which evaded Hume's scepticism by diverging towards
+materialism. The great representative of this doctrine in England had
+been Hartley, and in Stewart's day Hartley's lead had been followed by
+Priestley, who attacked Reid from a materialist point of view, by
+Priestley's successor, Thomas Belsham, and by Erasmus Darwin. We find
+Stewart, in language which reminds us of later controversy, denouncing
+the 'Darwinian School'[180] for theories about instinct incompatible
+with the doctrine of final causes. It might appear that a philosopher
+who has re-established the objective existence of space in opposition to
+Berkeley, was in danger of that materialism which had been Berkeley's
+bugbear. But Stewart escapes the danger by his assertion that our
+knowledge of matter is 'relative' or confined to phenomena. Materialism
+is for him a variety of ontology, involving the assumption that we know
+the essence of matter. To speak with Hartley of 'vibrations,' animal
+spirits, and so forth, is to be led astray by a false analogy. We can
+discover the laws of correspondence of mind and body, but not the
+ultimate nature of either.[181] Thus he regards the 'physiological
+metaphysics of the present day' as an 'idle waste of labour and
+ingenuity on questions to which the human mind is altogether
+incompetent.'[182] The principles found by inductive observation are as
+independent of these speculations as Newton's theory of gravitation of
+an ultimate mechanical cause of gravitation.
+
+Hartley's followers, however, could drop the 'vibration' theory; and
+their doctrine then became one of 'association of ideas.' To this famous
+theory, which became the sheet-anchor of the empirical school, Stewart
+is not altogether opposed. We find him speaking of 'indissoluble
+association' in language which reminds us of the Mills.[183] Hume had
+spoken of association as comparable to gravitation--the sole principle
+by which our 'ideas' and 'impressions' are combined into a whole; a
+theory, of course, corresponding to his doctrine of 'belief' as a mere
+custom of associating. Stewart uses the principle rather as Locke had
+done, as explaining fallacies due to 'casual associations.' It supposes,
+as he says, the previous existence of certain principles, and cannot be
+an ultimate explanation. The only question can be at what point we have
+reached an 'original principle,' and are therefore bound to stop our
+analysis.[184] Over this question he glides rather too lightly, as is
+his custom; but from his point of view the belief, for example, in an
+external world, cannot be explained by association, inasmuch as it
+reveals itself as an ultimate datum.
+
+In regard to the physical sciences, then, Stewart's position
+approximates very closely to the purely 'empirical' view. When we come
+to a different application of his principles, we find him taking a
+curiously balanced position between different schools. 'Common sense'
+naturally wishes to adapt itself to generally accepted beliefs; and with
+so flexible a doctrine as that of 'intuitions' it is not difficult to
+discover methods of proving the ordinary dogmas. Stewart's theology is
+characteristic of this tendency. He describes the so-called _a priori_
+proof, as formulated by Clarke. But without denying its force, he does
+not like to lay stress upon it. He dreads 'ontology' too much. He
+therefore considers that the argument at once most satisfactory to the
+philosopher and most convincing to ordinary men is the argument from
+design. The belief in God is not 'intuitive,' but follows immediately
+from two first principles: the principle that whatever exists has a
+cause, and the principle that a 'combination of means implies a
+designer.'[185] The belief in a cause arises on our perception of change
+as our belief in the external world arises upon our sensations. The
+belief in design must be a 'first principle' because it includes a
+belief in 'necessity' which cannot arise from mere observation of
+'contingent truths.'[186] Hence Stewart accepts the theory of final
+causes as stated by Paley. Though Paley's ethics offended him, he has
+nothing but praise for the work upon _Natural Theology_.[187] Thus,
+although 'common sense' does not enable us to lay down the central
+doctrine of theology as a primary truth, it does enable us to interpret
+experience in theological terms. In other words, his theology is of the
+purely empirical kind, which was, as we shall see, the general
+characteristic of the time.
+
+In Stewart's discussion of ethical problems the same doctrine of 'final
+causes' assumes a special importance. Stewart, as elsewhere, tries to
+hold an intermediate position; to maintain the independence of morality
+without committing himself to the 'ontological' or purely logical view;
+and to show that virtue conduces to happiness without allowing that its
+dictates are to be deduced from its tendency to produce happiness. His
+doctrine is to a great extent derived from the teaching of Hutcheson and
+Bishop Butler. He really approximates most closely to Hutcheson, who
+takes a similar view of Utilitarianism, but he professes the warmest
+admiration of Butler. He explicitly accepts Butler's doctrine of the
+'supremacy of the conscience'--a doctrine which as he says, the bishop,
+'has placed in the strongest and happiest light.'[188] He endeavours,
+again, to approximate to the 'intellectual school,' of which Richard
+Price (1723-1791) was the chief English representative at the time. Like
+Kant, Price deduces the moral law from principles of pure reason. The
+truth of the moral law, 'Thou shalt do to others as you wish that they
+should do to you,' is as evident as the truth of the law in geometry,
+'things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.'
+Stewart so far approves that he wishes to give to the moral law what is
+now called all possible 'objectivity,' while the 'moral sense' of
+Hutcheson apparently introduced a 'subjective' element. He holds,
+however, that our moral perceptions 'involve a feeling of the heart,' as
+well as a 'judgment of the understanding,'[189] and ascribes the same
+view to Butler. But then, by using the word 'reason' so as to include
+the whole nature of a rational being, we may ascribe to it the 'origin
+of those simple ideas which are not excited in the mind by the operation
+of the senses, but which arise in consequence of the operation of the
+intellectual powers among the various objects.'[190] Hutcheson, he says,
+made his 'moral sense' unsatisfactory by taking his illustrations from
+the 'secondary' instead of the 'primary qualities,'[191] and thus with
+the help of intuitive first principles, Stewart succeeds in believing
+that it would be as hard for a man to believe that he ought to sacrifice
+another man's happiness to his own as to believe that three angles of a
+triangle are equal to one right angle.[192] It is true that a feeling
+and a judgment are both involved; but the 'intellectual judgment' is the
+groundwork of the feeling, not the feeling of the judgment.[193] In
+spite, however, of this attempt to assimilate his principles to those of
+the intellectual school, the substance of Stewart's ethics is
+essentially psychological. It rests, in fact, upon his view that
+philosophy depends upon inductive psychology, and, therefore,
+essentially upon experience subject to the cropping up of convenient
+'intuitions.'
+
+This appears from the nature of his argument against the Utilitarians.
+In his time, this doctrine was associated with the names of Hartley,
+Tucker, Godwin, and especially Paley. He scarcely refers to
+Bentham.[194] Paley is the recognised anvil for the opposite school. Now
+he agrees, as I have said, with Paley's view of natural theology and
+entirely accepts therefore the theory of 'final causes.' The same theory
+becomes prominent in his ethical teaching. We may perhaps say that
+Stewart's view is in substance an inverted Utilitarianism. It may be
+best illustrated by an argument familiar in another application. Paley
+and his opponents might agree that the various instincts of an animal
+are so constituted that in point of fact they contribute to his
+preservation and his happiness. But from one point of view this appears
+to be simply to say that the conditions of existence necessitate a
+certain harmony, and that the harmony is therefore to be a consequence
+of his self-preservation. From the opposite point of view, which Stewart
+accepts, it appears that the self-preservation is the consequence of a
+pre-established harmony, which has been divinely appointed in order that
+he may live. Stewart, in short, is a 'teleologist' of the Paley variety.
+Psychology proves the existence of design in the moral world, as anatomy
+or physiology proves it in the physical.
+
+Stewart therefore fully agrees that virtue generally produces happiness.
+If it be true (a doctrine, he thinks, beyond our competence to decide)
+that 'the sole principle of action in the Deity' is benevolence, it may
+be that he has commanded us to be virtuous because he sees virtue to be
+useful. In this case utility may be the final cause of morality; and the
+fact that virtue has this tendency gives the plausibility to utilitarian
+systems.[195] But the key to the difficulty is the distinction between
+'final' and 'efficient' causes; for the efficient cause of morality is
+not the desire for happiness, but a primitive and simple instinct,
+namely, the moral faculty.
+
+Thus he rejects Paley's notorious doctrine that virtue differs from
+prudence only in regarding the consequences in another world instead of
+consequences in this.[196] Reward and punishment 'presuppose the notions
+of right and wrong' and cannot be the source of those notions. The
+favourite doctrine of association, by which the Utilitarians explained
+unselfishness, is only admissible as accounting for modifications, such
+as are due to education and example, but 'presupposes the existence of
+certain principles which are common to all mankind.' The evidence of
+such principles is established by a long and discursive psychological
+discussion. It is enough to say that he admits two rational principles,
+'self-love' and the 'moral faculty,' the coincidence of which is learned
+only by experience. The moral faculty reveals simple 'ideas' of right
+and wrong, which are incapable of any further analysis. But besides
+these, there is a hierarchy of other instincts or desires, which he
+calls 'implanted' because 'for aught we know' they may be of 'arbitrary
+appointment.'[197] Resentment, for example, is an implanted instinct, of
+which the 'final cause' is to defend us against 'sudden violence.'[198]
+Stewart's analysis is easygoing and suggests more problems than it
+solves. The general position, however, is clear enough, and not, I
+think, without much real force as against the Paley form of
+utilitarianism.
+
+The acceptance of the doctrine of 'final causes' was the inevitable
+course for a philosopher who wishes to retain the old creeds and yet to
+appeal unequivocally to experience. It suits the amiable optimism for
+which Stewart is noticeable. To prove the existence of a perfect deity
+from the evidence afforded by the world, you must of course take a
+favourable view of the observable order. Stewart shows the same tendency
+in his Political Economy, where he is Adam Smith's disciple, and fully
+shares Smith's beliefs that the harmony between the interests of the
+individual and the interests of the society is an evidence of design in
+the Creator of mankind. In this respect Stewart differs notably from
+Butler, to whose reasonings he otherwise owed a good deal. With Butler
+the conscience implies a dread of divine wrath and justifies the
+conception of a world alienated from its maker. Stewart's 'moral
+faculty' simply recognises or reveals the moral law; but carries no
+suggestion of supernatural penalties. The doctrines by which Butler
+attracted some readers and revolted others throw no shadow over his
+writings. He is a placid enlightened professor, whose real good feeling
+and frequent shrewdness should not be overlooked in consequence of the
+rather desultory and often superficial mode of reasoning. This, however,
+suggests a final remark upon Stewart's position.
+
+In the preface[199] to his _Active and Moral Powers_ (1828) Stewart
+apologises for the large space given to the treatment of Natural
+Religion. The lectures, he says, which form the substance of the book,
+were given at a time when 'enlightened zeal for liberty' was associated
+with the 'reckless boldness of the uncompromising freethinker.' He
+wished, therefore, to show that a man could be a liberal without being
+an atheist. This gives the position characteristic of Stewart and his
+friends. The group of eminent men who made Edinburgh a philosophical
+centre was thoroughly in sympathy with the rationalist movement of the
+eighteenth century. The old dogmatic system of belief could be held very
+lightly even by the more educated clergy. Hume's position is
+significant. He could lay down the most unqualified scepticism in his
+writings; but he always regarded his theories as intended for the
+enlightened; he had no wish to disturb popular beliefs in theology, and
+was a strong Tory in politics. His friends were quite ready to take him
+upon that footing. The politeness with which 'Mr. Hume's' speculations
+are noticed by men like Stewart and Reid is in characteristic contrast
+to the reception generally accorded to more popular sceptics. They were
+intellectual curiosities not meant for immediate application. The real
+opinion of such men as Adam Smith and Stewart was probably a rather
+vague and optimistic theism. In the professor's chair they could talk to
+lads intended for the ministry without insulting such old Scottish
+prejudice (there was a good deal of it) as survived: and could cover
+rationalising opinions under language which perhaps might have a
+different meaning for their hearers. The position was necessarily one of
+tacit compromise. Stewart considers himself to be an inductive
+philosopher appealing frankly to experience and reason; and was in
+practice a man of thoroughly liberal and generous feelings. He was
+heartily in favour of progress as he understood it. Only he will not
+sacrifice common sense; that is to say, the beliefs which are in fact
+prevalent and congenial to existing institutions. Common sense, of
+course, condemns extremes: and if logic seems to be pushing a man
+towards scepticism in philosophy or revolution in practice, he can
+always protest by the convenient device of intuitions.
+
+I have gone so far in order to illustrate the nature of the system which
+the Utilitarians took to be the antithesis of their own. It may be
+finally remarked that at present both sides were equally ignorant of
+contemporary developments of German thought. When Stewart became aware
+that there was such a thing as Kant's philosophy, he tried to read it in
+a Latin version. Parr, I may observe, apparently did not know of this
+version, and gave up the task of reading German. Stewart's example was
+not encouraging. He had abandoned the 'undertaking in despair' partly
+from the scholastic barbarism of the style, partly 'my utter inability
+to comprehend the author's meaning.' He recognises similarity between
+Kant and Reid, but thinks Reid's simple statement of the fact that space
+cannot be derived from the senses more philosophical than Kant's
+'superstructure of technical mystery.'[200]
+
+I have dwelt upon the side in which Stewart's philosophy approximates to
+the empirical school, because the Utilitarians were apt to misconceive
+the position. They took Stewart to be the adequate representative of all
+who accepted one branch of an inevitable dilemma. The acceptance of
+'intuitions,' that is, was the only alternative to thoroughgoing
+acceptance of 'experience.' They supposed, too, that persons vaguely
+described as 'Kant and the Germans' taught simply a modification of the
+'intuitionist' view. I have noticed how emphatically Stewart claimed to
+rely upon experience and to base his philosophy upon inductive
+psychology, and was so far admitting the first principles and the
+general methods of his opponents. The Scottish philosophy, however,
+naturally presented itself as an antagonistic force to the Utilitarians.
+The 'intuitions' represented the ultimate ground taken, especially in
+religious and ethical questions, by men who wished to be at once liberal
+philosophers and yet to avoid revolutionary extremes. 'Intuitions' had
+in any case a negative value, as protests against the sufficiency of the
+empirical analysis. It might be quite true, for example, that Hume's
+analysis of certain primary mental phenomena--of our belief in the
+external world or of the relation of cause and effect--was radically
+insufficient. He had not given an adequate explanation of the facts. The
+recognition of the insufficiency of his reasoning was highly important
+if only as a stimulus to inquiry. It was a warning to his and to
+Hartley's followers that they had not thoroughly unravelled the
+perplexity but only cut the knot. But when the insufficiency of the
+explanation was interpreted as a demonstration that all explanation was
+impossible, and the 'intuition' an ultimate 'self-evident' truth, it
+became a refusal to inquire just where inquiry was wanted; a positive
+command to stop analysis at an arbitrary point; and a round assertion
+that the adversary could not help believing precisely the doctrine which
+he altogether declined to believe. Naturally the empiricists refused to
+bow to an authority which was simply saying, 'Don't inquire further,'
+without any ground for the prohibition except the '_ipse dixitism_'
+which declared that inquiry must be fruitless. Stewart, in fact, really
+illustrated the equivocation between the two meanings of 'common sense.'
+If by that name he understood, as he professed to understand, ultimate
+'laws of thought,' his position was justifiable as soon as he could
+specify the laws and prove that they were ultimate. But so far as he
+virtually took for granted that the average beliefs of intelligent
+people were such laws, and on that ground refused to examine the
+evidence of their validity, he was inconsistent, and his position only
+invited assault. As a fact, I believe that his 'intuitions' covered many
+most disputable propositions; and that the more clearly they were
+stated, the more they failed to justify his interpretations. He was not
+really answering the most vital and critical questions, but implicitly
+reserving them, and putting an arbitrary stop to investigations
+desirable on his own principles.
+
+The Scottish philosophy was, however, accepted in England, and made a
+considerable impression in France, as affording a tenable barrier
+against scepticism. It was, as I have said, in philosophy what
+Whiggism was in politics. Like political Whiggism it included a large
+element of enlightened and liberal rationalism; but like Whiggism it
+covered an aversion to thoroughgoing logic. The English politician was
+suspicious of abstract principles, but could cover his acceptance of
+tradition and rule of thumb by general phrases about liberty and
+toleration. The Whig in philosophy equally accepted the traditional
+creed, sufficiently purified from cruder elements, and sheltered his
+doctrine by speaking of 'intuitions and laws of thought.' In both
+positions there was really, I take it, a great deal of sound practical
+wisdom; but they also implied a marked reluctance to push inquiry too
+far, and a tacit agreement to be content with what the Utilitarians
+denounced as 'vague generalities'--phrases, that is, which might be
+used either to conceal an underlying scepticism, or really to stop
+short in the path which led to scepticism. In philosophy as in
+politics, the Utilitarians boasted of being thoroughgoing Radicals,
+and hated compromises which to them appeared to be simply obstructive.
+I need not elaborate a point which will meet us again. If I were
+writing a history of thought in general I should have to notice other
+writers, though there were none of much distinction, who followed the
+teaching of Stewart or of his opponents of the Hartley and Darwin
+school. It would be necessary also to insist upon the growing interest
+in the physical sciences, which were beginning not only to make
+enormous advances, but to attract popular attention. For my purpose,
+however, it is I think sufficient to mention these writers, each of
+whom had a very special relation to the Utilitarians. I turn,
+therefore, to Bentham.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[157] Nine volumes of Dugald Stewart's works, edited by Sir W. Hamilton,
+appeared from 1854 to 1856; a tenth, including a life of Stewart by J.
+Veitch, appeared in 1858, and an eleventh, with an index to the whole,
+in 1860. The chief books are the _Elements of the Philosophy of the
+Human Mind_ (in vols. ii., iii. and iv., originally in 1792, 1814,
+1827); _Philosophical Essays_ (in vol. v., originally 1810); _Philosophy
+of the Active and Moral Powers of Man_ (vols. vi. and vii., originally
+in 1828); _Dissertation on the Progress of Philosophy_ (in vol. i.;
+originally in _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, in 1815 and 1821). The lectures
+on Political Economy first appeared in the _Works_, vols. viii. and ix.
+
+[158] _Works_, vi. ('Preface').
+
+[159] _Works_ (Life of Reid), x. 304-8.
+
+[160] Reid's _Works_ (Hamilton), p. 302.
+
+[161] Reid's _Works_ (Hamilton), p. 88.
+
+[162] _Ibid._ 206.
+
+[163] _Ibid._ 267.
+
+[164] Stewart's remarks on his life of Reid: Reid's _Works_, p. 12, etc.
+
+[165] _The World as Will and Idea_ (Haldane & Kemp), ii. 186. Reid's
+'_Inquiry_,' he adds, is ten times better worth reading than all the
+philosophy together which has been written since Kant.
+
+[166] 'We are inspired with the sensation, as we are inspired with the
+corresponding perception, by means unknown.'--Reid's _Works_, 188.
+'This,' says Stewart, 'is a plain statement of fact.'--Stewart's
+_Works_, ii. 111-12.
+
+[167] See Rosmini's _Origin of Ideas_ (English translation), i. p. 91,
+where, though sympathising with Reid's aim, he admits a 'great blunder.'
+
+[168] Stewart's _Works_, v. 24-53. Hamilton says in a note (p. 41) that
+Jeffrey candidly confessed Stewart's reply to be satisfactory.
+
+[169] _Ibid._ ii. 46.
+
+[170] _Ibid._ ii. 45-67.
+
+[171] _Ibid._ ii. 159.
+
+[172] _Ibid._ v. 21.
+
+[173] Stewart's _Works_, ii. 165-93; iii. 81-97. Schopenhauer (_The
+World as Will and Idea_, ii. 240) admires Reid's teaching upon this
+point, and recommends us not 'to waste an hour over the scribblings of
+this shallow writer' (Stewart).
+
+[174] Rosmini's _Origin of Ideas_ (English translation), i. 96-176.
+
+[175] _Ibid._ i. 147 _n._
+
+[176] Stewart's _Works_, iv. 29, 35, 38, and v. 149-88.
+
+[177] _Ibid._ ii. 97, etc., and iii. 235, 389, 417.
+
+[178] _Works_, vii. 13-34.
+
+[179] _Ibid._ vii. 26, etc.
+
+[180] _Works_, iv. 265.
+
+[181] _Ibid._ ii. 52.
+
+[182] _Ibid._ v. 10.
+
+[183] _Works_, ii. 155.
+
+[184] _Ibid._ ii. 337.
+
+[185] _Works_, vi. 46; vii. 11.
+
+[186] _Ibid._ vii. 46.
+
+[187] _Ibid._ i. 357.
+
+[188] _Works_, vi. 320.
+
+[189] _Ibid._ vi. 279.
+
+[190] _Ibid._ vi. 297.
+
+[191] _Works_, vi. 295. Cf. v. 83.
+
+[192] _Ibid._ vi. 298-99.
+
+[193] _Ibid._ v. 84.
+
+[194] In _Works_, vi. 205-6, he quotes Dumont's _Bentham_; but his
+general silence is the more significant, as in the lectures on Political
+Economy he makes frequent and approving reference to Bentham's tract
+upon usury.
+
+[195] _Works_, vii. 236-38.
+
+[196] _Ibid._ vi. 221.
+
+[197] _Works_, vi. 213.
+
+[198] _Ibid._ vi. 199.
+
+[199] _Works_, vi. 111.
+
+[200] _Works_, v. 117 18. I have given some details as to Stewart's
+suffering under an English proselyte of Kant in my _Studies of a
+Biographer_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BENTHAM'S LIFE
+
+
+I. EARLY LIFE
+
+Jeremy Bentham,[201] the patriarch of the English Utilitarians, sprang
+from the class imbued most thoroughly with the typical English
+prejudices. His first recorded ancestor, Brian Bentham, was a
+pawnbroker, who lost money by the stop of the Exchequer in 1672, but was
+neither ruined, nor, it would seem, alienated by the king's dishonesty.
+He left some thousands to his son, Jeremiah, an attorney and a strong
+Jacobite. A second Jeremiah, born 2nd December 1712, carried on his
+father's business, and though his clients were not numerous, increased
+his fortune by judicious investments in houses and lands. Although
+brought up in Jacobite principles, he transferred his attachment to the
+Hanoverian dynasty when a relation of his wife married a valet of George
+II. The wife, Alicia Grove, was daughter of a tradesman who had made a
+small competence at Andover. Jeremiah Bentham had fallen in love with
+her at first sight, and wisely gave up for her sake a match with a
+fortune of L10,000. The couple were fondly attached to each other and to
+their children. The marriage took place towards the end of 1744, and the
+eldest son, Jeremy, was born in Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, 4th
+February 1747-48 (o.s.) The only other child who grew up was Samuel,
+afterwards Sir Samuel Bentham, born 11th January 1757. When eighty years
+old, Jeremy gave anecdotes of his infancy to his biographer, Bowring,
+who says that their accuracy was confirmed by contemporary documents,
+and proved his memory to be as wonderful as his precocity. Although the
+child was physically puny, his intellectual development was amazing.
+Before he was two he burst into tears at the sight of his mother's
+chagrin upon his refusal of some offered dainty. Before he was
+'breeched,' an event which happened when he was three and a quarter, he
+ran home from a dull walk, ordered a footman to bring lights and place a
+folio _Rapin_ upon the table, and was found plunged in historical
+studies when his parents returned to the house. In his fourth year he
+was imbibing the Latin grammar, and at the age of five years nine months
+and nineteen days, as his father notes, he wrote a scrap of Latin,
+carefully pasted among the parental memoranda. The child was not always
+immured in London. His parents spent their Sundays with the grandfather
+Bentham at Barking, and made occasional excursions to the house of Mrs.
+Bentham's mother at Browning Hill, near Reading. Bentham remembered the
+last as a 'paradise,' and a love of flowers and gardens became one of
+his permanent passions.
+
+Jeremy cherished the memory of his mother's tenderness. The father,
+though less sympathetic, was proud of his son's precocity, and
+apparently injudicious in stimulating the unformed intellect. The boy
+was almost a dwarf in size. When sixteen he grew ahead,[202] and was so
+feeble that he could scarcely drag himself upstairs. Attempts to teach
+him dancing failed from the extreme weakness of his knees.[203] He
+showed a taste for music, and could scrape a minuet on the fiddle at six
+years of age. He read all such books as came in his way. His parents
+objected to light literature, and he was crammed with such solid works
+as _Rapin_, Burnet's _Theory of the Earth_, and Cave's _Lives of the
+Apostles_. Various accidents, however, furnished him with better food
+for the imagination. He wept for hours over _Clarissa Harlowe_, studied
+_Gulliver's Travels_ as an authentic document, and dipped into a variety
+of such books as then drifted into middle-class libraries. A French
+teacher introduced him to some remarkable books. He read _Telemaque_,
+which deeply impressed him, and, as he thought, implanted in his mind
+the seeds of later moralising. He attacked unsuccessfully some of
+Voltaire's historical works, and even read _Candide_, with what emotions
+we are not told. The servants meanwhile filled his fancy with ghosts and
+hobgoblins. To the end of his days he was still haunted by the imaginary
+horrors in the dark,[204] and he says[205] that they had been among the
+torments of his life. He had few companions of his own age, and though
+he was 'not unhappy' and was never subjected to corporal punishment, he
+felt more awe than affection for his father. His mother, to whom he was
+strongly attached, died on 6th January 1759.
+
+Bentham was thus a strangely precocious, and a morbidly sensitive child,
+when it was decided in 1755 to send him to Westminster. The headmaster,
+Dr. Markham, was a friend of his father's. Westminster, he says,
+represented 'hell' for him when Browning Hill stood for paradise. The
+instruction 'was wretched,' The fagging system was a 'horrid despotism.'
+The games were too much for his strength. His industry, however, enabled
+him to escape the birch, no small achievement in those days,[206] and he
+became distinguished in the studies such as they were. He learned the
+catechism by heart, and was good at Greek and Latin verses, which he
+manufactured for his companions as well as himself. He had also the
+rarer accomplishment, acquired from his early tutor, of writing more
+easily in French than English. Some of his writings were originally
+composed in French. He was, according to Bowring, elected to one of the
+King's scholarships when between nine and ten, but as 'ill-usage was
+apprehended' the appointment was declined.[207] He was at a
+boarding-house, and the life of the boys on the foundation was probably
+rougher. In June 1760 his father took him to Oxford, and entered him as
+a commoner at Queen's College. He came into residence in the following
+October, when only twelve years old. Oxford was not more congenial than
+Westminster. He had to sign the Thirty-nine Articles in spite of
+scruples suppressed by authority. The impression made upon him by this
+childish compliance never left him to the end of his life.[208] His
+experience resembled that of Adam Smith and Gibbon. Laziness and vice
+were prevalent. A gentleman commoner of Queen's was president of a
+'hellfire club,' and brutal horseplay was still practised upon the
+weaker lads. Bentham, still a schoolboy in age, continued his schoolboy
+course. He wrote Latin verses, and one of his experiments, an ode upon
+the death of George II., was sent to Johnson, who called it 'a very
+pretty performance for a young man.' He also had to go through the form
+of disputation in the schools. Queen's College had some reputation at
+this time for teaching logic.[209] Bentham was set to read Watt's
+_Logic_ (1725), Sanderson's _Compendium artis Logicae_ (1615), and
+Rowning's _Compendious System of Natural Philosophy_ (1735-42). Some
+traces of these studies remained in his mind.
+
+In 1763 Bentham took his B.A. degree, and returned to his home. It is
+significant that when robbed of all his money at Oxford he did not
+confide in his father. He was paying by a morbid reserve for the
+attempts made to force him into premature activity. He accepted the
+career imposed by his father's wishes, and in November 1763 began to eat
+his dinners in Lincoln's Inn. He returned, however, to Oxford in
+December to hear Blackstone's lectures. These lectures were then a
+novelty at an English university. The Vinerian professorship had been
+founded in 1758 in consequence of the success of a course voluntarily
+given by Blackstone; and his lectures contained the substance of the
+famous Commentaries, first published 1765-1769. They had a great effect
+upon Bentham. He says that he 'immediately detected Blackstone's fallacy
+respecting natural rights,' thought other doctrines illogical, and was
+so much occupied by these reflections as to be unable to take notes.
+Bentham's dissatisfaction with Blackstone had not yet made him an
+opponent of the constituted order. He was present at some of the
+proceedings against Wilkes, and was perfectly bewitched by Lord
+Mansfield's '_Grim-gibber_,' that is, taken in by his pompous
+verbiage.[210]
+
+In 1765 his father married Mrs. Abbot, the mother of Charles Abbot,
+afterwards Lord Colchester. Bentham's dislike of his step-mother
+increased the distance between him and his father. He took his M.A.
+degree in 1766 and in 1767 finally left Oxford for London to begin, as
+his father fondly hoped, a flight towards the woolsack. The lad's
+diffidence and extreme youth had indeed prevented him from forming the
+usual connections which his father anticipated as the result of a
+college life. His career as a barrister was short and grievously
+disappointing to the parental hopes. His father, like the Elder Fairford
+in _Redgauntlet_, had 'a cause or two at nurse' for the son. The son's
+first thought was to 'put them to death,' A brief was given to him in a
+suit, upon which L50 depended. He advised that the suit should be
+dropped and the money saved. Other experiences only increased his
+repugnance to his profession.[211] A singularly strong impression had
+been made upon him by the _Memoirs_ of Teresa Constantia Phipps, in
+which there is an account of vexatious legal proceedings as to the
+heroine's marriage. He appears to have first read this book
+in 1759. Then, he says, the 'Demon of Chicane appeared to me
+in all his hideousness. I vowed war against him. My vow has been
+accomplished!'[212] Bentham thus went to the bar as a 'bear to the
+stake.' He diverged in more than one direction. He studied chemistry
+under Fordyce (1736-1802), and hankered after physical science. He was
+long afterwards (1788) member of a club to which Sir Joseph Banks, John
+Hunter, R. L. Edgeworth, and other men of scientific reputation
+belonged.[213] But he had drifted into a course of speculation, which,
+though more germane to legal studies, was equally fatal to professional
+success. The father despaired, and he was considered to be a 'lost
+child.'
+
+NOTES:
+
+[201] The main authority for Bentham's Life is Bowring's account in the
+two last volumes of the _Works_. Bain's _Life of James Mill_ gives some
+useful facts as to the later period. There is comparatively little
+mention of Bentham in contemporary memoirs. Little is said of him in
+Romilly's _Life_. Parr's _Works_, i. and viii., contains some letters.
+See also R. Dale Owen's _Threading my Way_ pp. 175-78. A little book
+called _Utilitarianism Unmasked_, by the Rev. J. F. Colls, D.D. (1844),
+gives some reminiscences by Colls, who had been Bentham's amanuensis for
+fourteen years. Colls, who took orders, disliked Bentham's religious
+levity, and denounces his vanity, but admits his early kindness.
+Voluminous collections of the papers used by Bowring are at University
+College, and at the British Museum.
+
+[202] _Works_, x. 33.
+
+[203] _Ibid._ x. 31.
+
+[204] _Ibid._ ix. 84.
+
+[205] _Ibid._ x. 18.
+
+[206] Southey was expelled from Westminster in 1792 for attacking the
+birch in a schoolboy paper.
+
+[207] _Works_, x. 38. Bowring's confused statement, I take it, means
+this. Bentham, in any case, was not on the foundation. See Welsh's
+_Alumni West_.
+
+[208] _Works_, x. 37.
+
+[209] _Ibid._ viii. 113, 217.
+
+[210] _Works_, x. 45.
+
+[211] _Ibid._ x. 51, 78, 83.
+
+[212] _Works_, x. 35, 77. References are given to this book in _Works_,
+vii. 219-20 ('Rationale of Evidence'). Several editions appeared from
+1725 to 1761. See _Works_, vi. 465, for a recollection of similar
+experiences.
+
+[213] _Ibid._ viii. 148 _n._; x. 183.
+
+
+II. FIRST WRITINGS
+
+Though lost to the bar, he had really found himself. He had taken the
+line prescribed by his idiosyncrasy. His father's injudicious forcing
+had increased his shyness at the bar, and he was like an owl in
+daylight. But no one, as we shall see, was less diffident in
+speculation. Self-confidence in a philosopher is often the private
+credit which he opens with his imagination to compensate for his
+incapacity in the rough struggles of active life. Bentham shrank from
+the world in which he was easily browbeaten to the study in which he
+could reign supreme. He had not the strong passions which prompt
+commonplace ambition, and cared little for the prizes for which most men
+will sacrifice their lives. Nor, on the other hand, can he be credited
+with that ardent philanthropy or vehement indignation which prompts to
+an internecine struggle with actual wrongdoers. He had not the ardour
+which led Howard to devote a life to destroy abuses, or that which
+turned Swift's blood to gall in the struggle against triumphant
+corruption. He was thoroughly amiable, but of kindly rather than
+energetic affections. He, therefore, desired reform, but so far from
+regarding the ruling classes with rancour, took their part against the
+democrats. 'I was a great reformist,' he says, 'but never suspected that
+the "people in power" were against reform. I supposed they only wanted
+to know what was good in order to embrace it.'[214] The most real of
+pleasures for him lay in speculating upon the general principles by
+which the 'people in power' should be guided. To construct a general
+chart for legislation, to hunt down sophistries, to explode mere noisy
+rhetoric, to classify and arrange and re-classify until his whole
+intellectual wealth was neatly arranged in proper pigeon-holes, was a
+delight for its own sake. He wished well to mankind; he detested abuses,
+but he hated neither the corrupted nor the corruptors; and it might
+almost seem that he rather valued the benevolent end, because it gave
+employment to his faculties, than valued the employment because it led
+to the end. This is implied in his remark made at the end of his life.
+He was, he said, as selfish as a man could be; but 'somehow or other'
+selfishness had in him taken the form of benevolence.[215] He was at any
+rate in the position of a man with the agreeable conviction that he has
+only to prove the wisdom of a given course in order to secure its
+adoption. Like many mechanical inventors, he took for granted that a
+process which was shown to be useful would therefore be at once adopted,
+and failed to anticipate the determined opposition of the great mass of
+'vested interests' already in possession.
+
+At this period he made the discovery, or what he held to be the
+discovery, which governed his whole future career. He laid down the
+principle which was to give the clue to all his investigations; and, as
+he thought, required only to be announced to secure universal
+acceptance. When Bentham revolted against the intellectual food provided
+at school and college, he naturally took up the philosophy which at that
+period represented the really living stream of thought. To be a man of
+enlightenment in those days was to belong to the school of Locke. Locke
+represented reason, free thought, and the abandonment of prejudice.
+Besides Locke, he mentions Hume, Montesquieu, Helvetius, Beccaria, and
+Barrington. Helvetius especially did much to suggest to him his leading
+principle, and upon country trips which he took with his father and
+step-mother, he used to lag behind studying Helvetius' _De
+l'Esprit_.[216] Locke, he says in an early note (1773-1774), should give
+the principles, Helvetius the matter, of a complete digest of the law.
+He mentions with especial interest the third volume of Hume's _Treatise
+on Human Nature_ for its ethical views: 'he felt as if scales fell from
+his eyes' when he read it.[217] Daines Barrington's _Observations on the
+Statutes_ (1766) interested him by miscellaneous suggestions. The book,
+he says,[218] was a 'great treasure.' 'It is everything, _a propos_ of
+everything; I wrote volumes upon this volume.' Beccaria's treatise upon
+crimes and punishments had appeared in 1764, and had excited the
+applause of Europe. The world was clearly ready for a fundamental
+reconstruction of legislative theories. Under the influence of such
+studies Bentham formulated his famous principle--a principle which to
+some seemed a barren truism, to others a mere epigram, and to some a
+dangerous falsehood. Bentham accepted it not only as true, but as
+expressing a truth of extraordinary fecundity, capable of guiding him
+through the whole labyrinth of political and legislative speculation.
+His 'fundamental axiom' is that 'the greatest happiness of the greatest
+number is the measure of right and wrong.'[219] Bentham himself[220]
+attributes the authorship of the phrase to Beccaria or Priestley. The
+general order of thought to which this theory belongs was of course not
+the property of any special writer or any particular period. Here I need
+only observe that this embodiment of the general doctrine of utility or
+morality had been struck out by Hutcheson in the attempt (as his title
+says) 'to introduce a mathematical calculation on subjects of morality.'
+This defines the exact reason which made it acceptable to Bentham. For
+the vague reference to utility which appears in Hume and other writers
+of his school, he substituted a formula, the terms of which suggest the
+possibility of an accurate quantitative comparison of different sums of
+happiness. In Bentham's mind the difference between this and the more
+general formula was like the difference between the statement that the
+planets gravitate towards the sun, and the more precise statement that
+the law of gravitation varies inversely as the square of the distance.
+Bentham hoped for no less an achievement than to become the Newton of
+the moral world.
+
+Bentham, after leaving Oxford, took chambers in Lincoln's Inn. His
+father on his second marriage had settled some property upon him, which
+brought in some L90 a year. He had to live like a gentleman upon this,
+and to give four guineas a year to the laundress, four to his barber,
+and two to his shoeblack. In spite of Jeremy's deviation from the path
+of preferment, the two were on friendly terms, and when the hopes of the
+son's professional success grew faint, the father showed sympathy with
+his literary undertakings. Jeremy visited Paris in 1770, but made few
+acquaintances, though he was already regarded as a 'philosopher.' In
+1778 he was in correspondence with d'Alembert, the abbe Morellet, and
+other philanthropic philosophers, but it does not appear at what time
+this connection began.[221] He translated Voltaire's _Taureau
+Blanc_[222]--a story which used to 'convulse him with laughter.' A
+reference to it will show that Bentham by this time took the Voltairean
+view of the Old Testament. Bentham, however, was still on the side of
+the Tories. His first publication was a defence of Lord Mansfield in
+1770 against attacks arising out of the prosecution of Woodfall for
+publishing Junius's letter to the king. This defence, contained in two
+letters, signed Irenaeus, was published in the _Gazetteer_. Bentham's
+next performance was remarkable in the same sense. Among the few friends
+who drifted to his chambers was John Lind (1737-1781), who had been a
+clergyman, and after acting as tutor to a prince in Poland, had returned
+to London and become a writer for the press. He had business relations
+with the elder Bentham, and the younger Bentham was to some extent his
+collaborator in a pamphlet[223] which defended the conduct of ministers
+to the American colonies. Bentham observes that he was prejudiced
+against the Americans by the badness of their arguments, and thought
+from the first, as he continued to think, that the Declaration of
+Independence was a hodge-podge of confusion and absurdity, in which the
+thing to be proved is all along taken for granted.[224] Two other
+friendships were formed by Bentham about this time: one with James
+Trail, an unsuccessful barrister, who owed a seat in Parliament and
+some minor offices to Lord Hertford, and is said by Romilly to have been
+a man of great talent; and one with George Wilson, afterwards a leader
+of the Norfolk circuit, who had become known to him through a common
+interest in Dr. Fordyce's lectures upon chemistry. Wilson became a bosom
+friend, and was one of Bentham's first disciples, though they were
+ultimately alienated.[225]
+
+At this time, Bentham says, that his was 'truly a miserable life.'[226]
+Yet he was getting to work upon his grand project. He tells his father
+on 1st October 1776 that he is writing his _Critical Elements of
+Jurisprudence_, the book of which a part was afterwards published as the
+_Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation_.[227] In the
+same year he published his first important work, the _Fragment on
+Government_. The year was in many ways memorable. The Declaration of
+Independence marked the opening of a new political era. Adam Smith's
+_Wealth of Nations_ and Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ formed landmarks in
+speculation and in history; and Bentham's volume, though it made no such
+impression, announced a serious attempt to apply scientific methods to
+problems of legislation. The preface contained the first declaration of
+his famous formula which was applied to the confutation of Blackstone.
+Bentham was apparently roused to this effort by recollections of the
+Oxford lectures. The _Commentaries_ contained a certain quantity of
+philosophical rhetoric; and as Blackstone was much greater in a literary
+than in a philosophical sense, the result was naturally unsatisfactory
+from a scientific point of view. He had vaguely appealed to the sound
+Whig doctrine of social compact, and while disavowing any strict
+historical basis had not inquired too curiously what was left of his
+supposed foundation. Bentham pounced upon the unfortunate bit of
+verbiage; insisted upon asking for a meaning when there was nothing but
+a rhetorical flourish, and tore the whole flimsy fabric to rags and
+tatters. A more bitter attack upon Blackstone, chiefly, as Bowring says,
+upon his defence of the Jewish law, was suppressed for fear of the law
+of libel.[228] The _Fragment_ was published anonymously, but Bentham had
+confided the secret to his father by way of suggesting some slight
+set-off against his apparent unwillingness to emerge from obscurity. The
+book was at first attributed to Lord Mansfield, Lord Camden, and to
+Dunning. It was pirated in Dublin; and most of the five hundred copies
+printed appear to have been sold, though without profit to the author.
+The father's indiscretion let out the secret; and the sale, when the
+book was known to be written by a nobody, fell off at once, or so
+Bentham believed. The anonymous writer, however, was denounced and
+accused of being the author of much ribaldry, and among other
+accusations was said to be not only the translator but the writer of the
+_White Bull_.[229]
+
+Bentham had fancied that all manner of 'torches from the highest
+regions' would come to light themselves at his 'farthing candle.' None
+of them came, and he was left for some years in obscurity, though still
+labouring at the great work which was one day to enlighten the world.
+At last, however, partial recognition came to him in a shape which
+greatly influenced his career. Lord Shelburne, afterwards marquis of
+Lansdowne, had been impressed by the _Fragment_, and in 1781 sought out
+Bentham at his chambers. Shelburne's career was to culminate in the
+following year with his brief tenure of the premiership (3rd July 1782
+to 24th February 1783). Rightly or wrongly his contemporaries felt the
+distrust indicated by his nickname 'Malagrida,' which appears to have
+been partly suggested by a habit of overstrained compliment. He incurred
+the dislike not unfrequently excited by men who claim superiority of
+intellect without possessing the force of character which gives a
+corresponding weight in political affairs. Although his education had
+been bad, he had something of that cosmopolitan training which enabled
+many members of the aristocracy to look beyond the narrow middle-class
+prejudices and share in some degree the wider philosophical movements of
+the day. He had enjoyed the friendship of Franklin, and had been the
+patron of Priestley, who made some of his chemical discoveries at
+Bowood, and to whom he allowed an annuity. He belonged to that section
+of the Whigs which had most sympathy with the revolutionary movement.
+His chief political lieutenants were Dunning and Barre, who at the time
+sat for his borough Calne. He now rapidly formed an intimacy with
+Bentham, who went to stay at Bowood in the autumn of 1781. Bentham now
+and then in later years made some rather disparaging remarks upon
+Shelburne, whom he apparently considered to be rather an amateur than a
+serious philosopher, and who in the House of Lords talked 'vague
+generalities'--the sacred phrase by which the Utilitarians denounced all
+preaching but their own--in a way to impose upon the thoughtless. He
+respected Shelburne, however, as one who trusted the people, and was
+distrusted by the Whig aristocracy. He felt, too, a real affection and
+gratitude for the patron to whom he owed so much. Shelburne had done him
+a great service.[230] 'He raised me from the bottomless pit of
+humiliation. He made me feel I was something.' The elder Bentham was
+impressed by his son's acquaintance with a man in so eminent a position,
+and hoped that it might lead by a different path to the success which
+had been missed at the bar. At Bowood Bentham stayed over a month upon
+his first visit, and was treated in the manner appropriate to a
+philosopher. The men showed him friendliness, dashed with occasional
+contempt, and the ladies petted him. He met Lord Camden and Dunning and
+young William Pitt, and some minor adherents of the great man. Pitt was
+'very good-natured and a little raw.' I was monstrously 'frightened at
+him,' but, when I came to talk with him, he seemed 'frightened at
+me.'[231] Bentham, however, did not see what ideas they were likely to
+have in common. In fact there was the usual gulf between the speculative
+thinker and the practical man. 'All the statesmen,' so thought the
+philosopher, 'were wanting in the great elements of statesmanship': they
+were always talking about 'what was' and seldom or never about 'what
+ought to be.'[232] Occasionally, it would seem, they descended lower,
+and made a little fun of the shy and over-sensitive intruder.[233] The
+ladies, however, made it up to him. Shelburne made him read his 'dry
+metaphysics' to them,[234] and they received it with feminine docility.
+Lord Shelburne had lately (1779) married his second wife, Louisa,
+daughter of the first earl of Upper Ossory. Her sister, Lady Mary
+Fitz-Patrick, married in 1766 to Stephen Fox, afterwards Lord Holland,
+was the mother of the Lord Holland of later days and of Miss Caroline
+Fox, who survived till 1845, and was at this time a pleasant girl of
+thirteen or fourteen. Lady Shelburne had also two half-sisters,
+daughters of her mother's second marriage to Richard Vernon. Lady
+Shelburne took a fancy to Bentham, and gave him the 'prodigious
+privilege' of admission to her dressing-room. Though haughty in manner,
+she was mild in reality, and after a time she and her sister indulged in
+'innocent gambols.' In her last illness, Bentham was one of the only two
+men whom she would see, and upon her death in 1789, he was the only male
+friend to whom her husband turned for consolation. Miss Fox seems to
+have been the only woman who inspired Bentham with a sentiment
+approaching to passion. He wrote occasional letters to the ladies in the
+tone of elephantine pleasantry natural to one who was all his life both
+a philosopher and a child.[235] He made an offer of marriage to Miss Fox
+in 1805, when he was nearer sixty than fifty, and when they had not met
+for sixteen years. The immediate occasion was presumably the death of
+Lord Lansdowne. She replied in a friendly letter, regretting the pain
+which her refusal would inflict. In 1827 Bentham, then in his eightieth
+year, wrote once more, speaking of the flower she had given him 'in the
+green lane,' and asking for a kind answer. He was 'indescribably hurt
+and disappointed' by a cold and distant reply. The tears would come into
+the old man's eyes as he dealt upon the cherished memories of
+Bowood.[236] It is pleasant to know that Bentham was once in love;
+though his love seems to have been chiefly for a memory associated with
+what he called the happiest time of his life.
+
+Shelburne had a project for a marriage between Bentham and the widow of
+Lord Ashburton (Dunning), who died in 1783.[237] He also made some
+overtures of patronage. 'He asked me,' says Bentham,[238] 'what he could
+do for me? I told him, nothing,' and this conduct--so different from
+that of others, 'endeared me to him.' Bentham declined one offer in
+1788; but in 1790 he suddenly took it into his head that Lansdowne had
+promised him a seat in parliament; and immediately set forth his claims
+in a vast argumentative letter of sixty-one pages.[239] Lansdowne
+replied conclusively that he had not made the supposed promise, and had
+had every reason to suppose that Bentham preferred retirement to
+politics. Bentham accepted the statement frankly, though a short
+coolness apparently followed. The claim, in fact, only represented one
+of those passing moods to which Bentham was always giving way at odd
+moments.
+
+Bentham's intimacy at Bowood led to more important results. In 1788 he
+met Romilly and Dumont at Lord Lansdowne's table.[240] He had already
+met Romilly in 1784 through Wilson, but after this the intimacy became
+close. Romilly had fallen in love with the _Fragment_, and in later
+life he became Bentham's adviser in practical matters, and the chief if
+not the sole expounder of Bentham's theories in parliament.[241] The
+alliance with Dumont was of even greater importance. Dumont, born at
+Geneva in 1759, had become a Protestant minister; he was afterwards
+tutor to Shelburne's son, and in 1788 visited Paris with Romilly and
+made acquaintance with Mirabeau. Romilly showed Dumont some of Bentham's
+papers written in French. Dumont offered to rewrite and to superintend
+their publication. He afterwards received other papers from Bentham
+himself, with whom he became personally acquainted after his return from
+Paris.[242] Dumont became Bentham's most devoted disciple, and laboured
+unweariedly upon the translation and condensation of his master's
+treatise. One result is odd enough. Dumont, it is said, provided
+materials for some of Mirabeau's 'most splendid' speeches; and some of
+these materials came from Bentham.[243] One would like to see how
+Bentham's prose was transmuted into an oratory by Mirabeau. In any case,
+Dumont's services to Bentham were invaluable. It is painful to add that
+according to Bowring the two became so much alienated in the end, that
+in 1827 Bentham refused to see Dumont, and declared that his chief
+interpreter did 'not understand a word of his meaning.' Bowring
+attributes this separation to a remark made by Dumont about the
+shabbiness of Bentham's dinners as compared with those at Lansdowne
+House--a comparison which he calls 'offensive, uncalled-for, and
+groundless.'[244] Bentham apparently argued that a man who did not like
+his dinners could not appreciate his theories: a fallacy excusable only
+by the pettishness of old age. Bowring, however, had a natural dulness
+which distorted many anecdotes transmitted through him; and we may hope
+that in this case there was some exaggeration.
+
+Bentham's emergence was, meanwhile, very slow. The great men whom he met
+at Lord Lansdowne's were not specially impressed by the shy philosopher.
+Wedderburn, so he heard, pronounced the fatal word 'dangerous' in regard
+to the _Fragment_.[245] How, thought Bentham, can utility be dangerous?
+Is this not self-contradictory? Later reflection explained the puzzle.
+What is useful to the governed need not be therefore useful to the
+governors. Mansfield, who was known to Lind, said that in some parts the
+author of the _Fragment_ was awake and in others was asleep. In what
+parts? Bentham wondered. Awake, he afterwards considered, in the parts
+where Blackstone, the object of Mansfield's personal 'heart-burning,'
+was attacked; asleep where Mansfield's own despotism was threatened.
+Camden was contemptuous; Dunning only 'scowled' at him; and Barre, after
+taking in his book, gave it back with the mysterious information that he
+had 'got into a scrape.'[246] The great book, therefore, though printed
+in 1781,[247] 'stuck for eight years,'[248] and the writer continued his
+obscure existence in Lincoln's Inn.[249] An opinion which he gave in
+some question as to the evidence in Warren Hastings's trial made, he
+says, an impression in his favour. Before publication was achieved,
+however, a curious episode altered Bentham's whole outlook. His brother
+Samuel (1757-1831), whose education he had partly superintended,[250]
+had been apprenticed to a shipwright at Woolwich, and in 1780 had gone
+to Russia in search of employment. Three years later he was sent by
+Prince Potemkin to superintend a great industrial establishment at
+Kritchev on a tributary of the Dnieper. There he was to be
+'Jack-of-all-trades--building ships, like Harlequin, of odds and ends--a
+rope-maker, a sail-maker, a distiller, brewer, malster, tanner,
+glass-man, glass-grinder, potter, hemp-spinner, smith, and
+coppersmith.'[251] He was, that is, to transplant a fragment of
+ready-made Western civilisation into Russia. Bentham resolved to pay a
+visit to his brother, to whom he was strongly attached. He left England
+in August 1785, and stayed some time at Constantinople, where he met
+Maria James (1770-1836), the wife successively of W. Reveley and of John
+Gisborne, and the friend of Shelley. Thence he travelled by land to
+Kritchev, and settled with his brother at the neighbouring estate of
+Zadobras. Bentham here passed a secluded life, interested in his
+brother's occupations and mechanical inventions, and at the same time
+keeping up his own intellectual labours. The most remarkable result was
+the _Defence of Usury_, written in the beginning of 1787. Bentham
+appends to it a respectful letter to Adam Smith, who had supported the
+laws against usury inconsistently with his own general principles. The
+disciple was simply carrying out those principles to the logical
+application from which the master had shrunk. The manuscript was sent to
+Wilson, who wished to suppress it.[252] The elder Bentham obtained it,
+and sent it to the press. The book met Bentham as he was returning. It
+was highly praised by Thomas Reid,[253] and by the _Monthly Review_; it
+was translated into various languages, and became one of the sacred
+books of the Economists. Wilson is described as 'cold and cautious,' and
+he suppressed another pamphlet upon prison discipline.[254] In a letter
+to Bentham, dated 26th February 1787, however, Wilson disavows any
+responsibility for the delay in the publication of the great book. 'The
+cause,' he says, 'lies in your constitution. With one-tenth part of your
+genius, and a common degree of steadiness, both Sam and you would long
+since have risen to great eminence. But your history, since I have known
+you, has been to be always running from a good scheme to a better. In
+the meantime life passes away and nothing is completed.' He entreated
+Bentham to return, and his entreaties were seconded by Trail, who
+pointed out various schemes of reform, especially of the poor-laws, in
+which Bentham might be useful. Wilson had mentioned already another
+inducement to publication. 'There is,' he says, on 24th September 1786,
+'a Mr. Paley, a parson and archdeacon of Carlisle, who has written a
+book called _Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy_, in quarto,
+and it has gone through two editions with prodigious applause.' He fears
+that Bentham will be charged with stealing from Paley, and exhorts him
+to come home and 'establish a great literary reputation in your own
+language, and in this country which you despise.'[255] Bentham at last
+started homewards. He travelled through Poland, Germany, and Holland,
+and reached London at the beginning of February 1788. He settled at a
+little farmhouse at Hendon, bought a 'superb harpsichord,' resumed his
+occupations, and saw a small circle of friends. Wilson urged him to
+publish his _Introduction_ without waiting to complete the vast scheme
+to which it was to be a prologue. Copies of the printed book were
+already abroad, and there was a danger of plagiarism. Thus urged,
+Bentham at last yielded, and the _Introduction to the Principles of
+Morals and Legislation_ appeared in 1789. The preface apologised for
+imperfections due to the plan of his work. The book, he explained, laid
+down the principles of all his future labours, and was to stand to him
+in the relation of a treatise upon pure mathematics to a treatise upon
+the applied sciences. He indicated ten separate departments of
+legislation, each of which would require a treatise in order to the
+complete execution of his scheme.
+
+The book gives the essence of Bentham's theories, and is the one large
+treatise published by himself. The other works were only brought to
+birth by the help of disciples. Dumont, in the discourse prefixed to the
+_Traites_, explains the reason. Bentham, he says, would suspend a whole
+work and begin a new one because a single proposition struck him as
+doubtful. A problem of finance would send him to a study of Political
+Economy in general. A question of procedure would make him pause until
+he had investigated the whole subject of judicial organisation. While at
+work, he felt only the pleasure of composition. When his materials
+required form and finish, he felt only the fatigue. Disgust succeeded to
+charm; and he could scarcely be induced to interrupt his labours upon
+fresh matter in order to give to his interpreter the explanations
+necessary for the elucidation of his previous writings. He was without
+the literary vanity or the desire for completion which may prompt to
+premature publication, but may at least prevent the absolute waste of
+what has been already achieved. His method of writing was
+characteristic. He began by forming a complete logical scheme for the
+treatment of any subject, dividing and subdividing so as to secure an
+exhaustive classification of the whole matter of discussion. Then taking
+up any subdivision, he wrote his remarks upon sheets, which were put
+aside after being marked with references indicating their place in the
+final treatise. He never turned to these again. In time he would exhaust
+the whole subject, and it would then be the duty of his disciples simply
+to put together the bricks according to the indications placed upon each
+in order to construct the whole edifice.[256] As, however, the plan
+would frequently undergo a change, and as each fragment had been written
+without reference to the others, the task of ultimate combination and
+adaptation of the ultimate atoms was often very perplexing. Bentham, as
+we shall see, formed disciples ardent enough to put together these
+scattered documents as the disciples of Mahomet put together the Koran.
+Bentham's revelation was possibly less influential than Mahomet's; but
+the logical framework was far more coherent.
+
+Bentham's mind was for the present distracted. He had naturally returned
+full of information about Russia. The English ministry were involved in
+various negotiations with Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, the purpose of
+which was to thwart the designs of Russia in the East. Bentham wrote
+three letters to the _Public Advertiser_, signed Anti-Machiavel,[257]
+protesting against the warlike policy. Bentham himself believed that the
+effect was decisive, and that the 'war was given up' in consequence of
+his arguments. Historians[258] scarcely sanction this belief, which is
+only worth notice because it led to another belief, oddly characteristic
+of Bentham. A letter signed 'Partizan' in the _Public Advertiser_
+replied to his first two letters. Who was 'Partizan'? Lord Lansdowne
+amused himself by informing Bentham that he was no less a personage than
+George III. Bentham, with even more than his usual simplicity, accepted
+this hoax as a serious statement. He derived no little comfort from the
+thought; for to the antipathy thus engendered in the 'best of kings' he
+attributed the subsequent failure of his Panopticon scheme.[259]
+
+NOTES:
+
+[214] _Works_, x. 66.
+
+[215] _Ibid._ xi. 95.
+
+[216] _Works_, x. 54.
+
+[217] _Ibid._ i. 268 _n._
+
+[218] _Works_, x. 121.
+
+[219] _Ibid._ i. 227.
+
+[220] _Ibid._ x. 79, 142. See also _Deontology_, i. 298-302, where
+Bentham speaks of discovering the phrase in Priestley's _Essay on
+Government_ in 1768. Priestley says (p. 17) that 'the good and happiness
+of the members, that is of the majority of the members, of any state is
+the great standard by which everything relating to that state must be
+finally determined.' So Le Mercier de la Riviere says, in 1767, that the
+ultimate end of society is _assurer le plus grand bonheur possible a la
+plus grande population possible_ (Daire's _Economistes_, p. 470).
+Hutcheson's _Enquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil_, 1725, see iii. Sec.
+8, says 'that action is best which secures the greatest happiness of the
+greatest number.' Beccaria, in the preface to his essay, speaks of _la
+massima felicita divisa nel maggior numero_. J. S. Mill says that he
+found the word 'Utilitarian' in Galt's _Annals of the Parish_, and gave
+the name to the society founded by him in 1822-1823 (_Autobiography_, p.
+79). The word had been used by Bentham himself in 1781, and he suggested
+it to Dumont in 1802 as the proper name of the party, instead of
+'Benthamite' (_Works_, x. 92, 390). He afterwards thought it a bad name,
+because it gave a 'vague idea' (_Works_, x. 582), and substituted
+'greatest happiness principle' for 'principle of utility' (_Works_, i.
+'Morals and Legislation').
+
+[221] A letter in the Additional MSS. 33, 537, shows that Bentham sent
+his 'Fragment' and his 'Hard Labour' pamphlet to d'Alembert in 1778,
+apparently introducing himself for the first time. Cf. _Works_, x.
+87-88, 193-94.
+
+[222] The translation of 1774. See Lowndes' _Manual_ under Voltaire,
+_Works_, x. 83 _n._
+
+[223] _Review of the Acts of the Thirteenth Parliament, etc._ (1775).
+
+[224] _Works_, x. 57, 63.
+
+[225] _Works_, x. 133-35.
+
+[226] _Ibid._ x. 84.
+
+[227] _Ibid._ x. 77.
+
+[228] _Works_, x. 82.
+
+[229] _Works_, x. 77-82. Blackstone took no notice of the work, except
+by some allusions in the preface to his next edition. Bentham criticised
+Blackstone respectfully in the pamphlet upon the Hard Labour Bill
+(1778). Blackstone sent a courteous but 'frigidly cautious' reply to the
+author.--_Works_, i. 255.
+
+[230] _Works_, x. 115-17, 186
+
+[231] _Ibid._ x. 100.
+
+[232] _Ibid._ x. 122.
+
+[233] _Ibid._ x. 118; i. 253.
+
+[234] _Works_, x. 97; i. 252.
+
+[235] _Ibid._ x. 219, 265.
+
+[236] _Works_, x. 118, 419, 558.
+
+[237] _Ibid._ i. 253.
+
+[238] _Ibid._ x. 116, 182.
+
+[239] _Ibid._ x. 228-42.
+
+[240] _Ibid._ x. 186.
+
+[241] _Works_, v. 370.
+
+[242] _Souvenirs sur Mirabeau_ (preface).
+
+[243] _Works_, x. 185.
+
+[244] _Works_, x. 185. Colls (p. 41) tells the same story.
+
+[245] _Works_ ('Fragment, etc.'), i. 245, and _Ibid._ ii. 463 _n._
+
+[246] _Ibid._ i. 246, 250, 251.
+
+[247] _Ibid._ i. 252.
+
+[248] _Ibid._ x. 185.
+
+[249] Bentham says (_Works_, i. 240) that he was a member of a club of
+which Johnson was the despot. The only club possible seems to be the
+Essex Street Club, of which Daines Barrington was a member. If so, it
+was in 1783, though Bentham seems to imply an earlier date.
+
+[250] _Works_, x. 77.
+
+[251] _Ibid._ x. 147.
+
+[252] _Works_, x. 176.
+
+[253] Reid's _Works_ (Hamilton), p. 73.
+
+[254] _Works_, x. 171.
+
+[255] _Works_, x. 163-64. Cf. _Ibid._ x. 195, where Wilson is often
+'tempted to think'--erroneously, of course--that Paley must have known
+something of Bentham's work. Paley's chief source was Abraham Tucker.
+
+[256] See J. H. Burton in _Works_, i. 11.
+
+[257] Given in _Works_, x. 201-12.
+
+[258] See Lecky's _Eighteenth Century_, x. 210-97, for an account of
+these transactions.
+
+[259] Bowring tells this gravely, and declares that George III. also
+wrote letters to the _Gazette de Leyde_. George III. certainly
+contributed some letters to Arthur Young's _Annals of Agriculture_, and
+is one of the suggested authors of Junius.
+
+
+III. THE PANOPTICON
+
+The crash of the French revolution was now to change the whole course of
+European politics, and to bring philosophical jurists face to face with
+a long series of profoundly important problems. Bentham's attitude
+during the early stages of the revolution and the first war period is
+significant, and may help to elucidate some characteristics of the
+Utilitarian movement. Revolutions are the work of passion: the product
+of a social and political condition in which the masses are permeated
+with discontent, because the social organs have ceased to discharge
+their functions. They are not ascribable to the purely intellectual
+movement alone, though it is no doubt an essential factor. The
+revolution came in any case because the social order was out of joint,
+not simply because Voltaire or Rousseau or Diderot had preached
+destructive doctrines. The doctrines of the 'rights of man' are obvious
+enough to have presented themselves to many minds at many periods. The
+doctrines became destructive because the old traditions were shaken, and
+the traditions were shaken because the state of things to which they
+corresponded had become intolerable. The French revolution meant (among
+other things) that in the mind of the French peasant there had
+accumulated a vast deposit of bitter enmity against the noble who had
+become a mere parasite upon the labouring population, retaining, as
+Arthur Young said, privileges for himself, and leaving poverty to the
+lower classes. The peasant had not read Rousseau; he had read nothing.
+But when his discontent began to affect the educated classes, men who
+had read Rousseau found in his works the dialect most fitted to express
+the growing indignation. Rousseau's genius had devised the appropriate
+formula; for Rousseau's sensibility had made him prescient of the rising
+storm. What might be a mere commonplace for speculative students
+suddenly became the warcry in a social upheaval. In England, as I have
+tried to show, there was no such popular sentiment behind the political
+theories: and reformers were content with measures which required no
+appeal to absolute rights and general principles. Bentham was no
+Rousseau; and the last of men to raise a warcry. Passion and
+sentimentalism were to him a nuisance. His theories were neither
+suggested nor modified by the revolution. He looked on with curious
+calmness, as though the revolutionary disturbances were rather a
+transitory interruption to the progress of reform than indicative of a
+general convulsion. His own position was isolated. He had no strong
+reforming party behind him. The Whigs, his main friends, were powerless,
+discredited, and themselves really afraid to support any vigorous
+policy. They had in the main to content themselves with criticising the
+warlike policy which, for the time, represented the main current of
+national sentiment. Bentham shared many of their sympathies. He hated
+the abstract 'rights of man' theory as heartily as Burke. It was to him
+a 'hodge-podge' of fallacies. On the other hand, he was absolutely
+indifferent to the apotheosis of the British Constitution constructed by
+Burke's imagination. He cared nothing for history in general, or
+regarded it, from a Voltairean point of view, as a record of the follies
+and crimes of mankind. He wished to deal with political, and especially
+with legal, questions in a scientific spirit--but 'scientific' would
+mean not pure mathematics but pure empiricism. He was quite as far from
+Paine's abstract methods as from Burke's romantic methods. Both of
+them, according to him, were sophists: though one might prefer logical
+and the other sentimental sophistries. Dumont, when he published (1802)
+his versions of Bentham, insisted upon this point. Nothing, he says, was
+more opposed to the trenchant dogmatism of the abstract theorists about
+'rights of man' and 'equality' than Bentham's thoroughly scientific
+procedure (_Discours Preliminaire_). Bentham's intellectual position in
+this respect will require further consideration hereafter. All his
+prejudices and sympathies were those of the middle class from which he
+sprang. He was no democrat: he had no particular objection to the
+nobility, though he preferred Shelburne to the king's friends or to the
+Whig aristocracy. The reforms which he advocated were such as might be
+adopted by any enlightened legislator, not only by Shelburne but even by
+Blackstone. He had only, he thought, to convert a few members of
+parliament to gain the acceptance for a rational criminal code. It had
+hardly even occurred to him that there was anything wrong in the general
+political order, though he was beginning to find out that it was not so
+modifiable as he could have wished by the new ideas which he propounded.
+
+Bentham's activity during the first revolutionary war corresponded to
+this position. The revolution, whatever else it might do, obviously gave
+a chance to amateur legislators. There was any amount of work to be done
+in the way of codifying and reforming legislative systems. The deviser
+of Utopias had such an opening as had never occurred in the world's
+history. Lord Lansdowne, on the 3rd January 1789, expresses his pleasure
+at hearing that Bentham intends to 'take up the cause of the people in
+France.'[260] Bentham, as we have seen, was already known to some of the
+French leaders, and he was now taking time by the forelock. He sent to
+the abbe Morellet a part of his treatise on Political Tactics, hoping to
+have it finished by the time of the meeting of the States General.[261]
+This treatise, civilly accepted by Morellet, and approved with some
+qualifications by Bentham's counsellors, Romilly, Wilson, and Trail, was
+an elaborate account of the organisation and procedure of a legislative
+assembly, founded chiefly on the practice of the House of Commons. It
+was published in 1816 by Dumont in company with _Anarchic Fallacies_, a
+vigorous exposure of the _Declaration of Rights_, which Bentham had
+judiciously kept on his shelf. Had the French known of it, he remarks
+afterwards, they would have been little disposed to welcome him.[262] An
+elaborate scheme for the organisation of the French judiciary was
+suggested by a report to the National Assembly, and published in March
+1790. In 1791, Bentham offered to go to France himself in order to
+establish a prison on his new scheme (to be mentioned directly), and
+become 'gratuitously the gaoler thereof.'[263] The Assembly acknowledged
+his 'ardent love of humanity,' and ordered an extract from his scheme to
+be printed for their instruction. The tactics actually adopted by the
+French revolutionists for managing assemblies and their methods of
+executing justice form a queer commentary on the philosopher who, like
+Voltaire's Mamres in the _White Bull_, continued to 'meditate
+profoundly' in placid disregard of facts. He was in fact proposing that
+the lava boiling up in a volcanic eruption should arrange itself
+entirely according to his architectural designs. But his proposal to
+become a gaoler during the revolution reaches the pathetic by its
+amiable innocence. On 26th August 1792, Bentham was one of the men upon
+whom the expiring Assembly, anxious to show its desire of universal
+fraternity, conferred the title of citizen. With Bentham were joined
+Priestley, Paine, Wilberforce, Clarkson, Washington, and others. The
+September massacres followed. On 18th October the honour was
+communicated to Bentham. He replied in a polite letter, pointing out
+that he was a royalist in London for the same reason which would make
+him a republican in France. He ended by a calm argument against the
+proscription of refugees.[264] The Convention, if it read the letter,
+and had any sense of humour, must have been amused. The war and the
+Reign of Terror followed. Bentham turned the occasion to account by
+writing a pamphlet (not then published) exhorting the French to
+'emancipate their colonies.' Colonies were an aimless burthen, and to
+get rid of them would do more than conquest to relieve their finances.
+British fleets and the insurrection of St. Domingo were emancipating by
+very different methods.
+
+Bentham was, of course, disgusted by the divergence of his clients from
+the lines chalked out by proper respect for law and order. On 31st
+October 1793 he writes to a friend, expressing his wish that Jacobinism
+could be extirpated; no price could be too heavy to pay for such a
+result: but he doubts whether war or peace would be the best means to
+the end, and protests against the policy of appropriating useless and
+expensive colonies instead of 'driving at the heart of the
+monster.'[265] Never was an adviser more at cross-purposes with the
+advised. It would be impossible to draw a more striking portrait of the
+abstract reasoner, whose calculations as to human motives omit all
+reference to passion, and who fancied that all prejudice can be
+dispelled by a few bits of logic.
+
+Meanwhile a variety of suggestions more or less important and connected
+with passing events were seething in his fertile brain. He wrote one of
+his most stinging pamphlets, '_Truth versus Ashhurst_' in December 1792,
+directed against a judge who, in the panic suggested by the September
+massacres, had eulogised the English laws. Bentham's aversion to Jacobin
+measures by no means softened his antipathy to English superstitions;
+and his attack was so sharp that Romilly advised and obtained its
+suppression for the time. Projects as to war-taxes suggested a couple of
+interesting pamphlets written in 1793, and published in 1795. In
+connection with this, schemes suggested themselves to him for improved
+systems of patents, for limited liability companies and other
+plans.[266] His great work still occupied him at intervals. In 1793 he
+offers to Dundas to employ himself in drafting Statutes, and remarks
+incidentally that he could legislate for Hindostan, should legislation
+be wanted there, as easily as for his own parish.[267] In 1794, Dumont
+is begging him to 'conquer his repugnance' to bestowing a few hints upon
+his interpreter.[268] In 1796, Bentham writes long letters suggesting
+that he should be sent to France with Wilberforce, in order to
+re-establish friendly relations.[269] In 1798 he is corresponding at
+great length with Patrick Colquhoun upon plans for improving the
+Metropolitan police.[270] In 1801 he says[271] that for two years and a
+half 'he has thought of scarce anything else' than a plan for
+interest-bearing notes, which he carefully elaborated and discussed with
+Nicholas Vansittart and Dr. Beeke. In September 1800, however, he had
+found time to occupy himself with a proposed _frigidarium_ or ice-house
+for the preservation of fish, fruits, and vegetables; and invited Dr.
+Roget, a nephew of Romilly, to come to his house and carry out the
+necessary experiments.[272] In January 1802 he writes to Dumont[273]
+proposing to send him a trifling specimen of the Panopticon, a set of
+hollow fire-irons invented by his brother, which may attract the
+attention of Buonaparte and Talleyrand. He proceeds to expound the
+merits of Samuel's invention for making wheels by machinery. Dumont
+replies, that fire-irons are 'superfluities'--(fire-arms might have been
+more to Buonaparte's taste)--and that the Panopticon itself was coldly
+received.
+
+This Panopticon was to be Bentham's masterpiece. It occupied his chief
+attention from his return to England until the peace of Amiens. His
+brother had returned from Russia in 1791. Their father died 28th March
+1792, dividing his property equally between his sons. Jeremy's share
+consisted of the estate at Queen's Square Place, Westminster, and of
+landed property producing L500 or L600 a year. The father, spite of the
+distance between them, had treated his son with substantial kindness,
+and had learned to take a pride in achievements very unlike those which
+he had at first desired.[274] Bentham's position, however, was improved
+by the father's death. The Westminster estate included the house in
+which he lived for the rest of his life. There was a garden in which he
+took great delight, though London smoke gradually destroyed the plants:
+and in the garden was the small house where Milton had once lived.[275]
+Here, with the co-operation of his brother and his increased income, he
+had all the means necessary for launching his grand scheme.
+
+The Panopticon, as defined by its inventor to Brissot, was a 'mill for
+grinding rogues honest, and idle men industrious.'[276] It was suggested
+by a plan designed by his brother in Russia for a large house to be
+occupied by workmen, and to be so arranged that they could be under
+constant inspection. Bentham was working on the old lines of
+philanthropic reform. He had long been interested in the schemes of
+prison reform, to which Howard's labours had given the impetus.
+Blackstone, with the help of William Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland, had
+prepared the 'Hard Labour Bill,' which Bentham had carefully criticised
+in 1778. The measure was passed in 1779, and provided for the management
+of convicts, who were becoming troublesome, as transportation to America
+had ceased to be possible. Howard, whose relation to Bentham I have
+already noticed, was appointed as one of the commissioners to carry out
+the provisions of the Act. The commissioners disagreed; Howard resigned;
+and though at last an architect (William Blackburn) was appointed who
+possessed Howard's confidence, and who constructed various prisons in
+the country, the scheme was allowed to drop. Bentham now hoped to solve
+the problem with his Panopticon. He printed an account of it in 1791. He
+wrote to his old antagonist, George III., describing it, together with
+another invention of Samuel's for enabling armies to cross rivers, which
+might be more to his Majesty's taste.[277] In March 1792 he made a
+proposal to the government offering to undertake the charge of a
+thousand convicts upon the Panopticon system.[278] After delays
+suspicious in the eyes of Bentham, but hardly surprising at such a
+period, an act of parliament was obtained in 1794 to adopt his schemes.
+Bentham had already been making preparations. He says[279] (14th
+September 1794) that he has already spent L6000, and is spending at the
+rate of L2000 a year, while his income was under L600 a year. He
+obtained, however, L2000 from the government. He had made models and
+architectural plans, in which he was helped by Reveley, already known to
+him at Constantinople. This sum, it appears, was required in order to
+keep together the men whom he employed. The nature of their employment
+is remarkable.[280] Samuel, a man of singular mechanical skill, which
+was of great use to the navy during the war, had devised machinery for
+work in wood and metal. Bentham had joined his brother, and they were
+looking out for a steam-engine. It had now occurred to them to employ
+convicts instead of steam, and thus to combine philanthropy with
+business. Difficulties of the usual kind arose as to the procurement of
+a suitable site. The site secured under the provisions of the 'Hard
+Labour Bill' was for some reason rejected; and Bentham was almost in
+despair. It was not until 1799 that he at last acquired for L12,000 an
+estate at Millbank, which seemed to be suitable. Meanwhile Bentham had
+found another application for his principle. The growth of pauperism was
+alarming statesmen. Whitbread proposed in February 1796 to fix a minimum
+rate of wages. The wisest thing that government could do, he said, was
+to 'offer a liberal premium for the encouragement of large families.'
+Pitt proceeded to prepare the abortive Poor-law Bill,[281] upon which
+Bentham (in February 1797) sent in some very shrewd criticisms. They
+were not published, but are said to have 'powerfully contributed to the
+abandonment of the measure.'[282] They show Bentham's power of incisive
+criticism, though they scarcely deal with the general principle. In the
+following autumn Bentham contributed to Arthur Young's _Annals of
+Agriculture_ upon the same topic. It had struck him that an application
+of his Panopticon would give the required panacea. He worked out details
+with his usual zeal, and the scheme attracted notice among the
+philanthropists of the time. It was to be a 'succedaneum' to Pitt's
+proposal. Meanwhile the finance committee, appointed in 1797, heard
+evidence from Bentham's friend, Patrick Colquhoun, upon the Panopticon,
+and a report recommending it was proposed by R. Pole Carew, a friend of
+Samuel Bentham. Although this report was suppressed, the scheme
+apparently received an impetus. The Millbank estate was bought in
+consequence of these proceedings, and a sum of only L1000 was wanted to
+buy out the tenant of one piece of land. Bentham was constantly in
+attendance at a public office, expecting a final warrant for the money.
+It never came, and, as Bentham believed, the delay was due to the malice
+of George III. Had any other king been on the throne, Panopticon in both
+'the prisoner branch and the pauper branch' would have been set at
+work.[283] Such are the consequences of newspaper controversies with
+monarchs! After this, in any case, the poor Panopticon, as the old
+lawyers said, 'languishing did live,' and at last 'languishing did die.'
+Poor Bentham seems to have struggled vainly for a time. He appealed to
+Pitt's friend, Wilberforce; he appealed to his step-brother Abbot; he
+wrote to members of parliament, but all was in vain.
+
+Romilly induced him in 1802 to suppress a statement of his grievances
+which could only have rendered ministers implacable.[284] But he found
+out what would hardly have been a discovery to most people, that
+officials can be dilatory and evasive; and certain discoveries about the
+treatment of convicts in New South Wales convinced him that they could
+even defy the laws and the Constitution when they were beyond
+inspection. He published (1803) a _Plea for the Constitution_, showing
+the enormities committed in the colony, 'in breach of Magna Charta, the
+Petition of Right, the Habeas Corpus Act, and the Bill of Rights.'
+Romilly in vain told him that the attorney-general could not recommend
+the author of such an effusion to be keeper of a Panopticon.[285] The
+actual end did not come till 1811. A committee then reported against the
+scheme. They noticed one essential and very characteristic weakness. The
+whole system turned upon the profit to be made from the criminals'
+labour by Bentham and his brother. The committee observed that, however
+unimpeachable might be the characters of the founders, the scheme might
+lead to abuses in the hands of their successors. The adoption of this
+principle of 'farming' had in fact led to gross abuses both in gaols and
+in workhouses; but it was, as I have said, in harmony with the whole
+'individualist' theory. The committee recommended a different plan; and
+the result was the foundation of Millbank penitentiary, opened in
+1816.[286] Bentham ultimately received L23,000 by way of compensation in
+1813.[287] The objections of the committee would now be a commonplace,
+but Bentham saw in them another proof of the desire to increase
+government patronage. He was well out of the plan. There were probably
+few men in England less capable of managing a thousand convicts, in
+spite of his theories about 'springs of action.' If anything else had
+been required to ensure failure, it would have been association with a
+sanguine inventor of brilliant abilities.
+
+Bentham's agitation had not been altogether fruitless. His plan had been
+partly adopted at Edinburgh by one of the Adams,[288] and his work
+formed an important stage in the development of the penal system.
+
+Bentham, though he could not see that his failure was a blessing in
+disguise, had learned one lesson worth learning. He was ill-treated,
+according to impartial observers. 'Never,' says Wilberforce,[289] 'was
+any one worse used. I have seen the tears run down the cheeks of that
+strong-minded man through vexation at the pressing importunity of his
+creditors, and the indolence of official underlings when day after day
+he was begging at the Treasury for what was indeed a mere matter of
+right.' Wilberforce adds that Bentham was 'quite soured,' and attributes
+his later opinions to this cause. When the _Quarterly Review_ long
+afterwards taunted him as a disappointed man, Bentham declared himself
+to be in 'a state of perpetual and unruffled gaiety,' and the
+'mainspring' of the gaiety of his own circle.[290] No one, indeed, could
+be less 'soured' so far as his habitual temper was concerned. But
+Wilberforce's remark contained a serious truth. Bentham had made a
+discovery. He had vowed war in his youth against the 'demon of chicane.'
+He had now learned that the name of the demon was 'Legion.' To cast him
+out, it would be necessary to cast out the demon of officialism; and we
+shall see what this bit of knowledge presently implied.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[260] _Works_, x. 195.
+
+[261] _Ibid._ x. 198-99.
+
+[262] _Ibid._ x. 317.
+
+[263] _Ibid._ x. 270.
+
+[264] _Works_, x. 282.
+
+[265] _Works_, x. 296.
+
+[266] _Ibid._ x. 304.
+
+[267] _Ibid._ x. 292.
+
+[268] _Ibid._ x. 300.
+
+[269] _Works_, x. 315.
+
+[270] _Ibid._ x. 329.
+
+[271] _Ibid._ x. 366.
+
+[272] _Ibid._ x. 346.
+
+[273] _Ibid._ x. 381.
+
+[274] See his letter to Lansdowne, sending a portrait to
+Jeremy.--_Works_, x. 224.
+
+[275] _Works_, xi. 81.
+
+[276] _Ibid._ x. 226.
+
+[277] _Works_, x. 260. It is doubtful whether the letter was sent.
+
+[278] The Panopticon story is confusedly told in Bowring's life. The
+_Panopticon Correspondence_, in the eleventh volume, gives fragments
+from a 'history of the war between Jeremy Bentham and George III.,'
+written by Bentham in 1830-31, and selections from a voluminous
+correspondence.
+
+[279] _Works_, x. 301.
+
+[280] _Ibid._ xi. 167.
+
+[281] The plan, according to Bentham (_Works_, xi. 102), was suggested
+by Ruggles, author of the work upon the poor-laws, first printed in
+Young's _Annals_.
+
+[282] _Works_, viii. 440.
+
+[283] _Works_, xi. 102-3.
+
+[284] _Ibid._ x. 400.
+
+[285] _Works_, xi. 144.
+
+[286] For its later history see _Memorials of Millbank_, by Arthur
+Griffiths. 2 vols., 1875.
+
+[287] _Works_, xi. 106.
+
+[288] _Ibid._ x. 294.
+
+[289] Wilberforce's _Life_, ii. 71.
+
+[290] _Works_, x. 541.
+
+
+IV. THE UTILITARIAN PROPAGANDA
+
+Bentham in 1802 had reached the respectable age of fifty-four. He had
+published his first work twenty-six years, and his most elaborate
+treatise thirteen years, previously. He had been brought into contact
+with many of the eminent politicians and philanthropists of the day.
+Lansdowne had been a friendly patron: his advice had been treated with
+respect by Pitt, Dundas, and even by Blackstone; he was on friendly
+terms with Colquhoun, Sir F. Eden, Arthur Young, Wilberforce, and others
+interested in philanthropic movements, and his name at least was known
+to some French politicians. But his reputation was still obscure; and
+his connections did not develop into intimacies. He lived as a recluse
+and avoided society. His introduction to great people at Bowood had
+apparently rather increased than softened his shyness. The little circle
+of intimates, Romilly and Wilson and his own brother, must have
+satisfied his needs for social intercourse. It required an elaborate
+negotiation to bring about a meeting between him and Dr. Parr, the great
+Whig prophet, although they had been previously acquainted, and Parr
+was, as Romilly said by way of introduction, a profound admirer and
+universal panegyrist.[291] He refused to be introduced by Parr to Fox,
+because he had 'nothing particular to say' to the statesman, and
+considered that to be 'always a sufficient reason for declining
+acquaintance.'[292]
+
+But, at last, Bentham's fame was to take a start. Bentham, I said, had
+long before found himself. Dumont had now found Bentham. After long and
+tedious labours and multiplied communications between the master and the
+disciple, Dumont in the spring of 1802 brought out his _Traites de
+Legislation de M. Jeremie Bentham_. The book was partly a translation
+from Bentham's published and unpublished works,[293] and partly a
+statement of the pith of the new doctrine in Dumont's own language. It
+had the great merit of putting Bentham's meaning vigorously and
+compactly, and free from many of the digressions, minute discussions of
+minor points and arguments requiring a special knowledge of English law,
+which had impeded the popularity of Bentham's previous works.
+
+The Jacobin controversies were passing into the background: and Bentham
+began to attain a hearing as a reformer upon different lines. In 1803
+Dumont visited St. Petersburg, and sent home glowing reports of
+Bentham's rising fame. As many copies of the _Traites_ had been sold
+there as in London. Codes were wanted; laws were being digested; and
+Bentham's work would supply the principles and the classification. A
+magnificent translation was ordered, and Russian officials wrote glowing
+letters in which Bentham was placed in a line with Bacon, Newton, and
+Adam Smith--each the founder of a new science.[294] At home the new book
+was one of the objects of what Dumont calls the 'scandalous irreverence'
+of the _Edinburgh Review_.[295] This refers to a review of the _Traites_
+in the _Edinburgh Review_ of April 1804. Although patronising in tone,
+and ridiculing some of Bentham's doctrines as commonplace and condemning
+others as criminal, it paid some high compliments to his ability. The
+irreverence meant at least that Bentham had become one of the persons
+worth talking about, and that he was henceforth to influence the rising
+generation. In January 1807 the _Edinburgh_ itself (probably Jeffrey)
+suggested that Bentham should be employed in a proposed reform of the
+Scottish judicial system. His old friend, Lansdowne, died on 7th May
+1805, and in one of his last letters expresses a hope that Bentham's
+principles are at last beginning to spread.[296] The hope was
+fulfilled.
+
+During the eighteenth century Benthamism had gone through its period of
+incubation. It was now to become an active agency, to gather proselytes,
+and to have a marked influence not only upon legislative but upon
+political movements. The immediate effect upon Bentham of the decline of
+the Panopticon, and his consequent emancipation from immediately
+practical work, was apparently his return to his more legitimate
+employment of speculative labour. He sent to Dumont at St.
+Petersburg[297] part of the treatise upon Political Economy, which had
+been naturally suggested by his later work: and he applied himself to
+the Scottish judiciary question, to which many of his speculations had a
+close application. He published a work upon this subject in 1808. To the
+period between 1802 and 1812 belongs also the book, or rather the
+collection of papers, afterwards transformed into the book, upon
+Evidence, which is one of his most valuable performances.
+
+A letter, dated 1st November 1810, gives a characteristic account of his
+position. He refers to hopes of the acceptance of some of his principles
+in South America. In Spain Spaniards are prepared to receive his laws
+'as oracles.' 'Now at length, when I am just ready to drop into the
+grave' (he had still twenty years of energetic work before him), 'my
+fame has spread itself all over the civilised world.' Dumont's
+publication of 1802 is considered to have superseded all previous
+writings on legislation. In Germany and France codes have been prepared
+by authorised lawyers, who have 'sought to do themselves credit by
+references to that work.'[298] It has been translated into Russian. Even
+in England he is often mentioned in books and in parliament. 'Meantime I
+am here scribbling on in my hermitage, never seeing anybody but for some
+special reason, always bearing relation to the service of mankind.'[299]
+Making all due allowance for the deceptive views of the outer world
+which haunt every 'hermitage,' it remains true that Bentham's fame was
+emerging from obscurity.
+
+The end of this period, moreover, was bringing him into closer contact
+with English political life. Bentham, as we have seen, rejected the
+whole Jacobin doctrine of abstract rights. So long as English politics
+meant either the acceptance of a theory which, for whatever reason,
+gathered round it no solid body of support, or, on the other hand, the
+acceptance of an obstructive and purely conservative principle, to which
+all reform was radically opposed, Bentham was necessarily in an isolated
+position. He had 'nothing particular to say' to Fox. He was neither a
+Tory nor a Jacobin, and cared little for the paralysed Whigs. He allied
+himself therefore, so far as he was allied with any one, with the
+philanthropic agitators who stood, like him, outside the lines of party.
+The improvement of prisons was not a party question. A marked
+change--not always, I think, sufficiently emphasised by historians--had
+followed the second war. The party-divisions began to take the form
+which was to become more marked as time went on. The old issues between
+Jacobin and Anti-Jacobin no longer existed. Napoleon had become the heir
+of the revolution. The great struggle was beginning in which England
+commanded the ocean, while the Continent was at the feet of the empire.
+For a time the question was whether England, too, should be invaded.
+After Trafalgar invasion became hopeless. The Napoleonic victories
+threatened to exclude English trade from the Continent: while England
+retorted by declaring that the Continent should trade with nobody else.
+Upon one side the war was now appealing to higher feelings. It was no
+longer a crusade against theories, but a struggle for national existence
+and for the existence of other nations threatened by a gigantic
+despotism. Men like Wordsworth and Coleridge, who could not be
+Anti-Jacobins, had been first shocked by the Jacobin treatment of
+Switzerland, and now threw themselves enthusiastically into the cause
+which meant the rescue of Spain and Germany from foreign oppression. The
+generous feeling which had resented the attempt to forbid Frenchmen to
+break their own bonds, now resented the attempts of Frenchmen to impose
+bonds upon others. The patriotism which prompted to a crusade had seemed
+unworthy, but the patriotism which was now allied with the patriotism of
+Spain and Germany involved no sacrifice of other sentiment. Many men had
+sympathised with the early revolution, not so much from any strong
+sentiment of evils at home as from a belief that the French movement was
+but a fuller development of the very principles which were partially
+embodied in the British Constitution. They had no longer to choose
+between sympathising with the enemies of England and sympathising with
+the suppressors of the old English liberties.
+
+But, on the other hand, an opposite change took place. The
+disappearance of the Jacobin movement allowed the Radicalism of home
+growth to display itself more fully. English Whigs of all shades had
+opposed the war with certain misgivings. They had been nervously anxious
+not to identify themselves with the sentiments of the Jacobins. They
+desired peace with the French, but had to protest that it was not for
+love of French principles. That difficulty was removed. There was no
+longer a vision--such as Gillray had embodied in his caricatures--of a
+guillotine in St. James's Street: or of a Committee of Public Safety
+formed by Fox, Paine, and Horne Tooke. Meanwhile Whig prophecies of the
+failure of the war were not disproved by its results. Though the English
+navy had been victorious, English interference on the Continent had been
+futile. Millions of money had been wasted: and millions were flowing
+freely. Even now we stand astonished at the reckless profusion of the
+financiers of the time. And what was there to show for it? The French
+empire, so far from being destroyed, had been consolidated. If we
+escaped for the time, could we permanently resist the whole power of
+Europe? When the Peninsular War began we had been fighting, except for
+the short truce of Amiens, for sixteen years; and there seemed no reason
+to believe that the expedition to Portugal in 1808 would succeed better
+than previous efforts. The Walcheren expedition of 1809 was a fresh
+proof of our capacity for blundering. Pauperism was still increasing
+rapidly, and forebodings of a war with America beginning to trouble men
+interested in commerce. The English Opposition had ample texts for
+discourses; and a demand for change began to spring up which was no
+longer a reflection of foreign sympathies. An article in the _Edinburgh_
+of January 1808, which professed to demonstrate the hopelessness of the
+Peninsular War, roused the wrath of the Tories. The _Quarterly Review_
+was started by Canning and Scott, and the _Edinburgh_, in return, took a
+more decidedly Whig colour. The Radicals now showed themselves behind
+the Whigs. Cobbett, who had been the most vigorous of John Bull
+Anti-Jacobins, was driven by his hatred of the tax-gatherer and the
+misery of the agricultural labourers into the opposite camp, and his
+_Register_ became the most effective organ of Radicalism. Demands for
+reform began again to make themselves heard in parliament. Sir Francis
+Burdett, who had sat at the feet of Horne Tooke, and whose return with
+Cochrane for Westminster in 1807 was the first parliamentary triumph of
+the reformers, proposed a motion on 15th June 1809, which was, of
+course, rejected, but which was the first of a series, and marked the
+revival of a serious agitation not to cease till the triumph of 1832.
+
+Meanwhile Bentham, meditating profoundly upon the Panopticon, had at
+last found out that he had begun at the wrong end. His reasoning had
+been thrown away upon the huge dead weight of official indifference, or
+worse than indifference. Why did they not accept the means for producing
+the greatest happiness of the greatest number? Because statesmen did not
+desire the end. And why not? To answer that question, and to show how a
+government could be constructed which should desire it, became a main
+occupation of Bentham's life. Henceforward, therefore, instead of merely
+treating of penal codes and other special reforms, his attention is
+directed to the previous question of political organisation; while at
+times he diverges to illustrate incidentally the abuses of what he
+ironically calls the 'matchless constitution.' Bentham's principal
+occupation, in a word, was to provide political philosophy for radical
+reformers.[300]
+
+Bentham remained as much a recluse as ever. He seldom left Queen's
+Square Place except for certain summer outings. In 1807 he took a house
+at Barrow Green, near Oxted, in Surrey, lying in a picturesque hollow at
+the foot of the chalk hills.[301] It was an old-fashioned house,
+standing in what had been a park, with a lake and a comfortable kitchen
+garden. Bentham pottered about in the grounds and under the old
+chestnut-trees, codifying, gardening, and talking to occasional
+disciples. He returned thither in following years; but in 1814, probably
+in consequence of his compensation for the Panopticon, took a larger
+place, Ford Abbey, near Chard in Somersetshire. It was a superb
+residence,[302] with chapel, cloisters, and corridors, a hall eighty
+feet long by thirty high, and a great dining parlour. Parts of the
+building dated from the twelfth century or the time of the Commonwealth,
+or had undergone alterations attributed to Inigo Jones. No Squire
+Western could have cared less for antiquarian associations, but Bentham
+made a very fair monk. The place, for which he paid L315 a year, was
+congenial. He rode his favourite hobby of gardening, and took his
+regular 'ante-jentacular' and 'post-prandial' walks, and played
+battledore and shuttlecock in the intervals of codification. He liked it
+so well that he would have taken it for life, but for the loss of L8000
+or L10,000 in a Devonshire marble-quarry.[303] In 1818 he gave it up,
+and thenceforward rarely quitted Queen's Square Place. His life was
+varied by few incidents, although his influence upon public affairs was
+for the first time becoming important. The busier journalists and
+platform orators did not trouble themselves much about philosophy. But
+they were in communication with men of a higher stamp, Romilly, James
+Mill, and others, who formed Bentham's innermost council. Thus the
+movements in the outside world set up an agitation in Bentham's study;
+and the recluse was prompted to set himself to work upon elaborating his
+own theories in various directions, in order to supply the necessary
+substratum of philosophical doctrine. If he had not the power of gaining
+the public ear, his oracles were transmitted through the disciples who
+also converted some of his raw materials into coherent books.
+
+The most important of Bentham's disciples for many years was James Mill,
+and I shall have to say what more is necessary in regard to the active
+agitation when I speak of Mill himself. For the present, it is enough to
+say that Mill first became Bentham's proselyte about 1808. Mill stayed
+with Bentham at Barrow Green and at Ford Abbey. Though some differences
+caused superficial disturbances of their harmony, no prophet could have
+had a more zealous, uncompromising, and vigorous disciple. Mill's force
+of character qualified him to become the leader of the school; but his
+doctrine was always essentially the doctrine of Bentham, and for the
+present he was content to be the transmitter of his master's message to
+mankind. He was at this period a contributor to the _Edinburgh Review_;
+and in October 1809 he inserted some praises of Bentham in a review of a
+book upon legislation by S. Scipion Bexon. The article was cruelly
+mangled by Jeffrey, according to his custom, and Jeffrey's most powerful
+vassal, Brougham, thought that the praises which remained were
+excessive.[304]
+
+Obviously the orthodox Whigs were not prepared to swear allegiance to
+Bentham. He was drawing into closer connection with the Radicals. In
+1809 Cobbett was denouncing the duke of York in consequence of the Mrs.
+Clarke scandal. Bentham wrote to him, but anonymously and cautiously, to
+obtain documents in regard to a previous libel case,[305] and proceeded
+to write a pamphlet on the _Elements of the Art of Packing (as applied
+to Special Juries)_, so sharp that his faithful adviser, Romilly,
+procured its suppression for the time.[306] Copies, however, were
+printed and privately given to a few who could be trusted. Bentham next
+wrote (1809) a 'Catechism of Parliamentary Reform,' which he
+communicated to Cobbett (16th November 1810), with a request for its
+publication in the _Register_.[307] Cobbett was at this time in prison
+for his attack upon flogging militia men; and, though still more hostile
+to government, was bound to be more cautious in his line of assault. The
+plan was not published, whether because too daring or too dull; but it
+was apparently printed. Bentham's opinion of Cobbett was anything but
+flattering. Cobbett, he thought in 1812, was a 'vile rascal,' and was
+afterwards pronounced to be 'filled with the _odium humani generis_--his
+malevolence and lying beyond everything.'[308] Cobbett's radicalism, in
+fact, was of the type most hostile to the Utilitarians. John Hunt, in
+the _Examiner_, was 'trumpeting' Bentham and Romilly in 1812, and was
+praised accordingly.[309] Bentham formed an alliance with another
+leading Radical. He had made acquaintance by 1811 with Sir F. Burdett,
+to whom he then appealed for help in an attack upon the delays of
+Chancery.[310] Burdett, indeed, appeared to him to be far inferior to
+Romilly and Brougham, but he thought that so powerful a 'hero of the
+mob' ought to be turned to account in the good cause.[311] Burdett seems
+to have courted the old philosopher; and a few years later a closer
+alliance was brought about. The peace of 1815 was succeeded by a period
+of distress, the more acutely felt from the disappointment of natural
+hopes of prosperity; and a period of agitation, met by harsh repression,
+followed. Applications were made, to Bentham for permission to use his
+'Catechism,' which was ultimately published (1818) in a cheap form by
+Wooler, well known as the editor of the democratic _Black Dwarf_.[312]
+Burdett applied for a plan of parliamentary reform. Henry Bickersteth
+(1783-1851), afterwards Lord Langdale and Master of the Rolls, at this
+time a rising barrister of high character, wrote an appeal to Bentham
+and Burdett to combine in setting forth a scheme which, with such
+authority, must command general acceptance. The result was a series of
+resolutions moved by Burdett in the House of Commons on 2nd June
+1818,[313] demanding universal suffrage, annual parliaments, and vote by
+ballot. Bentham had thus accepted the conclusions reached in a different
+way by the believers in that 'hodge-podge' of absurdities, the
+declaration of the rights of man. Curiously enough, his assault upon
+that document appeared in Dumont's French version in the year 1816, at
+the very time when he was accepting its practical conclusions.
+
+The schemes in which Mill was interested at this time drew Bentham's
+attention in other directions. In 1813 the Quaker, William Allen, who
+had been a close ally of Mill, induced Bentham to invest money in the
+New Lanark establishment. Owen, whose benevolent schemes had been
+hampered by his partners, bought them out, the new capital being partly
+provided by Allen, Bentham, and others. Bentham afterwards spoke
+contemptuously of Owen, who, as he said, 'began in vapour and ended in
+smoke,'[314] and whose disciples came in after years into sharp conflict
+with the Utilitarians. Bentham, however, took pleasure, it seems, in
+Owen's benevolent schemes for infant education, and made money by his
+investment, for once combining business with philanthropy
+successfully.[315] Probably he regarded New Lanark as a kind of
+Panopticon. Owen had not as yet become a prophet of Socialism.
+
+Another set of controversies in which Mill and his friends took an
+active part, started Bentham in a whole series of speculations. A plan
+(which I shall have to mention in connection with Mill), was devised in
+1815 for a 'Chrestomathic school,' which was to give a sound education
+of proper Utilitarian tendencies to the upper and middle classes.
+Brougham, Mackintosh, Ricardo, William Allen, and Place were all
+interested in this undertaking.[316] Bentham offered a site at Queen's
+Square Place, and though the scheme never came to the birth, it set him
+actively at work. He wrote a series of papers during his first year at
+Ford Abbey[317] upon the theory of education, published in 1816 as
+_Chrestomathia_; and to this was apparently due a further excursion
+beyond the limits of jurisprudence. Educational controversy in that
+ignorant day was complicated by religious animosity; the National
+Society and the 'British and Foreign' Society were fighting under the
+banners of Bell and Lancaster, and the war roused excessive bitterness.
+Bentham finding the church in his way, had little difficulty in
+discovering that the whole ecclesiastical system was part of the general
+complex of abuse against which he was warring. He fell foul of the
+Catechism; he exposed the abuses of non-residence and episcopal wealth;
+he discovered that the Thirty-nine Articles contained gross fallacies;
+he went on to make an onslaught upon the Apostle St Paul, whose evidence
+as to his conversion was exposed to a severe cross-examination; and,
+finally, he wrote, or supplied the materials for, a remarkable _Analysis
+of Natural Religion_, which was ultimately published by Grote under the
+pseudonym 'Philip Beauchamp,' in 1822. This procedure from the
+particular case of the Catechism in schools up to the general problem of
+the utility of religion in general, is curiously characteristic of
+Bentham.
+
+Bentham's mind was attracted to various other schemes by the disciples
+who came to sit at his feet, and professed, with more or less sincerity,
+to regard him as a Solon. Foreigners had been resorting to him from all
+parts of the world, and gave him hopes of new fields for codifying. As
+early as 1808 he had been visited at Barrow Green by the strange
+adventurer, politician, lawyer, and filibuster, Aaron Burr, famous for
+the duel in which he killed Alexander Hamilton, and now framing wild
+schemes for an empire in Mexico. Unscrupulous, restlessly active and
+cynical, he was a singular contrast to the placid philosopher, upon whom
+his confidences seem to have made an impression of not unpleasing
+horror. Burr's conversation suggested to Bentham a singular scheme for
+emigrating to Mexico. He applied seriously for introductions to Lord
+Holland, who had passed some time in Spain, and to Holland's friend,
+Jovellanos (1749-1812), a member of the Spanish Junta, who had written
+treatises upon legislation (1785), of which Bentham approved.[318] The
+dream of Mexico was succeeded by a dream of Venezuela. General Miranda
+spent some years in England, and had become well known to James Mill. He
+was now about to start upon an unfortunate expedition to Venezuela, his
+native country. He took with him a draft of a law for the freedom of the
+press, which Bentham drew up, and he proposed that when his new state
+was founded, Bentham should be its legislator.[319] Miranda was betrayed
+to the Spanish government in 1812, and died (1816) in the hands of the
+Inquisition. Bolivar, who was also in London in 1810 and took some
+notice of Joseph Lancaster, applied in flattering terms to Bentham. Long
+afterwards, when dictator of Columbia, he forbade the use of Bentham's
+works in the schools, to which, however, the privilege of reading him
+was restored, and, let us hope, duly valued, in 1835.[320] Santander,
+another South American hero, was also a disciple, and encouraged the
+study of Bentham. Bentham says in 1830 that forty thousand copies of
+Dumont's _Traites_ had been sold in Paris for the South American
+trade.[321] What share Bentham may have had in modifying South American
+ideas is unknown to me. In the United States he had many disciples of a
+more creditable kind than Burr. He appealed in 1811 to Madison, then
+President, for permission to construct a 'Pannomion' or complete body of
+law, for the use of the United States; and urged his claims both upon
+Madison and the Governor of Pennsylvania in 1817, when peace had been
+restored. He had many conversations upon this project with John Quincy
+Adams, who was then American minister in England.[322] This, of course,
+came to nothing, but an eminent American disciple, Edward Livingston
+(1764-1836), between 1820 and 1830 prepared codes for the State of
+Louisiana, and warmly acknowledged his obligations to Bentham.[323] In
+1830 Bentham also acknowledges a notice of his labours, probably
+resulting from this, which had been made in one of General Jackson's
+presidential messages.[324] In his later years the United States became
+his ideal, and he never tired of comparing its cheap and honest
+enactment with the corruption and extravagance at home.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[291] _Works_, x. 403.
+
+[292] _Ibid._ x. 62.
+
+[293] Bentham had himself written some of his papers in French.
+
+[294] _Works_, x. 407, 410, 413, 419.
+
+[295] _Ibid._ x. 415.
+
+[296] Lord E. Fitzmaurice's _Life of Shelburne_.
+
+[297] _Works_, x. 413.
+
+[298] This statement, I believe, refers to a complimentary reference to
+Bentham in the preface to the French Code.
+
+[299] _Works_, x. 458.
+
+[300] Bentham says that he reached these conclusions some time before
+1809: _Works_, iii. 435. Cf. _Ibid._ v. 278.
+
+[301] _Works_, x. 425.
+
+[302] See description in Bain's _James Mill_, 129-36.
+
+[303] _Works_, x. 479, 573.
+
+[304] _Works_, x. 452-54.; Bain's _James Mill_, 104.
+
+[305] The case of the 'King _v._ Cobbett,' (1804), which led to the
+proceedings against Mr. Justice Johnson in 1805.--Cobbett's _State
+Trials_, xxix.
+
+[306] _Works_, x. 448-49.
+
+[307] _Ibid._ x. 458.
+
+[308] _Works_, x. 471, 570.
+
+[309] _Ibid._ x. 471.
+
+[310] _Ibid._ x. 461.
+
+[311] _Ibid._ x. 471.
+
+[312] _Ibid._ x. 490.
+
+[313] Printed in _Works_, x. 495-97.
+
+[314] _Ibid._ x. 570.
+
+[315] _Ibid._ x. 476.
+
+[316] _Works_, x. 485.
+
+[317] Bain's _James Mill_, 136. _Church of Englandism_ and _Not Paul but
+Jesus_ were also written at Ford Abbey.
+
+[318] _Works_, x. 433, 448.
+
+[319] _Ibid._ x. 457-58; Bain's _James Mill_, 79.
+
+[320] _Works_, 553-54, 565.
+
+[321] _Ibid._ xi. 53.
+
+[322] See _Memoirs of J. Q. Adams_ (1874), iii. 511, 520, 532, 535-39,
+540, 544, 560, 562-63. and Bentham's letter to Adams in _Works_, x. 554.
+
+[323] _Works_, xi. 23.
+
+[324] _Ibid._ xi. 40.
+
+
+V. CODIFICATION
+
+The unsettled conditions which followed the peace in various European
+countries found Bentham other employment. In 1809 Dumont did some
+codifying for the Emperor of Russia, and in 1817 was engaged to do the
+same service for Geneva. He was employed for some years, and is said to
+have introduced a Benthamite Penal Code and Panopticon, and an
+application of the Tactics.[325] In 1820 and 1821 Bentham was consulted
+by the Constitutional party in Spain and Portugal, and wrote elaborate
+tracts for their enlightenment. He made an impression upon at least one
+Spaniard. Borrow, when travelling in Spain some ten years after
+Bentham's death, was welcomed by an Alcalde on Cape Finisterre, who had
+upon his shelves all the works of the 'grand Baintham,' and compared him
+to Solon, Plato, and even Lope de Vega.[326] The last comparison
+appeared to Borrow to be overstrained. Bentham even endeavoured in
+1822-23 to administer some sound advice to the government of Tripoli,
+but his suggestions for 'remedies against misrule' seem never to have
+been communicated.[327] In 1823 and 1824 he was a member of the Greek
+Committee; he corresponded with Mavrocordato and other leaders; and he
+begged Parr to turn some of his admonitions into 'Parrian' Greek for the
+benefit of the moderns.[328] Blaquiere and Stanhope, two ardent members
+of the committee, were disciples; and Stanhope carried with him to
+Greece Bentham's _Table of the Springs of Action_, with which he tried
+to indoctrinate Byron. The poet, however, thought with some plausibility
+that he was a better judge of human passions than the philosopher.
+Parry, the engineer, who joined Byron at the same time, gives a queer
+account of the old philosopher trotting about London in the service of
+the Greeks.[329] The coarse and thoughtless might laugh, and perhaps
+some neither coarse nor thoughtless might smile. But Bowring tells us
+that these were days of boundless happiness for Bentham.[330] Tributes
+of admiration were pouring in from all sides, and the true Gospel was
+spreading across the Atlantic and along the shores of the Mediterranean.
+
+At home the Utilitarian party was consolidating itself; and the struggle
+which resulted in the Reform Bill was slowly beginning. The veteran
+Cartwright, Bentham's senior by eight years, tried in 1821 to persuade
+him to come out as one of a committee of 'Guardians of Constitutional
+Reform,' elected at a public meeting.[331] Bentham wisely refused to be
+drawn from his privacy. He left it to his friends to agitate, while he
+returned to labour in his study. The demand for legislation which had
+sprung up in so many parts of the world encouraged Bentham to undertake
+the last of his great labours. The Portuguese Cortes voted in December
+1821 that he should be invited to prepare an 'all-comprehensive code';
+and in 1822 he put out a curious 'Codification proposal,' offering to do
+the work for any nation in need of a legislator, and appending
+testimonials to his competence for the work. He set to work upon a
+'Constitutional Code,' which occupied him at intervals during the
+remainder of his life, and embodied the final outcome of his
+speculations. He diverged from this main purpose to write various
+pamphlets upon topics of immediate interest; and was keenly interested
+in the various activities of his disciples. The Utilitarians now thought
+themselves entitled to enter the field of politics as a distinct body.
+An organ to defend their cause was desirable, and Bentham supplied the
+funds for the _Westminster Review_, of which the first number appeared
+in April 1824.
+
+The editorship fell chiefly into the hands of Bowring (1792-1872).
+Bowring had travelled much upon the Continent for a commercial house,
+and his knowledge of Spanish politics had brought him into connection
+with Bentham, to whom Blaquiere recommended him in 1820.[332] A strong
+attachment sprang up between the two. Bentham confided all his thoughts
+and feelings to the young man, and Bowring looked up to his teacher with
+affectionate reverence. In 1828 Bentham says that Bowring is 'the most
+intimate friend he has.'[333] Bowring complains of calumnies, by which
+he was assailed, though they failed to alienate Bentham. What they may
+have been matters little; but it is clear that a certain jealousy arose
+between this last disciple and his older rivals. James Mill's stern and
+rigid character had evidently produced some irritation at intervals; and
+to him it would naturally appear that Bowring was the object of a senile
+favouritism. In any case it is to be regretted that Bentham thus became
+partly alienated from his older friends[334]. Mill was too proud to
+complain; and never wavered in his allegiance to the master's
+principles. But one result, and to us the most important, was that the
+new attachment led to the composition of one of the worst biographies in
+the language, out of materials which might have served for a
+masterpiece. Bowring was a great linguist, and an energetic man of
+business. He wrote hymns, and one of them, 'In the cross of Christ I
+glory,' is said to have 'universal fame.' A Benthamite capable of so
+singular an eccentricity judiciously agreed to avoid discussions upon
+religious topics with his master. To Bowring we also owe the
+_Deontology_, which professes to represent Bentham's dictation. The
+Mills repudiated this version, certainly a very poor one, of their
+teacher's morality, and held that it represented less Bentham than such
+an impression of Bentham as could be stamped upon a muddle-headed
+disciple.[335]
+
+The last years of his life brought Bentham into closer connection with
+more remarkable men. The Radicals had despised the Whigs as trimmers and
+half-hearted reformers, and James Mill expressed this feeling very
+frankly in the first numbers of the _Westminster Review_. Reform,
+however, was now becoming respectable, and the Whigs were gaining the
+courage to take it up seriously. Foremost among the Edinburgh Reviewers
+was the great Henry Brougham, whose fame was at this time almost as
+great as his ambition could desire, and who considered himself to be the
+natural leader of all reform. He had shown eagerness to distinguish
+himself in lines fully approved by Bentham. His admirers regarded him
+as a giant; and his opponents, if they saw in him a dash of the
+charlatan, could not deny his amazing energy and his capacity as an
+orator. The insatiable vanity which afterwards ruined his career already
+made it doubtful whether he fought for the cause or the glory. But he
+was at least an instrument worth having. He was a kind of half-disciple.
+If in 1809 he had checked Mill's praise of Bentham, he was soon
+afterwards in frequent communication with the master. In July 1812
+Bentham announces that Brougham is at last to be admitted to a dinner,
+for which he had been 'intriguing any time this six months,' and expects
+that his proselyte will soon be the first man in the House of Commons,
+and eclipse even Romilly.[336] In later years they had frequent
+communications; and when in 1827 Brougham was known to be preparing an
+utterance upon law reform, Bentham's hopes rose high. He offered to his
+disciple 'some nice little sweet pap of my own making,' sound teaching
+that is, upon evidence, judicial establishments and codification.
+Brougham thanks his 'dear grandpapa,' and Bentham offers further
+supplies to his 'dear, sweet little poppet.'[337] But when the orator
+had spoken Bentham declares (9th February 1828) that the mountain has
+been delivered of a mouse. Brougham was 'not the man to set up' simple
+and rational principles. He was the sham adversary but the real
+accomplice of Peel, pulling up lies by the root to plant others equally
+noxious.[338] In 1830 Bentham had even to hold up 'Master Peel' as a
+'model good boy' to the self-styled reformer. Brougham needs a dose of
+jalap instead of pap, for he cannot even spell the 'greatest happiness
+principle' properly.[339] Bentham went so far as to write what he fondly
+took to be an epigram upon Brougham:
+
+    'So foolish and so wise, so great, so small,
+     Everything now, to-morrow nought at all.'[340]
+
+In September 1831 Brougham as Chancellor announced a scheme for certain
+changes in the constitution of the courts. The proposal called forth
+Bentham's last pamphlet, _Lord Brougham displayed_.[341] Bentham laments
+that his disciple has 'stretched out the right hand of fellowship to
+jobbers of all sorts.'[342] In vain had Brougham in his speech called
+Bentham 'one of the great sages of the law.' Bentham acknowledges his
+amiability and his genius; but laments over the untrustworthy character
+of a man who could only adopt principles so far as they were subservient
+to his own vanity.
+
+Another light of the _Edinburgh Review_, who at this time took Brougham
+at his own valuation, did an incidental service to Bentham. Upon the
+publication of the _Book of Fallacies_ in 1825, Sydney Smith reviewed or
+rather condensed it in the _Edinburgh Review_, and gave the pith of the
+whole in his famous _Noodle's Oration_. The noodle utters all the
+commonplaces by which the stupid conservatives, with Eldon at their
+head, met the demands of reformers. Nothing could be wittier than
+Smith's brilliant summary. Whigs and Radicals for the time agreed in
+ridiculing blind prejudice. The day was to come when the Whigs at least
+would see that some principles might be worse than prejudice. All the
+fools, said Lord Melbourne, 'were against Catholic Emancipation, and
+the worst of it is, the fools were in the right.' Sydney Smith was glad
+to be Bentham's mouthpiece for the moment: though, when Benthamism was
+applied to church reform, Smith began to perceive that Noodle was not so
+silly as he seemed.
+
+One other ally of Bentham deserves notice. O'Connell had in 1828, in
+speaking of legal abuses, called himself 'an humble disciple of the
+immortal Bentham.'[343] Bentham wrote to acknowledge the compliment. He
+invited O'Connell to become an inmate of his hermitage at Queen's Square
+Place, and O'Connell responded warmly to the letters of his 'revered
+master.' Bentham's aversion to Catholicism was as strong as his
+objection to Catholic disqualifications, and he took some trouble to
+smooth down the difficulties which threatened an alliance between ardent
+believers and thoroughgoing sceptics. O'Connell had attacked some who
+were politically upon his side. 'Dan, dear child,' says Bentham, 'whom
+in imagination I am at this moment pressing to my fond bosom, put off,
+if it be possible, your intolerance.'[344] Their friendship, however,
+did not suffer from this discord, and their correspondence is in the
+same tone till the end. In one of Bentham's letters he speaks of a
+contemporary correspondence with another great man, whom he does not
+appear to have met personally. He was writing long letters, entreating
+the duke of Wellington to eclipse Cromwell by successfully attacking the
+lawyers. The duke wrote 'immediate answers in his own hand,' and took
+good-humouredly a remonstrance from Bentham upon the duel with Lord
+Winchilsea in 1829.[345] Bentham was ready to the end to seek allies in
+any quarter. When Lord Sidmouth took office in 1812, Bentham had an
+interview with him, and had some hopes of being employed to prepare a
+penal code.[346] Although experience had convinced him of the futility
+of expectations from the Sidmouths and Eldons, he was always on the look
+out for sympathy; and the venerable old man was naturally treated with
+respect by people who had little enough of real interest in his
+doctrines.
+
+During the last ten years of his life, Bentham was cheered by symptoms
+of the triumph of his creed. The approach of the millennium seemed to be
+indicated by the gathering of the various forces which carried Roman
+Catholic Emancipation and the Reform Bill. Bentham still received
+testimonies of his fame abroad. In 1825 he visited Paris to consult some
+physicians. He was received with the respect which the French can always
+pay to intellectual eminence.[347] All the lawyers in a court of justice
+rose to receive him, and he was placed at the president's right hand. On
+the revolution of 1830, he addressed some good advice to the country of
+which he had been made a citizen nearly forty years before. In 1832,
+Talleyrand, to whom he had talked about the Panopticon in 1792, dined
+with him alone in his hermitage.[348] When Bowring observed to the
+prince that Bentham's works had been plundered, the polite diplomatist
+replied, _et pille de tout le monde, il est toujours riche_. Bentham was
+by this time failing. At eighty-two he was still, as he put it,
+'codifying like any dragon.'[349] On 18th May 1832 he did his last bit
+of his lifelong labour, upon the 'Constitutional Code.' The great
+reform agitation was reaching the land of promise, but Bentham was to
+die in the wilderness. He sank without a struggle on 6th June 1832, his
+head resting on Bowring's bosom. He left the characteristic direction
+that his body should be dissected for the benefit of science. An
+incision was formally made; and the old gentleman, in his clothes as he
+lived, his face covered by a wax mask, is still to be seen at University
+College in Gower Street.
+
+Bentham, as we are told, had a strong personal resemblance to Benjamin
+Franklin. Sagacity, benevolence, and playfulness were expressed in both
+physiognomies. Bentham, however, differed from the man whose intellect
+presents many points of likeness, in that he was not a man of the
+market-place or the office. Bentham was in many respects a child through
+life:[350] a child in simplicity, good humour, and vivacity; his health
+was unbroken; he knew no great sorrow; and after emerging from the
+discouragement of his youth, he was placidly contemplating a continuous
+growth of fame and influence. He is said to have expressed the wish that
+he could awake once in a century to contemplate the prospect of a world
+gradually adopting his principles and so making steady progress in
+happiness and wisdom.
+
+No man could lead a simpler life. His chief luxuries at table were
+fruit, bread, and tea. He had a 'sacred teapot' called Dick, with
+associations of its own, and carefully regulated its functions. He
+refrained from wine during the greatest part of his life, and was never
+guilty of a single act of intemperance. In later life he took a daily
+half-glass of Madeira. He was scrupulously neat in person, and wore a
+Quaker-like brown coat, brown cassimere breeches, white worsted
+stockings and a straw hat. He walked or 'rather trotted' with his stick
+Dapple, and took his 'ante-prandial' and other 'circumgyrations' with
+absolute punctuality. He loved pets; he had a series of attached cats;
+and cherished the memory of a 'beautiful pig' at Hendon, and of a donkey
+at Ford Abbey. He encouraged mice to play in his study--a taste which
+involved some trouble with his cats, and suggests problems as to the
+greatest happiness of the greatest number. Kindness to animals was an
+essential point of his moral creed. 'I love everything,' he said, 'that
+has four legs.' He had a passion for flowers, and tried to introduce
+useful plants. He loved music--especially Handel--and had an organ in
+his house. He cared nothing for poetry: 'Prose,' he said,[351] 'is when
+all the lines except the last go on to the margin. Poetry is when some
+of them fall short of it.' He was courteous and attentive to his guests,
+though occasionally irritable when his favourite crotchets were
+transgressed, or especially if his fixed hours of work were deranged.
+
+His regularity in literary work was absolute. He lived by a time-table,
+working in the morning and turning out from ten to fifteen folio pages
+daily. He read the newspapers regularly, but few books, and cared
+nothing for criticisms on his own writings. His only substantial meal
+was a dinner at six or half-past, to which he occasionally admitted a
+few friends as a high privilege. He liked to discuss the topics of which
+his mind was full, and made notes beforehand of particular points to be
+introduced in conversation. He was invariably inaccessible to visitors,
+even famous ones, likely to distract his thoughts. 'Tell Mr. Bentham
+that Mr. Richard Lovell Edgeworth desires to see him.' 'Tell Mr. Richard
+Lovell Edgeworth that Mr. Bentham does not desire to see him' was the
+reply. When Mme. de Stael came to England, she said to Dumont: 'Tell
+Bentham I shall see nobody till I have seen him.' 'I am sorry for it,'
+said Bentham, 'for then she will never see anybody.' And he summed up
+his opinion of the famous author of _Corinne_ by calling her 'a trumpery
+magpie.'[352] There is a simplicity and vivacity about some of the
+sayings reported by Bowring, which prove that Bentham could talk well,
+and increase our regret for the absence of a more efficient Boswell. At
+ten Bentham had his tea, at eleven his nightcap, and by twelve all his
+guests were ignominiously expelled. He was left to sleep on a hard bed.
+His sleep was light, and much disturbed by dreams.
+
+Bentham was certainly amiable. The 'surest way to gain men,' he said,
+'is to appear to love them, and the surest way to appear to love them is
+to love them in reality.' The least pleasing part of his character,
+however, is the apparent levity of his attachments. He was, as we have
+seen, partly alienated from Dumont, though some friendly communications
+are recorded in later years, and Dumont spoke warmly of Bentham only a
+few days before his death in 1829.[353] He not only cooled towards James
+Mill, but, if Bowring is to be trusted, spoke of him with great
+harshness.[354] Bowring was not a judicious reporter, indeed, and
+capable of taking hasty phrases too seriously. What Bentham's remarks
+upon these and other friends suggest is not malice or resentment, but
+the flippant utterance of a man whose feelings are wanting in depth
+rather than kindliness. It is noticeable that, after his early visit at
+Bowood, no woman seems to have counted for anything in Bentham's life.
+He was not only never in love, but it looks as if he never even talked
+to any woman except his cook or housemaid.
+
+The one conclusion that I need draw concerns a question not, I think,
+hard to be solved. It would be easy to make a paradox by calling Bentham
+at once the most practical and most unpractical of men. This is to point
+out the one-sided nature of Bentham's development. Bentham's habits
+remind us in some ways of Kant; and the thought may be suggested that he
+would have been more in his element as a German professor of
+philosophies. In such a position he might have devoted himself to the
+delight of classifying and co-ordinating theories, and have found
+sufficient enjoyment in purely intellectual activity. After a fashion
+that was the actual result. How far, indeed, Bentham could have achieved
+much in the sphere of pure philosophy, and what kind of philosophy he
+would have turned out, must be left to conjecture. The circumstances of
+his time and country, and possibly his own temperament generally, turned
+his thoughts to problems of legislation and politics, that is to say, of
+direct practical interest. He was therefore always dealing with concrete
+facts, and a great part of his writings may be considered as raw
+material for acts of parliament. Bentham remained, however, unpractical,
+in the sense that he had not that knowledge which we ascribe either to
+the poet or to the man of the world. He had neither the passion nor the
+sympathetic imagination. The springs of active conduct which Byron knew
+from experience were to Bentham nothing more than names in a careful
+classification. Any shrewd attorney or Bow Street runner would have been
+a better judge of the management of convicts; and here were dozens of
+party politicians, such as Rigby and Barre, who could have explained to
+him beforehand those mysteries in the working of the political
+machinery, which it took him half a lifetime to discover. In this sense
+Bentham was unpractical in the highest degree, for at eighty he had not
+found out of what men are really made. And yet by his extraordinary
+intellectual activity and the concentration of all his faculties upon
+certain problems, he succeeded in preserving an example, and though not
+a unique yet an almost unsurpassable example, of the power which belongs
+to the man of one idea.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[325] See correspondence upon his codification plans in Russia, America,
+and Geneva in _Works_, iv. 451-594.
+
+[326] Borrow's _Bible in Spain_, ch. xxx.
+
+[327] _Works_, viii. 555-600.
+
+[328] _Ibid._ x. 534. See Blaquiere's enthusiastic letter to
+Bentham.--_Works_, x. 475.
+
+[329] See, however, Bentham's reference to this story.--_Works_, xi. 66.
+
+[330] _Works_, x. 539.
+
+[331] _Ibid._ x. 522.
+
+[332] _Works_, x. 516.
+
+[333] _Ibid._ x. 591.
+
+[334] A letter from Mill in the University College MSS. describes a
+misunderstanding about borrowed books, a fertile, but hardly adequate,
+cause of quarrel.
+
+[335] Bowring's religious principles prevented him from admitting some
+of Bentham's works to the collective edition.
+
+[336] _Works_, x. 471-72.
+
+[337] _Ibid._ x. 576.
+
+[338] _Ibid._ x. 588.
+
+[339] _Works_, xi. 37. Papers preserved at University College show that
+during Peel's law reforms at this time Bentham frequently communicated
+with him.
+
+[340] _Ibid._ xi. 50.
+
+[341] _Ibid._ v. 549.
+
+[342] _Ibid._ v. 609.
+
+[343] _Works_, x. 594.
+
+[344] _Ibid._ xi. 26.
+
+[345] _Ibid._ xi. 13, 28.
+
+[346] _Works_, x. 468.
+
+[347] _Ibid._ x. 551.
+
+[348] _Ibid._ xi. 75.
+
+[349] _Ibid._ xi. 33.
+
+[350] Mill's _Dissertations_, i. 354 and 392 _n._
+
+[351] _Works_, x. 442.
+
+[352] _Works_, x. 467; xi. 79.
+
+[353] _Ibid._ xi. 23-24.
+
+[354] _Ibid._ x. 450.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+BENTHAM'S DOCTRINE
+
+
+I. FIRST PRINCIPLES
+
+Bentham's position is in one respect unique. There have been many
+greater thinkers; but there has been hardly any one whose abstract
+theory has become in the same degree the platform of an active political
+party. To accept the philosophy was to be also pledged to practical
+applications of Utilitarianism. What, then, was the revelation made to
+the Benthamites, and to what did it owe its influence? The central
+doctrine is expressed in Bentham's famous formula: the test of right and
+wrong is the 'greatest happiness of the greatest number.' There was
+nothing new in this assertion. It only expresses the fact that Bentham
+accepted one of the two alternatives which have commended themselves to
+conflicting schools ever since ethical speculation was erected into a
+separate department of thought. Moreover, the side which Bentham took
+was, we may say, the winning side. The ordinary morality of the time was
+Utilitarian in substance. Hutcheson had invented the sacred phrase: and
+Hume had based his moral system upon 'utility.'[355] Bentham had
+learned much from Helvetius the French freethinker, and had been
+anticipated by Paley the English divine. The writings in which Bentham
+deals explicitly with the general principles of Ethics would hardly
+entitle him to a higher position than that of a disciple of Hume without
+Hume's subtlety; or of Paley without Paley's singular gift of
+exposition. Why, then, did Bentham's message come upon his disciples
+with the force and freshness of a new revelation? Our answer must be in
+general terms that Bentham founded not a doctrine but a method: and that
+the doctrine which came to him simply as a general principle was in his
+hands a potent instrument applied with most fruitful results to
+questions of immediate practical interest.
+
+Beyond the general principle of utility, therefore, we have to consider
+the 'organon' constructed by him to give effect to a general principle
+too vague to be applied in detail. The fullest account of this is
+contained in the _Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
+Legislation_. This work unfortunately is a fragment, but it gives his
+doctrine vigorously and decisively, without losing itself in the minute
+details which become wearisome in his later writings. Bentham intended
+it as an introduction to a penal code; and his investigation sent him
+back to more general problems. He found it necessary to settle the
+relations of the penal code to the whole body of law; and to settle
+these he had to consider the principles which underlie legislation in
+general. He had thus, he says, to 'create a new science,' and then to
+elaborate one department of the science. The 'introduction' would
+contain prolegomena not only for the penal code but for the other
+departments of inquiry which he intended to exhaust.[356] He had to lay
+down primary truths which should be to this science what the axioms are
+to mathematical sciences.[357] These truths therefore belong to the
+sphere of conduct in general, and include his ethical theory.
+
+'Nature has placed mankind' (that is his opening phrase) 'under the
+governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them
+alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we
+shall do.' There is the unassailable basis. It had been laid down as
+unequivocally by Locke,[358] and had been embodied in the brilliant
+couplets of Pope's _Essay on Man_.[359] At the head of the curious table
+of universal knowledge, given in the _Chrestomathia_, we have Eudaemonics
+as an all-comprehensive name of which every art is a branch.[360]
+Eudaemonics, as an art, corresponds to the science 'ontology.' It covers
+the whole sphere of human thought. It means knowledge in general as
+related to conduct. Its first principle, again, requires no more proof
+than the primary axioms of arithmetic or geometry. Once understood, it
+is by the same act of the mind seen to be true. Some people, indeed, do
+not see it. Bentham rather ignores than answers some of their arguments.
+But his mode of treating opponents indicates his own position.
+'Happiness,' it is often said, is too vague a word to be the keystone of
+an ethical system; it varies from man to man: or it is 'subjective,'
+and therefore gives no absolute or independent ground for morality. A
+morality of 'eudaemonism' must be an 'empirical' morality, and we can
+never extort from it that 'categorical imperative,' without which we
+have instead of a true morality a simple system of 'expediency.' From
+Bentham's point of view the criticism must be retorted. He regards
+'happiness' as precisely the least equivocal of words; and 'happiness'
+itself as therefore affording the one safe clue to all the intricate
+problems of human conduct. The authors of the _Federalist_, for example,
+had said that justice was the 'end of government.' 'Why not happiness?'
+asks Bentham. 'What happiness is every man knows, because what pleasure
+is, every man knows, and what pain is, every man knows. But what justice
+is--this is what on every occasion is the subject-matter of
+dispute.'[361] That phrase gives his view in a nutshell. Justice is the
+means, not the end. That is just which produces a maximum of happiness.
+Omit all reference to Happiness, and Justice becomes a meaningless word
+prescribing equality, but not telling us equality of what. Happiness, on
+the other hand, has a substantial and independent meaning from which the
+meaning of justice can be deduced. It has therefore a logical priority:
+and to attempt to ignore this is the way to all the labyrinths of
+hopeless confusion by which legislation has been made a chaos. Bentham's
+position is indicated by his early conflict with Blackstone, not a very
+powerful representative of the opposite principle. Blackstone, in fact,
+had tried to base his defence of that eminently empirical product, the
+British Constitution, upon some show of a philosophical groundwork. He
+had used the vague conception of a 'social contract,' frequently invoked
+for the same purpose at the revolution of 1688, and to eke out his
+arguments applied the ancient commonplaces about monarchy, aristocracy,
+and democracy. He thus tried to invest the constitution with the
+sanctity derived from this mysterious 'contract,' while appealing also
+to tradition or the incarnate 'wisdom of our ancestors,' as shown by
+their judicious mixture of the three forms. Bentham had an easy task,
+though he performed it with remarkable vigour, in exposing the weakness
+of this heterogeneous aggregate. Look closely, and this fictitious
+contract can impose no new obligation: for the obligation itself rests
+upon Utility. Why not appeal to Utility at once? I am bound to obey, not
+because my great-grandfather may be regarded as having made a bargain,
+which he did not really make, with the great-grandfather of George III.;
+but simply because rebellion does more harm than good. The forms of
+government are abstractions, not names of realities, and their 'mixture'
+is a pure figment. King, Lords, and Commons are not really incarnations
+of power, wisdom, and goodness. Their combination forms a system the
+merits of which must in the last resort be judged by its working. 'It is
+the principle of utility, accurately apprehended and steadily applied,
+that affords the only clew to guide a man through these streights.'[362]
+So much in fact Bentham might learn from Hume; and to defend upon any
+other ground the congeries of traditional arrangements which passed for
+the British Constitution was obviously absurd. It was in this warfare
+against the shifting and ambiguous doctrines of Blackstone that Bentham
+first showed the superiority of his own method: for, as between the two,
+Bentham's position is at least the most coherent and intelligible.
+
+Blackstone, however, represents little more than a bit of rhetoric
+embodying fragments of inconsistent theories. The _Morals and
+Legislation_ opens by briefly and contemptuously setting aside more
+philosophical opponents of Utilitarianism. The 'ascetic' principle, for
+example, is the formal contradiction of the principle of Utility, for it
+professedly declares pleasure to be evil. Could it be consistently
+carried out it would turn earth into hell. But in fact it is at bottom
+an illegitimate corollary from the very principle which it ostensibly
+denies. It professes to condemn pleasure in general; it really means
+that certain pleasures can only be bought at an excessive cost of pain.
+Other theories are contrivances for avoiding the appeal 'to any external
+standard'; and in substance, therefore, they make the opinion of the
+individual theorist an ultimate and sufficient reason. Adam Smith by his
+doctrine of 'sympathy' makes the sentiment of approval itself the
+ultimate standard. My feeling echoes yours, and reciprocally; each
+cannot derive authority from the other. Another man (Hutcheson) invents
+a thing made on purpose to tell him what is right and what is wrong and
+calls it a 'moral sense.' Beattie substitutes 'common' for 'moral'
+sense, and his doctrine is attractive because every man supposes himself
+to possess common sense. Others, like Price, appeal to the
+Understanding, or, like Clarke, to the 'Fitness of Things,' or they
+invent such phrases as 'Law of Nature,' or 'Right Reason' or 'Natural
+Justice,' or what you please. Each really means that whatever he says
+is infallibly true and self-evident. Wollaston discovers that the only
+wrong thing is telling a lie; or that when you kill your father, it is a
+way of saying that he is not your father, and the same method is
+applicable to any conduct which he happens to dislike. The 'fairest and
+openest of them all' is the man who says, 'I am of the number of the
+Elect'; God tells the Elect what is right: therefore if you want to know
+what is right, you have only to come to me.[363] Bentham is writing here
+in his pithiest style. His criticism is of course of the rough and ready
+order; but I think that in a fashion he manages to hit the nail pretty
+well on the head.
+
+His main point, at any rate, is clear. He argues briefly that the
+alternative systems are illusory because they refer to no 'external
+standard.' His opponents, not he, really make morality arbitrary. This,
+whatever the ultimate truth, is in fact the essential core of all the
+Utilitarian doctrine descended from or related to Benthamism. Benthamism
+aims at converting morality into a science. Science, according to him,
+must rest upon facts. It must apply to real things, and to things which
+have definite relations and a common measure. Now, if anything be real,
+pains and pleasures are real. The expectation of pain or pleasure
+determines conduct; and, if so, it must be the sole determinant of
+conduct. The attempt to conceal or evade this truth is the fatal source
+of all equivocation and confusion. Try the experiment. Introduce a
+'moral sense.' What is its relation to the desire for happiness? If the
+dictates of the moral sense be treated as ultimate, an absolutely
+arbitrary element is introduced; and we have one of the 'innate ideas'
+exploded by Locke, a belief summarily intruded into the system without
+definite relations to any other beliefs: a dogmatic assertion which
+refuses to be tested or to be correlated with other dogmas; a reduction
+therefore of the whole system to chaos. It is at best an instinctive
+belief which requires to be justified and corrected by reference to some
+other criterion. Or resolve morality into 'reason,' that is, into some
+purely logical truth, and it then remains in the air--a mere nonentity
+until experience has supplied some material upon which it can work. Deny
+the principle of utility, in short, as he says in a vigorous
+passage,[364] and you are involved in a hopeless circle. Sooner or later
+you appeal to an arbitrary and despotic principle and find that you have
+substituted words for thoughts.
+
+The only escape from this circle is the frank admission that happiness
+is, in fact, the sole aim of man. There are, of course, different kinds
+of happiness as there are different kinds of physical forces. But the
+motives to action are, like the physical forces, commensurable. Two
+courses of conduct can always be compared in respect of the happiness
+produced, as two motions of a body can be compared in respect of the
+energy expended. If, then, we take the moral judgment to be simply a
+judgment of amounts of happiness, the whole theory can be systematised,
+and its various theorems ranged under a single axiom or consistent set
+of axioms. Pain and pleasure give the real value of actions; they are
+the currency with a definite standard into which every general rule may
+be translated. There is always a common measure applicable in every
+formula for the estimation of conduct. If you admit your Moral Sense,
+you profess to settle values by some standard which has no definite
+relation to the standard which in fact governs the normal transactions.
+But any such double standard, in which the two measures are absolutely
+incommensurable, leads straight to chaos. Or, if again you appeal to
+reason in the abstract, you are attempting to settle an account by pure
+arithmetic without reference to the units upon which your operation is
+performed. Two pounds and two pounds will make four pounds whatever a
+pound may be; but till I know what it is, the result is nugatory.
+Somewhere I must come upon a basis of fact, if my whole construction is
+to stand.
+
+This is the fundamental position implied in Bentham's doctrine. The
+moral judgment is simply one case of the judgment of happiness. Bentham
+is so much convinced of this that to him there appeared to be in reality
+no other theory. What passed for theories were mere combinations of
+words. Having said this, we know where to lay the foundations of the new
+science. It deals with a vast complicity of facts: it requires
+'investigations as severe as mathematical ones, but beyond all
+comparison more intricate and extensive.'[365] Still it deals with
+facts, and with facts which have a common measure, and can, therefore,
+be presented as a coherent system. To present this system, or so much of
+it as is required for purposes of legislation, is therefore his next
+task. The partial execution is the chief substance of the
+_Introduction_. Right and wrong conduct, we may now take for granted,
+mean simply those classes of conduct which are conducive to or opposed
+to happiness; or, in the sacred formula, to act rightly means to promote
+the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The legislator, like
+every one else, acts rightly in so far as he is guided by the principle
+(to use one of the phrases coined by Bentham) of 'maximising' happiness.
+He seeks to affect conduct; and conduct can be affected only by annexing
+pains or pleasures to given classes of actions. Hence we have a vitally
+important part of his doctrine--the theory of 'sanctions.' Pains and
+pleasures as annexed to action are called 'sanctions.' There are
+'physical or natural,' 'political, 'moral or popular,' and 'religious'
+sanctions. The 'physical' sanctions are such pleasures and pains as
+follow a given course of conduct independently of the interference of
+any other human or supernatural being; the 'political' those which are
+annexed by the action of the legislator; the 'moral or popular' those
+which are annexed by other individuals not acting in a corporate
+capacity; and the 'religious' those which are annexed by a 'superior
+invisible being,' or, as he says elsewhere,[366] 'such as are capable of
+being expected at the hands of an invisible Ruler of the Universe.' The
+three last sanctions, he remarks, 'operate through the first.' The
+'magistrate' or 'men at large' can only operate, and God is supposed
+only to operate, 'through the powers of nature,' that is, by applying
+some of the pains and pleasures which may also be natural sanctions. A
+man is burnt: if by his own imprudence, that is a 'physical' sanction;
+if by the magistrate, it is a 'political' sanction; if by some neglect
+of his neighbours, due to their dislike of his 'moral character,' a
+'moral' sanction; if by the immediate act of God or by distraction
+caused by dread of God's displeasure, it is a 'religious' sanction. Of
+these, as Bentham characteristically observes[367] in a later writing
+the political is much stronger than the 'moral' or 'religious.' Many men
+fear the loss of character or the 'wrath of Heaven,' but all men fear
+the scourge and the gallows.[368] He admits, however, that the religious
+sanction and the additional sanction of 'benevolence' have the advantage
+of not requiring that the offender should be found out.[369] But in any
+case, the 'natural' and religious sanctions are beyond the legislator's
+power. His problem, therefore, is simply this: what sanctions ought he
+to annex to conduct, or remembering that 'ought' means simply 'conducive
+to happiness,' what political sanctions will increase happiness?
+
+To answer this fully will be to give a complete system of legislation;
+but in order to answer it we require a whole logical and psychological
+apparatus. Bentham shows this apparatus at work, but does not expound
+its origin in any separate treatise. Enough information, however, is
+given as to his method in the curious collection of the fragments
+connected with the _Chrestomathia_. A logical method upon which he
+constantly insisted is that of 'bipartition,'[370] called also the
+'dichotomous' or 'bifurcate' method, and exemplified by the so-called
+'Porphyrian Tree.' The principle is, of course, simple. Take any genus:
+divide it into two classes, one of which has and the other has not a
+certain mark. The two classes must be mutually exclusive and together
+exhaustive. Repeat the operation upon each of the classes and continue
+the process as long as desired.[371] At every step you thus have a
+complete enumeration of all the species, varieties, and so on, each of
+which excludes all the others. No mere logic, indeed, can secure the
+accuracy and still less the utility of the procedure. The differences
+may be in themselves ambiguous or irrelevant. If I classify plants as
+'trees' and 'not trees,' the logical form is satisfied: but I have still
+to ask whether 'tree' conveys a determinate meaning, and whether the
+distinction corresponds to a difference of any importance. A perfect
+classification, however, could always be stated in this form. Each
+species, that is, can be marked by the presence or absence of a given
+difference, whether we are dealing with classes of plants or actions:
+and Bentham aims at that consummation though he admits that centuries
+may be required for the construction of an accurate classification in
+ethical speculations.[372] He exaggerates the efficiency of his method,
+and overlooks the tendency of tacit assumptions to smuggle themselves
+into what affects to be a mere enumeration of classes. But in any case,
+no one could labour more industriously to get every object of his
+thought arranged and labelled and put into the right pigeon-hole of his
+mental museum. To codify[373] is to classify, and Bentham might be
+defined as a codifying animal.
+
+Things thus present themselves to Bentham's mind as already prepared to
+fit into pigeon-holes. This is a characteristic point, and it appears in
+what we must call his metaphysical system. 'Metaphysics,' indeed,
+according to him, is simply 'a sprig,' and that a small one, of the
+'branch termed Logic.'[374] It is merely the explanation of certain
+general terms such as 'existence,' 'necessity,' and so forth.[375] Under
+this would apparently fall the explanation of 'reality' which leads to a
+doctrine upon which he often insists, and which is most implicitly given
+in the fragment called _Ontology_. He there distinguishes 'real' from
+'fictitious entities,' a distinction which, as he tells us,[376] he
+first learned from d'Alembert's phrase _Etres fictifs_ and which he
+applies in his _Morals and Legislation_. 'Real entities,' according to
+him,[377] are 'individual perceptions,' 'impressions,' and 'ideas.' In
+this, of course, he is following Hume, though he applies the Johnsonian
+argument to Berkeley's immaterialism.[378] A 'fictitious entity' is a
+name which does note 'raise up in the mind any correspondent
+images.'[379] Such names owe their existence to the necessities of
+language. Without employing such fictions, however, 'the language of man
+could not have risen above the language of brutes';[380] and he
+emphatically distinguishes them from 'unreal' or 'fabulous entities.' A
+'fictitious entity' is not a 'nonentity.'[381] He includes among such
+entities all Aristotle's 'predicaments' except the first:
+'substance.'[382] Quantity, quality, relation, time, place are all
+'physical fictitious entities.' This is apparently equivalent to saying
+that the only 'physical entities' are concrete things--sticks, stones,
+bodies, and so forth--the 'reality' of which he takes for granted in the
+ordinary common sense meaning. It is also perfectly true that things are
+really related, have quantity and quality, and are in time and space.
+But we cannot really conceive the quality or relation apart from the
+concrete things so qualified and related. We are forced by language to
+use substantives which in their nature have only the sense of
+adjectives. He does not suppose that a body is not really square or
+round; but he thinks it a fiction to speak of squareness or roundness or
+space in general as something existing apart from matter and, in some
+sense, alongside of matter.
+
+This doctrine, which brings us within sight of metaphysical problems
+beyond our immediate purpose, becomes important to his moral
+speculation. His special example of a 'fictitious entity' in politics is
+'obligation.'[383] Obligations, rights, and similar words are
+'fictitious entities.' Obligation in particular implies a metaphor. The
+statement that a man is 'obliged' to perform an act means simply that he
+will suffer pain if he does not perform it. The use of the word
+obligation, as a noun substantive, introduces the 'fictitious entity'
+which represents nothing really separable from the pain or pleasure.
+Here, therefore, we have the ground of the doctrine already noticed.
+'Pains and pleasures' are real.[384] 'Their existence,' he says,[385]
+'is matter of universal and constant experience.' But other various
+names referring to these: emotion, inclination, vice, virtue, etc., are
+only 'psychological entities.' 'Take away pleasures and pains, not only
+happiness but justice and duty and obligation and virtue--all of which
+have been so elaborately held up to view as independent of them--are so
+many empty sounds.'[386] The ultimate facts, then, are pains and
+pleasures. They are the substantives of which these other words are
+properly the adjectives. A pain or a pleasure may exist by itself, that
+is without being virtuous or vicious: but virtue and vice can only exist
+in so far as pain and pleasure exists.
+
+This analysis of 'obligation' is a characteristic doctrine of the
+Utilitarian school. We are under an 'obligation' so far as we are
+affected by a 'sanction.' It appeared to Bentham so obvious as to need
+no demonstration, only an exposition of the emptiness of any verbal
+contradiction. Such metaphysical basis as he needed is simply the
+attempt to express the corresponding conception of reality which, in his
+opinion, only requires to be expressed to carry conviction.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[355] See note under Bentham's life, _ante_, p. 178.
+
+[356] Preface to _Morals and Legislation_.
+
+[357] _Works_, i. ('Morals and Legislation'), ii. _n._
+
+[358] _Essay_, bk. ii. ch. xxi. Sec. 39-Sec. 44. The will, says Locke, is
+determined by the 'uneasiness of desire.' What moves desire? Happiness,
+and that alone. Happiness is pleasure, and misery pain. What produces
+pleasure we call good; and what produces pain we call evil. Locke,
+however, was not a consistent Utilitarian.
+
+[359] Epistle iv., opening lines.
+
+[360] _Works_, vii. 82.
+
+[361] _Works_ ('Constitutional Code'), ix. 123.
+
+[362] _Works_ ('Fragment'), i. 287.
+
+[363] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 8-10. Mill quotes this
+passage in his essay on Bentham in the first volume of his
+_Dissertations_. This essay, excellent in itself must be specially
+noticed as an exposition by an authoritative disciple.
+
+[364] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 13.
+
+[365] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. v.
+
+[366] _Works_ ('Evidence'), vi. 261.
+
+[367] _Works_ ('Evidence'), vii. 116.
+
+[368] _Ibid._ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 14, etc.; _Ibid._ vi. 260.
+In _Ibid._ ('Evidence') vii. 116, 'humanity,' and in 'Logical
+Arrangements,' _Ibid._ ii. 290, 'sympathy' appears as a fifth sanction.
+Another modification is suggested in _Ibid._ i. 14 _n._
+
+[369] _Ibid._ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 67.
+
+[370] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 96 _n._
+
+[371] See especially _Ibid._ viii. 104, etc.; 253, etc.; 289, etc.
+
+[372] _Ibid._ viii. 106.
+
+[373] 'Codify' was one of Bentham's successful neologisms.
+
+[374] _Works_ ('Logic'), viii. 220.
+
+[375] Here Bentham coincides with Horne Tooke, to whose 'discoveries' he
+refers in the _Chrestomathia_ (_Works_, viii. 120, 185, 188).
+
+[376] _Works_, iii. 286; viii. 119.
+
+[377] _Ibid._ ('Ontology') viii. 196 _n._
+
+[378] _Ibid._ viii, 197 _n._
+
+[379] _Ibid._ viii. 263.
+
+[380] _Works_ ('Ontology'), viii. 119.
+
+[381] _Ibid._ viii. 198.
+
+[382] _Ibid._ viii. 199.
+
+[383] _Ibid._ viii. 206, 247.
+
+[384] Helvetius adds to this that the only real pains and pleasures are
+the physical, but Bentham does not follow him here. See Helvetius,
+_OEuvres_ (1781), ii. 121, etc.
+
+[385] _Works_, i. 211 ('Springs of Action').
+
+[386] _Ibid._ i. 206.
+
+
+II. SPRINGS OF ACTION
+
+Our path is now clear. Pains and pleasures give us what mathematicians
+call the 'independent variable.' Our units are (in Bentham's phrase)
+'lots' of pain or pleasure. We have to interpret all the facts in terms
+of pain or pleasure, and we shall have the materials for what has since
+been called a 'felicific calculus.' To construct this with a view to
+legislation is his immediate purpose. The theory will fall into two
+parts: the 'pathological,' or an account of all the pains and pleasures
+which are the primary data; and the 'dynamical,' or an account of the
+various modes of conduct determined by expectations of pain and
+pleasure. This gives the theory of 'springs of action,' considered in
+themselves, and of 'motives,' that is, of the springs as influencing
+conduct.[387] The 'pathology' contains, in the first place, a discussion
+of the measure of pain and pleasure in general; secondly, a discussion
+of the various species of pain and pleasure; and thirdly, a discussion
+of the varying sensibilities of different individuals to pain and
+pleasure.[388] Thus under the first head, we are told that the value of
+a pleasure, considered by itself, depends upon its intensity, duration,
+certainty, and propinquity; and, considered with regard to modes of
+obtaining it, upon its fecundity (or tendency to produce other pains and
+pleasures) and its purity (or freedom from admixture of other pains and
+pleasures). The pain or pleasure is thus regarded as an entity which is
+capable of being in some sense weighed and measured.[389] The next step
+is to classify pains and pleasures, which though commensurable as
+psychological forces, have obviously very different qualities. Bentham
+gives the result of his classification without the analysis upon which
+it depends. He assures us that he has obtained an 'exhaustive' list of
+'simple pleasures.' It must be confessed that the list does not commend
+itself either as exhaustive or as composed of 'simple pleasures.' He
+does not explain the principle of his analysis because he says, it was
+of 'too metaphysical a cast,'[390] but he thought it so important that
+he published it, edited with considerable modifications by James Mill,
+in 1817, as a _Table of the Springs of Action_.[391]
+
+J. S. Mill remarks that this table should be studied by any one who
+would understand Bentham's philosophy. Such a study would suggest some
+unfavourable conclusions. Bentham seems to have made out his table
+without the slightest reference to any previous psychologist. It is
+simply constructed to meet the requirements of his legislative theories.
+As psychology it would be clearly absurd, especially if taken as giving
+the elementary or 'simple' feelings. No one can suppose, for example,
+that the pleasures of 'wealth' or 'power' are 'simple' pleasures. The
+classes therefore are not really distinct, and they are as far from
+being exhaustive. All that can be said for the list is that it gives a
+sufficiently long enumeration to call attention from his own point of
+view to most of the ordinary pleasures and pains; and contains as much
+psychology as he could really turn to account for his purpose.
+
+The omissions with which his greatest disciple charges him are certainly
+significant. We find, says Mill, no reference to 'Conscience,'
+'Principle,' 'Moral Rectitude,' or 'Moral Duty' among the 'springs of
+action,' unless among the synonyms of a 'love of reputation,' or in so
+far as 'Conscience' and 'Principle' are sometimes synonymous with the
+'religious' motive or the motive of 'sympathy.' So the sense of
+'honour,' the love of beauty, and of order, of power (except in the
+narrow sense of power over our fellows) and of action in general are all
+omitted. We may conjecture what reply Bentham would have made to this
+criticism. The omission of the love of beauty and aesthetic pleasures may
+surprise us when we remember that Bentham loved music, if he cared
+nothing for poetry. But he apparently regarded these as 'complex
+pleasures,'[392] and therefore not admissible into his table, if it be
+understood as an analysis into the simple pleasures alone. The pleasures
+of action are deliberately omitted, for Bentham pointedly gives the
+'pains' of labour as a class without corresponding pleasure; and this,
+though indicative, I think, of a very serious error, is characteristic
+rather of his method of analysis than of his real estimate of pleasure.
+Nobody could have found more pleasure than Bentham in intellectual
+labour, but he separated the pleasure from the labour. He therefore
+thought 'labour,' as such, a pure evil, and classified the pleasure as a
+pleasure of 'curiosity.' But the main criticism is more remarkable. Mill
+certainly held himself to be a sound Utilitarian; and yet he seems to be
+condemning Bentham for consistent Utilitarianism. Bentham, by admitting
+the 'conscience' into his simple springs of action, would have fallen
+into the very circle from which he was struggling to emerge. If, in
+fact, the pleasures of conscience are simple pleasures, we have the
+objectionable 'moral sense' intruded as an ultimate factor of human
+nature. To get rid of that 'fictitious entity' is precisely Bentham's
+aim. The moral judgment is to be precisely equivalent to the judgment:
+'this or that kind of conduct increases or diminishes the sum of human
+pains or pleasures.' Once allow that among the pains and pleasures
+themselves is an ultimate conscience--a faculty not constructed out of
+independent pains and pleasures--and the system becomes a vicious
+circle. Conscience on any really Utilitarian scheme must be a
+derivative, not an ultimate, faculty. If, as Mill seems to say, the
+omission is a blunder, Bentham's Utilitarianism at least must be an
+erroneous system.
+
+We have now our list both of pains and pleasures and of the general
+modes of variation by which their value is to be measured. We must also
+allow for the varying sensibilities of different persons. Bentham
+accordingly gives a list of thirty-two 'circumstances influencing
+sensibility.'[393] Human beings differ in constitution, character,
+education, sex, race, and so forth, and in their degrees of sensibility
+to all the various classes of pains and pleasures; the consideration of
+these varieties is of the highest utility for the purposes of the judge
+and the legislator.[394] The 'sanctions' will operate differently in
+different cases. A blow will have different effects upon the sick and
+upon the healthy; the same fine imposed upon the rich and the poor will
+cause very different pains; and a law which is beneficent in Europe may
+be a scourge in America.
+
+We have thus our 'pathology' or theory of the passive sensibilities of
+man. We know what are the 'springs of action,' how they vary in general,
+and how they vary from one man to another. We can therefore pass to the
+dynamics.[395] We have described the machinery in rest, and can now
+consider it in motion. We proceed as before by first considering action
+in general: which leads to consideration of the 'intention' and the
+'motive' implied by any conscious action: and hence of the relation of
+these to the 'springs of action' as already described. The discussion is
+minute and elaborate; and Bentham improves as he comes nearer to the
+actual problems of legislation and further from the ostensible bases of
+psychology. The analysis of conduct, and of the sanctions by which
+conduct is modified, involves a view of morals and of the relations
+between the spheres of morality and legislation which is of critical
+importance for the whole Utilitarian creed. 'Moral laws' and a 'Positive
+law' both affect human action. How do they differ? Bentham's treatment
+of the problem shows, I think, a clearer appreciation of some
+difficulties than might be inferred from his later utterances. In any
+case, it brings into clear relief a moral doctrine which deeply affected
+his successors.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[387] _Works_, i. 205; and Dumont's _Traites_ (1820), i. xxv, xxvi. The
+word 'springs of action' perhaps comes from the marginal note to the
+above-mentioned passage of Locke (bk. ii. chap. xxvi, Sec. 41, 42).
+
+[388] _Morals and Legislation_, chaps. iv., v., vi.
+
+[389] See 'Codification Proposal' (_Works_, iv. 540), where Bentham
+takes money as representing pleasure, and shows how the present value
+may be calculated like that of a sum put out to interest. The same
+assumption is often made by Political Economists in regard to
+'utilities.'
+
+[390] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 17 _n._
+
+[391] It is not worth while to consider this at length; but I give the
+following conjectural account of the list as it appears in the _Morals
+and Legislation_ above. In classifying pain or pleasures, Bentham is, I
+think, following the clue suggested by his 'sanctions.' He is really
+classifying according to their causes or the way in which they are
+'annexed.' Thus pleasures may or may not be dependent upon other
+persons, or if upon other persons, may be indirectly or directly caused
+by their pleasures or pains. Pleasures not caused by persons correspond
+to the 'physical sanction,' and are those (1) of the 'senses,' (2) of
+wealth, _i.e._ caused by the possession of things, and (3) of 'skill,'
+_i.e._ caused by our ability to use things. Pleasures caused by persons
+indirectly correspond first to the 'popular or moral sanction,' and are
+pleasures (4) of 'amity,' caused by the goodwill of individuals, and (5)
+of a 'good name,' caused by the goodwill of people in general; secondly,
+to 'political sanction,' namely (6) pleasures of 'power'; and thirdly,
+to the 'religious sanction,' or (7) pleasures of 'piety.' All these are
+'self-regarding pleasures.' The pleasures caused directly by the
+pleasure of others are those (8) of 'benevolence,' and (9) of
+malevolence. We then have what is really a cross division by classes of
+'derivative' pleasures; these being due to (10) memory, (11)
+imagination, (12) expectation, (13) association. To each class of
+pleasures corresponds a class of pains, except that there are no pains
+corresponding to the pleasures of wealth or power. We have, however, a
+general class of pains of 'privation,' which might include pains of
+poverty or weakness: and to these are opposed (14) pleasures of
+'relief,' _i.e._ of the privation of pains. In the _Table_, as
+separately published, Bentham modified this by dividing pleasures of
+sense into three classes, the last of which includes the two first; by
+substituting pleasures of 'curiosity' for pleasures of 'skill' by
+suppressing pleasures of relief and pains of privation; and by adding,
+as a class of 'pains' without corresponding pleasures, pains (1) of
+labour, (2) of 'death, and bodily pains in general.' These changes seem
+to have been introduced in the course of writing his _Introduction_,
+where they are partly assumed. Another class is added to include all
+classes of 'self-regarding pleasures or pains.' He is trying to give a
+list of all 'synonyms' for various pains and pleasures, and has
+therefore to admit classes corresponding to general names which include
+other classes.
+
+[392] _Works_ i. 210, where he speaks of pleasures of the 'ball-room,'
+the 'theatre,' and the 'fine arts' as derivable from the 'simple and
+elementary' pleasures.
+
+[393] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 22 etc.
+
+[394] _Ibid._ i. 33.
+
+[395] _Morals and Legislation_, ch. vii. to xi.
+
+
+III. THE SANCTIONS
+
+Let us first take his definitions of the fundamental conceptions. All
+action of reasonable beings implies the expectation of consequences. The
+agent's 'intention' is defined by the consequences actually
+contemplated. The cause of action is the hope of the consequent
+pleasures or the dread of the consequent pains. This anticipated
+pleasure or pain constitutes the 'internal motive' (a phrase used by
+Bentham to exclude the 'external motive' or event which causes the
+anticipation).[396] The motive, or 'internal motive,' is the
+anticipation of pain to be avoided or pleasure to be gained. Actions are
+good or bad simply and solely as they are on the whole 'productive of a
+balance of pleasure or pain.' The problem of the legislator is how to
+regulate actions so as to incline the balance to the right side. His
+weapons are 'sanctions' which modify 'motives.' What motives, then,
+should be strengthened or checked? Here we must be guided by a principle
+which is, in fact, the logical result of the doctrines already laid
+down. We are bound to apply our 'felicific calculus' with absolute
+impartiality. We must therefore assign equal value to all motives. 'No
+motives,' he says,[397] are 'constantly good or constantly bad.'
+Pleasure is itself a good; pain itself an evil: nay, they are 'the only
+good and the only evil.' This is true of every sort of pain and
+pleasure, even of the pains and pleasures of illwill. The pleasures of
+'malevolence' are placed in his 'table' by the side of pleasures of
+'benevolence.' Hence it 'follows immediately and incontestably, that
+there is no such thing as any sort of motive that is in itself a bad
+one.' The doctrine is no doubt a logical deduction from Bentham's
+assumptions, and he proceeds to illustrate its meaning. A 'motive'
+corresponds to one of his 'springs of action.' He shows how every one of
+the motives included in his table may lead either to good or to bad
+consequences. The desire of wealth may lead me to kill a man's enemy or
+to plough his field for him; the fear of God may prompt to fanaticism
+or to charity; illwill may lead to malicious conduct or may take the
+form of proper 'resentment,' as, for example, when I secure the
+punishment of my father's murderer. Though one act, he says, is approved
+and the other condemned, they spring from the same motive, namely,
+illwill.[398] He admits, however, that some motives are more likely than
+others to lead to 'useful' conduct; and thus arranges them in a certain
+'order of pre-eminence.'[399] It is obvious that 'goodwill,' 'love of
+reputation,' and the 'desire of amity' are more likely than others to
+promote general happiness. 'The dictates of utility,' as he observes,
+are simply the 'dictates of the most extensive and enlightened (that is,
+_well advised_) benevolence.' It would, therefore, seem more appropriate
+to call the 'motive' good; though no one doubts that when directed by an
+erroneous judgment it may incidentally be mischievous.
+
+The doctrine that morality depends upon 'consequences' and not upon
+'motives' became a characteristic Utilitarian dogma, and I shall have to
+return to the question. Meanwhile, it was both a natural and, I think,
+in some senses, a correct view, when strictly confined to the province
+of legislation. For reasons too obvious to expand, the legislator must
+often be indifferent to the question of motives. He cannot know with
+certainty what are a man's motives. He must enforce the law whatever may
+be the motives for breaking it; and punish rebellion, for example, even
+if he attributes it to misguided philanthropy. He can, in any case,
+punish only such crimes as are found out; and must define crimes by
+palpable 'external' marks. He must punish by such coarse means as the
+gallows and the gaol: for his threats must appeal to the good and the
+bad alike. He depends, therefore, upon 'external' sanctions, sanctions,
+that is, which work mainly upon the fears of physical pain; and even if
+his punishments affect the wicked alone, they clearly cannot reach the
+wicked as wicked, nor in proportion to their wickedness. That is quite
+enough to show why in positive law motives are noticed indirectly or not
+at all. It shows also that the analogy between the positive and the
+moral law is treacherous. The exclusion of motive justifiable in law may
+take all meaning out of morality. The Utilitarians, as we shall see,
+were too much disposed to overlook the difference, and attempt to apply
+purely legal doctrine in the totally uncongenial sphere of ethical
+speculation. To accept the legal classification of actions by their
+external characteristics is, in fact, to beg the question in advance.
+Any outward criterion must group together actions springing from
+different 'motives' and therefore, as other moralists would say,
+ethically different.
+
+There is, however, another meaning in this doctrine which is more to the
+purpose here. Bentham was aiming at a principle which, true or false, is
+implied in all ethical systems based upon experience instead of pure
+logic or _a priori_ 'intuitions.' Such systems must accept human nature
+as a fact, and as the basis of a scientific theory. They do not aim at
+creating angels but at developing the existing constitution of mankind.
+So far as an action springs from one of the primitive or essential
+instincts of mankind, it simply proves the agent to be human, not to be
+vicious or virtuous, and therefore is no ground for any moral judgment.
+If Bentham's analysis could be accepted, this would be true of his
+'springs of action.' The natural appetites have not in themselves a
+moral quality: they are simply necessary and original data in the
+problem. The perplexity is introduced by Bentham's assumption that
+conduct can be analysed so that the 'motive' is a separate entity which
+can be regarded as the sole cause of a corresponding action. That
+involves an irrelevant abstraction. There is no such thing as a single
+'motive.' One of his cases is a mother who lets her child die for love
+of 'ease.' We do not condemn her because she loves ease, which is a
+motive common to all men and therefore unmoral, not immoral. But neither
+do we condemn her merely for the bad consequences of a particular
+action. We condemn her because she loves ease better than she loves her
+child: that is, because her whole character is 'unnatural' or
+ill-balanced, not on account of a particular element taken by itself.
+Morality is concerned with concrete human beings, and not with 'motives'
+running about by themselves. Bentham's meaning, if we make the necessary
+correction, would thus be expressed by saying that we don't blame a man
+because he has the 'natural' passions, but because they are somehow
+wrongly proportioned or the man himself wrongly constituted. Passions
+which may make a man vicious may also be essential to the highest
+virtue. That is quite true; but the passion is not a separate agent,
+only one constituent of the character.
+
+Bentham admits this in his own fashion. If 'motives' cannot be properly
+called good or bad, is there, he asks, nothing good or bad in the man
+who on a given occasion obeys a certain motive? 'Yes, certainly,' he
+replies, 'his disposition.'[400] The disposition, he adds, is a
+'fictitious entity, and designed for the convenience of discourse in
+order to express what there is supposed to be permanent in a man's frame
+of mind.' By 'fictitious,' as we have seen, he means not 'unreal' but
+simply not tangible, weighable, or measurable--like sticks and stones,
+or like pains and pleasures. 'Fictitious' as they may be, therefore, the
+fiction enables us to express real truths, and to state facts which are
+of the highest importance to the moralist and the legislator. Bentham
+discusses some cases of casuistry in order to show the relation between
+the tendency of an action and the intention and motives of the agent.
+Ravaillac murders a good king; Ravaillac's son enables his father to
+escape punishment, or conveys poison to his father to enable him to
+avoid torture by suicide.[401] What is the inference as to the son's
+disposition in either case? The solution (as he substantially and, I
+think, rightly suggests) will have to be reached by considering whether
+the facts indicate that the son's disposition was mischievous or
+otherwise; whether it indicates political disloyalty or filial
+affection, and so forth, and in what proportions. The most interesting
+case perhaps is that of religious persecution, where the religious
+motive is taken to be good, and the action to which it leads is yet
+admitted to be mischievous. The problem is often puzzling, but we are
+virtually making an inference as to the goodness or badness of the
+'disposition' implied by the given action under all the supposed
+circumstances. This gives what Bentham calls the 'meritoriousness'[402]
+of the disposition. The 'intention' is caused by the 'motive.' The
+'disposition' is the 'sum of the intentions'; that is to say, it
+expresses the agent's sensibility to various classes of motives; and the
+merit therefore will be in proportion to the total goodness or badness
+of the disposition thus indicated. The question of merit leads to
+interesting moral problems. Bentham, however, observes that he is not
+here speaking from the point of view of the moralist but of the
+legislator. Still, as a legislator he has to consider what is the
+'depravity' of disposition indicated by different kinds of conduct. This
+consideration is of great importance. The 'disposition' includes
+sensibility to what he calls 'tutelary motives'--motives, that is, which
+deter a man from such conduct as generally produces mischievous
+consequences. No motive can be invariably, though some, especially the
+motive of goodwill, and in a minor degree those of 'amity' and a 'love
+of reputation,' are generally, on the right side. The legislator has to
+reinforce these 'tutelary motives' by 'artificial tutelary motives,' and
+mainly by appealing to the 'love of ease,' that is, by making
+mischievous conduct more difficult, and to 'self-preservation,' that is,
+by making it more dangerous.[403] He has therefore to measure the force
+by which these motives will be opposed; or, in other words, the
+'strength of the temptation.' Now the more depraved a man's disposition,
+the weaker the temptation which will seduce him to crime. Consequently
+if an act shows depravity, it will require a stronger counter-motive or
+a more severe punishment, as the disposition indicated is more
+mischievous. An act, for example, which implies deliberation proves a
+greater insensibility to these social motives which, as Bentham
+remarks,[404] determine the 'general tenor of a man's life,' however
+depraved he may be. The legislator is guided solely by 'utility,' or
+aims at maximising happiness without reference to its quality. Still, so
+far as action implies disposition, he has to consider the depravity as a
+source of mischief. The legislator who looks solely at the moral quality
+implied is wrong; and, if guided solely by his sympathies, has no
+measure for the amount of punishment to be inflicted. These
+considerations will enable us to see what is the proper measure of
+resentment.[405]
+
+The doctrine of the neutrality or 'unmorality' of motive is thus
+sufficiently clear. Bentham's whole aim is to urge that the criterion of
+morality is given by the consequences of actions. To say the conduct is
+good or bad is to say in other words that it produces a balance of
+pleasure or pain. To make the criterion independent, or escape the
+vicious circle, we must admit the pleasures and pains to be in
+themselves neutral; to have, that is, the same value, if equally strong,
+whatever their source. In our final balance-sheet we must set down pains
+of illwill and of goodwill, of sense and of intellect with absolute
+impartiality, and compare them simply in respect of intensity. We must
+not admit a 'conscience' or 'moral sense' which would be autocratic;
+nor, indeed, allow moral to have any meaning as applied to the separate
+passions. But it is quite consistent with this to admit that some
+motives, goodwill in particular, generally tend to bring out the
+desirable result, that is, a balance of pleasure for the greatest
+number. The pains and pleasures are the ultimate facts, and the
+'disposition' is a 'fictitious entity' or a name for the sum of
+sensibilities. It represents the fact that some men are more inclined
+than others to increase the total of good or bad.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[396] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 46.
+
+[397] _Ibid._ i. 48.
+
+[398] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 56.
+
+[399] _Ibid._ i. 56.
+
+[400] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 60.
+
+[401] _Ibid._ i. 62.
+
+[402] _Ibid._ i. 65.
+
+[403] These are the two classes of 'springs of action' omitted in the
+_Table_.
+
+[404] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 68.
+
+[405] Here Bentham lays down the rule that punishment should rise with
+the strength of the temptation, a theory which leads to some curious
+casuistical problems. He does not fully discuss, and I cannot here
+consider, them. I will only note that it may conceivably be necessary to
+increase the severity of punishment, instead of removing the temptation
+or strengthening the preventive action. If so, the law becomes immoral
+in the sense of punishing more severely as the crime has more moral
+excuse. This was often true of the old criminal law, which punished
+offences cruelly because it had no effective system of police. Bentham
+would of course have agreed that the principle in this case was a bad
+one.
+
+
+IV. CRIMINAL LAW
+
+We have now, after a long analysis, reached the point at which the
+principles can be applied to penal law. The legislator has to discourage
+certain classes of conduct by annexing 'tutelary motives.' The classes
+to be suppressed are of course those which diminish happiness. Pursuing
+the same method, and applying results already reached, we must in the
+first place consider how the 'mischief of an act' is to be
+measured.[406] Acts are mischievous as their 'consequences' are
+mischievous; and the consequences may be 'primary' or 'secondary.'
+Robbery causes pain to the loser of the money. That is a primary evil.
+It alarms the holders of money; it suggests the facility of robbery to
+others; and it weakens the 'tutelary motive' of respect for property.
+These are secondary evils. The 'secondary' evil may be at times the most
+important. The non-payment of a tax may do no appreciable harm in a
+particular case. But its secondary effects in injuring the whole
+political fabric may be disastrous and fruitful beyond calculation.
+Bentham proceeds to show carefully how the 'intentions' and 'motives' of
+the evildoer are of the greatest importance, especially in determining
+these secondary consequences, and must therefore be taken into account
+by the legislator. A homicide may cause the same primary evil, whether
+accidental or malignant; but accidental homicide may cause no alarm,
+whereas the intentional and malignant homicide may cause any quantity of
+alarm and shock to the general sense of security. In this way,
+therefore, the legislator has again indirectly to take into account the
+moral quality which is itself dependent upon utility.
+
+I must, however, pass lightly over a very clear and interesting
+discussion to reach a further point of primary importance to the
+Utilitarian theory, as to the distinction between the moral and legal
+spheres.[407] Bentham has now 'made an analysis of evil.' He has, that
+is, classified the mischiefs produced by conduct, measured simply by
+their effect upon pleasures or pains, independently of any consideration
+as to virtue and vice. The next problem is: what conduct should be
+criminal?--a subject which is virtually discussed in two chapters (xv.
+and xix.) 'on cases unmeet for punishment' and on 'the limits between
+Private Ethics and the act of legislation.' We must, of course, follow
+the one clue to the labyrinth. We must count all the 'lots' of pain and
+pleasure indifferently. It is clear, on the one hand, that the pains
+suffered by criminals are far less than the pains which would be
+suffered were no such sanctions applied. On the other hand, all
+punishment is an evil, because punishment means pain, and it is
+therefore only to be inflicted when it excludes greater pain. It must,
+therefore, not be inflicted when it is 'groundless,' 'inefficacious,'
+'unprofitable,' or 'needless.' 'Needless' includes all the cases in
+which the end may be attained 'as effectually at a cheaper rate.'[408]
+This applies to all 'dissemination of pernicious principles'; for in
+this case reason and not force is the appropriate remedy. The sword
+inflicts more pain, and is less efficient than the pen. The argument
+raises the wider question, What are the true limits of legislative
+interference? Bentham, in his last chapter, endeavours to answer this
+problem. 'Private ethics,' he says, and 'legislation' aim at the same
+end, namely, happiness, and the 'acts with which they are conversant are
+_in great measure_ the same.' Why, then, should they have different
+spheres? Simply because the acts 'are not _perfectly and throughout_ the
+same.'[409] How, then, are we to draw the line? By following the
+invariable clue of 'utility.' We simply have to apply an analysis to
+determine the cases in which punishment does more harm than good. He
+insists especially upon the cases in which punishment is 'unprofitable';
+upon such offences as drunkenness and sexual immorality, where the law
+could only be enforced by a mischievous or impossible system of minute
+supervision, and such offences as ingratitude or rudeness, where the
+definition is so vague that the judge could not safely be entrusted with
+the power to punish.'[410] He endeavours to give a rather more precise
+distinction by subdividing 'ethics in general' into three classes. Duty
+may be to oneself, that is 'prudence'; or to one's neighbour negatively,
+that is 'probity'; or to one's neighbour positively, that is
+'benevolence.'[411] Duties of the first class must be left chiefly to
+the individual, because he is the best judge of his own interest. Duties
+of the third class again are generally too vague to be enforced by the
+legislator, though a man ought perhaps to be punished for failing to
+help as well as for actually injuring. The second department of ethics,
+that of 'probity,' is the main field for legislative activity.[412] As a
+general principle, 'private ethics' teach a man how to pursue his own
+happiness, and the art of legislation how to pursue the greatest
+happiness of the community. It must be noticed, for the point is one of
+importance, that Bentham's purely empirical method draws no definite
+line. It implies that no definite line can be drawn. It does not suggest
+that any kind of conduct whatever is outside the proper province of
+legislator except in so far as the legislative machinery may happen to
+be inadequate or inappropriate.
+
+Our analysis has now been carried so far that we can proceed to consider
+the principles by which we should be guided in punishing. What are the
+desirable properties of a 'lot of punishment'? This occupies two
+interesting chapters. Chapter xvi., 'on the proportion between
+punishments and offences,' gives twelve rules. The punishment, he urges,
+must outweigh the profit of the offence; it must be such as to make a
+man prefer a less offence to a greater--simple theft, for example, to
+violent robbery; it must be such that the punishment must be adaptable
+to the varying sensibility of the offender; it must be greater in
+'value' as it falls short of certainty; and, when the offence indicates
+a habit, it must outweigh not only the profit of the particular offence,
+but of the undetected offences. In chapter xvii. Bentham considers the
+properties which fit a punishment to fulfil these conditions. Eleven
+properties are given. The punishment must be (1) 'variable,' that is,
+capable of adjustment to particular cases; and (2) equable, or
+inflicting equal pain by equal sentences. Thus the 'proportion' between
+punishment and crimes of a given class can be secured. In order that the
+punishments of different classes of crime may be proportional, the
+punishments should (3) be commensurable. To make punishments efficacious
+they should be (4) 'characteristical' or impressive to the imagination;
+and that they may not be excessive they should be (5) exemplary or
+likely to impress others, and (6) frugal. To secure minor ends they
+should be (7) reformatory; (8) disabling, _i.e._ from future offences;
+and (9) compensatory to the sufferer. Finally, to avoid collateral
+disadvantages they should be (10) popular, and (11) remittable. A
+twelfth property, simplicity, was added in Dumont's redaction. Dumont
+calls attention here to the value of Bentham's method.[413] Montesquieu
+and Beccaria had spoken in general terms of the desirable qualities of
+punishment. They had spoken of 'proportionality,' for example, but
+without that precise or definite meaning which appears in Bentham's
+Calculus. In fact, Bentham's statement, compared to the vaguer
+utterances of his predecessors, but still more when compared to the
+haphazard brutalities and inconsistencies of English criminal law,
+gives the best impression of the value of his method.
+
+Bentham's next step is an elaborate classification of offences, worked
+out by a further application of his bifurcatory method.[414] This would
+form the groundwork of the projected code. I cannot, however, speak of
+this classification, or of many interesting remarks contained in the
+_Principles of Penal Law_, where some further details are considered. An
+analysis scarcely does justice to Bentham, for it has to omit his
+illustrations and his flashes of real vivacity. The mere dry logical
+framework is not appetising. I have gone so far in order to illustrate
+the characteristic of Bentham's teaching. It was not the bare appeal to
+utility, but the attempt to follow the clue of utility systematically
+and unflinchingly into every part of the subject. This one doctrine
+gives the touchstone by which every proposed measure is to be tested;
+and which will give to his system not such unity as arises from the
+development of an abstract logical principle, but such as is introduced
+into the physical sciences when we are able to range all the
+indefinitely complex phenomena which arise under some simple law of
+force. If Bentham's aim could have been achieved, 'utility' would have
+been in legislative theories what gravitation is in astronomical
+theories. All human conduct being ruled by pain and pleasure, we could
+compare all motives and actions, and trace out the consequences of any
+given law. I shall have hereafter to consider how this conception worked
+in different minds and was applied to different problems: what were the
+tenable results to which it led, and what were the errors caused by the
+implied oversight of some essential considerations.
+
+Certain weaknesses are almost too obvious to be specified. He claimed to
+be constructing a science, comparable to the physical sciences. The
+attempt was obviously chimerical if we are to take it seriously. The
+makeshift doctrine which he substitutes for psychology would be a
+sufficient proof of the incapacity for his task. He had probably not
+read such writers as Hartley or Condillac, who might have suggested some
+ostensibly systematic theory. If he had little psychology he had not
+even a conception of 'sociology.' The 'felicific calculus' is enough to
+show the inadequacy of his method. The purpose is to enable us to
+calculate the effects of a proposed law. You propose to send robbers to
+the gallows or the gaol. You must, says Bentham, reckon up all the evils
+prevented: the suffering to the robbed, and to those who expect to be
+robbed, on the one hand; and, on the other, the evils caused, the
+suffering to the robber, and to the tax-payer who keeps the constable;
+then strike your balance and make your law if the evils prevented exceed
+the evils caused. Some such calculation is demanded by plain common
+sense. It points to the line of inquiry desirable. But can it be
+adequate? To estimate the utility of a law we must take into account all
+its 'effects.' What are the 'effects' of a law against robbery? They are
+all that is implied in the security of property. They correspond to the
+difference between England in the eighteenth century and England in the
+time of Hengist and Horsa; between a country where the supremacy of law
+is established, and a country still under the rule of the strong hand.
+Bentham's method may be applicable at a given moment, when the social
+structure is already consolidated and uniform. It would represent the
+practical arguments for establishing the police-force demanded by
+Colquhoun, and show the disadvantages of the old constables and
+watchmen. Bentham, that is, gives an admirable method for settling
+details of administrative and legislative machinery, and dealing with
+particular cases when once the main principles of law and order are
+established. Those principles, too, may depend upon 'utility,' but
+utility must be taken in a wider sense when we have to deal with the
+fundamental questions. We must consider the 'utility' of the whole
+organisation, not the fitness of separate details. Finally, if Bentham
+is weak in psychology and in sociology, he is clearly not satisfactory
+in ethics. Morality is, according to him, on the same plane with law.
+The difference is not in the sphere to which they apply, or in the end
+to which they are directed; but solely in the 'sanction.' The legislator
+uses threats of physical suffering; the moralist threats of 'popular'
+disapproval. Either 'sanction' may be most applicable to a given case;
+but the question is merely between different means to the same end under
+varying conditions. This implies the 'external' character of Bentham's
+morality, and explains his insistence upon the neutrality of motives. He
+takes the average man to be a compound of certain instincts, and merely
+seeks to regulate their action by supplying 'artificial tutelary
+motives.' The 'man' is given; the play of his instincts, separately
+neutral, makes his conduct more or less favourable to general happiness;
+and the moralist and the legislator have both to correct his deviations
+by supplying appropriate 'sanctions.' Bentham, therefore, is inclined to
+ignore the intrinsic character of morality, or the dependence of a man's
+morality upon the essential structure of his nature. He thinks of the
+superficial play of forces, not of their intimate constitution. The man
+is not to be changed in either case; only his circumstances. Such
+defects no doubt diminish the value of Bentham's work. Yet, after all,
+in his own sphere they are trifles. He did very well without philosophy.
+However imperfect his system might be considered as a science or an
+ultimate explanation of society and human nature, it was very much to
+the point as an expression of downright common sense. Dumont's eulogy
+seems to be fully deserved, when we contrast Bentham's theory of
+punishment with the theories (if they deserve the name) of contemporary
+legislators. His method involved a thoroughgoing examination of the
+whole body of laws, and a resolution to apply a searching test to every
+law. If that test was not so unequivocal or ultimate as he fancied, it
+yet implied the constant application of such considerations as must
+always carry weight, and, perhaps, be always the dominant
+considerations, with the actual legislator or jurist. What is the use of
+you? is a question which may fairly be put to every institution and to
+every law; and it concerns legislators to find some answer, even though
+the meaning of the word 'use' is not so clear as we could wish.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[406] _Morals and Legislation_, ch. xii.
+
+[407] _Morals and Legislation_, ch. xiv. (a chapter inserted from
+Dumont's _Traites_).
+
+[408] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. p. 86.
+
+[409] _Ibid._ i. 144.
+
+[410] _Ibid._ i. 145.
+
+[411] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 143.
+
+[412] _Ibid._ i. 147-48.
+
+[413] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i 406 _n._
+
+[414] _Works_ ('Morals and Legislation'), i. 96 _n._
+
+
+V. ENGLISH LAW
+
+The practical value of Bentham's method is perhaps best illustrated by
+his _Rationale of Evidence_. The composition of the papers ultimately
+put together by J. S. Mill had occupied Bentham from 1802 to 1812. The
+changed style is significant. Nobody could write more pointedly, or with
+happier illustrations, than Bentham in his earlier years. He afterwards
+came to think that a didactic treatise should sacrifice every other
+virtue to fulness and precision. To make a sentence precise, every
+qualifying clause must be somehow forced into the original formula.
+Still more characteristic is his application of what he calls the
+'substantive-preferring principle.'[415] He would rather say, 'I give
+extension to an object,' than 'I extend an object.' Where a substantive
+is employed, the idea is 'stationed upon a rock'; if only a verb, the
+idea is 'like a leaf floating on a stream.' A verb, he said,[416] 'slips
+through your fingers like an eel.' The principle corresponds to his
+'metaphysics.' The universe of thought is made up of a number of
+separate 'entities' corresponding to nouns-substantive, and when these
+bundles are distinctly isolated by appropriate nouns, the process of
+arranging and codifying according to the simple relations indicated by
+the copula is greatly facilitated. The ideal language would resemble
+algebra, in which symbols, each representing a given numerical value,
+are connected by the smallest possible number of symbols of operation,
++, -, =, and so forth. To set two such statements side by side, or to
+modify them by inserting different constants, is then a comparatively
+easy process, capable of being regulated by simple general rules.
+Bentham's style becomes tiresome, and was often improperly called
+obscure. It requires attention, but the meaning is never doubtful--and
+to the end we have frequent flashes of the old vivacity.
+
+The _Rationale of Evidence_, as Mill remarks,[417] is 'one of the
+richest in matter of all Bentham's productions.' It contains, too, many
+passages in Bentham's earlier style, judiciously preserved by his young
+editor; indeed, so many that I am tempted even to call the book amusing.
+In spite of the wearisome effort to say everything, and to force
+language into the mould presented by his theory, Bentham attracts us by
+his obvious sincerity. The arguments may be unsatisfactory, but they are
+genuine arguments. They represent conviction; they are given because
+they have convinced; and no reader can deny that they really tend to
+convince. We may complain that there are too many words, and that the
+sentences are cumbrous; but the substance is always to the point. The
+main purpose may be very briefly indicated. Bentham begins by general
+considerations upon evidence, in which he and his youthful editor
+indicate their general adherence to the doctrines of Hume.[418] This
+leads to an application of the methods expounded in the 'Introduction,'
+in order to show how the various motives or 'springs of action' and the
+'sanctions' based upon them may affect the trustworthiness of evidence.
+Any motive whatever may incidentally cause 'mendacity.' The second book,
+therefore, considers what securities may be taken for 'securing
+trustworthiness.' We have, for example, a discussion of the value of
+oaths (he thinks them valueless), of the advantages and disadvantages of
+reducing evidence to writing, of interrogating witnesses, and of the
+publicity or privacy of evidence. Book iii. deals with the 'extraction
+of evidence.' We have to compare the relative advantages of oral and
+written evidence, the rules for cross-examining witnesses and for taking
+evidence as to their character. Book iv. deals with 'pre-appointed
+evidence,' the cases, that is, in which events are recorded at the time
+of occurrence with a view to their subsequent use as evidence. We have
+under this head to consider the formalities which should be required in
+regard to contracts and wills; and the mode of recording judicial and
+other official decisions and registering births, deaths, and marriages.
+In Books v. and vi. we consider two kinds of evidence which is in one
+way or other of inferior cogency, namely, 'circumstantial evidence,' in
+which the evidence if accepted still leaves room for a process of more
+or less doubtful inference; and 'makeshift evidence,' such evidence as
+must sometimes be accepted for want of the best, of which the most
+conspicuous instance is 'hearsay evidence.' Book vii. deals with the
+'authentication' of evidence. Book viii. is a consideration of the
+'technical' system, that namely which was accepted by English lawyers;
+and finally Book ix. deals with a special point, namely, the exclusion
+of evidence. Bentham announces at starting[419] that he shall establish
+'one theorem' and consider two problems. The problems are: 'what
+securities can be taken for the truth of evidence?' and 'what rules can
+be given for estimating the value of evidence?' The 'theorem' is that no
+evidence should be excluded with the professed intention of obtaining a
+right decision; though some must be excluded to avoid expense, vexation,
+and delay. This, therefore, as his most distinct moral, is fully treated
+in the last book.
+
+Had Bentham confined himself to a pithy statement of his leading
+doctrines, and confirmed them by a few typical cases, he would have been
+more effective in a literary sense. His passion for 'codification,' for
+tabulating and arranging facts in all their complexity, and for applying
+his doctrine at full length to every case that he can imagine, makes him
+terribly prolix. On the other hand, this process no doubt strengthened
+his own conviction and the conviction of his disciples as to the value
+of his process. Follow this clue of utility throughout the whole
+labyrinth, see what a clear answer it offers at every point, and you
+cannot doubt that you are in possession of the true compass for such a
+navigation. Indeed, it seems to be indisputable that Bentham's arguments
+are the really relevant and important arguments. How can we decide any
+of the points which come up for discussion? Should a witness be
+cross-examined? Should his evidence be recorded? Should a wife be
+allowed to give evidence against her husband? or the defendant to give
+evidence about his own case? These and innumerable other points can only
+be decided by reference to what Bentham understood by 'utility.' This or
+that arrangement is 'useful' because it enables us to get quickly and
+easily at the evidence, to take effective securities for its
+truthfulness, to estimate its relevance and importance, to leave the
+decision to the most qualified persons, and so forth. These points,
+again, can only be decided by a careful appeal to experience, and by
+endeavouring to understand the ordinary play of 'motives' and
+'sanctions.' What generally makes a man lie, and how is lying to be made
+unpleasant? By rigorously fixing our minds at every point on such
+issues, we find that many questions admit of very plain answers, and are
+surprised to discover what a mass of obscurity has been dispelled. It
+is, however, true that although the value of the method can hardly be
+denied unless we deny the value of all experience and common sense, we
+may dispute the degree in which it confirms the general principle. Every
+step seems to Bentham to reflect additional light upon his primary
+axiom. Yet it is possible to hold that witnesses should be encouraged to
+speak the truth, and that experience may help us to discover the best
+means to that end without, therefore, admitting the unique validity of
+the 'greatest happiness' principle. That principle, so far as true, may
+be itself a deduction from some higher principle; and no philosopher of
+any school would deny that 'utility' should be in some way consulted by
+the legislator.
+
+The book illustrates the next critical point in Bentham's system--the
+transition from law to politics. He was writing the book at the period
+when the failure of the Panopticon was calling his attention to the
+wickedness of George III. and Lord Eldon, and when the English demand
+for parliamentary reform was reviving and supplying him with a
+sympathetic audience. Now, in examining the theory of evidence upon the
+plan described, Bentham found himself at every stage in conflict with
+the existing system, or rather the existing chaos of unintelligible
+rules. English lawyers, he discovered, had worked out a system of rules
+for excluding evidence. Sometimes the cause was pure indolence. 'This
+man, were I to hear him,' says the English judge, 'would come out with a
+parcel of lies. It would be a plague to hear him: I have heard enough
+already; shut the door in his face.'[420] But, as Bentham shows with
+elaborate detail, a reason for suspecting evidence is not a reason for
+excluding it. A convicted perjurer gives evidence, and has a pecuniary
+interest in the result. That is excellent ground for caution; but the
+fact that the man makes a certain statement may still be a help to the
+ascertainment of truth. Why should that help be rejected? Bentham
+scarcely admits of any exception to the general rule of taking any
+evidence you can get--one exception being the rather curious one of
+confession to a Catholic priest; secrecy in such cases is on the whole,
+he thinks, useful. He exposes the confusion implied in an exclusion of
+evidence because it is not fully trustworthy, which is equivalent to
+working in the dark because a partial light may deceive. But this is
+only a part of a whole system of arbitrary, inconsistent, and technical
+rules worked out by the ingenuity of lawyers. Besides the direct injury
+they gave endless opportunity for skilful manoeuvring to exclude or
+admit evidence by adopting different forms of procedure. Rules had been
+made by judges as they were wanted and precedents established of
+contradictory tendency and uncertain application. Bentham contrasts the
+simplicity of the rules deducible from 'utility' with the amazing
+complexity of the traditional code of technical rules. Under the
+'natural' system, that of utility, you have to deal with a quarrel
+between your servants or children. You send at once for the disputants,
+confront them, take any relevant evidence, and make up your mind as to
+the rights of the dispute. In certain cases this 'natural' procedure has
+been retained, as, for example, in courts-martial, where rapid decision
+was necessary. Had the technical system prevailed, the country would
+have been ruined in six weeks.[421] But the exposure of the technical
+system requires an elaborate display of intricate methods involving at
+every step vexation, delay, and injustice. Bentham reckons up nineteen
+separate devices employed by the courts. He describes the elaborate
+processes which had to be gone through before a hearing could be
+obtained; the distance of courts from the litigants; the bandying of
+cases from court to court; the chicaneries about giving notice; the
+frequent nullification of all that had been done on account of some
+technical flaw; the unintelligible jargon of Latin and Law-French which
+veiled the proceedings from the public; the elaborate mysteries of
+'special pleading'; the conflict of jurisdictions, and the manufacture
+of new 'pleas' and new technical rules; the 'entanglement of
+jurisdictions,' and especially the distinction between law and equity,
+which had made confusion doubly confounded. English law had become a
+mere jungle of unintelligible distinctions, contradictions, and cumbrous
+methods through which no man could find his way without the guidance of
+the initiated, and in which a long purse and unscrupulous trickery gave
+the advantage over the poor to the rich, and to the knave over the
+honest man. One fruitful source of all these evils was the 'judge-made'
+law, which Bentham henceforth never ceased to denounce. His ideal was a
+distinct code which, when change was required, should be changed by an
+avowed and intelligible process. The chaos which had grown up was the
+natural result of the gradual development of a traditional body of law,
+in which new cases were met under cover of applying precedents from
+previous decisions, with the help of reference to the vague body of
+unwritten or 'common law,' and of legal fictions permitting some
+non-natural interpretation of the old formulae. It is the judges, he had
+already said in 1792,[422] 'that make the common law. Do you know how
+they make it? Just as a man makes laws for his dog. When your dog does
+anything you want to break him of, you wait till he does it and then
+beat him. This is the way you make laws for your dog, and this is the
+way the judges make laws for you and me.' The 'tyranny of judge-made
+law' is 'the most all-comprehensive, most grinding, and most crying of
+all grievances,'[423] and is scarcely less bad than 'priest-made
+religion.'[424] Legal fictions, according to him, are simply lies. The
+permission to use them is a 'mendacity licence.' In 'Rome-bred law ...
+fiction' is a 'wart which here and there disfigures the face of justice.
+In English law fiction is a syphilis which runs into every vein and
+carries into every part of the system the principle of rottenness.'[425]
+
+The evils denounced by Bentham were monstrous. The completeness of the
+exposure was his great merit; and his reputation has suffered, as we are
+told on competent authority, by the very efficiency of his attack. The
+worst evils are so much things of the past, that we forget the extent
+of the evil and the merits of its assailant. Bentham's diagnosis of the
+evil explains his later attitude. He attributes all the abuses to
+consciously corrupt motives even where a sufficient explanation can be
+found in the human stupidity and honest incapacity to look outside of
+traditional ways of thought. He admits, indeed, the personal purity of
+English judges. No English judge had ever received a bribe within living
+memory.[426] But this, he urges, is only because the judges find it more
+profitable as well as safer to carry out a radically corrupt system. A
+synonym for 'technical' is 'fee-gathering.' Lawyers of all classes had a
+common interest in multiplying suits and complicating procedure: and
+thus a tacit partnership had grown up which he describes as 'Judge and
+Co.' He gives statistics showing that in the year 1797 five hundred and
+forty-three out of five hundred and fifty 'writs of error' were 'shams,'
+or simply vexatious contrivances for delay, and brought a profit to the
+Chief Justice of over L1400.[427] Lord Eldon was always before him as
+the typical representative of obstruction and obscurantism. In his
+_Indications respecting Lord Eldon_ (1825) he goes into details which it
+must have required some courage to publish. Under Eldon, he says,
+'equity has become an instrument of fraud and extortion.'[428] He
+details the proceedings by which Eldon obtained the sanction of
+parliament for a system of fee-taking, which he had admitted to be
+illegal, and which had been denounced by an eminent solicitor as leading
+to gross corruption. Bentham intimates that the Masters in Chancery were
+'swindlers,'[429] and that Eldon was knowingly the protector and sharer
+of their profits. Romilly, who had called the Court of Chancery 'a
+disgrace to a civilised nation,' had said that Eldon was the cause of
+many of the abuses, and could have reformed most of the others. Erskine
+had declared that if there was a hell, the Court of Chancery was
+hell.[430] Eldon, as Bentham himself thought, was worse than Jeffreys.
+Eldon's victims had died a lingering death, and the persecutor had made
+money out of their sufferings. Jeffreys was openly brutal; while Eldon
+covered his tyranny under the 'most accomplished indifference.'[431]
+
+Yet Eldon was but the head of a band. Judges, barristers, and solicitors
+were alike. The most hopeless of reforms would be to raise a
+'thorough-paced English lawyer' to the moral level of an average
+man.[432] To attack legal abuses was to attack a class combined under
+its chiefs, capable of hoodwinking parliament and suppressing open
+criticism. The slave-traders whom Wilberforce attacked were
+comparatively a powerless excrescence. The legal profession was in the
+closest relations to the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the whole
+privileged and wealthy class. They were welded into a solid 'ring.' The
+king, and his ministers who distributed places and pensions; the
+borough-mongers who sold votes for power; the clergy who looked for
+bishoprics; the monied men who aspired to rank and power, were all parts
+of a league. It was easy enough to talk of law reform. Romilly had
+proposed and even carried a 'reformatiuncle' or two;[433] but to achieve
+a serious success required not victory in a skirmish or two, not the
+exposure of some abuse too palpable to be openly defended even by an
+Eldon, but a prolonged war against an organised army fortified and
+entrenched in the very heart of the country.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[415] _Works_, iii. 267.
+
+[416] _Ibid._ x. 569
+
+[417] _Autobiography_, p. 116.
+
+[418] The subject is again treated in Book v. on 'Circumstantial
+Evidence.'
+
+[419] _Works_, vi. 204.
+
+[420] _Works_, vii. 391.
+
+[421] _Works_, vii. 321-25. Court-martials are hardly a happy example
+now.
+
+[422] 'Truth _v._ Ashhurst' (1792), _Works_, v. 235.
+
+[423] _Works_ ('Codification Petition'), v. 442.
+
+[424] _Ibid._ vi. 11.
+
+[425] _Ibid._ v. 92.
+
+[426] _Works_, vii. 204, 331; ix. 143.
+
+[427] _Ibid._ vii. 214.
+
+[428] _Ibid._ v. 349.
+
+[429] _Ibid._ v. 364.
+
+[430] _Works_, v. 371.
+
+[431] _Ibid._ v. 375.
+
+[432] _Ibid._ vii. 188.
+
+[433] _Ibid._ v. 370.
+
+
+VI. RADICALISM
+
+Thus Bentham, as his eyes were opened, became a Radical. The political
+purpose became dominant, although we always see that the legal abuses
+are uppermost in his mind; and that what he really seeks is a fulcrum
+for the machinery which is to overthrow Lord Eldon. Some of the
+pamphlets deal directly with the special instruments of corruption. The
+_Elements of the Art of Packing_ shows how the crown managed to have a
+permanent body of special 'jurors' at its disposal. The 'grand and
+paramount use'[434] of this system was to crush the liberty of the
+press. The obscure law of libel, worked by judges in the interest of the
+government, enabled them to punish any rash Radical for 'hurting the
+feelings' of the ruling classes, and to evade responsibility by help of
+a 'covertly pensioned' and servile jury. The pamphlet, though tiresomely
+minute and long-winded, contained too much pointed truth to be published
+at the time. The _Official Aptitude minimised_ contains a series of
+attacks upon the system of patronage and pensions by which the machinery
+of government was practically worked. In the _Catechism_ of reformers,
+written in 1809, Bentham began the direct application of his theories to
+the constitution; and the final and most elaborate exposition of these
+forms the _Constitutional Code_, which was the main work of his later
+years. This book excited the warmest admiration of Bentham's
+disciples.[435] J. S. Mill speaks of its 'extraordinary power ... of at
+once seizing comprehensive principles and scheming out minute details,'
+and of its 'surpassing intellectual vigour.' Nor, indeed, will any one
+be disposed to deny that it is a singular proof of intellectual
+activity, when we remember that it was begun when the author was over
+seventy, and that he was still working at eighty-four.[436] In this book
+Bentham's peculiarities of style reach their highest development, and it
+cannot be recommended as light reading. Had Bentham been a mystical
+philosopher, he would, we may conjecture, have achieved a masterpiece of
+unintelligibility which all his followers would have extolled as
+containing the very essence of his teaching. His method condemned him to
+be always intelligible, however crabbed and elaborate. Perhaps, however,
+the point which strikes one most is the amazing simple-mindedness of the
+whole proceeding. Bentham's light-hearted indifference to the
+distinction between paper constitutions and operative rules of conduct
+becomes almost pathetic.
+
+Bentham was clearly the victim of a common delusion. If a system will
+work, the minutest details can be exhibited. Therefore, it is inferred,
+an exhibition of minute detail proves that it will work. Unfortunately,
+the philosophers of Laputa would have had no more difficulty in filling
+up details than the legislators of England or the United States. When
+Bentham had settled in his 'Radical Reform Bill'[437] that the
+'voting-box' was to be a double cube of cast-iron, with a slit in the
+lid, into which cards two inches by one, white on one side and black on
+the other, could be inserted, he must have felt that he had got very
+near to actual application: he can picture the whole operation and
+nobody can say that the scheme is impracticable for want of working
+plans of the machinery. There will, doubtless, be no difficulty in
+settling the shape of the boxes, when we have once agreed to have the
+ballot. But a discussion of such remote details of Utopia is of
+incomparably less real interest than the discussion in the _Rationale of
+Evidence_ of points, which, however minute, were occurring every day,
+and which were really in urgent need of the light of common sense.
+
+Bentham's general principles may be very simply stated. They are, in
+fact, such as were suggested by his view of legal grievances. Why, when
+he had demonstrated that certain measures would contribute to the
+'greatest happiness of the greatest number,' were they not at once
+adopted? Because the rulers did not desire the greatest happiness of the
+greatest number. This, in Bentham's language, is to say that they were
+governed by a 'sinister interest.' Their interest was that of their
+class, not that of the nation; they aimed at the greatest happiness of
+some, not at the greatest happiness of all. A generalisation of this
+remark gives us the first axioms of all government. There are two
+primary principles: the 'self-preference' principle, in virtue of which
+every man always desires his own greatest happiness'; and the 'greatest
+happiness' principle, in virtue of which 'the right and proper end' of
+government is the 'greatest happiness of the greatest number.'[438] The
+'actual end' of every government, again, is the greatest happiness of
+the governors. Hence the whole problem is to produce a coincidence of
+the two ends, by securing an identity of interest between governors and
+governed. To secure that we have only to identify the two classes or to
+put the government in the hands of all.[439] In a monarchy, the ruler
+aims at the interest of one--himself; in a 'limited monarchy' the aim is
+at the happiness of the king and the small privileged class; in a
+democracy, the end is the right one--the greatest happiness of the
+greatest number. This is a short cut to all constitutional questions.
+Probably it has occurred in substance to most youthful members of
+debating societies. Bentham's confidence in his logic lifts him above
+any appeal to experience; and he occasionally reminds us of the proof
+given in _Martin Chuzzlewit_ that the queen must live in the Tower of
+London. The 'monarch,' as he observes,[440] 'is naturally the very
+worst--the most maleficent member of the whole community.' Wherever an
+aristocracy differs from the democracy, their judgment will be
+erroneous.[441] The people will naturally choose 'morally apt agents,'
+and men who wish to be chosen will desire truly to become 'morally apt,'
+for they can only recommend themselves by showing their desire to serve
+the general interest.[442] 'All experience testifies to this theory,'
+though the evidence is 'too bulky' to be given. Other proofs, however,
+may at once be rendered superfluous by appealing to 'the uninterrupted
+and most notorious experience of the United States.'[443] To that happy
+country he often appeals indeed[444] as a model government. In it, there
+is no corruption, no useless expenditure, none of the evils illustrated
+by our 'matchless constitution.'
+
+The constitution deduced from these principles has at least the merit of
+simplicity. We are to have universal suffrage, annual parliaments, and
+vote by ballot. He inclines to give a vote to women.[445] There is to be
+no king, no house of peers, no established church. Members of parliament
+are not to be re-eligible, till after an interval. Elaborate rules
+provide for their regular attendance and exclusive devotion to their
+masters' business. They are to be simply 'deputies,' not
+'representatives.' They elect a prime minister who holds office for four
+years. Officials are to be appointed by a complex plan of competitive
+examination; and they are to be invited to send in tenders for doing the
+work at diminished salary. When once in office, every care is taken for
+their continual inspection by the public and the verification of their
+accounts. They are never for an instant to forget that they are
+servants, not the masters, of the public.
+
+Bentham, of course, is especially minute and careful in regard to the
+judicial organisation--a subject upon which he wrote much, and much to
+the purpose. The functions and fees of advocates are to be narrowly
+restricted, and advocates to be provided gratuitously for the poor. They
+are not to become judges: to make a barrister a judge is as sensible as
+it would be to select a procuress for mistress of a girls' school.[446]
+Judges should be everywhere accessible: always on duty, too busy to have
+time for corruption, and always under public supervision. One
+characteristic device is his quasi-jury. The English system of requiring
+unanimity was equivalent to enforcing perjury by torture. Its utility as
+a means of resisting tyranny would disappear when tyranny had become
+impossible. But public opinion might be usefully represented by a
+'quasi-jury' of three or five, who should not pronounce a verdict, but
+watch the judge, interrogate, if necessary, and in case of need demand a
+rehearing. Judges, of course, were no longer to make law, but to propose
+amendments in the 'Pannomion' or universal code, when new cases arose.
+
+His leading principle may be described in one word as 'responsibility,'
+or expressed in his leading rule, 'Minimise Confidence.'[447] 'All
+government is in itself one vast evil.'[448] It consists in applying
+evil to exclude worse evil. Even 'to reward is to punish,'[449] when
+reward is given by government. The less government, then, the better;
+but as governors are a necessary evil, they must be limited by every
+possible device to the sole legitimate aim, and watched at every turn by
+the all-seeing eye of public opinion. Every one must admit that this is
+an application of a sound principle, and that one condition of good
+government is the diffusion of universal responsibility. It must be
+admitted, too, that Bentham's theory represents a vigorous embodiment
+and unflinching application of doctrines which since his time have
+spread and gained more general authority. Mill says that granting one
+assumption, the Constitutional Code is 'admirable.'[450] That assumption
+is that it is for the good of mankind to be under the absolute authority
+of a majority. In other words, it would justify what Mill calls the
+'despotism of public opinion.' To protest against that despotism was one
+of the main purposes of Mill's political writings. How was it that the
+disciple came to be in such direct opposition to his master? That
+question cannot be answered till we have considered Mill's own position.
+But I have now followed Bentham far enough to consider the more general
+characteristics of his doctrine.
+
+I have tried, in the first place, to show what was the course of
+Bentham's own development; how his observation of certain legal abuses
+led him to attempt the foundation of a science of jurisprudence; how the
+difficulty of obtaining a hearing for his arguments led him to discover
+the power of 'Judge and Co.'; how he found out that behind 'Judge and
+Co.' were George III. and the base Sidmouth, and the whole band of
+obstructors entrenched within the 'matchless constitution'; and how thus
+his attack upon the abuses of the penal law led him to attack the whole
+political framework of the country. I have also tried to show how
+Bentham's development coincided with that of the English reformers
+generally. They too began with attacking specific abuses. They were for
+'reform, not revolution.' The constitution satisfied them in the main:
+they boasted of the palladia of their liberties, 'trial by jury' and the
+'Habeas Corpus' Act, and held Frenchmen to be frog-eating slaves in
+danger of _lettres de cachet_ and the Bastille. English public opinion
+in spite of many trammels had a potent influence. Their first impulse,
+therefore, was simply to get rid of the trammels--the abuses which had
+grown up from want of a thorough application of the ancient principles
+in their original purity. The English Whig, even of the more radical
+persuasion, was profoundly convinced that the foundations were sound,
+however unsatisfactory might be the superstructure. Thus, both Bentham
+and the reformers generally started--not from abstract principles, but
+from the assault upon particular abuses. This is the characteristic of
+the whole English movement, and gives the meaning of their claim to be
+'practical.' The Utilitarians were the reformers on the old lines; and
+their philosophy meant simply a desire to systematise the ordinary
+common sense arguments. The philosophy congenial to this vein is the
+philosophy which appeals to experience. Locke had exploded 'innate
+ideas.' They denounced 'intuitions,' or beliefs which might override
+experience as 'innate ideas' in a new dress; and the attempt to carry
+out this view systematically became the distinctive mark of the whole
+school. Bentham accepted, though he did little to elaborate, this
+doctrine. That task remained for his disciples. But the tendency is
+shown by his view of a rival version of Radicalism.
+
+Bentham, as we have seen, regarded the American Declaration of
+Independence as so much 'jargon.' He was entirely opposed to the theory
+of the 'rights of man,' and therefore to the 'ideas of 1789.' From that
+theory the revolutionary party professed to deduce their demands for
+universal suffrage, the levelling of all privileges, and the absolute
+supremacy of the people. Yet Bentham, repudiating the premises, came to
+accept the conclusion. His Constitutional Code scarcely differs from the
+ideal of the Jacobins', except in pushing the logic further. The
+machinery by which he proposed to secure that the so-called rulers
+should become really the servants of the people was more thoroughgoing
+and minutely worked out than that of any democratic constitution that
+has ever been adopted. How was it that two antagonist theories led to
+identical results; and that the 'rights of man,' absurd in philosophy,
+represented the ideal state of things in practice?
+
+The general answer may be that political theories are not really based
+upon philosophy. The actual method is to take your politics for granted
+on the one side and your philosophy for granted on the other, and then
+to prove their necessary connection. But it is, at any rate, important
+to see what was the nature of the philosophical assumptions implicitly
+taken for granted by Bentham.
+
+The 'rights of man' doctrine confounds a primary logical canon with a
+statement of fact. Every political theory must be based upon facts as
+well as upon logic. Any reasonable theory about politics must no doubt
+give a reason for inequality and a reason, too, for equality. The maxim
+that all men were, or ought to be, 'equal' asserts correctly that there
+must not be arbitrary differences. Every inequality should have its
+justification in a reasonable system. But when this undeniable logical
+canon is taken to prove that men actually are equal, there is an obvious
+begging of the question. In point of fact, the theorists immediately
+proceeded to disfranchise half the race on account of sex, and a third
+of the remainder on account of infancy. They could only amend the
+argument by saying that all men were equal in so far as they possessed
+certain attributes. But those attributes could only be determined by
+experience, or, as Bentham would have put it, by an appeal to 'utility.'
+It is illogical, said the anti-slavery advocate, to treat men
+differently on account of the colour of their skins. No doubt it is
+illogical if, in fact, the difference of colour does not imply a
+difference of the powers which fit a man for the enjoyment of certain
+rights. We may at least grant that the burden of proof should be upon
+those who would disfranchise all red-haired men. But this is because
+experience shows that the difference of colour does not mark a relevant
+difference. We cannot say, _a priori_, whether the difference between a
+negro and a white man may not be so great as to imply incapacity for
+enjoyment of equal rights. The black skin might--for anything a mere
+logician can say--indicate the mind of a chimpanzee. The case against
+slavery does not rest on the bare fact that negroes and whites both
+belong to the class 'man,' but on the fact that the negro has powers and
+sensibilities which fit him to hold property, to form marriages, to
+learn his letters, and so forth. But that fact is undeniably to be
+proved, not from the bare logic, but from observation of the particular
+case.
+
+Bentham saw with perfect clearness that sound political theory requires
+a basis of solid fact. The main purpose of his whole system was to carry
+out that doctrine thoroughly. His view is given vigorously in the
+'Anarchical Fallacies'--a minute examination of the French Declaration
+of Rights in 1791. His argument is of merciless length, and occasionally
+so minute as to sound like quibbling. The pith, however, is clear
+enough. 'All men are born and remain free and equal in respect of
+rights' are the first words of the Declaration. Nobody is 'born free,'
+retorts Bentham. Everybody is born, and long remains, a helpless child.
+All men born free! Absurd and miserable nonsense! Why, you are
+complaining in the same breath that nearly everybody is a slave.[451] To
+meet this objection, the words might be amended by substituting 'ought
+to be' for 'is.' This, however, on Bentham's showing, at once introduces
+the conception of utility, and therefore leads to empirical
+considerations. The proposition, when laid down as a logical necessity,
+claims to be absolute. Therefore it implies that all authority is bad;
+the authority, for example, of parent over child, or of husband over
+wife; and moreover, that all laws to the contrary are _ipso facto_ void.
+That is why it is 'anarchical.' It supposes a 'natural right,' not only
+as suggesting reasons for proposed alterations of the legal right, but
+as actually annihilating the right and therefore destroying all
+government. '_Natural rights_,' says Bentham,[452] is simple nonsense;
+natural and imprescriptible rights 'rhetorical nonsense--nonsense upon
+stilts.' For 'natural right' substitute utility, and you have, of
+course, a reasonable principle, because an appeal to experience. But lay
+down 'liberty' as an absolute right and you annihilate law, for every
+law supposes coercion. One man gets liberty simply by restricting the
+liberty of others.[453] What Bentham substantially says, therefore, is
+that on this version absolute rights of individuals could mean nothing
+but anarchy; or that no law can be defended except by a reference to
+facts, and therefore to 'utility.'
+
+One answer might be that the demand is not for absolute liberty, but for
+as much liberty as is compatible with equal liberty for all. The fourth
+article of the Declaration says: 'Liberty consists in being able to do
+that which is not hurtful to another, and therefore the exercise of the
+natural rights of each man has no other bounds than those which ensure
+to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.'
+This formula corresponds to a theory held by Mr. Herbert Spencer; and,
+as he observes,[454] held on different grounds by Kant. Bentham's view,
+indicated by his criticism of this article in the 'Anarchical
+Fallacies,' is therefore worth a moment's notice. The formula does not
+demand the absolute freedom which would condemn all coercion and all
+government; but it still seems to suggest that liberty, not utility, is
+the ultimate end. Bentham's formula, therefore, diverges. All
+government, he holds, is an evil, because coercion implies pain. We must
+therefore minimise, though we cannot annihilate, government; but we must
+keep to utility as the sole test. Government should, of course, give to
+the individual all such rights as are 'useful'; but it does not follow,
+without a reference to utility, that men should not be restrained even
+in 'self-regarding' conduct. Some men, women, and children require to be
+protected against the consequences of their own 'weakness, ignorance, or
+imprudence.'[455] Bentham adheres, that is, to the strictly empirical
+ground. The absolute doctrine requires to be qualified by a reference to
+actual circumstances: and, among those circumstances, as Bentham
+intimates, we must include the capacity of the persons concerned to
+govern themselves. Carried out as an absolute principle, it would imply
+the independence of infants; and must therefore require some reference
+to 'utility.'
+
+Bentham, then, objects to the Jacobin theory as too absolute and too
+'individualist.' The doctrine begs the question; it takes for granted
+what can only be proved by experience; and therefore lays down as
+absolute theories which are only true under certain conditions or with
+reference to the special circumstances to which they are applied. That
+is inconsistent with Bentham's thoroughgoing empiricism. But he had
+antagonists to meet upon the other side: and, in meeting them, he was
+led to a doctrine which has been generally condemned for the very same
+faults--as absolute and individualist. We have only to ask in what sense
+Bentham appealed to 'experience' to see how he actually reached his
+conclusions. The adherents of the old tradition appealed to experience
+in their own way. The English people, they said, is the freest, richest,
+happiest in the world; it has grown up under the British Constitution:
+therefore the British Constitution is the best in the world, as Burke
+tells you, and the British common law, as Blackstone tells you, is the
+'perfection of wisdom.' Bentham's reply was virtually that although he,
+like Burke, appealed to experience, he appealed to experience
+scientifically organised, whereas Burke appealed to mere blind
+tradition. Bentham is to be the founder of a new science, founded like
+chemistry on experiment, and his methods are to be as superior to those
+of Burke as those of modern chemists to those of the alchemists who also
+invoked experience. The true plan was not to throw experience aside
+because it was alleged by the ignorant and the prejudiced, but to
+interrogate experience systematically, and so to become the Bacon or the
+Newton of legislation, instead of wandering off into the _a priori_
+constructions of a Descartes or a Leibniz.
+
+Bentham thus professes to use an 'inductive' instead of the deductive
+method of the Jacobins; but reaches the same practical conclusions from
+the other end. The process is instructive. He objected to the existing
+inequalities, not as inequalities simply, but as mischievous
+inequalities. He, as well as the Jacobins, would admit that inequality
+required justification; and he agreed with them that, in this case,
+there was no justification. The existing privileges did not promote the
+'greatest happiness of the greatest number.' The attack upon the
+'Anarchical Fallacies' must be taken with the _Book of Fallacies_, and
+the _Book of Fallacies_ is a sustained and vigorous, though a curiously
+cumbrous, assault upon the Conservative arguments. Its pith may be found
+in Sydney Smith's _Noodle's Oration_; but it is itself well worth
+reading by any one who can recognise really admirable dialectical power,
+and forgive a little crabbedness of style in consideration of genuine
+intellectual vigour. I only notice Bentham's assault upon the 'wisdom of
+our ancestors.' After pointing out how much better we are entitled to
+judge now that we have got rid of so many superstitions, and have
+learned to read and write, he replies to the question, 'Would you have
+us speak and act as if we never had any ancestors?' 'By no means,' he
+replies; 'though their opinions were of little value, their practice is
+worth attending to; but chiefly because it shows the bad consequences of
+their opinions.' 'From foolish opinion comes foolish conduct; from
+foolish conduct the severest disaster; and from the severest disaster
+the most useful warning. It is from the folly, not from the wisdom, of
+our ancestors that we have so much to learn.'[456] Bentham has become an
+'ancestor,' and may teach us by his errors. Pointed and vigorous as is
+his exposure of many of the sophistries by which Conservatives defended
+gross abuses and twisted the existence of any institution into an
+argument for its value, we get some measure from this of Bentham's view
+of history. In attacking an abuse, he says, we have a right to inquire
+into the utility of any and every arrangement. The purpose of a court of
+justice is to decide litigation; it has to ascertain facts and apply
+rules: does it then ascertain facts by the methods most conducive to the
+discovery of truth? Are the rules needlessly complex, ambiguous,
+calculated to give a chance to knaves, or to the longest purse? If so,
+undoubtedly they are mischievous. Bentham had done inestimable service
+in stripping away all the disguises and technical phrases which had
+evaded the plain issue, and therefore made of the laws an unintelligible
+labyrinth. He proceeded to treat in the same way of government
+generally. Does it work efficiently for its professed ends? Is it worked
+in the interests of the nation, or of a special class, whose interests
+conflict with those of the nation? He treated, that is, of government as
+a man of business might investigate a commercial undertaking. If he
+found that clerks were lazy, ignorant, making money for themselves, or
+bullying and cheating the customers, he would condemn the management.
+Bentham found the 'matchless constitution' precisely in this state. He
+condemned political institutions worked for the benefit of a class, and
+leading, especially in legal matters, to endless abuses and chicanery.
+The abuses everywhere imply 'inequality' in some sense; for they arise
+from monopoly. The man who holds a sinecure, or enjoys a privilege, uses
+it for his own private interest. The 'matter of corruption,' as Bentham
+called it, was provided by the privilege and the sinecure. The Jacobin
+might denounce privileges simply as privileges, and Bentham denounce
+them because they were used by the privileged class for corrupt
+purposes. So far, Bentham and the Jacobins were quite at one. It
+mattered little to the result which argument they preferred to use, and
+without doubt they had a very strong case, and did in fact express a
+demand for justice and for a redress of palpable evils. The difference
+seems to be that in one case the appeal is made in the name of justice
+and equality; in the other case, in the name of benevolence and utility.
+
+The important point here, however, is to understand Bentham's implicit
+assumptions. J. S. Mill, in criticising his master, points out very
+forcibly the defects arising from Bentham's attitude to history. He
+simply continued, as Mill thinks, the hostility with which the critical
+or destructive school of the eighteenth century regarded their
+ancestors. To the revolutionary party history was a record of crimes and
+follies and of little else. The question will meet us again; and here it
+is enough to ask what is the reason of his tacit implication of
+Bentham's position. Bentham's whole aim, as I have tried to show, was to
+be described as the construction of a science of legislation. The
+science, again, was to be purely empirical. It was to rest throughout
+upon the observation of facts. That aim--an admirable aim--runs through
+his whole work and that of his successors. I have noticed, indeed, how
+easily Bentham took for granted that his makeshift classification of
+common motives amounted to a scientific psychology. A similar assumption
+that a rough sketch of a science is the same thing as its definite
+constitution is characteristic of the Utilitarians in general. A
+scientific spirit is most desirable; but the Utilitarians took a very
+short cut to scientific certainty. Though appealing to experience, they
+reach formulae as absolute as any 'intuitionist' could desire. What is
+the logical process implied? To constitute an empirical science is to
+show that the difference between different phenomena is due simply to
+'circumstances.' The explanation of the facts becomes sufficient when
+the 'law' can be stated, as that of a unit of constant properties placed
+in varying positions. This corresponds to the procedure in the physical
+sciences, where the ultimate aim is to represent all laws as
+corresponding to the changes of position of uniform atoms. In social and
+political changes the goal is the same. J. S. Mill states in the end of
+his _Autobiography_[457] that one main purpose of his writing was to
+show that 'differences between individuals, races, or sexes' are due to
+'differences in circumstances.' In fact, this is an aim so
+characteristic from the beginning of the whole school, that it may be
+put down almost as a primary postulate. It was not, indeed, definitely
+formulated; but to 'explain' a social theorem was taken to be the same
+thing as to show how differences of character or conduct could be
+explained by 'circumstance'--meaning by 'circumstance' something not
+given in the agent himself. We have, however, no more right as good
+empiricists to assert than to deny that all difference comes from
+'circumstance.' If we take 'man' as a constant quantity in our
+speculations, it requires at least a great many precautions before we
+can assume that our abstract entity corresponds to a real concrete unit.
+Otherwise we have a short cut to a doctrine of 'equality.' The theory of
+'the rights of man' lays down the formula, and assumes that the facts
+will correspond. The Utilitarian assumes the equality of fact, and of
+course brings out an equally absolute formula. 'Equality,' in some
+sense, is introduced by a side wind, though not explicitly laid down as
+an axiom.[458] This underlying tendency may partly explain the
+coincidence of results--though it would require a good many
+qualifications in detail; but here I need only take Bentham's more or
+less unconscious application.
+
+Bentham's tacit assumption, in fact, is that there is an average 'man.'
+Different specimens of the race, indeed, may vary widely according to
+age, sex, and so forth; but, for purposes of legislation, he may serve
+as a unit. We can assume that he has on the average certain qualities
+from which his actions in the mass can be determined with sufficient
+accuracy, and we are tempted to assume that they are mainly the
+qualities obvious to an inhabitant of Queen's Square Place about the
+year 1800. Mill defends Bentham against the charge that he assumed his
+codes to be good for all men everywhere. To that, says Mill,[459] the
+essay upon the 'Influence of Time and Place in Matters of Legislation'
+is a complete answer. Yet Mill[460] admits in the same breath that
+Bentham omitted all reference to 'national character.' In fact, as we
+have seen, Bentham was ready to legislate for Hindoostan as well as for
+his own parish; and to make codes not only for England, Spain, and
+Russia, but for Morocco. The Essay mentioned really explains the point.
+Bentham not only admitted but asserted as energetically as became an
+empiricist, that we must allow for 'circumstances'; and circumstances
+include not only climate and so forth, but the varying beliefs and
+customs of the people under consideration. The real assumption is that
+all such circumstances are superficial, and can be controlled and
+altered indefinitely by the 'legislator.' The Moor, the Hindoo, and the
+Englishman are all radically identical; and the differences which must
+be taken into account for the moment can be removed by judicious means.
+Without pausing to illustrate this from the Essay, I may remark that for
+many purposes such an assumption is justifiable and guides ordinary
+common sense. If we ask what would be the best constitution for a
+commercial company, or the best platform for a political party, we can
+form a fair guess by arguing from the average of Bentham and his
+contemporaries--especially if we are shrewd attornies or political
+wirepullers. Only we are not therefore in a position to talk about the
+'science of human nature' or to deal with problems of 'sociology.' This,
+however, gives Bentham's 'individualism' in a sense of the phrase
+already explained. He starts from the 'ready-made man,' and deduces all
+institutions or legal arrangements from his properties. I have tried to
+show how naturally this view fell in with the ordinary political
+conceptions of the time. It shows, again, why Bentham disregards
+history. When we have such a science, empirical or _a priori_, history
+is at most of secondary importance. We can deduce all our maxims of
+conduct from the man himself as he is before us. History only shows how
+terribly he blundered in the pre-scientific period. The blunders may
+give us a hint here and there. Man was essentially the same in the first
+and the eighteenth century, and the differences are due to the clumsy
+devices which he made by rule of thumb. We do not want to refer to them
+now, except as illustrations of errors. We may remark how difficult it
+was to count before the present notation was invented; but when it has
+once been invented, we may learn to use it without troubling our heads
+about our ancestors' clumsy contrivances for doing without it. This
+leads to the real shortcoming. There is a point at which the historical
+view becomes important--the point, namely, where it is essential to
+remember that man is not a ready-made article, but the product of a long
+and still continuing 'evolution.' Bentham's attack (in the _Fragment_)
+upon the 'social contract' is significant. He was, no doubt, perfectly
+right in saying that an imaginary contract could add no force to the
+ultimate grounds for the social union. Nobody would now accept the
+fiction in that stage. And yet the 'social contract' may be taken to
+recognise a fact; namely, that the underlying instincts upon which
+society alternately rests correspond to an order of reasons from those
+which determine more superficial relations. Society is undoubtedly
+useful, and its utility may be regarded as its ground. But the utility
+of society means much more than the utility of a railway company or a
+club, which postulates as existing a whole series of already established
+institutions. To Bentham an 'utility' appeared to be a kind of permanent
+and ultimate entity which is the same at all periods--it corresponds to
+a psychological currency of constant value. To show, therefore, that the
+social contract recognises 'utility' is to show that the whole organism
+is constructed just as any particular part is constructed. Man comes
+first and 'society' afterwards. I have already noticed how this applies
+to his statements about the utility of a law; how his argument assumes
+an already constituted society, and seems to overlook the difference
+between the organic law upon which all order essentially depends, and
+some particular modification or corollary which may be superinduced. We
+now have to notice the political version of the same method. The 'law,'
+according to Bentham, is a rule enforced by a 'sanction.' The imposer of
+the rule in the phrase which Hobbes had made famous is the 'sovereign.'
+Hobbes was a favourite author, indeed, of the later Utilitarians, though
+Bentham does not appear to have studied him. The relation is one of
+natural affinity. When in the _Constitutional Code_ Bentham transfers
+the 'sovereignty' from the king to the 'people,'[461] he shows the
+exact difference between his doctrine and that of the _Leviathan_. Both
+thinkers are absolutists in principle, though Hobbes gives to a monarch
+the power which Bentham gives to a democracy. The attributes remain
+though their subject is altered. The 'sovereign,' in fact, is the
+keystone of the whole Utilitarian system. He represents the ultimate
+source of all authority, and supplies the motive for all obedience. As
+Hobbes put it, he is a kind of mortal God.
+
+Mill's criticism of Bentham suggests the consequences. There are, he
+says,[462] three great questions: What government is for the good of the
+people? How are they to be induced to obey it? How is it to be made
+responsible? The third question, he says, is the only one seriously
+considered by Bentham; and Bentham's answer, we have seen, leads to that
+'tyranny of the majority' which was Mill's great stumbling-block. Why,
+then, does Bentham omit the other questions? or rather, how would he
+answer them? for he certainly assumes an answer. People, in the first
+place, are 'induced to obey' by the sanctions. They don't rob that they
+may not go to prison. That is a sufficient answer at a given moment. It
+assumes, indeed, that the law will be obeyed. The policeman, the gaoler,
+and the judge will do what the sovereign--whether despot or
+legislature--orders them to do. The jurist may naturally take this for
+granted. He does not go 'behind the law.' That is the law which the
+sovereign has declared to be the law. In that sense, the sovereign is
+omnipotent. He can, as a fact, threaten evildoers with the gallows; and
+the jurist simply takes the fact for granted, and assumes that the
+coercion is an ultimate fact. No doubt it is ultimate for the individual
+subject. The immediate restraint is the policeman, and we need not ask
+upon what does the policeman depend. If, however, we persist in asking,
+we come to the historical problems which Bentham simply omits. The law
+itself, in fact, ultimately rests upon 'custom,'--upon the whole system
+of instincts, beliefs, and passions which induce people to obey
+government, and are, so to speak, the substance out of which loyalty and
+respect for the law is framed. These, again, are the product of an
+indefinitely long elaboration, which Bentham takes for granted. He
+assumes as perfectly natural and obvious that a number of men should
+meet, as the Americans or Frenchmen met, and create a constitution. That
+the possibility of such a proceeding involves centuries of previous
+training does not occur to him. It is assumed that the constitution can
+be made out of hand, and this assumption is of the highest importance,
+not only historically, but for immediate practice. Mill assumes too
+easily that Bentham has secured responsibility. Bentham assumes that an
+institution will work as it is intended to work--perhaps the commonest
+error of constitution-mongers. If the people use the instruments which
+he provides, they have a legal method for enforcing obedience. To infer
+that they will do so is to infer that all the organic instincts will
+operate precisely as he intends; that each individual, for example, will
+form an independent opinion upon legislative questions, vote for men who
+will apply his opinions, and see that his representatives perform his
+bidding honestly. That they should do so is essential to his scheme; but
+that they will do so is what he takes for granted. He assumes, that is,
+that there is no need for inquiring into the social instincts which lie
+beneath all political action. You can make your machine and assume the
+moving force. That is the natural result of considering political and
+legislative problems without taking into account the whole character of
+the human materials employed in the construction. Bentham's sovereign is
+thus absolute. He rules by coercion, as a foreign power may rule by the
+sword in a conquered province. Thus, force is the essence of government,
+and it is needless to go further. To secure the right application of the
+force, we have simply to distribute it among the subjects. Government
+still means coercion, and ultimately nothing else; but then, as the
+subjects are simply moved by their own interests, that is, by utility,
+they will apply the power to secure those interests. Therefore, all that
+is wanted is this distribution, and Mill's first problem, What
+government is for the good of the people? is summarily answered. The
+question, how obedience is to be secured, is evaded by confining the
+answer to the 'sanctions,' and taking for granted that the process of
+distributing power is perfectly simple, or that a new order can be
+introduced as easily as parliament can pass an act for establishing a
+new police in London. The 'social contract' is abolished; but it is
+taken for granted that the whole power of the sovereign can be
+distributed, and rules made for its application by the common sense of
+the various persons interested. Finally, the one bond outside of the
+individual is the sovereign. He represents all that holds society
+together; his 'sanctions,' as I have said, are taken to be on the same
+plane with the 'moral sanctions'--not dependent upon them, but other
+modes of applying similar motives. As the sovereign, again, is in a
+sense omnipotent, and yet can be manufactured, so to speak, by voluntary
+arrangements among the individual members of society, there is no limit
+to the influence which he may exercise. I note, indeed, that I am
+speaking rather of the tendencies of the theory than of definitely
+formulated conclusions. Most of the Utilitarians were exceedingly
+shrewd, practical people, whose regard for hard facts imposed limits
+upon their speculations. They should have been the last people to
+believe too implicitly in the magical efficacy of political
+contrivances, for they were fully aware that many men are knaves and
+most men fools. They probably put little faith in Bentham's Utopia,
+except as a remote ideal, and an ideal of unimaginative minds. The
+Utopia was constructed on 'individualist' principles, because common
+sense naturally approves individualism. The whole social and political
+order is clearly the sum of the individuals, who combine to form an
+aggregate; and theories about social bonds take one to the mystical and
+sentimental. The absolute tendency is common to Bentham and the
+Jacobins. Whether the individual be taken as a unit of constant
+properties, or as the subject of absolute rights, we reach equally
+absolute conclusions. When all the social and political regulations are
+regarded as indefinitely modifiable, the ultimate laws come to depend
+upon the absolute framework of unalterable fact. This, again, is often
+the right point of view for immediate questions in which we may take for
+granted that the average individual is in fact constant; and, as I have
+said in regard to Bentham's legislative process, leads to very relevant
+and important, though not ultimate, questions. But there are certain
+other results which require to be noticed. 'Individualism,' like other
+words that have become watchwords of controversy, has various shades of
+meaning, and requires a little more definition.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[434] _Works_, v. 97, etc.
+
+[435] See preface to _Constitutional Code_ in vol. ix.
+
+[436] Bentham's nephew, George, who died when approaching his
+eighty-fourth birthday, devoted the last twenty-five years of his life
+with equal assiduity to his _Genera Plantarum_. See a curious anecdote
+of his persistence in the _Dictionary of National Biography_.
+
+[437] _Works_, iii. 573.
+
+[438] _Works_, ix. 5, 8.
+
+[439] The theory, as Mill reminds us, had been very pointedly
+anticipated by Helvetius. Bentham's practical experience, however, had
+forced it upon his attention.
+
+[440] _Works_, ix. 141. The general principle, however, is confirmed by
+the case of George III.
+
+[441] _Ibid._ ix. 45.
+
+[442] _Ibid._ ix. 98.
+
+[443] _Works_, ix. 98.
+
+[444] e.g. _Ibid._ ix. 38, 50, 63, 99, etc.
+
+[445] _Ibid._ ('Plan of Parliamentary Reform,') iii. 463.
+
+[446] _Works_, ix. 594.
+
+[447] _Ibid._ ix. 62.
+
+[448] _Ibid._ ix. 24.
+
+[449] _Ibid._ ix. 48.
+
+[450] _Dissertations_, i. 377.
+
+[451] _Works_, ii. 497.
+
+[452] _Ibid._ ii. 501.
+
+[453] _Ibid._ ii. 503.
+
+[454] _Justice_, p. 264; so Price, in his _Observations on Liberty_,
+lays it down that government is never to entrench upon private liberty,
+'except so far as private liberty entrenches on the liberty of others.'
+
+[455] _Works_, ii. 506.
+
+[456] _Works_, ii. 401.
+
+[457] _Autobiography_, p. 274.
+
+[458] Hobbes, in the _Leviathan_ (chap. xiii.), has in the same way to
+argue for the _de facto_ equality of men.
+
+[459] _Dissertations_, i. 375.
+
+[460] I remark by anticipation that this expression implies a reference
+to Mill's _Ethology_, of which I shall have to speak.
+
+[461] _Works_, ix. 96, 113.
+
+[462] _Dissertations_, i. 376.
+
+
+VII. INDIVIDUALISM
+
+'Individualism' in the first place is generally mentioned in a different
+connection. The 'ready-made' man of whom I have spoken becomes the
+'economic man.' Bentham himself contributed little to economic theory.
+His most important writing was the _Defence of Usury_, and in this, as
+we have seen, he was simply adding a corollary to the _Wealth of
+Nations_. The _Wealth of Nations_ itself represented the spirit of
+business; the revolt of men who were building up a vast industrial
+system against the fetters imposed by traditional legislation and by
+rulers who regarded industry in general, as Telford is said to have
+regarded rivers. Rivers were meant to supply canals, and trade to supply
+tax-gatherers. With this revolt, of course, Bentham was in full
+sympathy, but here I shall only speak of one doctrine of great interest,
+which occurs both in his political treatises and his few economical
+remarks. Bentham objected, as we have seen, to the abstract theory of
+equality; yet it was to the mode of deduction rather than to the
+doctrine itself which he objected. He gave, in fact, his own defence;
+and it is one worth notice.[463] The principle of equality is
+derivative, not ultimate. Equality is good because equality increases
+the sum of happiness. Thus, as he says,[464] if two men have L1000, and
+you transfer L500 from one to the other, you increase the recipient's
+wealth by one-third, and diminish the loser's wealth by one-half. You
+therefore add less pleasure than you subtract. The principle is given
+less mathematically[465] by the more significant argument that
+'felicity' depends not simply on the 'matter of felicity' or the
+stimulus, but also on the sensibility to felicity which is necessarily
+limited. Therefore by adding wealth--taking, for example, from a
+thousand labourers to give to one king--you are supersaturating a
+sensibility already glutted by taking away from others a great amount of
+real happiness. With this argument, which has of late years become
+conspicuous in economics, he connects another of primary importance. The
+first condition of happiness, he says, is not 'equality' but 'security.'
+Now you can only equalise at the expense of security. If I am to have my
+property taken away whenever it is greater than my neighbour's, I can
+have no security.[466] Hence, if the two principles conflict, equality
+should give way. Security is the primary, which must override the
+secondary, aim. Must the two principles, then, always conflict? No; but
+'time is the only mediator.'[467] The law may help to accumulate
+inequalities; but in a prosperous state there is a 'continual progress
+towards equality.' The law has to stand aside; not to maintain
+monopolies; not to restrain trade; not to permit entails; and then
+property will diffuse itself by a natural process, already exemplified
+in the growth of Europe. The 'pyramids' heaped up in feudal times have
+been lowered, and their '_debris_ spread abroad' among the industrious.
+Here again we see how Bentham virtually diverges from the _a priori_
+school. Their absolute tendencies would introduce 'equality' by force;
+he would leave it to the spontaneous progress of security. Hence Bentham
+is in the main an adherent of what he calls[468] the '_laissez-nous
+faire_' principle. He advocates it most explicitly in the so-called
+_Manual of Political Economy_--a short essay first printed in 1798.[469]
+The tract, however, such as it is, is less upon political economy proper
+than upon economic legislation; and its chief conclusion is that almost
+all legislation is improper. His main principle is 'Be quiet' (the
+equivalent of the French phrase, which surely should have been excluded
+from so English a theory). Security and freedom are all that industry
+requires; and industry should say to government only what Diogenes said
+to Alexander, 'Stand out of my sunshine.'[470]
+
+Once more, however, Bentham will not lay down the 'let alone' principle
+absolutely. His adherence to the empirical method is too decided. The
+doctrine 'be quiet,' though generally true, rests upon utility, and may,
+therefore, always be qualified by proving that in a particular case the
+balance of utility is the other way. In fact, some of Bentham's
+favourite projects would be condemned by an absolute adherent of the
+doctrine. The Panopticon, for example, though a 'mill to grind rogues
+honest' could be applied to others than rogues, and Bentham hoped to
+make his machinery equally effective in the case of pauperism. A system
+of national education is also included in his ideal constitution. It is,
+in fact, important to remember that the 'individualism' of Benthamism
+does not necessarily coincide with an absolute restriction of government
+interference. The general tendency was in that direction; and in purely
+economical questions, scarcely any exception was admitted to the rule.
+Men are the best judges, it was said, of their own interest; and the
+interference of rulers in a commercial transaction is the interference
+of people inferior in knowledge of the facts, and whose interests are
+'sinister' or inconsistent with those of the persons really concerned.
+Utility, therefore, will, as a rule, forbid the action of government:
+but, as utility is always the ultimate principle, and there may be cases
+in which it does not coincide with the 'let alone' principle, we must
+always admit the possibility that in special cases government can
+interfere usefully, and, in that case, approve the interference.
+
+Hence we have the ethical application of these theories. The
+individualist position naturally tends to take the form of egoism. The
+moral sentiments, whatever they may be, are clearly an intrinsic part of
+the organic social instincts. They are intimately involved in the whole
+process of social evolution. But this view corresponds precisely to the
+conditions which Bentham overlooks. The individual is already there. The
+moral and the legal sanctions are 'external'; something imposed by the
+action of others; corresponding to 'coercion,' whether by physical force
+or the dread of public opinion; and, in any case, an accretion or
+addition, not a profound modification of his whole nature. The
+Utilitarian 'man' therefore inclines to consider other people as merely
+parts of the necessary machinery. Their feelings are relevant only as
+influencing their outward conduct. If a man gives me a certain 'lot' of
+pain or pleasure, it does not matter what may be his motives. The
+'motive' for all conduct corresponds in all cases to the pain or
+pleasure accruing to the agent. It is true that his happiness will be
+more or less affected by his relations to others. But as conduct is
+ruled by a calculation of the balance of pains or pleasures dependent
+upon any course of action, it simplifies matters materially, if each man
+regards his neighbour's feelings simply as instrumental, not
+intrinsically interesting. And thus the coincidence between that conduct
+which maximises my happiness and that conduct which maximises happiness
+in general, must be regarded as more or less accidental or liable in
+special cases to disappear. If I am made happier by action which makes
+others miserable, the rule of utility will lead to my preference of
+myself.
+
+Here we have the question whether the Utilitarian system be essentially
+a selfish system. Bentham, with his vague psychology, does not lay down
+the doctrine absolutely. After giving this list of self-regarding
+'springs of action,' he proceeds to add the pleasures and pains of
+'sympathy' and 'antipathy' which, he says, are not self-regarding.
+Moreover, as we have seen, he has some difficulty in denying that
+'benevolence' is a necessarily moral motive: it is only capable of
+prompting to bad conduct in so far as it is insufficiently enlightened;
+and it is clear that a moralist who makes the 'greatest happiness of the
+greatest number' his universal test, has some reason for admitting as an
+elementary pleasure the desire for the greatest happiness. This comes
+out curiously in the _Constitutional Code_. He there lays down the
+'self-preference principle'--the principle, namely, that 'every human
+being' is determined in every action by his judgment of what will
+produce the greatest happiness to himself, 'whatsoever be the effect ...
+in relation to the happiness of other similar beings, any or all of them
+taken together.'[471] Afterwards, however, he observes that it is 'the
+constant and arduous task of every moralist' and of every legislator who
+deserves the name to 'increase the influence of sympathy at the expense
+of that of self-regard and of sympathy for the greater number at the
+expense of sympathy for the lesser number.'[472] He tries to reconcile
+these views by the remark 'that even sympathy has its root in
+self-regard,' and he argues, as Mr. Herbert Spencer has done more fully,
+that if Adam cared only for Eve and Eve only for Adam--neither caring at
+all for himself or herself--both would perish in less than a year.
+Self-regard, that is, is essential, and sympathy supposes its existence.
+Hence Bentham puts himself through a catechism.[473] What is the 'best'
+government? That which causes the greatest happiness of the given
+community. What community? 'Any community, which is as much as to say,
+every community.' But _why_ do you desire this happiness? Because the
+establishment of that happiness would contribute to _my_ greatest
+happiness. And _how_ do you prove that you desire this result? By my
+labours to obtain it, replies Bentham. This oddly omits the more obvious
+question, how can you be sure that your happiness will be promoted by
+the greatest happiness of all? What if the two criteria differ? I desire
+the general happiness, he might have replied, because my benevolence is
+an original or elementary instinct which can override my self-love; or
+I desire it, he would perhaps have said, because I know as a fact that
+the happiness of others will incidentally contribute to my own. The
+first answer would fall in with some of his statements; but the second
+is, as I think must be admitted, more in harmony with his system.
+Perhaps, indeed, the most characteristic thing is Bentham's failure to
+discuss explicitly the question whether human action is or is not
+necessarily 'selfish.' He tells us in regard to the 'springs of action'
+that all human action is always 'interested,' but explains that
+the word properly includes actions in which the motive is not
+'self-regarding.'[474] It merely means, in fact, that all conduct has
+motives. The statement, which I have quoted about the 'self-preference'
+principle may only mean a doctrine which is perfectly compatible with a
+belief in 'altruism'--the doctrine, namely, that as a fact most people
+are chiefly interested by their own affairs. The legislator, he tells
+us, should try to increase sympathy, but the less he takes sympathy for
+the 'basis of his arrangements'--that is, the less call he makes upon
+purely unselfish motives--the greater will be his success.[475] This is
+a shrewd and, I should say, a very sound remark, but it implies--not
+that all motives are selfish in the last analysis, but--that the
+legislation should not assume too exalted a level of ordinary morality.
+The utterances in the very unsatisfactory _Deontology_ are of little
+value, and seem to imply a moral sentiment corresponding to a petty form
+of commonplace prudence.[476]
+
+Leaving this point, however, the problem necessarily presented itself
+to Bentham in a form in which selfishness is the predominating force,
+and any recognition of independent benevolence rather an incumbrance
+than a help. If we take the 'self-preference principle' absolutely, the
+question becomes how a multitude of individuals, each separately
+pursuing his own happiness, can so arrange matters that their joint
+action may secure the happiness of all. Clearly a man, however selfish,
+has an interest generally in putting down theft and murder. He is
+already provided with a number of interests to which security, at least,
+and therefore a regular administration of justice, is essential. His
+shop could not be carried on without the police; and he may agree to pay
+the expenses, even if others reap the benefit in greater proportion. A
+theory of legislation, therefore, which supposes ready formed all the
+instincts which make a decent commercial society possible can do without
+much reference to sympathy or altruism. Bentham's man is not the
+colourless unit of _a priori_ writing, nor the noble savage of Rousseau,
+but the respectable citizen with a policeman round the corner. Such a
+man may well hold that honesty is the best policy; he has enough
+sympathy to be kind to his old mother, and help a friend in distress;
+but the need of romantic and elevated conduct rarely occurs to him; and
+the heroic, if he meets it, appears to him as an exception, not far
+removed from the silly. He does not reflect--especially if he cares
+nothing for history--how even the society in which he is a contented
+unit has been built up, and how much loyalty and heroism has been needed
+for the work; nor even, to do him justice, what unsuspected capacities
+may lurk in his own commonplace character. The really characteristic
+point is, however, that Bentham does not clearly face the problem. He is
+content to take for granted as an ultimate fact that the self-interest
+principle in the long run coincides with the greatest 'happiness'
+principle, and leaves the problem to his successors. There we shall meet
+it again.
+
+Finally, Bentham's view of religion requires a word. The short reply,
+however, would be sufficient, that he did not believe in any theology,
+and was in the main indifferent to the whole question till it
+encountered him in political matters. His first interest apparently was
+roused by the educational questions which I have noticed, and the
+proposal to teach the catechism. Bentham, remembering the early bullying
+at Oxford, examines the catechism; and argues in his usual style that to
+enforce it is to compel children to tell lies. But this leads him to
+assail the church generally; and he regards the church simply as a part
+of the huge corrupt machinery which elsewhere had created Judge and Co.
+He states many facts about non-residence and bloated bishoprics which
+had a very serious importance; and he then asks how the work might be
+done more cheaply. As a clergyman's only duty is to read weekly services
+and preach sermons, he suggests (whether seriously may be doubted) that
+this might be done as well by teaching a parish boy to read properly,
+and provide him with the prayer-book and the homilies.[477] A great deal
+of expense would be saved. This, again, seems to have led him to attack
+St. Paul, whom he took to be responsible for dogmatic theology, and
+therefore for the catechism; and he cross-examines the apostle, and
+confronts his various accounts of the conversion with a keenness worthy
+of a professional lawyer. In one of the MSS. at University College the
+same method is applied to the gospels. Bentham was clearly not capable
+of anticipating Renan. From these studies he was led to the far more
+interesting book, published under the name of _Philip Beauchamp_.
+Bentham supplied the argument in part; but to me it seems clear that it
+owes so much to the editor, Grote, that it may more fitly be discussed
+hereafter.
+
+The limitations and defects of Bentham's doctrine have been made
+abundantly evident by later criticism. They were due partly to his
+personal character, and partly to the intellectual and special
+atmosphere in which he was brought up. But it is more important to
+recognise the immense real value of his doctrine. Briefly, I should say,
+that there is hardly an argument in Bentham's voluminous writings which
+is not to the purpose so far as it goes. Given his point of view, he is
+invariably cogent and relevant. And, moreover, that is a point of view
+which has to be taken. No ethical or political doctrine can, as I hold,
+be satisfactory which does not find a place for Bentham, though he was
+far, indeed, from giving a complete theory of his subject. And the main
+reason of this is that which I have already indicated. Bentham's whole
+life was spent in the attempt to create a science of legislation. Even
+where he is most tiresome, there is a certain interest in his unflagging
+working out of every argument, and its application to all conceivable
+cases. It is all genuine reasoning; and throughout it is dominated by a
+respect for good solid facts. His hatred of 'vague generalities'[478]
+means that he will be content with no formula which cannot be
+interpreted in terms of definite facts. The resolution to insist upon
+this should really be characteristic of every writer upon similar
+subjects, and no one ever surpassed Bentham in attention to it. Classify
+and re-classify, to make sure that at every point your classes
+correspond to realities. In the effort to carry out these principles,
+Bentham at least brought innumerable questions to a sound test, and
+exploded many pestilent fallacies. If he did not succeed further, if
+whole spheres of thought remained outside of his vision, it was because
+in his day there was not only no science of 'sociology' or
+psychology--there are no such sciences now--but no adequate perception
+of the vast variety of investigation which would be necessary to lay a
+basis for them. But the effort to frame a science is itself valuable,
+indeed of surpassing value, so far as it is combined with a genuine
+respect for facts. It is common enough to attempt to create a science by
+inventing technical terminology. Bentham tried the far wider and far
+more fruitful method of a minute investigation of particular facts. His
+work, therefore, will stand, however different some of the results may
+appear when fitted into a different framework. And, therefore, however
+crudely and imperfectly, Bentham did, as I believe, help to turn
+speculation into a true and profitable channel. Of that, more will
+appear hereafter; but, if any one doubts Bentham's services, I will only
+suggest to him to compare Bentham with any of his British
+contemporaries, and to ask where he can find anything at all comparable
+to his resolute attempt to bring light and order into a chaotic infusion
+of compromise and prejudice.
+
+NOTES:
+
+[463] _Works_, 'Civil Code' (from Dumont), i. 302, 305; _Ibid._
+('Principles of Constitutional Code') ii. 271; _Ibid._ ('Constitutional
+Code') ix. 15-18.
+
+[464] _Works_, i. 306 _n._
+
+[465] _Ibid._ ix. 15.
+
+[466] _Ibid._ ('Principles of Penal Code') i. 311.
+
+[467] _Ibid._ i. 312.
+
+[468] _Works_, x. 440.
+
+[469] _Ibid._ iii. 33, etc.
+
+[470] _Ibid._ iii. 35.
+
+[471] _Works_, ix. 5.
+
+[472] _Ibid._ ix. 192.
+
+[473] _Ibid._ ix. 7.
+
+[474] _Works_, i. 212.
+
+[475] _Ibid._ ix. 192.
+
+[476] See, _e.g._, i. 83, where sympathy seems to be taken as an
+ultimate pleasure; and ii. 133, where he says 'dream not that men will
+move their little finger to serve you unless their advantage in so doing
+be obvious to them.' See also the apologue of 'Walter Wise,' who becomes
+Lord Mayor, and 'Timothy Thoughtless,' who ends at Botany Bay (i. 118),
+giving the lowest kind of prudential morality. The manuscript of the
+_Deontology_, now in University College, London, seems to prove that
+Bentham was substantially the author, though the Mills seem to have
+suspected Bowring of adulterating the true doctrine. He appears to have
+been an honest if not very intelligent editor; though the rewriting,
+necessary in all Bentham's works, was damaging in this case; and he is
+probably responsible for some rhetorical amplification, especially in
+the later part.
+
+[477] _Church of Englandism_ (Catechism examined), p. 207.
+
+[478] See this phrase expounded in _Works_ ('Book of Fallacies'), ii.
+440, etc.
+
+END OF VOL. I
+
+
+
+
+NOTE ON BENTHAM'S WRITINGS
+
+
+The following account of Bentham's writings may be of some use. The
+arrangement is intended to show what were the topics which attracted his
+attention at successive periods.
+
+The collected _Works_, edited by Bowring, appeared from 1838 to 1843 in
+eleven volumes, the last two containing the life and an elaborate index.
+The first nine volumes consist partly of the works already published;
+partly of works published for the first time from Bentham's MSS.; and
+partly of versions of Dumont's redactions of Bentham. Dumont's
+publications were (1) _Traites de Legislation civile et penale_ (1802;
+second edition, revised, 1820): [vol. i. contains _Principes generaux de
+Legislation_ and _Principes du Code civil_; vol. ii. _Principes du Code
+penal_; and vol. iii. _Memoire sur le Panoptique_, _De la Promulgation
+des Lois_, _De l'Influence du Temps et des Lieux_, and _Vue generale
+d'un Corps complet des Lois_]; (2) _Theorie des Peines et des
+Recompenses_, 1811, 1818, 1825; (3) _Tactiques des Assemblees
+deliberantes et Traite des Sophismes politiques_, 1816; (4) _Traite des
+Preuves judiciaires_, 1823; and (5) _De l'Organisation judiciaire et de
+la Codification_, 1823.
+
+In the following I give references to the place of each work in
+Bowring's edition.
+
+Bentham's first book was the _Fragment on Government_, 1776 (i.
+221-295). An interesting 'historical preface,' intended for a second
+edition (i. 240-259), was first printed in 1828. The _Fragment_, edited
+by Mr. F. C. Montague, was republished in 1891.
+
+The _Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation_ was
+published in 1789, in one vol. 4to (i. 1-154). It had been printed in
+1780. A second edition, in two vols. 8vo, appeared in 1823. It was
+intended as an introduction to the plan of a penal code. Bentham says in
+his preface that his scheme would be completed by a series of works
+applying his principles to (1) civil law; (2) penal law; (3) procedure;
+(4) reward; (5) constitutional law; (6) political tactics; (7)
+international law; (8) finance; and (9) political economy, and by a
+tenth treatise giving a plan of a body of law 'considered in respect of
+its form,' that is, upon 'nomography.' He wrote more or less in the
+course of his life upon all these topics. Dumont's _Traites_ of 1802
+were based partly upon the _Introduction_ and partly upon Bentham's MSS.
+corresponding to unfinished parts of this general scheme.
+
+The two first sections of this scheme are represented in the _Works_ by
+_Principles of the Civil Code_ (i. 297-364) and _Principles of Penal
+Law_ (i. 365-580). The _Principles of the Civil Code_ is translated from
+Dumont's _Traites_, where it follows a condensed statement of 'general
+principles' taken from the opening chapters of the _Introduction_. An
+appendix 'on the levelling system' is added in the _Works_ from
+Bentham's MSS. The _Principles of Penal Law_ consists of three parts:
+the first and third (on 'political remedies for the evil of offences'
+and on 'indirect means of preventing crimes') are translated from parts
+2 and 4 of Dumont's _Principes du Code penal_ (parts 1 and 3 of Dumont
+being adaptations from the _Introduction to Morals and Legislation_).
+The second part of the _Penal Law_, or _The Rationale of Punishment_ is
+from Dumont's _Theorie des Peines et des Recompenses_. Dumont took it
+from a MS. written by Bentham in 1775. (See Bentham's _Works_, i. 388.)
+An appendix on 'Death Punishment,' addressed by Bentham to the French
+people in 1830, is added to Part II. in the _Works_ (i. 525-532). No. 4
+of Bentham's general scheme corresponds to the _Rationale of Reward_,
+founded upon two MSS., one in French and one in English, used by Dumont
+in the _Theorie des Peines et des Recompenses_. The English version in
+the _Works_, chiefly translated from Dumont and compared with the
+original manuscript, was first published in 1825 (ii. 189-266). Richard
+Smith 'of the Stamps and Taxes' was the editor of this and of an edition
+of the _Rationale of Punishment_ in 1831, and of various minor
+treatises. (Bentham's _Works_, x. 548 _n._)
+
+The _Table of the Springs of Action_ (i. 195-220), written at an early
+period, was printed in 1815, and published, with modifications, in 1817.
+The _Vue generale_ included in the _Traites_ of 1802 was intended by
+Bentham as a sketch for his own guidance, and is translated as _View of
+a Complete Code of Laws_ in the _Works_ (iii. 154-210). The two essays
+in the 1802 _Traites_ on 'the promulgation of laws' and the 'influence
+of time and place in matters of legislation' are translated in _Works_
+(i. 157-194). A fragment on _International Law_--a phrase invented by
+Bentham--written between 1786 and 1789, first appeared in the _Works_
+(ii. 535-571), with _Junctiana proposal_--a plan for a canal between the
+Atlantic and the Pacific--written in 1822, as an appendix.
+
+Besides the above, all written before 1789 in pursuance of his scheme,
+Bentham had published in 1778 his _View of the Hard Labour Bill_ (iv.
+1-36); and in 1787 his _Defence of Usury_ (iii. 1-29). A third edition
+of the last (with the 'protest against law taxes') was published in
+1816.
+
+During the following period (1789-1802) Bentham wrote various books,
+more or less suggested by the French revolution. The _Essay on Political
+Tactics_ (ii. 299-373), (corresponding to No. 6 of the scheme), was sent
+to Morellet in 1789, but first published by Dumont in 1816. With it
+Dumont also published the substance of the _Anarchical Fallacies_ (ii.
+489-534), written about 1791. A _Draught of a Code for the Organisation
+of the Judicial Establishment of France_, dated March 1790, is reprinted
+in _Works_ iv. 285-406. _Truth v. Ashhurst_, written in 1792 (v.
+231-237), was first published in 1823. A _Manual of Political Economy_,
+written by 1793 (see _Works_, iii. 73 _n._), corresponds to No. 9 of his
+scheme. A chapter appeared in the _Bibliotheque Britannique_ in 1798. It
+was partly used in Dumont's _Theorie des Recompenses_, and first
+published in English in _Works_ (iii. 31-84). _Emancipate your
+Colonies_ (iv. 407-481) was privately printed in 1793, and first
+published for sale in 1830. A _Protest against Law Taxes_, printed in
+1793, was published in 1795 together with _Supply without Burthen, or
+Escheat vice Taxation_, written in 1794. To them is appended a short
+paper called _Tax with Monopoly_ (ii. 573-600). _A Plan for saving all
+Trouble and Expense in the Transfer of Stock_, written and partly
+printed in 1800, was first published in _Works_ (iii. 105-153).
+
+During this period Bentham was also occupied with the Panopticon, and
+some writings refer to it. _The Panopticon, or the Inspection House_
+(iv. 37-172), written in 1787, was published in 1791. _The Panopticon
+versus New South Wales_ (iv. 173-248) appeared in 1802; and _A Plea for
+the Constitution_ (on transportation to New South Wales) (iv. 249-284),
+in 1803. Closely connected with these are _Poor-laws and Pauper
+Management_ (viii. 358-461), reprinted from Arthur Young's _Annals_ of
+September 1797 and following months; and _Observations on the Poor Bill_
+(viii. 440-459), written in February 1797, privately printed in 1838,
+and first published in the _Works_.
+
+About 1802 Bentham returned to jurisprudence. James Mill prepared from
+the papers then written an _Introductory View of the Rationale of
+Evidence_, finished and partly printed in 1812 (see _Works_, x. 468 _n._
+and Bain's _James Mill_, 105, 120). Dumont's _Traite des Preuves
+judiciaires_ (1823) was a redaction of the original papers, and an
+English translation of this appeared in 1825. The parts referring to
+English Law were omitted. The _Rationale of Evidence_ (5 vols. 8vo,
+1827), edited by J. S. Mill, represents a different and fuller redaction
+of the same papers. It is reprinted in vols. vi. and vii. of the _Works_
+with the _Introductory View_ (now first published) prefixed. To the same
+period belongs _Scotch Reform_, with a _Summary View of a Plan for a
+Judicatory_, 1808 (second edition 1811, v. 1-60).
+
+After 1808 Bentham's attention was especially drawn to political
+questions. His _Catechism of Parliamentary Reform_ (iii. 433-557),
+written in 1809, was first published with a long 'introduction' in the
+_Pamphleteer_ for January 1817. Bentham's _Radical Reform Bill, with
+explanations_ (iii. 558-597) followed in December 1819. _Radicalism not
+dangerous_ (iii. 598-622), written at the same time, first appeared in
+the _Works_ (iii. 398-622). _Elements of the Art of Packing as applied
+to Special Juries, especially in Cases of Libel Law_ (v. 61-186),
+written in 1809, was published in 1821. _Swear not at all_ (v. 188-229)
+(referring chiefly to Oxford tests), written in 1813, was published in
+1817. _The King against Edmonds_ and _The King against Wolseley_ (v.
+239-261) were published in 1820. _Official Aptitude minimized; Official
+Expense limited_ (v. 263-286), is a series of papers, first collected in
+1831. It contains a _Defence of Economy against Burke_, and a _Defence
+of Economy against George Rose_, both written in 1810, and published in
+the _Pamphleteer_ in 1817, with _Observations_ on a speech by Peel in
+1825, and _Indications respecting Lord Eldon_. The two last appeared in
+1825. Connected with these political writings is the _Book of Fallacies_
+(ii. 375-488), edited by Bingham in 1824, from the 'most unfinished of
+all Bentham's writings.' Allusions seem to show that the original MSS.
+were written from 1810 to 1819. It was partly published by Dumont with
+the _Tactique, etc._
+
+Bentham, during this period (1808-1820), was also led into various
+outlying questions. _The Pannomial Fragments_, _Nomography_, and
+_Appendix on Logical Arrangements employed by Jeremy Bentham_ (iii.
+211-295) were first published in the _Works_ from MSS. written from 1813
+to 1831. With the _Chrestomathia_ (viii. 1-192), first published in
+1816, are connected fragments upon 'Ontology,' 'Language,' and
+'Universal Grammar' (viii. 193-358), first published in _Works_ from
+fragments of MSS. of 1813 and later. George Bentham's _Outline of a New
+System of Logic_ was partly founded upon his uncle's papers. Bentham at
+the Ford Abbey time (1814-1818) was also writing his _Church of
+Englandism and its Catechism examined_, 1818. The _Analysis of the
+Influence of Natural Religion upon the Temporal Happiness of Mankind_,
+by Philip Beauchamp, edited by George Grote, appeared in 1822; and _Not
+Paul but Jesus_, by Gamaliel Smith, in 1823. Francis Place helped in
+preparing this at Ford Abbey in 1817 (Mr. Wallas's _Life of Place_, p.
+83). _Mother Church of England relieved by Bleeding_ (1823) and the
+_Book of Church Reform_ (1831) are extracted from _Church of
+Englandism_. Bowring did not admit these works to his collection.
+
+In his later years (1820-1832) Bentham began to be specially occupied
+with codification. _Papers upon Codification and Public Instruction_
+(iv. 451-534) consist chiefly of letters, written from 1811 to 1815,
+offering himself for employment in codification in America and Russia,
+and first published in 1817. In 1821 appeared _Three Tracts relating to
+Spanish and Portuguese Affairs, with a Continual Eye to English ones_;
+and in 1822 _Three Letters to Count Toreno on the proposed Penal Code_
+(in Spain) (viii. 460-554). A short tract on _Liberty of the Press_ was
+addressed to the Spanish people in 1821 (ii. 275-299). _Codification
+Proposals_ (iv. 535-594) appeared in 1823, offering to prepare an
+'all-comprehensive code of law' for 'any nation professing liberal
+opinions.' _Securities against Misrule addressed to a Mahommedan State,
+and prepared with a special Reference to Tripoli_, written in 1822-23,
+was first published in the _Works_ (viii. 551-600). A tract on the
+_Leading Principles of a Constitutional Code_ (ii. 267-274) appeared in
+the _Pamphleteer_ in 1823. The first volume of the _Constitutional
+Code_, printed in 1827, was published with the first chapter of the
+second volume in 1830. The whole book, edited by R. Doane from papers
+written between 1818 and 1832, was published in 1841, and forms volume
+ix. of the _Works_. Doane also edited _Principles of Judicial Procedure_
+(ii. 1-188) from papers written chiefly from 1820 to 1827, though part
+had been written in 1802. Several thousand pages upon this subject--the
+third part of the original scheme--were left by Bentham at his death.
+
+During his last years Bentham also wrote a _Commentary on Mr. Humphrey's
+Real Property Code_, published in the _Westminster Review_ for October
+1826 (v. 387-416); _Justice and Codification Petitions_ (v. 437-548),
+printed in 1829; _Jeremy Bentham to his Fellow-Citizens in France on
+Houses of Peers and Senates_ (iv. 419-450), dated 15th October 1830;
+_Equity Dispatch Court Proposals_ (iii. 297-432), first published in
+_Works_ and written from 1829 to 1831; _Outline of a Plan of a General
+Register of Real Property_ (v. 417-435), published in the Report of the
+Real Property Commission in 1832; and _Lord Brougham Displayed_ (v.
+549-612), 1832.
+
+The _Deontology_ or _Science of Morality_ was published by Bowring in
+two vols. 8vo in 1834, but omitted from the _Works_, as the original
+edition was not exhausted. The MS. preserved at University College,
+London, shows that a substantial beginning had been made in 1814; most
+of the remainder about 1820. The second volume, made, as Bowring says,
+from a number of scraps, is probably more 'Bowringised' than the first.
+
+Dumont's _Traites_ were translated into Spanish in 1821, and the _Works_
+in 1841-43. There are also Russian and Italian translations. In 1830 a
+translation from Dumont, edited by F. E. Beneke, as _Grundsaetze der
+Civil- und Criminal-Gesetzgebung_, etc., was published at Berlin. Beneke
+observes that Bentham had hitherto received little attention in Germany,
+though well known in other countries. He reports a saying attributed to
+Mme. de Stael that the age was that of Bentham, not of Byron or
+Buonaparte. The neglect of Bentham in Germany was due, as Beneke says,
+to the prevalence of the Kantian philosophy. Bentham, however, had been
+favourably noticed in the _Hermes_ for 1822, and his merits since
+acknowledged by Mittermaier and Warnkoenig in the _Zeitschrift fuer
+Rechtswissenschaft_. Beneke (1798-1854) was opposed to the Hegelian
+tendencies of his time, and much influenced by Herbart. See Ueberweg's
+_History of Philosophy_ (English translation, 1874, ii. 281, etc.) and
+the account of Bentham in Robert von Mohl's _Staatswissenschaften_, etc.
+(1853), iii. 595-635.
+
+A great mass of Bentham MSS. belongs to University College, London. They
+are contained in 148 boxes, which were examined and catalogued by Mr. T.
+Whittaker in 1892. A few of these contain correspondence, part of which
+was printed by Bowring. Others are the manuscripts of published works.
+Some are upon the same subjects as the published works, and others refer
+to topics not included in his publications. Besides the _Deontology_
+manuscripts and a fragment upon 'Political Deontology,' there is a
+discussion of the means of suppressing duels, an argument against the
+legal punishment of certain offences against decency, and a criticism of
+the gospel narrative similar to _Not Paul_, etc. I have not thought it
+necessary to examine these fragments after reading Mr. Whittaker's
+report. Bentham's principles are sufficiently stated in his published
+works; and the papers which have been reposing in the cellars of
+University College can have had no influence upon the world. There is
+another large collection of MSS. in the British Museum from the papers
+of Bentham and his brother, Sir Samuel. Ten folio volumes contain
+correspondence, much of it referring only to Sir Samuel. A long
+correspondence upon the acquisition of the 'Panopticon' land is
+included. Another volume contains many of Bentham's school and college
+exercises. There are also the manuscripts of the _Nomography_, _Logical
+Arrangements_, etc. This collection was used by Bowring and by Lady
+Bentham in the life of her husband.
+
+Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty at the Edinburgh
+University Press
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The English Utilitarians, Volume I., by
+Leslie Stephen
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