The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Errata—vol. III.
• Defence of Usury; Showing the Impolicy of the Present Legal Restraints On the Terms of Pecuniary Bargains; In Letters to a Friend.
• Letter I.: Introduction.
• Letter II.: Reasons For Restraint—prevention of Usury.
• Letter III.: Reasons For Restraint—prevention of Prodigality.
• Letter IV.: Reasons For Restraint—protection of Indigence.
• Letter V.: Reasons For Restraint—protection of Simplicity.
• Letter VI.: Mischiefs of the Anti-usurious Laws.
• Letter VII.: Efficacy of Anti-usurious Laws.
• Letter VIII.: Virtual Usury Allowed.
• Letter IX.: Blackstone Considered.
• Letter X.: Grounds of the Prejudices Against Usury.
• Letter XI.: Compound Interest.
• Letter XII.: Maintenance and Champerty.
• Letter XIII.: To Dr. Smith, On Projects In Arts, &c.
• A Manual of Political Economy: Now First Edited From the Mss. of Jeremy Bentham.
• Chapter I.: Introduction. *
• Chapter II.: Analytical Survey of the Field of Political Economy.
• Chapter III.: Of Wealth.
• Chapter IV.: Of Population.
• Chapter V.: Of Finance.
• Chapter VI.: Operation of a Sinking Fund On the Production of Wealth.
• Chapter VII.: Noscenda.
• Observations On the Restrictive and Prohibitory Commercial System; Especially With a Reference to the Decree of the Spanish Cortes of July 1820.
• Preface.: Observations, &c.
• Section I.: Nature of the Prohibitory System.
• Section II.: Mischiefs of the Prohibitory System.
• Section III.: Causes of the Prohibitory System.
• A Plan For Saving All Trouble and Expense In the Transfer of Stock, and For Enabling the Proprietors to Receive Their Dividends Without Powers of Attorney, Or Attendance At the Bank of England, By the Conversion of Stock Into Note Annuities.
• Introduction.
• Chapter I.: Plan For the Creation, Emission, Payment, and Eventual Extension, of a Proposed New Species of Government Paper, Under the Name of Annuity Notes.
• Chapter II.: Form of an Annuity Note. (see Table II.)
• Chapter III.: Comparison of the Proposed, With the Existing Government Securities, &c.
• Chapter IV.: Grounds of Expectation, In Regard to the Proposed Measure.
• Chapter V.: Financial Advantages.
• Chapter VI.: Advantage By Addition to National Capital.
• Chapter VII.: Advantage By Addition to Commercial Security.
• Chapter VIII.: Particular Interests Concerned.
• Chapter IX.: Rise of Prices—how to Obviate.
• Chapter X.: Reduction of Interest—proposed Mode Compared With Mr. Pelham’s.
• Chapter XI.: Moral Advantages.
• Chapter XII.: Constitutional Advantages.
• Chapter XIII.: Recapitulation and Conclusion.
• Appendix A.: Government Ought to Have the Monopoly of Paper Money, As Well As of Metallic Money.
• Appendix B.: Paper Money—causes Why Not Circulated By Government Without Interest, As Well As By Individuals.
• General View of a Complete Code of Laws.
• Chapter I.: General Division.
• Chapter II.: Relations Between the Laws Concerning Offences, Rights, Obligations, and Services.
• Chapter III.: Relation Between the Penal and Civil Code.
• Chapter IV.: Of Method.
• Chapter V.: Plan of the Penal Code.
• Chapter VI.: Of the Division of Offences.
• Chapter VIII. Titles of the Penal Code.
• Chapter IX.: First General Title of the Civil Code, * of Things.
• Chapter X.: Second General Title of the Civil Code. of Places.
• Chapter XI.: Third General Title of the Civil Code. of Times.
• Chapter XII.: Fourth General Title of the Civil Code. of Services.
• Chapter XIII.: Fifth General Title of the Civil Code. of Obligations.
• Chapter XIV.: Sixth General Title of the Civil Code. of Rights.
• Chapter XV.: Seventh General Title of the Civil Code. of Collative and Ablative Events.
• Chapter XVI.: Eighth General Title of the Civil Code. of Contracts.
• Chapter XVII.: Ninth General Title of the Civil Code. of the Domestic and Civil States.
• Chapter XVIII.: Tenth General Title of the Civil Code. of Persons Capable of Acquiring and of Contracting.
• Chapter XIX.: Of the Particular Titles of the Civil Code.
• Chapter XX.: Of Elementary Political Powers.
• Chapter XXI.: Of Elementary Political Powers— Subject Continued.
• Chapter XXII.: Plan of the Political Code.
• Chapter XXIII.: Plan of the International Code.
• Chapter XXIV.: Plan of the Maritime Code.
• Chapter XXV.: Plan of the Military Code.
• Chapter XXVI.: Plan of the Ecclesiastical Code.
• Chapter XXVII.: Plan of Remuneratory Laws.
• Chapter XXVIII.: Of Political Economy.
• Chapter XXIX.: Plan of the Financial Code.
• Chapter XXX.: Plan of Procedure Code.
• Chapter XXXI.: Of the Integrality of the Code of Laws.
• Chapter XXXII.: Of Purity In the Composition of a Code of Laws.
• Chapter XXXIII.: Of the Style of the Laws.
• Chapter XXXIV.: Of the Interpretation, Conservation, and Improvement of a Code.
• Pannomial Fragments.
• Chapter I.: General Observations.
• Chapter II.: Consideranda.
• Chapter III.: Expositions.
• Chapter IV.: Axioms.
• Nomography; Or the Art of Inditing Laws: Now First Published From the Mss. of Jeremy Bentham.
• Chapter I.: The Subject Stated.
• Chapter II.: Relations.
• Chapter III.: Proper End In View.
• Chapter IV.: Imperfections Primary.
• Chapter V.: Explanations Relative to the Imperfections of the Second Order.
• Chapter VI.: Of Remedies. *
• Chapter VII.: Of Language.
• Chapter VIII.: Of the Perfections of Which the Legislative Style Is Susceptible.
• Chapter IX.: Of Forms of Enactment.
• Appendix. Logical Arrangements, Or Instruments of Invention and Discovery
• Equity Dispatch Court Proposal; Containing a Plan For the Speedy and Unexpensive Termination of the Suits Now Depending In Equity Courts. With the Form of a Petition, and Some Account of a Proposed Bill For That Purpose
• Section I.: Purpose Explained. Jeremy Bentham to the Honest and Afflicted Among Equity Suitors.
• Section II.: Equity Suitors’ Petition For Dispatch Court. to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, —
• Section III.: Dispatch Court Bill—some Account of It.
• Section IV.: Information Requisite From Petitioning Suitors.
• Equity Dispatch Court Bill: Being a Bill For the Institution of an Experimental Judicatory Under the Name of the Court of Dispatch, For Exemplifying In Practice the Manner In Which the Proposed Summary May Be Substituted to the So Called Regular Sy
• Editor’s Note.
• Preface.
• Preamble.
• Part I.—: Judiciary.
• Section I.: Judge Located, How.
• Section II.: Remuneration.
• Section III.: Registrar, &c.
• Section IV.: Eleemosynary Advocate.
• Section V.: Judges’, &c. Deputes.
• Section VI.: Judge’s Powers—exemptions—checks.
• Section VII.: Prehensors and Messengers.
• Section VIII.: Consignees; * Or Say, In-trust-holders.
• Section IX.: Grounds of Decision For the Dispatch Court Judge.
• Section X. ‡: Suits’ Comparative Suitableness; and Order of Cognizance.
• Section XI.: Auxiliary Judges and Accountants.
• Section XII.: Sittings, Times Of.
• Part II.—: Procedure.
• Section XIII.: Definitions. *
• Section XIV.: Examination of Solicitors.
• Section XV.: Initiatory Examination of Parties, &c.
• Section XVI.: Appropriate Intercourse, Constant and Universal, Secured.
• Section XVII.: Mutual Security For Forthcomingness of Persons and Things. ‡
• Section XVIII.: Evidence-procuring Money, How Provided.
• Section XIX.: Subsequential Evidence, How Elicited.
• Section XX.: Execution, How Performed.
• Section XXI.: Equity Court Costs, How Disposed Of.
• Section XXII.: Dispatch Court Costs, How Disposed Of.
• Section XXIII.: Eventual Retrotransference of a Suit to the Equity Court.
• Section XXIV.: Expense of the Court, How Provided For.
• Supplemental Sections:—
• Section I. Or XXV.: Bankruptcy and Insolvency.
• Section II. Or XXVI.: Henceforward Dispatch Court.
• Schedules to the Bill.
• Plan of Parliamentary Reform, In the Form of a Catechism, With Reasons For Each Article: With an Introduction, Showing the Necessity of Radical, and the Inadequacy of Moderate, Reform.
• Introduction.
• Section I.: History of the Ensuing Tract—alarming State of the Country and the Constitution.
• Section II.: Most Prominent Present Grievance, Gareisoning France.
• Section III.: Causes of the Above and All Other Mischiefs:—particular Interests Monarchical and Aristocratical, Adverse to the Universal—their Ascendency.
• Section IV.: Sole Remedy In Principle—democratic Ascendency.
• Section V.: Remedy In Detail: Radical Parliamentary Reform: Elementary Arrangements In This Edition of It—their Necessity.
• Section VI.: Differences Between This and the Original Editions of Radical Reform.
• Section VII.: Virtual Universality of Suffrage Further Considered.
• Section VIII.: Virtual Universality of Suffrage—its Undangerousness.
• Section IX.: Freedom of Suffrage Further Explained—seductive Influence—its Forms, Instruments, &c.
• Section X.: Bribery and Terrorism Compared.
• Section XI.: Purchase of Seats—in What Cases Mischievous—in What Beneficial.
• Section XII.: Secresy of Suffrage—its Importance Further Developed.
• Section XIII.: Exclusion of Placemen, &c. From the Right of Voting—mischievousness and Profligacy of the Opposite Arrangement.
• Section XIV.: Universal Constancy of Attendance—its Importance.
• Section XV.: Representatives—impermanence of Their Situation—its Importance:—objections—their Groundlessness.
• Section XVI.: Moderate Reform—its Arrangements—their Inadequacy.
• Section XVII.: Trienniality Inadequate;—annuality Necessary.
• Section XVIII.: Interests Adverse to Adequate Reform—support Given By Them to Moderate, to the Exclusion of Radical: Tories—whigs—people’s Men.
• Catechism of Parliamentary Reform; Or, Outline of a Plan of Parliamentary Reform; In the Form of Question and Answer; With Reasons to Each Article.
• Section I.: Ends to Be Aimed At On the Occasion of Parliamentary Reform.
• Section II.: Means, Conducive Towards These Ends.
• Section III.: Means—their Uses, With Reference to Their Respective Ends.
• Section IV.: Means Conducive to Aptitude In Members: I. Placemen Not to Vote, Nor to Be Seated By Election.
• Section V.: Means, &c. Continued.—ii. Placemen Seated By the King, With Speech and Motion, Without Vote.
• Section VI.: Means, &c. Continued.—iii. Elections Frequent—annual.
• Section VII.: Means, &c. Continued.—iv. Speeches Authentically and Promptly Published.
• Section VIII.: Means, &c. Continued.—v. Attendance, Punctual and General, Secured.
• Section IX.: Inconveniences Incident to Elections, and Election Judicature.
• Section X.: Election Inconveniences—means For Their Removal.
• Section XI.: Collateral Advantages, Referable to the Situations of Electors, Placemen, Lords, &c.
• A Sketch of the Various Proposals For a Constitutional Reform In the Representation of the People, Introduced Into the Parliament of Great Britain, From 1770 to 1812.
• Radical Reform Bill, With Extracts From the Reasons.
• Preliminary Explanations.
• Title of the Proposed Act.
• Preamble.
• Section 1.—: Seats and Districts.
• Section 2.—: Electors, Who.
• Section 3.—: Eligible, Who.
• Section 4.—: Election Offices.
• Section 5.: Election Apparatus.
• Section 6.—: Promulgation of Recommendations In Favour of Proposed Members.
• Section 7.—: Voters’ Titles Pre-established.
• Section 8.—: Election, How.
• Section 9.: Election Districts and Polling Districts, How Marked Out.
• Section 10.—: Vote-making Habitations, How Defined.
• Section 11.—: Members’ Continuance.
• Section 12.—: Vacancies Supplied.
• Section 13.—: Security For the House Against Disturbance By Members. †
• Section 14.—: Indisposition of Speakers Obviated.
• Appendix, Including General Explanations.
• Radicalism Not Dangerous. Extracted From the Mss. of Jeremy Bentham. *
• Part I.—: Introduction.
• Section I.: Radical Reform Bill Recapitulated.
• Section II.: Persuasion of the Dangerousness of Radicalism—cause of It, and of the Vituperative Expression Given to It.
• Section III.: Terms of the Accusation,—speeches From the Throne, 16 Th July and 21 St November 1819.
• Section IV.: The Accusation In General Terms—counter-averment.
• Section V.: Plan of This Defence.
• Part II.—: Deference From the General Nature of the Case.
• Section I.: Conditions Necessary to a Man’s Embarking In Such a Design.
• Section VII.: Concurrence In Any Other Extensive Plan of Spoliation Impossible.
• Section VIII.: Concurrence of Any Constituted Authorities Impossible.
• Section IX.: Accomplishment Impossible—design Impossible.
• Section X.: The Talked-of Spunge No Proof of the Design.
• Part III.—: Defence From Experience In the Case of the United States.
• Part IV.: Defence From Particular Experience In the Case of Ireland: Years 1777 Or 1778, to 1783.
• Section I.: Analogy Between This and the Previous Case.
• Section II.: Democratic Ascendency, How Produced.
• Section III.: Fruit of Democratic Ascendency a Golden Age.
• Section IV.: Coincidence of Its Characters With Those of Radicalism.
• Section VI.: Extinction of Democratic Ascendency and Reform—restoration of Monarchico-aristocratical Ascendency, and Its Consequences.
• Conclusion.

CHAPTER V.

EXPLANATIONS RELATIVE TO THE IMPERFECTIONS OF THE SECOND ORDER.

§ 1.

Unsteadiness in respect of Expression.

This imperfection has place when, and in the degree in which, for the conveyance of one and the same idea, or portion of an idea, different locutions, whether single or many-worded, have been employed.

The imperfections of the first order, to which this imperfection of the second order is indebted for its vicious quality, are ambiguity, or obscurity and bulkiness.

When so it really is, that it is a man’s meaning to express two or more different things, difference in respect of the expression is the sole resource; therefore so it is that, for the moment at least, when two different sets of words are observed to be employed, the notion that not one and the same thing, but two different sets of things, are intended to be expressed in and by the use made of these different sets of words, cannot but present itself.

To the production of the inconvenience of overbulkiness, it is conducive rather by accident than of necessity. When so it is that to the expression of one and the same idea a number of different expressions are successively employed, they will naturally be of different lengths, and the difference between the length of the longest that happens to be employed, and that of the shortest of those by which the same sense would be expressed with equal aptitude, multiplied into the number of the times that, in the discourse in question, this bulkiest expression recurs, gives the maximum of the bulkiness which, by means of this imperfection of the second order, is produced by this same bulkiest of the several synonymous expressions.

Thus suppose, that for the designation of the idea in question, a locution composed of two words would suffice: instead of it, in ten places a locution composed of four words is employed; and in ten others, a locution composed of eight words: were the four-worded locution the only one employed in the twenty instances, the quantity of redundant matter would be equal to the quantity of useful matter: were the eight-worded locution alone employed, the quantity of redundant matter would be to the quantity of useful, as four to one.

§ 2.

Unsteadiness in respect of Import.

Opposite and correspondent to unsteadiness in respect of expression, is unsteadiness in respect of import.

Unsteadness in respect of expression is, where, for the expression of one and the same idea, or part of an idea, divers words or sets of words are employed; unsteadiness in respect of import is, where, in the compass of the same discourse, to the purpose of denoting divers ideas, or portions of ideas, one and the same word or set of words is employed.

Ambiguity is the primary imperfection, towards the production of which, the tendency which this imperfection of the second order possesses, is sufficiently manifest.

It is only by accident that the species of imperfection here in question has found its way into a mass of English statute law; the soil has no particular attraction for it. Instances of it may, however, occasionally be found.

The following are examples of this unsteadiness in the use of terms:—

1. Common law, employed to signify fictitious, judge-made law, as distinguished from real legislator-made law;—

Common law, as distinguished from equity, as employed to distinguish the mode of procedure pursued in the original set of courts, from the mode of procedure in the courts called Equity courts.

2. Civil law, employed as synonymous respectively to non-penal, Roman, non-canon, non-military, admiralty, non-ecclesiastical, non-common law. In the first case it denotes, on the part of the enactments in question (real, in the case of statute-made law—fictitious, in the case of judge-made law), the absence of suffering appointed for the purpose and under the name of punishment. In the case of Roman law, and canon law, it is employed to designate the source from which the rule of action, by the enactments (real or fictitious as above) of which it is composed were derived. In the case of military and admiralty law, the occasion on which, and the purpose to which, the rule of action constituted by it is applied.

Thus it is, that under the existing system on the part of the arrangements themselves, and on the part of the language employed, a correspondent inaptitude, all-pervading and most exemplary, has place.

§ 3.

Redundancy of Matter, i. e. of Words.

The imperfection of the first order, to which this imperfection of the second order presents itself at first sight as conducive, is bulkiness.

In the character of a cause of obscurity, and thence to a greater or lesser extent of uncognoscibility, bulkiness will, even when most indispensably necessary, be ever a matter of just regret.

In so far as it is necessary, and has appropriate utility for its justification, the inconveniences that result from it, be they what they may, find their proportionate compensation.

But where redundancy has place, the redundant matter not having by the supposition any part of it any use, it is by the whole of it a mass of mere mischief.

Another imperfection of the first order, to which on a nearer view this same imperfection of the second order will be seen to be naturally and frequently though not constantly conducive, is obscurity.

Be the subject what it may, the more redundant the scheme or plan of phraseology which it happens to an author to take up and set out upon, the greater the probability and danger is of deficiency—relation being had to the scale upon which he has undertaken thus to operate; for the more ample the task which he has set himself to do, the greater is the quantity by which, in his endeavours to execute the whole of it, he is likely to be deficient.

In the case of the English Act-of-Parliament style, the plan and scale of operation being, when compared with any ordinary discourse, by far more copious and more redundantly copious, the probable amount of deficiency receives a proportionable increase.

A little further on, occasion will be taken to give a sort of analytical view of the principal forms in which, in the contexture of an English act of parliament, this imperfection may be seen to exhibit itself.

But it is from the words, and from the words alone, that their import can be collected; and when, as between locution and locution, a difference—any the slightest difference—is observable in the words, a correspondent difference in the intended import can scarcely ever, for the moment at least, fail to present itself to the reader’s view as a possible cause of such difference in respect of the words. In a word, in the character of an efficient cause of obscurity, unsteadiness in expression has been already brought to view,—and of unsteadiness in expression, the alternation between redundancy and deficiency is one mode.

§ 4.

Longwindedness.

Be the nature of the mass of literary matter in question what it may—matter of legislation, or any other portion of it,—it may be said to be longwinded in proportion as the line of words is long and protracted, through which the conception has to travel before it can find a resting place.

In the case of an English act of parliament, for example, the whole mass is to appearance cast into sections, in each of which the elementary parts, the words, are in such sort connected, that under pain of not comprehending any one part, the reader finds himself under the continual obligation of gathering up the matter as he advances, and retaining in his mind the whole at one grasp, before he can make himself, or feel as if he had made himself, master of every part of it.

One imperfection of the first order, to which this imperfection of the second order is conducive, is again obscurity.

To the physical eye, the deeper and more protracted any medium is, through which it happens to any object to present itself to view, the deeper the obscurity in which the object appears to be involved: to the mental eye, in like manner, the longer the paragraph, the greater the difficulty of perceiving its meaning, and on all occasions penetrating to the end of it and all through it: to shift the metaphor, the greater the number of the words, the greater the chance that, sinking under the task of picking up the import of them one by one, it may, ere the task is over, let idea after idea drop out of its grasp, and in its anxiety not to lose any, drop more and more, till at last it have lost all possession and command over them, and retain nothing but a dark and indistinct notion of the whole mass, or any part of it,

If mere simple redundancy be of itself a cause of obscurity, longwindedness is a much more powerful one.

As in the case of bodily, so in the case of mental labour—what oppresses a man is not so much the absolute magnitude of the quantity of the work he has to go through, as the shortness of the time he has to do it in,—or rather the quantity which it is necessary for him to go through, before it is in his power to take repose.

In an English act of parliament, in each section the connexion given to the matter is commonly such, that when once the mind has entered upon it, no repose is to be had till it has reached the end of it: no, nor then neither, unless such be the strength of its grasp as to give assurance of its retaining, in a full and distinct point of view, the whole mass of the matter which, parcel after parcel, it had in the course of its progress through the section been taking up.

So much worse than absolute redundancy is longwindedness, that if in any instance, under the oppression produced by longwindedness, it were deemed necessary to seek relief,—relief would in many, and indeed in most instances, scarcely be to be found on any condition other than that of adding to the number of the words.

A bad and inconsiderate sort of economy is among the most productive of the causes by which longwindedness in masses of discourse, in sections and paragraphs and sentences, is produced. One predicate, it is conceived, may be made to serve for two or more subjects; and thus two or more substantives, with their respective complements of attributes, are forced under the governance of one verb. But the masses which the pen thus conjoins, the mind must sever, before it can embrace and make itself master of any one of them; nor of any one such fragment of a proposition can it acquire a steady view, on any other condition than that of making it up into a complete one, and accordingly making up within itself the complement of words necessary to that purpose.

Thus it is, that to dispel the obscurity produced by longwindedness, an addition must be made to the absolute number of words:—an addition by the amount of which, if it did not find the original number defective, it would render the mass of matter redundant.

In an ordinary discourse, it may be not easy perhaps to find an instance of a sentence which, labouring under the imperfection of longwindedness, can be cured of it upon any other terms than that of making additions, and those very considerable ones, to the lengthiness of it. Take up a longwinded sentence in which matter for ten sentences is discernible,—take it in hand and break it down into ten short ones,—scarcely will it happen, that for the composition of these short ones, twice the number of words contained in the original longwinded sentence will suffice.

It is perhaps only in lawyers’ jargon—it is only in the language of an English act of parliament, that instances are to be found in which, upon the breaking down of a long-winded section into its component members, the aggregate of the words contained in the new-moulded parts shall not exceed the aggregate number of the words contained in the original article. The reason of this will be found in the circumstance, that in such a variety of forms, each section embraces so large a quantity of redundant and peccant matter that may be extirpated, not only without prejudice, but with signal benefit to the sense.*

§ 5.

Complexity or Complicatedness;—whence Entanglement.

Entanglement is a natural result, when in one and the same grammatical sentence divers logical propositions are involved and drawn out together.†

One imperfection of the first order, to which this imperfection of the second order is conducive, is obscurity.

Even when clear of entanglement, longwindedness, it has been seen,‡ has obscurity for its proportionate result;—but when to longwindedness, entanglement is added, the obscurity, it is evident, will be apt to be increased in a ratio greater than that of the longwindedness.

In the case even of simple longwindedness, the task given to the apprehensive faculty may be greater than it can effectually comprehend and retain within its grasp: the labour of thus holding the matter it embraces, without letting drop any portion of it, may be more than the intellectual faculty of the individual in question is able to sustain;—and when to this labour is added that of unravelling and disentangling the interwoven threads, the mind cannot but be the more in danger of letting go its hold under such a task.

Another imperfection of the first order, to which this imperfection of the second order will, whether constantly or not, be naturally and frequently conducive, is bulkiness. As the entanglement runs on, the obscurity thickens—as the obscurity thickens, it attracts more and more the attention of the penman:—fearing lest the mass should grow too involved, and through much entanglement too obscure for use, he sets himself to disentangle it—to point out this or that distinction in the provision meant to be made respecting the subjects thus involved. But as by words it was that the matter was entangled, so it is only by words that the disentanglement can be effected, or so much as aimed at: and thus it is, that while increase is given to obscurity, so is it to bulkiness.

§ 6.

Nakedness in respect of helps to Intellection.

The species of imperfection here meant to be brought to view, is that sort of blemish of which no species of discourse is in its nature unsusceptible, but which in England is in point of fact in a manner peculiar to the discourse of the legislator—to that species of discourse in the instance of which the consequences resulting from it are of the most inconvenient and pernicious cast.

To such a degree has been the success with which in this line of sinister industry the labour and ingenuity of the man of law has been attended, that he has kept in a state of depression below the condition of barbarism, not to say of savage life, that part of the means of communication between mind and mind which has been unfortunate enough to fall into his hands.

Of these helps, the most prominent and obviously necessary examples consist of two connected operations:—the one consisting in the making division of the whole mass of literary matter, be it what it may, into a number of parts of a moderate length,—of a length suited to the conceptive and retentive powers of the description of persons for whose eye it is destined; and the other, in giving to each of such parts a name by which it may be called.

Arithmetic—the humble but useful art and science of arithmetic—furnishes a set of names which possess the advantage of being with equal propriety and convenience applicable to any mass whatsoever, physical or psychological, into whatsoever parts it may be found convenient to divide it;—and these denominations, besides being so universally apt, are at the sametime less bulky than any others that could be devised.

Religion has availed itself of these helps to intellection; and of the assemblage of works of which the sacred volume is composed, each one of any length has been divided into numbered chapters, and each chapter into numbered verses.

The interested and crafty bigotry of the man of law has refused to the people an accommodation which the scrupulous piety of the theologian could not refuse. An act of parliament repels the dividing line of the arithmetician with no less horror, than the accursed soil sown with salt rejects the plough of the husbandman, and yields no fruit. A mathematical point has no parts: so neither has the chaos of an act of parliament.

Many are the modern volumes, in each of which the quantity of matter exceeds not the quantity in a single statute. Yet this statute is no less sacredly indivisible than if fine or præmunire had declared it one and undivided.

The licentiousness of the press has indeed divided it into parts called sections; and to each of these sections this same licentiousness has gone so far as to affix a different number;—but in the manuscript on which alone has been imprinted the touch of the legislative sceptre, this conceit has no mark to give warrant or allowance to it. Number it has none—division it has none;—what token of separation is afforded, is afforded not by a black line—a blank instead of a whole line, or instead of the latter part of a line;—still less by any of those numbers by which in the authentic letter-press copy it is introduced. A lot of surplusage, and mostly a lot to the same effect, such as—“And be it further enacted,”—or, “And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,” gives commencement to a sentence:—and it is on the reappearance of this useless string of words that the printer finds his only warrant for the arithmetical figure which, to the several successive masses thus distinguished, he has ventured to affix.

None are so deaf as those who will not hear—none so unintelligible as those whose aim and determination is not to be understood.

Obscurity and bulkiness are the closely-connected fruits of which this voluntary nakedness is productive; and they may be seen growing upon the same stalk.

As often as a reference comes to be made, the seat of the matter referred to is either in the act itself from which the reference is made, or in some other act.

1. If in the act itself, to that mode of designation which never fails to be employed, except when misdirection is an object either of study or indifference—viz. designation by the arithmetical name—to that only rational and honest mode of designation, is substituted an intimation that in some part or other of that same act, or at best somewhere or other in the preceding part, or somewhere or other in the succeeding part of that act, that which is meant to be designated—that which the legislator has in contemplation—the matter which the legislator has in his mind, will be to be found. What is the consequence? That in the one case you have to search through and examine into the whole number of the sections, one excepted, contained in the act—in the other case, half that number upon an average.

One hundred and twenty-three is the number of sections in the act herein employed* for an example;—fifty, the number of the folio pages in which these one hundred and twenty-three sections are contained. Here, then, instead of a few arithmetical figures, not occupying all of them together a space greater than that which is occupied by a word of ordinary length, the reader has somewhat more than fifty pages to pore over, and in the other case somewhat more than four and twenty, containing each of them about half as many thousand words; and this double and single labour is imposed several times in the course of this act.

But the passages in which this same subject, be it what it may, is touched upon, are they one or many?—and where is it, or where are they?—and in either case, of each such passage how much is there to the purpose? These are among the questions to which, on any or each occasion, a man may have to find an answer, always at his peril: to the magnitude of which peril no assignable limits can be set but those which are set by death.

2. If it be in another such act that the matter in question is to be sought for, then to the designation of the game to be hunted for, is to be added the designation of the field in which the hunt is to be made. Figures and letters to the amount of the numbers of letters in a word—45 Geo. III. c. 72, for example—are the signs employed for this same purpose by each non-official hand. The title of the act is the only sign which the united power of King, Lords, and Commons, is ever suffered to employ for this same purpose. The title of an act!—and what is this same thing called the title of an act—meaning, of an act of parliament? It is a sentence varying in length, not unfrequently containing in itself the matter of an ordinary page—and this whole page is no more than a sort of compound substantive, forming no more than a part of a grammatical sentence, in the texture of which not unfrequently substantives of this same sort in numbers are combined.

And what is this occasion on which all helps to intellection, all supports to the weakness of the human mind, are so studiously and perseveringly refused? It is precisely that on which such helps to human weakness are at the same time of most importance and most needful;—in which the magnitude of the mischief producible by a false step, and that of the pressure against which the support is needed, are both at the very highest pitch.

To facilitate the communication of knowledge in any inferior department—in the department of school grammar and common arithmetic—no exertions that can be made are thought too great; while in the master science—the science upon which the fate of every other science, and of all to whom it can happen either to teach them or to learn them depends—whatever exertions are made, on the part of the head-master at least, have for their object, not the causing it to be understood, but the keeping it from being understood, or causing it to be misunderstood, and that to as high a degree of perfection in the arts of non-intellection and mis-intellection as possible.

So far, then, as concerns helps to intellection, that which ought to be done by the legislator—and will be done by the legislator as soon as the interests of the whole community at large obtain in his eyes the preference over the separate and sinister interest of a small portion of it,—is not only in the first place to give to the subject-matter in question the benefit of all such helps to intellection as can be found applied to any other subject; but in the next place to look out for all such additional helps, if any, as can be found applicable to the particular subject which stands so much in need of them.†

§ 7.

Unapt Arrangement and disorderly Collocation.

The importance of apt arrangement—its necessity in the character of an instrument of operation, a support to the weakness of the intellectual part of the human frame, is such as, one should have supposed, would have never found so much as a single human being to contest it, if the pretence of being exempt from all need of this support had not found a stock of arrogance adequate to the advancement of it—with a correspondent disposition to regard as imbecile, those by whom their need of it is felt, and as trifling, useless, and thrown away, the toils of those laborious men who employ themselves in the endeavour to improve it.

The more bulky and obscure the subject-matter, the more urgent the need which, in its struggles with the difficulties of the subject, the mind has of this instrument of support.

It is easier to be convinced of the utility of good order in every case, than to give such a definition of good order, such an account of what good order is, as shall be applicable, and be at once seen to be applicable to every case.

Be the subject-matter what it may, its nature and properties will be the more correctly and completely, and thence the more clearly understood, the more correctly and completely the nature of the relation which it bears towards all such other objects as it can be seen to bear any assignable relation to, is understood:—and the more clearly the nature of it is understood, the more clear and pure from the imputation of obscurity will naturally any regulation of which it constitutes the subject-matter, be reasonably expected to be.

What objects ought to be brought into conjunction with each other—what ought to be kept separate from each, will depend upon the particular nature of the particular subject which is on the carpet.

But of bad order some general notion may be given, by descriptions which shall apply to good order, and thence to bad order, whatsoever be the subject.

Good order may be disturbed, bad order produced, either by joining together things that ought not to be joined, or by separating from each other things that ought not to be separated: and in the case of things that ought not to be separated, the order is worse and worse, the greater the mutual distance is to which they are cast.

Nomenclature is classification:—to denominate, wherever the denomination is a general term—to denominate is to classify, to methodize, to put in order, to arrange. By denomination, all individuals, all species, are brought together, brought as it were into contact by being comprehended under the same name.

If in the case of a number of objects brought together by the same name, the dissimilitude be such that no property belonging to each of them be found, then so it is, that of the thing distinguished by that name, nothing can be said that is true.

The greater the number of propositions that can be found to belong to each one of them all without exception, the greater the number of truths that can be predicated of them, and the more serviceable the principle of arrangement of which they constitute the subject.*

Bad order is either that which is such in respect of aggregation or disaggregation, or that which is such in respect of precedence.

In the case of that which is said to be bad in respect of aggregation or disaggregation, the order of precedence between object and object, in the case of such objects as are cast into one group by being brought under the same name, is not considered.

When the scheme of order in question is spoken of as being bad in respect of precedence, the articles with reference to which the topic of precedence is brought to view are considered as being each of them distinguished and made known by a separate name:—and thereupon it is, that in relation to the several objects or articles upon the list, the question arises which shall be placed or spoken of first, which second, and so on through the rest.

In this case, bad order takes place when, relation being had to the purpose or design, whatever it be, which is in view, that object which ought to have stood first, is placed second, or in some lower rank; and so in regard to the rest.

In the case of the English acts of parliament, instances will be found in but too great abundance, in which, reference being had to the purpose or design which was, or at any rate ought to have been, in view, disorder in both its shapes as above distinguished, may be seen to manifest itself.

[* ]Of all instruments of longwindedness, the most unmerciful is that which is called a Preamble. It is a sort of excrescence growing out of the head of a section. If it be a part, it never forms any more than a part of a section, or even so much as a grammatical sentence. When the preamble is concluded, the principal part of the sentence is not yet begun.

In one instance which I have observed, the preamble of the act alone contains no fewer than thirteen closely printed pages of Ruffhead’s edition of the Statutes; and in all these thirteen pages nothing is as yet said—nothing as yet done. Many a work has appeared in several volumes, each volume containing little if anything more in quantity of words than are contained in that one portion of an unfinished sentence.

In English law, a preamble commences with the word “Whereas,”—in French law with the word “Considerant.”

Of the two, the French term is the clearer and more expressive. In fact, what the draughtsman requires of his readers, the legislator of his subjects, is to consider;—to take and keep under consideration the whole matter of the preamble together; nor that only, but that and the first section at least, that from the preamble the contents of the enacting part may receive that elucidation which in his declared opinion is necessary.

“By myself,” says he, “this whole mass of introductory matter was considered, all this whole mass of matter borne in mind at the same time, for the purpose of framing the enacting part;—on you I impose the task of taking and bearing in mind all this elucidatory matter, as you would wish or hope to understand the enacting part.”

Such is the task imposed upon the reader in the case of these thirteen enormously filled quarto pages:—in all this immense wilderness no resting place,—no, not so much as a breathing place.

[† ]Examples in prize act 1805, 45 Geo. III. c.72, High and Vice-Admiralty legislated together.

[‡ ]Section 4, Longwindedness.

[* ]45 Geo. III. c. 72.

[† ]During the administration of the late Mr. Pitt, a person by whose habits the language of statutes as well as of reports had been rendered familiar to him, happening to be in treaty with government, was encouraged to draw up with his own hand the draught of the law necessary to carry the treaty into effect. Desirous of making to his country the best return in his power for the benefit in which it was his hope to participate, it occurred to him to endeavour to take advantage of the opportunity, and apply it to the purpose of planting in the statute-book, for the chance of its serving one day as a precedent, a literary composition in which these helps to intellection should find a place, which, be its importance ever so considerable or ever so inconsiderable, every man that writes endeavours to the best of his ability to infuse into every other.

The terms in which from all quarters, in the profession and out of the profession, from men of all parties as well as men of no party, he heard complaints of the imperfections of the compositions poured forth in such abundance into the country by the hands of right honourable gentlemen and right honourable lords, led him to impute the phenomenon to that combination of carelessness and ignorance and indolence, of which the marks seemed to be so abundant.

A draught was accordingly prepared, which, much about the same time, and before it was submitted to the pleasure of the higher powers, found its way to two professional gentlemen, one of whom at that very time was, the other has since that time been, in possession of the same great law-office.

By one of them it was returned, with the observation that it was good, and by far too good, to possess any chance of finding acceptance.

To the other it was an object of instantaneous and undissembled horror,—Gallicism and Jacobinism were stamped upon the face of it. The imputation, in truth, was not altogether without foundation. The matter of it was broken down into divisions, sections, and articles;—each article was of a moderate length, and provided with a number, for the purpose of enabling those whom it might concern to refer to it at once, instead of their being sent on each occasion to wander over the whole field, without being sure on any occasion whether they had or had not found the thing they were sent in quest of.

This was certainly a matter of Gallicism: for it is in this form that French lawyers then did, and still continue, to draw up their laws. But what the learned and orthodox censor either did not know, or chose not to seem to know, is, that it was no more a mark of Gallicism, of French principles, than it was of Austrian or Prussian, or Spanish or Sardinian, or Portuguese or Hindostanee principles—or, in a word, of the principles of every other civilized country, into the nose of whose government and inhabitants the man of law has not fixed his hook, as in British noses it is still fixed.

It was, in short, no more a mark of French principles than it was of British principles:—to wit, in so far as the principles of a British soldier may be taken for British principles. For somehow or other, whatsoever be the cause, be it impotence or be it inadvertence, the articles of war do furnish an instance in which gentlemen who have learning for their attribute, have the mortification of seeing the language of common sense and common honesty substituted for a moment to their own dialect of the flash language.

As to the dignitaries in question, one of them (it need not be mentioned which) was a British lawyer, who had engaged in the practice of the profession with a real desire of contributing to clear the field of those abuses from which profit in such abundance flows into the coffers of its professors, and of rendering the law subservient to its professed ends—a man who, notwithstanding his endeavours in this line, was in his day the most popular man in his profession in the kingdom—the man, to enjoy a momentary glance of whom, men have come from the remotest parts of the country.

As to the other dignitary, any particular designation of him, direct or indirect, would be as useless as it would be invidious. The observation made, as above, by him, differed not materially from that which any other person of similar and equal learning would have made, or been ready to make, in his place.

[* ]In and for the purpose of another work,† a systematical view was endeavoured to be given of the aggregate body of offences—meaning, of sorts of human actions, in relation to which, in respect of the mischiefs of which they respectively threatened to be productive, it naturally would, on the part of a legislator, come to be proposed for consideration, and in general had been matter of consideration among legislators, whether it might not be advisable to render them objects of prohibition and punishment, or something that should have the effect of punishment.

At the first step, the aggregate body thus denominated was broken down into four divisions:—and the groups comprised in those several divisions were so composed, that of each group, that is to say, of every individual in each group, a number of propositions, twelve or thereabouts, might be predicated, and this in every instance without involving any proposition that was false.

These propositions being such as in every instance appeared to lead to practical conclusions—conclusions indicative in each instance of a probability that, by pursuing such or such a line of conduct in legislation, might be effected the prevention of sensible mischief and inconvenience (mischief reducible ultimately to this or that modification of pain, or to loss of this or that modification of pleasure)—this scheme of classification was recommended, as adapted to the purpose of the enunciation of useful truths.

On adverting, on the same occasion, to the schemes of classification employed in relation to the same subject by men of law in general, and by English lawyers in particular, an assertion was advanced, that no scheme of classification was to be found in use, of the primary classes of which, propositions completely true could in any thing like an equal number, if in any number at all, be applied.

[* ]In and for the purpose of another work,† a systematical view was endeavoured to be given of the aggregate body of offences—meaning, of sorts of human actions, in relation to which, in respect of the mischiefs of which they respectively threatened to be productive, it naturally would, on the part of a legislator, come to be proposed for consideration, and in general had been matter of consideration among legislators, whether it might not be advisable to render them objects of prohibition and punishment, or something that should have the effect of punishment.

At the first step, the aggregate body thus denominated was broken down into four divisions:—and the groups comprised in those several divisions were so composed, that of each group, that is to say, of every individual in each group, a number of propositions, twelve or thereabouts, might be predicated, and this in every instance without involving any proposition that was false.

These propositions being such as in every instance appeared to lead to practical conclusions—conclusions indicative in each instance of a probability that, by pursuing such or such a line of conduct in legislation, might be effected the prevention of sensible mischief and inconvenience (mischief reducible ultimately to this or that modification of pain, or to loss of this or that modification of pleasure)—this scheme of classification was recommended, as adapted to the purpose of the enunciation of useful truths.

On adverting, on the same occasion, to the schemes of classification employed in relation to the same subject by men of law in general, and by English lawyers in particular, an assertion was advanced, that no scheme of classification was to be found in use, of the primary classes of which, propositions completely true could in any thing like an equal number, if in any number at all, be applied.

[†]See Introduction to Morals and Legislation, Chap. XVIII. Vol. I. p. 96.