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.

Section 5.

Election Apparatus.

Art. I. In the whole of its texture, and in this section in particular, the act has for its main end the prevention of the following evils, all of them incident to the election process, that is to say,—

1. Mis-election, Non-election, and Null-election: mis-election, by the election of persons positively unfit, or less fit than would have been returned otherwise: mis-election, to wit, by want of secresy of suffrage, and thence by want of freedom, as against intimidation and corruption.

2. Needless delay, vexation, and expense, by length of journeys to and from the place of election, and of demurrage there.

3. Tumults; that is to say, injuries to person or property, openly inflicted by persons assembled in large numbers, in a state of irritation.

4. Vexation and expense to individuals, by litigation respecting rights of suffrage.

5. Needless expense to the public, in respect of the process employed.

It has thereby for its main end the securing to the public, in respect of the election process, the several benefits of due election, dispatch, tranquillity, and economy.

Art. II. In respect of time, accidents excepted, the election process is accordingly thus ordered:

1. In every polling-district the voting process is to be completed in one day.

2. In every election-district the votes are, on the next day, to be received, from the several polling-district offices, at the election-district office; and the return being then made up, is, on that same day, to be thence transmitted to the national-election office.

3. These days shall be each of them the same, in every election-district throughout the United Kingdom; or at least in Great Britain and Ireland respectively.

4. To this end it is so ordered, as that each man’s title to vote shall have been established, by a day, anterior by a sufficient length of time to the voting day. See Section 7.

5. And this in such sort as that, setting aside the cases of forgery, fraudulent personation, and certainly provable and punishable falsity of assertion—for no one of which offences any adequate temptation can, it is believed, present itself—no such title shall stand exposed to litigation or adverse contestation.

Art. III. Here follows a specification of the apparatus, and corresponding set of operations hereinafter immediately described, by means of which, for the purposes just mentioned, the election process is in each district to be carried on:—

No. 1. Proposed Member’s blank recommendatory certificates. Tenor, as per Section 3. Form and size such as are suitable for placarding.

No. 2. Blank vote-making certificates. Tenor, as per Section 2.

No. 3. Sets of voting name-cards: to be used as per Section 8.

No. 4. Sets of secret-selection boxes, for selecting name cards: to be used as per Section 8.

No. 5. Sets of vote-receiving boxes for receiving name-cards when selected: to be used as per Section 8.

No. 6. Sets of name-card boxes, or compartments, for containing the name-cards, while in the selection boxes.

No. 7. Sets of distinction tickets, for distinguishing from one another, and from the surrounding multitude, by universally conspicuous marks, the voters and other classes of persons, bearing different parts in the election process: to be used as per Article VII.

No. 8. Stereotype plates, for printing blank recommendatory certificates, as per Sections 3, 6.

No. 9. Stereotype plates, for printing blank vote-making certificates, as per Sections 2, 7.

No. 10. Printing presses, or other machines, for printing or stamping blank certificates, voting-cards, and distinction tickets.

Art. IV. A voting-card is composed of two oblong slips, of exactly the same size and shape; each of them (suppose) two inches by one inch, forming together a square: applied one upon another, they exactly coincide.

1. On one side of each of them, the name of a candidate, the same name on each, is either stamped, or in case of necessity, written.

2. With the exception of the name, they are, each of them, white on the stampt side, black on the other side.

3. They are connected together by two hinges, each formed of a piece of thread, one near one end of the length, the other at an equal distance from the other end.

4. When the two slips are applied, one upon another, the only two surfaces exposed to view are both of them black, and the name which is on the white surfaces, is unperceivable.

For the mode of voting by means of one of these cards, see Section 8.

Art. V. A secret-selection box, is a box in and from which the voter selects the name of the proposed member for whom he intends to vote.

1. Within this box are name-boxes: in number not less than that of the proposed members.

2. Each box contains as many voting cards as there are persons entitled to vote in that polling district; all presenting to view, as per Art. IV. the name of the same proposed member.

3. In form, the selection box resembles a hot-bed frame, or a tradesman’s show-glass, of that sort which has a sloping front.

4. In size it is (suppose) about two feet in length by one foot in width; and in depth, in front one foot, at the back 15 inches.

5. In the back board, is a plate of ground glass, for the letting in of light, without rendering any objects within it visible.

6. In each of the sides is a hole, large enough to let in a hand with part of the forearm, in such sort that a man’s two hands may meet within it to facilitate the selection of the intended name.

7. In the top is a narrow plate of glass not ground, of such form and size as to enable a voter to see the several boxes with their several contents, and thus select the name of the proposed members for whom he intends to vote: but in such sort that nothing within the box shall at that time be visible to any other person.

8. Lest, by the place of the hands while selecting, it should be known, or guessed, from what proposed member’s box a voter has selected his card, the boxes are so disposed, that no name can be reached on either side, till the arm has been considerably advanced within the box.

9. In this view, the space destined for each proposed member’s voting cards is distributed into different boxes; and in situation the different boxes allotted to different members are made to alternate one with another.

10. Or else the whole number of cards together may be lodged promiscuously in one and the same receptacle.

11. The receptacles may be either separate boxes, or compartments made in the same box.

12. In the boxes, the cards are placed with the inscribed sides uppermost.

13. Each selection box is made to contain name-cards for six proposed members, and no more.

14. Should the number of the proposed members ever exceed this number, each successive proposed member, or his recommenders must, at the production of the recommendatory certificate, furnish, at their own expense, a selection-box, capable of containing name-boxes equal in number to the whole number of proposed members constituted by the addition which they respectively make.

Art. VI. A vote-receiving box is a box of cast-iron, or other sufficiently strong and cheaper metal, if such there be:—

1. In form it is (suppose) a double cube, standing on one of its small sides.

2. In size, it is large enough to receive and keep concealed a number of voting cards, equal to that of the whole number of persons entitled to vote in the polling-district in which it is employed.

3. On the top is a lid, which opens by a hinge, and when closed rests on a rim, so as to form one surface with the remainder of the plane into which it fits: in such sort, that when sealing wax, being dropt on it, has been impressed with a seal, the lid cannot be opened unless the seal is broken.

4. In this lid is a slit, into which, at the time of voting, the cards are successively dropped. Near this slit rises a pin, on which slides a metallic plate, by which the slit is occasionally closed.

5. In form and dimensions, the slit is so ordered as to receive the cards with ease, without exposing the name to view, as they are dropt in, or afterwards.

Art. VII. Here follows the description of a distinction ticket:—

1. Place where worn, the front of the hat.

2. Material, cotton, or any other cloth, if cheaper, that will not tear or spoil by wet.

3. Size and form, such as to cover the front half of the crown of the hat.

4. Colour of the border, and of the letters of an inscription included within it, different according to the class.

5. For poll-clerks and their occasional deputies and assistants (suppose) black; for constables, blue; for proposed member’s agents, green; for voters, red.

6. Contents of the inscription, the name of the individual; beneath it, the name of the class to which, as above, he belongs.

Art. VIII. For the purpose of the first election—from the national-election office, may be furnished, to the several polling offices, accompanied with necessary descriptions and instructions, the several implements following; to wit—

1. Secret-selection boxes.

2. Vote-receiving boxes.

3. Stereotype plates, for printing blank recommendatory certificates.

4. Stereotype plates, for printing blank vote-making certificates.

5. Printing presses, or other machines, for printing or stamping blank certificates, voting cards, and distinction tickets, as above.

The use of these stereotypes and presses is to prevent the stock from being exhausted, by accidents, negligence, or design, in such sort that before a sufficient supply can be obtained, the voting process may be delayed, or even frustrated, and thus mis-election, non-election, or null-election, may ensue.

Art. IX. For dispatch, or economy in respect of construction and carriage, the election-master-general may appoint any other place or places, in which the above articles, or any of them, shall be constructed, and from which they shall be conveyed to their respective destinations.

In this case, instead of the articles themselves in the requisite quantity, let specimens or models be transmitted from the office.

Art. X. When once provided, the several implements shall be kept in the offices to which they respectively belong.

At the expense of the counties in which the offices are respectively situated, the implements shall, in proportion as they are consumed, or become decayed or useless, be, from time to time, repaired or replaced, as the case may require.