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No. XI.: Alexander I. Emperor of all the Russias, to Jeremy Bentham, London—written with his Imperial Majesty’s own hand, in answer to the above, [No. X.] - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 4.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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No. XI.

Alexander I. Emperor of all the Russias, to Jeremy Bentham, London—written with his Imperial Majesty’s own hand, in answer to the above, [No. X.]

FRENCH ORIGINAL.

Monsieur,

C’est avec un grand intérêt que j’ai lû la lettre que vous m’avez écrite, et les offres qu’elle contient d’aider de vos lumières les travaux législatifs qui auraient pour but de donner un nouveau code de loix à mes sujets. Cet objet me tient trop à cœur, et j’en connais trop la haute importance, pour ne pas désirer, pendant sa confection, de profiter de votre savoir et de votre expérience. Je prescrirai à la commission qui en est chargée, d’avoir recours à vous et de vous adresser ses questions. Recevez en attendant mes remercimens sincères, et le souvenir ci-joint comme une marque de l’éstime particulière que je vous porte

Alexandre.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

Sir,

It is with great interest that I have read the letter which you have written to me, and the offer it contains to give the aid of your enlightened mind to any such labours in the field of legislation, as may have for their object the giving to my subjects a new body of laws. This object I have too much at heart, and I am too well apprised of its high importance, not to be desirous, while that business is in hand, of availing myself of your knowledge and experience. I shall direct the commission, which stands charged with it, to have recourse to you, and to address to you its questions. Receive in the meantime my sincere thanks, and the annexed keepsake* as a token of the particular esteem in which I hold you.

Alexander.

[* ]This “souvenir” was contained in a small packet, closed by the imperial seal. In an accompanying letter from a minister in the suite of his Imperial Majesty to a Russian gentleman of distinction then in London, it was spoken of by the description of “un bague de prix,” a valuable ring. The packet was returned with the seal unbroken: the reason will be seen presently.

While the Emperor was still in London, Prince Adam Czartoriski, being apprised of the habitual state of seclusion to which my pursuits have condemned me, obtained, through the intervention of a common friend, the assurance that the door of my hermitage should be open to him, for the purpose of a request he wished to make to me for my eventual assistance in relation to a code of laws, of the concession of which some expectation was at that time entertained. He came accordingly, and was received with the respect commanded by his well known character, and the cordiality produced by the remembrance of old acquaintance. Being at that time in a state of constant attendance on his Imperial Majesty, this Prince had already for some time been, and for a considerable time continued to be, universally regarded as the destined Viceroy of the then future kingdom. The intentions of his Imperial Majesty with relation to it were at that time either not yet formed, or not yet disclosed: but, if not the hopes, at any rate the wishes, of the Polish nation pointed to the comparatively at least, and in no inconsiderable degree even absolutely, excellent constitutional code, which towards the reign of the amiable and unfortunate Stanislaus had been brought forward under his auspices.

The eventual assistance desired was no sooner asked than promised. But, every thing depending upon the perhaps unformed and at any rate unscrutable will of his Imperial Majesty, every thing that was said on that subject was, on the Prince’s side naturally, and on my own carefully, confined to generals.

As to the Imperial letter,—having received it in June 1815, early in the next month I sent a reply of considerable length, sending at the same time a copy of it addressed to the Prince, whom I understood to be still in attendance on the Emperor.

On the subject of the ring,—observing that so distinguished an honour, as that of a letter under his Imperial Majesty’s own hand, divested of their value all such ordinary favours as the packet was said to contain, I begged leave to refer his Majesty to the letter thus remunerated, for a proof of my inability to accept anything to which any pecuniary value could be attached.

In regard to the commission or board in question,—I took the liberty of saying, that I would hazard the prediction, that from that quarter no such, nor any other questions, would ever be addressed to me: that, as to the minister—in whose hands the management of the business was lodged,—partly from such of his productions as I had seen in print or manuscript, partly from the special and separate reports of divers well-informed persons, I was myself pretty well informed of the state of his qualifications for this most important of all functions: that I was but too fully persuaded of his incompetency for any higher task than that of collecting materials: that he was already much better acquainted with my works than it was agreeable to him to be: that his colour might, if his Majesty pleased to make the experiment, be seen to change at the bare mention of my name: that I was fully and particularly apprised of the money which in the shape of salaries had been employed in the formation of that department: that the managing head being thus incompetent, the result would be,—that, to any other purpose than that of collecting materials, the whole amount was expended in waste: that not to speak of other instances with which the public was but too well acquainted, the appointment made of such a person was of itself a proof but too conclusive, of the sad dearth there was in that vast empire, if not of persons actually possessed, of persons as yet known to be possessed, of the qualifications necessary for such a work: that if any such questions, as his Majesty could have had in view, were to be addressed to me, the only shape, in which I could give an answer capable of being of use, would be that of a complete Outline of a body of law, such as I had already offered to sketch out: that if his Majesty would be pleased to call for such a work at my hands, and at the same time invite all persons in general, and his own subjects of both nations in particular, to exhibit works in competition with mine,—he might thus not only bring under his eye the whole existing stock of appropriate talents, but give birth to an indefinite increase: and thus, at little or no expense, establish a school of legislation,—and thereby make the best provision possible for filling the situations belonging to the department in question, with persons of whose aptitude for the functions of it the most apposite and conclusive proofs had been afforded: that in the first instance the expedient might be tried in Russia, or in Poland, or in both countries at the same time: and that, as to my own part, in Poland in the hands of Prince Czartoriski, I should be sure of the absence of all such opposing tricks, as I should be sure of the presence of, in the other case.

After a letter to any such effect as the above, so far as concerned Russia, my expectations, it may be well imagined, could not be sanguine: but so far as concerned Poland,—on the supposition of Prince Czartoriski’s being what he was at that time universally said to be about to be, such was the known benignity and indulgence of his Imperial Majesty’s disposition, there might, it seemed to me, be still a chance. From the Prince at any rate, though scarcely from his Majesty, I was still in expectation of an answer,—when, on a sudden,—my situation being at that time at a distance from the centre of intelligence,—I learnt from the public prints, that the appointment of Viceroy, over the newly organized, or rather disorganized, remnant of the once republican kingdom, had been given to a name that I had never heard of.

After this, the treaties that were made public rendered it but too manifest, that, together with so many other looked-for constitutions, the constitution of Poland had taken its seat on the same cloud with Utopia and Armata: that what remained of that unhappy country under its own name, had been finally swallowed up in the gulf of Russian despotism: that, in a word, engagements are regarded as binding, by those alone who cannot violate them with impunity; and that of that modern Holy League, which in its spirit is so congenial to that of the original one, it is a fundamental principle,—that, in the hands of the ruling and sub-ruling few, the nearer the condition of the subject-many can be brought to the condition of the beasts of the field, the better it will be for the interests, eternal as well as temporal, of all parties. [Note to 1st Edition, in which the preceding correspondence was published in the body of the work, while that which immediately follows, appeared afterwards in the “Supplement.” Ed.]