Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow II. Geneva - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4

Return to Title Page for The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Law

II. Geneva - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


II.

GENEVA.

Desire of the Legislation Committee to receive from Mr. Bentham the Draught of a Penal Code, as expressed by Mr. Stephen Dumont to Mr. Bentham.—London, 19th June 1818.

[Translation.]

My dear Bentham,

I cannot sufficiently express to you, how sensible I am to the interest you take in our Genevan Penal Code, and how grateful for the generous offer you make to us: it goes beyond everything that I could have asked of you. Well may you regard this undertaking of ours with a fatherly affection, considering with what truth it is, that, from the first mention of this affair, I declared to our commission, that the whole of the matter I should have to submit to them, not plan only but details likewise, had been extracted from your manuscripts.

The conversation I have been having with Mr. K., and which he will have reported to you, had for its principal object, the showing to him, that what you looked for had, virtually and impliedly, been already done. I had declared to our penal law commission, that I found myself at a stand, because in your manuscripts there were gaps, which on my own part I could not flatter myself with the being able to fill up: many articles omitted or left unfinished, under the head of offences against condition in life: nothing, absolutely nothing, under the head of offences against justice. I said, moreover, that there were many questions, on which I had asked your opinion by letter, and that for answer you had given me an invitation to visit you in the country, in consideration of the difficulty of carrying on discussions, on matters of this nature, in the way of epistolary correspondence. I had requested leave of absence for five months, that I might come to England: and this suspension, though contrary to the general instructions we of the commission had received from our government, considering the recommendation to us to use all the diligence that the nature of the subject admitted of,—was granted without difficulty.

In regard to all such articles as we have drawn up as yet, nothing has been definitively established: the whole will be to be recast, before we have done; so that, as to the titles, as well general as particular, that have passed through the hands of the commission, you are not to consider them as anything but faint sketches, which will be to be gone over again.

It is I that am reporter to the commission; that is to say, to me appertains the initiative function, and the conduct of the business. Considering that it is under your auspices that it commenced—considering the declarations made by me, that it was on no other ground than that of your manuscripts that I could work,—you have all the moral security which the nature of the case admits of, that everything that you do for us, even the whole matter of the code, without regard to anything we have done already, will be received with gratitude, and examined with care: and, if there be this or that point, on which the commission fails to adopt your ideas,—the failure will certainly not have for its cause either negligence, indolence, or any unfavourable prepossession: for, the contrary disposition is already effectually manifested, by the admission given to your plan, and to the titles general and particular. In relation to this matter, I regard myself as warranted in giving you the strongest assurance: and I am persuaded, that there is not one of my colleagues that would not join with me, in soliciting at your hands the magnificent work of which you give me the promise, and which you alone are capable of executing.

I have commissioned Mr. K. to desire of you that, as the work proceeds, a copy may be taken at my expense, that the original may remain in your hands, and because it would not be possible for me to occupy myself with the translation here,* considering my other occupations.

[* ]Meaning, in England.