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Subject Area: Law

Bentham to his Brother. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 10 (Memoirs Part I and Correspondence) [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. 10.

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

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Bentham to his Brother.

“Ay—

I knew how it would be: I knew there would be some pretence or other for idling and outstaying the time. There is no harm done. Dumont is ‘one hundred miles off,’—I suppose at Bowood; Romilly not yet returned from the circuit; Wilson only will be with me, cheated by assurances (made before I received your letter) of your return in time. He sets out for Paris on Friday. I shall load him with copies, (if I can,) three or four to be in readiness for the Daudelon and the Coigny. The letters must go afterwards. I hope, by that time, to load him with copies of the Table likewise: I have it before me, but not in a sendable state. I hardly expect it will be in such a state by to-morrow’s post—it must, I think, by Thursday’s; therefore, at any rate, stay thou for it till it comes.

“A letter from Parson Williams—very reverential: that matter is as it should be.

“Mr Buggins, a fine man—lives in a fine house, and is never up before eleven. I have not seen him yet; but am told there is no talk of his going into the country soon. For sight-worthy persons at Plymouth, More mentioned Mudge, whom you know of old; and a man whose name begins with a T, and has two syllables in it—Turner or Teacher, it may be, for aught I know; he has, I think, a place in the yard—it may be Clerk of the Check, for aught I know; not that he knows anything—but he knows everybody. I have begun economizing—but this Table, while it lasts, is an interruption and a plague.

“Flush-Pump—is pretty well settled with regard to all the capital points. Out of fun, I won’t tell you anything about it till I see you; but do you settle it with yourself in the meantime, that we may compare notes. This will increase the chance of settling it well.

“Your business at church on Sunday, I take for granted, was to return thanks for Tree Nail Engine: next Sunday, if you go, pray for the softening of Mr Pitt’s heart.

“Don’t omit to consult with Carew about the advisability of preserving the anti-colonizing, and any other obnoxious passages.

“Alas, that I am not with you! but the Lord’s will be done! Cast about with Carew all sorts of measures that appear to hold out a chance of bringing Panopticon to bear here;—the bribery plans, for example, in the event of its not getting a hearing otherwise. This as from yourself: anything of that sort will come better from an intriguing Russian like you, than from a reformer like your betters. The completion of the book, and the production of the Table, will be a fresh incident, which will warrant his giving them a fresh fillip.

“A fly is a thing that can be put on at any time—Dieu merci. But Dieu has set his face against poor Plaining-Engine, and sent a bit of a fever to the head man who was to have set about it. Mr Cooper, whom I visited this morning, could not pretend to show me anything of it, but said that it had been begun upon, but that it was a new business, and required a good deal of thought. The fever is not to last longer than to-morrow or next; but there is a great disette of hands—many works of art at a stand on that account—and, in short, the colonel could not do better than send his chest of tools there, and lend a hand himself. So now you find there is employment for you, I hope you will come and take it, and not stay lounging there any longer. I have offered my services at 6d. a-day, acknowledging that 3d. would be a great deal more than they would be worth. The complaint of want of hands general, as More told you; out of 150 that he wants, he can get but 80; he gives 25s. or 26s. a-week, to some of them at least, if not to all. Well—Plany, when once born, will, I hope, do something towards remedying the grievance. You see we must try somebody else for Tree Nail Engine.

“You must not go to Bowood without me. I wish to go there, and am determined to go there,—that is, if you go, and not otherwise. It will be necessary to go there if we go on our mechanical excursion, for the sake of getting letters, &c. I have proposed to Townsend, that if he goes with us, that shall be our starting-post. I have been writing a letter to Mr Daudelon, in your name, for you to see.

“From Basingstoke we will go to Whitchurch, which is 12 miles on the way towards Bowood. There we shall see our cousin and ward—transact a little business I have to do there, and be at the house of a friend, who has often given me invitations, and will unquestionably be glad to see us. From thence is but 22 or 23 miles to Townsend’s living of Pewsey, where he probably is, and from whence he will take us to Bowood, which is 14 miles on foot or horseback, though, at least, 20 in a carriage.

“I charge you, on your allegiance, do not go now to Bowood with or without Lord Wycombe, but come back to London, as we agreed, for a variety of reasons.

“Louis should go before to Bowood to meet us—there are several there who talk French.

“In writing to Segur, &c., about Panopticon, it should be considered, that it would be worth while trying to have the contract there; for that purpose, the first thing to be done is to learn the expense per head of the present establishment for the confining of prisoners,—Bicêtre for example. The Comité de Mendicité either knows this, or could know it. It is a principle recognised lately by the National Assembly, that inventors ought to have the profits of their inventions: their Law on Patents is grounded on it.

“Your Frenchwomen might be written to confidentially to get an architect to join us in fighting up Panopticon—his profit being on the building—ours on the management. I think of sending them my letter and proposal to Pitt, which, with or without alteration, may serve for France. Vaughan is again pressing for the books for the Comité de Mendicité.”

Bentham’s father had, in consequence of his decaying health, been residing at Bath. Lord Lansdowne writes to Bentham that his father’s health was obviously declining, and indeed he died in the following year 1792. It was intended that Romilly and Bentham should visit Bowood together; Romilly was, however, compelled to abandon the project, thus excusing himself:—