Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Thomas Law to Bentham. - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 10 (Memoirs Part I and Correspondence)

Return to Title Page for The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 10 (Memoirs Part I and Correspondence)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: Law

Thomas Law to Bentham. - 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.

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.


Thomas Law to Bentham.

Dear Sir,

Your polite note is so full of kindnesses, that I know not which most to thank you for. That of your promise to fix a day to favour me with your company, and to prevail on Mr Wilson to come also, I prefer. Your brother, the colonel, was enjoying practical gratifications, whilst we were indulging in speculative ones. He was even with us. I am obliged by his card, and am desirous of having the honour of his acquaintance. Alas! I am obliged to go for a few days to Ireland, and to set off on Tuesday next, my brother having particularly desired me to see him in Dublin. Your pamphlet on the Judiciary Establishment is gone to be bound, and it will receive my greatest attention, for, in Asia, courts are much wanted, and good laws. I was reading it, when Colonel Bentham was amusing himself with the Essay on Woman. His Panopticon would, me-thinks, be a good building for a jealous man. The genuine native of Siberia I should behold with eagerness as a rare animal, but mere curiosities, in general, have very little attraction. Cui bono is my question. Your brother is pleased with novelties. Immediately upon my return, I shall claim your promise, and hope that your brother will accompany you.—I remain,” &c.

A Frenchman, named Duquesneau, a shoemaker by trade, had married a servant of Bentham’s. On the 3d February, 1793, a king’s order was issued, banishing the said Duquesneau, and directing him to leave the nation within three days. Bentham took him into his house. The man was supposed, but without any the slightest grounds, to be connected with the republican party in France. Bentham was at this time engaged in his Panopticon negotiations, and was assuredly not likely to obtain favour by interfering on behalf of this poor foreigner. I find in Bentham’s handwriting the following endorsement on the king’s warrant:—

“King’s Order of Banishment to Duquesneau, under the Alien Act,—acting functionary Huskisson, afterwards cabinet minister. The order being groundless, J. B., Q. S. P. [Jeremy Bentham, Queen Square Place] attended at the Alien Office to prove it so to be. Huskisson was haughty and unreasonable, but yielded, though with a bad grace.”

The royal thunder, directed against Monsieur Duquesneau, the shoemaker, was thus spent in vain. This letter of Bentham to Henry Dundas explains the case:—