Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Romilly 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

Romilly 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.


Romilly to Bentham.

“Edinburgh,2d September, 1793.

“Dear Bentham,—

Much as I detest writing letters, especially in a place where I have so many different ways of passing my time as I have here, I should reproach myself if I were not to give you some account of a Panopticon which is building in this city. As I have never heard you mention it, I think it is possible that you may be entirely unacquainted with it. It is built entirely of stone, and though it was begun only a year ago, the shell of it is nearly finished. The plan is Adam’s; and I am informed that he admits that he took the idea of it from your brother. It is a semicircular building, and differs from your plan very materially in this respect, that the cells in which the convicts are to work, are not placed at the outer extremity of the building, but look upon the annular well, in the centre of which the Inspector’s room is placed. At the outer extremity are cells, in which the convicts are to sleep, and in which they are to be in solitary confinement; and between the two ranges of cells there is a passage into which the doors of both cells open; but as these doors are not facing each other, there is no thorough light, as in your design, nor the same free circulation of air. The whole side of the working cells, which lies towards the Inspector’s room, is open, and to be grated with iron; and the Inspector has no means of seeing into the cells but from the light of the annular well, which, the workmen told me, was to be covered with a glass skylight. There are four stories of cells, and only two Inspectors’ rooms, which being placed each between two stories, as in your plan, have a perfect view into every part of all the working cells. I am afraid you will so little be able to understand my description, that I must endeavour to draw some kind of plan for you:—

lf0872-10_figure_002

“I think the want of air seems to be one great objection to this plan; and another is, that the convicts, in the cells where they sleep, are not exposed to any inspection; it may not be very difficult for them to make their escape, especially as these cells are at the outermost part of the building. It is true that seems to have been provided against by pretty strong walls; but Mr Blackburne, who had a great deal of experience on this subject, had, I remember, very little confidence in the thickness of walls. It is true that both the objections I have mentioned are in some degree weakened by the situation of the building, which stands on the side of Calton Hill, between the new and old towns, and under the immediate view of a great neighbourhood; and there is always not only a free circulation of air, but wind.

“I am passing my time here very pleasantly, principally however in a society which you would not at all relish—lawyers. Indeed, I doubt whether this would be a very safe country just at this moment for you to be found in, for I heard the judges of the justiciary court, the other day, declare with great solemnity, upon the trial of Mr Muir, that to say the courts of justice needed reform was seditious—highly criminal,—and betrayed a most hostile disposition towards the constitution, of which the courts of justice form a most important part.”

To Philip Metcalf,* Bentham gives this very cheering account of his ministerial negotiations:—

[* ] Bentham said, that Metcalf told him that the profit of distillation was only in the distilling duties—in other words, cheating.