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Subject Area: Law

Bentham to Charles Abbot. - 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 Charles Abbot.

“On Friday (I think it was) that I addressed by the post a letter to you at Cheltenham, in which I told you of the effects produced instanter upon the price of land in the part of Poland last ceded to Prussia by the system of Registration, viz., raising it from seventeen years’ purchase to twenty. In the other parts of the Prussian dominions (property being upon so much securer a footing than it used to be in Poland) the price is, and has for some time been, thirty years’ purchase. The plan of Registration is in Prussia much more extensive and detailed than I believe it is here in the Register counties, or than you would, I imagine, think it advisable to attempt introducing. It includes not only mortgages, as well as conveyances outright, but servitudes (Latinè,) easements &c., (Anglicè.) In a word, it does for the whole country, and at all times, what I understand to be done once for all by the late Act in regard to the New Forest.

“I told you, at the same time, of an opportunity I thought I had of getting any queries answered in a satisfactory manner, that you might wish to put relative to the subject, if you thought it worth your while: at any rate, I shall use my endeavours to get a copy of the regulations printed on that subject, which regulations will, I suppose, contain, in most points, as satisfactory an answer to any such queries as could be procured by the queries themselves.

“Hearing to-day that you had left Cheltenham some time, it seems probable enough that the above letter has never reached your hands. I wish this, therefore, that if you think it worth while you might write about it to the Postmaster at Cheltenham. The direction was to ‘Charles Abbot, Esq., M.P., Cheltenham,’ nothing more. It contained some little matters besides, but of no great consequence.

“Talking with Wilson t’other day, I found that, according to his conception of the matter, the acknowledgments that country bankers give for their money, which they borrow at interest, are not negotiable bills, nor notes employed as currency, (as their notes, payable on demand, and the notes of the Bank of England are,) but simply promissory notes. You would oblige me, if you could inform me how that matter stands in the part of the country where you are at present, and any other that you may happen to be acquainted with.

“In the last Budget speech, 24th February, 1800, (as per Times, 25th February,) Pitt takes credit for ‘imprest money’ to the amount of £750,000, as expected to be received ‘in repayment of money advanced.’ Quere—to whom advanced, and on what account? Is this what we find sometimes under the head of Army Savings?”

Charles Abbot answers:—

“High Lake, near Neston, Cheshire, 11th September, 1800.

“I shall be very glad to have the Prussian scheme of Registration. And I also want to know how the American plan has proceeded, which was enacted by Congress two years ago; but I have no American acquaintance.

“My plan you will despise very much; but you would do more justly by transferring your censure to those who have not the understanding or spirit to adopt a better. I can only hope to establish the Middlesex and Yorkshire Registration throughout England. When this is done, it will be less difficult to do more afterwards.

“See Lord [Sir Mathew] Hale’s Essay on Registration.

“The £750,000 Imprest Money—expected to be repaid into the Exchequer—refers, I suppose, to some of the Mercantile Loans—or some of the Contractors’ accounts; but I do not believe that Army Savings form any part of it. But our successes at Ferrol, &c. &c., must be very satisfactory.”

The following letter of Bentham, on the Population Bill, signed Censor, and dated November 1800, is published in Peter Porcupine. I find a letter from Cobbett, acknowledging it, and apologizing for its delay for a week, from his wish to give it entire:—