Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Bentham to Lord St Helens. - 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

Bentham to Lord St Helens. - 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.


Bentham to Lord St Helens.

“Q. S. P., 4th April, 1801.

“There is something in what you say, my dear Lord, as to the considerations which might have warranted a man in your case in the expectation of being employed for such a purpose: but there is one qualification in which, not ‘setting aside self-partiality,’ but calling in every possible assistance from that quarter, you must acknowledge yourself deficient: and that is the being about to be favoured with the bonny hand of a daughter-in-law of the Earl of Liverpool. It seemed a plump one, as I thought, upon a distant view in my garden—the only one I was ever honoured with—and that a very imperfect one: but my brother, who, I suppose, before now may have had it in his, could give a more correct account of it.”

“19th April.

“Ecce iterum—And now, my dear Lord, in returning the kind token of your remembrance, (Peltier for 30th March,) I send you a still more formidable project than the preceding—with an invitation—a petition—for you to try your hand at ‘ferreting out the fallacies’ of it. Mr Rose promised, three or four months ago—and even in writing—to place it with his own secretarial hands—and that right soon—on that great theatre of oscitancy and procrastination—the table of Mr Pitt. Another copy will be put into the hands of Mr Vansittart, by our Romilly, sooner than I could flatter myself with the hope of receiving the benefit of any scrutiny you might have the goodness to bestow. You would oblige me much, by authorizing me to say, that you neither have communicated, nor will, without my particular consent, communicate anything about the plan to anybody else.

“When the D. of Portland is out of his present office, and Mr Pelham in his room, I have a further plot upon your kindness on the score of Panopticon, in relation to Mr Hatton, with whom, I understand from Wilson, that your lordship is on terms of intimacy. As to his colleague, a better notion of him might be obtained from Nepean than me. Something may be collected from a letter to Mr Addington, which, though too long, I will e’en load you with, along with the rest.

“J. B.”

Romilly says on the 8th April:—

“I put your plan (for the prevention of forgery) into the hands of the Attorney-general, who said he should be glad to read it; but I have no doubt that he will make no use of it—for he seems to care little about his bill. In truth, it is not in his own measure. He has been desired by the Bank to bring it in, and the bill was put into his hands, drawn by the Bank’s solicitor, and perused and settled by their counsel.”

Bentham wrote to Vansittart, (now Lord Bexley,) on the 20th April, respecting his Annuity-Note scheme* :—

[* ] See Works, vol. iii. p. 117 et seq.