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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: Law

Bentham to Nicholas Vansittart. - 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 Nicholas Vansittart.

“Q. S. P. 20th July, 1801.

“Dear Sir,—

Your obliging appointment for to-morrow will not fail of due obedience. You understand, I hope, that on the former occasion I was at the Treasury at the time appointed, (I crossed you in the passage;) and that your seeing me so late was owing to some misconception—of which I know not the canse—on the part of the messengers, I believe.

“Will you pardon my whimsicalness in mentioning it as a maxim of mine, deduced from uniform experience, that, in business, except for particular purposes, every third person is a nuisance—I mean in respect to distraction: for as to secrecy, if there were half-a-dozen short-hand writers, my objection to third persons would be obviated, if they were put behind a screen, with orders not to speak.

“I enclose the promised copy—a sad rough one; but as the revising another would consume a good deal of time, I hope your goodness will excuse it. I am,” &c.

Again:—

“Q. S. P., July 24, 1801.

“Dear Sir,—

I release you from your obliging appointment for this day. You have cut me out work for several days. I return you the paper—having preserved a copy of it. It answers my purpose to admiration: proving, as it does, that where everything was sought for that seemed capable of being made to wear the semblance of an objection—sought for, and with such ability—nothing was to be found. The force of it—at least the force with which it acted upon me—consisted exclusively in the force of the word ‘severity,’ dropped by yourself in speaking of it. Severity there was indeed in that word, and severely will you yourself be punished for it,—punished by the load of paper you will have drawn down upon yourself, and which, but for that word, you would have escaped. Since an answer then is necessary, black and white cannot be answered—not effectually at least—and to any lasting purpose—by anything but black and white: impressions thus made can seldom be wiped away by sounds.

“The judicial was the function I had chosen for the learned baronet, [Sir T. Eden]: that of advocate-counsel, for a rival project, is the character he has taken upon himself in preference. What a Mr Storestreet is to him, he has made himself to me. His adversary, in his model,—beginning—middle—end—he emulates Mr Storestreet. The word, ‘portentous,’ prefixed to the word ‘globe’ in the title-page of the one, is watched by the ‘ewes and lambs’ that garnish the first line of the other. As the one concludes with the grave of property, so does the other with the joke about dying of the Doctor. In what degree that style of discussion is calculated for the conveyance of useful information, may perhaps be seen, when the attention bestowed by it comes to be repaid. The misfortune is—all this makes words: and words take time even to write them: not to speak of thinking, even if, like my commentator, a man wrote from imagination, and without stopping to see what was in the text.

“There are other ways of treating a plan which a man would have been glad to find practicable, but cannot, consistently with what he owes to truth. I enclose a specimen, the rather because it is not altogether foreign to the subject in hand, being referred to—I should have said alluded to—in the Introduction, p. 4. But not having any necessary relation to the question in hand, it is not worth looking at, but at your most perfect leisure. I am,” &c.

Again:—

“August 10th, 1801.

“Dear Sir,—

Before, you had Sir Frederick’s ‘severity,’ now you have it back again with mine. You are our master; we a couple of school-boys making the declamations you were pleased to set us. As to real spite and enmity—whatever you might otherwise be apt to suppose as you read on, (supposing you to have patience to read on,) I assure you most sincerely, I have no more against him, than the school-boy who spouts Ajax has against his chum who spouts Ulysses; or than you yourself may have felt when arguing a settlement case against the learned gentleman on the other side. As to Sir Frederick, he is a good-natured man, (to judge from everything I have seen or heard of him,) and would forgive me, if you gave him the opportunity; but that is a matter for you to judge of. As to this his jeu d’esprit, if I have failed of being severe upon it, it certainly is not for want of trial—the necessity of defending at all points, what seemed to be an object on public ground worth defending, forbade me to give quarter:—but, personally, if he were to have heard all I have said of him, not only before this affair, but since, I think he would not have been dissatisfied with it—excepting always one remark I made t’other day, viz., that for the sake of the public, as well as his own, it would give me more satisfaction to see him at the head of the Government Annuity-Note Office, joining hands with his noble uncle at the Post-office, than at the head of the Globe;* which last, I am inclined to think would, notwithstanding, experience at least as favourable treatment from me, if it depended upon me, as I should expect to see it meet with from the Crown lawyers.

“Tedious as this operation has been, from the labour of making references, together with the toil of revising an incorrect copy, taken from a most exemplarily rough hand, (such as this is, especially when it writes against time to arrest fugitive ideas,) I flatter myself it may not be, altogether, labour lost; since, besides the main object, I should expect to find that other observations, such as might be looked for from Mr Alcock and others, had been found anticipated by it.

“At any rate, any other objections, fresh or stale, that might present themselves from the same, or any other quarter, I should neither think of answering in a similar tone, nor (probably) look upon it as necessary to answer at equal length—simple references being all I should think necessary to give by way of answer to objections already foreseen and answered; and if you would have the goodness to distinguish by some mark, any such observations as, in your view of the matter, called for an answer beyond what has been already given, it would be an act of charity; unless any objection presented itself to you as a fatal one—in which case, you would give judgment accordingly, and I should have my quietus.”

[* ] Viz., “The Globe” Insurance Company.