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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: Law

Bentham to Dumont. - 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 Dumont.

“Q. S. P., 16th April, 1802.

“You would oblige me much, my dear Dumont, by sending me, by the earliest conveyance you can find, a copy of the two volumes which, I hear from Romilly, are already printed. Expense, though it were to amount to a guinea or two, would be no object; but if it could be done without considerable enhancements of the expense, I would be glad to have two or three.

“I let slip unawares the occasion of Chauvet. I knew that somebody was going to Geneva; but I did not know that it was by the way of Paris, nor that it was he. I am concerned to think of his departure: such a man makes a gap. By a sort of instinct, I was prompted to call upon him, for the purpose of taking leave. Reason joined with indolence in stopping me: such leave-taking serves for nothing but to increase regrets.

“You will imagine how I stared at seeing, in the Moniteur, an article of intelligence about the Institute, with my name to it. The next thing I shall expect, is the appointment to a mandarinship, from the Emperor of China. You must have been intriguing like ten dragons; unless the use of my name was to make up the two ciphers, for the benefit of an efficient figure, to be chosen of the two German compilers: compilers I take for granted since they are Germans, which I also take for granted from their names, not having the honour to know either of them (probably as being myself so completely unknown) beyond their names. Successful or unsuccessful, I do not mean at present to impose on you the task of developing all these intrigues: it will afford us amusement when we meet. When you leave Paris, I hope it will be to come here, for a time at least; though, on reflection, I fear the contrary. You may have observed, in some of our papers, an article about Romilly’s being Solicitor-general. I had the intelligence, as I thought, from his own office, and went to congratulate him, and found it groundless.

“With respect to the fire-irons, &c., you seem to have considered me as attaching to them a degree of importance much beyond what I really attached to them in my own mind. A favourable opportunity appearing to present itself, it occurred to me, that what is of no use here, might possibly be found of some small use there. As to the intrigue about the Institute, since it is begun, e’en let it take its course. But I want no other.

“My whole time is absorbed, and for these two months I suppose will be, by a pursuit, of which you are unapprised; and which there is neither time nor use in explaining to you at present.

“As far as I can judge, from dipping in here and there,—for as yet I have given it no regular reading,—Duquesnoi’s translation seems very well executed. Should any of the Prefects fill up any of the tables,* it would be a great satisfaction to me to receive them.”

Smarting under the ill usage he had received in the Panopticon business, and worn out with the intolerable delays which retarded any decision on the matter, Bentham applied to Sir William Pulteney, urging him to bring the matter before the House of Commons.

[* ] See Pauper Tables, in. vol. viii. of the Works.