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Subject Area: Law

Brougham to Mill. - 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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Brougham to Mill.

“July 7, 1811.

“My dear Sir,—

I have this moment received your letter and the enclosures, containing part of the letter to Madison,* and I need not say that it forth with put all other business for a season to flight, and fixed me. I am about to go through it with much care, for the purpose of humbly suggesting a few alterations, to avoid startling our Transatlantic brethren too much at first. But as to the main point, I am wholly at Mr B.’s service. Pinckney I know extremely well, and have long been in the habit of communicating freely with him. I will write, therefore, in any terms you please to him. Munroe, his predecessor, I was equally intimate with, and I make the same offer as to him. I believe he is now Governor of Virginia. It may seem absurd to say so; but to the present question it is material, and therefore I may mention, that I have some little credit in the U. S., at least with the Jefferson party, (the ruling powers.) They printed and circulated my speeches on the American questions, and I see I have my share in the abuse of their adversaries. I have also had a very civil, and indeed unmerited proof of Jefferson’s good opinion, from a gentleman who chanced to be with him when one of those speeches arrived. I am sure I cannot possibly better use up (as the housewives say) this little credit, than by attempting to pave the way for the communication in question.

“I do not even know the name of the chargé d’affaires; but I can have no objection to apply to him: and what I should propose would be this, (though I write in haste, and with little time for maturely digesting the plan,) that I should desire him to transmit, as from myself, to Pinckney, (himself an eminent lawyer, by the way, and one whom I have consulted on American law, as I have been consulted by him on our own,) and then that the letter and packet should be delivered by Pinckney to Madison,—being introduced by Pinckney by a full letter from me. Not that any such introduction can be very necessary when the name of Mr Bentham appears; but the American lawyers may have some of our homebred (or rather homebrew’d) prejudices, and I can state things respecting Mr Bentham, and his weight with even sound practical lawyers of the better school, which he can’t so well mention himself. I shall send back the MS. speedily, and wait your answer as to my mode of proceeding.—Ever yours truly,

H. B.”

In answer to a letter from Mill, suggesting inquiries into some subjects of naval reform, Brougham writes, that he fears Lord St Vincent would not concur in Bentham’s views, and that of Lord St V. he had formed a high opinion. Bentham writes to Mill:—

“Nothing can be more frank, more candid, more judicious, more honourable than Brougham’s conduct; nothing more satisfactory than his accounts of it.

“If, in his dealings towards my brother, Lord St Vincent had been fortunate enough to have Mr B. for his adviser, this favourite plan of his, supposing it capable of standing the test of examination, might have been saved from that opposition, and even that retardation at least, which it has been its destiny to experience.”

Dumont says, August 7th, 1811:—

(Translation.)

“I have read Lord Charlemont’s Life.† It may interest you more than it interests me. I found no amusement in it—too many generalities—too many allusions—too few anecdotes. It is rather a general view of Irish history, than a biography of the principal personage.”

On the 4th September, in answer to a proposal that he should write to Gallatin,‡ recommending him to address the President of the United States, in order to induce him to apply to Bentham for a Civil Code to be introduced into America, Dumont says:—

[* ] See the address to President Madison in the Papers on Codification and Public Instruction. Works, vol. iv. p. 453.

[† ] Hardy’s Memoirs of Lord Charlemont: London, 1810, 4to. Bentham made use of it in his “Radicalism not Dangerous,” at the end of vol. iii. of the Works.

[‡ ] Albert Gallatin, Plenipotentiary of the United States, in London.