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Front Page Titles (by Subject) SUPPLEMENTAL ADVERTISEMENT. - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 8 (Chrestomathia, Essays on Logic and Grammar, Tracts on Poor Laws, Tracts on Spanish Affairs)
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SUPPLEMENTAL ADVERTISEMENT. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 8 (Chrestomathia, Essays on Logic and Grammar, Tracts on Poor Laws, Tracts on Spanish Affairs) [1843]Edition used:The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). In 11 vols. Volume 8.
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SUPPLEMENTAL ADVERTISEMENT.In the preceding Advertisement, some account was undertaken to be given of the effect of these Letters, so far as regards the honourable gentlemen at whose instance they were written, and the other honourable gentlemen who has been seen bearing a principal part in the drawing up and ushering in the important work which has been the subject of them. Letter after letter went, and no acknowledgment came of the receipt of them. The Count’s residence at Paris being but temporary, and no address having been given to me, the course I had taken was—after directing the letters To Count Toreno at Paris, to add in French, To the care ofthe Spanish Mission. At this time, fortune favoured me so far, as to station at Paris, a correspondent on whose punctuality I could depend:—Miss Frances Wright, author of that so justly admired and pre-eminently interesting work—View of Society and Manners in the American United States, a second edition of which has, at the end of a few months, just succeeded the first. At my request, that lady did me the favour to see the Count, and deliver into his hands, a letter of which the following is a copy:— Mr Bentham to the Comte de Toreno.Queen’s Square Place, Westminster,Sept. 18th, 1821. Sir,—This goes to you, I hope, by a private hand. In obedience to your commands, as signified by your letter of last month, and in consequence of your obliging present received on the 22d, I addressed to you by the post on the 11th of this month, the first of six intended letters, and on the 14th, the greater part of the second: the conclusion of the second I shall send this night by the post, not being able to finish the revision of it time enough to send it by the present private conveyance. The third and fourth will follow it in a very few days more. In the first or second of these letters, reference is made to two pamphlets, which Miss Wright, a young lady who was going from hence on a visit to General La Fayette, was kind enough to take charge of. It would be a great satisfaction to me to hear that anything of all this has been received by you, as likewise to receive your directions respecting the course to be taken for the conveyance of the remaining letters.* Your letter to me not containing any directions on this subject, nor being dated from any street or other place at Paris, I could think of no course so proper, or so likely to succeed, as that which is expressed in the direction given to this letter, and which direction I have accordingly pursued in every instance. To Miss Wright, I gave in charge nothing more than the pamphlets in question, not having at that time been able to decide what course my letter to you should take. Understanding that the Cortes were to meet to do business so soon as the 24th of this month, I should not have sent a letter to you at Paris thus late in the month, but for those words in which you say in your letter “d’ici aux derniers jours de Septembre, que je dois retourner en Espagne.” With the truest respect, I am, Sir, Yours, Jeremy Bentham. Under these circumstances I could not help considering myself as being in no inconsiderable degree indebted to Miss Wright for the Spanish letter underneath, of which the following is a translation:— Paris,September 26th, 1821. Sir,—Perceiving from the quotations in your three valuable letters, the acquaintance you have with the language of the nation I belong to, I employ it on this occasion, in preference to any foreign one; following in this particular the example you have set me. Never should I have thought of making any such attempt upon your time, had it not been for my friend Mr Bowring, and the assurances he gave me, that you would with pleasure do whatever it might lie in your power to do, in compliance with any request, which, for a purpose such as that in question, I might be disposed to make to you. Under this assurance, it seemed to me that I could not have a more favourable occasion, for addressing myself to the illustrious writer, the celebrated Mr Bentham, whose works have spread so much light over the field of legislation, and thereby made such large contribution to the welfare of mankind. I see, however, that the extent of the subject, and, above all, a sort of distrust on your part as towards the functionaries who consult you, have given their colour to your mode of complying with my request; although it does not appear to me that “the individual thus consulted” should have seen grounds for distrusting “the functionary consulting.” The latter of these will, with pleasure, quote with due respect the person by whom he is thus honoured: it accords not with his principles or his habits to attempt to gain reputation by hiding, diminishing, or appropriating to himself the merits of other men. With that urbanity which from such a quarter could not but be expected, it has been your care to avoid including me in any such imputation: I mean, by the testimony you give to the fact, that I have not the honour of knowing or being known to you, or of ever having written to you: by this testimony, coupled with the intimation of your opinion, that there was nothing about me that could have given room for any such particular distrust on your part towards myself. Be assured, Sir, that I am duly sensible to the value of the expectations you hold out to me, of your having in hand a work on this same subject. Not less so am I to the justice of those already published observations of yours, of which certain articles in our constitution are the subjects, confirmed as it is to me, by those which a pretty extensive course of experience has led me to make on the practice of legislative bodies. The non-re-eligibility of deputies is a most serious evil; detrimental, as it so manifestly is, to that stability and consistency which are so essential in men’s proceedings in general, and more particularly in such in which the public interest is concerned. Although my first letter was not written under any such expectation as that of its meeting the public eye, you have not the less my free consent, Sir, to send it to the press, so as the present letter be an accompaniment to it. It is with great pleasure that I shall always receive any such communications as you may be pleased to make to me: persuaded as I am, that whatsoever labour may have been employed upon them will not be labour lost. I am, Sir, &c.(Signed) El Conde de Toreno. P.S. Miss Wright has the goodness to take charge of this letter for you. Mr J. Bentham. Paris,Septembre 26, de 1821. Mui Senor Mio, Viendo por las citas que VMd hace en sus tres apreciables, lo bien que entiende el espanôl; prefiero escribirle en mi lengua á valerme de otra extraña, siguiendo en esto el exemplo de VMd. Nunca hubiera yo molestado su atencion, ni atrevidome á distraerle de sus importantes tareas, si nuestro amigo Mr Bowring no me hubiera animado á ello, manifestandome el gusto conque VMd satisfaria mis deseos—En virtud de esto nada crei mas oportuno en el asunto de que se trataba que dirigirme al escritor ilustre, al célebre Mr Bentham, que por medio de sus obras habia procurado en materias de legislacion, difundir ideas luminosas y contribuir de este modo al bien de la humanidad—Veo sinembargo que lo extenso del asunto, y sobre todo un cierto género de desconfianza que tiene VMd en los funcionarios que consulta, le han impedido contestar à lo que le preguntaba, si bien nada hubiera tenido que recelar del functionary consulting el individual thus consulted. El primero citarà con gusto la persona que le ilustre, no fundando su gloria en ocultar, disminuir, ó quitar, el mérito de las demas—VMd con la urbanidad propia de hombre tan distinguido, no me comprehende en su asercion; y en verdad no habiendo tenido la honra de conocer antes à VMd, ni de escribirle directamente, como VMd mismo nota, no habia antecedente alguno que diese lugar a esta desconfianza. Aprecio de todos modos la promesa que VMd me hace de una obra que acerca de esta materia escribe.—Asimismo estimo las observaciones generales sobre algunos articulos de la constitucion; entre ellas hallo algunas bastante justas, segun lo que me ha enseñado una larga experiencia de lo que son los cuerpos legislativos—La no-re-eleccion de diputados es un grave mal, pues falta aquel principio de estabilidad y consequencia tan necesario en todos los asuntos, y sobre todo en los de publico interes. Aunque mi primera carta no fué escrita con el obgeto de que viese la luz publica, es VMd mui dueño de imprimirla con tal que imprima igualmente esta que ahora le escribo. Tendré siempre mucho gusto en recibir las observaciones que tenga VMd à bien comunicarme; y estando seguro de que no serán sin fruto me ofrezco de VMd at° seg° servr L. B. S. M. El Conde de Toreno. Miss Wright tiene la bondad de dirigir à VMd esta carta. No other acknowledgment, nor any further instruction arriving,—on the 11th of October, I sent for Madrid by the post the following Letter, directed “A Monsieur M. le Comte de Toreno, &c. &c. &c. Madrid.” Oct. 11, 1821. A Monsieur M. Le Comte de Toreno, &c. &c. &c. Sir, Circumstances considered, it seems to me that there may be a use, in my making this second acknowledgment of the honour done me by your second letter bearing date, Paris, Sep. 26. The first acknowledgment was made in a postcript to letter the 4th, being the 3rd of the series of letters announced in letter 1st. Whether, besides that 1st letter, you had, before your leaving Paris, received any others, I cannot be sure: though, from a passage in your above-mentioned 2d letter, I am inclined to think you had received one at least:* of the 6 sent or announced as above, 4 have already gone to Paris at different times, all of them directed in the same words as the one of which you mentioned the receipt: so likewise a part of letter the 5th. The whole, or near the whole, of the remainder, will go to-morrow (Friday); letter 6th, which at present at least is but a short one, will follow it the next Paris post-day, which is Tuesday Oct. 16: and, the same day or the next, the supplemental letter on Religion (letter 7th) announced in one of the preceding ones. I am, Sir, with all respect, your obedient servant, Jeremy Bentham. P.S. The following are the days on which the several letters were sent to our London Post Office. 1821. Sept. 11th, Letter 1. Sept. 14th, Letter 2 (first part.) Sept. 18th, Letter 2 (last part.) Sept. 27th, Letter 3. Oct. 2d, Letter 4. Oct. 15th, Letter 5 (first part.) Oct. 10th, Letter 5 (last part.) The honourable gentleman speaks of distrust: of distrust on my part: and, as in his situation would very naturally be the case, seems to be not altogether pleased with it. Distrust on my part? O yes: that there was: distrust not entertained only but declared: the reader may have observed how explicitly declared. It is for this distrust that I see a sort of action brought against me in the Court of Public Opinion: though, such is the honourable plaintiff’s candour, I cannot complain of the rate at which the damages appear to be laid. To this action, such as it is, my pleas are—in the language of English law—Not guilty, and a justification. 1. Not guilty. For,—the object of this distrust of mine—what is it? Not the individual, but the genus and the species:—man, the genus; statesman, the species: and, such as the imputation is, we are—both of us—not he the plaintiff alone, but I the defendant also—declaredly included in it. I will even go further—I aver even ultrà-innocence. If, on my part, in a case like this, the eye of suspicion could have been closed, in few instances could it have been so nearly so, as in the present. I turned in the first place to the Cortes at large. In the instance of these real representatives of the Spanish people, when compared with the sham representatives of this and that other nation, I could not but see a ground for comparative confidence—appropriate confidence—a ground alike obvious and incontestable. In the instance of Count Toreno in particular, this ground presented an aspect of peculiar strength. Him alone I saw breaking through the trammels of national vanity, and national prejudice. Him alone I saw looking round for useful information: looking to whatsoever quarter presented a chance of furnishing it. To whatever presumed source of information the call for it had been directed, the magnanimity manifested by such a call would have produced, in my mind, that degree of appropriate confidence which was so natural: and whether, by the consideration of the individual source applied to, that confidence could have been lessened, any one may judge. So much for not guilty. Now for justification.—Suppression—suppression, to an amount more or less considerable—is charged, as having, in the passages complained of, been stated, as an undesirable, but at the same time a too certain result,—supposing the correspondence not submitted to the public eye. Such then being the alleged probable, what has been the actual, result? This security against suppression—such security as is afforded by the assurance of future publication—this security, as far as it goes, has been obtained; and still, so far as has depended on the honourable complainant, suppression has actually been the result: suppression, not partial only, but total, in the only place in which publicity could have been productive of any immediate effect on practice. Of the seven letters which the reader has before him, three (he has seen) have been acknowledged. But he has moreover seen—how and by what means they were caused to be acknowledged: fortune having, in the manner that has been seen, favoured me, and conveyed through the Count’s key-hole, a sylph, to whose questions a yes or a no could not be refused. It is moreover to her account that my suspicion cannot forbear placing that same license, whereby publication stands authorized. Since that day, (Sept. 26th, 1821,) neither in black and white, nor by word of mouth, has a syllable from him on the subject been extractible. The letter, with which he was presented, or at least endeavoured to be presented, upon his return to Madrid, the reader has seen likewise. Mr Bowring, by another such favour of fortune, was sent to meet him there. Have you seen the Count? What has he received? What says he to it? To questions to this effect, put by me to my friend, an answer could not be refused. One alone could be given—Invisible. Invisible? How so? unless that, by the Count, my good genius, though so lately his own likewise, was now taken for his evil genius? Thus it is, that in the case in question, while all use to the Spanish nation was dependent upon and proportioned to publicity,—on the one part has been seen exertion for the securing of it, on the other part silence and secrecy, continuing from beginning to end. In letter sixth, may have been observed two concluding questions put to the Count. 1. Think you, Sir, that, without any interposition on your part, circulation will be permitted to these letters? 2. If not, will your influence be employed in the endeavour to procure a permit, or at least a connivance, for the article you have been pleased to bespeak of me? Still, for answer, silence: and in such a case, silence (it need scarce be said) is a negative. Now as to the effect of this same negative. Nor yet, if report be to be credited, is silence on his own part the only instrument of suppression my honourable correspondent has at his command. In Madrid, as elsewhere, sits a Board, for the securing of whatsoever requires to be secured, in relation to the press: on the part of all constituted authorities, good conduct, at all times, and in every shape: and for this purpose—for there, as elsewhere, such are the means employed—concealment of every such instance of bad conduct, as may at any time have had place. For a gilding to the pill, here as elsewhere, Jury, if I mistake not, is the title conferred upon this Board. At Madrid, report gives to Count Toreno the direction of this instrument: and such is the hold taken upon men’s minds by this apprehension, I am assured that, should it happen to any of these letters to make their appearance at that chief seat of Spanish liberty, amendments adapted to existing circumstances must and will, in the first place, have been made in them: so that, to an extent more or less considerable, what I am thus seen to have said will be—not what I have said, but what I ought to have said. All this while, let not injustice be done, in any shape, to my honourable correspondent. On nothing which he has done or left undone, is any breach of promise chargeable. What he promised, was—that he would himself pay attention to what he received from me: what he did not promise, was—that any one else should have it in his power to do so. Curious enough, unless my information is substantially incorrect, is the contrast exhibited by the effect of these Letters on the two most conspicuous characters in the Cortes,—Count Toreno, and M. Calatrava: that Mr Calatrava, who, on the occasions of greatest importance, has been seen taking the lead. “Yesterday,” (says a private Madrid letter of Dec. 17,) “Yesterday, Calatrava made, I am told, a most eloquent eulogium on ‘the illustrious, the learned, the humane Bentham.’ ” How different this result from anything that could naturally have been expected! In the case of my honourable correspondent, gratitude for the distinction conferred on me, added to esteem for the liberality manifested by an application such as hath been seen, could not but concur in giving a certain smoothness to every passage, by which, in the course of the discussion, his individuality was brought to view. In the case of the chief penman of the Projected Code,—after every smoothing-iron that presented itself had been employed, necessity still gave to everything an irremediable asperity. Far indeed from pleasant to the author of the Letters was the invidious office, which, as the work advanced, after the promise of it had been made, the nature of the case was seen to have forced upon him: the office of mischief-maker between two colleagues. Never accordingly was sympathy more sincere than was mine, as often as the predicament, in which the two great statesmen had been placed by me, offered itself to my view. But, on the one hand, on a point of the most extensive influence, stood the interest of the whole Spanish nation: not to speak of so many other nations in the background: on the other hand, the transient feelings, of two individuals, whose situations could not but be frequently exposing them to similar ones. As to Mr Calatrava’s knowledge of the treatment he had been receiving at my hands,—it is scarce necessary to observe, that, while Count Toreno was sitting at his elbow, and it was known to other members of the Cortes that a Spanish translation was in hand, few things could be less improbable, than that anything which the honourable gentlemen was disposed to know of the matter, should be unknown to him. The more than friendly language, in which, as above, the author of the provocation was spoken of—spoken of by him who was the object of it—should be present to the reader’s mind, as often as any of the particulars, by which the provocation was given, present themselves to his eye or to his memory. Yet have I seen a letter (it was indeed from a fellow-countryman of his, and a declared adversary) in which this forgiving statesman is charged with being of the number of those, who do not bear their faculties altogether so meekly as could be wished. Magnanimity—prudence in this or that shape—to which of these two virtues, or to a happy mixture of both, shall so rare and exemplary a return of good for evil be ascribed? To the Hermit at London in his hermitage, all this matter is perfectly opaque: at Madrid it is perhaps transparent. SECURITIES AGAINST MISRULE, ADAPTED TO A MAHOMMEDAN STATE, AND PREPARED WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO TRIPOLI IN BARBARY.now first published from the mss. of [* ] This satisfaction I was not destined to receive. [* ] This doubt was a misconception of mine: the Count’s Spanish Letter acknowledges three. |

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