Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow O'Connell to C. S. Cullen. - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 11 (Memoirs of Bentham Part II and Analytical Index)

Return to Title Page for The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 11 (Memoirs of Bentham Part II and Analytical Index)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: Law

O’Connell to C. S. Cullen. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 11 (Memoirs of Bentham Part II and Analytical Index) [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. 11.

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.


O’Connell to C. S. Cullen.

  • “5, Maddox Street,

My dear Cullen,

You may assure your friend, Stanhope, that he mistakes me much, if he thinks me at all doubtful on ‘the fee-gathering system,’ or that I fall short of the full measure of relief which Bentham contemplates. Indeed, if it were possible to go further than Bentham does, and at the same time to be right, I would do so; because I know practically that the mischiefs of the present system exceed, not fall short, of any notions which may be entertained by those who are not practically engaged in its workings.

“I adopt the ‘spirit of the petition for justice.’ That petition is my legal creed. I do not believe it to be infallible; but I really and seriously think it as nearly infallible as any purely human project can be.

“The fee-gathering system has been attacked in Ireland thus far—the fees are all now paid to the Government. The pecuniary emoluments of the judges are fixed, and are not affected by the amount of the fees, directly or indirectly. Even the officers, whom the judges appoint, are now paid by fixed salaries. We are therefore suffering from the odious effects of ‘fee-gathering’ in former times, although that source of increase of mischief is slackened. In attacking the fee-gathering system, I must not forget that this is the existing state of facts; but I dislike the system itself. I am, and ever will be, its enemy—its implacable enemy.

“In fine, there never lived a more complete, entire, unchangeable enemy to law abuses as they exist,—a more determined advocate for the domestic, instead of the factitious,—the summary in contradistinction to the technical form of procedure, than yours, very sincerely.”