1 THE WORKS OF JEREMY BENTHAM, NOW FIRST COLLECTED; UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF HIS EXECUTOR, JOHN BOWRING. V, PART I. CONTAINING THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALS AND LEGISLATION. ON THE PROMULGATION OF LAWS; WITH SPECIMEN OF A PENAL CODE: ON THE INFLUENCE OF TIME AND PLACE IN MATTERS OF A TABLE OF THE SPRINGS OF ACTION. A FRAGMENT ON GOVERNMENT; WITH THE HISTORICAL PREFACE EDINBURGH: WILLIAM TAIT, 78 PRINCE'S STREET; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. LONDON; JOHN CUMMING, DUBLIN. GENERAL PREFACE. covered, their necessary connexion was not felt—their exact import and extent was not clearly seen and their important consequences were almost entirely overlooked. THE Publisher of the first complete Edition | them ultimately rested, not having been disof BENTHAM'S Works thinks a brief prefatory explanation indispensable, in order that the reader may know what he has to look for. The literary executor of "the master," Dr. Bowring, being abroad, and others well qualified declining to undertake the task, it has devolved on the writer of the following pages, who sets to work on a somewhat hasty sum mons. The science of legislation, and of morals as bearing on legislation, was invented by Bentham: he laid the foundations, and hitherto no one has carried the superstructure higher than he did. In order to appreciate what Bentham has accomplished — to indicate to the reader what he may expect to find in Bentham's writings,—it will be necessary to glance at — first, the state in which he found legislative science and public opinion; second, the development of his opinions, the objects and character of the works he produced; third, the effect his writings have already produced, and the farther effect they are in the act of producing. I. Of the state in which Bentham found legislative science and public opinion. The early religious reformers had deviated into the error of endeavouring to substitute one class of dogmatic opinions, sanctioned by law, for another. The stubbornness of contending sectarians had rendered in many cases a rude rule-of-thumb toleration unavoidable, but wherever a sufficient majority were of one way of thinking, formal creeds, sanctioned by legislative authority, were the order of the day. Again, the encroachments of Charles I. had led men to inquire into the basis on which the kingly power rested. The Long Parliament, finding the claims advanced by the King incompatible with security of person and property for the subject, overturned the throne: and the people, finding an irresponsible body of legislators equally dangerous, overturned the Long Parliament. The first experiment having failed, kings were restored, and were not long of driving the people to seek some new bulwark against their attacks. To soothe the superstitious veneration entertained for traditional esta These two topics are inseparable. Abstract principles, and that floating mass of incohe-blishments, the fiction of an original compact rent opinions caught up and relinquished at random, which has hitherto formed the moral creed and rule of the masses, re-act upon each other. On the one hand, conclusions of the philosopher are adopted by many who are incapable or unwilling to appreciate their reasons: on the other, the opinions of men direct their actions, their actions constitute the events of society, and these events suggest the reflections out of which the philosopher elaborates his principles. The events of European history had, about the time of Bentham's birth, established several true and important opinions as the political creed of all reflecting men: although the common principle, upon which the whole of between the subject and sovereign was devised, and under its shelter, James II. was driven from the throne, and William III. seated in his place. But for one circumstance, the Bill of Rights would have transformed the "compact" from a fiction into a reality. That circumstance was, that the Revolution of 1688 transferred the excess of power from the king, not to the people, but to the aristocracy. The king dwindled to a puppet, moved by the largest faction of that privileged caste. A wider scope was given to aristocratical ambition; the British nobility split into two hereditary parties, which assumed the name of Whigs and Tories; and the structure of the representative body was ad mirably calculated for enabling whichever of | they are:" herein consists the strength of 66 existing establishments." The mass of society in Great Britain, during the latter half of last century, could learn nothing precise or practical in politics from men whose views were, as a whole, vague and incoherent. Men's natural vis inertia made them acquiesce in what was taught them, notwithstanding the ill-concealed incongruity of its parts. And the whole fabric of British institutions was of a nature to render them friendly to the substitution of words for things. Nothing seemed the result of pre-disposition - every thing seemed, as it were, to have grown up. The constitution was a congeries of makeshifts. If a man remarked that the House of Commons did not represent the people, he was soothed with the phrase “ virtual representation." If he complained of the voluminous, contradictory, and inaccessible nature of the law, he was silenced by grave panegyrics on the wisdom of the successive occupants of the Bench, who, by virtue of legal "fictions," had, as circumstances emerged, built up an artificial system of law, far superior to what any legislature could have devised. Civil life was one great and continuous practical lesson in the art of saying one thing and meaning another. The allied Church and the Universities completed the doctrine of insin them obtained the ascendency, to work its will with a House of Commons, which, seemingly the representative of the people, was in reality the hired servant of the aristocracy. The American revolution put an end to this delusion. The sturdy fathers of the Transatlantic Republic insisted upon the reality of what the mother country had been contented to enjoy in name only. the practical application of the doctrine that "taxation without representation is tyranny." Thus successively did these important truths come to be recognised: - That no religious opinions, honestly entertained, can be criminal; that power is vested in the chief magistrate by the people, and for their benefit alone, and may be resumed if abused; that the only safeguard for the persons and property of the citizens consists in their retaining the power of enacting laws and imposing taxes in the hands of representatives freely chosen by themselves. These principles, empirically discovered, were vaguely enough understood. To them came in time to be added some dim perception of the truths, that where men were left most free to form their own religious opinions, the intellect assumed a hardier and more energetic character and that where industry was least trammeled, the comfort of individuals, and the general wealth of the na-cerity. The most awful mysteries of religion tion, most abounded. As yet, however, no man had arisen of sufficient clearness and grasp of intellect to detect the one-pervading principle, of which all these theorems were only diversified manifestations. were prostituted to a ceremony, compliance with which entitled to office: at the national seats of learning, young men were made to commence what was understood to be their search after truth, by professing to believe, and promising always to believe, what they were incapable of understanding. Such paltering with public opinion could not fail to re-act dangerously on public morals. Men unfurnished with sound principles of action were tossed backwards and forwards between empty formulas of words. In books they might find professions of elevated sentiment; in active life, they found corruption everywhere. Walpole and Doddington systematized corruption: Gerrard Hamilton taught the art of veiling ugly practices with fair words. Lawyers trained in the school of fiction-divines, perverted from the beginning, by being taught to profess belief before they began to inquire, and thoroughly corrupted by rich pluralities, the reward of sycophancy and political intrigue, lent their aid to cement the fabric. There wanted not |