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BENTHAM, JEREMY (1748-1832)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 749 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BENTHAM, See also:JEREMY (1748-1832) , See also:English philosopher and jurist, was See also:born on the 15th of See also:February 1748 in Red See also:Lion See also:Street, Houndsditch, See also:London, in which neighbourhood his grandfather and See also:father successively carried on business as attorneys. His father, who was a wealthy See also:man and possessed at any See also:rate a smattering of See also:Greek, Latin and See also:French, was thought to have demeaned himself by marrying the daughter of an See also:Andover tradesman, who afterwards retired to a See also:country See also:house near See also:Reading, where See also:young Jeremy spent many happy days. The boy's talents justified the ambitious hopes which his parents entertained of his future. When three years old he read eagerly such See also:works as See also:Rapin's See also:History and began the study of Latin. A See also:year or two later he learnt to See also:play the See also:violin and to speak French. At See also:Westminster school he obtained a reputation for Greek and Latin See also:verse See also:writing; and he was only thirteen when he was matriculated at See also:Queen's See also:College, See also:Oxford, where his most important acquisition seems to have been a thorough acquaintance with See also:Sanderson's See also:logic. He became a B.A. in 1763, and in the same year entered at See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn, and took his seat as a student in the queen's See also:bench, where he listened with rapture to the judgments of See also:Lord See also:Mansfield. He managed also to hear See also:Blackstone's lectures at Oxford, but says that he immediately detected the fallacies which underlay the rounded periods of the future See also:judge. Bentham's See also:family connexions would naturally have given him a See also:fair start at the See also:bar, but this was not the career for which he was preparing himself. He spent his See also:time in making chemical experiments and in speculating upon legal abuses, rather than in reading See also:Coke upon See also:Littleton and the Reports. On being called to the bar he " found a cause or two at See also:nurse for him, which he did his best to put to See also:death," to the See also:bitter disappointment of his father, who had confidently looked forward to seeing him upon the See also:woolsack. The first fruits of Bentham's studies, the Fragment on See also:Government, appeared in 1776.

This masterly attack upon Blackstone's praises of the English constitution was variously attributed to Lord Mansfield, Lord See also:

Camden and Lord See also:Ashburton. One important result of its publication was that, in 1781, Lord Shelburne (afterwards first See also:marquess of See also:Lansdowne) called upon its author in his See also:chambers at Lincoln's Inn. Henceforth Bentham was a frequent See also:guest at Bowood, where he saw the best society and where he met See also:Miss See also:Caroline See also:Fox (daughter of the second Lord See also:Holland), to whom he afterwards made a proposal of See also:marriage. In 1785 Bentham started, by way of See also:Italy and See also:Constantinople, on a visit to his See also:brother, See also:Samuel Bentham, a See also:naval engineer, holding the See also:rank of See also:colonel in the See also:Russian service; and it was in See also:Russia that he wrote his See also:Defence of See also:Usury. Disappointed after his return to See also:England in 1788 in the See also:hope which he had entertained, through a misapprehension of some-thing said by Lord Lansdowne, of taking a See also:personal See also:part in the legislation of his country, he settled down to the yet higher task of discovering and teaching the principles upon which all See also:sound legislation must proceed. The See also:great See also:work, upon which he had been engaged for many years, the Principles of Morals and Legislation, was published in 1789. His fame spread widely and rapidly. He was made a French See also:citizen in 1792; and his See also:advice was respectfully received in most of the states of See also:Europe and See also:America, with many of the leading men of which he maintained an active See also:correspondence. In 1817 he became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. His ambition was to be allowed to prepare a See also:code of See also:laws for his own or some See also:foreign country. During nearly a See also:quarter of a See also:century he was engaged in negotiations with the government for the erection of a " Panopticon," for the central inspection of convicts; a See also:plan suggested to him by a See also:building designed by his brother Samuel, for the better supervision of his Russian shipwrights. This See also:scheme, which it was alleged would render transportation unnecessary, was eventually abandoned, and Bentham received in 1813, in pursuance of an See also:act of See also:parliament, £23,000 by way of See also:compensation.

It was at a later See also:

period of his See also:life that he propounded schemes for cutting canals through the See also:isthmus of See also:Suez and the isthmus of See also:Panama. In 1823 he established the Westminster See also:Review. Emboldened perhaps by the windfall of 1813, Bentham in the following year took a See also:lease of See also:Ford See also:Abbey, a See also:fine See also:mansion with a See also:deer-See also:park, in See also:Dorsetshire; but in 1818 returned to the house in Queen's Square See also:Place which he had occupied since the death of his father in 1792. It was there that he died on the 6th of See also:June 1832 in his eighty-fifth year. In accordance with his directions, his See also:body was dissected in the presence of his See also:friends, and the See also:skeleton is still preserved in University College, London. Bentham's life was a happy one of its See also:kind. His constitution, weakly in childhood, strengthened with advancing years so as to allow him to get through an incredible amount of sedentary labour, while he retained to the last the fresh and cheerful temperament of a boy. An ample inherited See also:fortune permitted him to pursue his studies undistracted by the See also:necessity for earning a livelihood, and to maximize the results of his time and labour by the employment of amanuenses and secretaries. He was able to gather around him a See also:group of congenial friends and pupils, such as the See also:Mills, the Austins and See also:Bowring, with whom he could discuss the problems upon which he was engaged, and by whom several of his books were practically rewritten from the See also:mass of rough though orderly memoranda which the See also:master had himself prepared. Thus, for instance, was the Rationale of Judicial See also:Evidence written out by J. S. See also:Mill and the See also:Book of Fallacies by See also:Bingham.

The services which See also:

Dumont rendered in recasting as well as translating the works of Bentham were still more important. The popular notion that Bentham was a morose visionary is far removed from fact. It is true that he looked upon See also:general society as a See also:waste of time and that he disliked See also:poetry as " misrepresentation "; but he intensely enjoyed conversation, gave See also:good dinners and delighted in See also:music, in country See also:sights and in making others happy. These features of Bentham's See also:character are illustrated in the graphic See also:account given by the See also:American See also:minister, See also:Richard See also:Rush, of an evening spent at his London house in the summer of the year 1818. " If Mr Bentham's character is See also:peculiar," he says, " so is his place of See also:residence. It was a kind of See also:blind-See also:alley, the end of which widened into a small, neat courtyard. There by itself stands Mr Bentham's house. Shrubbery graced its See also:area and See also:flowers its window-sills. It was like an See also:oasis in the See also:desert. Its name is the Hermitage. Mr Bentham received me with the simplicity of a philosopher. I should have taken him for seventy or upwards.

Everything inside the house was orderly. The See also:

furniture seemed to have been unmoved since the days of his fathers, for I learned that it was a patrimony. A parlour, library and dining-See also:room made up the See also:suite of apartments. In each was a piano, the See also:eccentric master of the whole being fond of music as the recreation of his See also:literary See also:hours. It is a unique, romantic-like See also:homestead. Walking with him into the See also:garden, I found it dark with the shade of See also:ancient trees. They formed a barrier against all intrusion. The See also:company was small but choice. Mr See also:Brougham; See also:Sir Samuel See also:Romilly; Mr Mill, author of the well-known work on See also:India; M. Dumont, the learned Genevan, once the See also:associate of See also:Mirabeau, were all who sat down to table. Mr Bentham did not talk much. He had a benevolence of manner suited to the philanthropy of his mind.

He seemed to be thinking only of the convenience and See also:

pleasure of his guests, not as a See also:rule of artificial breeding as from See also:Chesterfield or Madame See also:Genlis, but from innate feeling. Bold as are his opinions in his works, here he was wholly unobtrusive of theories that might not have commended the assent of all See also:present. When he did converse it was in See also:simple See also:language, a contrast to his later writings, where an involved See also:style and the use of new or universal words are drawbacks upon the speculations of a See also:genius See also:original and See also:pro-found, but with the faults of solitude. Yet some of his earlier productions are distinguished by classical terseness."—(Residence at the See also:Court of London, p. 286.) Bentham's love of flowers and music, of See also:green foliage and shaded walks, comes clearly out in this pleasant picture of his See also:home life and social surroundings. Whether or no he can be said to have founded a school, his doctrines have become so far part of the See also:common thought of the time, that there is hardly an educated man who does not accept as too clear for See also:argument truths which were invisible till Bentham pointed them out. His sensitively See also:honourable nature, which in See also:early life had caused him to shrink from asserting his belief in See also:Thirty-nine articles of faith which he had not examined, was shocked by the enormous abuses which confronted him on commencing the study of the See also:law. He rebelled at See also:hearing the See also:system under which they flourished described as the perfection of human See also:reason. But he was no merely destructive critic. He was determined to find a solid See also:foundation for both morality and law, and to raise upon it an edifice, no See also:stone of which should be laid except in accordance with the deductions of the severest logic. This foundation is " the greatest happiness of the greatest number," a See also:formula adopted from Priestly or perhaps first from See also:Beccaria. The phrase may, however, be found in writers of an earlier date than these, e.g. in See also:Hutcheson's Enquiry, published in 1725.

The pursuit of such happiness is taught by the " utilitarian " See also:

philosophy, an expression used by Bentham himself in 1802, and therefore not invented by J. S. Mill, as he supposed, in 1823. In See also:order to ascertain what modes of See also:action are most conducive to the end in view, and what motives are best fitted to produce them, Bentham was led to construct marvellously exhaustive, though somewhat See also:mechanical, tables of motives. With all their elaboration, these tables are, however, defective, as omitting some of the highest and most influential springs of action. But most of Bentham's conclusions may be accepted without any formal profession of the utilitarian theory of morals. They are, indeed, merely the application of a rigorous common sense to the facts of society. That the proximate ends at which Bentham aimed are desirable hardly any one would deny, though the feasibility of the means by which he proposes to attain them may often be questioned, and much of the new nomenclature in which he thought See also:fit to clothe his doctrines may be rejected as unnecessary. To be judged fairly, Bentham must be judged as a teacher of the principles of legislation. With the principles of private morals he really deals only so far as is necessary to enable the reader to appreciate the impulses which have to be controlled by law. As a teacher of legislation he inquires of all institutions whether their utility justifies their existence. If not, he is prepared to suggest a new See also:form of institution by which the needful service may be rendered.

While thus engaged no topic is too large for his See also:

mental grasp, none too small for his See also:notice; and, what is still rarer, every topic is seen in its due relation to the See also:rest. English institutions had never before been thus comprehensively and dispassionately surveyed. Such improvements as had been necessitated were See also:mere makeshifts, often made by stealth. The See also:rude symmetry of the feudal system had been See also:long ago destroyed by partial and unskilful adaptations to See also:modern commercial life, effected at various See also:dates and in accordance with various theories. The time had come for deliberate reconstruction, for inquiring whether the existence '0f many admitted evils was, as it was said to be, unavoidable; for proving that the needs of society may be classified and provided for by contrivances which shall not clash with one another because all shall be parts of a consistent whole. This task Bentham undertook, and he brought to it a mind absolutely See also:free from professional or class feeling, or any other See also:species of See also:prejudice. He mapped out the whole subject, dividing and subdividing it in accordance with the principle of " See also:dichotomy." Having reached his ultimate subdivisions he subjects each to the most thorough and ingenious discussion. His earlier writings exhibit a lively and easy style, which gives place in his later See also:treatises to sentences which are awkward from their effort after unattainable accuracy, and from the newly-invented technical nomenclature in which they are expressed. Many of Bentham's phrases, such as " See also:international " "utilitarian," " codification," are valuable additions to our language; but the See also:majority of them, especially those of Greek derivation, have taken no See also:root in it. His neology is one among many instances of his contempt for the past and his wish to be clear of all association with it. His was, indeed, a typically logical, as opposed to a See also:historical, mind. For the history of institutions which, thanks largely to the writings of Sir See also:Henry See also:Maine, has become a new and interesting See also:branch of See also:science, Bentham cared nothing.

Had he possessed such a knowledge of See also:

Roman law as is now not uncommon in England, he must doubtless have taken a different view of many subjects. The logical and historical methods can, however, seldom be combined without confusion; and it is perhaps fortunate that Bentham devoted his long life to showing how much may be done by pursuing the former method exclusively. His writings have been and remain a storehouse of instruction for statesmen, an armoury for legal reformers. " Pille See also:par tout le monde," as Talleyrand said of him, " it est toujours riche." To trace the results of his teaching in England alone would be to write a history of the legislation of See also:half a century. Upon the whole administrative machinery of government, upon criminal law and upon See also:procedure, both criminal and See also:civil, his See also:influence has been most salutary; and the great legal revolution which in 1873 purported to accomplish the See also:fusion of law and See also:equity is not obscurely traceable to the same source. Those of Bentham's suggestions which have hitherto been carried out have affected the See also:matter or contents of the law. The hopes which have been from time to time entertained, that his suggestions for the improvement of its form and expression were about to receive the See also:attention which they deserved, have hitherto been disappointed. The services rendered by Bentham to the See also:world would not, however, be exhausted even by the See also:practical See also:adoption of every one of his recommendations. There are no limits to the good results of his introduction of a true method of reasoning into the moral and See also:political sciences. Bentham's Works, together with an Introduction by J. See also:Hill See also:Burton, selections from his correspondence and a See also:biography, were published by Dr Bowring, in eleven closely printed volumes (1838-1843). This edition does not include the Deontology, which, much rewritten, had been published by Bowring in 1834.

See also:

Translations of the Works or of See also:separate treatises have appeared in most See also:European See also:languages. Large masses of Bentham's See also:MSS., mostly unpublished, are preserved at University College, London (see T. Whittaker's See also:Report, 1892, on these MSS., as newly catalogued and reclassified by, him in 155 parcels) ; also in the See also:British Museum (see E. Nys, Etudes de See also:droit international et de droit politique, 1901, pp. 291-333). See farther on the life and writings of Bentham: J. H. Burton, Benthamiana (1843) ; R. von See also:Mohl, Geschichte and Literatur der Staatswissenschaften, bk. iii. (1858), pp. 595-635 ; R. K. See also:Wilson, History of Modern English Law (1875), pp.

133-170; J. S. Mill, See also:

Dissertations (1859), vol. i. pp. 330-392; L. See also:Stephen, The English Utilitarians (1900), vol. i.; A Fragment on Government, edited by F. C. Montague (1891) ; The Law Quarterly Review (1895), two articles on Bentham's influence in See also:Spain; A. V. See also:Dicey, Law and See also:Opinion in England (1905), pp. 125-209; C. M. See also:Atkinson, Jeremy Bentham (1905).

(T. E.

End of Article: BENTHAM, JEREMY (1748-1832)

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