THE

WORKS OF

JEREMY BENTHAM, PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF HIS EXECUTOR,

JOHN BOWRING.

VOLUME XI.

ED IN BURGH : WILLIAM TAIT, 107, PRINCE’S STREET; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, A CO.* LONDON.

MDCCCXLIII.

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JEREMY BENTHAM; INCLUDING

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL CONVERSATIONS AND

CORRESPONDENCE.

BY JOHN BOWRING.

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CORRESPONDENCE. CHAPTER X X I I I . UH8—2fl. Air. 80—81. l a Fayette.—Col. Stanhope.—J . B. Say.—O’Connell, Hunt, as * * « MI am inucli obliged for the preference you are pleased to preserve in behalf of my Syrian Rose, although its intrinsic m erit has not stood the proof of % more commercial-horticultural examination : sentimental associations ure not strange flowers on the soil where she originated. There, they tell love tales: here, it has been consecrated to friendship, a friend­ ship more cordially reciprocated.— Y'our affectionate friend." Benthani, on occasion of Henry Hunt's attack upon O’Connell, wrote to him this anonymous letter:— “ I am not personally known either to yourself or to Mr O’Connell: hut I am, and havo long been, a sincere and moat zealous friend of Radical Reform, —that cause which you and ho espouse. Proportioned to my attachment to that cause, is my regret at the thought of the damage, which it stands exposed to sus­ tain from this personal altercation be­ tween two so preeminently powerful supporters of it. In his letter, the vituperativo matter (T am persuaded) can­ not have damageayou in public opinion, in any the smallest degree. In your letter, likewise, the argumentative mat­ te r, I am equally persuaded, would have produced more good effect to the cause, an d raised you still higher in tho esteem and admiration of the readers, if it had boon ontirely divested of the matter of th e same sort, which, though less in quantity and coarseness, it nevertheless contains. Along w ith this letter, I am w riting one to him with the same object. T he proper subject^mattor of consider­ ation, with a view to present practice, is, not what he has been, but what he it a t present: and that is—the only man

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perhaps in the world, by whom, for tnuny many years to come, Radical Reform, or any approach to it can be brought upon the carpet, with any the smallest chance of success, llis instrument* arc the rust majority of the people of Ireland—hiu operations, by means of those same in­ struments, petitionings for Reform : for Reform in whatever shape, for a com­ mencement, may be deemed to afford the most promising prospect of success. For the prayer of tho petition, what I should prefer, is—the ballot: in the iirst place alone, without any other of the features. Why aloue ? Because, in Ireland, the forty-shilling freeholders compose the main body ot his strength ; and the bal­ lot being their sole permanent security, agaiust the option between slavery and starvation, the other features would, in comparison, he as nothing to them: and because, to my knowledge, there are several in tho 1louse of Commons, who would vote for tho ballot, but would not vote for any adequate, if any, extension of the right of suffrage. If that can not be carried, still loss would it be possible to carry Radical Reform in toto: on the other hand, suppose it carried, we should then push on with increase of strength. Now, then—suppose him to'bave got up a body of petitioners for the ballot ? a body strong enough for tho purpose of appropriate and necessary intim ida­ tion ? think of the support it would give you, on the occasion of a speech from you, at a meeting of the Livery in (Juildhull: whereas, without such a support, the finest speech that ever was or could bo uttered, would be 30 much sound, and , nothing more. And so, again, in meet­ ings of the Common Council, of which it is among my ardent wishes to see you : a member. He, in his part of the field, , you, in yours—could you hut prevail upon yourselves, or be prevailed upon, to forget, on both sides, tho irrelevant matter in question, you might, on hw arrival in London, act in concert, and with greatly increased effect. K ‘ N o :’ you may say—‘hois insin­ cere,* or 4he is JickU.f, and he will back out again, as he has done already.' Well, then, for the purpose of the argu­ ment—Ik* it so : still, the further he has

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BKNTHAM'S CORRESPONDENCE.

carried matters on in our track, before lie lias backed out, so much the better, for, so much the better shall wo bo able to do without him when he is gone. “ But my opinion of him. is—that at present, in his declared advocacy of Radicul Reform, even in its complete extent, he is sincere, u I cannot stay to give all my rea­ sons. But some of them nro these :— “ 1. I remember when, several years ago, ho brought upon tins carpet Radical Reform, in its whole extent: making express reference to Bentham’s Parliamentary Reform Catechism, or Radical Reform Bill, or both, 1 forget which. A t that time he gave the m at­ ter u p : how could he do otherwise ?— no support could he find ; to have per­ severed would have been, thenceforward, to render it impossible to mako any part of the great progress he lias made. In his place (1 remember well) I should have clone the same. u 2. Next, as to the matter which yon have so powerfully brought in charge against h im : and, in particular, the giving up the forty-shilling freeholders. A t that time, I was witness to great difference of opinion between a number of intelligent men, all zealous Radical well-wishers to Reform—all of them completely—either unexposed to, or su­ perior to, sinister interest in any shape. If I misrccollect not, I mvself was for the giving up the votes of the men eo circumstanced. W hy? bwause, their condition considered, I could not, at that time, see any, the smallest proba­ bility of their dojug as they hate done. Nowhere but in Ireland could anv selfsacrifice, in point of numbers, so exten­ sive, or a thousandth part so extensiee, have been produced: nor even there, without a sort of m iracle: or cron by miracles, for more than a time of pre­ carious duration— a time of preterna­ tural excitation. u Abominable as the other conditions arc, overy one of them, to my mind— considering him as an Irish Catholic, (I myself am neither Irishman nor Ca­ tholic,) I know not how to regard him (I must confess) as blamcable, either on the score of honesty or judgment, for

[U>2S.

being desirous of making these conces­ sions, rather than lose emancipation a l­ together : emancipation in tbo other re­ maining shapes. “ Now, then, with this opinion, with what justice can J think ill of a man for taking the course which, without any personal interest in the matter, T myself took, or should have taken ? Now, as to the laid occasion:—On that occasion, he gave up the motion for Radical Reform, and submitted to tbo substitution of the word Constitutional which, as you think, and as I think, means nothing at all. This submission he made. But why ? for the same ir­ resistible reason for which ho mode the former one, as above; because, either the motion of which the word Radical stood part, would have been carried against him. or, if carried ly him, would have produced Buch a schism as might have left him in a state of comparative impotence. So much for the motion : but, as to his oim opinion, he then de­ clared, and has since re|K>atedly de­ clared, that, by Cr.mstiiutional Reform, he meant Radical—nothing short of it. MOther passages in his political con­ duct there are, for which I cannot find any such justification: such was his adulation and prostration in regard to the king. But the failing belongs part­ ly to his nation, and partly to his pro­ fession. The Irish are in extremes na­ turally; and lawyers, being paid for being so, are so habitually. But, since that time, he has had a most instructive course of political experience : and, ac­ cording to my view of the matter, he ha* profited by it. lie seems to me much improved. “ As to you, Sir, forgive the liberty implied in bestowing upon yourself that same commendation. Of late, I have bad the pleasure of hearing it bestowed upon you, and without a dissenting voice, by many flowers of our Radical flock, whose sentiments and opinions in relation to yon were, till of late, very far from favourable: and, amongst them even rivals: but such rivals, whom no opposition, on the ground either of inter­ est or sentiment, could ever d r a w aside out of the path of sincerity and justice.

M u 80. J

COLONEL YOUNG ON INDIAN AFFAIRS.

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To you, it in no unexampled course, you have seen what, if anything, the to unite with men with whom you have letter I am writing to him has propro­ duced ? had differences. Witness Mr Cobbett. “ I have never seen oither yourself Co LONKL Y ocno to B e n t h a m . or M r O’Connell. lie knows not of m y writing thu : nor of my having any “ Calcutta, Septcmfter 30, 1828. auch thing in my thoughts: he cannot: 44 My df.ar and venerated F riend , for it has not been in them longer than — I failed not to send off to Rammohun this day or two. u B ut I have some reason for think- Roy, my excellent friend the Brahmin, iug that I have some influence with him: Ail portion of the packages contents and if, by an answer to this, you will and your letter to him ; and he tells me, express a disposition to come to an ac­ in a note, that he will endeavour, to the commodation, and enter into an union utmost of his ability, to write to you on with him, os above,— whatsoever influ­ the subject of yonr letter, and thank ence I may have with him, shall for you for your notice of him. He is a that purpose be employed. If you lay very sincerely modest man—far too diffi­ on me your injunctions not to let him dent indeed for tho remarkable and know that any such disposition on your . unique station he fills among his bepart has been manifested, those injunc­ 1 nighted countrymen. Ilia whole time tions shall most punctually be complied almost has been occupied for tho last with : but it deems to me it would afford two years in defending himself and his a better promise, if you would not: for, son against a bitter and virulent persecu­ a t any rate, it is not with you that tbc tion which has been got up against the proposal for an accommodation would, latter nominally—but against himself in this case, have originated: and here and Lis abhorred free opinions in would bo so much proof of sincere affec­ reality—by a conspiracy of his own tion to the cause, and of good temper, bigoted countrymen, protected and en­ of which you would have set the exam­ couraged, not to say instigated, by some ple : to Aim, all that would remain of ours— influential and official men who would be, to follow it: to follow the cannot endure that a presumptuous ‘ Black Man' should tread so closely example set by you. “ I forbear giving you my nam e: it npon tho heels of the dominant white is not necessary to the production of the class, or rather should put* them in the effect desired : and it might have the march of mind. Rammohun Roy, after effect of loading with irrelevant matter, an arduons and prolonged battle through a business of such transcendent impor­ a gradation of tribunals, has at length, tance, which is already but too much by dint of talent, perseverance, and encumbered with i t I flatter myself right, got tho bettor in tho last resort; that, without discovering the u&iuo of but the strife, and tho magnitodo of tho the individual, yonr discernment will stake, and tho long despair of justice, discover in the sort of person, one in have shattered his nerves and impaired whom, at any rate, for a purpose such his digestion and bodily health, and his as the present, the requisite confidence energies of mind. I t is now over, and m ay be placed, without any such risk 1 hope most fervently that he will re­ as need opposo a bar to it. A letter, cover himself again. Not only has he no directed to A. Z., at Mr Byfield’s, sta­ equal here among his countrymen, but he tioner, Charing O oss, will come to has none that at all approach to equality, oven among tho little ‘sacred squadron' hand. “ P.S.— I dread the appearance of of disciples whom he is slowly and another hasty and hot letter from gradually gathering around him in de­ O’Connell, before that which I am writ­ spite of obstacles from his own and oor ing can reach him. Supposo any such people, which no one can rightly appre­ letter to arrive, would it not be better ciate who has not soon and felt the diffi­ to put it aside unread: at any rate, till culties which tho condition of society on his back, how would he lawyers, while the remainder remained j know in what manner to conduct him­ in the gulph, ready to be drawn upon self? how would he know in what man­ ner to savo himself from being shot? by them, as occasion offered. w‘S upposing now, for a moment, this j Instead of the tcords of command spoken, money given by you to those it belongs j suppose ho many dissertations, of the to! Behold, what a flood of gratitude! length of so many chapters of BlackI, for m y part, shall ho in my grave: stone's Abridgment, put, one after my soul the flattering unction will not another, into his hands, with a lawyer reach. B ut you 1 you may still be placed beside him, ready, upon receipt where you are. Then will you, king- of a few guineas, and not otherwise, to tell him the meaning of it: this sup­ like, be anointed by i t ! 44 So much for procedure—judicial posed, after how many years of training, procedure— the system of operations in this mode, would he bo found (think and fcrittrn instrument*., which should you) in a condition to face tho enemy ? “ A L aw Reform Association— a U employed, and professes to be em­ ployed, for giving execution and effect 1 Noble A rm y o f’ Reformists, some of to the rule of action—the guide, pro­ them 'M a r ty r s '—an arm y of this sort

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BENTHAM’S CORRESPONDENCE.

I am raising : a Legion o f Honour with members for G rand Crosses. There, if yon will head it, will be a tower of de­ fence to y o u : a support from without doors. Ere long you will see it in the field. Will you refuse the command thus offered ? Instead of accepting it, will you openly throw' your shield over the now so-completely-exposed turpi­ tude of this established and still con­ tinued svstem of pillage and oppression, under tfie mask of justice; or (w hat; will be the same in effect) will you remain neuter and inoperative?— Forbid it, honour! forbid it, ju stice! quoth your sincere well-wisher,” Ac.

[1828-!).

—a quarter before the half-hour—for the sake of circumgirating the Hermitage, —come to the embrace of 41 J frkmy Dentji am, “ Aged 81, if he outlives tho pre­ sent four-nnd-twenty hours." Again— “