.
.
Written by Peter Landry
(peteblu@blupete.com)
Nova Scotia, Canada
August 1997. Revised June 1998
Jeremy Bentham was born a London attorney's son; he was educated at
Westminister School and at the age of twelve was sent off to Oxford
(Queen's College). From 1763, he studied law at Lincoln's Inn and was
called to the bar in 1772.
The story is 1 that Jeremy Bentham was obliged to seek a date to
meet with the Master in Chancery. Presumably Bentham got what he was
looking for, or not (likely not); but, and the point is, that Bentham
came away from one of his first court appearances with the view that
it took three times the trouble and three times the money that it
should: the law in Bentham's view was in dire need of revision and he
set out, in his life's work, to reform it.[2]
During 1776, Bentham brought out his first major work, A Fragment on
Government.[3] It was about this time, too, that Bentham was to become
a friend with a powerful lord, Lord Shelburne (1737-1805). Apparently,
through the auspices of Lord Shelburne, Bentham was able to take time,
to travel and to write.
A number of years were to pass before Jeremy Bentham came to the
attention of the juridic thinkers of the time (it was to be 1808
before Bentham was to meet James Mill). Bentham was thought to be more
European in his views than English, but in time "a knot of able
thinkers gathered round him." These included James Mill (the
father of John Stuart Mill) and David Ricardo. The 'Benthamites' were
to gradually gain ascendancy in political matters. Bentham, himself,
in time, was to go on and be the founder of University College, at
London.[4]
"He [Bentham] has lived for the last
forty years in a house in Westminister, overlooking the Park, like an
anchoret in his cell, reducing law to a system, and the mind of a
machine. ... His eye is quick and lively; but it glances not from
object to object, but from thought to thought. He is evidently a man
occupied with some train of fine and inward association. He regards
the people about him no more than the flies of summer. He meditates
the coming age. He hears and sees only what suits his purpose, or some
'foregone conclusion'; and looks out for facts and passing occurrences
in order to put them into his logical machinery and grind them into
the dust and powder of some subtle theory, as the miller looks out for
grist to his mill!" (William Hazlitt.)[5]
Hazlitt was to describe Jeremy Bentham as a person who had "an
unconscious neglect of his own person," "good-humoured,
placid intelligence," one who "is a beneficent spirit,
prying into the universe, ... a thoughtful spectator of the scenes of
life, or ruminator on the fate of mankind ..." "Mr. Bentham
relieves his mind sometimes, after the fatigue of study, by playing on
a fine old organ, and has a relish for Hogarth's prints. He turns
wooden utensils in a lathe for exercise, and fancies he can turn men
in the same manner."[6]
Bentham's Philosophy:- Jeremy Bentham figured that laws should be
socially useful and not merely reflect the status quo; and, that while
he believed that men inevitably pursue pleasure and avoid pain,
Bentham thought it to be a "sacred truth" that "the
greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals
and legislation." Bentham supposed that the whole of morality
could be derived from "enlightened self-interest," and that
a person who always acted with a view to his own maximum satisfaction
in the long run would always act rightly.
Bentham is to be compared to William Godwin: they resembled one
another in their "blind contempt for the past." While each
preached the need for nonviolent revolution, each had a different
following. Bentham's revolution was to be effected by legislation,
Godwin's by argument.
Jeremy Bentham was critical of the approach taken by Blackstone in
his Commentaries (1765-9). Commentaries was written by Blackstone
(university teacher; lawyer; and, in time, a judge); he meant it to be
a concise and clear statement of the common law, ordered and
elucidated, to be used by the busy practitioner. Bentham thought it
deficient, as it did not consider the social impact of the law
(however, I should say here, that it was not Blackstone's purpose to
make any statement about the consequences of the law, one way or the
other; Blackstone was not a law reformer.) It was in his book,[7] Introduction
to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789) that Bentham
developed the idea that the greatest happiness of the greatest number
should govern our judgment of every institution and action.[8] This
simplified view, viz., we proceed with legislative action which will
bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number, was, apparently,
to be the only extent of Bentham's thought. Jeremy Bentham was not,
according to William Hazlitt, an original thinker; he was, a compiler.
"But Mr. Bentham's forte is
arrangement; and the form of truth, though not its essence, varies
with time and circumstance. He has methodized, collated, and condensed
all the materials prepared to his hand on the subject of which he
treats, in a masterly and scientific manner; but we should find a
difficulty in adducing from his different works (however elaborate or
closely reasoned) any new element of thought, or even a few fact or
illustration. His writing are, therefore, chiefly valuable as books of
reference, as bringing down the account of intellectual inquiry to the
present period, and disposing the results in a compendious, connected,
and tangible shape; but books of reference are chiefly serviceable for
facilitating the acquisition of knowledge, and are constantly liable
to be superseded and to grow out of fashion with its progress, as the
scaffolding is thrown down as soon as the building is completed."...
"There is a technicality of manner,
which renders his writings of more value to the professional inquirer
than to the general reader. Again, his style is unpopular, not to say
unintelligible. He writes a language of his own that darkens
knowledge. His works have been translated into French - they ought to
be translated into English. People wonder that Mr. Bentham has not
been prosecuted for the boldness and severity of some of his
invectives. He might wrap up high treason in one of his inextricable
periods, and it would never find its way into Westminster Hall. He is
a kind of Manuscript author - he writes a cypher-hand, which the
vulgar have no key to. The construction of his sentences is a curious
frame-work with pegs and hooks to hang his thoughts upon, for his own
use and guidance, but almost out of the reach of everybody else. It is
a barbarous philosophical jargon, with all the repetitions,
parentheses, formalities, uncouth nomenclature and verbiage of
law-Latin; and what makes it worse, it is not mere verbiage, but has a
great deal of acuteness and meaning in it, which you would be glad to
pick out if you could."[9]
Criticisms:-
Jeremy Bentham's thinking in respect to how laws come about and the
need for coercive law, is, faulty. Bentham's doctrines, wrapped up and
known as utilitarianism, as Chambers observes, "was crude and
full of inconsistencies, basing itself on purely quantitative
considerations."
Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957) of Cambridge University, observed that
Bentham had,
"... a very powerful influence in
the political and legal sphere, but that as a thinker he was not very
original, not even very profound, a trifle confused on ultimate
philosophical issues and prone to over simplify complex problems ...
pedantic and opinionated systematizer, overrated by his radical
contemporaries ..."[10]
Sydney Smith[11], a contemporary, and who might be counted as one of
Bentham's supporters, saw the difficulty with Bentham's methodology: "Mr.
Bentham is long; Mr. Bentham is occasionally involved and obscure; Mr.
Bentham invents new and alarming expressions; Mr. Bentham loves
division and subdivision - and he loves method itself, more than its
consequences."[12]
I might add that if any of the 'Benthamites' had any knowledge of
the theory of evolution (Darwin was to came along later in the 19th
century) they might have admitted that tradition had a role.
We have already referred to Hazlitt and Hazlitt's views on Bentham
as a writer; what did Hazlitt think of Bentham's view of legislation
and its place in the guidance of men's activity:
"The gentleman is himself a capital
logician; and he has been led by this circumstance to consider man as
a logical animal. We fear this view of the matter will hardly hold
water. If we attend to the moral man, the constitution of his mind
will scarcely be found to be built up of pure reason and a regard to
consequences: if we consider the criminal man (with whom the
legislator has chiefly to do), it will be found to be still less so."[13]
Hazlitt points out that criminals and legislators are quite a
different species, and continues:
"Mr Bentham, in adjusting the
provisions of a penal code, lays too little stress on the co-operation
of the natural prejudices of mankind ... The laws of the country are
therefore ineffectual and abortive, because they are made by the rich
for the poor, by the wise for the ignorant, by the respectable and
exalted in station for the very scum and refuse of the community."[14]
People value the good opinion of others and of their place in their
family and in their society. It is for shame, not fear, that people
obey laws. Hazlitt continues:
"You tell a person [a drunk, an
idler, a gambler, a culprit, or a criminal] of this stamp what is his
interest; he says he does not care about his interest, or the world
and he differ on that particular. But there is one point on which he
must agree with them, namely, what they think of his conduct, and that
is the only hold you have of him. A man may be callous and indifferent
to what happens to himself; but he is never indifferent to public
opinion or proof against open scorn and infamy.
"Shame, then, not fear, is the
sheet-anchor of the law ... It is the apprehension of being
stigmatized by public opinion, the fear of what will be thought and
said of them, that deters men from the violation of the laws, while
their character remains unimpeached; but honour once lost, all is
lost. The man can never be himself again! A citizen is like a soldier,
a part of a machine, who submits to certain hardships, privations, and
dangers, not for his own ease, pleasure, profit, or even conscience,
but - for shame."[15]
There have been many, through the years, that envisaged a perfect
and well ordered society;16 Bentham was one, and he felt it might be
achieved through legislation. Jeremy Bentham like many had an
optimistic view that the nature of man might be changed. As Hazlitt
observed, "Miracles never cease, to be sure; but they are not to
be had wholesale, or to order."[17]
Conclusions:-
While he did much to lay the ground work for the English legislative
reform which was to take place in the 19th century, Bentham's
conclusions on how law came about, his lack of understanding of the
process which was more fully understood subsequent to his passing
(Darwinian evolution), led his followers, in subsequent years, to
apply unworkable positive law to the problems of social and industrial
development. The fact is that no one mind, no group of minds in a
collective, can devise laws for society, and certainly not within a
single human generation. Jeremy Bentham was right to this extent: we
are capable and it is right that we continue to examine the reasons
for the various happy and sad conditions of man; and, in certain
limited circumstances, we should pass restrictive laws to better guide
the natural development of the voluntary rules which are part of that
which we know as natural law.[18]
Dates & Events During Bentham's Life:-
- 1748: Bentham is Born. David Hume writes Human Understanding.
- 1749: Henry Fielding is writing Tom Jones.
- 1750: Dr. Johnson is busy writing his dictionary.
- 1754: Start of the Seven Years War.
- 1756: Edmund Burke published A Vindication of Natural Society.
- 1759: The British Conquest of America
- 1760: Twelve year old Bentham enters Oxford University.
- 1763: End of the Seven Years War and the signing of the Treaty Of
Paris. Lord Shelburne (1737-1805), an alumnus of Oxford, an army
officer, a parliamentarian, and, who, was to become a powerful
supporter of Bentham, is appointed the president of the Board of
Trade (a very important position in those days).
- 1765: The Stamp Act is passed by the British parliament.
- 1767: Voltaire dies.
- 1769: At around this time, Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780)
brings out his Commentaries on the Law of England.
- 1770: The members of the "Long Parliament" take their
seats, it sat for 15 years, until 1785.
- 1772: Having studied at Lincoln's Inn since 1763, Bentham is
called to the bar. 1775: Edmund Burke brings out On Conciliation
with the American Colonies.
- 1776: July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress carries a motion
for the independence of the 13 states on the East coast of America.
Two days later the Declaration of Independence is adopted. Edward
Gibbon gives forth with his first volume of The Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire. David Hume dies. Adam Smith's The Wealth of
Nations is published. Bentham's work, A Fragment on Government comes
out.
- 1781: British troops under Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown.
- 1783: December 13th, penal laws against Roman Catholics repealed.
British evacuate New York.
- 1785: The Big Bang of the Industrial Revolution occurs in England
when, for first time, steam engines are used to power spinning
machinery. Bentham, in his travels around the continent, visits
Russia, (1785-88).[19]
- 1789: Bentham brings out his Introduction to the Principles of
Morals and Legislation.
- 1790: Burke writes Reflections on the French Revolution.
- 1792: Paine's reply, The Rights of Man. September massacres in
Paris.
- 1793 In January Louis XVI is beheaded. Godwin's Political Justice
appears. The trials of the "Reform-martyrs," Muir and
Palmer who were subsequently transported to Botany Bay; this was
part of the larger government effort to prosecute editors,
nonconformists and radicals who were arguing for Parliamentary
reform.
- 1794 A simple device for separating cotton lint from seeds is
patented by Eli Whitney (1765-1825). 1796 Edward Jenner (1749-1823)
discovers the prophylactic power of vaccination.
- 1797 In January, with Bonaparte having successfully invaded Italy
and Spain coming in on the side of France, Britain withdrew her
ships from the Mediterranean, which was to become a "French
Lake" from January 1797 to May 1798.
- 1798 Nelson re-enters the Mediterranean in May, 1798, and
destroys Napoleon's fleet.
- 1802 The Treaty of Amiens is signed and the war between France
and England is ended leaving France supreme in Western Europe, and
England supreme on the oceans of the world.
- 1803 Malthus brings out the second edition of his Essay on the "Principle
of Population."
- 1804 War between Britain and Bonaparte-dominated Spain breaks out
on December 12th, 1804. Napoleon becomes emperor of France.
- 1805 In 1805, Trevithick adapts the Watt engine to a vehicle, and
the locomotive comes into being. By the middle of the century a
network of railways had spread all over Europe. Nelson's victory at
Trafalgar.
- 1806 In 1806 England abolishes the slave-trade (in 1833 slavery
itself).
- 1807 Fulton's first steam boat. 1808 In support of a Spanish
rising, in July, Arthur Wellesley (later to become known as the Duke
of Wellington) leads the first small British force of 9000 men into
the Peninsula of Spain; a gate into the hostile fortress of
Napoleonic Europe. Bentham meets James Mill.
- 1811 Austen's Sense and Sensibility. The English Parliament
passes an anti-slave trade bill and the 1811 Felony Act becomes law,
and it killed the slave trade dead.[20]
- 1812 On 18 June, 1812, President Madison and the American
Congress declares war on Britain. 1813 In England, 13 "Luddites"
are hung at the York Assizes.
- 1815 June 18th, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo.
- 1817 Ricardo's, Principles of Political Economy & Taxation.
Habeas Corpus is suspended as the war against the Radical Press in
England heats up.
- 1819 "Peterloo:" On August 16th, 1819, "an orderly
and unarmed crowed of about 60,000 men, women and children"
assemble in support of universal suffrage, in St. Peter's Fields,
Manchester. They were there to hear the speaker, Radical Hunt. The
magistrates, in a move to arrest the speaker, order the cavalry in:
"eleven persons, including two women, were killed or died of
their injuries; over a hundred were wounded by sabres and several
hundred more injured by horse-hoofs or crushed in the stampede."
(G. M. Trevelyan's, British History in the Nineteenth Century, p.
189.) Keats, Hyperion; Shelley, Promethus Unbound. A Factory Bill
prohibiting children under the age of nine to work in cotton mills
is passed in 1819; this is the first of a series of parliamentary
bills which were to be passed over the next forty years in a process
of law reform which was first prompted by the writings of Jeremy
Bentham.
- 1821 Michael Faraday (1791-1867) discovers electromagnetic
rotation.
- 1822 Shelley dies. 1824 Lord Byron dies.
- 1825 The first railway opens in the northern part of England,
between Stockton and Darlinton; Stephenson's "Rocket,"
with a thirteen ton train, gets up a speed of 44 miles per hour.
- 1827 On 27th March, 1827, Darwin gives a short talk to the
Plinian Society, and communicates two discoveries which he has made:
First, "that the ova of the Flustra posses organs of motion;
and the second, that the small black globular body hitherto mistaken
for the young Fucus Lorius [a seaweed], is in reality the ovum of
the pontobdella muricata [a leech that infests skates]. At the
request of the society he promised to draw up an account of the
facts and to lay it, together with specimens, before the Society
next evening."[21]
- 1828 Wm. Cobbett and Richard Carlile put on trial for articles in
the Press; Cobbett, at least, was acquitted.
- 1832 Darwin sails on the Beagle. The Great Reform Bill. Bentham
dies.
NOTES:
- See C. K. Ogden's introduction
to Bentham's work, The Theory of Legislation (1789) (London: Paul,
Trench, Trubner; 1931).
- According to Augustine Birrell,
Bentham had an "abhorrence of attorneys and our absurd
juridical system." [See Birrell's William Hazlitt (1902)
(London: MacMillan, 1902) at p. 93.]
- My copy: Oxford University
Press, 1951.
As founder of University College at London, Bentham's skeleton is
there, I understand, at the University, preserved, dressed up in his
clothes.
- Hazlitt's essay, "Jeremy
Bentham," being one of a compilation of his essays published in
a book, in 1825, The Spirit of the Age (1825) (Oxford University
Press, 1970, p. 3-4) Hazlitt rented his house (19 York Street,
Westminister) and rented it from Bentham; and, Bentham lived "in
a mansion with a large garden just behind." (See Birrell's
William Hazlitt, op. cit., p. 93.
- Hazlitt's "Jeremy Bentham,"
op. cit., p. 18.
- My soft covered copy came from
Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1988.
- Compare the utiltarian theory
with the views of the great 20th century philosopher, Karl Popper.
In his work, The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), Popper
suggests what the guiding public policy should be: "Minimize
avoidable suffering," this in contradistinction to the
Utilitarian maxim, "Maximize happiness."
- Hazlitt, op. cit., p. 5 &
pp. 16-7.
- See pp. x-xi of Ogden's
introduction to Bentham's work, The Theory of Legislation, op. cit.
- Sydney Smith (1771-1845), with
Jeffrey, Horner & Brougham, founded the Edinburgh Review. Smith
was of the view that there "are a vast number of absurd and
mischievous fallacies, which pass readily in the world for sense and
virtue while in truth they tend only to fortify error and encourage
crime." With thoughts like this we can readily see that Smith
was a reformer of the Bentham bent. (See Smith's "Fallacies of
Anti-Reformers" (1824).
- Ibid.
- Hazlitt, op. cit., p. 6.
- Ibid., pp. 10-1.
- Ibid., pp. 12-3.
- Beginning with Sir Thomas More's
(1478-1535) Utopia.
- Hazlitt, op. cit., p. 15.
- It was in his Principles of
Legislation (1780) that Bentham thought: "Instead of the
phrase, Law of Nature, you have sometimes Law of Reason." A
statement, which betrays, of course, a complete misunderstanding of
the notion, natural law.
- See Chambers.
- Johnson, p. 325. 21 The Minutes
of the Plinian Society.
|
